Biking in a skirt took some adjusting to!

FUKUOKA TEMPLE AND MESSER SHIMAI (THE MISSION HOME IS UNDERNEATH IT)

Jan. 27, 2014

Hello!!                                                                               

First I will answer all of your questions. My week was good this week! Nothing too crazy food wise this week! You asked about the intestines, they were in a soup that I ate my first week here at a members house. They tasted like chicken, but like super chewy. yum! My shoes are working out splendidly! Unfortunately all of the biking, have made my calves increase in size, which mean my rain boots are getting tighter and tighter, we:ll see how that goes at the end. hahahah Biking in a skirt took some adjusting, but it:s fine now. Yes, they are all long enough! Yes the children learn English in school.  It usually goes like this when they see us "hello! how are you?" and we:ll say "we're good, how are you?" (I FOUND THE APOSTROPHE!!!!!!!!) and they'll giggle and say either "I'm happy" or "I'm fine" and then they will say "see you!" It is so funny because it's not like "see ya, or see you later" just see you. hahah they're cute, and when we pass they all giggle and whisper to their friends and all I can understand is "kawaii" which means cute...so ya. ;) 

My Japanese mom and grandma are doing good! Unfortunately, my Japanese mom,  it was a hard week. Last week after we emailed we had a lesson with her, we invited the ward service missionary to come joint us. It ended in a huge argument because the member went into some pretty deep doctrinal stuff that freaked her out. So she left and said she didnt want anything to do with church anymore. BUT she texted us last night and she had read 101 pages in the BOM since last Monday!! She wants to read the book just so she can know for herself! And then this morning she called us and wanted to take us grocery shopping! So that:s why I am not emailing at the normal time, because we met with her and she gave us a bunch of fruit hahah she is the cutest. Dad, you asked how she got so wealthy and if she is married. yes she is married, unfortunately her husband ONLY comes home from work on Sunday's! Of course! So she usually would stay just for sacrament so she could go be with him. But they both work, i am not sure what he does...but it brings in a lot of money. Plus, she is high up in her company, she was on TV and radio this week for her work! My Japanese mom's mom just died two days ago :( So we are hoping for a meeting with her in a couple of days so we can explain the plan of salvation! Good thing she:s not Buddhist, so she doesnt have to go through the 49 days of mourning or something! We haven't talked to Mayumi San this week yet, but we are hoping to contact her this week!! Mom, I havent seen any cute little courtyards, but I have never been to a house yet, only apartment buildings! Cars are small, but not tiny. Most of them are just normal, but they drive on the opposite side! No, we never see ATV's :( sometimes I hear a little scooter and get excited though hahaha

So everyone has asked me why I ate the Nato, and where I was so here is the back story. Nato is just known for being disgusting, so everyone always takes their bean (new missionary) to eat nato for the first time. So, last week when we went grocery shopping we all bought a thing of nato to try. We just ate it at our house for breakfast, and all were gagging for like ten minutes. Well, Higashi shimai eats it on a daily bases, so she was taking pictures hahaha. It is like super good for you, so everyone eats  it but it is so gross!! But i got it over with so I hope i never have to do it again! ew. Maybe you guys should try some ;) 

This week was good, we had interviews with the mission president, and said to tell my parents thank you for sending me out here, so mom and dad, Kaicho says thanks! hahaha 

We went to a potential investigators house this week and had a nabe party, nabe is kind of like the chicken noodle soup for Japan, it was super good, you just throw a bunch of veggies and meat into a soup base, and you set it on a burner in the middle of the table and just eat out of it! The girl was super cool, she is 24 and so she was asking us what we wanted in our future husbands, and if we thought any of the missionaries were cute. We quickly let her know that they were like our brothers to us. haha but we had a sports night this week with the ward, where we all just went and played basketball, volleyball and bad minton and she showed up! we:re hoping to teach her, but she is super busy with work :( someday! 

Oh, so for service here we just offer free english classes. but since we are in the city, we do THREE english classes! One every wednesday for just anyone who wants to learn, then one every two weeks for moms, and then one every two weeks for babies. It is a little insane, but it is fun! We get to see a lot of chubby little japanese kids, so it makes us happy! Plus, we are forced to speak english the whole time! it is great! 

Mom, we sang in sacrament meeting last week, i thought of you and your choir, but it was just us four sisters! and at one part I was singing with just one other girl! I have never done that before! But it turned out really good! We sang a three part harmony to The Lord is my Shepherd, it was super pretty! Or at least I hope it was! hahah Well i will try to attach some pictures now! Thanks for the love and the emails and letters! Ai shite imasu!

Messer Shimai

Japan is amazing!

Dinner at the Nishihara's

January 19, 2014

Hello everyone! I can:t believe it:s another p-day already. Please just accept the : as an apostraphy until I can find out how to use it on this keyboard..

