Flying Squirrels!! 11-23-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Thanks for the letter! Sounds like a fun week! Let me just give a shout-out for the snowflake football team- I totally was telling the elders in my district last week how proud I was of our team going to playoffs and all that (doesn't matter that it's been years since I graduated haha). They were happy for us too. Gosh I can't believe how fast time flies. Yes so I have officially been in Saijou for 6 transfers - almost 9 months - aka half of my mission. I love it here so much. I love all of my areas because of different reasons but this is my favorite. There is such a special feeling here. It's hard to describe but Saijou is just bursting with possibility. More on that later. Unfortunately, there's some technicalities being worked out still so we're not a branch yet - just doing our best with our happy little Saijou twig. It's great. It's funny - you'd think that after 18th months I'd be just grand with missionary stuff, right? Nope - still make mistakes all the time! Good thing Heavenly Father is patient with us! 

Funny language mishap that occured last week. We were teaching Nakayamasan the law of chastity, temples, and eternal marriage last week (takeda shimai was jointing) and these are two of the nicest people ever. Anyway, I was telling nakayama san that in the temple she could be sealed to her family but instead of saying musubi, the right word, I said musasabi (flying squirrel). Yep, defnitely accidently said she could have a flying squirrel with her in the temple. They both burst out laughing and I realized right away what I said and we were all almost in tears it was so funny. I have never used the word musasabi in conversation but it is a word I learned in teh MTC thanks to the elders in our district. what an opportune time for it to come out, right? Haha anyway it was pretty funny. Nakayamasan is doing great and looking really solid for december 13th - I am so happy for her! Fujimotosan (she is our investigator that reminds me of grandma moody) set a baptismal date last week!!! woohoo!! Only catch is... it is for November 22, 2015. Haha. She is working through some courage things right now but once she makes a promise she keeps it. She will be getting baptized! We are working on moving it up a bit but she really does have that desire to be baptized and we are so excited for her. 

Our district is the best. Two of the elders made us all really cool Saijou sweaters. We all get along so well - it is like a little family here. I love it. 

Thanksgiving - so it is clearly not celebrated in japan unless you happen to be in the same district as teh mission president and his wife (last year's thanksgiving) or in sister lamb's district (this year). She is putting together a HUGE meal for the 2 hiroshima zones today so we  are all headed in to hiroshima in a couple of hours for a big zone pday and dinner. I definitely lucked out on that one - both thanksgivings without even being in america:) 

We've been teaching all sorts of people this week but I don't have time for anything else except our biggest miracle of the week - we were visiting a member a few days ago and as we were walking down the stairs of her apartment building a girl was standing a few doors down and asked us where we were from, and we said america and she said Oh come into my house! I'm from the PHillipines - let's talk! So we went in and talked for a few minutes to her and her roommate and set up a time to come back in a few days whne her other roommates were home (and ebcause it was almost 9 at the time). So we went back a few days later, expecting more of a solid BRT and explaining to them a bit about our purpose as missionaries. We got there and all 4 of these philippino girls were there and they had made us a huge meal (it was SO good - all the philippine food I've had is so good) and we all just talked and had a great time - became great friends. the conversation naturally drifted toward re,ligion and what whe were doing here and they started asking some really good questions. We simply explained a bit, thne asked if we could come over the next week to explain a little more. They started nodding, then one girl just said but I just really want to know now! So, we taught the restoration! They were really receptive, and all 4 of them are interested in learning more! We're going back again next week to teach them! They are all in their 20s and here in japan working for a year. It was one of the craziest moments of my mission. Also, it was the first time I had recited the Joseph smith experience in English in a lesson. It was such a wonderful thing. I LOVE being here. Anyway, so much more to say but that's all I have time for for now - I love you all and thanks for your support!!!! Have a good week!!!!

Ai shite imasu!

Flake Shimai

Busy bees! 11-16-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Sounds like you have had a crazy week - lots of going back and forth to Phoenix! Otsukaresamadesu. Sorry, doesn't really have a good english translation - literal translation is you are a very hard worker - but it makes a lot more sense in japanese. Anyway, I'm glad all of the allstate things went well for you! I am sure it is a huge relief to finally be done with all of that. I can't believe there have been 2 arizona temples dedicated since I left - I am excited to go and see them! 

