New Shimai Dendo

Dear Family-

 

First off, the weather has been gorgeous out here for most of the week and we got to see the beautiful Sakura flowers blossoming.  Be prepared for  a lot pictures coming your way. 

 

So Yonago.  I love that it is by the ocean and mountains and not fully surrounded by cement buildings everywhere you turn.  I am slowly starting to get to know the ward and investigators, and they all seem great.  It is a bigger ward though, so it will be hard to remember all of the names. 

 

So nothing big as far as the week goes, but there was quite a big announcement at last weeks ZTM for how the mission is going to be run.  Zinke Kaicho has been doing a lot of thinking and praying, and he has decided to make a big change in the mission.  After realizing that around 90% of Japanese ward members are less-active, he is now switching dendo (missionary work).  The elders will go about their usual business, but the sisters full time and attention goes towards finding and teaching the less-actives.  We no longer have to make sure we have a member present.  They have already started it in one area and it has been really successful.  We will count LA as we would a normal investigator.  We can teach non-members as well, and most will be in a part-member family, so we can teach them all at once.  Then once the LA reaches certain requirements and seems fully activated, it is counted as if it were a baptism.  Kaicho realized that the sheep we are looking for may already be members who have just lost their way.  I am so excited to get to work on this!  Seriously, I think it will be so fun and successful.  We will be teaching more and finding less because we have the addresses of the LAs.  Plus, most of them already know a missionaries role, so they wont be surprised by that.  Anyway, it isnt into full swing yet, because we still have to get the members on board to help with finding out some of the information we need, but I hope it is in full swing by next week.  Seriously, I cant wait to get to work. 

 

Anyway, that is about all for the week.  I am jealous you all got to watch conference this weekend.  I cant wait until I get to this upcoming weekend.  It sounds like it was a good one....as always.  Anyway, I hope you all have a great week and start applying what you learn from conference to your everyday life starting now.  Love you all!

 

Ellsworth Shimai