Sister Malone's Mission in Fukuoka, Japan!: Kumamoto I choose you! / Week #42

Konnichiwa minasan!!

So as you may have heard we went to Kumamoto castle this week with our investigator Yuri chan!! And it was great! Mainly because it meant going back to my old area Tsuboi. Man I love that place. But also because the cherry blossoms are coming out! I should`ve taken more pictures but we didn`t have a lot of time. So we went up many stairs to get to the main castle part. There we sat and watched three samurais use their best samurai voices to welcome us to Kumamoto castle and do an awesome dance/fight sequence. Someday you will see the video. It`s epic. Then we went inside and looked at all the relics and history of the castle until we reached the top! So many stairs. So steep. So narrow. I don't know how samurais walked up those stairs in the old days. No wonder they were fit.

So things are starting to move along in our area. The biggest thing is that on Friday we actually had a training from our zone leaders. And this is the training I wish I had received when I first came into the mission. Basically they covered how we plan effectively, how we contact people, what we say, and how we follow up. Then we went and practiced it on the streets of Tsuboi because there are lots of people there. Also we did something that was really strange, and some of you may freak out at this, but my companion was an elder. That`s right. I did dendo with an elder. How? Because another elder and sister were across the street also dendoing. So technically we were within sight and hearing of each other. It was kind of weird, but also really cool to see how elders contact people. I really learned a lot and I think this is going to help us in our finding A LOT. Basically this training was an answer to my prayers because I knew that I needed to be doing things better, but I wasn`t sure how.

On Saturday we went and tried out the things we learned and we met this girl Asami who lived in America (in Nebraska of all places) and went to church with her host family. So I showed her our flyer and started talking about church. Then she saw that we teach Ekaiwa and was really excited to learn more English. So we got her number and email and hopefully she will come to Ekaiwa this week, and then from there hopefully she will become a new investigator!

Also miracle for the week. Our zone leaders have asked us to call 2 people from our area book each day. Before this transfer I have not really done area book dendo. Basically you call former investigators and ask them if they would be interesting in taking lessons again. So I called this one lady and she didn`t answer. But 2 seconds later she called back. I introduced myself and she totally remembered meeting with the sister missionaries before. She also started speaking English which threw me off. But then she said "You have church tomorrow right? I can come at one. Is that okay?" Um yes. That is okay. So she came on Sunday. She actually couldn`t stay for church but we set up an appointment to meet on Wednesday! Yay for miracles when you are obedient and do what your zone leaders ask.

Thanks for everyone`s prayers. I`ve really felt better this week and I can see things starting to look up. Stay tuned for next week when I tell you all about the Elder Nelson conference!

Malone Shimai

Kumamoto Castle