ganbaranba! (Nagasaki slang for work hard!)

You know how sometimes you watch movies and it suddenly starts raining and all of the people in the movie are just drenched in a matter of seconds and you think to yourself "That rain is so fake, it never rains that much."? Well, the fact of the matter is, that's how the rain in Japan is! It comes out of nowhere and gets you completely soaked! It's pretty awesome. And then we get to wear our attractive rain suits :) Anyway, on to more exciting matters. This week we saw tons of miracles! So a few weeks ago I wrote about our investigator who we gave a card to from the relief society and it just didn't go over as we wanted to. Well this week, we were housing nearby her house, and then we talked to some girls on the street for a minute, when she walked right past us! After we finished talking to the people we were talking to, we decided to stop by her house and just see if she was willing to see us. It was actually the first time I had ever met her, but she invited us right in and gave us juice and was just the cutest little lady ever! She apologized for being upset that day and said she had missed us in the mean time. She learned that I could play the piano and she made me play some hymns for her while she sang and we all just had such a good time! We made a return appointment with her too. Moral of the story is, we got our investigator back! This week, we also had splits with the Sister Training Leaders. It was an awesome learning experience. When they first came, Heaton Shimai and I went with Eddy Shimai who is just the most friendly person ever. She really showed us how to break the habit of just going up to people and saying things like "We're missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and other robotic phrases and instead, talking to people like real people and actually getting to know them. It was a good learning experience. Then, that night, the two sister training leaders went with Lyles Shimai to visit a less active a left us two newbies all on our own haha. Heaton Shimai is only on her 2nd transfer, so it was quite the experience. It was also really neat to figure out how much we could actually say to people when we didn't have someone else's Japanese skills to rely on. It was sure an eye opening experience and made me realize I just need to keep working as hard as possible so that I might be able to feel comforable with this impossible language! The next day, while we were still on splits, I was with Eddy Shimai and Lyles Shimai finding out by the Nagasaki Wharf and we ran into some Chinese college students with really good english. They were super friendly and we gave them a flier with our phone number and told them about church. The next day was Sunday and it was branch conference, and we were just getting ready to teach the young womens lesson before church when one of the Chinese girls and 3 of her roommates showed up to church! It was the craziest thing and we honestly just didn't know what to do haha. We ended up going on splits with a ward member so that I could go to relief society with them while my two companions went and taught Young Womens. They ended up staying the whole 3 hours and they all said they they wanted to come to English class on Wednesday! It was so crazy, but also super great. I often get asked if I like my companions and I'll just say we are all just the best of friends :) My mom, Lyles Shimai, is super good at Japanese, from Washington, half Philipino, and makes us yummy Phillipino food sometimes :) My sister, Heaton Shimai is from Provo Utah, her dad is Richard I. Heaton, the MTC director, and we always making fun of her because her dad is pretty much famous in the missionary world. We have fun every single day, and I'm so scared that this transfer is ending so soon because I just want to stay with them forever! We'll just have to see what transfer calls bring! Japan is truly such a beautiful country with the most interesting culture. Random Japan fact for this week: It's very fashionable here to have fair skin. People walk around with umbrellas every day when it's sunny to protect their skin from the sun. A lot of women also wear these peculiar arm sleeve things when they go outside so their arms don't get any sun on them. A lot of women powder their faces quite heavily to make their skin appear more light, and in the dressing rooms here there's these face covers that you're supposed to wear when trying on clothes so that you don't get your make up on the clothing. It works out great for me because I'm already pasty white by nature! Anyway, time is running out once again! Thank you everyone for the love and support and I pray for everyone back home each day! Ja Mata! Wells Shimai

