So much to do. 6-8-14

My contribution to the wedding flowers

                                                                              Our primary kids

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

This week was insane. So many things going on. I will just start from the beginning and try to plow through so I can let you know some of the things that happened!

Monday - once a month we have a big FHE with our Saijo group and investigators and such. We decided to do a fun international themed FHE, where we had everyone go around (because every person in the room spoke at least two or more languages) and teach everyone how to say "hello" and "how are you" in another language. We ended up with about 15 languages! It was way fun - just a few of the languages were arabic, french, russian, tagalog, korean, buhasa, swatswano, chinese, etc... the list went on. It was a lot of fun, and we all learned a lot from each other! 

Tuesday - awesome lesson with Lisa, the sister from Malaysia with the two adorable kids that we are teaching AB lessons to right now. I don't know if I ever told you some of the huge miracles with this family, but here it  goes. Before they moved here, we only had one primary member, Sister Fe's seven yr old daughter, Megumi chan. She was praying for the missionaries to find a family to teach and baptize so she could have friends in primary.  A few weeks later, the elders ran in to sister Lisa on the street and she said she was baptized a few mionths ago in malaysia and had been wanting to find the church! Our primary is now those three kids - a 7 yr old boy, a 7 yr old girl, and a 5 yr old girl. Heavenly Father really is mindful of all of us. He answered Megumi's sincere prayer! (I will try to include a picture of them)

Wednesday - Short fun thing of the day - stew flavored ice cream. Awesome thing of the day = The onion miracle. SO, we realized tuesday morning that we had forgotten to buy onions during grocery shopping on pday, and had reconciled ourselves to the fact that we would not have them all week. This may not sound like a huge deal, but in Japan we use onions in basically any food that we make (think stir fry type of food). Anyway, after our lesson with Tomiko that we had (which went great - we explained the happiness of the plan of salvation) as we were leaving, she said "Wait! I have something for you!" She came out of her house with three huge tied bunches of fresh onions. She said that her friend had dropped by her house the day before and given her a huge box, but she couldn't use them all. MIRACLE! Willes shimai and I just looked at each other and smiled. We told Tomikosan about the whole story, and she thought it was really cool! One thing that is awesome with her is that she has been noticing and recognizing the miracles that God performs in all of our lives a lot since she started meeting with us. Eikaiwa was a party, as always. Our group of students are great.

Thursday - nothing too crazy - out finding, did weekly planning, and went to take our turn translating institute (the teacher is japanese but most of the students are not).

Friday - Ayakosan, one of the investigators we have been having some hard things with will be coming to the baptism on Sunday! It was great to be able to  finally talk to her. It has been a little while.In other news - I am so much better at biking than when I was a bean. Our legs are rocks these days. It is kind of weird.

Saturday - We taught kids eikaiwa and it was way fun. Our class was mostly little boys that were really happy and fun, and it reminded me of my little brothers :) Fun class, kept them entertained as well as learning english. Crazy news of the day - so it was raining all day, and after eikaiwa we were on our way to visit a PI. We were going down a big hill and I was in front, and after I had gone down I heard a yell, looked back, and couldn't see willes. I panicked and biked back up the hill as fast as I could, and she had had a pretty rough wreck. She had hit a rough patch  in the road that was slick from the rain, and it threw her and the bike. Her bike is a little messed up, and her knees got pretty skinned up, and she is covered in bruises. It was really sad. Luckily we were able to call the Lambs (the senior couple) and they came and picked us up and mothered her with an arsenal of first aid stuff, so besides having to change bandages every few hours, she is doing great now. She is a little sore, but a super hard worker so she is going strong.

Sunday - Craziest day of my life. The other saijo sisters had a baptism - Kishitasan! We all went in to Hiroshima for ward conference, and the baptism was right after church. We got to ride the train with lisa and the kiddos which is always an adventure. We have an awesome new investigator - Barbara, from the philipines. Her story is so cool. She just moved to saijo, and a few days ago she went up to her manager and said "I want to go to church. Do you know where one is?" The manager didn't know, but he knew that Fe was religious so he gave her Fe's number. Sister Fe is awesome, and because she is always such a great example, the people she work with know about her beliefs! So Barbara called Fe and asked if she could go to church with her, so Fe picked her up and they came to Hiroshima for church, and consequently Barbara was able to stay and watch the baptism!!!! We are meeting with her in about a week and a half (she wants to learn more but work is pretty busy right now). Huge miracle!