As always we had a great week that was really really busy. We're teaching about triple the amount of lessons each week this transfer that I've taught in some past transfers. It's nuts - we are always dashing to appointments or housing or contacting on the street and basically don't have any time to breathe but it is so good. Gazdik shimai is a really hard worker - we are having a great time together. Some exciting news -when we met with Nakayamasan, our investigator with the date for 12/21, we were able to move her date up to 12/13! She is progressing really well. We taught her the word of wisdom last week and even though it is hard (mostly coffee and tea) she is trying her best and keeping it! We were excited to move it up and she was as well. A little part of me is sad that I will be missing it by a week but it is a-okay - the important part is that she will be getting baptized!! We are so excited for her. Fujimotosan, our cute grandma is really making leaps and bounds of progress as well. She is a bit stubborn, and was struggling a bit with some things with her prayers and scripture study, but we were able to discover her concerns and overcome them and now she is praying twice a day and reading 3 pages a day! When we asked her to set her own baptismal date last week, she said she could get baptized november of 2015. We asked what she would need in order to be baptized before then, and she said courage. We're working on building her faith, and will be moving that date up just a little bit :)

Last exciting news as far as lessons go is that Watanabe  san is doing quite well. She is really smart, really intense and has wonderful questions. I love it. I love meeting with her. It is so fun! Gosh being a missionary is really just the best. We get to teach people about something that has made us so happy, and when we're not teaching we are out talking to strangers about that same happiness! We meet the most interesting variety of people every day. I realized the other day that I have been here in saijou for a while. When I first came here, one of the elders had been here for about 9 months or something and he knew some people by name on the street that they would pass. I thought that was crazy -- until it started happening to me. We will stop to talk to someone and I will realize I've talked to them before, sometimes multiple times. Too funny. Speaking of - I had my 18 month mark last week. Crazy, right? It definitely doesn't feel like it has been that long. I still feel like I just got here. To celebrate, we went to a really good panya ( bread store? bakery?) right by our house that we've been wanting to try. I got a couple of dessert ish bread things, then ordered the lunch special which comes with endless plain breads like croissants and rolls. Funniest thing ever. When I ordered those things togetbher, the lady at the cash register told me You know this comes with endless bread, right - pointing to the bread things I was buying. I told her I knew that, and would like them both. She just gave me a funny look that seemed to say well she's american - of course she would want all that bread. We were laughing for awhile about that one.

Last bit of news - yesterday was crazy! I taught sunday school again, and right after church we booked it on over to hiroshima for hayashi san's baptism (one of the elders investigators) - and I was asked to speak at that too! luckily it was the same topic I had just taught for an hour on in sunday school and one that we talk about all the time - baptism!

Right after the baptism we hustled on home and took off for another lesson and visiting a referral and pi. Loads of fun - Saijo is the best! Love being here! Lots more happened but not time - maybe next week!!! LOVE YOU and have a great week!

AI shite imasu!

Flake Shimai 

Zone conference and Rain 11-10-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Thanks for the update! I'm glad to hear about the football, choirs, and musicals. Sounds like you all are keeping pretty busy! I'll try to start off with a few answers to questions... The answer is yes. Just like that missionary that just got home from Brazil I think my english will be a bit of a struggle. Mostly just in the sense of my grammar will be horrendous, and the way I word everything will sound weird to you. Easiest way to put it is that Japanese and English are opposite languages, and they do not directly translate. Be excited for some funny times for you, and embarrasing times for me. It'll happen.

As far as the nativity sets go - I haven't seen any. I talked to a few members last Christmas, and they didn't know of any either. The only place they can think of is Costco, but it has American sets - go figure. Basically, living in a country where only 1% of the entire population is Christian makes it a little hard to find anything to do with Christ. But I will try to find one for ya mom!

And I am glad you had such a good birthday!

I just had a crazy thought. Logan has met some Japanese friends in Iowa - I met some Brazillians here - Devin sent his portugese testimony to me and totally helped our Brazillian investigators. I can send my Japanese testimony to Logan and he can give that to his friends. How cool is it that we can help each other out because of the places where we've served? I love missions!

