9-29-13

My favorite kazoku,

Konnichiwa! Things are great, here in lovely Miyazaki. Seriously, tangent time - Miyazaki is beautiful. There are palm trees and we are right by the ocean, and I just super love it. That is all. But back to the subject at hand - it has been a great week! Thank you for telling me about everything you are up to - it sounds like things have been crazy for you all and will continue to be with everything going on! Ganbatte! You will be fantastic.

I am sorry that I don't always answer all of your questions - but I will try to do my best with that!

Yep, language-wise things are definitely improving. I am able to understand a lot of Japanese. Just normal conversations, when people speak to me, etc. It is a little harder when they speak super fast, but yes, on that end things are a lot better. It is still hard to speak very well *sentence structure, and such* but things are slowly improving with that as well. Yep - it is awesome seeing Angela and Casey every so often. Their baby is the cutest thing. Everyone here in the ward absolutely adores him. Oh and I am sorry, I forgot to mention it but this transfer the new elder, Elder Tolman is from Oregon. He is only a transfer ahead of me, so I knew him from the MTC. Cool stuff. Sister Suzuki is still great, helping me tons every day. We have quite a mix of Japanese/English conversations. We have reached a great compromise, because sometimes it is hard to speak in all Japanese all day every day especially when we have to communicate something with details, so our compromise is that we speak all Japanese, no exceptions, from when we wake up till after lunch. Then we still try to speak as much Japanese as possible, but if I have specific questions and such it is all good. This has worked out pretty well - the only problem is that we like to talk so much that sometimes we just have to speak in English for a bit, then we remember the rules... it makes for some great times. 

Jaaa, this past week - - - the volleyball activity was AWESOME. T-san's friends weren't able to come, but he came, some of our other investigators, less active members, and potential investigators came as well as some awesome members. It was so much fun! We played volleyball for about 2 hours (rented out some courts) then had some food and a short message - it was a great time. :) This past week, I made pizza. That was also exciting. Sorry for all the food news, but I am not that sorry so I will continue to talk about it. There is a restaurant here called Joyfull *kind of like the Japanese version of Dennys, but WAY more delicious* and we went with N-chan and some friends last week to celebrate her engagement!!! Awesome times. And random note - I don't want to worry you, mom, but about a week or so ago my gums really started hurting and I was worried that I would have to go to a dentist. Which I did not want to do - I feel like I have spent entirely too much of my life inside dentist offices and in oral surgeries. But anyway - I mentioned it to one of the ward members, who is a dental hygenist, and she brought over a bunch of dentist -ish stuff for me to apply every night, and things are good! Super nice of her. Oooh and yesterday we had a dendo fireside for our ward! Woot! Aka the four of us missionaries gave a presentation that the APs put together about member missionary work. It was based off of Elder Nelson's "Catch the Wave" talk and it was great. Pretty stressful preparing everything we needed for it, but it went well and I think it helped people see that member missionary work really is so important and not that hard! One fun thing with that - so several of the points we talked about, after presenting them, we did a little roleplay. In one of the roleplays, we were going back and forth a bit (sister Suzuki and I) and things were going well, but then I started saying something and realized halfway through the sentence that I did not know how to finish the sentence in a grammatically correct matter. But, I knew that I knew all the words I wanted to say so I just kind of stumbled my way through and we kept going. The good news is, according to SS it was endearing, and understandable. So its all good! Huzzah for dendo firesides, and member missionary work!!!

