P-Day Pictures and Fermented Soybeans

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like......December!

So we're just idiot Americans who don't actually know then Thanksgiving is. I totally thought it was last week. Apparently it's this Thursday. All last week we kept sharing messages about being Thankful talking about our American Holiday. Oh well, Japanese people have never heard of Thanksgiving in their life so they don't know we're dumb :) This past week was crazy. Lyles Shimai is now in Fukuoka being a Sister Training Leader and Eddy Shimai is now safely in Nagasaki. Here's the crazy part though, Last week Cullison Shimai and Lyles Shimai taught a lesson to their investigator named Yamamoto who was once mine and Heaton Shimai's investigator as well back when we were a trio. At the lesson, they challenged Yamamoto San to baptism and at the time she just wasn't sure if she really wanted to get baptized or not, but she said she would pray and think about it. Fast forward about 8 hours later, and Yamamoto san comes to English Class that night, and after it's over, she starts talking to Lyles Shimai and starts crying. Apparently, she had been thinking about getting baptized all day long and she recieved an answer that she wants to get baptized on her birthday! Well guess when her birthday is. NEXT THURSDAY. Fast Forward to the present time. Basically, we're all helping to prepare this woman to get baptized next Thursday by meeting with her basically every single morning this week so that she can learn all of the commandments and being keeping them in time. It's crazy! This morning all four of us sisters taught her about the Word Of Wisdom and it was one of the smoothest lessons ever! She just basically said "Yea, it's way good to be healthy. I love being healthy. I don't really even drink coffee or tea so I don't have any problems with this." Wait what? A Japanese person without Word of Wisom problems? Is this for real? I just have to testify that Japan is SO prepared for this gospel! Also, yesterday at church, between the four companionships of missionaries in Nagasaki we had 5 investigators at church! It was such a great day. And Sacrament meeting was wonderful. Malcom Choro, our new zone leader that just transfered here last week was asked to speak along with Eddy Shimai, and he calls me up Saturday night and says "Hey, I think I want to sing in sacrament meeting tomorrow and I hear you can play the piano." Turns out this kid has the voice of an angel and just blows everyone's socks off with a beautiful display of "There is a green hill far away" in English and Japanese. It was pretty rockin. Pretty sure we're going to have to do some Musical Missionary work this transfer and just sing Christmas songs to people so we can talk about Jesus with them. Malcom Choro is going to be our new secret weapon. Speaking of Christmas, IT"S JUST A NORMAL BUSINESS DAY IN JAPAN! Everyone just goes to school and work and no one really celebrates it all that much. Is that ridiculous or what? It's a little depressing. However, Nagasaki is one of the most Christian areas in Japan so luckily, we actually do have a few shopping centers with Christmas trees and various decorations put up. It always makes me happy :) Plus, we're getting out our mini 5 foot Christmas tree for our apartment today and I'm so excited! And we've all started singing Christmas songs while riding our bikes sometimes and then it feels a little more like Christmas time :) Well, I hope everyone enjoys their real Thanksgiving this week! I'm going to be in Sasebo on Thanksgiving for a zone conference where there's an Indian Curry all you can eat restaurant that we always go to. So at least we'll have a little piece of our beloved American holiday. Celebrating in Japan, eating massive amounts of Indian food. It's not quite the same but hey, beggars can't be choosers so I'll take what I can get! Love you all! Be thankful for peanut butter this week! And Wheat bread! Wells Shimai

