I HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT CHRISTMAS!

December 28, 2014

FIRST OF ALL, IF YOU ARE WONDERING WHY IT IS IN  ALL CAPS, IT IS BECAUSE THE CAPS LOCK TURNED ON, AND NOW WONT TURN OFF....SO SORRY IF IT SEEMS LIKE I AM YELLING AT YOU THIS WHOLE TIME HAHAHHA OH GOSH...HERE WE GO. 

Our Christmas gifts by our huge Christmas tree!

At Christmas mission party with Yamamato san

I HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT CHRISTMAS!! I dont like this, i will just hold down shift. We  had so much fun in Fujisaki!!! We first got to SKYPE and it was so fun! Our friend, Yamamoto san let us borrow his iPad and we will forever be in debt to him! that was so nice!!!! We are so grateful! It was amazing seeing all of you after 13ish months!!!! 14? who knows, i lose track! we then went into fukuoka city to eat a Brazilian restaraunt, and then wen to the church with some other missionaries and watched FROZEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so good!! But we had to leave before it was over, so i dont know the ending. talk about a cliff hanger!! for the next 5 months!! hahah but it was super cute, i am happy i got to see part of it! then we came home and ate a really good all you can eat meat place with Yamamoto san and his two friends!! it was fun! he is so nice to us!!! he helps us A LOT! 

But this week has been crazy! SORRY, MY PINKY IS GETTING TIRED...BACK TO CAPS. WE HAVE BEEN GOING ON A LOT OF EXCHANGES LATELY. SO THIS PAST WEEK WE GOT TO GO TO A PLACE CALLED CHIKUSHINO AND YAHATA TO WORK WITH THE SISTERS THERE. WE HAVE SOME AMAZING MISSIONARIES IN THIS MSISION, I ALWAYS LEARN SO MUCH WHENEVER WE TRAVEL! IT IS A LOT OF FUN, WE GET TO RIDE TRAINS ALL OVER TWO ZONES, SEE HOW THE SISTERS ARE DOING, SPEND THE NIGHT WITH THEM, AND GO OUT TRACTING AND TEACHING WITH THEM! IN CHIKUSHINO I WAS WITH THE CUTEST JAPANESE SISTER, SISTER OGAWA WHO IS 4 FOOT 6 INCHES! CAN YOU IMAGINE US WALKING THE STREETS? OH BOY IT WAS FUN! SHE HAS ONLY BEEN OUT FOR 3 WEEKS, AND IS ALREADY BETTER AT JAPANESE THAN I AM! (IMAGAINE THAT! ;) NO BUT SHE IS SUPER COOL, HER OLDER BROTHER USED TO BE MY WARD MISSION LEADER IN FUKUOKA WARD! THEN IN YAHATA I WAS ABLE TO GO OUT WITH SISTER CURTIS FROM ARIZONA! SHE IS SO CUTE, WE HAD A LOT OF FUN, AND SAW A LOT OF MIRACLES! WE LOVED YAHATA, AND WANT TO GO BACK! (MAINLY BECAUSE THE TRAIN RIDE IS OVER AN HOUR AND WE LIKE TO SLEEP...;) BUT IT IS SO MUCH FUN GOING TO DIFFERENT AREAS AND SEEING HOW EVERYBODY WORKS! I AM LEARING SO MUCH! 

Face Timing with Sisters on Christmas!

FOR EIKAIWA THIS WEEK (ENGLISH CONVERSATION CLASS) WE TAUGHT OUR STUDENTS "DECK THE HALLS" IT WAS LIKE REAL-LIFE CHRISTMAS STORY. DONT WORRY, I RECORDED IT SO YOU CAN ALL WATCH IT WHEN I GET HOME!! FA-RA-RA-RA-RA THOSE L'S ARE JUST SO HARD, YOU KNOW? 

BU IT HAS BEEN A GREAT WEEK, WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO NEW YEARS WEEK, ITS A BIG DEAL IN JAPAN. IT CAN MAKE IT HARD FOR TRACTING, BUT LOTS OF FAMILIES ARE TOGETHER, PERFECT TIME TO LEARN OF CHRIST! I LOVE YOU ALL, ENJOY 2014! MAKE LOTS OF GOOD GOALS. REMEMBER TO FLOSS. (THAT'S MY GOAL EVERY YEAR)

XOXO

MESSER SHIMAI

JUNKAIS!!!

