Week 6 in Nagamine

Hi everyone!!

Transfer calls this week, so I have no time. But highlight of the
week. I ate raw horse meat on Sunday. It basically tasted the same as
raw fish to me. Basically everything raw just taste cold, wet and a
little slimy haha. It wasn't that great, but apparently everyone here
loves it.

We ate it at a members house. Please enjoy this video of the cutest baby ever also
That's all for today! Everyone have a good week! Next week is Christmas!!!! Love, White Shimai

Week 5 in Nagamine

Sorry, I just don't have any time.

First of all I want to give a HUGE shoutout to my YSA ward who sent me
a Thanksgiving package and I got it at the perfect moment. I was
having a hard day and then came home and found the package and it made
my whole day. Thank you so much! You guys are amazing.

Second of all I made the best Japanese mistake last night when I was
at dinner with a member. So I was showing them my family pictures and
it was a picture of me and my brother Chris and his wife Jamie (sorry
in advance guys) anyway so I was telling them that Chris was my
brother and that Jamie is his wife. I forgot the word for wife, and
there is another word that I learned in the MTC that translates to "my
wife" and so I figured I would use that and they would understand.
That word is "tsuma" well I accidental used the word "tsumi" instead
of the word "tsuma" and "tsumi" is the word for sin. So I told the
family that Jamie is Chris's sin. Everyone laughed and it was super
embarrassing, haha but it was really funny.

Anyway! That is my email for the week! Thanks for your emails and your
support! Love you all!

Week 4 in Nagamine

So since we had p day just barely for thanksgiving, I don't have much
to write about today haha but we went bowling on Thursday after email
so I just have pictures today :) so many selfies!

Week 3 in Nagamine

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had so many good things happy this week! I feel bad my emails have
been so bad haha, it's hard to know what to write about. But this week
I have lots to write about :) so I'll start from the middle of the
week, last Thursday I had splits with Guzdik Shimai! It was so much
fun! She is such a good missionary, and she can just really relate to
people and be friends with anyone she talks to. It's really cool to
see, so I have been trying to do that with everyone we talk to.
Anyway, we saw so many miracles that day! We talked to this one old
lady who didn't really seem interested and as we walked away we
stopped to talk to another lady, and as we were walking away from her
the first lady came RUNNING back to us. She saw on our flier that we
gave to her that we teach free English and she told us about her
grandchild who had been getting into trouble but who really wants to
learn English, and that since we talk about God too that it might be
good for him to come listen to us. It was such a blessing, because if
we didn't stop to talk to that other lady we would have been long gone
and wouldn't have been able to exchange information with the first
lady. Then right after her, we had a really amazing lesson on the spot
with a lady who works in the hospital. She says she sees death all the
time and she just knows that there is something after death. We got to
teach the plan of salvation to her testified that there is life after
death and how amazing the plan of God is! She was super interested and
I'm excited to get to talk to her more! We were able to make a really
solid return appointment with her so it's gonna be awesome. Then after
her, we met a Philippine lady who only spoke English! We were able to
teach her the restoration and I was able to recite the fist vision in
English which was so amazing. It would have been good in Japanese too,
but because it was in English it was so powerful for me too! I love
hearing it, and being able to say it to someone was amazing. On
Saturday we made miso with the relief society. Miso is this paste
stuff that is made out of soy beans and malt. After you make it, you
have to put it in your fridge for a month and then you can use it to
make soup and put it in other things for flavor. Super weird texture,
but it was fun to make! Then that night we had a really awesome
contact with this guy who was so interested. When I handed him a Book
of Mormon, I don't know what it was but I could tell he knew it was
something special. He kept staring at it, and asked us if we would
tell us more about it, so we set up an appointment with him on
Saturday :) Sunday was crazy busy, we had church and our investigator
came!! It was so awesome!! I was so excited to see him. He is 26 and
he is just really lonely I guess, he doesn't have many friends but he
really is such a nice guy. He works as a nurse at a hospital in
Kumamoto. He was super interested in just learning English at first,
but then we had a couple lessons with him and he says he really likes
what we have been teaching him. He came to FHE with us at a members
house that night too! He is a pretty quiet guy, but when you get him
talking about something he can talk about it for a while. So I think
he became pretty good friends with the family we were with. The Kaneko
family is the best! They have the cutest little kids I have ever seen
in my life. The little girl is so chubby and I cannot even begin to
describe how cute she is. Kaneko Kyodai is our ward mission leader so
he is way into missionary work which is so awesome. He helps us out a
ton. Also, we had a baptism on Sunday before FHE. It was a little boy
who turned 8 in the ward, but you should have seen the turn out for
his baptism! It was so great to see the support of the ward members.
It makes me love them so much. Monday was a pretty normal day, nothing
too exciting happened, Tuesday we had district meeting and ate
sushi...haha I eat sushi so much you don't even know. Wednesday was
the same as Monday, pretty normal, although we have eikaiwa (English
class) and it is so much fun. I love doing eikaiwa! And that leads us
into today. We had VT this morning with a member so we are starting
p-day a little late today.  But this week along with a lot of stuff
going on, I was also having a pretty hard time. I haven't felt like I
have had any improvement in my Japanese and it has been really hard
for me. Anyway, I was reading an article in the new era from back in
2013 and this quote really helped me so much!

