FIRST:
Dear Mom,
You have no idea how happy getting that stocking in the mail made
me. I read the letter first and you mentioned "stocking" and I ripped it
open and it was literally the coolest thing I have ever seen. Who needs
Japanese souvenirs? It is absolutely beautiful! And you made it so
fast! How long did it take you to make it? I LOVE IT. It will always be a
really special treasure (I even said "tray-shure) to me. I really cant
believe how beautiful it is. Thank you so so much. I love you! I sent a
package last week so, it should get there next week or something maybe. I
am excited for Scott to see what I sent him ;) Also, thank you Aunt
Jenny and the Young Women and the Moore's for thinking about me this
season! I loved getting your packages and cards. It made me so happy
because I made my own wall of little Christmas cards that I hung up like
I would at home! Thank you!!
Wow this week has been crazy. Literally crazy. I feel like this
week has been so busy! Wow. We had a lot of lessons and a lot of crazy
things happen. Today is Transfer day and the new news is that our
apartment is going to go from Four-Man to Two-Man, and it will be just
Styles Shimai and I. What that means is that literally all of the
investigators and other work the other two Shimai were doing is going to
be ours now! It is really exciting and nervewracking and terrifying all
at the same time. It has been nice this transfer to train because we
always had a Nihonjin in the apartment to do the hard things like call
for packages and help us know when things are, but now we are going to
have to do it all on our own. Wow, I better start studying kanji.
Our investigators are doing better this week. We are helping them
to keep progressing. It always feels so good when you know someone is
progressing in the gospel. It is heart breaking when you know they arent
trying, but when they are it feels so good. We found a new investigator
this week as well. She is a really young mom and she said that if she
came to know this message was true that she would be baptized! We are
going to meet with her tomorrow and extend a specific date and invite
her to work towards that. We are really excited for our area right now,
we are having a lot of people come out of the wood work and are really
starting to see some progress. We are trying to work hard still and are
doing everything we feel we can do.
We got a call from our district leader this week and we have been
asked to stop doing our game night which was really sad and
disappointing, because we had some awesome things we wanted to do with
it, but I know how important it is for us to follow the counsel of our
leaders.
We found this other man this week who was in his pajamas at his
door and we gave him the small message that we always do and then we
made a return appointment with him. We went to visit him again, thinking
maybe he would be dressed in something else, knowing we were going to
come over, but to our surprise he was wearing his pajamas and cheeta
print slippers. He is so interesting. He just like stares into your soul
when you talk to him. Haha we laughed so hard afterwards. I wish I
could take videos of the experiences we have. These people are so
interesting and awesome, and I cant really capture a good picture of
them in words. I guess I am just part of this new generation of picture
sharing, words dont quite cut it sometimes. But anyways, we were able to
give him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. But we are
excited, really excited because there are more and more people just
appearing out of no where for us to teach and bring back to our Savior,
Jesus Christ, and we are really thrilled.
Nothing else really interesting has happened, just a lot of
missionary work. Thats interesting I guess. We have a lot more people to
care for now with the other Shimai leaving, and we feel a lot of
responsibility and pressure to make sure everything gets done well. I
sometimes wonder why things happen the way that they do, but we just
have to keep that faith that it will all work out in the end.
In other news, We are going to have full day P-Day next Friday, so
we get to skype! Yay! We will be calling at 10:30 am here, so that
should be around 6:30pm Christmas Eve for you folks. I AM SO FLIPPING
EXCITED.
Yeah, so I wont talk to you until Friday. I wont email next week
probably, so I am sorry. Maybe I will email on Christmas? I am not sure
how it all works, but I am so crazy excited to skype you. I have been
getting really nervous almost! You better have some good questions for
me! But after Christmas I get to skype you a lot sooner for Mothers Day,
so that will be fun! That will only be 5-6 months instead of 7!!! Dad
don't be too excited for me to say much in Japanese.
Wish us luck this week. We are doing our best out here in Taniyama!
I love you all!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! SEE you NEXT WEEK!!!
Love, Raines Shimai
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