The baptism was great. Willes and I sang a really pretty version of abide with me tis eventide. Crazy thing was this. Tomiko had said she was coming, but wasn't there by the time it started. Durnig the first talk, we realized she had called so we snuck out to call her back and discovered she was really close but not sure exactly where the church was. we grabbed one of the hiroshima japanese missionaries and had them give her good directions, ran out to get her, ran back in, and were able to here the last half of the second speaker! I am so glad she made it to the baptism. It was a really good experience for her. It was also huge because the person getting baptized was an older Japanese woman - and our group is mostly full of younger foreigners. So it was great for our investigators to see! After the baptism, we had to bolt because we were doing service for Ayakosan - we had told her we wanted to go with her to her mother in law's house to clean things up because she said it was pretty awful over there (she lives in hiroshima). We got there and it was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. Ayakosan's husband passed away a few years ago, and I think he was an only child. Her mother in law is in her 90s, living at home, and can hardly move. We cleaned all sorts of things, threw tons of things away, vacuumed up a lot of dead bugs and mouse droppings, and threw away a lot of destroyed futons. Anyway, it was a good experience.

Sorry this was an explosion of information. But thank you for the letter, I hope you have  a great week! Have fun with all of the wedding craziness! I love you all - have a wonderful time!

Happy wedding week!

Ai shiteimasu - 

Flake sHimai 

Summer is here! 6-1-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!
First off, to answer Logan - I am so happy for you! That is such a wonderful opportunity that you will have for the next two months before your mission. Appreciate it! I was really grateful that I was able to go to the temple every week in the MTC, and I have only gone once so far on my mission but look forward to the next time I can go. As far as tips for your mission go - I would just say try to study a bit of PMG every day, especially the lessons. I am still studying the lessons and trying to improve my teaching every day. 

I am glad that the package arrived! I won:t be there for the wedding, but I hope that helps a little bit :) I was a little scared that customs would open it and ruin some of the things, so I feel better knowing it arrived safely. I will try to answer a few questions before telling you about the week.

We usually have a zone training meeting (run by the zone leaders) at the beginning of every transfer. Then, normally one transfer will be a zone conference, and the next will be interviews, then back to zone conference, and so on - it rotates. But for zone conferences and interviews the APs and President and Sister Gustafson come and we have training from them. 

Sister Willes has an awesome voice - let:s just say comp study hymns are fun these days! Yeah, I have actually done a lot more singing for programs and in church and stuff like that than I thought I would be doing but it has been way fun. And because our group is small, each of the missionaries have little mini callings (one is the usher by the door, one teaches the gospel principles class, etc.) but I think I have the most fun. I am the ward shikisha - aka chorister! We have sung hymns for  investigators or members a few times in teaching, and I love it because hymns always bring the spirit. But as far as teaching goes, I could definitely be more creative with expanding my teaching horizons and doing more unique things! 

That is great that you were able to have a bit of a relaxing week - huzzah for the first week of summer! And happy birthday dad! I sent a letter a little while ago that should be getting there soon.

It has definitely been warming up here as of late but last week it came in full force - it is summer time in Japan! It is hot and humid. Not as bad as when I first got here last year, but starting to creep up on it. Funny thing is, I love it! It makes me feel like a missionary! My first memories of missionary work involve being drenched in sweat and sunburned, so its all なつかし (nostalgic) for me. love it.

So many things to say. Just know that I am sorry I never give you all my stories - I don:t have enough time to email for that and that is what journals are for!!!! I will you fill you in on all the fun stuff at another time, but suffice it to say, the most important news of the week...

