A Big Bus For The Orphans

Konnichiwa Kazoku

This week has been really fun, really long, and really exhausting.

On Monday we went out to eat with two of the members here. They are
both in their twenties and they took us to a really cool cafe. It was
a lot of fun. They are really awesome women and I hope I can be more
like them! Anyway, the restaurant they took us to was like this really
cool artsy, on the top of a mountain kind of place, and from there you
can see a really awesome view of Sakurajima. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday was a pretty normal day. We didn't do anything too exciting,
although, I did find a really cute snail and took a picture with him,
I called him "Gary" as would be expected of me, knowing how much I
still like SpongeBob, but that's aside the point. We had a good time
housing and that's what made it fun. We had our last district meeting
for the transfer too, so that was fun, we went and ate ramen
afterwards. Oh yeah! And I am getting really close to passing off my
lesson mastery, I only have four left. The last four lessons - long-
and then I'll be done! Whoop!

Two big things happened this week. The first is that we had our ward
Halloween party. Now, we have been planning this thing since I got
here, and, as expected, everything got changed, we only had a $30
budget, and we were way worried about it, but we were able to make it
really awesome and by some miracle we had a lot of people donate candy
and extra money and we made it really fun. Upstairs we had a maze. One
room was a cardboard maze, the next was a spiderweb maze and at the
end we crumpled up A BUTT LOAD of newspaper and threw candy in there
and they had to go in and find the candy. It was pretty flipping
awesome if I do say so myself. And downstairs we had little booths,
like mummy with toilet paper, donuts on a string, ring toss etc, and
we all payed to buy dry ice for rootbeer! It was way fun! They don't
sell dry ice here like they do in America, so we had to have a member
order it online and have it mailed to the church on that day and it
was really hard, but it all worked out and it was a lot of fun. I
thought that was a success.

The other big thing that happened was that I got a call from Kaicho on
Friday morning and he called me to become a trainer. Now, I don't know
what other missions thing about training but here it's scary. As a
trainer you are expected to know how to Dendo how to speak the
language, and be able to teach the new missionary ALLLLLLLLLLL of the
new shocking things about Japan. Like, we ride on the left, and this
is how to use money, and everything is in Japanese so you just need to
memorize which buttons to push and whatnot and you are probably going
to be constipated in three weeks from the food, but it's okay. And buy
a bike and oh yeah speak in Japanese and how to do it the right way
and all of those things. I was immediately overwhelmed but I accepted
the call. So, Sunday night I took a big bus with two other elders who
will be training up to Fukuoka for trainers training and then
yesterday we had the training. It was really good, and I felt the
spirit a lot. I can't comprehend why the Lord would trust me with
this, but I promised to do my best. I am actually excited to train, I
think it will be a good experience. I will let you know all about my
new companion next week. Anyway, yesterday, Monday, we all had to take
a Shinkansen home, and that was fun. It was way fast. Mom, I think you
should never live in Japan, you would die. There is no such thing as a
"creeper" train. They all go, and it's bumpy :) and there are no fake
robberies either. But when I got to Kagoshima, I had to continue to
Taniyama by myself, I had to switch trains and stuff and it felt so
weird to be alone! It was only for like thirty minutes but it felt
weird to not have a companion watching my back at all times. The fun
part is that Sister Lowe, Sister Healey, Sister Madeux and Sister
Shibayama are training with me! We are all Doki which means we came
out together and now we will all be training together! Haha how fun is
that?

Well, I am sorry I can't send any pictures. The door to the computer
got locked, so.... I am sorry. Pray for me to be able to speak
Japanese :) I am praying for Lillie to get better. Her talk made me
cry. That's really special and I love her! Tell her I love her, and
everyone else too. I am glad you are having fun together, mom and dad,
that makes me really happy, keep doing those little things and
everything will seem a little easier.

OH YEAH..... This week... We made a baptismal date with our
investigator! That is a first for me. It was amazing. We asked if she
would be baptized on a certain day and she said, 「いいですか」which means,
"Is that okay???!" And we set it up. We are praying continually for
her, we know she is going to be baptized, we are just hoping she can
overcome a few challenges and have the faith to keep trying. She has a
really awesome desire to know more so we are working closely with her
right now. Our other investigator came to church this week and she
said that she really likes church and likes how it feels so we thing
she is close too. This work is amazing. I could knock on doors all day
long, I could have the perfect Japanese, the perfect contacting
approach and none of it would mean anything because this is the Lord's
work. He truly makes all things possible.

I love you all! I am praying for you!

Love, Raines Shimai

P.S. Dad, my English is fine, typing on the iPad is hard. And I don't
have time to read over what I wrote. Sorry if it's hard to read.
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