We had a great week, but like always it was a little crazy. Last monday we booked it on over to HIroshima and had a fun pday with some of the hiroshima missionaries - played sports and did a scavenger hunt, ate food at costco (because yes, there is a costco in hiroshima - definitely had not had a hot dog for a long time before coming to hiroshima) which was fun - but one of the best things was getting to dendo (do missionary work) in Hiroshima for a few hours that night. We did mini-splits with Lane and cook shimai. We had 12 missionaries (the four of us shimai and the 8 elders) spread all around the train station (which is huge, by the way) contacting people, giving out book of mormons, and just talking to people. I was with cook shimai, and we had so much fun. We were able to talk to a lot of really cool people and got several pretty promising potential investigators. 

We stayed the nigth in Hiroshima with lane and cook and it was hilarious. It's kind of weird though only having 4 sisters in our whole zone, but it's fun because we are all really good friends. We had zone conference the next day, and were able to learn a lot from President and the APs. It was fun - for about the past 10 months or so we've started having what we missionaries lovingly like to call "boot camp zone conferences." It's where after a few hours of training and after lunch, we have a few hours of drilling. President calls missionaries up to the front and has them dendo (do missionary work? contact?) him. He'll say pretend I'm tanaka san, and I want you to come up to me like you would someone on the street and tell me about family history and how my ancestors can help me. or "pretend you just met me and invite me to be baptized"  or "pretend I am a chain smoker and a drinker and you are going to teach me the word of wisdom and why it will bless my life" or a bunch of different things like that. The first time we had a zone conference like this I was a little scared and pretty nervous about my Japanese but after I chilled out a little it became really fun. It is really fun to see the other missionaries that we're such great friends with teaching and hear their testimonies. President also had every person stand up (one transfer at a time - for example "all the first transfers stand up, 2nd transfers, etc" ) and he gave us a word in english that we had to say in japanese (and the japanese missionaries were vice versa). Fun stuff. But really I learned a lot from the conference - one thing that Gazdik and I have been trying to do every day is be a lot better with mogis (roleplays) for our lessons and it has definitely helped us become better teachers with our investigators. 

We had a nother lesson with watanabesan and it went well - I am excited to teach her tonight. NAkayamasan has a baptismal date fore 12/21 and we are finally able to start teaching her twice a week - wednesdays and sundays. ever since we set this solid schedule with her things have been better. She is super nice and super quiet, but she's doing great!

We had a lesson with hasegawa (68 yr old) and our recent convert kishita shimai, and it went GREAT. We saw a ton of crazy miracles this week in our lessons - we really tried our hardest to get a lot of member present lessons and their testimonies helped our lessons so much. even though we don't have tons of people here in our little group, we are still able to do so much and I know it is through the Lord's help. 

We had 4 investigators at church yesterday!!!super exciting. gazdik shimai gave an awesome talk in sacrament meeting about the atonement and I got to teach sunday school yesterday about repentance - it was a lot of fun. I love the gospel principles book. It really does explain things so so well. Oh and takeda shimai spoke in church yesterday and gave an awesome talk about her conversion!!! She was really scared but did really well. We were so proud of her. :D

One thing that was a bit of a disappointment was we had a restoration/review lesson with barbara and ruby, our favorite phillipinos. We challenged them to pray about the restoration and joseph smith, and they politely turned us down - basically established that they were completley happy with what they believed in and were glad that we were happy with our beliefs too.That was sad, but at least we know where that stands now. 

And it's been raining off and on for the last year and a half. Lets just say I have perfected keeping my fliers and book of mormons that we hand out dry, even in the pouring rain. Ultimate win. :D 

Well that is a bit about the week - gotta run! Love ya!

Ai shite imasu!!!!

Flake Shimai

ps we went to a high school festival with all sorts of super cool exhibits (our 16 yr old investigator's high school). they had an awesome band, super good taiko (japanese drum) group, learned cool origami, saw cool frogs - - anyway it was a good time.

