So this week we tried to find less actives. The majority of our ward
is less actives. All together we have about 200+ people in our ward,
but only 30 people are active, so guess what that means... We need to
help reactivate them :).
Less active family:
So we decided to start with some families. We found a teaching record
of a pretty decent size family with 3 kids,so we were like yes let's
go find them. It was in a place called takurazaka. For the record the
takurazaka eki is about 40ish minutes (via bike) from the church. So
we headed off. It was a really humid day.. And usually after humidity
rain follows. The weather was decent when we had left ,but as we biked
the clouds started to darken. Then it started to drizzle then pour. We
didn't have our kappas with us ,so we were soaked. Honestly it felt
great! We had been dripping with sweat anyways so we were already wet
,but the rain felt so good! when it rains I sing this part of song we
listen to by owl city? Were it says "and though when it rains it
pours.. All I have is yours... I believe that God is love and he is
all I need from this day forth for all eternity!" It makes me laugh
and my companions laugh ,so I sing. So we continued on our trek and
slowly but surely we biked through pouring rain until we reached the
bottom of the mountain. The less active family lived at the top.
Everyone always lives on the top floor, mountain, etc. it's never the
first floor or by the church. But anyways we reached the bottom and
started to bike up. We kept going and going covered in sweat again
because the rain stopped ,but we were so determined to find this
family. We checked our map a few times and we saw this zig zag design
along this trail and we weren't sure what that meant ,but we continued
on. Finally we reached the bottom of some stairs. This was the zig zag
design. We parked our bikes and slowly climbed the stairs when we got
to the top we hiked a bit higher until we found a huge apartment
complex. It had a fence surrounding the apartments so technically we
aren't really supposed to go in unless we live there. There was no way
we were going back after we had conquered the mountain ,so we waited
until someone went through the gate and we followed them. The family
wasn't home or didn't answer ,so that was a little sad ,but we left a
note for them.
Funny story:
Ok so this past Tuesday one of our members named senba shimai told me
it was her birthday on Wednesday. So I was like ah we have to go visit
her! And heart attack her door! I know her favorite candy ,so I
figured we could also bring some of her candy. We invited the elders
to come and sing happy birthday with us to her because she is
completely fluent in English. So we went to her apartment complex. And
out hearts all over her door. We pinged her door and said "hey it's
the missionaries" and as soon as she opened the door we started
singing happy birthday. Well too bad it wasn't her. We were like
"happy birthday to youuu haa... " awkward silence. And all of us
missionaries just like oh man. We apologized and after she closed the
door on us we quickly grabbed all the hearts of the door then we
laughed for about 5 minutes. Then we went to the right door out of
habit we went to the first door instead of the second door. We did
sing happy birthday to senba shimai and she invited us. We all ended
up sharing our testimonies and in the middle of elder Seagle's
testimony she just started laughing so hard. We thought it was some
Japanese thing he said or something ,but she said sorry sorry and
tried not to laugh and then she just kept laughing and said alright
I'll tell you. She said to him " you know who you look like? Mr.
Incredible!" And he just put his palm to his head saying " nooo
everyone says that!" Because honestly he really does. It's quite funny
but he hate when people say it because he says "he's a chubby old
man!" It's so funny.
Okay final story it's funny too:
Alright so 2 days ago we were teaching an 60ish year old couple
(okamoto fufu)we have been teaching for sometime now. We were teaching
the restoration and decided to show our video we down loaded. So we
set it up on and iPad and watched. I was sitting behind the iPad and
just listening. So fun fact in Japanese culture you sit on your knees.
It's difficult and usually my legs hurt for awhile then they fall
asleep after about 30 minutes ,but it's polite to sit like this and
then if your host says so you can sit on the side. So I had been
sitting like this for about 45+ we were way past my legs being asleep,
I couldn't feel them at all. Well the Okamotosan was like "oh Fullmer
shimai needs to see the video too" ,so he was like oh come sit over
here so you can see. So I was like nooo I can't feel my legs. So I
just kept thinking to myself " ok just stand up. And then slowly
shuffle to the seat" well I almost stood up but I couldn't feel my
legs at all so when I tried to stand I fell and whacked my arm on this
stand next to the table. Everyone was like "are you okay? Are you
okay?" I was on adrenaline ,so I didn't feel anything. But I scrapped
some skin off my elbow and arm and whacked my elbow pretty good in the
corner. They patched me up with gauze and medicine. The next day man
my elbow was so swollen and it hurt so bad to bend. I went back to
biking with one hand again. It's still swollen ,but it's way better
than it was!
Spiritual thought:
Alma 1:25
25 Now this was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the
faith; nevertheless, they were steadfast and immovable in keeping the
commandments of God, and they bore with patience the persecution which
was heaped upon them.
^ so this is about the persecution of Alma's people because they
belong to the church of God. Although the it was difficult for them to
bear the burden of persecution, they continued to keep the
commandments. I love this scripture. So many times in my life I've
heard the phrase "why do bad things happen to good people? Or Why does
God let bad things happen?" I have wondered this before Many times.
This is what I have concluded. Trials perfect our character. They bend
and mold us into something that was better than before. We don't know
god's will for us ,but we just need to trust him and have faith in
Jesus Christ. We can't see the path ahead ,but we need to take a leap
of faith and believe that it will be okay in the end. There is one
person that knows every single thing that you have ever felt and he
waits with open arms. We can turn to him and he will help us along the
way. That doesn't mean life will be easy.. Ha no! Life will be the
hardest thing we ever do ,but as trials come our way we can be
steadfast and immovable and learn and grow from them.
Well I hope you have a great week! Sorry this email is really long!
Love,
Fullmer shimai
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