This week was great! I am in love with living in a city, I think I love it a little too much. I often find myself thinking while I:m biking *wow, I live in a city!!* and then I have to remind myself that I live in Japan, which is even cooler haha. Japan is amazing, the people are so cool, they are so nice!! It:s outrageous!! But sometimes when we stop people on the street they get super surprised and like gasp out in surprise, and their eyes go super wide like they:re scared. It:s kind of sad, but funny at the same time haha

So cool fact about Japan, they:re toilets are super cool. So like most of them rinse you off and stuff (i:ve never done it, i:m too scared) but I:ve only ever used one toilet this whole time being in Japan that hasn:t been heated!! Even the toilet in our apartment is heated, and when you walk into the toilet room, the lid automatically opens! It:s so funny! However, it has lead me to realize how spoiled I am being a Fukuoka princess. I once used a bathroom in 7-11 and stood there for a good twenty seconds waiting for the lid to open, when it didn:t I started freaking out and pushing buttons on the thing that was on the side that like sprays you off, when I then realized that all I had to do was lift up the lid with my hands....#struglife. hahaha Yeah, so maybe I:ll send you a picture of a toilet or something? i don:t know that:s kind of weird.

So this week was great! I don:t think I:ve even told you about our only investigator...fail. So her name is Michiko San, she is 60, she is SO bubbly, and lively and happy and funny and so tiny and skinny! She is super rich, like super rich. The first day I was here she took us grocery shopping. She says she:s our Japanese mom since our moms are so far away. She is SO FUNNY. She knows a little of English so she tries to talk to me, and she:s like the coolest, stylish person I know! BUT WE FOUND A NEW INVESTIGATOR! She:s a lady we met at the train station last week, we set up an appointment with her and SHE BROUGHT HER FRIEND! So there is a referral right there! So we met at the train station, and they said, *let:s go to the coffee house* but we explained we don:t drink coffee, but we drink hot chocolate! So we ended up at Seattle:s coffee house, (I know, that:s great for our image!) and we had a lesson, and talked about our families (oh ya, they speak English ahahah so I am SO LUCKY) and they want to meet again. They are so cute, Sawako san is our new investigator, she:s 68 but looks like 50, she says she:s our Nihonjiin grandma, and she calls us each  night to make sure we rode our bikes home safe!! hahah she:s so cute! I:ve only been in Japan for three weeks, and the only two investigators I have are already my Japanese mom and grandma! hah! 

Eating natto-fermented soybeans

Anyone want a taste of this natto? Notice the chocolate and water close by!

First letters have arrived from America!  It took over 2 weeks!

Anyway, she invited us over to wear her kimono sometime so we could take pictures and *send them to our moms, and they:ll cry at how cute we are* hahah that:s what she said! And her friend, Mayumi San is 58, but looks like 30 wants to meet again, and seemes super intersted in coming to church next week! FINGERS CROSSED! Huzzah for miracles!

We ate at the second counselor in the bishopric:s house last night, it was a CURRY PARTY! It was so good! And we got to ride this suuuper nice train to their house, it:s called a Shink, it:s like rocket train, and is kind of a mix between Harry Potter and Polar Express! So cool! I love visiting members and less actives, their homes are so welcoming, and since we don:t wear our shoes I feel like i:m going to a slumber party! bahahah it:s nerdy I know, but it:s so fun!! Thank you for your love, prayers and support! I love and miss you all!!

Ai shite imasu!!!!

Messer Shimai

It's hard to believe I've only been here for 2 weeks!

In front of  LDS church

Hello!!!                                                                                                            Jan. 12, 2014

This week has been CRAZY!!! It's hard to believe I've only been here for 2 weeks! Say what? It's felt like 5 months already! SO much has happened, i've already seen so many miracles it's insane!! So I'll start with last Tuesday. So while streeting that first day we were in Japan, Cook Shimai was with Flake Shimai's old companion, and they found a new investigator! So they set up an appointment for us for Tuesday at the church, and so we came all excited, and she never showed up. But that's alright because a nice lady gave us pastries as we waited probably because we looked so sad haha. But that day we had to walk to the bike place to get me a bike!! WHICH IS AWESOME, I'll send pictures! Anyway, so it was a LONG walk, so we were streeting and a lady just yells out "SISTERS!!" *(yes, English) and so we were like what? So we went up to her and she had been baptized 20 years ago in Utah, but moved to Fukuoka and couldn't find a church and she was just thinking how she wanted to go back to church, and so all she could find was the address to the temple, so we gave her the address and she invited us over to practice our Japanese on her, and to reteach her the lessons, and to help her at her English class, to come eat dinner and all this stuff, so we're calling her tonight to set up appointments and stuff because last week was hard with her work. It was amazing, and she gave me a hug, I don't even remember the last hug I got from besides Flake Shimai! So that was amazing! 

