8-26-13 (a day late) (Bean-chan days)

`Those bean-chan days, I used to know, where have they gone, where diiiiiiiiiiid they go.....` (when you read this, please sing it to the tune of Those Caanan days)

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Great week, as always :D And this week is... dun dun dun.... TRANSFER WEEK!! Sorry the letter is a bit late, it:s because apparently every transfer week, pday is actually on Tuesday instead of Monday. So we decided to email late Tuesday afternoon, hoping the APs would have called to tell us what was happening and such.... but alas, we are still in the dark! The Miyazaki elders were contacted a couple of hours ago, and we found out Elder Iwaasa, our district leader is going to Taniyama and will be our zone leader. And Elder Mabuchi, his companion will be staying here and his new companion is on his 4th ish transfer, I believe. Fun stuff! We are assuming that we are staying, but who knows - I guess I will let you know exactly what happened next week! Oh and yes, in answer to those questions - yes, its not a churchwide policy to not include specific names of investigators and ward members in emails, just something Kaicho (president) has asked us to do in order to protect their privacy. Heehee, and yes, I do feel rather tall here. Its kind of fun. I am pretty much a head taller than a lot of people here.But its all good! 

For the past few weeks we have gone to Miyakonojo for district meeting (it is a little over an hour away by train) and its been fun, but I love Miyazaki! 

OOOH The big news of the week --- we had junkai (exchanges)! So much fun. The sister training leaders for our zone came (well actually there is only one per zone so the STL from our Kagoshima zone and the STL from the Kumamoto zone came together) and we went on splits for 24 hrs. Lots of fun. I was a little nervous for them, because I had never done them before, and mostly because Kodama shimai doesn:t speak English, but it ended up being a lot of fun. She was actually Suzuki Shimai:s previous companion. Kobaiyashi Shimai did splits with Suzuki Shimai, and she was super fun as well. We split and were able to have each companionship teach a lesson to our different investigators - at the same time! And we did some streeting and housing - anyway it was great to see how another sister did things, and forced me to speak more Japanese. And she was hilarious. Anywho, great experience. 

N-chan!!! We love her!! She is so wonderful. She is doing really well, progressing, and we have been able to see her testimony grow stronger every day. She has come to church almost every week since we started teaching her at the beginning of the transfer - she is so great! So yeah, she is doing really good right now, and the lessons are going well; the main roadblock is her parents haven:t given their permission for her to be baptized. We are still working on that, and praying every day! 

Last speedy thought - I love Japan. :D I know I say that all the time, but it is so true! It makes me sad that I can not adequately describe what it is like here, but suffice it to say that I love Miyazaki, I love the people, the culture, the food and the language (even though I get frustrated with the learning process at times). It is incredible being here, and especially being a missionary. Really hard. And a little different in some ways than I expected, but I absolutely love it. I know that Heavenly Father is so involved in each of our lives - He loves us all so much!! I am so grateful for this gospel and the peace it brings to our lives. We are so blessed!

Anyway, sorry for the speedy letter, I am kind of running out of time but I love you all!  Good luck with this next week!

Ai shitte imasu!!! 

Flake Shimai

PS 

1. Good news - I have bought or obtained basically everything I need here - for example, my electronic dictionary (which yes, I have used a ton), camera, short sleeve shirts, backpack, a rain suit (which was left at our apt by previous sisters), and several other things - for which I am quite happy! 

2. Can you possibly send me a few recipes? The ingredients here are quite different than america, but I might be able to do a few things. Maybe a really simple cookie recipe, a banana bread recipe, breadsticks, and tortillas? And an idea for a simple mexican food? My complex is this - I want to make a simple mexican food, but there is not really mexican spices here. Quite a struggle to figure out. 

3. I have the coolest companion ever - she made me a vocab game! It is a matching game that we can play - some of the cards have the english word, and some have the Japanese word in hiragana  and we play memory. Every time a card is flipped (whether english or japanese) I have to say the word in the other language. It is awesome, because I am such a visual learner so it is already helping me remember more - woohoo!!!

4. Last thing, I promise! We just got our transfer call (because the APs forgot about us) and... we are both staying here in Miyazaki for another transfer - hurray!! 

8-19-13

Konnichiwa, kazoku!!!

