"Messer Shimai, what do YOU think?"

February 23, 2013

Hello all! Boy has it been a busy week here in Fukuoka! And we have seen many blessing because of it! It first started last P-Day when we were shopping for groceries, and a man came up to us and asked us what we were doing in Japan, he was so curious about everything we taught him, we gave him a Book of Mormon and have been calling him to set up an appointment. However, work in Japan is crazy and he only has free times on Sunday nights after 7, so we have not been able to meet with him yet, but he is super nice and seems pretty interested. 

On Tuesday we were able to contact TWO former investigators who were in our area book who actually want to meet with us! What? That never happens! Then on Wednesday we went and visited a potential investigator. She asked us what we did in our church when we were ever jealous or envious or someone else. Flake Shimai replied, and then she looked right at me and said

With the dancing mothers

Cute Japanese dancing children

Fukuoka castle ruins

Impromptu pday lessons-had to borrow other missionaries' skirts.  Didn't blend well with work out clothes!

Happy birthday, Mom!  Big hair bow reminds me of childhood.  A dollar store bargain!

"Messer Shimai, what do YOU think?" So I told here about freshman year when I tried out for the dance team and pulled my groin at tryouts, and then I made JV instead of Varsity, and I was jealous of all of my friend who had made varsity. But because I was on the JV team I was able to spend more time with Grandma Nelda when she lived with us before she died. I had never even thought about that, until it came out of my mouth!! Anyways, it was a super cool experience and she even started crying during my personal experience! It was so cool to see the spirit work THROUGH me! We dont get to teach very many lessons, so I soaked that right up! She was crying, and then told us why she had asked that question is because she wants to be living in America right now, but another guy got the job instead of her husband, so she was jealous. I told her there was a reason she needs to be here right now instead of America and she was crying, and then she said "you girls are just so sincere! thank you!" it was aweomse because Flake Shimai had met with her before, but she never wanted anything to do with the church, so we are hoping that opened her heart a little!

On Friday I got to TEACH A DANCE!! It was so fun! We found a peppy Primary sound that had been put to some techno music that the Elders in the mission home gave us, so we made up like a pommy-jazz dance and taught it to some young moms in the ward! it was so fun, they were just laughing the whole time and they learned the WHOLE thing in 45 minutes! I will see if I can send the video, it is so funny! The dance moves are a little ridiculous and little-kiddish but I knew we wouldn't have time to teach it if it were hard, hahah it was so fun!! 

Yesterday we had THREE investigators at church! What a miracle!! Except two of them are leaving for NAPAL on Friday and wont be back until NEXT transfer! Hopefully I can stay another transfer and teach them! That would be awesome! We finally got to teach  a lady who has gone to church three times, but always just says, "I am busy this whole week, but I will come to church next week!" She is 78, but we thought she was like 55. It is so hard to judge peoples ages here! hahaha. oh gosh! Last night when we were streeting, I approached a lady and introduced ourselves, she giggled a little (which is a norm) so I asked if she had met missionaries, she said she was baptized into our church when she was 8 and that she read the BoM and the D&C! I am not sure how we keep finding these less actives on the streets, but we do! We love them! I need to try and send some pictures now before the time runs out!! I love you and miss you! Thank you for your love and support!!

Messer Shimai

Already on my second transfer!

February 16, 2014

Konnichiwa!

Messer and Flake Shimai in front of the Fukuoka Tower

Can you believe I am already on my second transfer? Looking back it seems like it went by fast, but when I think about my first day in Japan, that seems like an eternity ago! Missionary time is a crazy crazy thing. I still don't understand the concept of time! It blows my mind! 

This week was great! When I got transfer calls, the elder calling told me I was transferring!! and that I was going to train a new missionary, which is when I realized he was lying, I STAYED IN FUKUOKA WITH SISTER FLAKE! I am so happy that I get the same trainer for all of my 12 week training! Plus, I love Fukuoka, I am so happy I am staying, and the other shimai in our apartment are staying, so no change here! I love it! This week was fun because the new missionaries came in! Since I am a Fukuoka princess, we got to take the new missionaries out street contacting! So Flake Shimai and I got sweet little Hirata Shimai from Tokyo, but she is fluent in Japanese and English, so that made things a little easier! It was fun just to walk around the city, it is the exact same thing I did my first day in Japan! I got to see Elder Stump as well! Plus, that night all of the new missionaries got to come to our English class, so there were 14 extra missionaries, it was so fun to have so much help! All of our students were so confused as to why there were so many people wearing suits there! But it was fun! Then as a Fukuoka princess, we get to go the train station ALL DAY and help out with transfers! The station is huge, and it is bus, train, and jet train so we always have to stand at the entrance, guide them to the meeting spot and then take them to where they need to go at the right time. It is so crazy, but it is SO FUN! I get to see missionaries I would have never gotten to see otherwise, and it is just nice seeing how happy all the missionaries are, so encouraging! 