Kyudosha time!!! (Investigators!) --- Okay, the big news you have all been waiting for is here. PERMISSION GRANTED. As in, N-chan now has permission to be baptized!!!That is the happy news. The news that is still happy but maybe a little bit sad for me and Sister Suzuki is that the baptism will be this coming Sunday or the following Sunday (whichever works best with her parents' schedules). Hopefully. But she also said she might want to study a bit more and push it back a few weeks. You may ask why is this sad? I will tell you. Next week is transfer week. As in one of us will most likely be gone. But it is not that sad of news if one of us misses the baptism. Because we had the awesome opportunity of the preparation, teaching, getting to know her, etc. So I will keep you posted on that!!! Other investigators - so here is the thing. Essentially she is the main progressing investigator we have right now. We are teaching other people, but lots of things keep happening, such as Buddhism happens. Or they don't keep commitments. Or randomly after teaching a few lessons they decide it is just not what they want. So, we have the great opportunity to do a lot of streeting/housing. Yay! 

Also, the other day the biggest realization just hit me, out of the blue. The first transfer, especially, was pretty frustrating for me. Culture shock, missionary shock, not understanding a word anyone was saying, etc. really was hard. I kind of sometimes had the attitude of 'I wish I was serving in America, so I could know what was going on" and would get a little sad. But my realization the other day was this -- if I served in any other mission besides this one, I would not have met all of these people that have totally changed my life forever! Everyone I got to know in the MTC, my companions, senseis, other missionaries here in Japan, the ward members here, our investigators, random people we talk to on the street, etc... And I can't even imagine not knowing all of these people! I love them all so much! Therefore, that was my aha moment. And I have only been here for almost two transfers. I am so glad I have got a bit of time a head of me still to meet more people and continue discovering more blessings every day. Heavenly Father sure does know us and what is better for us, even though sometimes we may think we really know. We don't. He does. True story. :D That is why 1 Ne 17:3 is a favorite right now. He really does strengthen us, and helps us to do all that we need to do!!! I have seen this over and over again. Anyway, sorry for the supa random email, but I am outta time. Love you lots, thanks for everything, and have a lovely week!!!!

Ai shite imasu!

-Flake Shimai.

Fun fact:In Japanese, the subject is implied a lot of the time. Therefore, the phrase "Inorimasu" is a complete sentence. Pretty cool, right? (it means I will pray).

PS. Nope, General Conference is a week later for Japan, so we will watch it the following weekend!

Another week gone 9-22-13

Konnichiwa, kazoku!!!

I am glad you had a great week! It sounds like things are crazy with all the concerts, football games, and so on, but it sounds like you are all having a great time :) thanks for keeping me updated with all the happenings of Arizona! 

Yes, things are going well here in Miyazaki. I feel like there is never enough time to do all the things we want to do as missionaries, but hey, I guess that is a great problem to have! To start, I will answer a few of your questions

                                                                Takoyaki party

                                               

.

Haha, no, takoyaki is not a mixture of Mexican/Japanese food. The Japanese word for octopus is tako. Takoyaki is like  dough that you put a piece of octupus in, and cabbage, and other meat, and cheese, and all kinds of random things are inserted into the dough as it is cooking in this round griddle thing. Wow, that is a terrible description. I will definitely describe it better for ya in a year and a half (mostly because you know how much I like to use hand motions when I talk. It would definitely be helpful in this situation). Anywho, it is always a great time, lots of fun when we are able to have a takoyaki party! And no, T-san did not bring his friends to the takoyaki party, but they are hopefully coming to our huge YSA sports event today. We reserved some courts in a gym across town and we are doing a big volleyball competition with the single adults in the ward and their friends. I am excited!

Football. Sigh. Enjoy it for me, please. Sometimes when I remember that I am missing two football seasons, it makes me a tiny skoshi bit of trunky. Then I remember how I am in Japan and I remember that I would rather be here than watching football, so everything is fine!

Japanese - it is coming. In fact, I spoke in church yesterday, and it wasn`t even half bad! I know there are just about a bajillion ways in which I can still work harder and improve so much more, but things are a lot happier these days on the language side of the missionary scale. The happy news is that I basically discovered a couple of weeks ago that I knew more Japanese than I thought I did - so therefore, once I gained some confidence and opened my mouth a little more, things started happening. It is still scary - but things really are improving. My exciting news is that I can hokoku (report) completely in Japanese to our Nihongin district leader, and be understood! That is always a plus. Anyway - things are getting better. But I can improve SO MUCH more. I will just continue tryin my hardest every day, and remembering what this work is all about!

