Summer! 7-20-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Thank you for the letter! It is always so great to hear about your week. I am still in a state of shock that Logan is now a missionary! Mostly just the fact that he will be in Iowa by next transfer is a little crazy. But awesome, of course. Oh, speaking of that - transfers are next week so I will be emailing a day late. Just a heads up :) (and mind you, willes and I are planning on staying in saijo for 4. I have faith). 

Also, I had no clue grandma was going on another mission - good for her! She will be wonderful. She is such a great example. I know she will change lives.

On to the week! I just might start a little backwards. This morning, we went golfing with Tomikosan and one set of the elders (Wood and Bowler). It was way fun, but I am exhausted! She is a huge golfer - it's always fun to do some fun things with investigators as well as the more serious gospel lessons. We had a great time. Tomiko was teaching us all sorts of Hiroshima ben (which basically means Hiroshima dialect/slang) and it was hilarious. We were able to have several good lessons with her this past week. Things are going well with her, but because of some sickness things she has we have to teach pretty slow, and review alot. She has a few fears because of awful experiences with churches in the past, but she really does want to believe and be baptized. We are really working on building her faith and little by little overcoming fears. I have learned a lot from every person that I have taught on my mission. Sometimes I feel selfish - because we come on missions to help other people come closer to Christ and progress, but I am the one that is learning and changing and growing so much every day.

Favorite miracle of the week - - - So a few days ago, we had felt really strongly during planning one night like we should go visit Umeda san (an investigator we haven't been able to meet with for a little while) the next night. So we did, and were a little disappointed when she wasn't home. BUT as we were biking away, we were going down a really small random side road, and we ran in to Barbara!!! We had not been able to get ahold of her. She didn't come to our last appointment, and we don't know where she lives, so we were kind of worried. When we began talking to her, she just started apologizing and telling us about all sorts of things she had to do that day that had taken longer than expected, and she had felt so bad that she didn't have a way to get a hold of us. So she had gone to the church earlier that day and slipped a  note explaining that under the door. She is so sweet! I am so glad we were able to work everything out with her. We set up a time for another lesson, and have been able to have a couple lessons with her since then. One awesome thing was Fe shimai, one of our solid members is from the Philippines and was able to joint with us yesterday and talk over more serious questions in Tagolog. I love teaching Barbara - she has such strong faith and such a relationship with God. It is so different to teach her compared to the majority of the people I have taught on my mission. I love the experiences I am having.  

Fun fact - yesterday I taught gospel principles. I've helped out with the classes before on my mission but yesterday was the first time I had done it all by myself. I learned some pretty fun new words to be able to tell stories and such. Everyone was really nice, and we had a great time - but suffice it to say, I will not ever complain about teaching one of those in English. It sounds a little nicer than prepping another full Japanese one. Loads of fun.

Last exciting investigator to report - Takedasan. She is the Japanese girl in her twenties ish that we are teaching right now. I love her. She really has such a strong desire to know the truth. I love the people we are teaching with all my heart. I am trying to do better every day to be worthy to teach them exactly what they need to hear. I wish I could express how often we have seen the Lord's hand in the work here. He really is always with us. So many things are so hard, but the miracles we see and ways we grow always outweigh the hard things. I can't fully express myself today - sorry fam. But, just know that I love these people with my whole soul. I love being a missionary. I love being in Japan - the food, culture, language, other missionaries - and truthfully never want to leave. (except to see your lovely smiling faces, of course). I love you so much - thank you for your wonderful example, love and support! Have a good week!!!

Ai shite imasu!

Flake Shimai

PS Mom, we will be having some words about Japanese schooling when I get home. It is the craziest/saddest thing I have ever seen in my life. They basically have homework all the time and basically don't have much of a summer break. it's called summer break but they still have to go to school. crazy stuff. that's all.