Another great week! 11-2-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

First off - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your letter! I'm glad all of the Homecoming things went well - it sounds like you have a fun group this year. Also way fun to hear that the football team is doing so well, too. The allstate jazz choir, region show choir and normal choir stuff sounds as busy as ever but I know how fun that all is! Good luck with all of that! When is the jazz choir performance? And yes, in answer to your question about the Halloween party costume - let's just say Japanese conditioner is not quite as good as American conditioner. It took a bit of time to get my hair back to normal. Takeda shimai couldn't come to the Halloween party because of work but everyone else that came really had a great time. Speaking of, yes - Takeda shimai is doing GREAT. She jointed for us last week (as the member in a member present lesson) with Yotsujisan and it went really well. She bore her testimony of how having faith in Jesus Christ has helped her and told Yotsuji that she had just been baptized two weeks earlier so she was still learning but knows that she is happier and more at peace now than she was before.  It was incredible!

As always have quite a few things to report - ganbarimasu!

Hasuikesan - a bit of a strange situation. We had a way good lesson with her the week before and we met and taught the restoration this week but it was kind of hard because I think there was just a lot of new information that she had never heard before at all (absolutely no Christian background) and she has some hard things going on in her family right now so she was a little distracted. Anyway, she called us later that day and said she had some concerns that she wanted to discuss with us, so we decided we would meet a few days later to sit down and talk. Problem is, she didn't come to the appointment, and has stopped answering our calls and texts. We are hoping and praying to be able to contact her. During our last lesson, she shared an incredible experience. The previoius lesson we had taught her about prayer. She said that since that lesson she had been praying to know if God really exists, and just felt that she needed help and strength to get through some of the challenges going on in her life. She said that after she prayed she just felt peace, and felt as though she gained the strength from God to get through the struggles she was going through. AFter that experience, she came to believe in God. It is so wonderful because right now as missionaries  we are able to see these experiences that others have in their own lives and help them understand more about them. I love it! I am trying every2r yday to be more of the missionary Heavenly Father needs me to be so he can use me as a tool in his hands. 

Hasegawasan - she is our investigator that is cute and older - her hearing is kind of bad so we just teach really loudly (not quite a yell, but almost) but she is a sweetheart and doing really well. 

Nakayamasan - she has  a baptismal date and is doing great! we had a joint lesson with Lisa shimai which was fun - they are great friends now even though they don't speak a common language. When I was talking, gazdik would translate for lisa, and when gazdik was talking I would translate. Kind of an interesting way to teach a lesson but it worked out pretty well.

More things to report but no time. Just know that going from 4 sisters down to 2 has made our lives absolutely insane. We barely have time to breathe - we are always running to appointments, biking as fast as we can, planning, mogi-ing (in english I think that is roleplays? maybe?) contacting people on the street, and just tryhing our best! It is so much fun. I can't even think of a better way to be spending my last transfer. It is already flying by. We are having a blast!

Last big miracle of the week - Watanabe san! (sorry for the small print - just copied/pasted from my pres. letter

We met with Watanabe san last night. She had gone to the hikari branch last week at the invitation of a friend but lives in saijou. We asked her how she found out about the chruch and sshe said that she went to Utah a few months ago for a work conference, and when she was there she made a friend (a nihonjin lady living in oregon married to an american) that was LDS. She also saw the salt lake temple and was impressed with that. When they were on their way to something that day, their car had a flat tire. A man driving by stopped to help them figure out how to fix it and such, but it was going to take a while so he cancelled his meetings and things he had to do in order to help them. He was a mormon, too. She was blown away that someone would be so kind as to stop and help a complete stranger, and go as far as to cancel his own busy schedule to help someone he didn't know. Last week, her friend from oregon was visiting Japan and invited Watanabe san to go to church with her. She went and really enjoyed the environment and the peace there, which is why she was interested in meeting with us.
How incredible is that?!? I know that the Lord is involved in all of his childrens' lives! This is a huge testimony to me. I am so grateful to be here, working in Japan and am grateful for all the things I've learned on my mission.

I hope you have a great week - I love you all so much and am so grateful for your love and support!

Ai shite imasu!

Flake Shimai