Week 61- Does anyone speak Swahili?

Rachel and Philamon!

FURAHA? (How are you). Who knew I would need to learn Swahili?

Oh man family and friends. Do you I have a story to tell you!
This week was on so fun of miracles!
GOD IS SOOOOOOO WONDERFUL!

Okay well I will start at he beginning. So, yes indeed I was able to
return back to my beautiful heaven on earth Yonago once more! We had
Zone Conference up there.. and some of the members attended, it was so
great to see them and their smiling faces. I miss that city! I told
them I would come back, and yep I came right back! We had to get on a
bus on Monday so our preparation day was limited. But, that didn't
stop us from having a ball. We got to Yonago, just got off the bus and
I looked around I couldn't believe how it just looked oh so familiar.
I turn my head from left to right admiring the beautiful city I once
lived in. I close my eyes and remember all the times that I had up
there. I take a whiff and smell the nice cold air and then "what? A
BRAND NEW 711? Right by the Eki.. what are you kidding me?" I was so
surprised... haha, so we start heads for he church. When we get there
all the old experiences of that old church. Bringing one of my first
investigators to church, playing games with Catron Shimai at he
church and just in awww of how much I truly missed that place.
I HAD MY INTERVIEW with Smoot Kaicho again. It went so well... but
then he posed the question, what are my plans after the mission? My
heart sunk... what? No... already? It kinda started to sink in again
that I'm not a 1st transfer anymore, and that I was he second oldest
sister missionary in the whole zone!
Later that day the sisters of the zone. STLs excluded though they
didn't come. But, we as the 6 sisters in the zone, got on a bus and
headed to the Eki. We had some posters in our hands and when we got
there, we dendoued(prosylized) like crazy. ABOUT FAMILY HISTORY!!! It
was so fun we had 2 groups and the companionships were split and we
would just try anything to get someone to come and listen to us talk
about family history. We sang, danced, played music, and laughed. We
actually got a lot of people come talk to us. We even asked the taxi
drivers if they were interested as well as stopped a young boy on a
bike (I kinda ran after him and told him to stop). Haha... but he had
interest!
Afterwards we went back to my old apartment. Oh that was fun. It
changed a little. I was sad to see that Catron Shimai and I's
masterpiece of pictures son the walls were ripped down...(wasn't that
happy about that.:( But, it was fun.
The next day ZONE CONFERENCE! Our leaders are guided by the spirit!
It was so great Zone Conference was so nice. I learned so much from
them. I learned about personal revelation. Christlike attributes, and
family history.
After leaving conference that day, we asked a member Koyama Shimai if
she could drive us to the bus station. She of course did... and I got
to say goodbye which will probably be the last time for awhile.
Getting on the bus to go back to Kurashiki I think I shed a small
tear... but I know I'll be back.

And back at it in Kurashiki. But, we came back ready to dendou hard.
So, sister smith and I started working harder and longer trying to
find some new investigators. We also decided that our new main focus
would be to strengthen the members and their faith. So, we tried
visiting and doing little acts of kindness. We visited one of my
favorite people Aline Shimai. Her lesson was more about strengthening
her and her faith. I asked her what she would want to see nor elf at
church. She said happiness! Oooooo... good one. She felt that the ward
was a little gloomy lately. So, we took her words and left. As we left
her home, I saw this nice old lady with a bright orange coat on. All I
said was "I like your coat." And she got big wide eyed and happy, we
started to talk about family history, and I will be honest I have not
had a more harder time in Japanese in a long time than I did with this
lady. She was talked at the highest speed possible, probably even
faster that that.. and she mumbled.. so I was trying to catch what she
was saying half the time. She said something like "please come to my
house." So we followed her to her house, she told us to come in and
have a seat. So we did. (Didn't want to be rude and she was so nice.)
we came in and sat down on her couch, she started mumbling some things
and then said "I'm going to get some food Doen the street" or
something, I honestly could not understand her to save my life. Haha.
She then proceeded to unlock her back door and started to walk out and
I said "uhhh..." and she said you stay here. She LEFT US IN HER HOUSE!
I mean like what?? For like 5 MINUTES! She then comes back and says
"oh I'm sorry that place was closed, now what should we do?" I looked
at her like what? I tried to tell her it was no big deal, we could
come over another day or something, but she would not listen to
anything I was saying and said "ok, let's go and go get dinner."
Uhhhhhh... okay? So, we follow this old grandma down the road all the
way down the road to this restaurant. It was like 2 miles or more. It
was crazy, and it was at night. She then buys us dinner to go and then
she says "ok, now we are going to go get some bread", what? This lady
was crazy, there was so much food in my hands. We then get bread and
onigiris and she says "do you want some ice cream?" By this time, I
was just freaking out... like what the? Oh.. did I mention she was 87
years old? Yah.. so we go back to her house and she has us eat and she
like watches us eat too,.. hahaha.... she then asked when we were
leaving and I said oh well we better leave at 7. "On the 7th of
November?" Uhhh... what? I think this lady thought we were going back
to America sometime soon... which I had already explained we lived in
Kurashiki. She then exclaimed "no.. you can't leave in the dark, are
you?" "Uhhh.. yah... we have to go home to our apartment." "Well you
can leave tomorrow can't you?"
Basically to make things short, we almost were forced to spend the
night at this grandmas house, and she was going to keep feeding us and
stuff... I mean if I wasn't a missionary I would definitely stay.. but
since we have to return to our apartment, we kindly declined hahaha...
how funny.. great story.