This past week, it has been raining a ton every morning, then sunshiney in the afternoon. Pretty convenient for our missionary schedule - because we study while its raining, then have beautiful weather when we are tracting and going to appointments. AND we get the bonus of smelling the beautiful after-the-rain smell. It is awesome. Also, BBQs in Japan are basically the greatest things ever. The meat is so good, and the there is this meat sauce that is delectable. Sorry I always talk so much about food. No judging, please. You would talk about it too if you could taste the goodness of the things I have had in the last few months. And on that note I have more good news - I have become a less picky eater. And please tell dallin that yes, I eat plenty of things with tentacles that are chewy. It just makes it more of an adventure, that is all. :D

Jaaa, so this week we had a BBQ at a less active member`s house and it was great! Another fun thing that happened this week was that the sister training leaders came for junkai (exchanges) with us this week. Junkai week is always so fun - they are awesome. This transfer there was a different STL from last time, so it was great to get to know her a bit. I was on splits with Kobayashi shimai, and we had a blast. The exciting part was that we spoke mostly in Japanese. Things are looking up. 

Okay, sorry about all the random stories. But now on to the real stuff. N-chan still does not have her parents` permission, but on a different note she got engaged to a member last week. We are way happy for them, and he has a really good relationship with her parents so we should hopefully be meeting them and/or receiving permission this week. We are hoping things will work out! If it is what the Lord wants to happen, of course. :)

More good news and bad news. The good news is, since being in Japan I have learned a lot more about the Buddhist culture than I knew before! Huzzah for learning new things, right? Fact about that - after someone passes away, there is a 49 day period in which there are tons of preparations for certain rituals and such, and the funeral rites usually last about a year. So basically there are a lot of people that we will start teaching or try to talk to but if they are in the middle of one of these rites, they won`t be able to meet with us anymore. It is a little frustrating, but we are learning a lot from these situations that we encounter!

Anyway, that just about wraps up my week. Thanks for all of your love and support, and remember how blessed we are to have this wonderful gospel! 

あいしています！！！

-Flake Shimai

フレ－ク　姉妹

PS - We are having a Halloween party next month, and they would love some ideas!! Can you please send me the recipe for pie crust and homemade rootbeer? 

Also we are going to have a Mexican food party with one of our investigators. If you haven`t sent that package yet with the taco seasoning yet, could you send that today or tomorrow? And maybe some easy mexican food recipes by next week. Thank you sooooo much - I love you all!!

9-17-13 A crazy week

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Mom - please don:t feel bad about the letter last week - I just happened to email as early as we can possibly do it (10 on Mondaymorning) so that is probably why the times were so crazy. It is all good. And while we are on the subject of emailing late - sorry I am sending this Tuesday night instead of the normal Monday morning! Today is P-day this week - but I will get to that later. So last week after emailing and such on Monday we went to Aoshima with our district. I told you a little bit about Aoshima when we went like our 2nd week here, but this time was such a hilarious adventure. We went for the day with our district (the Miyazaki elders, the Miyakonojo elders, and us) and it was awesome! We got to play some beach volleyball, enjoy the sand, and climb over the rocks because it was low tide. Maybe one day I will actually go deeper into the island to see the famous shrine, which is why most people go. Maybe. :) 

It says-Flake Shimai I love Miyazaki!

                                                                    Our district

                                                  Me and my awesome companion Sister Suzuki

Anyway, onward with the week! We were able to meet with N-chan for a few lessons and she is doing really well. The zone leaders were here on splits this past week, so she had her baptismal interview last Friday and passed with flying colors - that is the good news! The sad news is that we still do not have her parents permission for the baptism, and we have not been able to meet them yet either. I feel like we have been trying so many things but they just keep falling through. But it is okay - we are just continuing to do our best and trusting in the Lord:s timing! 