I'm glad things are going well for all of you with school starting and all of the last minute summer projects you're working on. Yes, I absolutely love my new camera and dictionary. And they were cheaper here than they would have been in America, so that was nice. My camera is bright blue, and my dictionary is a handheld teal little thing. It looks kind of like a phone, in fact. Anywho, I'll try to be better with sending my own pictures now that I have a good camera. Mom - that's so awesome that you're in charge of the state jazz and show choirs! Good luck with arranging everything, I'm sure that's super crazy, hectic, and lots of fun as well :) Dad, good luck with your state test - you'll do great. Also thanks for keeping me updated on all my friends getting married - it's nice to know even though it's super weird to comprehend. Let's just say I am glad I'm in Japan right now - I know that this is exactly where I need to be, and what I need to be doing at this point of my life!

This has been a great week! Where to even begin?!?

Okay, well I guess to start out one fun thing was that we went to a ward member family's house for FHE on Monday and we had the most impressive sushi spread. Pretty awesome. Basically up till that point, the only sushi I'd ever tried were these little portions at different sushi restaurant kind of places. But here, there was tons and you made it yourself - grab a square of seaweed, put rice on it, grab the sushi of your choice, a vegetable, some sauce, roll it up and eat it - different than what I'm used to, but quite delicious. Great times. 

On Wednesday, we had the best Eikaiwa on the planet. More like normally only a few people come, and it's not super exciting, but this past week we went out of our way to make it awesome, more official, more fun, and we made big bulletin boards on it and such, and more people came and we all had a great time! We're hoping to build that up a little more each week so we can have a thriving program soon. We shall see. But it was super encouraging. 

Exciting news!!! So N-chan (this is what I'm going to call her so you know who I'm talking about even though I'm not supposed to say her name) our investigator whom we love went to SMYC this past week. In church yesterday, all of the youth that went to SMYC were asked to get up and bear their testimony and share a few things they learned. They asked her to go as well, and it was awesome hearing her talk! It's evident how much her testimony has been strengthened in a week, and how much her desire to be baptized has grown even more sincere. We taught her a lesson yesterday, and set up a bunch of appointments for this week because the end of the month is coming up! We're hoping to still be able to see her baptized at the end of the month, but there's a chance that won't happen. Basically our biggest challenge right now is that in Japan the age you are considered an adult is 20, and she is 18. So she needs her parents' permission to be baptized and they aren't too keen on the idea. But we're having dinner with them this week, and we're doing our best to do all we can do and rely on the Lord and his timing. Anyway, she's the greatest and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to be teaching her (even though I feel like I learn more from her and  all the people I meet here than I end up sharing with them). 

In church yesterday, I gave the spiritual message in DCS (by myself, because Sister Suzuki was doing the report afterwards). Kind of scary, but a really good experience. I really have come to realize how much I've grown since being here, and how much more I'm able to learn every day. Sometimes it is frustrating because my progress feels so slow, but when I look back at where I began I'm able to see how far I've come! I realized something pretty great the other day. I was feeling a little frustrated/overwhelmed because of how absolutely un-Japanese I often feel (mostly because of random social faux-pas that I make. All the time) when it hit me - Flake Shimai, it's OKAY that you're not fitting in one hundred percent in that way - because you're not Japanese! You can learn from these people every day, and strive to improve everday, but Heavenly Father knows me. I can come here and learn from others, and bring them a little bit of the west as well! I came here because there are people that  I can help, and that can help me. I can just keep being myself, and let my personality shine through. After being here for a little over a month, I've finally been able to relax a little more and come to terms with things. Aka, I'm more over the culture shock now. I love it here. Miyazaki is the best. Riding through the streets of Miyazaki at night is just about one of my favorite things to do. Everything is incredible here. The people are so nice, everywhere we go. I love streeting - and the chance to talk to so many different people and learn about their lives. I love it with my whole soul!

Last bit of news to share - yep, I saw Angela and Casey yesterday! It was awesome to talk to them, but a little bit of a strange clashing of worlds to look up in sacrament meeting and see them sitting in front of me. In Japan. But it's all good - and mom and dad thank you for the peanut butter MnMs! I almost cried tears of pure joy, right there in the cultural hall when they gave them to me. :) Yep. Love those. Also I have discovered the best chocolate I have ever had in my life. It's a candy bar called Black Thunder. It's basically crushed up oreos all compacted into a candy bar and covered in chocolate --- SO GOOD. ANyway, sorry for that random tangent but you know how much I love chocolate! :D Keep up the good work, I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Ai shite imasu!!!

