Week 52 - Thanks for Your Prayers

It`s good to hear that everyone at home is busy too! I know you are all praying for me and Scheffler shimai and I wanted to say thank you. We`ve been running around like crazy, I don`t even know where to start. I guess I could start at the beginning of this new transfer.

Scheffler shimai made mousies. Not sure what is in them but they are super yummy!

We had a weekly planning session last Thursday in which we set some awesome goals for this new transfer. Later that night we said companionship prayer right before going to bed. We turned the lights off, hopped in our futons and were in the middle of personal prayer when all of a sudden the doorbell rang.

First of all, we have no friends in our apartment, except for one woman that lives at the bottom of the apartment and she wouldn`t be out this late. Second, 10 pm in japan is like 3 in the morning in America. No one leaves their houses after 8 pm. So we thought it was odd that our door bell was ringing. We looked up at each other during our prayers, looked at the phone which said 10:23 and I got up to check who it was. We have to be sleeping by 10:30 so we didn`t have much time to talk to whoever it was.

I think I may have mentioned to you before that there`s a cool little phone thing that you use when someone rings the bell it`s like a speaker. So they can speak to you and you can speak to them without going all the way to your door. But for some reason I felt like I should just go straight to the door. Instead of opening the door I looked through the peep hole just to be sure it was our neighbor from downstairs, but instead it was a bigger man wearing all black.

I thought, `Hmmm that`s weird. I don`t know him.` So I just watched him through the peep hole. This whole time I didn`t know where Scheffler shimai was. But I watched the man pace back and forth, then he tried to climb over our ledge to get into our window!

This whole time I was thinking `What is going on?? Who is this guy?!` I was thinking maybe it`s someone from the ward...nope. He hopped off the ledge and looked around, and then he went for the door.

We USUALLY lock the door right when we get home, but this night we forgot to. I was on the other side watching him through the peep hole. As he reached for the door handle and opened the door, I forcefully yanked it back from him and then slammed it shut super fast, made a huge banging sound! I locked it up really fast and just held the doorknob with all my strength and leaned my body up against the door so that he couldn`t get in.

All of a sudden I heard Scheffler shimai whisper, `Are you okay?`

Me (whispering, trying not to yell), `There`s a man.`

`What?`

`There`s a man...trying to get into our house.`

`What?!`

`There`s a man trying to get into our house! He just tried to open our door!`

`What?!!! Where are you?` (Every time she said What? her voice went up an octave higher.)

It was pitch black in our house but I grabbed her to look through the peep hole. The man was gone. We ran through the house, shut and locked all our windows and doors (which is torture because it`s way hot right now so we had no breeze making it really hard to sleep/breathe at night). But here is the best part. After all of this, Scheffler shimai asked me to describe the man and then she was like, `We can take him! We can take him!`

It was SO funny. We were SO scared but we were dying of laughter. After we called the Zone Leaders and let them know the situation, Scheffler shimai grabbed scissors and slept with them...we still sleep with a pair of scissors by our futon just in case...

A page from my journal where we made an action plan in case this ever happens again

I know prayers are heard. I`m not sure who rang our door bell that night but I am pretty sure it wasn`t that guy if he was trying to break in. I don`t know why I got up to walk to the other end of our house when we were already in bed instead of using the phone to answer. I just know I did what I felt prompted to do and that is the real lesson learned here. The next few days were spent with us watching out wherever we went to make sure no one was watching us too closely. We always lock the door whenever we come home now, even if it`s just to grab something we forgot.

Other than that, the most adrenaline rushing thing that happened this week was heart attacking some members and the bishop. It was so nice to see them all super happy yesterday. It`s amazing what a few paper hearts and some words like `Thank you!` `We Love You!` can do for a ward.  Like D&C says `...be one: If ye are not one, ye are not mine.`

Misato did our nails

Small acts like this really bring a ward together. Usually bishop is falling asleep at the podium, but yesterday even though it was fast sunday he looked awake and refreshed! As a missionary that`s all I can ask for. We pray so much for our beloved bishop.

Did you know bishopric meetings here in Japan start around 9 or 10 pm and finish around 1 am? And this is only church calling. They still have their work lives, family lives, and social lives to keep up with. The japanese people really work hard. I`ve never met a people that are so willing to work just because they are supposed to. Usually we need a reason to do things, but these members just know it`s the right thing to do so they do it. I love the japanese people, I love being able to serve here in Ootsu for one more transfer.

Our newest investigator. She is so cute and so sweet.

This makes it my 6th transfer in Ootsu, my 8th as a missionary, and my 1 year being a missionary is coming up this week. There are too many lessons I`ve learned. I will never be able to count them all, and far too many blessings that I`ve received than I deserve, but I can tell you that this work is the Lord`s work.

It`s the work that we get to be apart of even long after our tags come off.

It`s a work that never fades with time or changes with the seasons.

It`s a work that will bring all those who will accept it Eternal Life. What better work is there than this?

Love you all, thanks for your prayers!

Sister Heimuli

One more pic. FINALLY met another brown girl out here...