San nin Shimai Senkyoshi no seikatsu

First off, I apologize for this being a day late, our P-day is Tuesday this week because we got to go get interviews with the mission president in Saga yesterday! But anyway, this week was awesome! I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but pretty much every morning we do rajio taiso for our morning exercise. Rajio taiso consists of us three sisters, and about 20 other grandpas and grandmas doing some aerobic type thing (If you could even call it aerobic, its more like just lifting your arms up and down and bending over to touch your toes a few times) at the park just above our apartment. It's probably the funniest thing we do ever single day and I love it! All of the old people just love it when we come and join them. We even made it into their neighborhood newsletter haha :) I just had to mention that because I have the rajio taiso song stuck in my head right now. This week was super great, but also a little bit long since we had P-Day a day late. One of the cool things of this week though is that we got a media referral from the mission home at the beginning of the week and it turned out to be a super cute young woman from Korea who has a cousin on a mission in the Kobe Japan mission. The best part about is, is that she speaks English too! She's super interested in our lives in general as missionaries and just about our church in general. Her English is a little funny sometimes and she always calls us the 'mormonists' and calls the book of mormon our 'mormon bible' haha. It's super funny because I guess she's heard quite a few bad things about Mormons from various sources and so as we've told her what the truth about us is, she's just been so shocked and says things like "I just don't understand why some people say those things! They're so wrong! Everyone needs to come learn from you guys about what they truth is!" We've met with her twice already this past week and she came to our English class! So we teach english class once a week and we also teach a kids english class once a week. Its super fun. Especially the kids english class, where half of the kids participation consists of them just correcting our Japanese pronunciation haha. Two weeks ago we had just a random woman and her two kids show up to English class and they've turned out to be super awesome! She brought her kids to the kids english class too that we had, and then we tole her about church and primary and she even came to church on Sunday with her kids! She insists that she's not interested in our message and that she's "mecha mecha bukyo" (Really really buddhist), but we just love having her and her kids around and hope that she'll gain some curiousity at some point that we might be able to teach her more :) This past Sunday I had to give my very first sacrament meeting talk in Japanese. Saturday night, I wrote it all down nicely on a piece of paper so that I wouldn't freeze up or worry too much. Sunday, about half way through church, I realized that I totally forgot my paper! After a few moment of panic, I said a quick prayer, and just decided I would have to do without it. God truly helped blessed me with the gift of tongues for about 7 minutes last Sunday as I was able to calmly and clearly talk to a congregation of Japanese speaking people in Japanese! I don't know how I pulled it off but it was truly a miracle. I've been asked by a few people how the language is coming, and at this point, I can still say quite a bit more than I can understand. But, I am getting much better at talking during lessons and during finding without needing to have it all worked out in my head before I say it. It was a little hard at first with three of us, because my other two companions could very easily teach an entire lesson without any help from me and it worked out just fine. But, I've been trying really hard to push myself to speak more so that I can learn this language! I'm not scared to talk to people in Japanese, but sometimes I just get lazy because it takes so much effort to speak it and to listen attentively enough to figure out what people are saying. I am improving though! Just yesterday on our trainride to Saga, I sat next to an older woman and began a conversation with her about herself and talked to her a little about what we're all doing in Japan and I even tried to give her a book of Mormon! I did it all by myself too :) I try really hard not to let my lack of abilities keep me from talking to people. And I'm still learning new things each day! Finding is always such an adventure. This week we contacted a super crazy lady who punched me in the stomach and pinched my companion. We get a lot of people who just like to X us in the face with their arms. Kids and teenagers that we pass by often say "Herro!" or "I am happy!" or random english phrases that they know. It's always an adventure each day :) I wish I had more time to write but time is out once again! Thank you everyone for the love and support and I pray for everyone back home each day! Ai Shite Imasu yo! Wells Shimai

The Country of Cats

This week was crazy. Seriously, we had so many ups and downs it was ridiculous. I'll just begin at the beginning. Tuesday we called one of our investigators who has been really busy lately taking care of her mom and sister who are both sick and who I haven't actually met yet. A few days previously, we had gotten the relief society to all sign a card for her to lift her spirits because she's just been so exhausted lately. Tuesday, when we talked to her, however, she was upset about the card. She told us that she understood our intentions, but that wasn't what she wanted at all. She felt like we had betrayed her trust by telling the relief society about her personal problems and she also said that she's not sure when she wants to meet again, but that she'll call us when she's ready. It was super devastating. It's so hard here in Japanese culture where everyone is so closed off about their personal lives when we're from a mormon culture where everyone knows everything about each other and we just didn't think anything of it! It was quite sad. That day as well, our other strong investigator called us and told us that her mother was now sick in the hospital and she probably wouldn't be able to meet us for another 2 months. We were pretty down after that. But We tried super hard to keep our spirits high and trust that God has it all worked out as long as we just keep on doing what we're supposed to be doing! On Thursday we had an appointment at a member's house to teach her non member mother a lesson. The member met us at the bus stop and told us that her mom had a surprise for us when we got to the house. We walk in, and her mother (who is 86 years old by the way) is dressed in the traditional Japanese Kimono with a fan in her hand and tells us that she wants to do a dance for us! She turns on a small stereo with some traditional Japanese music and begins waving her fan gracefully to the song. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen! After her wonderful presentation, we had lunch and a super good lesson about the Plan of Salvation. It was definitely one of my favorite appointments thus far. Friday was our miracle day. We had an aisu (ice cream) appointment at with a young girl we had met on the street just a few days earlier. Her appointment time came and went, and after a few unanswered phone calls, we decided to get ourselves some ice cream so that we could be in a good mood for finding. Not two minutes after we left baskin robins did we run into our investigator who said we couldn't meet for two months! She was walking with her husband and was super excited to see us. She told us that her mom is doing well and that she wants us to come again soon! It was literally a miracle. If we would have left even a minute sooner or later we would have completely missed her. It just goes to show that God truly does have His hand in this work. That same day, we were trying to find a neighborhood that we had driven past a few days before and we were getting slightly lost. We were wandering somewhat aimlessly, talking to whoever passed by, when a former investigator walks right in our path! She was also super happy to see us and even gave us some star wars candy. She said she is still a little too busy to meet with us right now, but it was just confirmation that God will lead us to people, or He will lead them to us. It's crazy the things that occur on a daily basis. Some random things about Japan that I realized this week are 1, Japan doesn't have carpet, like anywhere. It's all tatami mats and laminate and wood flooring. It made me miss carpet when I realized it haha. Also, driving in Japan is super scary. Not that I drive, but when we get driven places, I have to say a very heartfelt prayer in order to feel safe. For one, they drive on the other side of the road, which I am still not used to, and their streets are TINY and narrow, and their cars are itty bitty. People go super fast, weave in and out of cars and people, and stop suddenly. I prefer bikes when it's available. Another random thing is that Japan has TONS of stray cats. It's great! Every time I see one I always go up to it and say "Konnichiwa!" and one of my companions gets all mad at me and says the cats here aren't nice and I'm going to get attacked :) She hates cats. Also, Japanese people are obsessed with cats. They have cat patterns on their clothes and bags and jewelry and all sorts of things! Its pretty much my dream come true :) Well, time is all out and I wish I could just talk about every little thing that happens here because there really are so many wonderful things that happen. Keep Japan in your prayers! Wells Shimai

