Saying
goodbye to Ootsu was harder than saying goodbye to you guys. But life is full
of hellos and goodbyes, closing doors and opening new ones. I`ve learned the Lord
blesses us with opportunities to level up, to grow every time a `goodbye` or
`hello` is needed.
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| Had my last lesson with Chona. Her mom made us dinner and
we ate with their family. I love these 2 and miss Chona so much. |
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| Eikaiwa class |
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| Bishop`s wife, Sister Hayashi (blue shirt on my right) and
Sister Takeda came to our apartment to say bye. Sister Hayashi is like another
mom to me. It was so hard to say bye when she said `I`ll miss my Hawaiian
daughter, and my Japanese daughter is leaving on her mission in october...I
don`t know what I`m going to do!` |
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| I remember when I first met with Pres Welch and he said he wanted to see Japanese people smiling more and hugging more. I have tried to do my part in Ootsu! |
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| Sister Hijioka, Less-Active but working on being active by next year, and
her mom |
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| Sister Tsuji (will be reactivated in October!) |
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| An old investigator called us early on my last morning in
Ootsu. She had just finished a triathalon and she said she wanted to say bye to
me (she had been in Hawaii the last 2 weeks) so she brought me a candy lei and walked
us up to the train. I love her! Sonae Lopez and family are the BEST! |
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| Misato san, for our last lesson she told me she wanted to be baptized at the
end of the year! |
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| Yoshimi san; my Japanese Shinto grandma. She got me that white flower bracelet.
She`s so funny! |
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| Saying bye to Sister Hasegawa, she said we have a place to stay when we go back
to visit Ootsu after the mish... |
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| Sister Scheffler, me and Sister Aoki, she`s the Young Women`s pres. I`ll
miss this funny lady! |
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| Brother Okada and Brother Yoshizawa (Served in Australia with lots of Tongans,
his English is perfect) - Ward Mission Leader and YM Pres - brought me some goodbye
presents and a card form the ward YSA, they were awesome help in teaching and
fellowshipping our investigators. I`ll miss Ootsu ward! |
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| YES! Thanks daddy you`re the best! [Note from Mom: She asked her dad to translate Bro. Yoshizawa’s Tongan
note, above.] I hope you two have a happy happy...what anniversary is it?
28th? [Note from Mom: 29th] I love you. I`ll be thinking about you!
xoxoxoxox |
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| Yamaoka san and her friends! They had us over for dinner and
lunch all the time. What wonderful ladies. |
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| Yoshikawa san, she bought me these cute little animals that symbolize the years
with the animal names? I don`t know how to explain it anyways, I will miss her
so much! |
I said goodbye to the mountains and beautiful Lake Biwa of
Ootsu
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| I LOVE YOU OOTSU! We had dinner at the lake for my last night in Ootsu, I will
miss this view! |
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| I got the whole wide...Ootsu Prince Hotel...in my hand! |
and said hello to the ocean and the rice fields of Niihama!
Walking the
streets of Ootsu you could talk to maybe 50 people in a matter of 10 minutes.
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| I love Zeze! I will always be an Ootsu girl at heart!
This is a tunnel we rode through almost every day. We came home from some
awesome lessons through that tunnel! |
Here, everyone drives cars and there`s not enough people to be walking streets.
So I knock a lot of doors here in the country. But the quiet, the fresh air,
and all the good that comes with country living are definitely some things I
love!
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| If we all had bikes like this...we could REALLY hasten the Lord`s work!
hahaha |
Also, I said goodbye to cute Scheffler shimai
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| My favorite shimai! |
and hello to
my new companion Stevenson shimai.
She is from Tokyo. Her dad is
from Utah, he served a mission in Japan, then moved back here and married a
Japanese woman, so Sister Stevenson has grown up here her whole life.
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| My comp, Sister Stevenson, today at lunch...she`s cute right?? |
She doesn`t speak a lick of English...which threw me off
because of her last name. But then I thought about my last name and how people
used to give me weird looks in Hawaii when I said I was a Heimuli and they`d speak
Tongan to me and I didn`t understand a word...so I get it. She`s SO cool
though! We`ve had so much fun the past 3 days together...I can`t wait to see
how great this transfer turns out. She`s only a 4th transfer but she
acts like a 15th. She`s so amazing! She actually speaks Korean so that`ll come
in handy when we finally meet a Korean here in Niihama.
Our branch is made up of about 30 people and everyone is so
friendly! I don`t think they talk that fast. But there are some words they use
here that they definitely don`t use in Kyoto area. Also, the spiders here are
unbelievably huge and there`s enough rice fields around our apartment, that if
there was a disaster, we would be totally fine....so no worries mom! I`ll send
a bunch of pictures with more info.
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| In Niihama, we played scripture Jeopardy with our
investigator and new convert. This is all 6 of us missionaries! |
I wanted to tell you how comforting it is to know the gospel
is the same wherever you go. Whether it`s a ward of 300 or a branch of 30, we
all are part of this same gospel. We`re all just trying to make it through our trials,
and we`re all children of God.
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| This is Brother Ryouta. He`s 18 and was baptized in March. He wants to be a
missionary so he wears his badge around...he`s SO awesome. This past Sunday was his first time passing the sacrament (We only have
1 person pass because our congregation is so small, and church is only 2 hours long...crazy
right??) Ryouta kyoudai is my favorite member! |
I love Niihama and my companion already, and I
pray the Lord can help me fulfill whatever duty brought me all the way from
Kyoto to Shikoku. I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Heimuli
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