Final Pictures - It's All About The People

Final Goodbye

This past week was another busy one. Full of way too many goodbyes and discussions about what I'm gonna do when I go home. Plenty of wonderful lessons because we've got two Golden Investigators that we are preparing for baptism. One this upcoming Sunday and the other one next Saturday. I've reached the point of being at peace about going home. Yes, it is sad, and I will miss Japan terribly, however I know that I've put in my best for the past 18 months and that there are things waiting for me back home! All we can do in life is keep moving forward. Change is inevitable, but necessary. Thank you all for the past 18 months of prayers and thoughts. It helps more than you realize. See you all in just a few days!

Love Wells Shimai

Remembering Who Is In Charge

This past Monday was crazy.

It was Monday evening, and we were biking out in the rain looking for our Okamune San's house so that we could go and give her a new scripture reading list because she finished her previous one. After trying to find her house, and being unsuccessful, we called her up and she met us outside of a nearby restaurant. We sat out in the rain chatting for a minute, gave her the calender, and right as we are about to leave she says to us "Actually I decided that I want to be baptized!" 

Of course, we were super excited and started jumping and yelling all about it right then. She was excited as well and told us that when she prayed and looked for her answer about baptism, she just got the thought in her head of "You already know, don't you?" and then she decided she needed to be baptized! 

We then ask her about when she thinks would be good. She tells us that on a Sunday would be best, and the last weekend in November isn't going to work, but the first Sunday in December would be perfect. December 7th. 

December 7th. It clicks in my head in an instant that I will be in America on December 7th and something inside of me that I had been trying so hard to keep together finally shattered. We congratulate her, tell her that we'll make sure everything will be ready by then, and start to bike home, at this point soaked in rain, and I just cried the whole way home.

That night during my breakdown about the reality of my mission coming to an end, I said a vocal prayer to my Father in Heaven telling him that I REALLY wanted to see her baptism! I was the first missionary to talk to her on the street, I've been at every single lesson, been here along every step of the way, isn't there some way He could work it out? I had already faced the reality of missing one baptism, and now the fact that I was going to miss a 2nd one by only 3 days was just too much. I started doubting whether or not December was the right choice. I could have picked January 15th. I asked God if I had made the wrong choice, what in the world I need to do, and how to cope with the reality of my current situation. For real, I was at a loss of what to do. Nothing made sense, I was just upset about everything and anything. 

And then, I just came to a realization. She's not my investigator. It's not my baptism. It's the Lord's. Just because I leave, doesn't mean everything is going to fall apart because I was never the one holding it all together. It;s all Him. It always has been and always will be. An overwhelming feeling of "You just need to trust me" came over me, and I knew that I'm supposed to go home on December 5th. I knew that Okamune and Elina would get baptized after I went home, because the Lord will help them get there. Not me. Hard to swallow, but I know that He knows better than me, and that knowledge is getting me through it!

So anyway, this past week was filled with teaching, getting 2 people ready for their baptismal dates that are approaching, and being fed WAY TOO MUCH sugar. So goes the life of a missionary in Okinawa Japan. This week is looking promising with Thanksgiving on the way, and service opportunities in abundance. I love my mission and I'm planning on loving it until the very end! 

Thanks for the support and love! 

Sister Wells

Cool Pic of Nic

Mexican Food, Miracles and Maybe I Should Stay in Japan and Never Come Home!

This past week was probably one of the busiest ones of my entire mission! 

Monday, we had zone Pday and we all went on base and ate lunch at Chilis and watched Ephraims Rescue at a small theater we were able to reserve. That night, we went and visited a young couple that recently moved to the island who are expecting a baby in January! He is a member, and she is Catholic, but said she would be willing to learn more because when she comes to church there are a lot of parts she doesn't understand.