Living in the Land of Many Hills

Ohayho Gozaimasu! Being on a mission is definitely like a roller coaster ride. You have the highest moments and the lowest moments each and every day. But no matter what happens, you always end the day with a smile on your face ready to ride again tomorrow! I just wish that I could write about every single miracle we see every single day but theres just too many to count! But first, I'll start out with just a little bit of the weird cultural things about Japan that I've noticed. First of all, there are absolutely NO AMERICANS HERE besides us missionaries. People literally stare at us all the time. Sometimes, people will see us and then get all excited and grab their friends and point to us and laugh. It was the weirdest thing to get used to. Sometimes people come up to us just to ask us what we're doing here or where we're from or just to try out their English. That's another thing, everyone LOVES to speak any English they know to us. People love to impress us with words like "awesome!" or "great" or "hello" or "thank you" except it sounds more like "sank you" because they don't have a TH sound in Japanese. Being in Nagasaki has been really a humbling experience because we've had a couple of times meeting with older people that tell us about their experience when the genbaku (Atomic Bomb) hit here. It's crazy that it really wasn't even all that long ago. Some of these people here were kids or teenagers when it happened. The miracle of it too is that nobody holds a grudge whatsoever. They have all completely forgiven us Americans and are completely open to talking to us about it. The Japanese people are truly some of the most humble and kind people on this earth. The food here is quite different as you would expect. However, I have not had sushi yet, and I don't eat rice every day for every meal. They do eat quite a bit of fishy tasting food and plenty of noodles and different types of soups. A lot of it is super good, but I will admit, I've gotten pretty good and just not breathing when I eat things I don't like so that I can't taste them as much. It's a good skill to have. Also, they all drink some sort wheat based tea called mugicha that tastes a bit like licking an ashtray. I hear it's an acquired taste, though I have yet to acquire it. Nagasaki has TONS of hills. Lucky for us however, the steepest hill that we bike every day is the hill just before our apartment! Literally, We've probably gone up it 3 times every day since I've been here and I've only actually made it on my bike 4 times total. I end up walking pretty much every single time. I'm slowly improving though! Now for some miracles of this week: I did a contact all by myself for the first time on the bus this week! Don't get overly excited for me though, the lady spoke tons of English haha. It was still really exciting. She's a really devout Catholic who was super shocked to hear that we Mormons are Christian. I talked to her for a solid 15 minutes in broken English and broken Japanese and in the end, we exchanged phone numbers and I gave her a Book of Mormon! She wants to meet with us in October and offered us homemade strawberry jam and rum. We said yes to the Jam and no to the rum. Don't worry :) We found 2 other new investigators this week. On Friday we were out finding and weren't having any luck, so we decided to just sit a moment and pray together. After our prayer we walked for literally 3 minutes before we ran into a young girl who we talked to and she totally wanted to come to church! We gave her a Book of Mormon, told her we'd meet her at the bus stop to walk to the church with her and exchanged phone numbers. It was super awesome! However, then she called us just a few hours later, and told us that her mom wouldn't let her come to church. It was really sad. We're hopeful that we can still meet with her sometime though because she really wanted to learn more! Every single day we see little miracles and its truly amazing. Japan is so prepared to hear this message and I can't wait to find the people searching for the truth! Thanks again to everyone for all the love and support and prayers. See you all in 16 months! Wells Shimai