Brother Haishan and Brother Sho were ordained to the office of the Melchizidek preisthood this week! Aka we now have the amount of priesthood holders in saijo to meet the requirements to make saijo an official branch. The paperwork is all in, getting sent to salt lake, and hopefully we will be a branch in the next month, two months, however long it takes to get everything sorted out. We are all so excited!!!!! Quick rundown on the week. We had some AWESOME lessons with Tomikosan, and she is really progressing. We have to go a little slower than we originally thought at first with some things for her because a lot of information overwhelms her, but she tells us over and over how much she loves how she feels every time she meets with us and comes to church. She started crying last week and telling us how we are like her daughters, and she is so grateful for the things we do for her. I have never seen an older Japanese woman cry before. It was heartwrenching. She is such a wonderful person. And she wants to bring a friend to church next week!!!!! Lisa, the recent convert that we are teaching AB lessons to is also doing so well. She has a really strong testimony, and it is great to be reteaching the doctrines and answering her questions. The next time I am on a computer that can send pictures, I have  a lot for you all! With Lisa and her kids, tomiko, her friends, and some more people. I will try to do that next week! (this week we are emailing at a community center)

Yesterday we went on a crazy adventure. we had planned on taking the train to a less active:s house, and were going to be back in time for dinner at five ( we had been fasting all day). fun fact is this - the train ended up being about an hour and forty five minutes one direction, longer than anticipated, but she was so happy to see us and we had a great visit, then rode the hour and 45 minute train home, getting home in time to grab some food at 8+45, just before curfew. crazy day but way fun. Japan is beautiful! it still doesn:t get old riding on the trains through the countryside and the cities. I love it here. I wish you could be here with me seeing the things I see every day, and meeting the people I meet! I love you all so much. Thank you for your love and support and I hope you have a wonderful week full of fun wedding preparations!!!!

愛しています！

フレーク姉妹　　より

Brazilian Miracles--In Japan! 5-25-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Wow sounds like it sure was a crazy week! I cannot believe Logan is officially graduated from high school and coming up on his mission! I am so proud of him. I sent off a little letter last week that should be coming soon. I am glad  dallin Logan and Spencer got to help out with all the fun aspects of branding this year. DAd, of course you are right - the reason I know how to work is from growing up on the  ranch. :) But really - I am so glad that I was able to learn the importance of hard work from that. Mom - I am sorry to hear about all that crazy mouth business going on - I hope you feel better soon! I really liked the idea for your students with the choir final. I am glad that worked out for you!

MAN it was a crazy week. A few things came up with Tomiko so we are still planning on baptism but her date will have to be pushed back a bit. She is great, but has had some hard experiences with churches in the past so we are going a little bit slower through the lessons than we had originally been planning on. However, she has told us several times that she feels really good when she meets with us and comes to church, which is super exciting. 

So many things happened this week but I am totally running out of time, so I will try to get out as many things as I can! Alright - last week we had a zone training meeting in hiroshima, and they needed willes and  I to help out with a few musical numbers and things going on with training so we headed up the night before so we could set things up, then stayed the night with the hikari hiroshima sisters. It was a lot of fun - they are both Japanese and way fun. It was interesting - if I had had a similar situation when I was a bean, I probably just would have been scared and quiet, but we had a great time! We laughed and joked around about all sorts of things. They are great. That was on Tuesday. Oh and that day when we were finding here in Saijo - we were a ways out in the countryside, and it started raining a lot. I had my raincoat, but not my rain pants like I usually do and willes was the same - we were DRENCHED. We were out all afternoon, and when I came home for dinner looked a bit like a drowned rat but it was okay. We got to wring out our skirts and our hair, and admire our pruney hands and feet. Loads of fun. Rainy season is coming up! Huzzah for that.

Zone training was great - every transfer our leaders keep raising the bar. Missionary work - exciting stuff! (sorry. that was kind of a lame sentence but I don't have time to explain or expound right now.)

GAH So many things to tell you but I am way outta time so here is my favorite miracle of the week.

We have one portugese book of mormon that we ordered from the mission office.

