Halloween - Japanese Style!

One Year Older and Wiser Too

I'm officially 21 years old! Strange. This week was just too full of things to talk about! For one thing, we had a super cool miracle this past Wednesday. My companion accidentaly left her bag of pamphlets and Books of Mormon on the street car about two weeks ago. Wednesday morning we get a call from the police station saying they found it and they told us which train stop to go to. Later that day, we go down to that train stop, get off, and realize we have no idea where to go from there. After a few minutes of looking around trying to figure it out, we realize we're not so good at Japanese and we have no idea where to go. Heaton Shimai then calls the number that called us that morning and asks them where we're supposed to go. After about 10 minutes of trying to figure out the person's Japanese instructions, we decide they can just keep they bag, because we have plenty more pamphlets and Books of Mormon. We try to tell the people on the phone that its ok, but they just kept trying to explain to us where to go. Then, I look across the street and see our Korean investigator who speaks Japanese and English fluently. I call out for her to come over, and after a very shocked look on her face, she walks over to us. We quickly explain our predicament and give her the phone. Not two minutes later, we showed up at the police station, apologize to the man that we talked to on the phone, and retrieve our bag. It was seriously the craziest miracle! Nagasaki is a huge city and we had never been to that part of town before, yet, we just happened to bump into our investigator who speaks English and Japanese at just the right time! She was blown away by the experience of it and after we told her that God sent her to us because He knew we needed her help. She then proceeded to tell us that only a few minutes before she saw us, she was going to get on the train, but she had a feeling that she should just walk a few minutes until the next train station. Of course we told her that that was totally the spirit guiding her to us because that's how God communicates with us! She was totally blown away by that fact and was also super excited to realize that God really is influencing her life! I love being a missionary and helping people recognize all the different ways that God truly does have a hand in our lives. Pretty much all week long we were preparing for our branch Halloween (or Harroween as the natives say it) party. Because Halloween is an American Holiday, us missionaries basically just got to plan the whole thing however we wanted it to be because no one in Japan actually knows what Halloween is really like. It turned out to be a blast! I dressed up like a cat (surprise surprise), my companion and Lyles Shimai dressed up like spiders, and Cullison Shimai dressed up like a Japanese Fox character and looked super legit. The party was a total success too because most of our English class students ended up coming and bringing quite a few of their friends, and also we all had some of our investigators come and make friends with ward members which was awesome! We did face paining, bingo, halloween crafts, ate some delicious food, and at the end I taught everyone a super simple version of Michael Jackson's Thriller dance. It was hilarious and super fun! I apologize for not having more time to write! I spent more time uploading pictures this week. However, my birthday was awesome and my roommates made me a yummy cake that we all ate for breakfast. This week was another typhoon which we got stuck in without an umbrella or rain gear. Its always fun to show up to English class dripping wet and watch people's reaction :) The work in Nagasaki is seriously exploding and I'm so glad to be a part of it! Thank you everyone for the love and prayers! Ai shite Imasu yo! Wells Shimai