Flake Shimai

PS Dallin and Logan, thank  you for the letters! I can't believe you're growing up. Too weird. Especially because I didn't even talk to boys in high school. Hahahaha. True story. And have fun in Utah, parents - tell everyone hello for me!

                                                   

This is the member family who has a son serving in my home mission, in Heber, only 30 minutes away from Snowflake.  Small world!

8-11-13 When life gets you down, just be genki!!!

Konnichiwa, kazoku!!!

Thanks as always for the awesome letter! I love hearing how everything is going for you all. I can't believe you have already started school again, I guess time flies when you're having fun. This week was a bit hectic with a few things, but lots of fun. I'll get to that in a minute though. Good news - in a few hours, we're going to go and buy me a new camera and electronic dictionary! I am pumped for both of those. So I will make sure to take more pictures and such, don't you fret. Good luck with school, working with junior high school kids, and the fair this week! And dad - that's awesome that you're so close with your class. Hang in there with the studying and such - you'll be awesome!

Oh and I don't know exactly what we'll be doing technology wise in the mission yet - they haven't let us know. For now the extent of our technology usage is our emails (basically just long texts but they're called emails) to our district leaders, zone leaders and ward council each week. I'm sure that will change eventually though. 

So this week our schedule was a little different - we had zone conference on Wednesday in Kumamoto (a prefecture about 3 1/2 hrs away by bus) so we left here later Tuesday afternoon. Kumamoto is where Suzuki Shimai spent the first 4 transfers of her mission, so it was a bit nostalgic for her and fun to see some people she knew. We spent the night in the sisters apartment there (there are 4 sisters in that apartment, so it was a party having all of us there for the night). Zone conference the next day was awesome! President and Sister Gustafson are so great. They spoke to us and gave wonderful advice, reminders, and counsel that will really help us improve as we apply it each day. The relief society made a huge lunch for all of us (it was two zones) and after that the APs taught us more about working with members. Really great information - we're excited to apply it and improve. One thing that was really nice was seeing a few familiar faces - two people from my MTC district (Anderson choro and Davidson Shimai) are both in my zone, so it was great to talk to them and see how they were doing. I was also able to meet a lot of awesome missionaries that knew Suzuki Shimai and were super nice as well. I guess all in all it was really encouraging and uplifting to see and talk to a lot of other missionaries that are doing the same thing Suzuki Shimai and I do every day. Japan is just the greatest. Funny story - so we were supposed to ride back to Miyazaki right after ZC, later that afternoon early evening ish but when we tried to get on the bus, they didn't have enough seats for our district! So we ended up staying one more night and leaving in the morning. It was really great though - we got the opportunity to proselyte going streeting in a different city than what we were used to and it was really different. People are so nice in Miyazaki. But anyway it was great. Oh and we went to Kumumoto's Eikaiwa (English Class) and it was a party. We're trying to build up our eikaiwa here a little more because we don't really have very many consistent students at the moment. But that will change! 

We got back Thursday afternoon, prepared our lesson for our investigator (the eighteen year old girl I talked about before) and went and taught her that night, and (drumroll please....) she now has a baptismal date! Together, we're going to work on getting ready for her to be baptized at the end of this month. One kind of sad thing though is that we can't meet with her this week, but it's happy because the reason is she'll be at SMYC in Nagasaki (aka kind of like Japan's EFY) with one of her member friends. Huzzah!| So we're hoping that will be good with helping her be surrounded in the gospel a bit more and help with more questions. Anyway, she is awesome and we thing she's the greatest. It really is so incredible what can be done with the help of the members. 

Oh another funny story - a few days ago we were rushing to get back to something on time from an appointment and realized we didn't have enough time to go back home and make dinner, so we stopped at a mcdonalds. Let me tell you, that was the best McDonalds I've ever had. To tell you the truth, I have never really enjoyed it very much in America but I think just the fact that the burger I ate tasted exactly like any burger I've ever had at a McDonalds (the familiarity of it, I guess) was a bit of a happy thing. Fun stuff.

Also Suzuki Shimai and I get along really well, and are always telling each other funny stories and such so we often just speak in English at home. But last week we decided that had to stop, so now we have a rule of only Japanese. It is hard, and I can't tell quite as many detailed stories, and she is super patient with me but we have been doing it - which is way exciting! It's definitely helping me feel better about Japanese, and even though I've got a long way to go I'm glad I can work on things each day to continually try to improve.

