Week 7 in Japan

Hello all,

This week went really well! We had a lot of random lessons pop up
which was awesome. And the weather was really great this week :) haha
I am trying to remember what all happened. The week really does go
pretty fast now. So we had transfers this last week and one of our
elders transferred to Beppu, so we got a brand new missionary from the
MTC! And I was so excited because I wasn't going to be the only one
who didn't speak the language... And then I found out that he already
speaks Japanese. So that was pretty sad. I mean happy for him I
guess... But now I'm not even the newest one and I still don't know
what's going on haha.. One day...

Also yesterday I got to watch the womens general conference session
and it was soooo legit. Oh my goodness, I have never appreciated it
before like I did as I was watching it. I think I've just grown up my
whole life used to having this really awesome spirit around me through
my friends and the people I associate with that I never really noticed
this huge absence of the spirit, and then I came to Japan, and
although I am a missionary and I get to have the spirit with me, the
people I associate with daily... Don't have that. And I can feel it,
and to watch conference and to feel it from our leaders, it's just an
amazing thing. Don't take conference for granted!! I can't wait to
watch it. We don't get to watch it this weekend, we have to wait next
weekend when we get the dvd in Japanese (we could watch it online, but
we are going to watch it at the same time as the branch.. But in
English haha)
One of my favorite things that was said was by Sister Reeves at the
end of her talk when she said that once we get to heaven and see the
blessings that we will receive, we will ask our Heavenly Father, "was
that really all that was required?" It makes look at challenges in a
completely different way. Our happily ever after wont be in this
second act, but we will get it! I love the gospel so much.

There is a woman here that we talk to often from Holland. She is so
legit, she is a refugee from Croatia, and she married a Japanese guy
who lived in America. Their story is just nuts. She has huge faith in
Jesus Christ and I just love her so much! We haven't really been able
to teach a lesson to her, but we've become such great friends. I love
going and visiting her. We are going to get her baptized one day.
Hopefully soon :)

Anyway, I don't have a ton of time but I love you all! Thank you for
your support!!
Love,
White Shimai

Picture from eikawa!

Week 6 in Japan

I can't believe it has already been a week! We have transfer calls this week ( which is why I'm writing on Tuesday) but we haven't gotten them yet, my companion is pretty positive we're both staying though so nothing exciting. But this also means I survived my first 6 weeks in Japan! Haha some days I didn't think I would make it. But thank heavens I did! This week was so awesome! We were able to meet with someone from our Eikawa class on Friday, and she was so awesome! She was super interested and wants to learn more! We're meeting with her on Friday again to teach her the second lesson. Also, on Saturday we had a movie night and Kimura San showed up!!! He is the guy I bought my bike from my very first day in Japan. We have become pretty good friends with him because we keep having to go back to the bike store for random reasons, and he is just the best! We had no idea he was going to come because he usually has work, and so Saturday night I walked down the stairs and he was just standing there.. In our church!!!! I freaked out and was like ahh Kimura San!!! I was so excited, he was probably a little scared haha. But we watched the testaments and afterward he came up and asked us if he could watch it again! So we gave him a Book of Mormon and got a return appointment with him! He is super awesome. 

Anyway, so I feel like I keep having the same ah ha moments over and over again haha but it's good! I need them. I'm just a super impatient person and Heavenly Father knows that so he keeps sending me reminders to be patient! I read a scripture this week that I have read so many times before,and I don't think I've ever really had it click with me, but in Mosiah 3:19 it says we need to "..become as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." God knows the best way for us to grow. He knows us each personally and He knows the trials that we will go through. But we have to be willing to submit to His will, whatever it may be. Because whatever happens is for our good! Whatever happens is supposed to happen, or else God wouldn't have let it happen. But we have to have a willing heart to go through those trials and to put our trust and faith in God. It's definitely not an easy thing to actually do. It's so easy to say to just put your trust in God and everything will work out, acting on it is the hard part. Anyway, that really helped me out this week. I hope everyone is having an awesome week! 

Love 

ホワイト 姉妹

 The pictures are from volleyball game we had on Monday and a lunch we had after church on Sunday as a branch!

Week 5 in Japan

Hello! 