"Our Heavenly Father, who gives us so much to delight in, also knows
that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the
trials through which we must pass. We know that there are times when
we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when
we may be tested to our limits. However, such difficulties allow us to
change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly
Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we
were--better than we were, more understanding than we were, more
empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before.
This should be our purpose--to persevere and endure, yes, but also to
become more spiritually refined as we make our way through sunshine
and sorrow. Were it not for challenges to overcome and problems to
solve, we would remain much as we are, with little or no progress
toward our goal of eternal life. As we seek our Heavenly Father
through fervent, sincere prayer and earnest, dedicated scripture
study, our testimonies will become strong and deeply rooted. We will
know of God’s love for us. We will understand that we do not ever walk
alone. I promise you that you will one day stand aside and look at
your difficult times, and you will realize that He was always there
beside you.”

I read that and it reminded me that I want to be a different person! I
want to continually grow and become better! And I can't do that
without going through hard things, right now it is learning Japanese
and trying to be a good missionary and I know there will be many more
hard things in my future. But that isn't a bad thing! It's a good
thing, because I will grow so much from it hopefully with God's help
be molded into the person that I want to become. We all go through
things that we may not feel that we can overcome, but somehow at the
end of the day we did it. We survived that day, and we will go onto
the next. Most of you aren't serving missions right now but we all go
through difficult things, and we all struggle with something. Maybe
it's a continual feeling of loneliness or weight from financial
burden, or a loss in the family or whatever it may be. Life is hard!
That IS something I can say in Japanese. 人生は難しいですね but! We are growing
and learning and will become amazing people as we follow Gods
commandments and do what we know is right. And God is always there for
us, even when we might not realize it.

Oh man, and one more thing I read that just changed my mindset so
much. I read Ether chapter 6 this week. It was AMAZING. Okay maybe
it's just the first part- verses 1-12. I have read this story so many
times but I have never seen it this way. It goes along with what I was
talking about before, I just absolutely love it. In order for the
Jaredites to get to the promised land, they had to be put in these
barges and it says "they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before
the wind"(vs. 5) and that "the wind did never cease to blow toward the
promise land... They were driven forth before the wind." (Vs. 8) "they
were driven forth.." (Vs. 10).  "They were driven forth.." (Vs 11) it
doesn't say that they were lead but driven. In my mind it's kind of
like being pushed forward. It sounds pretty rough what they went
through. Even though this was something God commanded them to do, I
can't imagine how scary that would have been, but it also talks about
how the Lord kept them safe that "no water could hurt them." (Vs. 7)
and "no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could
mar them.." (Vs. 10) and that they had so much faith in the Lord that
they knew He would keep them safe. "They did sing praises unto the
Lord... They did not cease to praise the Lord." (Vs. 9) No matter what
we go through we need to have faith in the Lord. He may push or drive
us to become who we need to be, but we still have our free agency
whether to choose liberty and eternal life or to choose captivity and
death. We can choose to praise God through times of trials or we can
choose to pout and complain. I know I've done both and praising God
always works out better for me and makes me happier. And in the end
when we set our feet upon the promise land we will "shed tears of joy
because of the multitude of his tender mercies.." (Vs. 12) I'm so
grateful for the hard times.