December 14, 2014

HEY! Happy day! Is it cold in the US? It sure is getting cold in Japan! We love living by the ocean, but boy does it make it cold!!! But it is ok, Doi Shimai and I bought matching fleece night gowns, with matching slippers, so we stay warm at nights. 

The highlight of our week was JUNKAIS!!! I think English speaking missionaries call it exchanges or splits! I got to go BACK TO FUKUOKA!! Spend the night in my old apartment, visit my old investigators, and ride the streets of Fukoka! it was way fun! We decided to ride our bikes to the Fukuoka Apartment since we are just the neighboring area, and live close the the border. We were riding as fast as we could to try to make it before 9, and we turn a corner by a college we like to street around and BAM there is my old investigators house. Wait a second...but Mori san lived in the Fukuoka area, right? Wrong, comes to find out me and my companion had 2 investigators in the Fujisaki area, and we would go streeting and housing in the Fujisaki area all of the time. We had no idea! It was right by our apartment. Surprise! The Fukuoka Sisters apartment is right by the border. Nobody even knew! hahah so we are going to go try to visit some of my old investigators who are in OUR AREA! how cool is that?

This week we got to go the busiest part of Fukuoka, Tenjin, and sing with some missionaries! It was way fun, we sang on a stage in this covered area between two super big departments stores. It was a lot of fun, and Michiko san, an old Fukuoka investigator, was able to come and I got to meet her! yay! 

We were able to meet with Yamamoto san a couple of times. We just love him, he helps us out so much! He gave us a tour around his house, well the area around his house (not inside his house) we all 3 hopped on our bikes and rode through little streets, and had a lot of fun. He also came yesterday to the church and we talked, we were even able to skype with an old missionary who just went home, Williams shimai and she followed up on some lessons she had taught him while she was in Japan. It was a lot of fun!

Try not to freeze this Christmas season! You are all amazing! 

Messer Shimai

Preparing to send family their packages

With Elder Stump at Brother Heaton's fireside.  E. Stump is from Logandale too!

Hey! 久しぶりですね

Dec. 7, 2014

Hey! 久しぶりですねit has been a long time, hasn't it? 

Messer and Doi Shimai

Well for transfer 9 both Doi Shimai and I are STAYING in Fujisaki! We are so excited, however we were made Sister Training Leaders! We are over 2 zones, so we get to go on exchanges with sisters around Fukuoka, which means i get to go to my first area and tract again! I am so excited! We are scared, but excited! 

It was a great week this week! The biggest miracle happened on Sunday. Yamamoto san came to church! It was awesome, and afterwards he wanted to go talk to our investigator who dropped us last week, Akutagawa san, just to talk to him. So after church we

walked to Akutagawa sans house and Yamamoto san talked to him. He is quite the persuasive talker. WELL Akutagawa san promised to come to church every week, but not get baptized yet. Before he could say anything else, Yamamoto san shook his hand, made us shake his hand and we were out! He is going to be the best bishop! I told him that when our Mission President goes home in July Yamamoto san can be the new President, he said "yes, yes I think I can do that" he is so funny! So we were happy. Neither one are ready for baptism yet, but we can meet with them and we feel blessed to be able to meet with them!

Yesterday all of the missionaries on the mainland came for a training from Brother Heaton, the guy over the MTC. His daughter is just leaving our mission, so he came to speak with us. It was a good training, but it was even cooler to be able to see everyone! I sat by my MTC companion Cook Shimai, and got to talk to all of my mission friends that haven't already gone home! It was fun! 

Oh, and I got my "death call" They are letting me extend to May 22! I am way excited, but sad because Cook Shimai chose the earlier transfer. But that's ok! It was a long week, a good week, but a normal week. It is getting colder, and I hate the humid cold, 寒い!　But I love you all, have a fantastic week!

Love you!

Messer Shimai

WORST. THANKSGIVING. EVER.