Babies Raising Babies

This week has been SO LONG. It has also been full of wonderful miracles too! For one thing, we were finally able to meet with my Strawberry Jam lady! The one that I contacted all by myself on the street car like a month ago and gave a Book of Mormon to. She told us she wouldn't be able to meet until October so this month we gave her a call and this week we had lunch! She is just the funniest little lady who tries so hard to speak English whenever she can! We were planning on teaching the restoration lesson to her, but she just had TONS of questions. Like "Why did you want to meet with me?" and "How do you pay for your apartment?" and "How did your church begin?" "Do you have a Japanese host mom and dad?" "How do you pray?" and on and on and on. She is a devout Catholic who prays every night and day and goes to church every week, so she was curious as to how our beliefs compare too. After a lunch with her, she wanted to see our church which we were going to anyway, so we walked to the church with her and gave her a tour. Then, it just so happened that one of our church members was coming to clean the church that day, and showed up like 5 minutes after us. She was able to make up for our slight lack of Japanese and explain things to Strawberry Jam lady that she was still confused about. The timing was absolutely perfect. Then to top it all off, she actually gave us homemade strawberry jam! This week we went to Sasebo for a Zone Training Meeting, and then we also were able to go to the Fukuoka Temple with our branch on Saturday! Which is probably why this week felt so long. Weeks that we don't do as much teaching or finding always seem to go on forever! The Fukuoka Temple is so tiny and cute and it was just so refreshing to get to go again! Its been far too long. Plus, our mission home is located right underneath the temple, so we had the good fortune of arriving early for our session and getting to stop in the mission home and we got to say hi to our mission president and his wife along with the AP's. Driving to the temple was also wonderful because the countryside of Japan is gorgeous. Plus, we would often pass areas that overlooked the ocean which always brightens our day. Other little random facts of the week: We have an adorable old man that comes to our English class every week and two weeks ago we were talking about staying healthy and what foods are healthy to eat. He told us that he eats brown rice instead of white and we were shocked because we hadn't seen any brown rice in Japan despite our efforts. He tried to explain to us the store where he buys it, but we werent exactly sure where he was talking about. Then, this past week after English Class, he comes up to my companion and says "Heaton, I have a present I want to give." He then proceeds to pull out a bag of brown rice and gives it to us! It was the cutest thing! Another random thing this week is that a lady on the street totally said she loved God! This may sound like a strange thing to mention, but there are so many people in Japan who don't even know who God is let alone want to talk about Him, that we were just so happy to hear those words come out of her mouth! Japan is so ready to hear the gospel! Well, thank you everyone for all the love and support! Wells Shimai

Yeah! Pictures!

Momma's Babies are All Grown Up!

Transfer weeks are always a bit crazy, but here was the final outcome: All three of us sister missionaries get to stay in Nagasaki! However, me and Heaton Shimai have become a companionship and Lyles Shimai got another baby! (Sorry that I keep using mission family member terms. In short, your first companion than trains you is called your mom and you're usually trained by them for 2 transfers to complete the 12 week training program) So Heaton Shimai was Lyles Shimai's first baby, and I came along 6 weeks later which made us our trio, and now Lyles Shimai is a mother of three of us all living in the same apartment! The new bean (in Japan brand new missionaries are called beans or green beans) is named Cullision Shimai from Utah and she took like 5 years of Japanese before coming to Japan. Her Japanese speaking skills are awesome! And she has rapunzel hair. Not even joking. Her hair is the longest I've ever seen someone's hair. I'll try to send a picture this week so you can see it for yourself. Anyway, now we've got me, the still-being-trained-bean with Heaton Shimai the just-barely-finished-her-training-trainer out taking on Nagasaki all by ourselves! We no longer have our mother to translate the super hard Japanese and tell us where the buses are going so its been a little interesting to say the least. It has also been a pretty neat experience. I've been surprised at how much Japanese we are able to understand despite the fact that we've only been here a short time. I guess you never really know the extent of your abilities until you're forced into using them! All I know is that this transfer is probably going to be absolutely exhausting, but I'm so excited for it! Plus, this morning I read in my scriptures about the 2000 stripling warriors and decided that we're totally like that. Young and inexperienced and have pretty much no idea what we're doing, but you know what? God is on our side, so we have absolutely no reason to doubt! We can totally accomplish everything we need to because this is God's work anyway, not ours. We're so ready to go conquer Nagasaki! We were able to watch General Conference this past weekend as well which just boosted everyone up! It was so refreshing to just sit and be spiritually rejuvenated for hours at a time this weekend. I will never again take general conference for granted. It is just too wonderful of an opportunity to ever pass up! Just a little bit of information about the branch where I am serving, Nagasaki is still a branch, not a ward and each week I'd say we have around 50-60 people at church. Oohira Kyodai, our ward mission leader was the very first church member in Nagasaki after world war 2 so that tells you just how new the church is in this area. Basically every single member is a convert unless they're super young. The members are some of the best people I have ever met in my life and they are SO willing to do anything to help us out. Its crazy to see the dedication of some of these members that live 2 hours away from the church or that come by themselves every single week. They seriously are some of the strongest people I've ever known. Well, time is running low yet again, and we've got people to go find and teach and help so I'll be sure to keep in touch again next week! Continue to pray for us because we're going to need some serious help these next 6 weeks! Love you all! Wells Shimai