Yesterday, we went to visit some brazillian PIs so we took it with us. Unfortunately, neither of them were home, but we tried Umeda san (our first brazillian that we have had a few lessons with) and she answered! We havent' been able to get ahold of her for a few weeks, so we were way happy. She invited us in and we were able to have a lesson with her. After that, we were streeting and ran into a foreigner couple with a cute baby. We started talking to them, asking where they are from and the woman said she was from Brazil! We had a great time talking about her family, what she was doing in Japan, and things like that and she asked us a lot of questions about what we were doing here as well. We were able to talk about the fact that we have a message about a special book, that we normally just carry in japanese but today had it in portugese. She looked at it and said, "Well, you must have brought it because you would meet me today! I would love to talk to you more about this, but unfortunately I am going back to Brazil on Tuesday. But I would love to read this on the plane!" We told her there were missionaries like us all over Brazil as well, and asked her to look on mormon.org. WHAT A MIRACLE. She was golden! I am a little sad that we won't be able to teach her but I know the Lord is looking out for her and will lead missionaries to her! That was such a happy experience.

Last bit of news - this past friday, Zaima was baptized! He was one of  the saijo elders' investigators. our little branch is growing! it was an awesome service, full of saijo love. I love it here. I love it. Missionary work is hard but so good. I know this is where I need to be!!!!! Thank you for all of your love and support. I love you all and have a great week!

Ai shite imasu!

Flake Shimai

Happy Mothers day 5-11-14 and 5-18-14

5-18-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku!!!

It is always so great to get your letters! We had an awesome week! The most exciting news is... we were able to set  a baptismal date forJune 8th with Tomikosan - so please keep her in your prayers!!!!!!!! But I will share more on that later. :) 

It sounds like your week was pretty hectic. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the wedding announcement in the mail. I can't wait - they are the best. Speaking of that, I sent of the wedding package last week - if you could let me know when it get;s there, that would be great. I just have this fear of customs tearing it apart. I hope the boys had fun with Father and sons - sorry I couldn't be there for you, mom but I hope you know I am thinking about you! I also still absolutely cannot fathom the fact that Logan is graduating so soon and leaving on his mission. Tell him how proud I am of him with all of his endeavors! 

In other news ---- we celebrated our year mark this past week! Unfortunately it wasn't quite as joyous of a celebration as I would have hoped. It was way fun to be with Willes and Williams (we all came out at the same time) but it was way sad to think that we are two thirds done. However, it is A-okay - we still have plenty of time to keep doing missionary work. We went out to a buffet called the Casual Viking. Don't ask - I don't understand either. It was way good, but as I was eating I realized I definitely eat some things that are pretty different than I used to eat these days. I had some shark pizza and something like orange chicken (but it was octopus instead of chicken) - and they were way good. Prettty normal. Mom, I don't want to freak you out or anything - but let's just say I have eaten way weirder things than that here that haven't tasted as good as those did.

It is starting to warm right on up here and we are officially in my favorite weather of Japan. It feels almost like Arizona right now - it is starting to warm up, but it is not super humid yet because the rainy season hasn't started. Granted it still rains at least once a week or so, but I am scared for rainy season to bring in the humidity - it will be raining all day every day come June. 

It is that time of year - for the bugs to start coming out. I had forgotten the feeling of summer - furiously biking down a rural road and bugs flying into your eyes and getting tangled in your eyelashes. That has happened so many times it's not even funny. 

