Week 15 - Service, Safety, & Change are my Hobbies.

こんいちわみなさん!

I wanted to start off this weeks email by explaining my Subject line.

Service-- "I JUST LOVE SERVICE" (inside joke)

Safety-- I almost got wrecked by 2 cars this last week, a mom holding her baby WHILE riding a bike, and we had an earthquake.

Change-- transfers= new companion

TRANSFER CALL

We got our transfer calls this morning and if you don't get a call from your zone leaders before 8:15 a.m...huge changes usually happen. And you get a call from the mission president. Annndd...that's exactly what happened. To say that I was nervous doesn't do justice. It was so bad I had pee running down my leg to say the least.

NEWS: I am still gonna be bikin' the hills here in Senzokuike! And my best friend is leaving me. I cried all morning haha IT WAS THE WORST!! But I am really excited to meet my new companion! Her name is Sister Oaks!! She is a really young missionary too....haha... she is only a transfer older than me...so this is going to be an adventurous and probably really emotional transfer ahha :')

She comes on Wednesday!! So you will hear more about her next week.

EARTH QUAKE

So it's funny because my mom emailed me the other day saying, "we got an email that there was an earthquake! but luckily it wasn't in the city near your area!"

WELL....actually I was in the place where the earthquake happened! ahah we were on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders in Koiwa!

We were on our lunch break...all 4 of us talking, and then all of a sudden the table, chairs, desks, EVERYTHING starts shaking! Things started falling off the walls and desks!! One of the sisters just screams and throws herself under the table with her jar of peanut butter! I couldn't help laughing, but at the same time i was kinda scared. It lasted about a minute or so, and I thought I was going to have to jump out a window or something! It probably wasn't a serious earthquake compared to the other huge ones that has happened in Japan...but it was still craazzyyy!

ELDER BEDNAR

We had a mission conference (Tokyo and Tokyo South Missions) this last week. It was basically a huge discussion with an apostle. He taught us how to teach by showing us. HE asked us questions and we were all taught personally by the spirit...and at the end he said, "So based off of what you've learned, what will you do?" Everyone was so dendo fire after that 3 hour conference with an apostle. He made a really great promise to our mission, too. He said that our learning and teaching by the spirit (as missionaries) will only get stronger according to our obedience.

Obedience is literally everything. That is what brings about the greatest miracles.

YEET.

FOLLOW UP TRAINING

At the concluding of our first transfer, all of the new beans have follow up training with our Mission President. It was really great to see my MTC peeps again!! It made me so happy!! :)

Lately, I have been studying "The First Great Commandment" -by elder holland.

When the savior dies and is crucified, the 12 apostles didn't really know what to do with themselves..so they returned to their old lives as fisherman and went fishing. They fished all night, and caught nothing. Continuing the next day they heard a man on shore say, "Children, cast your nets to the other side of the boat..and ye shall find" as they did so...the amount of fish they started to catch started to sink their boat.

When they realized that it was the Savior, the first person to drop their nets and swim towards the savior was the Apostle Peter.

The question I have been pondering for a while is, "How can I drop my nets??" How can I be a more consecrated missionary?? HOW do I drop my own desires, stop habits, put others needs above my own?...to do the Lords work more fully??

I asked that question during the "bean training" we had with the Assistants. And I loved what a missionary said,

"You can drop your nets with the saviors help...but never forget that you were once a fisherman."

I know that to be true! With the saviors help, we can overcome anything that is holding us back from progressing. But we cant forget who we are, or who we once were.

I love you fam :) thank you for the prayers! ほんとに, 愛してうます.

愛,

フェルプス姉妹

Phelps Shimai

Our last Sunday together.