First of all, remember last week how I was all "oh I miss Mexican food"? Well haha we were invited over to another members house to eat dinner and thinking about last weeks I was pretty nervous. I prayed like all day that I would be able to eat whatever they made and just telling myself that whatever it was I was going to eat it no matter what! Well we got over there.. And they had made TACOS. What?!?! The Shimai even told us that they never make this kind of food but thought that we might like it. Haha it was like the first real meal I've had here. I was so excited! She also told me where to buy tortillas, so I'm definitely excited about that! God definitely heard the plea of this poor little gaijin. (But then we went out to eat the next day with a member and a PI and I had to eat a ton of raw fish.... So there's that haha). Anyway, besides that not much happened this week! We met a lot of people and rode our bikes around a lot haha. We also randomly bumped into a couple of people from the Philippines who know one of our members! Apparently one of the members posted a picture of us on her Facebook profile (with her.. Not just us, that would be weird.) and so when we knocked on his door he was like hey! I know you! Haha we were confused because we definitely didn't know him. But it was way fun to talk to him and we told home about a game night we were having and they said they would probably come! So I'm pretty excited about that haha. Anyway! I wish I had more interesting things to write about but it's getting pretty normal around here :) thanks for all your emails! Love you all 

Week 4 in Japan

こんにちわ 皆さん!
This week was a just a lot of learning haha. Learning to be patient,
learning to have faith, learning to be humble. Lots of learning. Oh
and lots of learning Japanese too. ;) I was pretty homesick last week.
I missed Mexican food like so much I can't even tell you. Last Sunday
we went to a members house for lunch and the food was basically all
squid and whole fish with the eyes still on it haha. I was a little
squeamish and stayed away from that (thank heavens for rice and
veggies!) next time I am determined to eat some of it though! But one
morning I was just having a difficult time and I was trying to figure
out what I needed to do to get out of the rump I was in, so I went to
my journal from the MTC (journals are seriously the best!!) and I
wrote in about how much I loved Ether 12. So I decided to read that
and it's all about faith and seeing blessings after the trial of your
faith, I know I've written about it before. But it just hit me again
so hard this time. Haha it made me think about how no matter how much
you study, no matter how recently you study something, you can still
get so much out of the gospel! (So go to church every week ;) you'll
learn something new. 約束) anyway, that lead me to read about Christlike
attributes in PMG which lead me to read about humility and I realized
how prideful I have been lately. It's hard to notice when you're being
prideful sometimes because you're so focused on yourself, you can't
see outside yourself. It's hard to have an eternal perspective when
you're prideful or selfish. So I'm definitely working on that haha.
Something else that we have been doing lately is iPad 伝道 (missionary
work) which has been so awesome! We've been showing Mormon messages to
people we meet on the street and that we house into and it's been so
cool to see their reactions to who Jesus Christ is. I bet missionary
work in the states is so different then here. Barely anyone we meet
knows anything about Jesus Christ. It's so crazy to me, because
everyone I know believes in Jesus Christ!
Anyway, it's been an awesome week :) talk to you all next week!
ホワイト 姉妹
These are from our bus ride up to Kumamoto on Tuesday! Japan is unreal! 

Week 3 in Japan

Hi everyone! 

