Sister Malone's Mission in Fukuoka, Japan!: It's finally getting chilly! / Week #25

Guess what? It's finally getting a little cold in Okinawa. At night now we actually put on sweaters. Ooooh. I can't even imagine being really cold right now. Watch I'll probably get sent to mainland and then I'll actually be cold.

So just a heads up for next week. Since it's Thanksgiving next week we might have Thursday be our P-day. But it could also be a good dendo opportunity so it might not be P-day. Either way just know if I don't write next Monday it means P-day is on Thursday. Otherwise, I'll write like normal.

So we did a lot of housing this week. Which is good. I think I'm getting more comfortable with it. I used to dread having to do housing for several hours and now I think I'm okay with it. Of course if there's somebody to teach I still would rather do that...

But me and Pinzon Shimai have been trying to use the My Family pamphlets in our housing. She's really good at it. We talk about how everyone has a family and the importance of family. Then we give them the pamphlet and Pinzon Shimai shows hers so they can see what one looks like when it's done, (or mostly done). Then we share how we believe families can be together forever. At the end we ask if we can come back another day to talk more about the pamphlet and see how they're doing with it. Everyone is pretty accepting of it. I think everyone can relate to family so people are more open to us coming back again. We still need to go back and visit them this week so we will see how it turns out.

Some exciting news! We were finally able to meet Vanessa. I don't know how much I've mentioned her. Probably not at all. But we met her when we were signing onto base like a month and a half ago and found out she had been to our church before in mainland. (Also her best friend is a return missionary she met while in mainland. What?!). She's half Okinawan, half Peruvian. She's really nice. We got her number from a member and have been trying to set something up for several weeks now but she's really busy with work. But we went to a member's house for dinner and invited Vanessa. We're still not 100% sure about her interest level so we want to meet her again in a setting where we can talk more. But at least we finally met her!

The military branches had district conference this weekend. I don't know what it is but ever since I've been on my mission I absolutely LOVE conferences now. General conference, district conference, sometimes zone conference. The speakers were really good. The theme of the conference was spiritual growth. But each talk was always about spiritual growth through prayer, or fasting, or repentance. It was really good. I realized I need to make my prayers more sincere and really wanting what I'm asking for. Also fasting. Fasting is so powerful. If you really want something you have to be willing to sacrifice. Our effort and desire has to match the thing we want. Or something like that. They said it better than I can.

Anyways, I hope everyone has an awesome week! If you didn't write me, repent. If I haven't written you back, I'm sorry. I'm a busy missionary? Is that a good enough excuse?

Love you all!

Malone Shimai

Me & my bike with the church in the background - Okinawa