Then on Thursday we went to visit a less active who had just gotten surgery and we brought flowers, but we had to ride the train. Ya, we went on the wrong train and were somewhere near the ocean 2 hours later.....(good thing our area is huge) so we rode back, got on the right train and where sooo behind schedule, but we got to her house, shared a message, got on the right train to return and this lady was next to us at the station and started speaking to us in English, she loves English, and she asked us if we could meet again, gave us her information, and we are planning to meet again on Friday! She was so concerned that we had to ride our bikes home form the station, that when we got home she called us to make she we were safe! I'm telling you, the Japanese people are AMAZING! They are all so nice, even when they refuse you on the street. 

I don't even know what to tell you all, so much has happened, it's insane! Yes, everyone wears those face masks when they're sick. I think it's so funny!! But it's soooo hard to understand them because it's kind of muffled, and you can't read their lips or anything!! Oh mom, the kids in the ward here LOVE the CTR ring! Like none of them had seen it before, so they were like what? that's what it says? and so that was fun to be attacked by children! They are so cute here! They have the cutest little cheeks and their hair is just so straight, and they have bangs and augh just adorable!!! I dont' really know what else to say, this week has been A LOT of planning for the transfer, and setting goals, and then streeting and housing for a couple hours each day. Today is the celbration for all of the 20 year old girls, it's like turning 21 in america, so we're going to go see if we can watch that, it would be so cool! Sorry the letter is so lame this week, i just realized how much planning in the apartment we did!

BEFORE getting lost on the train!  

MY BIKE!

After getting lost on the train

Our housing area

Thanks for the love, well kind of the lack of love, still haven't gotten any mail...but ya thanks for the love and the prayers!! Japan is AMAZING!!!!!! Ai shite imasu!!!!
Messer Shimai

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

Our room with our futons folded up so we can exercise

Eating out with some missionaries

YAKINIKU

Eating my first tofu!

HELLO FROM JAPAN! DECEMBER 31, 2013

Just here to say I  made it here and it:s awesome!! It is so pretty, kind of cold but it is beautiful! The plane ride was long, but i made it!! Weird to be out of the MTC, i am about to go do missionary work with a sister! i:m so scared but ready to get started!!!!

ai shite imasu!!

Messer Shimai

Week 8 at the MTC: December 28, 2013

Hello everyone!

It sure is a weird feeling that this is my last P-day in AMERICA! It's felt like I've been here forever, but it doesn't feel like it's time to go to Japan! Weird mission time. Nope, I LOVED the pictures, it made if feel like I was right at home! I love getting pictures!!! 

 Christmas in the MTC was GREAT!!! So I'll start with the morning, Cook Shimai and I woke up at 5 to open presents, we were just so excited! I LOVED all of my presents, they were just perfect! And nothing was too big, so I can take all of it to Japan with me :) Then we got ready, ate breakfast, emailed, then went to a "Christmas Celebration" which was a talent show. YES Mitch performed! It was so weird, on the big screen it said "Mitchell Nelson" and I was like......."THAT"S MY COUSIN!!" He sang a super funny song called "December 26" he played guitar and sang, it was about all of the holidays, very humorous. But I haven't been able to talk to him yet because he's on West Campus so I never get to see him :( I haven't seen Sister Swapp yet either :( I see Sister Simmons, and she knows Sister Swapp because they're going to the same mission, but I haven't seen her yet! Oh, and I saw Bronze the other night, I had no idea his last name was Blaber though, so when I saw him I said "HEY!" and then I read his name tag and was like...wait, do I know you? hahah but it was him, no worries! Anyways, then we had Christmas lunch, which was the exact same meal we had for Thanksgiving. I bet the MTC didn't think there were missionaries here who would be here for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. But we caught on, we know they repeat meals very frequently. They can fool the English missionaries who are only here for 12 days, but they can't fool us! Anyways, then we had a devotional by ELDER BEDNAR and his wife!!!!!! It was so good, I sang it the choir and it was amazing! So his talk was a question and answer, but in order to screen the missionaries from asking dumb questions, he handed out TWO HUNDRED CELL PHONES to the audience, and we texted him questions! then he would get the texts on his iPad and answer the best questions! It was awesome, and it was a life broadcast so missionaries from the other MTC's could email his iPad, it was cool. A lot of great questions, I took like 2 whole pages of notes. A lot of it was about the atonement. But in all honesty, what ISN'T about the atonement? It's ALL about the atonement! Isn't that a great thing? Then we had a district devotional review of our favorite parts, then we had Ray Smith come and perform, he was this jazz guy, so we got a concert! He played the flute, clarinet and saxophone and then he had a band, it was so cool he just improved all these Christmas songs, he was way good. Then we had our sack dinner that we packed, which was the same exact thing as Thanksgiving, and then we watched the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, it was from last year, the choir sang and there were some dancers who...danced. It was good, they handed out these huge bags of kettle corn to every single person, it was cool, and a lot I don't even think I have 1/8 of the bag. But then we got to go back to our rooms early!!! that was a first! you're not allowed back to your room until after 9:30, so that was a treat! We got to a whole hour early! 

