Well it is official, I am the oldest sister in the mission.

One of our cutest ward members here!

Well it is official, I am the oldest sister in the mission. My MTC companions are home and there are 2 Japanese sisters I will be returning home with, who went to the MTC just a couple weeks after I got there. You would think I would know how to be a good missionary by now. Well, that's a big lie! I still have no idea what I am doing, but I really good at pretending. 

But we had a great week in Okinawa! My sunburn turned into a tan (except for my neck, which started to peel, OUCH!) 

But first off all, wasn't General Conference AWESOME?! Did you hear

 Elder Cook give Okinawa a shout out? That was cool! We went with Minami to watch it in the next town over that was showing it in Japanese. Well, they didn't have an English room, so we watched the first talk in Japanese, and then our Zone Leader came and asked if we could go look it up on another computer, luckily a member had a laptop, and us three hudled around a laptop and watched it! And Elder Aoyagi gave the closing prayer yesterday! I met him last year on my mission, and his English was so good in his prayer! Then on Sunday we came to our church building for Sunday and the missionaries were the only ones there for the afternoon session!

So last week when we went to the beach we picked up some pretty shells! Well guess what? Two of them were ALIVE! So we were breaking the rules!! We were DISOBEDIENT! We had PETS! We put them out on our back porch and I would trip and "accidentally" pour water on them to keep them alive. But don't worry, we called our priesthood leaders and they knew it! Don't worry, we took care of them and we no longer have pets at our house. 

I live in paradise!

Our investigators are doing really well! We weren't able to meet with little Rea because her grandma didn't have the car this week to drive her. We met a new investigator, Pruit from Florida! It was super cool to knock on a door and have an AMERICAN open the door! What to hear something even cooler? He is friends with one of our recent converts and the recent convert had given him a Book of Mormon to read!! We were so proud of him! Pruit has a lot of interest, and invited us back over to hear more! We are really excited, and hope to pass him to the Elders as soon as he starts progressing! 

We also found two FAMILIES this week! We have been praying to find a family for a while, and we found the Chinen's with FIVE kids and the Yamashiro's with four kids! So we are SO EXCITED to start teaching them! We went back to the Chinen's and they invited us in, they have 3 year old twins that just love us, and it was really fun! The 12 year old probably had more interest than anyone else, and she was super excited to get a BoM! 

Well I love you and hope you have an amazing week!! I love you!!!

xoxo,

Messer Shimai

Minami san became Minami Shimai!!

Well it happened!!

Sister Salmon, Minami!, Sister Messer

Easter Sunrise service at Okinawa Beach

Cool Coral Reef

Messer Shimai at the beach

Seventeen months, and five days later I got my first baptism!!! Minami san became Minami Shimai!! It was a great service! We were able to do a joint baptismal service with one of the Elders investigators as well! The ward members were really excited, and it went amazing!! I gave the "introduction" of Minami and while I was speaking a less active we have been meeting with showed up!! He used to be part of the Mafia, and has a lot of guilt, so he hates coming to church, but he showed up to the baptism and we were so excited!!! We love Brother Ota! But minami was so cute, she was so scared to be baptized, that she forgot to clothes her eyes when she went underwater!! She came up with this awful look on her face, and I was like, "OH NO! What happened?" as I wrapped a towel around her and she just said, "I forgot to close my eyes" hahah but she said it was really cool to be able to watch everything happened! Then she was SO excited to be confirmed on Sunday! She kept saying in English, "I am excited to receive the baptism of fire" So we love Minami Shimai, and it was amazing to see her be baptized! And guess what? i still feel like the same missionary! One thing I have learned on my mission is that we are all just on one big team. We are all trying to carry on the Lord's work. I have found people who were baptized right after I left, I have taught and found former investigators that were baptized. And here is Minami, who was found 2 years ago by one of my all time favorite missionaries, Sister Hawkins, who I lived with for 6 months, and yet I got to see her baptism! This is all the Lord's work and he prepares people in His own time!

Rea chan (the 7 year old) is doing great. We committed her to live the law of chastity. She's doing good so far..

Emiri is still progressing, but still has that desire to be baptized in October in Hawaii. Who knows? i might have to make a trip down there in a couple months. 

We also started teaching an AMAZING girl named Kelyn. She is a referral from a a member. She has hit rock bottom in her life and is prepared out of the wazoo. She lives here with her son, but her husband is stationed somewhere else. She was deployed to Korea for just a week, and we have another lesson with her when she comes back. We are super excited to continue teaching her, and hope that her husband (Southern Baptist) will allow her to progress. 