Lastly, our week was crazy but so good! We started teaching a few new investigators, which is always exciting. And Tomikosan came to church again, and when we talked about baptism set a date with us! We still have a bit of a path to go down, but we are so excited to be working with her. Another miracle of the week was Katou san. She was found and started taking the lessons from the missionaries here in Saijo about a year ago, but had to move suddenly and lost contact. They were really sad and tried over and over again to contact her and find her but to no avail. Last week, the elders were housing and "happened" to run into her! She was willing to listen to us more, so they passed her to us and we went by last week and were able to talk about some concerns she has in her life and how the gospel can help her. She has had a really hard life. We are working on building her up and doing our best to help her see how much the gospel will help her. I think one of the most amazing things about being a missionary is that I have the opportunity to see that change in people. I feel so blessed to see it over and over. I love talking to so many different people and really getting to know them and their personal concerns - but also being able to help them come to see how much Heavenly Father loves them. The other day, Willes shimai and I were reflecting on a few things and realized how exciting it is to see our Japanese improving. We've had lessons as of late that included concerns with gambling, cancer, depression, and all sorts of hard conversations and deep concerns that we can understand and try our best to help with. Don't get  me wrong - I  still can't understand every single word, and it is still most definitely a work in progress, but The Lord really is helping us every step of the way in this work. I feel like I have a thousand more things to say to you but that will have to wait for another day. I love you all so much and am keeping you in my prayers - thank you for all of your love and support!!!!

Ai shite imasu!

Flake Shimai

May 11, 2014

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

Well, first off, I would just like to start by saying I feel pretty loved. I talked to you not too recently on Skype and you still had a lot to email me!! Thank you for that - I love hearing all about your week. I probably won:t be able to give tons of details today because I don:t have lots of time, but I will try to explain a bit. And thank you for telling me all the news! I am so happy for Jeff and Shannon - didn:t see that one coming but I think it is wonderful - tell them congratulations for me! Yes, in response to your question - it does make me feel weird to have so many classmates and even people younger than me getting married and starting families of their own. I am really happy for all of them, but also most definitely know that I am exactly where I need to be. I honestly can not imagine what my life would be like if I had not come on a mission, and had not come to Japan. I love it here. The people I have met have changed my life forever. I am not trying to be dramatic - it is just the truth! As you saw when we skyped, little things have changed me culture wise as well. You best believe I will be pretty weird when I step off the plane. Bowing, speaking to you like English is your second language, and much, much more. Mom, be grateful you don:t have to see me in my full glorified awkwardness for quite a while. :) 　As far as your questions go:

It is really weird to teach in English after teaching in Japanese, but we don:t do it very often. It is kind of weird - sometimes when we teach in English, after doing a lot in Japanese, is that I find myself translating what I would say in Japanese into English. But it is also nice to be able to express things fully in English.

Willes shimai and I speak in both. Majority of the time, it is just a really weird mix of Japanese and English that we both understand perfectly. We speak a fair amount of japanese together, but we are trying to be a lot better with speaking more Japanese to each other.

It is a lot of fun. Our week was way good - Tomiko san (the one that reminds me of gma flake)came to church yesterday and we were way excited about that! I am so sorry I don:t have time for lots of details but I hope you have a lovely week! I love you and am praying for you!

Ai shiteimasu!

Flake Shimai

Cherry blossoms and museums 5-5-14

Konnichiwa kazoku!!!

Thank you so much for the email! I hope you realize that in five days we shall be talking face to face! I will send you the details with the skype situation.

As far as your week goes - sounds like it was crazy as always! That is way sad about the Jeppesons! I love them and have learned so much from both of them. But I am glad they get that opportunity :)

 Yep - one fun fact about teaching here in Japan - the majority of the people that we talk to every day and teach have never even heard of Jesus Christ before, or if they have, they don't know anything about him. It really is such an amazing experience to be able to start with that but then see someone's testimony of their Savior grow. It is incredible. So as of late, we have acquired a few Catholic investigators and I soon came to discover that I do not know how to teach Christians! :) But that is a-okay. We definitely had to do some switching of teaching styles, and everything is working out okay. We were able to teach Kimurasan and Sasakisan a few times last week. They are our cute little grandmas that love us, and they study the bible with their friends every week. Things are going well, but they are very content with their church and bible study. One thing that has been a little hard with them has just been that they haven't really been able to connect with us because we are young and American. We are going with one of the members from the Hikari, HIroshima ward this week to meet with them again, and I can't wait to see how that goes. I don't know if I fully explained this before, but our little group in Saijo is a group out of the Hikari ward (whichi is about 45 min by train from here). So, we go to Hikari every fast Sunday for church. A quick report on Ayako san!!! Things are really improving with her. She is one of our very Buddhist investigators. The first few times we met with her were some of the most frustrating lessons I'd ever been in. We would try to explain something and she would talk right over us, with random inapplicable questions, and wouldn't let us get more than one sentence out. We have been praying so much for her, and trying our hardest to do exactly what Heavenly Father needs us to do for her, and we have been blessed to see some huge miracles with her situation. The last two lessons we have had with her, we have really been able to see growth. She still has questions, but they are sincere. We have been able to really have good discussions, and strongly testify to her of why we know this message is true and will change her life. This has been one of the most treasured experiences on my mission to see how the Lord really is helping us to be the missionaries He needs us to be. I guess this really was just such a huge testimony of how this is His work; not ours. 