Last thought, then I'll end my rambling. My favorite Japanese word is "genki"- essentially in English it is happy, energetic, enthusiastic, full of vigor, full of life...etc... the list goes on. Basically it doesn't have a one word counterpart in English. It just makes me feel genki to think about how awesome it is when we are genki! I was talking to another missionary this week who made an offhand remark about the importance of staying genki through everything, and it really got me thinking. Therefore, I decided a great motto to live by is this "When life gets you down, just be genki!" Doctine and Covenants 68:6 is the best with this. In English, it says "Be of good cheer, and do not fear..." whereas in the Japanese scripture it reads "Genki....." in place and I love it! It brings such a joyful tone to the scripture, and really means alot. Anyway, so the challenge for this week is to always be genki! Life really is amazing. And everything is more fun when you look on the bright side :D

Well thanks for listening to (or reading?) my rambling, I love you all so much, and I hope you can continue to feel genki!

Ai shite imasu!!!

-Flake Shimai

8-4-13

Konnichiwa! This week was PACKED - like every week seems to be here! I'm sure Yuiko shimai has been sending you pictures of a few of our Miyazaki adventures, but I'll expound a bit on those soon. 

I love hearing about how everything is going back in AZ! That's so exciting that school is starting back up again for y'all -- it's crazy because I left on my mission while you were still all in school, and it doesn't seem like it's already been long enough for you to be back again! Time is a crazy concept, that's for sure.

Yes, it is hot here. Not as hot as Mesa, per se, but the humidity definitely makes up for the degrees difference. It feels so much hotter here than AZ because the humidity is a bit of a doozy sometimes. But enough with the dramatics - I've actually adjusted to it a lot faster than I was expecting to! I think having a working A/C now has helped with that alot :) And yes, Miyazaki is a pretty spread out, big place but it is one of the smaller and more rural parts in our mission. One huge blessing of being a little farther away from the big cities is that people are nicer here, or so I've heard. Not that I'm the expert or anything, because I haven't been anywhere else! Just know that I love it here. Miyazaki is so beautiful - I can't even describe it! Ooh and another real fun fact on that note - a few days ago we made a trek to visit some less active members that live in the outskirts of Miyazaki. We rode our bikes for over an hour, and it was through the most beautiful countryside. It was the first time since coming to Japan that I had been in a place that was open fields, not surrounded by buildings. Seriously, it makes me a little sad that I can't adequately express how beautiful everything is here. Just know that it is, and that's that. :)

So last Monday for Pday we went to Aoshima (which essentially means blue island) which is a beautiful island at the edge of Miyazaki. GORGEOUS. The tide was out, so we were able to hunt through the rocks and find edible sea snails, and we ate them the next night for dinner! And they weren't even gross. Probably not something I'd eat every day, but decent, nonetheless. Another super nice thing was Yuiko shimai's brother, who is in Heber right now told her that if I was from AZ I'd probably like Mexican food. So she made us mexican food! We had taco rice (aka, everything you would put on a tortilla for a taco, just over rice instead) and that was a nice combination of my life. Arizona and Japan. Awesome.

Ooh more fun facts about food - I had my first kaitenzushi experience this week. Essentially a conveyer belt of food rolls past each table and you order on a touch screen what you want, and it just rolls right over to you. Pretty fun. And almost all sushi. I was feeling adventurous, so I can now say I've tried squid, octopus, and sea urchin - and the best thing is it's not that bad! Probably an acquired taste, but hey I guess I'm on the right path.:)

I'd just like to take a minute and apologize right now for the complete random order of things in all my letters - it's essentially just my jumble of thoughts on paper (or I guess the computer in this case) because I feel like we don't have enough time to do everything so my mind is continually throwing things around! 