I would love to share with you know our awesome housing miracle of the week! So when it comes to streeting and housing, I personally prefer streeting, mostly because you always talk to the person face to face (as opposed to the little intercom thing) and when we house, often times people will not even answer the door. Anyway, so we were housing this week and it was kekko after kekko, time and time again (kekko is what people say a lot when we are housing - it basically means ``I`m good`` - aka I don`t need/want religion in my life right now! So it was kekko, kekko, kekko, everywhere we went and we were getting a little sad about that. Then we went to this one house and right after we said Hello! We are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints she jumped in and invited us inside. That never happens. It is almost always just a door talk, if we are able to talk for more than a few minutes to them. So she invited us in and gave us tea (Mugicha, the acceptable kind - don`t you fret) and listened to what we had to say. After we had just talked for a couple minutes she gave us delicious bread and milk, then asked us if we were selling anything, like books or something of the sort. We told her no we were not selling anything, but we had a book that we would love to give to her that explained a little more about what we believed. And we said it was free - the funny thing is, she kept trying to buy it. We had not even told her what was in it, but she basically told us she wanted it because she could see how happy we were. She also said she usually doesnt even answer the door when people come by, but there was something about how happy we were that she really wanted. So we were able to go and teach her and her mother (who is in her 80s - she is in her 50s) the next day and it was an awesome experience. We are going back tomorrow, and I can`t wait to talk to them some more! Sorry my story explanations are always so long. But it was an incredible experience to be sure. Last Wednesday was one of our craziest days. We taught about the same amount of lessons in one day that we usually teach in a week, then after all of that rushed to Eikaiwa and barely made it in time. Exhausting - but wonderful. I love being a missionary!

This has been our week of travelling. We went to Miyakonojo again for district meeting (its about a 1 hr train ride) last week, and yesterday (Monday) and today we were in Taniyama (which is about 2 1/2 - 3 hrs train ride from Miyazaki) because we had interviews with President and training from the APs. After that, yesterday afternoon, we got to go on exchanges with the Taniyama sisters and it was a blast. They are awesome! They are a threesome, the only other sisters in our zone. We stayed the night with them, and today we had a zone p-day. We had a barbecue, played some games, and just got to know some people in our zone a little better. Super great. Yes, so basically we just got back from Taniyama, and that is why I am emailing later than the norm :) Sorry bout that, mom! 

Last exciting bit of news.\, then I will end this rambling. The investigator that we found housing at the beginning of last transfer, that we passed to the elders, finally let them come back and teach him more lessons so they have been teaching and working with him a bit more. We had an SA takoyaki party (have I told you about takoyaki? if not I will explain it in more detail next week) and he came so we were all able to get to know him a little better. Lots of fun. The awesome news is we invited him to a Single Adults volleyball event we:re doing next week and asked him to come and invite some friends - he called the elders today and asked if it would be okay if he brought 6 people. Awesome! What a blessing!

Anywho. Sorry this letter is ultra rambly today. I basically blame it on my lack of sleep and travel exhaustion. Just know that I love you all and I am so grateful for the chance I have to be here in Japan - I know it is exactly where the Lord needs me to be right now!!!

Ai shite imasu!!!

-Flake Shimai

9-8-13 The unloved child!

In our defense we did send her an email.  They crossed somewhere over the pacific ocean and she did get to read it before she signed off.