I almost forgot to say, but we had another unforgettable experience this past week. Last p-day, we went to the Atomic bomb museum in Hiroshima. It was a very unique experience that I am grateful I was able to have. Honestly, it's pretty much impossible to describe how I felt during that. I have never felt so personally responsible for such a huge, devastating situation. It really was heartbreaking to see what happened, and the effects of that atomic bomb; especially after having lived among these people and growing to love them all so much.Basically, I could go on about how I feel about that - but I'll save that for another day.

Some last notes from the week - 

I mentioned it earlier, but it was really great to be able to go to Hikari for church a few days ago and meet more of the members in the ward. One really nice thing - one of the families in the ward invited us over for dinner after church, and they fed us a feast. So much food it was ridiculous. I feel like that was the most food I had ever seen; it was so nice of them. They shared their conversion story , and how important the gospel is to them and it was one of the most touching things I have ever heard. The importance of member missionaries is huge. They are an awesome example to me. Really though, all the members here are. They are incredible. Last of all - we had an FHE (in Saijo) with members from our branch, less actives, investigators and missionaries last night and it was great. The exciting news is this - for the first time on my mission, I was able to do recreation therapy. And it was the first time I had ever done that in Japanese! We did a rec thearapy game, processed, figured out how everyone felt about it, and tied it in to a scripture that explained we all have various talents and that we all need each other. It was one of the happiest times. I love our Saijo family. It is an incredible place to be.

Anyway, sorry for the abruptness - I love you all and can't wait to see you in a few days! Have a great week - I love you!

愛しています！

フレーク姉妹

                                                 Cherry Blossoms!!!

                                                           Playing the koto (traditional Japanese instrument)

                                                   

                                                         Happy Mothers Day!!

                                             

                                                 Peace Banner made out of origami swans

                                             
                                                       The Atomic bomb dome

The weeks are flying by!! 4-27-14

Konnichiwa, kazoku! 

What a party of a week for you all! Urayamashii! I am glad all of that callback and auditions business is starting to wind down for you mom - you are so good with all of that. Don:t forget that I will be bringing you home some awesome music for callbacks next year. As soon as I heard it that is what it made me think of. Music nerd? Why yes, yes I am. 

Anyway - that is so great that you were all able to go watch devin:s concert in the valley! Sounds like it was quite the fun time. I also loved the matching t-shirts pictures. Looking good. I can:t even tell you what a big fan I am of Heather. I am so happy for them both! And just so you know, I never remember if I answer all of your questionsor not - I feel like I usually don:t. I will start with those today!

So the costa rican girl has been really busy with college, and we haven:t been able to work with her tons, but things are going well with umeda san '(brazil). It:s really interesting - we teach and communicate in all of our second languages (Japanese). she speaks portugese and japanese, we speak english and japanese, and we all can understand each other - how exciting!! We found a portugese speaker in the hikari, hiroshima ward, so we will hopefully be jointing with him this next week. We are so excited. As far as our twig turning in to a branch - we need to have 4 melchizedek priesthood holders for it to turn into a branch. Right now we have 2, but 2 of our recent converts are preparing to receive the melchizedek priesthood so we are really hoping to have a branch this next transfer! Our district is awesome. Everyone is working so hard! I think there are about 5 baptismal dates between our district right now - several scheduled for mothers: day so we are hoping those will go through. Because there might be baptisms that day, (and it would be in hikari, about an hour train ride away) we are not sure yet about times for mothers day calls, and whether it will be the phone or skyping. But I will fill you in on those details next week! 