In answer to your question, the elders have met with the investigator we referred to them once and have had a bit of a hard time meeting with him again because he's really busy with work. But we just keep praying! I have high hopes. I love our investigators. We're teaching an 18 year old girl who is good friends with one of the families in the ward. She is really sweet, and very sincere. She was a referral from this family, so we started teaching her our first week here. She is super nice, and I love the things I'm able to learn during each lesson from her and during the study time we have to prepare. This gospel is amazing!!!!  We're also teaching a really nice lady right now who's in her late 60s or early 70s, and she is great. She has two adorable grandkids that she's watching for a few weeks so she always brings them to Eikaiwa (english class) each week. She was progressing pretty well, she always comes to church and such, but her husband died a few months ago and so she doesn't feel like she could join this church till all of the Buddhist funeral rites are over, out of respect and such. The problem is they go on for about a year. Anyway, so we know she has a testimony and I really do feel like she'll join the church eventually but it's a bummer because things are kind of at a standstill with her. But we just keep working, and loving her, and remembering that the Lord's timing is what matters!

Miracle of the week!

So, a few days ago  during study time I was feeling a bit down and I wasn't sure why - I was figuring things out, and studying what I should be doing, but for some reason I was just feeling pretty overwhelmed with all of the things we had to do. I felt like I should turn on a song on my mp3 and listen to the words, and things would be better. I almost didn't because I never listen to music during study time, but it felt like the right thing to do so I did. The first song that came on was a version I'd never  heard before, and I didn't even know it was on my ipod. I was half listening as the intro to I am a Child of God started playing, then I was surprised when the first thing I heard was "Kami no kode su," aka the Japanese words for the song! It turns out the song was just sung in several different languages, but I think Heavenly Father knew that was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment in time. I almost started crying because I could feel that love so strongly. I know that this is hard, and that life in general is hard, but Heavenly Father is so involved in the details of our lives! He loves us and helps us in so many ways everyday. Recognizing these instances is sometimes hard to do, but with patience, it will come!

Once again, thanks for listening to my rambling. OH one more story - on Saturday we went to see Hanabi - aka fireworks with some members and less actives in our ward. And... we got to dress up for the occasion! The fireworks were in celebration of the ending of summer festival. People were all dressed in traditional dress, and we got to join in! We borrowed some yukattas (kind of like kimonos) from one of the ward members and it was awesome. And the super nice part is that she gave it to me afterward. I can't believe how nice everyone is here. I'll treasure this forever! But anyway, yeah the fireworks were the most amazing I'd ever seen. Definitely the most intense fireworks I'd ever seen. I'll try to send a few pictures. :D

Thank you so much for all of your words of wisdom - I am so grateful for all the advice you give me and your love that I can feel, even though I am thousands of miles away! I love you all, and good luck with all your adventures and endeavors this week!!!!

Ai shite imasu!!!

-Flake Shimai

                                                             Finding sea snails

                                                                Traditional Yukattas

7-28-13

Konnichiwa!

I love that you've been getting the emails and pictures from the sister in our ward *and yes, that is how you spell her name. We're not supposed to send member and investigator's names in our emails though, so sorry about that! I'll tell you all about the incredible people in more detail in a year and a half. :D But yeah. I'm sure I mentioned it last time, but our ward is out of this world. There are 60 active members, and one thing we're really working hard on in our mission is that we're focusing on a Top 5 list for each ward that is compiled by the branch presidency and basically it is the top 5 less active families or individuals that they want us to devote a little more time to and help reactivate. It's been a really effective system so far, and it is a great experience. Seriously, I've only been here for a week and a half but Miyazaki Japan already holds a very special place in my heart.

In answer to a few of your queries:

Yeah, I've basically figured out how to ride a bike in a skirt. The first day was a bit of an adventure but ever since then it's been golden. I don't know how I've survived without always having a bike before now. It's the best thing ever. I LOVE MY BIKE. It makes me so happy. This probably sounds a little extreme to say, but it really is the best - we can be so much more effective because of our bikes and talk to so many more people! Needless to say, it holds a soft spot in my heart.

And your memory serves you correctly. I hate cats. And there were about 14 there at that appointment but it was a good character building experience for me. :D

The ward loves us so much. I was a little under the weather on  Friday, right after our appointment where there were so many cats I was feeling pretty dizzy and lightheaded. I think I had a bit of heatstroke but I'm good now. But yeah - so the elders came over with a watermelon, because according to them as long as you have a watermelon when you're sick everything is better, and the ward mission leader left us a delicious homemade egg thing - sorry I still don't know what any of the food names are yet- and then at church a lot of people asked me if I was feeling better. Basically it's incredible because even though I can't speak very much Japanese, I still am able to feel everyone's love as well as our Savior's love through them everyday. 

