Sister Malone's Mission in Fukuoka, Japan!: Technology and missionaries, yes they actually do go together! / Week #43

Konnichiwa minasan!

First of all I need to wish my wonderful mother a Happy Birthday as of yesterday! You`re like almost 40 now right? Sorry I meant to do it last week but...I`m slowly losing it. Sorry I don`t have a legitimate excuse except to say that I think I understand how it feels to have pregnancy brain a little bit now. Having children does that to you.

But my bean-chan is doing great! She is really good at stopping people. Like she yells Konnichiwa! at people and they totally stop. Then I talk to them. I like it this way because I`m not always good a stopping people in a loud, bold voice. Which I`m trying to work on. But it`s easier to have your fresh, new, excited companion do it sometimes.

So this week we had a lesson with Yuri chan about the roles of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. But the coolest part is when we followed up on out commitment from last time to pray and ask Heavenly Father where she should go from this point. So she comes back and tells us that she has decided to read the entire Book of Mormon! How cool is that? She`s read from it before in scattered spots, but now she wants to start from the beginning and read the entire thing. I guess prayer really does help. We also talked about what is holding her back from baptism finally. She still has some doubts, but the main thing is her parents. Her mother knows a little about the church but her father doesn`t know anything and he would probably be opposed if he did. But at least we know now. We just need to work on from there.

We also had a lesson with Tsurunaga san who we found through the area book. We learned that she likes to talk A LOT. We talked for like 55 minutes and then gave like a 5 minute lesson. But at least we know now so we will go right into the lesson next time and focus on gospel topics. Haha but she`s great. She speaks really good English and she told us some hilarious stories about when she lived in America.

Okay okay I`ll get to the good stuff. So this week was kind of crazy because on Friday I went up to Fukuoka and left Hilke shimai with the Nagamine sisters. Don`t worry she had a good time.

But I ended up taking a 2 hour bus to Fukuoka by myself. Why? Because Magalogo shimai and Madsen choro missed the bus at their stop. And so I got on and discovered they weren`t on it, but it was too late. It was weird to be completely by myself. But don`t worry I didn`t do anything womp. I just took a nap while the man next to me probably wondered if I was going to end up falling asleep on his shoulder because my head kept nodding.

Then I waited for Magalogo shimai`s and Madsen choro`s bus to come and we caught another bus and got off at what we thought was the right stop. Then we realized none of us knew how to get to the Fukuoka church from there. So I called my handy-dandy zone leader and asked him for directions because he knows Fukuoka like the back of his hand. (He used to be a zone leader there.) So we only arrived to choir practice like...an hour late. Everyone else was there already. Awkward!

But we had a good practice. Good enough to sing for an apostle of the Lord I guess. Then we went and ate indo curry (which was heavenly) and me and Magalogo shimai had to take 2 subways to a sisters apartment in Fujisaki. We learned a lot about the subway let me tell you. We received a lot of help from random Nihonjins because we had no idea where we were going. Luckily Japanese people are the nicest when it comes to lost people! But we made it!

The next morning we got up at 5:00 in order to be at the church by 7:00 in order to practice again. Then all the missionaries in the mission started filing in (except for Okinawa obviously) and it was so cool to see people again! I finally saw Peterson shimai again!!! I haven`t seen her since I left honbu back in July! We also had an Okinawan reunion. Don`t worry I took a picture. I discovered to my utter dismay that all of my zone got to take the shinkanzen to Fukuoka that morning!! What?! My one chance to take the shink and I miss it because I`m in the choir! I was devastated.

But anyways, on to the important part. Elder Nelson came and spoke to us about ipads and using technology wisely. So yes, we are getting ipads soon. But there will be lots of training for them. Mainly Elder Nelson stressed to us to use our ipads worthily and righteously, not just for now, but for the rest of our lives. If we can learn to control ourselves on our mission, then we can do it for the rest of our lives. And teach our children too. He told us that the Brethren are giving ipads because they know that they can trust us. And most of all to remember our purpose as missionaries and remember the Saviors love for us. He said "The Savior is not disappointed in anyone with the desire and intent to repent." He spent the last 20 minutes of the taikai just teaching us about Jesus Christ and the meaning of his many titles. And of course of all times, my pen died and I couldn`t write his amazing words down. This would happen to me.

We are to remember that we are not becoming an ipad mission. We are becoming full purpose missionaries. I know the ipads are really going to help us in our work. It`s going to move the work forward even more. And when we get Facebook at some point you all can follow me! You just can`t message me. Sorry!

I hope everyone has a good week!

Malone Shimai

Kumamoto Chapel