Saijo. It is such a place of miracles. Last week we were able to teach Kimurasan, the 85 yr old lady that we met on the street a couple of weeks ago, and she actually invited one of her friends to our lesson. The two of them were very sweet, and so sincere as we taught the restoration. They really have a strong desire, and it was an awesome experience. Kimurasan:s eyesight isn:t very good, but we found out she had been reading the book of mormon with a magnifying glass. We are meeting with them both again tonight and can:t wait to explain more. After our lesson, kimurasan played the koto for us, which is a traditional japanese instrument that is way cool. It has 13 strings, and is really long. It was way cool. I think I might have told you a little bit about this last week, but we are teaching AB lessons to Lisa, a recent convert from malaysia that just moved to saijo. She is super fun and bubbly - it is awesome to be working with her. Sorry I just have time for one more story - but this was one of the funniest things of my mission. We housed into Odasan last week. He is about 65, and really short and really funny. When we met him, he was drunk, and in a tshirt and boxers. Kind of weird. But he did say he had a little bit of interest in knowing about god, but not while he was in his drunken state. But he said I drink every night after coming home from work, so I guess this won:t work out. We gave him a book of mormon, told him to read the intro, taught him how to pray, and asked him to pray about it before we came back a few days later. We told him we will come back on friday - and when we do this, we will be coming with friends, and don:t drink before we get here. we will come at 7. So we came back a few days later with the elders (and he was properly dressed and not drunk this time) and he had kept his commitments! We had  a great lesson, and passed him to the elders. My favorite part was at the end of the lesson,  at the end of his prayer. He had said good things, then at the end said And I am grateful that this was a LITTLE bit fun. (sorry, it:s funnier in japanese when a little old man is saying it - Kyo wa SUKOSHI tanoshikatta node arigatou gozaimasu). Anyway, that was a fun time. Sorry this is all over the place - I want to say a thousand more things but I have no time. I love you all, the church is true, and I hope you have a great week!!!!

Ai shite imasu!

Flake Shimai

Easter and Kimonos! 4-20-14

Getting to play dress up at a less active members kimono shop

Konnichiwa, kazoku!

It sounds like you had quite a week! Thank you so much for always keeping me so updated with everything that is going on with you! Just so you know, if that sentence is grammatically incorrect I blame it on the fact that English is a struggle these days. True story. Sometimes when I speak in English I find myself saying things that are a direct translations from Japanese. Or I just completely use incorrect grammar. So please have patience with me - that's all. Anyway, things have been great this week in Saijo! I can't even express how much I love Saijo - and for that matter, Japan. It's scary to think that I am cominig up on my year mark so soon. Elders are so lucky to be here for two years. I'm just saying. Anyway, on to the week!

Oh but first I will try to answer a few of your questions. A typical day - - - (but first a disclaimer - every day is way different)--- Wake up at6:30, go running, eat breakfast/shower, then on to studies (personal, companion, and language) from 8:00-11:00. Lunch, then we are out the door by noon. If we have appointments, we will find (street, talk to everyone we see ) on the way to the appointment, teach, find on the way back. Sometimes we visit members, or less actives and do that same thing. We usually come back home and eat dinner at around5:00, then head back out. If we don't have solid appointments for the day, we will go and visit potential investigators or just pick an area the night before during planning that we want to go to to find a new investigator, then we will street on the way there, and house, and street on the way back. Come home by 9:00 to plan. We try to always schedule our day hour by hour (by that I mean always have something planned for every hour) even if we don't have solid appointments so we can be as effective as possible. Yeah - that about sums up our days! It is really interesting though seeing such a stark contrast between the city and the country. Everyone was so busy in the city. We would have days in Fukuoka where we would be finding for hours and didn't even get past Konnichiwa before the person said they were busy and walked away. Things are a bit slower paced here. Anyway, sorry about that explosion of boring details but I have some things to tell you about!

