Temple Trip!

This will be a short one but I just wanted to mention the fact that we were able to go to the temple today! AND we had 5 RECENT CONVERTS that came with us! That is one bonus of staying in an area a long time, is that I've actually been able to watch the progression of each of these people from the very beginning up until now with their very first visit to the temple. We had Nozomi Chan, our 14 year old cutie pie that got baptized in October, Sister Yamamoto who was baptized in December and was able to do the baptism for her grandma today, and Brother Tung who got Baptized in February and is our super happy Vietnamese convert who's here learning Japanese at the nearby college, Brother Ishihara who was also baptized in February who loves American Rock music, and Brother Yamazaki who was just baptized about a month ago and has hair longer than mine that's always slicked back into his super cool pony tail. It was definitely a happy day for the Nagasaki Branch. Thank you everyone for the love and support! Nagasaki is still going strong! And I'm still convinced it's the most beautiful area in Japan so I've been super blessed to have been here for so long. Have a wonderful week! Wells Shimai

Lots of Fun Pictures

Tender Mercies

This email will be a short one. This past week has been one of the long ones. We did 2 companion exchanges, which are just tiring, and just had a lot of random issues that came up. However, there were some really good moments. First I'll just explain to you all what Easter in Japan is like. Basically, no one has ever really heard of it, and even the church members here don't actually do anything for it except for talk about the resurrection and such during sacrament meeting. No Easter baskets or egg hunts or anything. It was slightly depressing. This is how my Easter went: I woke up at 5:30 in Kurume, where we had done a companion exchange the day before, in order to catch our train by 6:40 to come back to Nagasaki. We walked to the station in the rain, and I got drenched because I forgot my umbrella, and then I sat on a train for 2 hours in wet clothes. From the Nagasaki station, we walk directly to church, again in the rain and have a nice three hours of church struggling to stay awake and struggling not to be too uncomfortable in still damp clothes. After church, I wasn't necessarily angry or upset or anything, just exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep or cry or something. But Nihei Shimai and I decided that we really needed to go outside and talk to a few people before we came back and did our studies that we still hadn't done yet. We go outside, and talk to people on the street, and we run into this kind older woman who kindly replies that she isn't interested because she is Buddhist. I then asked her if she would share with me one thing about Buddhism that she liked. She replied by saying "Fuyu wa kanarazu natsu to narimasu" which roughly translates to "Winter will inevitably turn to Summer." I just about started crying right there. I'm pretty sure she was an angel because those simple words were exactly what I needed to hear right then. I was definitely feeling at that moment like my life was this never ending Winter that would just always be difficult. But her words made me realize that our trials really are but a small moment. And Summer is coming. Slowly but surely. Those simple words filled me with more hope than I could have gotten from anywhere else at that time. It just made me realize that God truly is looking out for us. He knew that I needed to meet that woman and hear those words, and now I know that everything is going to be ok. I know that God is watching over each of us each day. And that just as summer will inevitably come, there will inevitably be those times of winter as well. But we can get through it. And we can come through it a stronger person. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and made sure to remember the true meaning. Thank you for the support and prayers! Wells Shimai

Sunscreen, Conference Sessions, and Senile Sweethearts

This past week flew by! It's been a sunny couple of days mixed in with some rain storms. Its super interesting to see how far Japanese people go to prevent getting any sun burn or tan. Even my companion, who is naturally pretty dark, puts sunscreen on her feet and hands and face each day before we go outside because she wants to stay as light as possible. And pretty much all Japanese people use skin whitening soap. It's such an opposite from America where all anyone wants is to be tan. It's funny the slight culture differences that exist in other parts of the world. Conference this past weekend was SOOO GOOD! I just wish it would have been like 4 times as long as it was. I was so sad when it ended. I really loved Elder Hollands very first talk about standing up for what we believe with courtesy and courage. I've come to the realization that one reason I'm here in Japan is because people are extremely polite and kind even when they have no interest. Let's just say that if I had someone spit their food at me or throw potatoes at the back of my head, I don't think I would be able to be very Christ-like. God knew I could only handle somewhere like Japan. I also LOVED Thomas S. Monson's talk about Charity as well as that one talk, I don't remember his name, but the one that talked about our 4 minutes. This life truly is shorter than we realize, and we've gotta prove ourselves now! There's not enough time to procrastinate until the end because we really just don't know when that will be. Every single day, every hour, matters. It made me really want to cherish my time here more than I am. This past weekend we went housing in a nearby neighborhood, knocked on the door of an old woman who let us in and gave us some drinks. At first we were super excited to talk to her and see what kind of potential she might have as a new investigator, however, in the first 4 minutes when she asked us 3 times if we had already eaten dinner, and then kept trying over and over to give us more food, we realized that she probably wasn't 100 percent there. So after explaining to her that we had to leave, she told us that she would come with us, and walked out the door with us. Not knowing exactly what to do, we walked down the street a little bit and told her we were going to talk to someone else and thanked her for walking with us. She still wouldn't go back home. She insisted on following us. We couldn't just leave her, nor could we exactly bring her with us to do finding, so we ended up walking around with her for probably 40 minutes trying all sorts of methods to get her to go back home. Eventually we just walked back to our bikes with her, got on them and told her we had to go home. We then biked away, and looked back and watched her make her way back home. Just thought I would add that experience to let you know some of the strange experiences we have on a day to day basis. Japan is great. My companion is great, and this gospel is perfect. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter this Sunday! Continue to pray for the people of Japan and the missionaries! Arigatou Gozaimasu! Wells Shimai

Faith, Fukuoka and Fun!

