So I got transferred. :( Sad day. I am actually pretty sad to be leaving Akou. The branch president is finally working with us. Members are finally giving us rides to homes of less actives. The members are a lot more involved now that we are focusing on those whom they've been visiting and calling and contacting. So, hopefully, I have helped Akou out in some small way. I am off to Matsuyama now. It's on the island of Shikoku. I leave on Thursday. I hear they have awesome udon. And I love udon!! So I'm excited for that. I don't really know what to expect except for expensive travel fees. I heard from Archbold shimai that it can cost up to a $100 each way from shikoku to kobe. But, I'll be fine with the money I have. So I'm not too worried.
This week. This week we met with a less active member. She is super nice! She has a 17 year-old-son and she's been less active since she was married. Even though we found out that her husband is not hantai at all. So, we're going to help her out a little bit. She wants to meet with us again and we're going to try and get the branch involved and finally make Akou a ward! Woo! Beane Shimai is going to take care of the ward. We talked a lot about how she met the missionaries. About her baptism, about the gift of the Holy Ghost, about church. There was such a nice spirit when we met and chatted. She doesn't really remember the gift of the Holy Ghost. Even though He's one of our Heavenly Father's most precious gifts that He has. Besides the Atonement. Atonement is awesome. It's the entire reason why we're able to receive awesome perfect bodies, return to our loving Heavenly Father, and have eternal life. Sin and death are overcome. I will be forever grateful to our savior Jesus Christ for what He has done for each one of us.
This week we also biked a wonderful 80 kilometers this week going around and visiting all of the less actives that live a plane ride away. That's around 55 miles if I'm correct. And my butt doesn't even hurt :) Yeah for running every morning!
Funny story, so while we were bike riding we are driving through a forest and Beane shimai and I made a discovery: catapillers hang from trees in Japan. While biking we counted up to 50 catapillers that were hanging. They also have a tendency to land on us. Beane shimai decided to let all of them collect on her and ended up counting about six catapillers without even trying to catch them. Good stuff. I also love to prove the branch members wrong by biking to places they say we can't. So now, they want to give us rides :)
Then we also taught someone through a relatively new program that has us teach 30 minutes of English and then 30 minutes of a gospel message. So Beane shimai taught the english because she's done it before and then taught her a little bit about how God is her loving Heavenly Father.
This week, I have loved my Book of Mormon study. I always love my study but it was just especially good this week. I read in Mosiah. The book of Mosiah is awesome. I continue to learn new things and pick up things that I haven't seen before. This time I learned how to bear my trials. There are two groups of people that it talks about. One being King Limhi's people and the other being Alma's people. They both suffered the same trial but for different reasons. They bore their trials differently. The first complained, they fought against their afflictors and lost badly, they were humbled so much that they humbled themselves below the dust of the earth. The second, had faith in Christ and bore their afflictions with faith and patience.
How often are we like the people of Limhi? How often when something doesn't go our way do we complain? That we fight against our trials but only seem to lose? When what we should've done before is to rely on our Saviour Jesus Christ. I know I've definitely done this before. I've complained. I am definitely not perfect. And I suffered because of my complaints. What I should've done was rely on my Saviour. I should've been faithful. I've learned a lot this week. I have definitely repented. I want to be better. I want to do better. I know I can do it through the strength of my Heavenly Father and His grace and mercy. He will carry me. I know that missionary work is difficult. Definitely not a walk in the park. I have made a ton of mistakes. But that's ok. Because my God is a god of miracles. He will fill in the holes where necesary to make sure that His will will happen. I cannot prevent the work if I'm working hard to help it progress, not regress.
Thank you so much for all of your love, support, and letters.
Love always, Bevan Shimai
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| Saying good-bye to Akou |
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| Ako River |
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| View of Ako from the hills |
