Trip to Sendai!

The internet`s working again!! It`been a great past few weeks, I can hardly believe how fast time goes. Next week is transfer week...and then, I`ll be in my last transfer! It seems like yesterday that I had just gotten to Japan.

It`s gotten pretty cold, but still no snow. Last Thursday was Thanksgiving--we didn`t have pumpkin pie, but Dotson Shimai made mashed potatoes and pork, and we had a great time! If I have time there`s half of a pumpkin in our fridge that I may try to turn into pumpin pie, thanks for the recipie dad!

We spent half of this past week in Sendai--I went to the honbu (mission home) for training with the other zone leaders/trainers, and Dotson Shimai got to go on splits with the Kamisugi sisters--she got to see our old companion, Semba Shimai again!! There are 4 Japanese sisters right now in Kamisugi, and she actually went on splits with the other companionship, including my old companion Murase Shimai! I was able to see Murase Shimai at the bus stop for a few minutes, it was so good to see her again and see her doing so well. Dotson Shimai had a great time with 4 Japanese sisters, and I also learned a lot from the training at the honbu.

Our investigators Kokubun san and Kazue san are doing great--Kokubun san is keeping the Word of Wisdom! We just have to help her break the news to her husband, then she`ll be ready for baptism. We practiced the baptism interview questions with Kazue san, and we`ll probably do it again next week because she doesn`t have the best memory...but her heart is definitely in the right place. Yesterday she told us how lately she felt that God is protecting her, when she almost got into a bike accident but didn`t, and when she prays and feels a warm feeling. She`s been coming to church almost every Sunday for about a year--we definitely feel like this is her time to be baptized!

I`m loving every day and minute left of my mission, and I`m striving each day to become the missionary God wants me to be. I know that this is God`s work, and that He loves each one of us! He hears and answers our prayers, and knows the desires of our hearts, and what we need. I have felt His love for me, and for these wonderful Japanese people!

Love,
Swain Shimai