Anyway, that was my week and all the stuff I learned! Also the weather
here is starting to cool down now. It was perfect until yesterday, and
then it got super cold. But it's okay, because it's still probably not
as cold as Utah haha.

Anyway! Love you all :) have a good week!

White Shimai

Week 2 in Nagamine

Hi everyone!

This week was really good :) as always. I am learning so much from
Kawahara Shimai and it's been so fun.  We had zone conference this
week and that was really good! Last night we had a barbecue at a
members house. And speaking of that, the weather here is AMAZING. I
can't believe that is the middle of November. It feels like September
outside. It gets a little cold at around 8 but it's totally not bad.
But I am definitely loving the weather here. I don't know what else to
write about haha, but I really have felt the love of God this week! I
was struggling with the language and my self confidence in speaking,
and I know that the Lord help me get through it. Its amazing when you
can see the Lords hand in your life. There have been so many times so
far that I have seen God helping me get through rough days or help me
express how I feel in Japanese. It's amazing what the Lord can do with
imperfect people.
Here are some pictures for this week!
(Japanese people and their face masks..haha)

Week 1 in Nagamine

Guys. Tomorrow is my five months on my mission. What?! Crazy! Also...I
got transferred!!!! I have a new companion and she is JAPANESE. Haha
she speaks a little English, but oh my goodness it's the best thing
ever! I was so nervous to have a Japanese companion because of the
language barrier, but I feel like there isn't even one with us. I
don't know why as she usually only speaks in Japanese. But she is
amazing. Dendoing with her is so much fun. I feel super lucky. I am in
Nagamine which is in Kumamoto. And I'm in a four person apartment. I
feel like I got so lucky this transfer. My new companions name is
Kawahara Shimai! Having a Japanese companion is actually pretty rare
apparently. There aren't very many Japanese missionaries, We are
whitewashing the area though which I was pretty worried about, but
Kawahara Shimai actually served in this area a year ago, so she
actually knows what's going on, so it doesn't really feel like we are
whitewashing so that is good. Anyway, it's been so much fun. Knocking
on doors with her is the best. Yesterday I was talking to a guy and
apparently I told him that God feels him and that I loved him very
much. Haha which is a little awkward. Ah Japanese is difficult haha.
But it's okay, because I am going to learn soooo much this transfer
its gonna be awesome!! What else. OH MY GOSH. Yesterday we had stake
conference and I got to see Sister Willson from my doki! I saw her and
I actually started crying I was so happy to see her. I haven't really
been able to see anyone from my doki since I've been in Japan (doki is
my MTC group) and so seeing her made me so happy. And President Egan
and Sister Egan came to speak at the stake conference so I got to see
them too, so it was a really great day.
Anyway, I love being a missionary! Oh my goodness it is the best. The
past three days me and Kawahara Shimai have been going non stop and it
is such a good feeling to know that we are working our hardest and
doing our best to share the gospel. I know I have been blessed so much
already because I'm here. I love this gospel! I know that this is
Jesus Christ restored gospel, I know that we have access to God every
day through prayer and that we can receive personal revelation from
Him. I love you all!

White Shimai
ホワイト 姉妹

ほんとに愛しています!I don't think this picture shows how happy I was to see this girl!!