Tuesday we had district meeting, taught a lesson with the Elders to one of their investigators that they are trying to pass off to us, went and had dinner on base with an American family and I ate some of the best mexican food I've had in a year and a half, and then my bike basket broke and we spent the night trying to resolve the problem :)

Wednesday we went to lunch at a SUPER yummy SUPER Japanese restaurant with a member and some investigators and the other sisters, then we visited a less active, and then we went and had dinner with an American family and their friend that wants to learn. Let me just tell you a little bit about this miracle. She went to church with her LDS parents until she was about 7 years old, at which point, the family became less active and stopped going. Recently in her life, being a single mother of an adorable 5 year old, she realized that maybe she needs some religion in her life, and she has always felt some sort of connection with the LDS church. Long story short, we taught the whole restoration lesson, and at the end of the lesson, the member who's house we were at said 

"Now you've got 2 days to think about. 1, when can we meet again, and 2. when do you want to get baptized?"  (It should be noted that we had already discussed baptism earlier in the lesson and invited her and she said that would be her ultimate goal, if all went well) 

Her response:

"Is it weird if I already have a number in mind?"

All of us

"Wait, what? For real? What are you thinking?"

Her:

"Well, I've always really liked the number 13."

We get out a calendar, realize that December 13th is a Saturday, and decide to make it our goal! It truly was crazy how everything with her has just been working out and how prepared she is. We were able to meet her again on Friday and we are going back over tonight to teach another lesson! Everyone please pray for her to keep all the commitments necessary! I haven't asked her permission to use her name on my blog yet, hence I just keep referring to her as "her" but I'm sure Heavenly Father will understand your prays and I know that she will need them! 

Other crazy miracles of the week include teaching Okamune San about the Word of Wisdom, and she response being "Well, ever since I was a college student, I've been going to starbucks a lot. However, it's weird because lately the taste of coffee just hasn't been that good to me." At which point she agreed to stop drinking it, and see how it goes! Please continue to pray for her as well as she continues to pray about baptism!

There truly were many other miracles of the week that I wish I could write including teaching an Oxford Graduate about the Book of Mormon, buying a backpack covered in cats, and having people trying to set me up on dates with their siblings that live back in the states, but there simply isn't time to write about it all! You will all just have to wait another couple of weeks to hear about it in person. 

Thanks again for all the love and support from everyone! Your prayers truly are heard. See you soon!

Sister Wells

Selfies!

Self Commitments, Beer Pong and Special Olympics

This week was another eventful one! 

I'm just gonna start out by talking about our investigator named Okamune San. My previous companion and I ran into her just randomly on the street probably about 2 months ago and she agreed to meet with us at the church. Fast forward to now, and she is seriously one of the most prepared people I think I've met here in Japan. We met with her before English class this past week and had a really good lesson about the plan of salvation and asked her about her Book of Mormon reading. She then told us that she made herself a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon before Christmas so that she can get an answer about baptism. Wait, who's the missionary again? That's supposed to be our job! Haha she's totally giving herself commitments! And yesterday at the end of church we did another lesson with her and talked about receiving answers from the holy ghost, and I shared my experience of deciding whether or not to come on a mission. I basically just talked about how I had had a lot of different small answers from God telling me that I could go on a mission, but I kind of wanted a big answer because it's a big decision. Eventually I realized that I had received my answer probably multiple times and just hadn't recognized it. She then said that she had probably already recieved her answer as well about baptism and perhaps just hasn't recognized it yet! Haha she's going to think about it a little more this week and look for those small answers and I'm hoping we can choose a day with her soon! Keep her in your prayers! Satan works the hardest on the strongest people!

This past Friday we had an odd experience when we went to have dinner with one of the YSA marines named Catherine and our ward mission leader and another YSA named Patrick who recently got to the island. She lives on base at the barracks. For those of you who don't know, the barracks is where pretty much all of the single marines live, and we happened to go there on a Friday night. There is a community lounge where people can cook and eat and Catherine told us she reserved it so that it would just be us there. 

About 5 minutes after we arrived however, Catherine was still cooking the meal, and two other marines, a boy and a girl, show up with 2 6-packs of beer and a bunch of cups to start playing beer pong. Apparently there was a little bit of confusion as to who had reserved the lounge, and the atmosphere started getting a little odd as Catherine said to them that we would leave once the food was finished, but in the mean time, they can't put on any music with words or intense beats, they can't turn on the tv, and they have to watch their language in front of us. The marines rolled their eyes a little bit, but went about their business apologizing each time they accidentally let out a curse word. Safe to say my companion and I felt quite uncomfortable at this point haha. However, we were already there, and we both just decided we could turn this into a positive experience somehow. 