Doi and Messer Shimai

November 29, 2014

Do you remember that Thanksgiving when my roommate Abby came home with me and we ate so much (starving college students, right?) that it was even hard take a nap because laying down hurt? #fatkids. That stunk. Do you remember when dad was prepping the turkey and the little syringe with the seasoning squirted moms golden curtains in the next room away? That stain was a pain, right mom? (isn't is still there?) That stunk. Or how EVERY year mom wants to take the picture for the Christmas card right after we have indulged ourselves with food and still have sleepy eyes from our turkey-coma nap? That stinks (every year) Well this Thanksgiving tops all stinky Thanksgivings. 

So we had a lesson with Akutagawa san, our investigator who is 64 and has a baptismal date for December 20. He was progressing SO FAST and SO GOOD! We had taught all three lessons, and were working on the commandments. We taught the Word of Wisdom on Tuesday, and he committed himself to living it before we even asked him to! It was amazing! he understood, told us he stopped smoking and drinking 22 years ago! WE taught how Satan might tempt him before his date, and he understood. A GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR! We were on cloud nine, we were all prepped to teach him on Thursday (Thanksgiving) about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. Easy enough, if you can keep the WoW you can keep anything. He always shows up to the church 30 minutes early, so we always go 20 minutes early and wait for our member who joints for us while we small talk outside. He comes up, and is looking very concerned over the river he has to cross to get the the church. Oh great, he is contemplating God and how beautiful the earth is, right? Well he comes up, holding the BoM, all of the pamphlets and his baptismal calendar we made for him.....ok? He continues to tell us that he went to a Christian college yesterday and talked to a professor that said if our church says no drinking alcohol or coffee then it is not a Christian church. WRONG. Akutagawa san is sick, and think he will die within a couple of years so he wants to really find the right church. So to "stick it to the man" he decides to drink Thursday morning before he meets with us, tells us he is taking a break from our church, he is going to go learn at that other church, and to never come to his house again. He left all of the material, including the other churches pamphlets, at the church so "all churches can be equal" and he just walked away. He WOULD NOT listen to us, would interrupt us before we could finish our sentence. Just rude. So we watch him walk away through our tear filled eyes of love, hate, sorrow just in time for our sweet joint to bike up, KONNICHIWA! wait..where are you going? Why are the missionaries crying? We explain, and she runs after him, they talk for 40 minutes, and she comes back and explains he might come back if he feels this is right. She was a sweet heart, kept telling us not to worry, and says at the very end IN ENGLISH "don't cry" and gives us a hug. 

I think the hardest part was seeing the one and only REALLY progressing investigator I have EVER had on my mission, A WHOLE YEAR just walk away because of Satan. But we ate at a members house that night, and it was good. Deep fried, battered Salmon stuff, avocado/tomato/crab salad, a quiche thing, and some stew. AND even a pear pie that was so dang delicious. We then handed out 3 Book of Mormon's and 4 baptismal invites in 1 1/2 hours, so we felt a little better, I think God was blessing us. 

Rubbing Buddha's tummy for good luck

Thanksgiving with roommates

Sleeping Buddha and sister missionaries  

We have been meeting a lot of people on the street that have met missionaries lately, and 3 who even have a BoM, so it is cool to have people recognize us now! 

These past two P-Days have been amazing, last week we went to a big shrine called Dazaifu with our friend Yamamoto san (the one who puts pics on facebook) and that was SO FUN! We got to see beautiful shrines, and eat at a Chinese place. He took us, and Kurume shimai, and then two other sisters, so it was fun to see them.

Today we got to go to the temple and we were able to go to a shrine after that too! It was the "sleeping Buddha" just a big, giant, turquoise Buddha lying on the ground. The grounds were gorgeous, exactly what you would think Japan would look like. I would love to explain more, but I feel bad this email is so long! But we are having SO MUCH fun in Fujisaki! We really love it here! Don't you worry about me! I love you all so much! Have a great week! Hope you all ate turkey!

Love,

Messer Shimai 

Making a deal with God!

November 23, 2014

Hello everyone!