Week 12 in Miyakonojo

I can't believe I will be starting my 3rd transfer. What!? We get transfer calls today and my mind is a little boggled that I'm already this far into my mission haha. But anyway, this week was SO good. I might have been even better than last week. We had so many funny things and tender mercies happen this week. Friday was a little crazy. It started to get COLD on Friday. Like oh my goodness, riding your bike outside was not a good idea (but we did it anyway haha) and it was pouring rain too. but then Saturday and Sunday was perfect weather which is awesome because we spend all day dendo'ing. So people in Japan are just the nicest people ever right? Saturday we were dendo'ing this area and we walked past this super old shop and we decided to go in it to look around for a minute and there was this really old lady there and so we started talking to her. We told her that we just wanted to look around and not really buy anything, but then I noticed what a humble shop it was and how she must not have many customers and so I decided to buy some Japanese candy. So I bought it and then she gave me these free japanese nuts that she wanted me to try because I had never had them before. It was so sweet. I feel like I am used to getting random food from people we house into, but getting it from this sweet old lady who was working in this super humble shop was very humbling to me too. Japanese people just care about others so much. I mean that's a generalization, but for the most part, they are very aware of others. Haha also, in the same area we were walking down this street and there was a group of guys sitting outside this shop, and normally we kind of avoid those types of groups but these guys started calling over to us and as we walked passed them they gave us a couple mikan's (tangerines) just because. Then as we were dendoing yesterday in a completely different area, we bumped into the same guys! They were doing construction on a house and one of the guys yelled over and was like "Do you remember me?! I gave you the mikan!" It made me realize how little Miyakonojo really is. We probably bump into the same people over and over again and I don't even realize it because we talk to so many people a day. But they definitely recognize us. When we are stopped at a red light, I can look at the cars that are driving next to us and almost always, every single person in every car is staring at us. It was a little weird at first but I've gotten pretty used to it now. We also had our Halloween party this week! I was a little stressed out about it because the missionaries were in charge of it and we didn't have a lot of time to plan it but it ended up being so good! We had about 40 people come! And a lot of them dressed up too! (well mostly the kids) I was supposed to be this anime character that my companion said was apparently really popular in Japan... but nobody knew who I was and everyone thought I was a panda... (We didn't have a ton of time to get ready.. that is my excuse haha) So I just started telling people that I was a panda when they asked. But it was a good Halloween :) It was really fun! Anyway, I got to go! but I hope everyone had a great week! 

Love,

White Shimai

Week 11 in Miyakonojo

Hi friends!

This week was SO good! Oh my goodness. I loved this week. I don't know why to be 100% honest, but looking back it just was such a good week. My companion and I just worked so hard and we went out and talked to people all week. It's interesting because we don't get a lot of people that are interested, but just the fact that I get to talk to these people and get to know them, is so much fun. We had a funny moment this week. So last week we were dendo'ing in an area and it was pretty dark outside right? So we were walking down this dark road and we look to our left and there are these super old Japanese people just sitting on these crates not really moving and staring at the floor. In the moment it really freaked us out. It was like super creepy and so like got out of that area fast right? Well this week we ended up going to that same area and we were walking down that same road (but it was during the day so it was light outside) and we saw those same 'people' sitting on the crates, bent over staring at the ground. It freaked me out again even though it was light outside, until we realized that they were scarecrows! They were sooooo life like though! I honestly thought they were just old Japanese people that had died sitting on the crates on the side of the road haha. Anyway, it was funny after we figured it out!

Sorry that my e-mails are so short and all over the place. Time flies by when I'm e-mailing. It's just crazy. I don't have anymore time, but know that I love it here! It's hard and frustrating, and sometimes I freak out that I'm in Japan instead of in school or working, but I know with all my heart that for some reason I am supposed to be here right now. I love it here. God is so aware of us. He knows what we need and He will give us the tools to succeed if we allow Him into our lives! Love you all! Have a great week! And keep me updated on your lives!

White Shimai

Week 10 in Miyakonojo

Hey everyone!