We started making small talk, and discover that the young girl that was there actually grew up in a really strict church that her father was the pastor of, and I think after a few minutes they realized that we're actually pretty normal people despite the long skirts and strict rules. Once the food was finished, the marines were actually kind enough to leave for a little while so that we could eat in peace. A few minutes after we start eating, Catherine's Catholic friend shows up for a bite to eat. I didn't really think too much about it, but he was very nice, and eventually started asking us questions about what we do as missionaries. Long story short, we ended up basically teaching a lesson to him, and he let us know about some of the struggles in his life and frustrations he'd been having with religion and I think after hearing a little bit of our message, he really did benefit. I am convinced that the whole reason we were there that night was to meet him and possibly influence his life into a direction it needs to go. He didn't have much interest in actually meeting with us, or taking lessons, but we did have the opportunity to give him a book of mormon and turn an awkward night into a spiritual discussion :) God sure does work in mysterious ways! And if you stick to what you know, and never lower your standards for anyone or anything, then it doesn't matter what type of environment is all around you, you can still have the influence of the Holy Ghost with you. 

This past Saturday, we had the opportunity to go volunteer on base for the special olympics that the military puts on every year for the locals. It was SO FUN! My companion and I got assigned to a young girl named Ayako and she was the sweetest little 7 year old with down syndrome who would shake her head back and forth as she was running her 50 meter dash. The coolest thing for me to witness that day was that despite the language barrier of pretty much everyone there, because hardly any of the military members speak any japanese, people were able to create wonderful friendships as they communicated in the language of love and compassion with these adorable special needs kids and adults. It just goes to show that we don't have to have perfect Japanese to communicate with the people here. Their hearts will be touched much more if we simply show them our love and how much we want them to succeed. 

Well, this email is started to get quite long, but I definitely learned a lot of lessons this past week. It had it's ups and downs as every week does, but I feel like as I get close to ending my mission, I've started taking in everything I can, while I still can. What a privlege it is to be a missionary for a year and a half. I'm just so glad I still have a little more time to enjoy it. 

Thanks again for all the prayers love and support! See you next month!

Sister Wells

Planes, Parties and Prayers

This last week was NON STOP. 

 

Monday night we flew to Fukuoka for MLC and then got to stay at the Mission Home, (Just a side note for those that don't know, our mission home is located directly under the Fukuoka temple) sleep in a BED for my birthday, and then eat breakfast the next morning underneath the Celestial Room :) 

Tuesday was MLC and President and the APs and some people from Tokyo came and trained us about how to be better leaders and better missionaries and then we flew home Tuesday night!

Wednesday we planned the Zone Training Meetings that we had to train at on Thursday and Friday and we went out for sushi and brownies and ice cream with some members for a combined birthday party. 

Thursday we trained our own Zone about all the stuff we learned at Fukuoka on Tuesday and then we had a birthday party for cute little China Tomi san who got baptized last Saturday and turned 84! We ate more birthday cake, of course. We also had our English class that night, and a Halloween Party with all of the students afterwards.

Friday we went to the southern part of the island and trained the other zone about the stuff we learned in Fukuoka. (There's only one set of Sister Training Leaders on the island, so we work with both zones) We also had the Trunk or Treat for all of the wards that come to the building that night so it was crazy madness with TONS of people and Japanese and English flying all over the place. I could hardly keep my languages straight. We missionaries borrowed the Senior Couple's van and made it into a mouth and passed out candy with little scriptures saying Open your mouth in proclaiming my gospel. We thought we were pretty clever :) 

Saturday we FINALLY got around to doing some planning so that I could tell my poor new companion about all the things to know in this area. And at night we had a movie night with the other sisters and a few investigators and we ate dinner, more birthday cake, and  watched Legacy and talked about Joseph Smith and had a nice night :) 

Sunday was the usual 7 hours of church and half way through the 2nd branch's testimony meeting, I realized this was my last Fast Sunday on my mission and decided to get up and bear my testimony. I also mentioned briefly that it was my last Fast Sunday on my mission. BIG MISTAKE. After that, EVERYONE and their dog came up to me and started talking to me about how sad it is that I'm going home and when it was and what I'll be doing and it was AWFUL. Haha. Now don't get me wrong, I'm totally at terms with the fact that I'm gonna be home in like a month, but having EVERYONE bring it up ALL the TIME is terrible. Future missionaries, learn from me, and don't announce from the pulpit that you're going home soon. Talk about your investigators or something instead haha. 