Typhoons, Thanksgiving and Transfers

Wow, this week was just full of crazy events. Transfer weeks are always a little crazy. I'll probably start by talking about our transfer calls today. To put it simply, Heaton Shimai and I are still companions in Nagasaki!!!! That makes three transfers in a row with the same companion! But our dearly beloved mother, Lyles Shimai, is heading off to Fukuoka to be a Sister Training Leader!!! We're so sad, but also exciting because that means that she'll get to come back at some point next transfer to do splits with us! And the current Sister Training Leader, Eddy Shimai, isn't going to be a STL anymore, but instead is coming to Nagasaki to finish training Cullison Shimai! Wow, crazy times. Anyway, just some random crazy miracle events of the week: Our Korean investigator, come to our English class pretty much every week to improve her English and learn phrases (And sometimes to translate our English into Japanese because we're not so good at explaining things sometimes :)) But, anyway, this past week, we were learning the phrase 'from here on out' and after we explained it, we asked for example sentances. Our investigator raises her hand, and says "If she gets baptized, from here on out, she will have the gift of the Holy Ghost" All of us missionaries about died laughing! And pretty much everyone else in the room had no idea what was going on but she just looked at us and said "well that's what you guys always tell me!". Haha, I love our English class. Update on her, basically, she's planning on getting baptized. It's no longer a question of IF but more of WHEN. Because we've pretty much taught her everything she needs to know, but her husband still doesn't like her coming to church very much, and she still wants to tell her old preacher about leaving his church before she joins ours. I can't even express to you how much I love teaching her and I just am so excited to have another transfer here to watch her progress towards baptism! This past week we were out housing and we ended up knocking on an older lady's door who actually ended up letting us in and let us give her a Book of Mormon without making a big deal about it, (Quick side note, Japanese culture is kind of unique in that whenever someone gives you something, you're supposed to give them something as well, so it's often QUITE the challenge to give people a Book of Mormon even if they do want to read it because they don't have anything to give to us. Or other times, we give people a Book of Mormon, and they end up giving us some cookies or bread that they happen to have with them or around their house.) and she also scheduled a return appointment with us for next week! At first, she told us that she was super busy because she sews little stuffed demons (Japanese character demons, not anything too sketchy, dont worry) and said that it takes her so much time every day. You'd be surprised at the excuses people in Japan make up for being busy. Its basically just the socially acceptable thing to do is say that you're always busy. Especially the old grandmas. They're ALWAYS busy with SOMETHING. Don't ask me what. Anyway, after I told her we only would stay for 20 or 30 minutes and she was more than happy to let us come again! It was awesome too because she told us that just the day before, she had been talking to her brother who is Christian about Jesus Christ and thinking that she wants to learn more about it! I'm telling you, God is preparing these people of Japan! This past Sunday, our investigators Nozomi and Hikari who were baptized last week received the Gift of the Holy Ghost! Even though the blessing was in Japanese, and there were bits and pieces that were hard to understand, that still might go down as one of my favorite moments on my mission so far. I can't even explain to you the glow that those two young girls had on their faces during that sacrament meeting. It was just too wonderful! I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving will consist of sending my mission mother off to Fukuoka and welcoming Eddy Shimai to Nagasaki and inviting people to learn about Christ! It's going to be a great day, as most days in the mission are :) Even though Thanksgiving is an American holiday, our cute branch members put on a special Family Home Evening for us missionaries last night with a talent show and bit meal afterwards so that we could have a small piece of Thanksgiving even though we're in Japan. It was great fun. We sisters did our fake bagpipe routine for the branch members and they loved it. We also did a real musical number with Lyles Shimai playing the guitar while we all sang an arrangement of Jesus Savior Pilot Me and it turned out quite nicely. Anyway, I wish I had time to send pictures this week, but unfortunately time is almost up! Everyone eat tons of stuffing, yams, pie and turkey for me this week and always always always remember how much you have to be grateful for! Love you all! Wells Shimai

Check out the size of that Japanese apple?

Ohayo Gozaimasu! (Good morning!)

What a good week! First of all, we had a baptismal service! And, our investigator Nozomi and her sister Hikari got baptized! (Last week, I didn't mention that Hikari was going to get baptized because at that point we still weren't sure if she was going to or not. But Hikari is Nozomi's older sister who is 19 years old and has a mental disability. She is just the cutest person ever! But, we had to be sure that she fully understood baptism and all the covenants and parts of the interview before she could get baptized. And last Monday, things were still being discussed.) But Nagasaki Branch now has 2 new members and we are so excited! The service went wonderfully and we had quite a few people come. Nozomi asked us missionaries to do a musical number so we sang "He Sent His Son" From the Primary Children's song book and I'm trying to be like Jesus with some of the primary kids. Over all, it was just a wonderful night. Another awesome miracle of this week, our Korean investigator returned from Korea! That's not the miracle though. We met with her this past week and asked her about her trip. Before going, she had some fears about talking to her mom (A Protestant preacher) about the fact that she was investigating our church, so we asked her if she told her mom about it. Her response was: "Oh yes, actually I have some good news. I showed my mom the Book of Mormon and she read a couple of pages and told me that it is a good book and that it's completely ok for me to learn about this church. She still doesn't want me to get baptized, but she said its alright if I continue to take these lessons." Wait... did we just hear that right? It was a HUGE miracle. Also, her husband who is super Buddhist used to have objections to her coming to church, but she said that he is also seeming to be more and more ok with it these days. God answers prayers! We're planning on setting a baptismal date with her this next week for sometime in December! This past week we also met with our 80 something-year-old investigator who does Japanese Fan dancing for us sometimes (If anyone remembers me talking about that like 2 months ago) and we set a baptismal date with her as well! It was so cute too because we had out a picture of Christ's baptism while we were talking about it and we said that we want her to prepare for February 9th (Yes, quit far away, but her progress is very slow and we want to make sure she felt like she had plenty of time to prepare) and she looks at us all concerned and says "February, but that's the coldest month of the year. The water will be really cold!" Haha we tried not to giggle too much while we explained that she would be getting baptized in a font in our church. And that the water would be very warm and not cold at all. After that, she seemed much more at ease about the idea. This past Saturday, we met with a less active member and taught a role play lesson on the Word of Wisdom so that we could work on our Japanese and figure out how to teach the Word of Wisdom better. Random Japanese culture fact that you probably already knew: Japanese people drink TONS of Tea. All sorts of tea. And while some of them are ok with the word of wisdom, others are not. And for 2 random Utah girls who know nothing about tea and the differences between them, let me just say, teaching the Word of Wisdom in Japan is by far one of the most difficult things to do. Because "green tea is good for your health" and "but it doesn't have any caffeine" and "Well what about iced tea because it says 'hot drinks'" and other such comments inevitably come up. Japanese people love their tea. However, God's word is God's word and I know that sometimes we just have to use our faith and trust that God knows better than us. Teaching hard commandments like that always make me so grateful for our investigators that truly are willing to make these changes in their lives and take the leap of faith to follow God's commandments. That has probably been one of the coolest things for me to watch. People making big changes in their lives and coming closer to Christ is the process. Being a missionary is just the best life. I mean, seriously, we just get to go around all day and talk to people about God! What a life! :) Well, next week P-day is on a Tuesday because its transfer calls (dun dun dun!!!) and you should all pray for me and my companion and all the Nagasaki missionaries to stay here because the work is exploding and I just love all the people here way too much! However, I will go wherever the Lord wants me to go! Lay on your carpet this week for me and be thankful for it because it doesn't exist in Japan! Love you all!

