Monday, October 13, 2014

On Monday, October 13, 2014 Sister Johnson wrote:

This week here in Morioka was a good week, I think. I tried to take it easy because of my foot and some other sicknesses that I had, but in spite of that, we ended up biking all over the city! It was crazy; last Tuesday, we had 8 solid hours of nothing. That was the first time I have ever had a day like that on my whole mission! No appointments, no activities, just time. It was scary and hard to plan, but we set out trusting the Lord to lead us, and that is exactly what he did! We were able to visit a lot of less-active members, and at about 6:00 that night, we met a man named Brother Kikka. He is now 85 years old, and has been less-active for about 30 or 40 years. He told us that he realized that he was in fact Buddhist, even though he joined the Church. He said that he has a lot of respect for Christ. I could see that in his eyes and in the way he treated us. He was so nice and so funny! We talked with him for about 40 minutes in his entry, during which he told us all about his life. He is such a cool man; he recently wrote and published a book called The Snow Queen's Lullaby (the title is a lot more eloquent in Japanese), and he gave me a copy! He told me that he was very impressed with my perfect Japanese (those are his words, NOT mine. My Japanese is so not perfect.) and that he wants me to translate his book into English! Haha. So, I will try and do my best! He wants us to come back and eat with him and talk more about life. He is a really good man, and I could feel a lot of love from him. It was a good day.

This week, we had zone meeting! All of the missionaries in the zone came to Morioka and we had training from the Sister Training Leaders and the Zone leaders. It was a great day and I was blessed to be able to participate in the training because I am a "dying missionary with lots of cool experiences," to quote my zone leader, haha. It was a good day. We were able to talk about obedience and unity, and how when you and your companion are obedient to the promptings you receive and you are working in a spirit of unity that the Lord will trust you and your companion with more spiritual guidance and direction. It was something that the zone really needed, I think. We will all be able to grow together as we are more unified.

This week, we also had interviews with President Smith! My interview was interesting. I mostly just told him about my foot because he is a foot doctor, so my interview was really just like going to the doctor. It was funny. I also told him that I have been feeling exhausted lately, and so he asked me to start taking some iron pills. So that is fun. I will have more energy hopefully! Yay!

This week was also general conference week in Japan! Two days of lots of much-needed English instruction! I really liked Elder Scott's talk about choosing to make a relationship with God. It is indeed a choice that we make to pray and seek knowledge from on high. It was a good reminder for me about my choices, and what I need to do. I went to conference with a question about the future, about what I need to do when I go home in three weeks, and Heavenly Father's message for me was all about agency. I have been experiencing lots of temptations lately, but I have a desire to do what the Lord wants me to do. I want to overcome the feelings that I have so that I will be able to to experience all the blessings that the Bigs have in store for me! So, Heavenly Father's message to me was that I need to exercise my agency in a way that will allow those blessings to come about. He trusts me, and He let me know that I must make the decision to have those blessings. It was a good conference for me. I still have a lot to learn!

That is about it for this week! I am grateful for the time that I have left and I hope that Hayashi Shimai and I will be able to make a difference here in Morioka with the short time that we have together! I want to go and find the one the Savior would have me serve. That is His mission. That is MY mission.

I love you Momma! THREE WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not trunky.....

Love Shak