December 5, 2001 - 2

Dear Fam!

I ♥U! How was Thanksgiving? I was reading the new “Daughters in My Kingdom” book this week one day and came across a story about a lady who went with her husband to settle “Panaca, Nevada”. I smiled when I read that.

Dad, thanks for the DearElders☺. I’m glad to hear Hannah liked ‘The Village’!

I love Utsunomiya! The ward members here are willing to do anything for us. It’s a big area and a lot of times they give us rides to far-away places we wouldn’t normally be able to get to.

I’ve got to tell you about a guy we met last week. His name is Kenji Akutsu. He first came to our English classes and last week we had a 30 minute “intro” lesson like we do with everyone who comes to Elkaiwa (English Class). It turned into a 45 minute lesson and would have gone longer but we were 5 minutes late for English Class and I’m the only teacher, so we had to go,. He had so so many questions and said he’s always wondered why he was born (he’s about 30 years old). We scheduled another lesson for Saturday.

When we met on Saturday we taught the Plan of Salvation and it was the same way. He showed up with his Book of Mormon and 2 pages of typed questions he had for us. When we taught he wanted to know:
· Why didn’t we have bodies when God made us?
· When did God make us anyway?
· What is the definition of truth?
· What is the definition of happiness?
· What makes our church different from other churches?
· Are God and Jesus the same person?
· What happens after we die?
· Is there really a hell?

These aren’t questions he had typed on his papers – we didn’t even get to those. It was so fun to be in a lesson that was guided by the questions of someone who really wants to know and is searching hard. It was neat to be able to answer his questions and know that what we were telling him really was the pure truth. Sometimes I forget just how many answers I know, and have been blessed to know them all my life. It would be pretty tough to live for 30 years and still be wondering what the point of life is. We are so blessed to know!

Anyway, pray for Akutsu to be able to find and recognize that we are teaching the true answers to his questions.

The more time goes by as a missionary, the easier it gets to boldly testify. I have always wanted to be a really bold missionary and I thought it would be really hard, but the more time goes on the more I realize that being bold is just enjoying the Gospel and stating the obvious truth that every good thing in my life has come from Jesus Christ.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone! Don’t forget whose birthday it is. ☺

I ♥ U – Waite Shimai