Week 24, March 2, 2014. Last week in Shinkotoni and Baptism! Watanabe San (but first she almost froze outside trying to get in...woops!)

Konnichiwa!

My last week (probably) of Shinkotoni has been a good one. We saw a
baptism this Sunday. Watanabe san told us during or last lesson that
she was ready, and that she wanted to do it the following Sunday. We
were a little shocked, but needless to say, very happy.

The actual service itself was almost a fiasco though. I may have
locked Watanabe san outside of the church for 10 minutes. You see, we
always lock the door when we go into the church, for saftey reasons.
So when we went to go fill up the font early Sunday morning I locked
the door... and then proceeded to forget to unlock it. We were just
sitting in the Relief Society room, waiting for her to come, wondering
why she was so late when she shows up (followed by other ward members
who also were waiting outside in the cold..) being let in by the
bishop. Missionary failure at its worst! Then the font didn't have
enough water so we had to wait an extra 15 minutes to start the
service.

Let me just say, missionaries are not perfect.

All in all though, the service was great. She shared her testimony
about how she was ready to really change and learn more about Christ's
Gospel. I feel like she understands that baptism is really just the
first step, and that she has a very exciting journey ahead of her.

I shared my testimony during sacramet. My Japanese is still pretty
'ma-ma', but as simply and clearly as I could I expressed my love to
the members of the ward, and more importantly, to my Father in Heaven.
Missions can be hard and very scary, but they are wonderful. I love
this work and I love this area that I have been blessed to serve in.
And I'm excited for whatever I get to do next transfer! Even if I make
a fool of myself and almost freeze my converts to death.

We had our second Ongaku no Yube (music night) this week too, it went
really well! Evans Shimai said she was going to put it on Youtube. So
look for me.  I'm the third tallest girl wearing a bird scarf near the
back on the right side. :)

On a sadder note. We had our last lesson with Kaga san, she talked to
Shimada Kyodai, her less active member who is soon to be her husband,
and they decided that they don't want to have us come anymore.. I feel
like it is him talking, not her, but we can't make them listen. All we
could do is leave her a copy of the Book of Mormon for herself and our
testimonies that this church is true. I hope one day she will be able
to join.

Overall, I am great. I hope you all are too. As always, I love you
all! Talk to you next week!