Well to start with some good news, we have a baptismal date!! We still have to teach the commandments, so we aren't are still trying to be hopeful, but not cocky! I think I forgot to mention this though, we didn't whitewash into this area, we actually opened it. So it has been fun seeing the blessings from just going out and finding all day. Sometimes it is really long, and even if it is really cold we have to stop and eat ice cream just for our sanity, but it is fun being able to teach lessons. We taught 5 member present lessons this week, which is the most I have taught my whole mission! They were all with Akutagawa san! His baptismal date is for December 20! Please pray for him! He really has that desire to change, and even called us and said he wants to be baptized fast! We are teaching Word of Wisdom tomorrow (it might be hard to teach about a commandment I seem to have some trouble with on my mission..... ;) ) and we are scared that will be the hardest! Japanese people LOVE their tea! Oh mom, you asked if they were Buddhist. OF COURSE!! EVERYBODY IS BUDDHIST! So we start out really basic, teaching about God because they don't even believe in God! But I love being able to introduce them to God and our Savior Jesus Christ. You can just see a change in people as they show that effort to follow God! A mission is amazing!

Bad companion story of the week: this week in English class we were teaching "figment of your imagination" to our advanced class. They were so confused. So I decided to do an example, so I think on my feet, and go up to Doi Shimai and say, "WOW! Doi Shimai, you look good! You look skinny, have you lost weight?!" then I realized that was a bad example because Doi Shimai just grits her teeth and says, "nooooooo.... it's a FIGMENT OF YOUR IMAGINATION!" Poor thing, had to call herself fat! hahah. -sigh- I love fat jokes. 

So everyday we have "standards of excellence" as a mission. It is 20 contacts, 3 sudden lessons on the street, give out 1 Book of Mormon, and 1 Baptismal Invite, this Saturday we were having the hardest time to get people to listen. We had talked to 54 people and had only taught 4 lessons, with only 1 baptismal invite. It was aweful!! It was 3 minutes before we had to go home, so we decided to make a deal with God. We told him our desire to meet standards, and how we wanted to knock on just this one apartment that had a light on inside. If we could hand out this Book of Mormon, Doi Shimai would pass off a lesson mastery (a program we have to get our Japanes better) and I would practice a lesson on her since I have already passed my lesson mastery off. We make the deal, knock on the door and the guy says his tub is filling up, so he has to go. But we just pulled out the BoM and told him if he read this by himself he can learn more about our message. HE TOOK IT! He took the BOOK OF MORMON! We were so excited, we were on such a high! it was amazing! Don't worry, we kept our end of the promise as well! God always keeps His promises if you have good desires!

Well I love you all, I will probably email next Saturday so I can go to the temple, so it will be earlier than usual! love you!

xoxo

Messer Shimai

My wonderful roommates!

Making rice balls at ward activity 

Playing with children at ward activity

Breaking the Word of Wisdom Round 2

November 16, 2014

Fujisaki

Add caption

Konnichiwa! 

To start this email off, I have to tell you that my poor, poor companion broke the word of wisdom again.This time it was coffee in the ICE CREAM. If we didn't love ice cream so much, we would probably have to stop eating it due to all of the commandments we are breaking just trying to eat chocolate. But she started crying before I took a bite of mine, so I knew to throw it away. So don't worry, I have only broken the Word of Wisodm once.

This week we had a grandma ask Doi Shimai if she was my daughter. We kind of just stood there, and thought we heard the Japanese wrong, so we asked her to say it again, and she said, "your her daughter, right?" ....hmmm NO. Rude, how old does she think I am? Plus, Doi Shimai is half Tongan and a quarter Japanese. The grandma said we looked a like..what part? Plus Doi Shimai goes up to like my shoulder!! But the grandma gave us chocolate so we forgave her.  

This week Akutagawa san came to church!! Doi Shimai found him on splits last week, and he has come to church twice now! We taught him the Plan of Salvation this morning, he is 64, divorced and lives all by himself. He moved here just a month ago and really wants to change! He is awesome, he loves to talk, so lessons are kind of hard, but he really has that desire to learn! It is awesome! 

You all know Yamamoto san, he is the one that posts pictures on Facebook! We met him a couple times this week, he helps us with missionary work! He tells us what ways we should approach people on the street and how we should teach them from a Japanese investigators perspective! It is way awesome! Plus he always gives us those small oranges! They are in season right now and SO GOOD. 