This week we had interviews with my mission president! Oh my goodness it was the best thing ever. President Egan is such an inspired person. He said so many things that I needed to hear and just being with him made me feel so much better. He is such a good person! You can feel the love he has for his missionaries. Other than that, this week was good! I actually got pretty sick this weekend, so Saturday and Sunday were spent inside my apartment which was so crazy boring. I can't even begin to describe how boring it was, and on top of being sick it just made it worst. But! It's okay, because I feel a lot better today and I'm determined to make up for the weekend that we lost. Also, this week was so awesome because we got so many return appointments! So I am really excited for this week because we actually get to teach! (which is uncommon for us.. right now.) Haha one of my favorite things to do here is to talk to old ladies. They think we are just the cutest things ever. We knocked on this one house, and an older lady answered and saw us and immediately yelled into the house and said everyone come here! There are cute gaijin at the door! And 3 other old ladies came out and they all just pointed at us and said how cute we were and when we tried to talk about the church they just kept saying over and over again how cute we were. It was funny and frustrating, but more funny. Ah, Japanese people haha. 

Anyway, sorry that I don't have a ton of time to write (like every week..) but just know that I love the church, and I'm grateful to be learning so much about my savior each and every day here! I read this quote from an ensign article this week. "when the Lord wants to mold a person to play the noblest part, He makes him lonely so that only God's high messages shall reach him." Whenever we are feeling lonely and don't know what to do, it might be that the Lord is trying to tell us something and that we need to pray and search for what He is trying to tell us. We should always be striving to find those answers from the Lord, because He always has guidance that will help us and that He wants to give us!

Love you all! Have a good week!

White Shimai

Week 9 in Miyakonojo

Okay, I literally have no time to e-mail today. Sorry this is so short! GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THE BEST THING EVER! Oh my goodness. I loved it! Saturday was so great! Sunday was a little weird.. because we ended up having our investigator (our only one..) drop us in the middle of it. It was pretty sad to say the least. She told us that she was Buddhist and she just didn't think she could change. So conference was a little solemn after that. But besides that I noticed the theme of this conference was to just trust in the Lord. We don't know what things will lay ahead, but if we trust in the Lord and know that He will direct our lives, we can know, even in the midst of hard trials and times that everything will work out. I loved the motto that Sister Niell F Marriot had. "It will all work out." It really is an eternal motto that we can apply in all of our lives! Also, I loved the talk right after her that was talked about how we just need to ask the Lord what we need to change, and he will tell us. It might be just the smallest thing, but the Lord will tell us what we need to do to help us to progress and be better. Sorry if this is all over the place haha I love you all! Trust in the Lord! 

Have a good week! 

White Shimai

We went on splits this week! This is me and Wilkinson Shimai! And I
gorgeous sunset!

Week 8 in Miyakonojo

Hi everyone!

This week was so good here in Japan! The only sad thing is that I haven't been able to watch conference yet! But I get to next week so it is okay. This week on Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting up in Kagoshima, so I got to go up there and be around a whole bunch of missionaries and that was really awesome! I love being around other missionaries. They are so much fun and I get to hear all of their experiences and it's a blast. Although I don't get to see anyone from my doki and that makes me a little sad, but hopefully in the next couple transfers I will! We apparently have a very 'young' zone. A lot of the missionaries that are in our zone have only been out like 7 transfers ( a little less than a year) so that's pretty cool... I guess. I don't really know haha. And then on Friday we wanted to go visit one of our members who lives super far away and go dendo in her area and so we left around 2 to get to her area and got lost.. of course haha. We ended up biking about 25 miles that day just trying to get there and find our way back. (and there are a lot of hills in Miyakonojo haha) But it was so much fun! It was raining all week, and as we had planned to do this last week we were pretty nervous about riding our bikes in the rain all day, but Thursday came and it was the most perfect weather ever. It didn't rain once the whole day! I was definitely grateful for that! I really love biking here. There are so many rice fields that we pass by and it is so peaceful. When we got lost, we somehow ended up in between two rice fields where some people were working, and they saw us and just stared at us. Haha I wish I could have known what they were thinking. 