Area 1: Nagasaki

Wow so many things happened this week I don't even know where to begin! I guess I'll start at the beginning. This past Monday, we depart from the MTC at 2:30 in the morning and head off to the airport! We board our plane, all 32 of us, and sit there for 2 hours before they tell us that something is wrong and this plane is not leaving the ground. We all get off the plane, and wait for our travel leader to tell us the news that they've rescheduled us to a flight that night at 5:45! All of our travel plans are way off now, but we're all in good spirits because we have faith that we'll get to Japan eventually! We then proceed to spend the next 12 hours in the Salt Lake Airport finding things to do and feeling like celebrities because EVERYONE kept talking to us and asking us where were going and then telling us about all the missionaries that they know right now and getting offered food and money. It really wasn't such a bad experience. We flew to Dallas that night, spent the night in a hotel, and the next day flew to Tokyo! It was a 13 hour flight with 31 other antsy young people and when we finally landed and stepped of the plane it was like stepping into.... a sauna! Seriously though it was SO HOT AND HUMID the second we got off the plane. Fast forward a couple of days and about 3 hours of sleep later and I found myself on a bus to NAGASAKI! As soon as I got here I met my 2 new companions names Lyles Shimai and Heaton Shimai. Heaton Shimai has only been here 6 weeks so she's still getting trained. Lyles Shimai is our super mom training two green beans at the same time! Lyles shimai is only on her 5th transfer too. Her Japanese is extremely skilled because she had a native companion about 2 transfers back, so she does about 60 percent of the talking, Heaton Shimai does about 25 and I attempt to do about 15 percent when I can. Usually when I try to talk, it just ends up that Lyles Shimai has to take over after about 2 sentences anyway because my Nihongo is still a little scrambled in my brain. But that's ok because I've only been here like 4 days and I speak a little bit more each and every day! The first day, we went out to lunch at an indo curry restaurant (yes, my very first meal in the field was Indian, not Japanese) and then biked home in skirts. Hahah what a joke that is. Picture weaving in and out of millions of Japanese people in narrow streets in the pouring rain, up hill, in a skirt! Quite the adventure, to say the least. Apparently we're in a typhoon right now, because it literally rains 80 percent of the day. Sometimes we get to put on our rain suits which consist of some super attractive waterproof pants and water proof jacket. I'm still trying to really figure out the point of them because they 're supposed to keep you from getting wet, but whenever you take them off you're drenched in sweat anyway! Missionary life is great :) Japan is truly such a beautiful country. Where I am there are just hills upon hills covered by so much green! Our apartment is tiny and awesome. We sleep on futons every night, eat with chopsticks, and take our shoes off before we enter the house. Every morning it's still weird for me to wake up on a futon and think "I'm in Japan!" It's also wonderful too. As for missionary work, we've seen a few miracles just in the few days that I've been here. The very first time we went out finding on like my second day, the very first door we went to was a cute old lady who totally wanted to hear more about our message! We have an appointment with her this week! Yesterday, after church, we went out housing and for about an hour had no success whatsoever. We then took a moment to see if we wanted to try a different area or continue where we were. We gave ourselves a little pep talk about how important our message is and how we really want to share it with others and then proceeded on to housing. After our little pep talk, the very first house we went to was a sweet old lady who was SO receptive to us! We gave her a book of mormon and a pamphlet and asked her if we could come back. She said we could come in right then if we wanted to! It was the strangest thing but also super amazing. People in Japan don't just invite random people into their houses. But we sat down with her and prayed and got to know her a little bit and talked about how our message could benefit her. It was only a short visit, but we're going back next week, and she gave us cookies! After that house we were all dying of thirst, but still had about an hour before we needed to go home. I said "maybe someone will offer us a drink" and we proceeded onward. Literally about 6 houses later a super nice older woman asked us if we wanted a drink of water! She let us in to eat some grapes and some weird fruit that I still don't know what it was, and had a nice drink of water. She also gave us some interesting (aka really gross) fish tasting crackers. Despite the nasty crackers, she was really such an answer to our prayers. It made me realize that God really does take care of His missionaries. Well, I wish I could talk about every little mercy and miracle that happened this week but there simply isn't time! Japan is wonderful, my jet lag is finally wearing off, and I can feel the prayers from back home as I've received strength I haven't earned and been blessed with miracles that did not come from my own doings. Thank you everyone for your love and support! It's time to go save Nagasaki! Wells Shimai