Hello!
This week was crazy busy! On Tuesday, we had Mission Leadership Council so all the STLs and ZLs went to honbu and got training from Kaicho and the Assistants. Then on Thursday and Friday, Chapman Shimai and I trained at Fukuoka Zone 1 and Fukuoka Zone 2 Zone training meetings. haha It was so fun, and a week full of training!!!
This week was busy, and we still saw incredible miracles every day. First of all, we've been trying to have a lot more faith to set appointments every day when we go out and I've realized how much a true, sincere pray of faith with real intent can affect the work. If you just believe it and expect it, it WILL happen. The Lord blessed us with lots of return appointments this week.
Earlier in the week, we met with a less active, Kimiko Shimai. She was baptized in another area and just recently moved to Fukuoka. None of the members here know who she is. We found out about her because the sister missionary that taught her called us from Tokyo and told us to go find her because she is really struggling. So we visited Kimiko Shimai. She is 38 years old, and it was probably the most spiritual lesson I have had on my entire mission. She is going through serious depression right now about some things that have happened in her past and we were able to testify so strongly about the Atonement and we showed that awesome Mormon Message, "Mountains to Climb". She just bawled and couldn't stop thanking us. We reminded her about the Book of Mormon and prayer, and she gave a beautiful prayer at the end of the lesson. I will never forget that lesson! We will start meeting with her once a week. And we have referrred her to LDS Family Services for professional counseling. She is so special!
Our investigator, Sayaka chan, called us this week and said that she wanted to drop us and stop taking lessons. We were like WHAT?!, but we didn't give up on her and we pleaded with her to come to church just one more time. Well, she came yesterday and we were praying so hard that the speakers' talks would touch her. She completely changed and she wants to still get baptized and continue to take the lessons. Awesome!
We were also able to have a first lesson with Tomoko san, who also came to church yesterday. We made a baptismal date with her for October 3rd and she is so special. We had a member present and we came to the conclusion that Tomoko san has really bad ADHD. But she has such a strong desire to be baptized and we figured if she has the desire and keeps the commitments that we discuss with her, why can't she get baptized? It was a great lesson and helped me work on my patience haha. She has a really rough family life and just needs the love that this message will bring into her life.
We had another cool experience as we were streeting the other night. I've been trying to be more observant as we street - looking for apartments to house, etc. Well, one really got my attention and I asked Carey Shimai what she thought about a certain grey apartment that was on the other side of the road. She said it looked good, so we went over. It was sort of hard to find once we had actually crossed the street, and there were plenty of other apartments we could have gone to, but no, we needed to go to the one that caught my eye! We got there and on the 3rd floor there was nobody home. The 2nd floor was straight kekkos. The 1st floor, last door (as always), was a miracle! He came to the door when we asked him through the kekko box. Then we proceeded to have an awesome totsuzen about baptism and we set up a return appointment. Then we had to book it home to be on time, and we definitely came home tired. It was such a cool experience being led by the Spirit to exactly where we needed to go. I love dendo!
We are doing this new thing where every day at the end of daily planning, we talk about how we saw the Atonement during our dendo that day. It really helps me look for it more throughout each day. I love being a missionary. This church is true! Love you all!
Klein Shimai
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