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| The flooded rice field, or is it the path? |
It rained SO MUCH THIS WEEEK! And we
also had a Typhoon. I think one of the most memorable rain experiences of my
entire mission...or life actually...will be our adventure coming home from our
zone training meeting this week. We left immediately after the training meeting
so that we could catch our bus because we had a lesson with an investigator.
When we arrived back from our two hour bus ride it was still down pouring (it
had been down pouring when we left). And we went to get our bikes. We
discovered that Payne Shimai's bike was not where we had left it. We thought
that her bike had been stolen, because mine was still there...but it turned out
that we had just parked in a place that was dame and for some reason or other
the city of Tokushima only took Payne Shimai's bike. So, at this point it is
4:30 in the afternoon, it is down pouring and we had left our rain suits in
Payne Shimai's bike. (Or rather...I just forgot my rain suit, and Payne
Shimai's rain suit was in her bike). So, we walk to the police station and
discover that her bike is being held captive at a place that is 45 minutes away
walking...and this place closes at 5 pm. And if we don't make it there by 5, we
can't get the bike back until Monday. We sprinted through the rain with one
bike, and balancing our bags full of important books (always good in the rain
:) ) all the way to this place (they were kind and waited a little bit for us).
I think we laughed the entire way there. I was biking, holding all of the stuff
in my lap and wearing Payne Shimai's bike helmet, while Payne Shimai was
running beside me. And she would look at me and start laughing because I looked
so ridiculous, and then, I would look at her and we would fall into
uncontrollable laughter. The adventure ended with us looking incredibly pitiful
and being wetter than I have ever been in my entire life. And I was also
freezing. After we retrieved her bike, we biked to the church, wrung out our
clothes and then met with an investigator to go to dinner. She told us that she
had never seen people look so wet, but she got a good laugh
out of it..so that was a positive thing. Also, we drank delicious hot chocolate
after we got home to our apartment that evening (after game night and such) and
then, I slept with so many sweat shirts on... and it was wonderful.
We also had the most amazing lesson with a less active
and it was basically the biggest miracle. But, the moral of
the story is that God can work miracles and change people's hearts and anyone can
repent and have eternal life. This lady is super old and struggles with
remembering much of anything. But we showed up this week and all of a sudden
she had decided that she wanted to be active again and receive eternal life and
stop smoking and drinking tea and drinking coffee...and basically she just
didn't obey any of the word of wisdom, but now she does! And she desires to be active again! It was amazing! And she remembered how to pray which is
a small miracle in itself. But, Heavenly Father answers our prayers.
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| Trying to dry everything out! |
Also there was a Typhoon and church was canceled, which was
sad because we had quite a few less actives who had committed to come. But, we
had an eventful day of biking through rivers that used to be rice fields...or
maybe actual biking paths...I don't really know at this point, and it was quite
eventful. But, even a Typhoon doesn't stop missionary work. It was a really
good opportunity to try and help people clean up outside of their houses and
just talk to people as we were biking around after the storm.
It was a week of miracles and it is amazing to feel the
spirit guiding this work :) I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I just can't really put into
words what it is like to work with these people and hear their prayers, and
pray your heart out for them, and laugh with them and sometimes cry with them.
And try to speak their language. And eat strange Japanese foods. And talk to
people who you never thought you would meet in your entire life, but then, in an
instant they change my life...it is amazing. I love it so much.
I love you all!! And also thank you for the happy birthday
wishes :) I hope that everyone has an amazing week!
Grundvig Shimai
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| Visits to one of the Temples |
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