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

I just want to start by saying I love you. Even though you didnt email me. I will tell you about my week anyway. :D

Awesome week! Wow what a great week. We received three referrals last week, and tried to contact them but none of them were home. :( But, this week we were able to contact them which was exciting indeed! It was an interesting experience. One was an older man who just kept firing lots of hard questions about religion at us for like an hour. He has studied a lot of different kinds of religion. It was interesting, but enjoyable as well. His daughter came home halfway through our discussion and felt so bad that he had been interrogating us so she kept apologizing and sent us home with a ton of food. Super nice of her, and an interesting experience to be sure. The typhoon hit us Tuesday night. Way crazy. The wind and rain were out of control - basically we did not sleep much that night because our apartment felt like it was shaking and it was way loud. But the awesome news is it passed by morning, so we were able to get out and do things the next day rather than hide in our apartment from the typhoon. We went on a field trip this week! Okay, more like we went to Taniyama for a zone training meeting with our zone. It is about 2 1/2 hrs or so by train. Huzzah for adventures. It was really beneficial. I learned alot. 

Friday was basically one of the best days of my life. No exaggeration. It was AWESOME. We taught our third referral the first lesson, and she was one of the kindest  people I have ever met in my life. That was super helpful and awesome, and another reason I loved the lesson so much was because I did not stress about the Japanese. It was probably the best I have ever done in a lesson with just focusing on the person, and the Japanese that I needed to say just came. I have had experiences like that before, but never like this. It was incredible. I know that there are still a ton of things I need to do every day to continually try to do better, but it was an incredible experience. Then we had a lesson with N-chan after that, and it was great. She is incredible! The unfortunate news is that we have set up different things to meet her parents multiple times and they keep falling through at the last minute. So, we still don:t have permission for her to be baptized. We just keep praying, and meeting with her, and putting our trust in the Lord and his timing. I know things are going to work out exactly how they need to. :) 

Last exciting news of the week - I made the Progress Record and presented it in our DCS (basically the ward mission coordination meeting). Super exciting. That is about all for my week. I hope you have a good week! And that you email me next week to tell me all about it :) 

Ai shite imasu!

Flake Shimai

PS As of next transfer, our mission will have 200 missionaries, 1/3 of which will be sisters. Crazy. When my trainer came to the mission (end of January ish) there were 105 missionaries. This work is moving forward!

9-1-13 Typhoon Time!!

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Where has August even gone?!? I swear this past month has flown by. Sorry I am not the best with replying specifically to all the details of your letter - just know that I love hearing about everything you are doing - your week sounds like it was great!

Yes, the main change for us this transfer was that our previous district leader became our zone leader, our new district leader was his companion so we already know him pretty well. And  his new companion is Elder Tolman, who is on his 3rd transfer, so we overlapped in the MTC for about 3 weeks. 

Alright, I just have a bunch of random thoughts to fire at you, so bear with me please ;D

1. Funny Japanese mistakes - sometimes when you try to speak Japanese, you make some really interesting mistakes. Here are a few that I have made in the past few weeks: I was telling a ward member that my cousin would be moving to Miyazaki, but instead of saying `Watashi no itoko` (my cousin) I accidently said `Watashi no otoko` (my man) - they started laughing pretty hard, and suffice it to say, I will always remember the difference between those two words from now on!

Next story - We went to visit a less active member but she wasn`t there, so when that happens we always leave a little note saying we are sorry to have missed them and we will come by again. I got the lucky assignment to write the whole note. It took a little while but I was pleased with the overall note once I was done. My companion looked over it to make sure it was correct and such then she burst out laughing at one point - which worried me a smidge. Instead of saying `Aitta kata`(we wanted to see you) I had accidently written `itta kata` (it hurt). Jaa, fun Japanese adventures. Dont you fret - I will continue to work on those!

2. Ironic food story - I have come to the realization that I am fairly fearless when it comes to trying food that is well... unique to my taste buds (aka random octopus, varying kinds of sushi, raw eggs, etc) but the one fear I have not yet conquered is, yes, that is right - shrimp. But let me defend myself - that is mostly because here when you are offered shrimp, oftentimes it looks nothing like it does in America. It has a million little legs/tentacle things and beady little eyes, that tend to stare into your soul a little. I just can`t bring myself to eat it. Mostly it is the eyes that get me. 