This Easter we were able to go to a Easter Sunrise Service on the beach!! It was really cool. It was all faiths coming together to sings, and read scripture together. It was really cool!!! It was right on the ocean! Then people got baptized, right there, they just lined up and said "THIS IS NOT FOR YOUR SALVATION!" we kind of whispered "but if you want it for your salvation, we have some elders here.." haha just kidding, it was a really cool experience. Then The Finlayson's fed us dinner, and it was the most delicious dinner! It was amazing!

We went to the beach today, and the tide went out, and we were able to walk, and go explore caves. and guess who got sunburned? MESSER SHIMAI!! yay! I love Okinawa!! It is SO GORGEOUS! You all need to come see it! I would explain all of the cool things I saw today, but it wouldn't even compare to what I saw! I even saw an octopus! 

Oh, and I am staying in Okinawa with Sister Salmon for my last transfer!!!! :) yay! Have a miracle filled week!! Love you!!

Messer Shimai

Loving the work in Okinawa!

March 29, 2015

I hope you are all loving March because it is ALMOST OVER! I can't believe how fast the months go by! I hit 17 months yesterday, crazy! But we had a great week! Minami is progressing really well and PASSED her baptismal interview on Thursday!! She even picked out her dress, so I think that makes it official, right? She went on a fast for three days and lost over 8 pounds. Sister Salmon and I are seriously considered doing that if we didn't have to go out tracting everyday. Maybe next time ;) 

We also are teaching a little 7 year old who's parents are not members, but her grandma is. So we have to teach her all of the lessons before she can be baptized. Her name is Rea and she is the cutest little Japnaese girl you will ever see. It is a lot of fun to teach a little girl. It is nice because all we know is simple Japanese anyways! 

We also are teaching Emiri, who is in her 30's and is so cute! She looks almost Egyptian, but she wants to be baptized in Hawaii in October..so we are still teaching her the lessons and trying to build that relationship with the ward members. We will see what comes to be. 

We were able to go up and go on exchanges with the sisters in Naha. And guess who just so happens to be there? Sister Hirata, my old companion! So I got to go out with her again. It was fun seeing each other 6 months later, as even better missionaries! I always learn so much when I get to go out on exchanges with everyone!! It was fun being with a Japanese sister all day again. I miss my little nihonjins! 

We went out to the beach today with the senior missionaries and it was so pretty!! I always forget I live in little paradise! Oh, so naive little Messer Shimai had never looked at a map of Okinawa before. So the senior couple pulled one out for me. I am in the coolest place on the planet! China, Taiwan, the Philippians! Like are you kidding me? It is a shorter distance to those three countries than it is to the mission headquarters in Fukuoka! Say what? I feel so blessed to be here! (ask me again when the humidity hits) But I love you all and hope you have a fabulous Spring Break and Fair!! I LOVE YOU! 

Messer Shimai

many blessings down here on the little island!

Konnichiwa! 

I hope you all are enjoying SPRING in America! What a glorious time! Ring by spring anyone? I haven't heard anything yet. *cough cough* I'm praying for you, Aus! 

First of all, Minami is still on track for baptism on April 4!! Best Easter present ever!! We can see the temptation and the trials from Satan attacking her right now, so please pray for her! We had lunch with her and she was so frustrated and hurt by some people that she was shaking when she was telling us the story. She needs that little extra divine help! Thank you for all of the prayers in her behalf already!! 

Our British investigator flew back to England today :( so we miss her a lot, but she left a the cutest little note about how her view on God and the purpose of life has changed. We are hoping she can meet with missionaries where ever she ends up these next few months. I love her with my whole heart and am so sad I wasn't able to meet with her before she left. 

Saturday we were able to video call up to Fukuoka and hear from Elder Nelson!! It was amazing!! We learned all about how to be proper with our iPads, and we are so excited to receive them. At the end of Elder Nelson's training he blessed us. He blessed us to become fluent in English, Japanese, and the language of God! How amazing is that? Of course all of the Japanese missionaries were like "YES! I will be fluent in English!" but I just thought "Oh hallelujah, my teaching in English is a bunch of garbage! Maybe my investigators will be able to better understand!" But really, try being a native English speaker, but translating from Japanese to English to teach in English because I only know the lessons in Japanese!. The sentences are usually switched around and I use weird words that we don't really use in English. So I am super excited to receive that blessing! But it was so amazing to be able to listen to him and be spiritually uplifted! 