Missionaries:

Yes, Miyazaki has 1 set of elders and 1 set of sisters *but until we came a week and a half ago it had just been the one set of elders* and we are all really busy. There are so many people to talk to and meet with. The elders in Miyazaki are great - Elder Iwaasa, who is half Tongan, half Japanese, and grew up in Canada, and Elder Mabuchi, who is full Japanese. There's one more companionship in our district - a set of elders in Miyakonojo that come here to miyazaki every week for district meeting. They're great too. Our area is essentially all of Miyazaki, which covers quite a bit of area. To tell you the truth, I don't really know how many people or anything - you could probably find out from google and let me know! Haha just kidding. But it is pretty big. Although it is more in the country of Japan, so the people are really nice for the most part. And yes I really like the food overall, even though it is very different from what I am used to eating.

Your week sounds like it was awesome! I'm glad Devin got to visit, and you were able to meet his roommates and friends. They're all are awesome - I can vouch for them.It was crazy when we were planning last week and I realized it was July 24, it seemed pretty crazy to think of all the crazy things going on in Snowflake. But then I was okay with it because we so busy doing everything we needed to do here!

A bit about my week:

I seriously can't even say everything that I want to tell you. It is incredible here. There's a huge main street that is my favorite to ride down at night because the tall buildings are all lit up against the dark sky and there are tons of people for us to talk to, and biking here is so fun - basically one night last week when we were riding home from an appointment down that street I just realized Wow. I'm just cruisin down a street in Japan. This is such an incredible feeling! I seriously just want to talk to every person I see! Haha the only problem is I don't always talk very much because I don't have tons to say in Japanese, but I try!

There is the cutest family in our ward that has 5 kids and they are so much fun. It's official. Little Japanese kids are the cutest on the planet. We went with them on Saturday to the annual Summer Festival *because their 13 yr old daughter had a nonmember friend, PI that we were able to get to know a bit better* and it was insanely awesome. Seriously I can't describe it. There were SO MANY PEOPLE there. Traditional Japanese dress, tons of dances, a huge thing with like 20 guys beating these war drums, and so on. My favorite was the food stand set up that said Fried Potatoes, or in other words just normal french fries. And everytime we go somewhere like that with lots of people, there are always a few groups that stare at me then whisper as I pass by, and all I can understand is the word gaigin, foreigner, and kawaii, cute. It's hilarious. I'm a definite minority but it's all good - we've started using that to our advantage with our streeting endeavors. Basically say yeah I'm from America, and I came to Japan to share a message with you! It's great.

Every Wednesday, we teach Eikaiwa *english class* and since before the elders were the ones that taught, we decided to start up a kids Eikaiwa, which we teach. It's awesome because we teach the kids while their parents are learning english from the elders and we have a great time. 

Even though it's only been a couple weeks, we've already seen some incredible miracles. One happened last week after Eikaiwa. We hadn't been able to contact as many people as we wanted to that day, so with the twenty min of our day we had left we decided to go housing for a bit. We got rejected a few times, and decided we had time for one more door. A guy that was about mid twenties answered, and to our surprise listened to what we had to say! He accepted the book of Mormon, was really intrigued by it, and said he'd be interested in meeting again, the following Sunday *last night.* We were really excited, and know that Heavenly Father was really looking out for us. We passed him as a referral to the elders, so all of us showed up at the church for the appointment last night, so we could introduce him to them and such, and we were thinking to ourselves that he might not come because it had been awhile since we'd talked to him, and it seemed a little too good to be true. But at 8 on the dot he showed up at the church and brought his book of mormon with him, and really enjoyed meeting the elders. They set an appointment up and it was just a great experience. Heavenly Father has prepared people for us to share this gospel with! We just need to do our best to always stay close to him, and try to allign our will with his. When we do this, we are able to be tools in the Lord's hands. We've seen this over and over and I can't wait to continue to do the best I can to continue in this work. A favorite scripture from the week - Helaman 3:27-28. The Lord is always there for us! When we turn to him, we can see his help in so many ways. Thanks for all of your prayers, love and support. I hope you have a great week!

Ai shite imasu!

-Flake Shimai

PS Casey and Angela are going to be working for the American Kindergarten that some members of our ward run. And I believe they'll be in Miyazaki this transfer. Small world!

                                           Can you tell she hates cats?

                                                    Pretty Styling!

                                       Alyssa and her companion.--It looks like she is fitting in fine

                                                 Summer festival

                                                           At the summer festival