Oh ya, and last P-Day we went to the FUKUOKA TOWER! It isn't part of our area, so we got to take a subway there and we took tons and tons of pictures in front of the tower, it is so pretty! Then we rode an elevator to the top and it was just like the CN tower in Toronto, the whole place was lined with windows, and on one side you could see the ocean and some islands, and then on the other side you could see tons and tons of buildings! It was so pretty! You could see our area from up top, it is so overwhelming when you think about all the people that I am responsible for right now! I just have to work as hard as I can! 

Yesterday was Stake Conference, and one of our less active members that has been out of town ever since I have been on my mission randomly showed up! She even invited us over to her house afterwards for a pancake party!! She just got home from Hawaii and bough pancake mix and wanted to see how American's made it! She even had Western Family syrup!! What? haha she thought it was honey, she didnt even know what syrup was! But we added banana's, strawberries and chocolate to the pancakes and made it a big party with just us three! Plus she gave us the cutest key chains, mine is a little stuffed animal bunny wearing a KIMONO!! Like, seriously? It is the cutest thing I have ever seen! The people here are so amazing! Oh, plus I forgot to tell you the best part; SHE SPEAKS ENGLISH! Which means I can actually connect with her! So that was awesome!

This week was great, no lessons, which stinks, but we have been working with a lot of less actives, and have been trying to contact as many people as possible! We're just plugging away, trying to be as obedient and doing as much that we can! Thank you for all of your prayers and love! I love you!!

Messer Shimai

We got to sit on couches!

February 10, 2014

I can't believe it is transfer week! Transfer 2 here I come. All of the sisters say that the second transfer is when they had their mission breakdown. So I am looking forward to that! hahah No as long as I know it might come, I can try and avoid that!! Anyways, It has been great so far, so that is good! 

This week was super good! An area 70 came and spoke to us, Elder Aoyagi. He spoke all Japanese, so one of the AP's had to translate the whole time. But it was super good! There was a lot on having hope and faith that everything will work out. I got to see Cook Shimai! (My MTC companion) The Nagasaki zone came and we have a sleepover in our apartment with 4 extra sisters, so it was fun having 8 sisters all in one room sleeping. Giant sleepover! You can do that really easy with futons, because you can move them around and put them right next to each other and what not. it's fun! 

This week is going to be crazy, since we are the Fukuoka missionaries we get to take the new missionaries out to street contact their first day here! Then they come to our English class that night, so I will definitely see Elder Stump!! (He is from Logandale too) I am so excited to see a familiar face! 

This week we did a lot of street contacting and housing! We weren'

t seeing any success at all, like we weren't even able to teach a lot of little lessons on the street like you usually can. But on Saturday night when we came home, the other sisters in our apartment said that a lady and called them that we had met on the street, (our fliers have both our numbers on them, and their number is on the top) and she asked if she could come to church! they said yes, so the next day she just showed up to church! We gave her a book of mormon and a little lesson just sitting there, and she said she will come next week. But she didnt want to meet with us this week...but we have her number so she cant get rid of us that easy! But she is coming next week! So that was a miracle!

Lunch with Michiko San

We got to go out with Michiko san this week! She took us to this SUPER nice hotel! It was a buffet, but on china and crazy good food. We knew it was going to be expensive, but she offered to pay and when she went to pay the manager had paid for us, because she is friends with him! So she said, I have a whole bunch of money, lets go to a bakery! So we went to a bakery and she bought us TONS of bread and pastries! She is like the cutest thing on the planet! and sooo nice! 

On Sunday President invited us to his house just for a mini "fireside" so just our district went to his HOUSE, sat on COUCHES and he just taught us! it was AMAZING!! I feel sooo blessed to be here in Fukuoka!! It was amazing! I am scared for when i transfer out of Fukuoka, but we dont have to think about that right now!!

I hope you all had a fabulous day! I am going to the FUKUOKA TOWER today! I am so excited!! It isn't in our area, so we are going and meeting up with the missionaries in that district! One of the sisters is from Panaca!! We get to ride the subway!!! Ai shite imasu!!

Messer Shimai

Messer Shimai's Fukuoka Japan mission (She's in the red skirt)

"GOD LOVES YOU!"

Messer Shimai made sushi!

February 2, 2014

Hello!!

