Come Follow Me: TRANSFERS! And guess who is leaving?!?

November 2, 2015

Hello Kazoku and Tomodachi (Family and Friends),
How are you all doing?! How was Halloween in the states? I'm sure filled with candy, costumes, parties, and all sorts of scary fun things. I hope all went well with that. Thank you for the love and support I get every week, it really makes such a difference in the mission field. I feel your prayers and love everyday. Well to start off, I'll explain my subject... You all guessed it I'm sure. IM GETTING TRANSFERRED! I'm leaving the island and going to Izumo with Fuller Shimai... No idea what is happening but here I go right? I leave Thursday morning so yeah that's fun news, I'm nervous but excited! Everyone is shocked that I'm the one leaving but hey there must be a reason. I'll I know about my area is that it's more country with LOTS of rice fields and that my district leader said that he served there for two transfers and it's his favorite area thus far so I'm excited to experience that. I'll tell you more next week when I'm actually there. But for this week in Takamatsu, so we were heading home Tuesday after eikaiwa and it was all the sudden POURING rain haha and we weren't prepared so we just got drenched biking home.. It was hilarious Welcome to Japan Smith Shimai haha I'll send a pic of me being soaked. My comp and I just laughed our heads off at how ridiculous we must of looked... Haha So investigator wise we will talk about Kana first, oh boy she is special. We taught her twice this week. First lesson was introducing commandments and pray often. It went well and she understands we must follow them. But then next lesson we taught her the 10 commandments and it was a GREAT lesson. The spirit was strong as ever through out
the whole thing. We started asking her about prayer and she said she hadn't really been praying cause she didn't know what to pray about and she was always busy. So we testified of prayer and related it to calling a friend who lives far away and you just want to hear from them. God is the same way with us, he just wants to hear from us. And you could see the light switch click on. We testified that she must do it cause we can't do it for her and it was just a good moment and lesson with her. She was worried about the sabbath day commandment but we will discuss that more later. But I was so grateful for the spirit putting words in our mouth that she needed to hear. The spirit is the real teacher! I know that for a fact.

So Thursdsy we had Trainer and Trainee meeting in Okayama. It went really good. President and Sister Welch basically just ask how it's been and give advice etc. We had 4 Shimaitachi sleepover the night before cause there area was so far so that was an experience... Yeah 6 sisters in our tiny apartment but we pulled it off. It was fun
getting to see some people from my MTC district again, I've missed them! And just lots of other missionaries as well as President and Sister Welch. I want to share two quotes from President Welch, "Fun is not where you go but what you take with you!" "How do I know God loves me? He wants me to do hard things because He knows I'll learn and grow." I just loved both of those. Always good to keep in mind. We had zone meeting this Friday and it went great! I just want to share one thing I learned, and also it'll be my challenge for the week. So our zone leader challenged us to pray and ask what we can do to strengthen our testimony and find one thing and work on it. So this week, please pray and ask one thing you can do to strengthen your testimony because it can always grow! I know you will receive and answer, cause I did and it has changed my testimony in just a few days
so please do that and see the difference it makes. But remember, you have to listen after you pray and have the desire to want to grow or else it won't matter. So Saturday, Halloween, we had a party with the branch and just
whoever wanted to come. We invited LOADS of people. This was the craziest day ever! So we started cooking and setting up at 2:30 and we literally finished the second before it started.. Try baking/cooking with a Japanese oven that is TINY and only two stoves and the ingredients aren't 100% normal.. Yeah it was an adventure. But we pulled off the rice pudding, no bake and pumpkin cookies, Rice Krispies, and the coconut bars were edible but not that great cause they don't have graham crackers here so... But we did it! I'll do a quick sum of how it went. Games (like donut eating, ring toss, pin the head on the spider, and the Oreo min to win it game) it was crazy with
like 15 kids running around.. We had 50 people there. Members, investigators, less actives, and random people. We had 3 of our 5 investigators there. One was Aratake, the mom we met on the street and we are doing 30 English and 30 gospel. Her daughter loved the party and our members made them feel so welcome! So activities like these are so great for missionary work in a none threatening way. Funny Stories from party: So our investigator Kana, she came as well. As I've told you before, she LOVES food ha and like never gets full I'm telling you. So at the end we had a piñata and then ate. Well the kids broke the piñata right? Well Kana being a 28 year old sprinted over and was grabbing candy, and Weber 姉妹 and I were dying. Then we go to eat and she was first to go get food and just kept going and going, it made the night. Oonishi 会長 was telling her that we are
gonna clean up and she says "I'm gonna keep eating okay?" And his face was the best. But the party was a success for us! Also random thing that happened this week, I got asked for the first time since being here if I was half Japanese! Hahaha but I said nope full American and she was shocked so yup there ya go. The work here is improving, but I'll just have to hear about it now cause off to a new place I go. I know I'm needed where I'm going so I trust in The Lord and I'm grateful for the blessing of serving these amazing people if Japan. I love being a missionary, I wouldn't change it for anything. Serving and teaching everyday is just ah no greater
feeling, share the gospel to all you know please. Smile and serve those you come in contact okay? I love you all and pray for you daily.
I will talk to you next week, just not from Takamtasu, from Izumo. New
adventure here we come. #RELY
スミス姉妹 (Smith Shimai)