Sister Malone's Mission in Fukuoka, Japan!: Happy New Years!!! / Week #32

Konnichiwa minisan!

I don't know how your New Years went but mine was pretty awesome! On New Years Eve we heard there were going to be fireworks shot up over the ocean...and that the show started at midnight. So, needless to say we went to bed at 10:30 pm and had a wonderful nights sleep and did not see or hear any fireworks. I bet none of you can beat that!

So first and foremost I want to wish my dad a Happy Birthday! I can't believe how old you are (or will be on the 7th)! But since this is public for all to see I will wish you a happy 51st birthday! After all age is just a number, sometimes a false one! Thank you for all you have done for me and for giving me such a wonderful sense of sarcasm...I mean humor.

So I know you've asked about my investigators and how they are doing. Truthfully right now we don't have too many investigators. I feel like for this transfer our focus has been on our recent converts. We counted it up and our district alone (so not even the whole island) has had 18 converts this year. So we are trying to focus on retaining and strengthening our recent converts. Have no fear though we are still doing our fair share of finding!

So we were able to teach Sam and Jonathan this week. We went over the Plan of Salvation again. I was surprised how much Jonathan remembered. Everytime we would ask him to explain something he always remembered. He always has really good questions too. He asked one that had us stumped actually. It had to do with the Millenium and the resurrection. I didn't even know he knew about that. And of course Sam just listens and tells him he doesn't need to ask so many questions that what he knows right now is fine. I love how different they are in their approaches, but both ways totally work.

We also got to teach Elina at the Connellys house. Brother Connelly is the ward mission leader for Futenma branch. So it was me and Jeffery Shimai, Mori and Kimura Shimai (the Futenma sisters), and Brother Connelly all teaching. You would think the lesson would be crazy and not flow very well. But it was awesome. Mainly because Elina just gets it. You can tell she has really thought about these things and prayed about them so that she has the answer for herself. We are there just to remind her. Then we ate homemade chicken noodle soup and homemade bread and I thought I was going to die and go to heaven...but I didn't.

We also went over to Yuliya's house to visit and share a message and Brother Kelley was there too! Yay! Brother Kelley is less active but the lessons always go really well when he is there. It's great to teach them as a family and I wish it could happen every time, but his schedule is really crazy. Marines, man. So we talked about remember Christ all through the year and not just at Christmastime. Then we watched He is the Gift, but turns out they had already seen it at the Wedekind's house. Way to go member missionaries!

One cool note: on Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting obviously. So we meet with a couple named Jack and Yoneko. Jack is a recent convert. But before he wasn't really sure what it meant to have a testimony and was reluctant to share his because of that. So Sister Jeffery and Sister Wells talked to him about it one time when they went to see them. And me and Sister Jeffery talked a little more about it this last time. And he totally went up there and shared his testimony! It was so good! We were so proud of him!

I can't believe it's 2015! Here's to a new year! I hope everyone has a good one!

Malone Shimai

Aquarium on Okinawa - It was windy but great!