White washing is tiring, I fell asleep while Doi Shimai was praying and it was so awkward when I woke up still kneeling with her just staring at me waiting for me to say "amen" but I she said it was only like 20 seconds. We contacted over 300 people again, and we are really getting unified. We try to turn every "totsuzen lesson" (sudden lesson?) on the street into a Book of Mormon or a baptismal invite. We did 6 baptismal invites on the street in one day. Sometimes with our bikes and small sidewalks, only one of us can talk to the person. We have a good system down, the one who is NOT the one who brought it up takes out the material (BoM or pamphlet with baptismal picture), the one speaking reaches their hand behind their back (while still pushing their bike with one hand), and there is the BoM or the pamphlet magically turned to the right page. Nobody has caught on yet, but it makes teaching way easier not having to dig through your basket. Sometimes Doi Shimai will jump up and down waving the pamphlet to make sure I know that she is ready for when I need the material. It's hard not to laugh, but it has made tracting a lot more fun trying to turn everything into a BoM or a BI.  

But ya, that is a little of the life of a Fukuoka Missionary. I love you all and hope you have a great week!! Ai shite imasu!!

Love,

Messer Shimai

A week full of 奇跡 (MIRACLES!!)

November 9, 2014

Messer Shimai and Fujisaki

Konnichiwa!!
How was your week? Because ours was full of MIRACLES! It all started on
Thursday when I was able to meet with Michiko san, an old investigator I
had in Fukuoka! Since the areas are neighboring, she came in and met with
us! We went out and ate lunch, I just love her! Her English has gotten WAY
good, and my Japanese has improved, so communicating with her was a little
easier this time around! But she still calls me her American daughter, and
she is my Japanese mother, so she takes good care of me! Their was a big
thing with her and a Fukuoka ward member, so the bishop told the sisters in
Fukuoka to stop meeting her. She still reads the Book of Mormon, and after
we ate lunch, she asked if she could go see our church, so we walked to the
church, and gave her a tour. When we passed a room with a picture of Jesus,
she asked if she could go inside. She stood in front of it for a couple of
seconds, the Spirit was way strong, it was way cool. She says next time we
meet she wants to bring her Book of Mormon and read out of it together! I
am so excited. I feel so blessed to be in this area that is close to my
first area!!
We had exchanges with the STL's this week too! Just so happens, my STL is
Hawkins Shimai, who I lived with for 6 months in Kurume! So it was way fun,
but we had to go to Fukuoka and help some missionaries who are preparing to
go on missions. They had a big Mission Prep class where we each got a
companion who is preparing to go out on a mission, teach a lesson with them
and then go out streeting with them! My girl was just adorable and ended up
being my favorite Fukuoka ward members little sister from Kagoshima
(another area) It was fun, but made exchanges only 3 hours, where we taught
Yamamoto san the Word of Wisdom! He says if he wants to follow it, he can!
So that was a miracle!
But the true miracle comes on SUNDAY! So on Saturday night while we were
out teaching Yamamoto san, the other two sisters found TWO new
investigators! One of which wanted to come to church! So we went and walked
with him to church on Sunday, and Yamamoto san came to church as well! We
had two people! What a miracle! Yamamoto san even stayed for lunch after
church, then he left and we had some more meetings after church. We didn't
know about these meetings, so we had to change our streeting plans, decided
to go to a big street, but when we got there, there was like nobody there,
so we decided to go to an even bigger street, but we were stopped at a stop
light and there was a big road with people, we decided to go there, and
park our bikes at a store called GU, right then YAMAMOTO SAN walked out of
the store! He has been waiting for the perfect timing to tell his wife
about us, and introduce her to us, and just kept saying the timing must be
perfect. Well thanks to Heavenly Father, this was the time. We pretend to
shop (covering our badges..NO SHOPPING ON SUNDAY!) and he "stumbled" into
us and said, "oh, hello! these are my English teachers!" introduced us to
his wife and daughter, and it was such a big miracle. They were adorable,
and when they were done shopping we took a picture outside the store, and
when they were driving away the wife rolled down the windows, smiled really
big and waved goodbye with two hands. It was amazing. A perfect timing,
miracle! He even kept saying how much of a miracle it was! It was amazing!
I still love Fujjisaki and Doi Shimai, it is a great transfer so far!
Sorry this is so long, but the Lord's hand is in our lives! He loves all of
us so much! I love you so much! Have a great week!
Ai shite imasu!
Messer Shimai