It is always so good to hear from everyone! It is so weird to think that people have normal lives going on back home. What is the Super Bowl? Tater tots? What are those? Are they tiny rice balls? Kind of looks like it ;) 

Fukuoka bird statue

So this week we did not teach a SINGLE LESSON. You kind of need investigators to teach lessons. BUT it is ok because this week we role played a lot of lessons with members, and we met with a lot of less actives. AND yesterday we went on splits with the sister training leaders (Sister Higashi and Sister Lyles, the sisters who we live with!!) and we found TWO new investigators! So we are hoping things go good with them, and that they show up. The thing with japanese people, are that they are so nice they say they will meet with you again, but they don't show up. hahah but at least they don't just straight up deny us on the street...? Oh my gosh, so cutest story. This week we were riding our bikes to a busy part of the city to go streeting. We were stopped at a stop light and there was a guy on a bike next to us. These two Japanese girls crossed the street even though the light was red because there were no cars coming, and the man on the bike turns to us and says (in ENGLISH) "excuse me, I am ashamed. I am ashamed because Japanese people walk, light is red. I am sorry." and then just turned back around. Our hearts melted, he was so sweet! Probably in his 30's with an adorable baby in the back seat of his bike! 

This week for Eikaiwa we google mapped our house!! It was so fun to see our house!! When I showed our house, all of the Japanese people were like, "ooohhhh!!" Because here they all live in apartments, I haven't even been inside a Japanese HOUSE yet!! It was weird to see Logandale, I even showed them the reservoir! hahah it was fun! 

Ya this week was kind of hard streeting wise. I lack confidence in my Japanese, so I don’t mind stopping people, but I can never understand them! That is why it is great to have a companion!! hahah oh man I can’t imagine doing this without her! 

But ya not much happened this week because we were mainly just teaching fake lessons to members, but it is fun to get to know the members here! they are all so cute!!

  One of our less actives explained a little about holidays so on January 1, it is new years, on February 2, it is a holiday for throwing beans at the devil to make bad things go away, then March 3 is a girls holiday, May 5 is for the boys, so it kind of goes like the month corresponds with the day. LIke 1-1 2-2 3-3 4-4 5-5 . does that make sense? it isn’t every month, but most of them! We unfortunately haven’t met with our investigator all week, BUT SHE READ OVER 100 pages in one week, she wants to read it all to know for herself, but she doesn’t want to meet with us :( 

The schools here are SO COOL! THEY ARE GINORMOUS!! At least 4 stories high, and a WHOLE BLOCK and they wrap around like a U and in the back is a HUGE field thing where they do activities. 

There is never much down time on Pdays! We are always busy busy busy, its mainly hard because a lot of time goes towards biking places! But it is nice to get emails and at nights we can write letters! So many missionaries right now, it is so exciting! It is exciting knowing that there are people right now going out, I feel so young right now, i have so much time left on my mission!!  

Japan is so cool, lots of cool traditions and things that I learn about every day! It is weird to think that I live here, it still feels like I live just in a weird city in America! Ya the Japanese still isn’t coming, but when i went on splits this week with Sister Lyles, she is on transfer 8 and her Japanese is SO GOOD! It was so fun to see her go streeting because she can really talk to the people and connect. Right now that is what i am lacking, well actually I am lacking in everything. All i can say now is hello, excuse me, I am sister messer and we are missionaries of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. Have you ever met with missionaries before? Or we teach about God and Jesus Christ. simple phrases, but then it is hard to hear their reply so Flake shimai usually takes over! 

Flake Shimai in our kitchen

In japan, people always hear us say Jesus Christ...and they go, I am a Japanese person, therefore, I am a Buddhist! "Nihonjiin, dakara, bukkyo desu." and just walk away, one thing Lyles shimai did on splits was just yell

"GOD LOVES YOU!" I liked that! It is so weird when i think i still have OVER A YEAR left! But I can’t wait to see all of the ways I will grow and all of the things I get to experience! I wish i could video my days, so much happens in just one day!!

 I love you all! thanks for the support and the love!!

Ai shite imasu!

Messer Shimai

P.S.FIRST BIKE WIPE OUT HAPPENED THIS WEEK!! We were riding down to the middle of town to meet with a less active and go eat out with her, when Flake Shimai hurries and turns onto the sidewalk. However, the curb was a little bigger than usual. It was maybe like 3 inches, and there was a car to the right of me, so I try to hurry and make it, but I couldn't really veer over because of the car, so I totally wiped out!! Luckily, my bike caught my fall and it didn't hurt AT ALL! My basket cover ripped a little, and my helmet kind of broke....but all that I had was a little thing on my hand and my knee! But I didn't even know they were there until like 5 hours later when Flake Shimai pointed them out! haha it is was so sad, Flake shimai got to watch the whole thing, i am so jealous!!