Alright, to start off - We went to Miyajima for p-day last week. It was so beautiful. It is a really famous place just past Hiroshima -- I will try to send some pictures. It was weird going there though, because it is a really tourist-y place and it was the most foreigners I have ever seen in one place in Japan. SO WEIRD. This past week we rode the train so much it was ridiculous, between general conference saturdayand sunday, miyajima on monday, then interviews on Tuesday. It's a party! We had  interviews with President in HIroshima on Tuesday, and it was great to talk to him about how things are going. Always such a boost to see him and sister Gustafson. I have a thousand things to tell you all and no time -- oh no! I will speedwrite. Don't you fret. 

-Bakeries in Japan are unreal. They are so good. There is a bakery in hiroshima called the one coin bakery - everything is 100 yen - the equivalent of one dollar. Fun stuff.

- A less active member called us up and asked if we wanted to go try on kimonos last week - so we did! We were able to talk to her and get to know more about her, and we went to this super intense kimono shop and all these japanese ladies dressed us in kimonos (which have many layers, fun fact) and when we took pictures told us to tell our friends the kimonos were from that shop. 

-We followed up with a pretty solid potential investigator that we had met while streeting last week, and when we went by her house to see if we could schedule another appointment she invited us in and we ended up teaching an entire lesson right on the spot. Her name is Umedasan, and she is from Brazil. Her husband is Japanese and she has been here for the last twenty years, so she speaks portugese and Japanese. We gave her a portugese Book of Mormon, and she can't wait to read it. This is so interesting, because she and Adriana are the first people I have ever taught that are Christian. It is so interesting how different the teaching approaches are when you teach a Christian. It is so cool. We are currently learning how to pray in Portugese from our Brazillian zone leader so we can teach her. Super cool experience.

-I FINISHED LESSON MASTERY. I can't remember if I already had told you or not. It's exciting stuff.

-Aloe vera flavored everything. Melon flavored stuff. They're great.

-Lisa. Coolest thing ever. Last week, the elders started talking to a lady on the street and she told them she just moved to Saijo from Malasia last week, and she was baptized there into our church a few months ago, and she was hoping she would be able to find the church but did not know how to go about doing that, and was praying to know, then met the elders. They gladly showed her where the church was, and she came to eikaiwa during the week and church yesterday! She has two adorable little kids, and tripled our primary. There has been just 1 girl in primary, but now there are 3 kids there and they are great friends already. 

-OUR LITTLE TWIG. Church here is just about the best experience on the planet. I love these people with my whole soul. We are really hoping to turn in to a branch in May - two of our recent converts are preparing to receive the Melchizidek preisthood by then. Every single member is so unique but they all contribute so much and help so much. Sister Fe is from the phillipines and has been a member since she was young - she moved here about 20 years ago and is a really solid member. Brother toma is our ward mission leader and he has been a solid member for  a really long time as well. The rest of our twig is made up of recent converts that are awesome. 4 that have been baptized in the last few months and one that was recently reactivated. They are all huge examples to me. I really feel so blessed to be here learning from all of them. I want to talk about them all day but unfortunately don't have time for that right now. One day - I  will tell you about more of the continuous saijo miracles.

-We had a huge eikaiwa party this past week that was a really big success - big dinner/played games at a huge park. It was loads of fun. 

-Yesterday was Easter! What a wonderful day. I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting (half Japanese, half english because of our international branch these days) and it was a good experience. I learned a lot while I was preparing. The Atonement is so real! We really are so blessed to have it in our lives. I am so grateful for the things that I have been learning on my mission. I can't imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn't come out here, and learned the things that I have been learning and that I know I will continue to learn. Sorry to get all preachy, but it is definitely the truth! Unfortunately I have got to run, but I love you all - have  a great week!

Flake Shimai

ps We do sometimes get good teaching opportunities from our english class - and it is a super fun thing to teach. we have regular students that come every week, and find more while we are streeting each day