But the best story of the week was on Sunday.
So, last transfer Shumway Shimai and I found this guy from Kenya 🇰🇪,
named Philamon. Well, he wasn't able to come to church last week, so I
felt prompted to text him and ask if He is coming. He said "of
course!" So, we got to the church that morning and started waiting,
then we get a. Text saying that he was at he Kurashiki Eki and didn't
know where to go, which I mean I gave him the address.. but no need to
fear, my companion and I raced to the Eki. We get there, and there is
no Philamon. Well at this point it was almost 10:00 and church
started.,.... we looked everywhere for him. But, could not find him
anywhere. He finally texted again and said after like 20 minutes, I'm
almost to the church! What? Ahhhhhh... we got on our bikes and raced
as fast as our bikes could go to him. We found him! Really really
close to the church, but he had a friend. She is also from Kenya. Her
name is Rachel.so, we bike to the church with them and go upstairs to
sacrament meeting and then the fun began I had to translate to both of
them. That was a little difficult, but it was really fun. Well, after
sacrament, our stake president Imai kaicho was there and sped all the
way to Philamon and asked where he was from and what he was doing in
Japan. Comes to find out that Philamon is actually 16 and Rachel is 17
and they both study here and are athletes. They run! And they aren't
just runners they are like champions in Japan! Philamon is #1 in ALL
JAPAN! And Rachel is #2 in ALL JAPAN! Go figure we find he fastest
people in Japan! But, I asked Imai Kaicho as we were exiting the
chapel, if he was available to be our member present for the lesson!
And Imai Kaicho exclaims "of course!" Can you believe hat? Having a
lesson with your stake president? Yah I couldn't either and Imai
Kaicho is pretty good in English so it went well. Well we taught the
Restoration! It was SO SPIRITUAL! The spirit waS there Philamon,
Rachel and Imai Kaicho were tearing up.. when we talked about Jesus
Christ, something just clicked for them. They explained how in Kenya
every Sunday they would go to church, but ever since they came to
Japan. There had only been one church they could find that had
translation that they only had once a month.. so to find this church
with the broken translation I have.. they felt so grateful. I asked
them what they thought about this lesson and the restoration after and
Rachel looks at me in the eyes and said "is this story true?" I had
never felt so much love for anyone in a long time and just replied
"yes, it's all true and we know it's true because of the Book of
Mormon". I told them we could get them two English book of Mormons
next week. She said "it must be true and no coincidence you found us
and brought us to church."
After they got to go to young men and young women's. I was a little
worried I didn't know who would go with Philamon and translate, I then
asked "what about Philamon?" Imai Kaicho raises his hand and this just
melted my heart "I will translate in my broken English !" I just
wanted to cry..... so, we went with Rachel to young women's and they
kinda made it into a testimony meeting.. everyone bore their testimony
and Rachel was just so happy.. she said she was so grateful for the
opportunity to come to church and that she hopes she can just start
coming every week.

After young women's we come out into the hall, and all you see is Imai
Kaicho, a member, dendou shunin(Ward mission leader) and Philamon
exchanging numbers, Facebook, and Line! Like what???????! Happy day
all around. They said they will be coming next week.

So fast forward to later in the day.. I call the Kobe sisters asking
if we could spend the night for today because we have a meeting for
trainers and trainees and they say yah. Well after I said hey when you
get a chance, can you go check at the homebu(mission office) if they
have 2 Book of Mormons in Swahili (Rachel and Philamon speak english,
but more of Swahili). She said yah, we can check. We will call you
back later.
So 20 minutes later, they call "you won't ever guess what happened?"
"What? I asked.
"They only have 2 BOOK OF MORMONS IN SWAHILI FOR YOU!" I was jumping
up and down! GOD IS SOOOOOOOO COOL EVERYONE,
I LOVE YOU ALL!

Have a great week!

Lockett Shimai