Lots of Selfies!!

Wet and Wonderful

This week was very rainy. But, I'm ok with that, because it makes the air cool down just a little bit. Rain season ends in about 2 weeks, and that's when it's expected to get SUPER hot. Yay. Just to talk a little more about life in Okinawa, there are 10 missionaries in this area, 4 sisters and 6 elders. Oh and technically a Missionary Couple whom we love, but they work all over the island with all the missionaries so we don't see them quite as often. I live with my comp, Miller Shimai, the half Lamanite, and Pinzon Shimai who is from Tennesee (But she's actually from Colombia and speaks like 5 languages and might have super powers, we're not quite sure yet) and Olsen Shimai who is always making us laugh. It's a pretty fun group. Our church building was built less than a year ago, and is the size of a Utah church and is basically nicer than any church I've ever seen in Utah. It's probably the nicest church in all of Japan. We're pretty spoiled. Because there's so many Americans here, we do a free English and Japanese class each week at the church and I've been teaching the Japanese classes the past two weeks which is super fun! I'm still a little worried about my Japanese starting to fade with being in an area with so many Americans and speaking it much less, but I haven't noticed any major decreases yet. Pray for me! Because we don't have any super strong progressing investigators right now, we've been focusing our efforts on finding! Whoot! And we've been seeing tons of miracels! Two weeks ago, we found 6 new investigators on the SAME DAY. Then this past week we were able to find a total of 6 new investigators again! It's been crazy how many people have been super nice and willing to listen to what we have to say and let us come back. They are all Japanese, in case you were wondering. Most of the Americans here live on base, and we aren't allowed to proselyte on base. However, we do occasionally meet them on the streets and I'm slowly getting slightly less awkward at my interactions with them. I still have no idea how to find in English. It scares me to death. But anyway, I super excited about all the new people we've met and I'm excited to watch them progress! I'm sure you'll be hearing about some more miracles in the near future! Thank you everyone for the prayers and support! Japan is wonderful! Love Wells Shimai

Pictures

Transferred to Mini America

I've switched to a new mission! Surprise! Just kidding, but that's literally what it feels like! I'm now in Okinawa which is a small island down south off of mainland Japan. And, we have 2 American Military Branches that we are over! As well as one Japanese Ward, but I speak English and hang out with Americans like ALL THE TIME these days. I seriously feels like a different mission entirely. I had no idea that I was coming down to an area with an American branch, so you can imagine my surprise when I arrived at the airport here to be picked up by a blonde haired blue eyed member that was speaking English to me! She also then proceeded to take Pinzon Shimai (one of my roommates) and I on to the military base for some dinner consisting of pork roast and mashed potatoes and delicious rolls with real butter! It was the first really American meal I'd eaten in about 8 months. Then we came and met our companions! My companion is Sister Miller and this is her last transfer! She's from Utah and studied art before her mission. She's half Native American and people ask her all the time if she's half Japanese. She's super funny and we get along great! We're just trying to keep her from getting too trunky and stay focused for these last few weeks! On Sundays we attended all three branches that we are over which equals 7 hours of church. WHOOT. It's quite the day. I'm still actually pretty awkward when it comes to talking to American families. It's a good thing I've got my companion who has been assigned to military branches literally her entire mission, so she's quite skilled at it. I'm hoping I learn quickly though. What's worse is when we go out finding and happen to meet an American and I just kind of stare at them and hope they don't talk to me. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FIND IN ENGLISH! Haha it's the weirdest thing EVER. I am determined to improve though! Anyway, there's a lot that I could write but I'll just add a couple of random details of the past week. This past Thursday, we found 6 new investigators in one day! I couldn't believe it. But people just kept saying they would meet us again! I don't even know how that happened, but I'm ready to start seeing tons of miracles here in Okinawa! On Saturdays, we go on base and play soccer with one of the military branches and whatever non member friends they happen to invite. So it's basically a bunch of super athletic military men and women who treat these games like life or death situations, and then there's me, the non sporty missionary who's never played soccer in my life aside from when I was five and even then I only did cartwheels while standing in front of the net waiting for the ball to come. Lets just say, I feel bad for all my teammates because I have NO IDEA what I'm doing haha. BUT out of some miracle, I did actually happen to shoot a goal in last weeks game! Anyway, that's one of my main goals while I'm here. Get better at soccer so I'm not so useless on Saturday mornings :) Life is great, the church is true, and Okinawa is beautiful! (And wet. It's rain season right now) Thanks you for the constant love and support! Wells Shimai

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

Waiting.....waiting.....waiting.....

Today is transfer call day. At this point, I kind of want just one more transfer in Nagasaki! I:m not ready to leave yet! But, we will see what happens! This past week and half has been super long! Basically, this past transfer we've had some issues in one of the areas that we help as sister training leaders and it has been consuming a little bit of our time. I won't go into details, but this past Friday, after thinking about how to help and talking on the phone to the Assistants about different options, we decided to do another companion exchange last minute. Usually we don't do exchanges this close to transfers, but it just seemed like a good idea. Saturday afternoon, my companion and I took the 2 hour train ride to Kurume, I dropped her off, and picked up Suzuki Shimai at the station and came right back to Nagasaki with Suzuki Shimai. Suzuki Shimai is a Japanese Sister who converted about 5 years ago. We saw SO MANY MIRACLES together. Miracle one. There is a member in the Nagasaki branch that served in Suzuki Shimai's home ward as a missionary, and was a huge part in reactivating Suzuki Shimai after she had stopped going to church for a while. It was a super cute reunion to witness. Miracle two. We went to our Ward mission leader's house for Sunday dinner and it just so happened that the missionary who baptized him, like 45 years ago, was previously the Tokyo Mission President when Suzuki Shimai was baptized and apparently played a HUGE role in her conversion as well. Miracle three. We went to visit a potential investigator that the Elders had found about a week ago who happened to be out in her yard sweeping leaves when we got there. Suzuki Shimai worked her Japanese magic and we ended up talking to her for about 30 minutes and helping her out AND getting her to become a new investigator! Miracle four. Suzuki Shimai helped me realize all of the beautiful areas of Nagasaki as well as all the wonderful people here! It was such a good reminder to me that I have been so blessed to have been able to stay in such a wonderful area for such a long time! I really needed that reminder. After 8 months, its easy to overlook the blessings that I've been surrounded by for so long. Anyway, moral of the story is, our Father in Heaven really does know how to make every thing turn into our benefit. He has a plan, and if we are just willing to try to follow the spirit, we can figure out what that plan is and can come to know the blessings of it. Winter is turning into Summer. I'm just grateful for the opportunity I have been given to learn so much this past transfer. I don't know what the future has in store, but I know whatever it is, God will be there with me, helping me experience the things I need to. Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day this week! Wells Shimai