One thing I have been pondering lately though, as it comes nearer to the end, is weaknesses. I guess at the beginning of my mission I had this vision of coming out here for a year and a half, being completely morphed and coming home as the new and improved Nikki. As I reach the end, I had started to get a little frustrated at the fact that I've still got SO MANY things that I should be better at by now. I'm not at all a perfect missionary, and if anything, I'm much more aware of all my weaknesses than I was  a year and a half ago. However, those weaknesses are from our Heavenly Father, and we NEED them, yes need, them in order to be humble, and to learn the things that we need to learn. Through our weaknesses, we can realize that we CAN'T do this along and that it truly is the Lord's hand in everything that will ultimately bring success. Weaknesses are a good thing. Any of you wanna look it up, Ether 12:27 has some good words to say about it. 

Anyway, I've still got a full month to see plenty of miracles and continue in doing the work of the Lord and I am so ready to work hard until the very end! Thanks again for all the love and support and the birthday wishes! See you in a few!

Sister Wells

Sister Wells' Birthday!

Many, Many Pictures

Baptisms, Birthdays and Busy, Busy, Busy

This past week was super busy. Sister Nagamine got transferred to Sasebo which is actually in Nagasaki Ken and pretty close to my last area! It was really sad to see her go after 3 transfers together but I think we both knew it was coming to an end soon.

My new companion is named Sister Jeffery and she:s from the exotic land of Provo Utah! Funny thing is that we had the same trainer! So we're mission `sisters`. She's super outgoing, half Japanese, and adjusting pretty well to the craziness of the military area. I feel kind of bad because we literally have been ON THE GO the entire time she's been here so far. 

She arrived Thursday, and we promptly ate dinner, taught a lesson to Okamune San, and then had English Class.

Friday, we came to the church for crossfit with the relief society sisters, went home, had lunch, she unpacked while I just talked at her for like 2 hours about all the people in this area that she needs to know before I ditch out of here in 6 weeks, and then we had to leave for a lesson. 

Saturday we came to the church in the morning and helped clean it, then we ran and visited a less active that we needed to schedule with, then we had to come back to the church because 2 of the Elder's investigator was getting baptized! She is the most adorable 84 year old woman who is actually the mother of George, who got baptized here back in August. We get to come help her figure out her baptismal gown and help her change. We also had the privledge of figuring out what to do when we found out Elder Dolbin forgot to tell her to bring extra underwear... Long story short, we figured something out. :) Just don't ask too many questions haha. 

Anyway, she got to be baptized by her recent convert son, and it was actually a little bit scary because she's an 84 year old Japanese woman who was a little scared to actually go into the water all the way, but after some practice and a few tries, she did it! 

After that baptism, we ran home because we hadn't actually eaten anything since breakfast and it was now close to 3:00. After a pit stop at the apartment, we come back to the church for round 2! 

The other sisters that we live with also had a baptism on Saturday! Theirs was a young couple who are in the military stationed here in Okinawa named Sam and Johnathan. It was a wonderful service and a great way to start off a new transfer. 

Sunday was 7 hours of church, as usual, a Sunday night meal appointment with members, and then we went and visited the mom of our 9 year old investigator Britton so that we could fill out the baptismal record that they are going to take to Hawaii for when he gets baptized on November 8th! I'm seriously so sad I don't get to go to the actual service, but teaching him was SO much fun :) 

Today, we actually got to do companionship study for the first time since my new companion got here and we are going to have a super chill birthday for me. Except for the fact that we're actually taking a plane and flying up to mainland tonight for the missionary leadership conference at the mission home. The madness never ends! We literally haven:t stopped moving in the past week haha. And this week will be full of trainings and halloweens parties and birthday celebrations so its not stopping any time soon! 