What a week! 7-13-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Man oh man. It is hard to even know where to start. I can't believe Logan goes in to the MTC this week. I am so happy for him. As I was reading through your email, I have been reflecting a bit and it is incredible to see how much I have changed in these past 14 months. Missions - hardest and the most rewarding. I love them. It is  a little hard to realize I won't be seeing him for quite a while, but I am so proud of him and know he will be a great missionary. And as for your question with approaching people - YES. One hundred percent. When I first got to Japan, and was expected to go up to random people on the street and start talking to them about God in their language, that I didn't really speak - that was one of the most terrifying things I could even imagine! It's funny, because when I first came I was just so scared for that with Japanese and such, but now, even though I've been out for awhile, it's doing it in English that is a bit hard. I have been getting more practice with that in Saijo - we meet people from all over here. We've met people from 24 different countries just in Saijo in the last few months. I don't know if I have mentioned it recently or not, but I LOVE working in Saijo with Sister Willes. Last comment with your letter - don't you fret, mom. Bugs flying into our eyes are a normal thing. I don't think you can fully see it in the picture, but it was there, legs and all!

Anyway, on to the week. We had some wonderful miracles, as well as some really hard things as well - but hey, I'm a missionary - that's what happens! Basically, we had 3 investigators drop us this week  (Kimura, Suzeni, and Hasuike). They were pretty much all a day apart - basically all three let us know that they were happy with their religion, thought we were really nice but wanted us to know they didn't want to hear anymore about religion. That was pretty hard. I know God has a plan for them. We are just trying our hardest to be instruments in His hands and continue meeting those he has prepared for us to meet! We were able to meet Barbara a few times this week, which was great, but she didn't show up to our appointment scheduled for last night and we haven't been able to contact her, which has us pretty worried. She is really sweet, but also quite Catholic. She has so much faith  - I just want her to see how much God has in store for her! But things are good. We will work it out. Tomikosan, our investigator with the baptismal date is doing well. We may have to end up pushing it back a bit again, because she takes a little while to understand and remember principles. We had a big learning experience with her this past week - I think Heavenly Father was trying to remind us that we need to be better with getting member present lessons with her. We went over, wanting to do a simple review lesson, but it ended up being one of the hardest lessons I've taught. She was saying a lot of things we couldn't understand, and Japanese was a real struggle for both of us during the lesson; we couldn't address each others' concerns super well. We learned our lesson and will be doing better with that from now on. But she is doing well, we will just try to have more Japanese joints from now on. :)

Sorry - there is a bit of the hard things that have happened this week - but I have some wonderful news as well! The elders passed Takeda san to us this week and she is incredible. They were housing, and didn't have much time left and had  knocked every door in the building with no success. But they knew they had felt really good about the apartment building - and the last door they knocked on was her door. She is really genuine, and has had interest in Christian churches for a long time, but didn't really know where to go to learn more. We dropped by with the elders last week, hoping to set up a return appointment, but she invited sister willes and me in right on the spot and we were able to teach her a lesson. She is young, probably late twenties ish and Japanese. We connect really well, and have really just been able to talk about just about everything. She invited us to come back two days later, and we were able to teach her again. She has a sincere desire to know the truth, and I can't wait until our next appointment this week! 

We also had junkai (exchanges) this week with the sister training leaders. It was awesome - I learned a lot. I was way excited - I got to junkai with Babcock shimai, a girl that was in my zone in Fukuoka for 4 transfers (our areas were neighbors so we saw each other quite a bit) and that is one of my favorite sisters in the mission. We had an awesome day, were able to teach a few lessons and do some good finding. Good times. 

Alrighty. Sorry this has been kind of a random here and there email - sorry if that first part sounded a bit down - I promise it's not that - we all just have weeks we need to learn from! I am SO happy to be here. I know at first it was frustrating and I wondered how I would ever be able to serve in Japan, but I cannot stress to you enough how much the Lord has shown me over and over and over again throughout my mission that this is EXACTLY where I need to be. I am so grateful for His patience with me and for the things that I am learning here on my mission. I know my life is completely changed. Thank you so much for all of your love and support - I love you so much!!!!!!

Ai shite imasu!

Flake Shimai

Happy America Day!! 7-6-14

                                                                   So cute!!

                                                                       Yeah America

                                                                   

                                                       Willes Shamai and I celebrating.



Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Thank you for the email! It looks like you had a fun-filled week with the reunion and such. I know it is probably not that crazy to you, because you have been consistently seeing all of those people but WOW - everyone is so old! The pictures of the cousins you sent - blew my mind a little. And Dallin  looks really old. I am a little scared to go back to America. I think I will just stay in Japan for a while. Alrighty, on to the week!

I shall start with a fun fact about my time here in Saijo - we have met people from 23 different countries just in the past few months of living here. It is a really neat experience to learn so much about different cultures and languages and ways of doing things. Love it! Rain - yeah that is a thing. It rains so much here. But the funny thing is - I love it. The times we get caught in the rain without our rainsuits are a little crazy - those are the times where I come home wringing out my skirt and having tons of water pour out, but when I have my rainsuit on, biking through the rain, I absolutely love it. I think this is one of the things I will always think on when I reflect on my mission - darting through random streets with rain pouring down and the wind on my face. I love Japan! 

Alright - lessons of the week! We were able to teach a lot this week, which is always exciting. I will share a few fun experiences. We taught the Restoration  to Munechika san, the cute little grandma the elders housed into a few weeks ago. She had read 15 pages of the Book of Mormon in just a few days, and all we had asked her to read was the introduction! That is always exciting to hear as a missionary :) She was sincere and nice. She said she wants to talk to us more, but to go slowly. We are excited to keep moving with her. Funny moment of that lesson - she brought us these slices of green cake (a distinct green, like olive green kind of) and we started apologizing and telling her we were so sorry but we cannot eat things with green tea in them. We were sure this cake had green tea in it, because EVERYTHING in Japan has a green tea option (ice cream, cakes, cookies, even oreos, chocolate, shaved ice, etc.) and it is always a very specific shade of green. The exact color of the cake she set in front of us. But here is the exciting news - she looked at the package and said oh don't worry, this is just seaweed, not green tea! A relief, indeed! Huzzah for being able to eat word of wisdom approved green cake! We had another great lesson with Tomikosan as well. Things are going well with her, but it does take her a bit of time to understand things so we are going little by little, and her faith is growing!

America day - here it goes. Lots of miracles on our Fourth of July! But before I start on those, a quick explanation. Trying to explain that the holiday's name is the Fourth of July  was quite a task. It doesn't make sense to anyone as to why it is called that. Then, I tried to explain it could also be called Independence Day. That one didn't fly either. Plan C was put into action. Calling it America's day worked the best when explaining it to non-Americans. Woot. Favorite moment of America day - we ran into Barbara on the street! HUGE MIRACLE. She is our cute Philippine investigator that we have been trying to get a hold of for a while, but she is always at work and only has a house phone, no cell phone so we haven't been able to contact her for about 2 weeks. We were able to set up an appointment for next week and invite her to FHE. We all went to get donuts, and had a small lesson right there in the donut store! What a great day! Don't worry mom. For dinner that night, I ate rice and seaweed. Yay America! 

Too many things to say and no time to say them - but I have a bit more news. We went in to Hiroshima for church yesterday (fast sunday) and it was great, as always. Fun opportunity - there was a family visiting from Arizona there (Chandlar) and I got to translate for them inSunday school, and Willes shimai translated through relief society. It was fun to meet fellow Arizonans. 

Alrighty. Lots of things to say but no time - let it just suffice to say I am happy to be here! The work is true - I love serving in Saijo with my whole soul. I feel like I have so many blessings, far more than I deserve and I am so grateful to have the support of such a wonderful family :) thank you for everything you have done for me and continue to do for me - I love you all so much! Have a great week!!!!!

Ai shite imasu!

Flake Shimai 

Summertime in Japan!! 7-1-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Okay, just to start out - no mom, I am not dead. I am so sorry my emailing is so late this week! We had zone conference yesterday, so our p-day got changed to Tuesday this week, and Willes shimai and I just got back from Hiroshima. We have been there all day helping one of our investigators clean out her mother in law's house.

