Life as a Sister: Konnichiwa Everyone!

Konnichiwa everyone!!!

Companions: Messer Shimai and Flake Shimai!

Here I am, emailing in JAPAN! Crazy, eh? So mom you had a lot of questions, I'll try to answer all of them! My flight was good, I slept and slept and slept!! Funny story, on the first flight I sat next to a NUN! I wanted to talk to her SO BAD, but her eyes were closed the whole time so she was either sleeping or praying. My bet is she was pretending to sleep so I wouldn't talk to her...but I did talk to the Brazilian guy next to me. The next flight was from Dallas to Tokyo. It was a HUGE plane! There were two seats on each sides by the windows, and then a row of five in the middle. I just so happened to end up right smack dab in the middle. Surrounded my ELDERS! It was fun because we could talk in English, but it was awkward because when I slept I had to keep my arms folded and the head rest right up around my ears so my head wouldn't accidentally end up on one of their shoulders hahaha. But it was comfortable, I mean I did it for 13 1/2 hours *with only one potty break..SUCCESS!!!!* But yes, that night the mission president and the office elders picked us up and took us to the mission home. SInce there were only two sisters, we got the really nice guest room!! We even got BEDS! But the home is right under the temple, so it was a very holy rest. The next day we had orientation and then went out with another missionary and street contacted for 3 1/2 hours. I got this sisters named Sister Flake, she was SO cool and we got along SO WELL! But I forgot to take a picture with her. So that night we found out where we were going, PLOT TWIST: Sister Flake ended up being my TRAINER!! I was so happy I almost hugged Gustofson Kaicho! So ya, Flake Shimai is training me, she's from Snowflake, Arizona, she's on her 5 transfer here, she's super funny and happy and outgoing and she goes to BYU, so we're totally going to hang out in 16 months. We ended up RIGHT IN FUKUOKA!!!!!!!!!! I'M IN THE CITY, YOU HEAR?? Oh man, it's just the greatest, you know how much I love cities! We live in this little apartment outside of the city on one of the only big hills in Fukuoka, so that's fun haha. BUT We live with two other sisters: sister lyles from Washington and sister Higashi from right outside of Tokyo area. They're GREAT and holy cow their Japanese is good!! Lyles has been out for a year on Thursday and Higashi shimai came out with Flake Shimai in May. We have a suuuuper nice apartment *well for missionaries anyways* *one of these day's i'll figure out the Japanese keyboard and how to use parenthesis* BUT if you want to write me, just write the mission home because one of the perks of being a fukuoka princess is that the mission home elders just text us when we get mail! So that works best :) --don't ask how I can do a smiley face but not parenthesis...

Me in Fukuoka!

YES I sleep on a Futon and it's MAGICAL!! I LOVE IT! It's surprisingly comfortable and after a long day of missionary work it really doesn't matter where you're at as long as your eyes are closed. Church was great! As a fukuoka princess, we have 16 "misisonaries" in our ward!!!!! There are 4 shimaitachi, 4 chorotachi, 4 mission home elders, and elderly couple, and the mission president and his wife! So it's a big party. I had to get up and introduce myself and bear my testimony in sacrament. I DID IT! and it went pretty well, and old lady shook my hand on the way down and said "jozu" which kind of means like.. "skill"?? I don't really know haha. Ya I never understand what anyone is saying or anything, but it's ok because I"M IN JAPAN!!!! Bonsai tree's? YES! AND I LOVE THEM! I just want to eat them they're so cool! I wish I could give you all my eyeballs so that you can see what I see because I can't every take pictures when I'm riding my bike. Oh ya, I get my own bike towmorrow! FLake shimai has let me borrow hers while she uses an old edlers bike until I get mine, she's the best!! Interseting food? Not to bad. We eat lunch and dinner with the sisters in our apartment and it's been good. We ate at a members house once, and I only gagged about 4 times. SO MUCH RICE IT"S INSANE!! Like here, have a bowl of rice. Now eat some more rice that's just pounded together and squishy that I threw into a soup. Now eat a fish patty that's neon pink, but it was fine because there was chicken theere too. Humidity isn't even bad at this time of the year, it's only rained once, and that's right now. SO no rain suits yet! :) ahhh I need to send pictures, time is almost out! BUt usually on P-days I email at 10 our time, so like 8 at night your time? BUt a member took us out to eat but we had to ride an hour to the place, and then ate for 2 hours and then ride back so it's a little crazy. Oh and we went to the AMAZING dollar store!!!!! I'll write more about it next time!! Ai shite imasu!! THanks for the love and prayers! I love you!

Messer Shimai