My World Turned Upside Down

This week is transfer calls which means P-day was switched to Tuesday again! This week was seriously CRAZY. First off, I had my first bike crash! It wasn't anything bad, but this is how it happened: We were biking to a members house, going down a super steep hill and I was behind Sister Heaton. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but Heaton Shimai lost balance and started tipping over, and I didn't have time to swerve around, so I just slammed on my breaks, at which point I felt my back tire begin to leave the ground and before I knew what was happening I was flying over the front of my handlebars completely upside down and then I crashed onto the ground. I untangled myself from my bike and saw my shoe and sock about 6 feet away from me (I still have no idea how that happened) and assessed the damage. My toe had a small bit of skin missing and my knees were a little scraped up but other than that I was completely fine! Definitely a miracle. And also one of the most hilarious things that happened this week haha. The next big event of the week came Thursday night when we got a call from APs for Heaton Shimai. They told her that she had to go to Fukuoka Monday for a training meeting because she's becoming a trainer! SHE'S ONLY ON HER SECOND TRANSFER! Basically we were all freaking out. And now I'm freaking out because that means that I could possibly be training someone next transfer. BAHHH!!! My Japanese is NOT good enough to survive in this city as senior companion haha! But we also know that God knows best and we will all do whatever is asked of us! Just a funny story of the week, this past Thursday, we biked to an investigators apartment for an appointment that was about 4 miles away. She had a headache and told us she didn't want to meet that day. Then we decided we wanted some american food for dinner and decided to try out the KFC with thoughts of mashes potatoes and warm biscuits in mind. We go in and discover that KFC in Japan is not very American at all and instead they have rice as a side dish and little chunks of seaweed on the chicken. Go figure. But we were already there, so we ate some weird tasting KFC. Then, it was time to go home and finish weekly planning so we biked the 4 miles back uphill to our apartment. We park our bikes and Lyels Shimai starts saying "oh no, oh shimata, oh no, don't hate me!" and it turns out she forgot our keys and cell phone at the KFC! Let's just say it was a long night :) But, she bought us black thunders (delicious candy bar things that the Japanese people pronounce "bu rah kooh sun dah" that I am going to miss dearly when I return to America) and we made milk shakes and it was all good. I think it's some sort of stereotype that missionaries in Japan lose weight because all the Japanese people are tiny. Let me just say, that is a lie. We bike between 10 and 20 miles each day and we eat like it too. Most Japanese missionaries get what we call "rice cheeks" which just means your face gets fat because the only part of our body that ever gets worked out is out legs. Which are all pretty rock solid by the way. But I just thought I would mention that as a disclaimer so you all don't expect me to come back Asian sized :) Final crazy thing that happened this week. Heaton Shimai went to Fukuoka yesterday to get trained to be a trainer and on her way back she called us and announced....drumroll please.......SHE'S GOING TO FININSH TRAINING ME! Ahhhh!!! This next transfer is definitely going to be one of the most interesting ones of my mission haha. We'll have a second transfer and third transfer missionary out rocking Nagasaki with our smiles and spirits because we certainly can't speak the language very well. It's going to be absolutely insane. I'm scared to death, but I also am super excited because I just know we're going to learn SO MUCH! We don't know what's happening to Lyles Shimai yet, but we'll get a phone call today! Ganbaranba! To answer questions people have asked, we haven't watched conference yet, in Japan they watch it the next week. We missionaries will get to watch it in English (Thank Heavens) and we are all SO PUMPED! Conference for missionaries is basically like Christmas. Random tidbit, school is canceled today and we were advised not to leave our apartments tonight because apparently there's a typhoon coming. Japan is so cool! Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all! Wells Shimai