3. It rained all day yesterday, it is raining a ton right now, and apparently will continue to rain a lot all week because...da da da... it is a beautiful typhoon rollin on in! Miyazaki just is getting the rain from the typhoon, whereas some of our other areas nearby are taking the beating. Taniyama, where our zone leaders are, had church cancelled yesterday because it was so windy, rainy, stormy, and dangerous to even be outside of their apartments. Crazy! Good thing I love rain - and have an awesome rain suit!

4. I made banana bread last week. And baking powder biscuits. It was quite an exciting accomplishment. That is all.

5. There is a family in our ward who has 5 adorable children. Seriously, their youngest daughter is the cutest child I have ever seen in my entire life. They made Suzuki shimai and I a photo album with pictures of us with them and other ward members in Miyazaki and they gave it to us in case we were getting transferred - then when we discovered we were not transferring, they told us to keep it and continue to put Miyazaki pictures inside. It makes me so happy :D AND Yuiko shimai gave me the yukatta (kimono ish dress) that I wore when we went to the summer festival fireworks - SO NICE.

6. Last random thought - we have a skype meeting with all of the missionaries in our zone and our district president every fastsunday after church, and it is awesome. Well I guess I should technically call it a google hangout meeting, because that is what it is. Our district president is awesome - super genki and excited about missionary work so we are always able to learn a lot from those.

Okay, now that I have all the random stuff outta the way - the important news of the week! N-chan is the greatest. I love her! I also love that we are able to see her grow every week. This is such a wonderful opportunity that we have! Her parents are still pretty iffy on giving permission for her to be baptized, but we are having dinner with them this week with another family too so hopefully we will be able to explain a few  things a little bit better. We will see how it goes. We were also able to teach Ori-san this week (the super sweet grandmother lady that I have mentioned before) and it was great to be able to teach her, but she is still right in the middle of all the Buddhist funeral rites for her husband who recently passed away, so she is not super interested in meeting with us very often right now. 

Surprise of all surprises - this week was pretty rough for me in the sense of feeling a little on the hopeless side with Japanese. Ha, I know you haven:t heard that one before! But really, I had a few days that were REALLY hard. It is easy to get really down on myself for different things that I feel like I should know, or should have done. I know that everything happens for a reason though, and that the Lord really is there to guide us through. He is always there to reach a hand out and lift us up. I have definitely seen that in the past few months, but last week especially. I guess one thing I am really having a hard time with right now is confidence in myself and my missionary and Japanese abilities. I am trying to work on it everyday, and slowly I am sure things are improving but it is pretty hard. Mom and dad - funny thing it just made me think of. Remember when I was like 6 yrs old ish and I worried about everything, so you gave me a worry stone to rub? That is totally how I feel right now. I just keep stressing about everything and I guess I just need to remember that worry stone! Yeah, so sorry about the debbie downer ness of that, but things really are better now. Last week was a little hard with that, but things are improving. Slowly but surely, we are plugging along. 

Last thought (truly, this time) - I have a hymn that I love. It is `I have work enough to do` - the lyrics are awesome! One of our MTC senseis told us about it, and to tell you the truth before he mentioned it I really did not even know the song. But it is awesome - it has become a total favorite of mine. That is one thing that really helps me when things get discouraging; I find it quite calming to pray, then read through lyrics of hymns and reading through scriptures. I am always discovering things that apply exactly to what I need to hear at that moment, which is an incredible testimony of Heavenly Father:s love. Anyway, I highly recommend looking through the lyrics of that song this week - I promise you will not be sorry! Anywho, sorry for the abruptness/randomness of the letter and such, but I hope you know that I love you all, I know this church is true, I love Japan, and I love this missionary opportunity  (even though it is hard, it is also so rewarding) :D

Ai shite imasu!

-Flake Shimai