Baptism Week!

Before I talk about what has happened this past week, I would just like to mention that we are having a Baptism this Thursday!!! Her name is Nozomi and she is a wonderful 14 year old girl who's mother has been a member of the church here for probably around 20 years now. However, until now, Nozomi has not expressed interest in getting baptized! Last transfer, Lyles Shimai, Heaton Shimai and I taught her quite a few of the lessons, and then when we got 4 sisters in Nagasaki, we had to split all of the investigators. So even though Nozomi isn't technically our investigator anymore, we are SO HAPPY to still be here in Nagasaki to be a part of her baptism. Her mom has expressed many times that she feels like all of us sisters have been placed in Nagasaki at this very time specifically for Nozomi because she has never before like the sister missionaries very much or gotten along with any of them as well as she gets along with us. Its going to be such a great event! Ok, now that I got to express my excitement about that, I'll talk about this past week. First of all, last Tuesday we had an awesome blast from the past when we all got to go to Zone Conference. It was only with our Nagasaki Zone and the Fukuoka Zone, but I got to see like 7 people from my MTC district including my MTC companion! It was just the craziest thing to see everyone again! Also, at Zone Conference we had a talent show which all four of us Nagasaki sisters decided to participate in. While preparing for our talent, we looked through different arrangements of hymns and primary songs for quite some time before we finally gave up and decided to be human bagpipes. Basically all you do is plug your nose, and make and 'unnhhhhh' sound out of your mouth and then hit your throat with your finger. It was the most hilarious thing I think we've ever done. All four of us walk up on stage after an hour of pretty spiritual songs and talented people, and we just make weird noises of our mouth to the tune of praise to the man. Everyone was cracking up. Including us. It was absolutely ridiculous. But SO much fun :) This past Tuesday, we found a less active record in the area book that we decided to go visit. After finding the location on the map we bike out to the area, to find ourselves riding along side the ocean for a good 20 minutes. I seriously felt like I was on vacation for a while there. It was gorgeous. Have I ever mention how beautiful my area is? If not, NAGASAKI IS BEAUTIFUL! I love it here so much. Plus, now that it's fall, the weather is perfect. Seriously, I'm convinced that the Celestial Kingdom's weather will be something like Nagasaki in the fall. I just can't get enough of it! Another fun event of the week, was Wednesday we came to the church really early before English class because my companion told me that one of the members wanted to meet and talk about the baptism. We arrive at the church and I'm led to the Kitchen where there's a chocolate cake and Nozomi and her mom and the other two Sisters waiting to say 'Happy Birthday!' They totally threw me a surprise party! Plus, they had printed out little pitcures of cats from the internet and taped them all over the room! (All of which are now taped into my journal :)) The best part about it was probably the chocolate cake. It was by far the best chocolate cake I've ever tasted in Japan. It was so happy! Also, that night after English class, our ward mission leader gave me a whole carton of ice cream too for my birthday!!! Have I mentioned that I love the people here so much?! And here is my quick spiritual message. This past week we did a TON of finding because our main progressing investigator was out of town. And let me just say, it can be quite draining to hear people OVER and OVER again say that they don't want to learn about God or that they're too busy. But, yesterday morning during my personal study, I read 3 Nephi 11 and in verses 3-7 it talks about when the people heard the voice of God. The first time they heard it, they didn't understand it. They felt something, but they weren't sure what. They second time, they still didn't understand it. Finally the third time they heard it they opened their ears and realized it was the voice of God and began listening. I realized that so many people are like that as well. Just because they aren't listening to us right now, doesn't mean that they won't learn about our message in the future! No effort is ever wasted and I know that as long as we have hope for all the people we talk to, the Lord will take care of everything. Well, this starting to get a little too long, but I just want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! I realize it's now a week late, but here in Japan they don't exactly celebrate it so I'm just trying to still feel like an American. I hope everyone is eating plenty of cheese and mexican food for me because those are two things we literally never see. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and love! Love Wells Shimai