Shout out to all the birthday wishes! Thanks for remembering! I've already gotten donuts, a cake, a muffin, and cookies for my birthday so it sounds like my plans to get fit before I go home might be a little hindered haha. 

Anyway, love you and thanks for the love and support! See you in 6!

Pictures - Sister Wells Sings in a Talent Show

 

Talents, Tires and Transfer Calls

Another Busy week! I kind of don't remember what we did, so I'll probably just do a flip through my planner today and mention the highlights.  Monday for Pday we all just hung out at the church, and prepared some stuff for the Talent Show that was Thursday. It was a nice relaxing Pday. At night, we went to our 9 year old investigators home for dinner with the family and ate ribs. It was delicious! And we finished his lessons so that he can get baptized in Hawaii when they go there to meet his biological dad and grandpa in a couple of weeks! Then we had our weekly Family Home Evening that we missionaries hold for our recent converts or investigators or anyone that wants to come. It's always a good time :) Tuesday, we had district meeting, did some studies, some finding, had some cancelled lessons, and... yep. That was Tuesday haha.  Wednesday we had a chunk of time, so we decided to go to a somewhat far away place and do some finding! We also wanted to stop by a Less Active that lived by a red bridge and we had only ever been there by car, so we were on the lookout for a shortcut by bike to get there. We reached a path that ran along the river that would lead us to the red bridge and decided to take it. After about 2 minutes along the path, we passed some construction workers, and as we went by them one of them yelled and said the path doesn't go through. Now, I'm not really sure why, but for some reason, my companion and I both decided that we wanted to keep going anyway. After about another 5 minutes of biking, sure enough, the path ended. However, we could see the red bridge not too far off in the distance! At the end of the path, there were also some stairs that led up probably back to the main road. Rather than backtrack, we decided we should just carry our bikes up the stairs and figure things out from there. After a few minutes of hassle, we finally reached the top of the stairs with our bikes in tow. We started biking down a road that looked promising. Not 2 minutes later, did I realize something was wrong with my bike. For the first time in my entire mission, my tire had gotten punked! Moral of the story, LISTEN TO THE WARNING VOICES. When people tell you not to go down a certain path, you should probably listen to them and not just ignore them. That was the lesson I learned that day.  Thursday we went to lunch with one of our investigators, taught a lesson, and had the Talent Show after our English Class! We had quite a few English Class students willing to share their talents, and it turned out to be a ton of fun! One of the Elders and I sang an acapella/ beat box duet to "Secret Prayer" (In case you didn't assume this, he was the beat boxer, not me. I'm not THAT cool yet. I just sang haha.) Anyway, it turned out to be a very fun night.  Friday we biked to another far part of our area, did some finding, visited a Less Active, visited a Recent Convert, and then get signed onto Base and had American Pizza for dinner with some of the American Members. It was a good day :) Saturday, we went onto base in the morning and helped with a service project that consisted of preparing hot dog lunches for the homeless. Then we did some good old finding, visiting of peeps, and then came home for dinner, and then watched the General Womens Broadcast! All in all, a very good day. Sunday, was pretty typical for a Sunday here in Okinawa, 9 hours of church because we had 2 ward councils to attend, starving missionaries because there's no time for lunch, and headaches in the evening because we've been trying to talk to any members we need to talk to for the one chance a week that we get to see them! Then we went and had a picnic at a park for dinner with the other sisters and one of our investigators. Another good day.  Yesterday was our not pday Monday because it's transfer week, which makes pday become Tuesday, so we went to visit a recent convert, who is the cutest little old 80 year old woman who kindly informed me that my skin is oily and has acne and that I should probably do something about it, and then she informed my companion that the yakisoba that she made for her had raw carrots and that she needs to learn how to cook. She also told us about how her 2 random women from the relief society asked her if they could come visit her sometime (her visiting teachers of course) and she was so confused, and didn't really know them, so she just said no thank you. We then explained to her what visiting teachers do. I love 80 year old women :)  That brings us to today! The transfer call day! No one is safe. I have no predictions. But I'll try to save some email time and sneak back on after we get our calls and let you all know the scoop!  Thanks for the love and support! Love you all! Sister Wells
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