Sounds like there are a lot of things going on at home! That picture did not even look like Dallin. I am a little worried that I will not be able to recognize him when I go home. And yes, in answer to your question, I DO have that legitimate fear when it comes to returning to America. It took a little bit of time to adjust to the culture here, but now that I have I absolutely love it. It is going to be so strange going back and not having people bow to me and speak honorifically all the time. Fun fact - don't know if I've mentioned it before but in Japanese you can say the same thing multiple ways - honorifically, humbly, politely, a little more rude, and really slang. High schoolers and little kids have their own language. The way we normally communicate is using the polite method, but also sometimes honorific and humble. It is quite an adventure.

But sorry for that little tangent! I just hope you know I also am losing random English. That may sound silly, but it is true. Things do not translate directly very well, so sometimes it takes a little while to remember exactly how it is said - でも大丈夫ですーがんばります！

Alright - on to the week! I shall share a few favorite experiences. We set up an appointment with our little grandma, Hasuike san (the one that flagged us down a few weeks ago and gave us all her info and told us to come back to visit her) and the funniest thing happened. Right when we pulled up to her house, she said "Do you have locks for your bikes? We have to go!" We locked up our bikes and she kidnapped us. She basically said get in the car! (and nobody messes with cute Japanese grandmas, so we promptly got in the car) and we took off! She drove for about 20 minutes and took us to a little boutique with cakes and juice and such. It was great - we were able to share a lot about the book of Mormon and the role religion has played in our lives, and a bit about prayer. She is really sweet, and it went pretty well. We are excited to go back to teach her more this week! Heart attack moment of the week - about 6 hours later (we had dinner, Eikaiwa, and some other things going on before we returned home) at 8:40 ish we discovered that our phone was gone. We booked it back to the church, looked all over, tried to figure out where it could be, hoped it hadn't fallen out while we were biking, then realized it might be in Hasuikesan's car. We tried calling and she didn't answer, and it was too late to go to her house. The next morning, we tried calling again and it was in her car! Huge miracle! We went and got it at lunch - we had gone just under twenty four hours without it but it was a scary thing  to not have any way for our people to contact us.

Another highlight of the week - we had a glow party at the park! We invited all the members, a bunch of investigators; and all the missionaries were there. It went so well. There is a huge park by the university that is gorgeous. We had some food and played a lot of games. All of our people are really fun. I will try to send some pictures.

Rainy season - gotta love it. It rains a lot here. As in often and a lot. I can't tell you how many times I have come home looking like a pruny (yes prune-y, not puny) drowned kitten, wringing loads of water out of my skirt. Gotta love it.

We had an AWESOME lesson with Tomikosan about the Atonement! It was just about the epitome of teaching someone without a Christian background - however, even though it was a little hard for her to understand all of it, we and the joints for the lesson were able to simply testify of the power of the Atonement in our own lives. In her prayer at the end of the lesson, she expressed a true desire to know for herself and be able to understand. It was humbling to hear that intent.

More miracles! Sunday - President and Sister Gustafson and the APs came to Saijo. It was awesome - I am pretty sure they haven't been to church here before (because it just was started in December). One really cool thing - Saijo was one of the Assistant's bean area. He loves it here, and really is one of the missionaries that got things moving. It was awesome for him to be back and see all of the growth that has happened. Another great experience - the other AP is from Brazil, and they came with us to visit our Brazillian investigators. Unfortunately, they were not home but we did run in to some really nice people.

Last news. Yesterday we had zone conference and it was one of the best conferences I have ever been to. I learned a lot, and definitely had some questions I'd been having answered through the trainings. I sometimes get worried when I remember how soon I have to go back, but I have a lot of things that I know the Lord still needs me to accomplish here so I am working with everything I have. I know for certain that the Lord knows us each so personally. He knows exactly what is going on with each of us and shows that love! I feel so blessed every day to know this, and am so grateful for the chance I have to tell others that every single day. I love you and miss you, but I know this is exactly where I need to be right now. :) I love you and hope you have a great week!!!

愛しています！

フレーク姉妹

                                                        Sisters slumber party!!

                                                                  Our district in Saijo

                                                               Japanese pinata?