I am going to send another e-mail from my ipad really quick because the spiritual stuff is all on there :) and all the cool pictures haha.

White Shimai

Okay, so something I really like to do as I read the Book of Mormon is read the institute manual along with it to see insights from apostles and our leaders on those specific chapters. I was reading in Alma 26 and after I read this in the institute manual. Sorry it's kind of long but I love it!

Elder F. Burton Howard of the Seventy shared how his reading Alma 26 as a young missionary impacted his testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon:

“I was reading again the twenty-sixth chapter of Alma and the story of Ammon’s mission. I read out loud, as I sometimes do, trying to put myself in the position of the characters in the book, imagining that I was saying or hearing the words, that I was there. Once more I went over the report, and, with a clarity which cannot be described and which would be difficult to comprehend by one who has not experienced it, the Spirit spoke to my soul, saying, Did you notice? Everything that happened to Ammon happened to you?

“It was a totally unexpected sentiment. It was startling in its scope; it was a thought that had never occurred to me before. I quickly reread the story. Yes, there were times when my heart had been depressed and I had thought about going home. I too had gone to a foreign land to teach the gospel to the Lamanites. I had gone forth among them, had suffered hardships, had slept on the floor, endured the cold, gone without eating. I too had traveled from house to house, knocking on doors for months at a time without being invited in, relying on the mercies of God.

“There had been other times when we had entered houses and talked to people. We had taught them on their streets and on their hills. We had even preached in other churches. I remembered the time I had been spit upon. I remembered the time when I, as a young district leader assigned by the mission president to open up a new town, had entered, with three other elders, the main square of a city that had never had missionaries before. We went into the park, sang a hymn, and a crowd gathered.

“Then the lot fell on me, as district leader, to preach. I stood upon a stone bench and spoke to the people. I told the story of the restoration of the gospel, of the boy Joseph going in to the grove and the appearance of the Father and the Son to him. I remembered well a group of teenage boys, in the evening shadows, throwing rocks at us. I remembered the concern about being hit or injured by those who did not want to hear the message.

“I remembered spending time in jail while my legal right to be a missionary in a certain country was decided by the police authorities. I didn’t spend enough time in prison to compare myself to Ammon, but I still remember the feeling I had when the door was closed and I was far away from home, alone, with only the mercies of the Lord to rely on for deliverance. I remembered enduring these things with the hope that ‘we might be the means of saving some soul’ (Alma 26:30).

“And then on that day as I read, the Spirit testified to me again, and the words remain with me even today: No one but a missionary could have written this story. Joseph Smith could never have known what it was like to be a missionary to the Lamanites, for no one he knew had ever done such a thing before” (“Ammon: Reflections on Faith and Testimony,” in Heroes from the Book of Mormon [1995], 124–25).

As a missionary (so far haha) I haven't had people throw things at me or spit on me, and we are pretty well taken care of here. But there is a difference. As most of you who have been on missions know, when someone refuses to listen and stay in their misery it's heartbreaking. It's depressing, and it hurts. We talked to a lady who after we told her we taught about God and Jesus Christ told us that God doesn't love her. That if God loved her then her son wouldn't have died, that she wouldn't be alone, that she wouldn't have gone through the trials she had been through. We tried to tell her that He really does love her but she wouldn't listen, she told us to leave and not come back. It's something I've never experienced before. And the fact that we weren't able to help her because she wouldn't let us was even harder. 

I am so grateful that I know the God loves us, even those who may doubt it. Just because someone doesn't believe in something doesn't make it not true for them. And I know even though that lady didn't believe that God loves her, He does. Truth will always be truth, and the only way we can know for sure what is truth is to ask God for ourselves. I'm grateful to grow so much and learn so much while I'm here! Thanks for all of your support! 

Here are some pictures of a sunset we saw the other night!

(this is a different day, but still a pretty sunset!)