It's been a busy week! Last Tuesday we went to Fukuoka for Missionary Leadership Council, which is always fun because I got to see cute little Heaton Shimai again as well as plenty of other good friends. I was still the youngest missionary there in terms of mission age, so that was a little bit lonely and intimidating. But President talked to us and trained us on a bunch of super awesome topics and now I am just pumped to go out and baptize Japan! Thursday, we met as a Zone in Nagasaki and my companion and I, along with the Zone Leaders got to lead the Zone Training Meeting. It's always a little scary talking to a bunch of missionaries about things that they can do better, or different things that President wants us to do, when I myself have SO MUCH that I should be doing better. It was a good experience for me though. Nihei Shimai and I got to talk to everyone about a goal that President has challenged us all to work towards. Basically because this month is Easter, in order to exercise our faith, and show our dedication to the Lord for all that He has done for us, President has challenged each companionship in the mission to set a baptismal date with someone by Easter, April 20th. And then also, because dates isn't what we actually want to lead people to, he also challenged us all to have a baptism before Mother's Day next month! It was super exciting to talk about this with the zone and feel everyone's faith and desire to achieve this goal. We're actually hoping to set a date with one of our investigators this week! Can't wait. Miracles. They're everywhere. Well, I know there were more wonderful things that happened this week, but I'm about out of time. As Easter time approaches, (which they don't actually celebrate in Japan, so I haven't seen ANY Easter decorations, :( ) I have been thinking a lot about the atonement. A little while back, our mission President talked to us about how if our investigators truly understood the atonement and all of the blessings that can come from it, they would get baptized. I really think there is a lot of truth to that. Through Christ, we can be free from guilt, from sorrow, from suffering, and pain. And ultimately, have eternal life and eternal progression. I know that we can all have these blessings if we are willing to submit our will to God's and come unto Christ. I hope everyone had a wonderful conference weekedend, we don't get to watch it until this weekend but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be serving in Japan! Thank you for the prayers and love! Wells Shimai

Pictures!

Cherry Blossoms, Chinese and Changes

So last week we received our transfer calls and.... I'M STILL IN NAGASAKI! Haha I can't even believe it. I really thought that I was leaving after 7 months, but I guess I'll stay in my favorite city in Japan for a little longer. I have no complaints :) All of us sisters stayed the same, so I'm still companions with my tiny Asian friend, and I still live with my daughter Cook Shimai and her adopted aunt Lane Shimai. However, Elder Harvey and Elder Coelho got transfered! Elder Harvey and I came to Nagasaki on the same bus together 7 months ago and have watched this area change and grow together this whole time! It was sad to see him go because now I have officially been in Nagasaki the longest. By far. And Elder Coelho, the genius Brazilian went on to be an Assistant to the President! It's a little bit weird to stay in one area for so long and watch so many people come and go. However, we received another Japanese Elder who speaks fluent English and is going to be a doctor someday, his name is Oshima Seigi which means Big Island Justice. I love Japanese names. And then Nagasaki recieved another green bean! His name is Elder Chung and he was born in Hong Kong and lived there until he was 10 then moved to Australia. So he is Chinese, but speaks fluent English with an Australian accent. It throws me off EVERY time he talks. But the lucky duck knows fluent Chinese as well, which means that he understands pretty much all of the written Japanese language even though he can't speak it yet. (For those of you that don't know, all of the Japanese characters are actually borrowed from Chinese. They have basically the same meanings, but you say them completely differently). I'm excited for this next transfer to work with all of the Nagasaki missionaries! This past Sunday we all sang the EFY Medley as missionaries because we had a special church leader Tashiro Choro come and give us a fireside after sacrament meeting. We were able to have 2 of our investigators attend and it was super good because he just talked really simply about the Book of Mormon and about Prayer and how they are truly a gift to bless us and also about how the Book of Mormon was written for US and for THIS time. Japan right now is absolutely beautiful. All of the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom and I have to exert all of my self control to not take 40 pictures every time we step outside. Spring is my favorite time of year because it just feels so fresh and makes me wants to start changing things in my life to be better. Anyway, I love Japan. I love the cherry blossoms, and I love being a missionary. Thank you everyone for the love and support! Have a wonderful Spring! Wells Shimai