With Sister Skyler Simmons!

Yesterday was In-Field Orientation! We did it! We made it! it was SO LONG and I was SO brain dead afterwards, it was just 9 hours of nonstop meetings. We pretended we met people on a bus, in a park, in the airport, for one meeting we were around a camp fire, and we were on a ship on another. So they tried to keep it interesting, but all it was was nonstop role playing. The MTC sure does love role playing! I got to sit by Elder Roemer for part of it! He flies out two hours after me, so I'll barely miss him at the travel office, too bad! But I'm super excited for him to go to Europe! The land of his people! ;) 

Best District the MTC has ever seen!!!  

Us with Taylor Sensei, we love him so much!!! He was our first investigator & our sensei!

It's Sheehan!!! We love sheehan!!

I'm glad to hear your Christmas went well! I hope you enjoyed it!! My sensei said that our English just starts going down the drain once we get to Japan, so I hope you can understand my emails...who knows. Well have a very Happy New Year, and Christmas Season! I love and miss you all! thank you for all of the love and support! The next email you get will be in Japan and the next time I talk to you will be in the airport!!!!! I can't believe this is happening! So many different emotions and feelings are going through me!! 

Ai shite imasu, yo!

Messer Shimai

Cook Shimai drew our district anime style, can you guess which one is me? :) front and center, represent!

December 25th, 2013: CHRISTMAS DAY!!!

Hey family!

Mom I'm going to email you and dad at the same time since time is so limited. Rumor has it Elder Bednar is coming to speak to us tonight! So I'm super stoked about that!! I LOVED MY GIFTS!! Holy cow, you all know me so well! Yes, mom the shirt fit! and so did the ring!! I'm wearing both right now!! Cook Shimai and I woke up at 5 so we could open our presents and enjoy them!! I got the cutest, daintiest, classiest watch from Auntie Camille, uncle rod and Taylor! I'm wearing that now too!! And Aus (and Taryn) sent me a locket with their faces in it!! I'm wearing that now too! I got a bunch of food, which I am so grateful for because now I have snacks for the suuuuper long plane ride! Jenn and her kiddos sent me some pumpkin bread with a ton of super good snacks! Grandma hooked me up to, I finally have gloves! 2 pairs! I'm not wearing them now, simply because my hands would get sweaty if I wore them inside while I typed.. Oh! And mom, we have listened to the CD you gave me on Christmas Eve :) It was perfect because last Tuesday we had a devotional where the BYU Mens Chorus just came and sang to us for a while, and she was telling us all about this CD, and how it was free for missionaries to download online. But I don't think she knew that we can't get on the internet..so we were super happy to open that on Christmas Eve! Ooohhh Annie sent me the family calendar!! It's so cute!! I just took it out and stared at the pictures for a good half hour! haha I like how it has my year mark :) Ya dad, I'll go buy that calling card, I keep forgetting, but I will tomorrow when it opens up again!

Christmas at the MTC has been great! Our sensei gave us all those little containers for consecrated oil. It was so cute!! Kaylee had one up a college and I was always super jealous, now I get one for myself!! yay!! How was your Christmas morning? Did ari and aus sleep in the same bed? who got the big couch all to themselves? What did santa bring? did he eat the cookies? Did his reindeer eat the carrots? Did he sign the paper?

Japanese CTR ring

Opening presents...

Christmas morning with Shimai Cook

It's crazy to think I fly out in just 4 days!!! It's still unreal! I'm not really looking forward to being trapped up inside of an airplane for that long, but ya I'm just hoping it will be different than the Air Tran we rode on this summer!! That was torture! I'm so scared, but I'm too excited to think about how scared I am about it. Plus, Tibi writes to me and she is loving her mission right now!! I'm just looking forward to the next couple of months, like when I figure out the language and all. It's weird I only have 1 or 2 more lessons to teach here in the good old MTC!

Well thanks for the Christmas email! I Hope you are all enjoying your Christmas, and maybe you will get on in the next 10 minutes so I can talk to you? Well ai shite imasu!! Have a very merry Christmas! Mom, all of your presents sound perfect for everyone! I'm glad the elders got to spend Christmas Eve with ya'll if I didn't get to! Elder Naranjo is a good guy, I'm sure the other one is too..but I don't know him haha. Well, I LOVE YOU! MERRY CHRISTMAS! AI SHITE IMASU! Miss you!

Messer Shimai