Also, one perk of being an STL, a companionship of our girls spent the night at our house and a Japanese sister gave me a massage with doTerra oils and it was pretty much the most amazing thing of my life. Can you say SPOILED in Okinawa? I'm sure you really were dying to know that. 

But I love you and hope you have an amazing week! We are having a lot of fun and seeing so

many blessings down here on the little island! (I looked at where we were on the map..who knew Taiwan was so close!)

AI SHITE IMASU YO!

Messer Shimai

Oki!

Listening to Russell M. Nelson

MINAMI SAN IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!

Me, Kimura shimai, Minami san, Clements shimai, Emiri san (investigator), and Salmon shimai 

March 15, 2015

Hello all! I hope you are enjoying the beautiful March weather!! We love being in the south right now because Okinawa has BEAUTIFUL weather!! We have to enjoy it while we can because it will soon be blazing hott and humid! The main island of our mission is so jealous that when Elder Russell M. Nelson from the 12 comes to Fukuoka on the 21 of March. The WHOLE mission is going in to meet him, but they didn't invite us Okinawan's. We get to skype in though! So we are sad, but we party hard down here.

One other reason we love the south is because the Japanese word for south is Minami, and

Zone Taikai

MINAMI SAN IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!! She picked the date of April 4. We were teaching a recent convert a lesson and invited her to come sit in. We had the recent convert explain the feelings she had when she was baptized and confirmed and then I turned to Minami and asked her what she was feeling and she said "jealous" and so we said, "Can we make a baptismal date with you today?" and she agreed! We explained the importance of Easter and how we thought it was be a great way to show our love and commitment to Heavenly Father by being baptized the day before and confirmed on the 5 and she said ok!! The recent convert said "Oh no, four in Japanese is a bad number, it means death" (it is like the 13 in America, where there are no rooms with 13, there are usually no rooms with 4) but Minami said, "I don't care, that has no meaning to me!" YAY!! So we are super excited, and she hasn't even been drinking coffee! It has been so hard for her, but she has been doing so good and I love to see the change in her life! We actually went shopping with her today, that's why I am emailing late.

I also went on exchanges with a cute Japanese missionary, Kimura Shimai and it was loads of fun! I learned a lot from her. Mainly the life of snails. I never knew that snails could get so big! We found a shell and she taught me all about them. 

Interesting story of the week: on Friday I contacted the first person I've ever contacted to who had the hiccups! It was crazy! Her whole body was moving because she was just a small 17 year old and these hiccups were massive. I felt so bad asking her questions, and I think she agreed to accept the Book of Mormon just so she could walk away. Japanese people are very very shy and you could tell she was so uncomfortable. They were seriously the biggest hiccups I have ever seen (almost as big as mine were that one time at Target when somebody thought I was choking, Aus hahahah)

But we had an amazing week and have seen SO MANY miracles this transfer! It is crazy, we have been able to meet with a lot of people and there are so many prepared people on this island! I love the Okinawan life! Thanks for all that you do for me! I love you all so much!! 

xoxo,

Messer Shimai

A miracle filled week in Okinawa!!

March 8, 2015

Hey everyone! How was your week? It was a miracle filled week in Okinawa!! The sisters in the neighboring area taught a women ALL of the lessons and then realized she was in our ward, so she had to get baptized in the Okinawa ward! It stinks for them, but was awesome for us! Turns out she was one of our English students all along! Why didn't she ask us to teacher her? Who knows. But a lot of miracles happened because of that one baptismal service this week! 

We were able to meet with our favorite Minami san before the service, we had an amazing lesson about eternal families and happiness, and she told us that she has a feeling she needs to get baptized in April or May!! She is having a little trouble with the Word of Wisdom, so pray that she can she does not need that coffee everyday! She wanted to talk to Erina san, the lady who was baptized, before setting a date, so we are hoping she can move forward with baptism! 

Also, Emiri san came to the baptism! Emiri is also an investigator those neighboring sisters were teaching until they found out she is in our area as well!! (why are all of these people trying to avoid us? Where are they hiding? FUTENMA!) But she has said she wants to be baptized since the first day the other sisters met with her, we are going to try to start teaching her this week and hope she can progress as well!!
We were also able to meet Erina san, the lady who got baptized, 13 year old daughter Himari chan who is really really shy. I am not sure if her interest is completely there yet, but her mom really wants her to hear the lessons. She thought it was really cool that her mom was completely clean and we are hoping she can follow the example of her mother! 

