WORST. THANKSGIVING. EVER.

Doi and Messer Shimai

November 29, 2014

Do you remember that Thanksgiving when my roommate Abby came home with me and we ate so much (starving college students, right?) that it was even hard take a nap because laying down hurt? #fatkids. That stunk. Do you remember when dad was prepping the turkey and the little syringe with the seasoning squirted moms golden curtains in the next room away? That stain was a pain, right mom? (isn't is still there?) That stunk. Or how EVERY year mom wants to take the picture for the Christmas card right after we have indulged ourselves with food and still have sleepy eyes from our turkey-coma nap? That stinks (every year) Well this Thanksgiving tops all stinky Thanksgivings. 

So we had a lesson with Akutagawa san, our investigator who is 64 and has a baptismal date for December 20. He was progressing SO FAST and SO GOOD! We had taught all three lessons, and were working on the commandments. We taught the Word of Wisdom on Tuesday, and he committed himself to living it before we even asked him to! It was amazing! he understood, told us he stopped smoking and drinking 22 years ago! WE taught how Satan might tempt him before his date, and he understood. A GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR! We were on cloud nine, we were all prepped to teach him on Thursday (Thanksgiving) about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. Easy enough, if you can keep the WoW you can keep anything. He always shows up to the church 30 minutes early, so we always go 20 minutes early and wait for our member who joints for us while we small talk outside. He comes up, and is looking very concerned over the river he has to cross to get the the church. Oh great, he is contemplating God and how beautiful the earth is, right? Well he comes up, holding the BoM, all of the pamphlets and his baptismal calendar we made for him.....ok? He continues to tell us that he went to a Christian college yesterday and talked to a professor that said if our church says no drinking alcohol or coffee then it is not a Christian church. WRONG. Akutagawa san is sick, and think he will die within a couple of years so he wants to really find the right church. So to "stick it to the man" he decides to drink Thursday morning before he meets with us, tells us he is taking a break from our church, he is going to go learn at that other church, and to never come to his house again. He left all of the material, including the other churches pamphlets, at the church so "all churches can be equal" and he just walked away. He WOULD NOT listen to us, would interrupt us before we could finish our sentence. Just rude. So we watch him walk away through our tear filled eyes of love, hate, sorrow just in time for our sweet joint to bike up, KONNICHIWA! wait..where are you going? Why are the missionaries crying? We explain, and she runs after him, they talk for 40 minutes, and she comes back and explains he might come back if he feels this is right. She was a sweet heart, kept telling us not to worry, and says at the very end IN ENGLISH "don't cry" and gives us a hug. 

I think the hardest part was seeing the one and only REALLY progressing investigator I have EVER had on my mission, A WHOLE YEAR just walk away because of Satan. But we ate at a members house that night, and it was good. Deep fried, battered Salmon stuff, avocado/tomato/crab salad, a quiche thing, and some stew. AND even a pear pie that was so dang delicious. We then handed out 3 Book of Mormon's and 4 baptismal invites in 1 1/2 hours, so we felt a little better, I think God was blessing us. 

Rubbing Buddha's tummy for good luck

Thanksgiving with roommates

Sleeping Buddha and sister missionaries  

We have been meeting a lot of people on the street that have met missionaries lately, and 3 who even have a BoM, so it is cool to have people recognize us now! 

These past two P-Days have been amazing, last week we went to a big shrine called Dazaifu with our friend Yamamoto san (the one who puts pics on facebook) and that was SO FUN! We got to see beautiful shrines, and eat at a Chinese place. He took us, and Kurume shimai, and then two other sisters, so it was fun to see them.

Today we got to go to the temple and we were able to go to a shrine after that too! It was the "sleeping Buddha" just a big, giant, turquoise Buddha lying on the ground. The grounds were gorgeous, exactly what you would think Japan would look like. I would love to explain more, but I feel bad this email is so long! But we are having SO MUCH fun in Fujisaki! We really love it here! Don't you worry about me! I love you all so much! Have a great week! Hope you all ate turkey!

Love,

Messer Shimai