Then on Sunday a ward member told us she wants us to teach her granddaughter who is turning 8 in April. Since the granddaughters parents are not members, we have to teach her the lessons in order to be baptized, so we are excited to help little Rea chan this upcoming month. 

We were also able to meet with our British investigator 3 times this week! She is progressing so well! We talked about baptism, and she said, "So do you think I could get baptized before I leave?" (she leaves island the end of this month to Korea or Hawaii) and we said yes, if you can keep those promises and commandments that our Heavenly Father has given us, do you want to set a date, make a goal? and she replied with "do you have time next week?" Wait, what? To be baptized? "Oh no, just to meet again" it was really funny! We laughed, and promised some blessings. She is working hard to follow God's commandments and we are hoping she can receive some divine help to follow them this week! 

I just got back from pedicures with the senior couple sister missionary who took us out. Let me tell you, my feet have never been so smooth nor pretty in my whole 20 years. That poor lady had to deal with my dancer, missionary feet. But she did well! I even had her sign her name on them when she was done they were so pretty! And we all know I have ugly feet. But we also got leg massages, and I don't remember the last time I was that relaxed. Oh Okinawa, how I do love thee. Almost as much as I love YOU! Have a great week! Remember to choose the right, and God is on your side! 

Love, 

Messer Shimai

I'm staying in Okinawa, eh?

Lunch with the district

Ok, so I know the first thing Aus will tell me is that I am using "eh" wrong, but I still haven't gotten the art of it down. My beloved half Japanese companion left me! We were in a members car driving home at 8 at night when the AP's called us for transfer calls telling us that Sister Jeffery was leaving me! My new companion is Sister Salmon from CANADA! Calgary, Canada for those that know Canada. We were really surprised and had to spend most of the next day packing and sending suitcases to mainland. Then we went to a National Day of Prayer on base and hear lots of crazy prayers and scriptures being read in different languages, but it was really cool!! Our goal was to get members from our church out to support this even because usually we kind of stick to ourselves, so we called all of the members, and we were able to have almost 60 members there. We prayed, and we ate! It was a good time! Then a ward member took Jeffery Shimai and I to the beach since she had never been to the beach the whole time she was on island! She took us to a place they used to perform baptisms, it was SO PRETTY and rocky! She even gave us some water shoes and we walked in the water for a bit before we had to head back to ship off her luggage. It was super awesome. 

A beach at Okinawa

Sister Jefferey was transferred

Then the next day I had to drop off beloved Jefferey Shimai, and then spent the whole day with the Naha sisters (the area with the airport in it) which just so happens to be my old companion, Hirata Shimai who is training a new missionary! So i was able to spend the day with them. They weekly planned for their area, it was....fun. Then I picked up Salmon Shimai at the airport! She is awesome! She is just starting transfer 5, so she has been in Japan 6 months! My other STL companion had a lot of stress, so Salmon Shimai is my new STL companion! So it will be nice being actual companions with my STL companion again! But it has been CRAZY trying to introduce the HUGE area and everyone to her! I just barely got here 6 weeks ago, So I don't really know what is going on either, but it is fun! Her bike still hasn't been shipped in, so we enjoy walking everywhere. We got to borrow the Elder's bikes one day...she broke it. So we were stranded out an hour bike ride away. THANK HEAVENS FOR SENIOR COUPLES WITH VANS, right? 

at the beach

We were able to meet with our British investigator and teach her the restoration and the plan of salvation. Oh my goodness we love her so much! She is so brilliant, and understands EVERYTHING we say! She even applies the stories she reads in the Book of Mormon! We love her a lot and are sad she is getting deployed on the 29 :( 

Well this week was a lot of planning, and packing so nothing super funny, although last night when we were housing we talking to a little Japanese man, maybe in his 20's, who had interest in learning English, but not Jesus, so we kept going. Then he was getting in his car to leave and just yells, "Hey, did you find any guys?" I dont know, now that I type it it isnt super funny, but it was funny to hear the cute little accent yelling English. Sorry, no we didn't find any guys. But I hope you will call us someday! 

Well I love you and hope you all have great week!!! Ai shite imasu!

xoxo

Messer Shimai