What a crazy week! Oh my goodness. This last Monday (all the crazy things on my mission happen on Monday after I email haha) we had a typhoon come to the Kagoshima zone. So everyone was in lock down all Tuesday until about 6. Monday night was crazy! I didn't sleep because of how crazy the wind was, I actually thought our windows might break! There was so much crashing and banging going on everywhere, it was nuts! But then by Tuesday morning it was all pretty calm. It was very exciting haha But we still stayed inside just to be safe so I got a lot of studying done (woohoo!) after we were able to go outside we were going to go house in this certain area but things kept happening like.. My bikes basket broke so we had to go order me a new one and my companions basket cover tore and just a lot of things that kept us from getting to the area we wanted to be, so finally we started heading over there and we both felt that the area was too far and we didn't have a ton of time before we had to go back, so we decided to house some apartments that were right next to where we were at, and as we were walking we saw this super blonde super Caucasian lady talking English to this Japanese guy. So my companion yelled over to them "are you gaijin!?" And we started talking with them (and this time I was able to actually participate!!) apparently they were going to open this cafe soon but the typhoon completely destroyed it! So we offered to help fix it up with them! So we've gone over a couple times to play with their little girls so they can have their hands free to work.  Oh! Also on Wednesday morning there was a baby earthquake! It was so small my companion who was in the shower at the time didn't even feel it. But I asked other people and they felt it too so I promise I'm not making it up. So, my companion showed me super old Mormon messages last night. Everyone needs to go see them. They are about the cheesiest things I've ever seen and they made me so happy! They are called home fronts. Most of them end with "family, isn't it about.... Time?" Oh man. I'm so glad they got better.  Speaking of, I have to give the spiritual thought tonight at our volleyball activity and because I still can't speak in coherent sentences in Japanese yet.. haha I'm sharing a Mormon message!  I'm super excited. I've basically watched all of them. I think I've watched "because of Him" one a million times and it still makes me tear up every time. It's so cool. If you haven't seen it in a while to watch it. Most everyone here we talk to barely knows about Jesus Christ. Most are Buddhist and worship their ancestors or Shinto and believe that everything has a different God. It's really fun to talk to people about who Jesus Christ is thought. Japanese people are just so funny. I love talking to them. I tell them I've been in Japan for 2 weeks and they just freak out. "ほんと?? じょうすですね." They like to tell me I am very skilled at Japanese. But I've heard they just say that to people who can't speak Japanese very well to make them feel better. But ha, I say it back at them when they try to speak English, so I always speak English to them to see if they understand. I'll say  "do you speak English?" And they always say no haha but then I'm like, "ah you understand! So skilled!" わかります! じょうず 素晴らしい! But I wish I had more exciting things happen! We just ride our bikes a lot and talk to people :) this week we do get to go to a conference type thing and I'm pretty excited about that! I hope everyone is doing well! Until next week! 

あいしています

ホワイト 姉妹

Week two in Japan

Hey everyone!

This might be a shorter email :( sorry! It's my first time on my iPad
and it's a little difficult. I've always known I was technologically
challenged! Anyway! This week was so good! It was also pretty busy!
(As it should be eh?) so Monday after emailing we went to this
beautiful waterfall near Miyakonojo and it was so amazing!! It's the
only pictures I got this week so I'll send them with this email haha
but it was so green! You don't see anything like it in Utah. Nothin
crazy exciting happened this week! Just me trying to learn the
language as best and as fast as I can! It's hard to find anyone here
because it's so country. Everything is spread out pretty far. Lots and
lots of houses to knock on though :) I'm getting really used to
housing. At first I really really didn't like it, but now I get really
excited to go out! I get to practice my Japanese a lot that way.
Yesterday we had church, and I just do a lot of listening and trying
to figure out what's going on. It's really good practice for my
understanding, and then after I get to practice it when I house! It
really helps to just listen. After listening for 5 hours yesterday (2
extra meetings) I went out and I actually could participate so much
more than before! It was so awesome. Japanese people are so amazing. I
don't know if I could say it enough! They are so unbelievably kind and
understanding! Even if they aren't interested in what they have to say
they will still talk to us and be so nice. There was this one lady we
talked to yesterday as we were talking to her she pulled out this
spray and started spraying us! I was so confused what she was doing
until I realized it was bug spray and she did it so we wouldn't get
bit! Haha a lot of Japanese lady's like to tell me that I'm really
cute. I think they think I'm shy because I don't say anything and so
they try to encourage me. I'm not shy! I just don't know what's going
on! So we will be traveling a lot soon. Last week we travel to
Kagoshima for a zone training meeting and tomorrow we are going to
Miyazaki for District meeting haha and then Saturday we get to go to
the temple!! So we are going to take a bus to Fukuoka then. Lots of
traveling. On Sept 2. we are also going somewhere TBA for a member of
the 70 to come speak to us! Yay! Anyway, it's been really fun and I'm
getting used to being out in all sorts of weather haha. I've just
noticed so much that Heavenly Father is so aware of us. It has been so
hot to the point I am just dripping sweat and I barely feel the heat (
I just notice the sweat dripping down my face haha) or it's been so
rainy that I am absolutely drenched with water but it doesn't bother
me in the slightest. I just love it all! The food has been good! I've
been avoiding weird stuff and think my companion realized that I don't
do well with super crazy stuff so we eat cereal for breakfast, a lot
of curry and rice and veggies and I am so good with it! Also they have
THE best crackers here I've ever tasted. I'm obsessed. Also their
bread is way better than any kind I've ever had in America. It's
unreal. Also I haven't seen any super crazy bugs besides the one I saw
last week so I'm also very grateful for that. Okay sorry I don't have
anymore time but really quick I was reading the conference talk
"therefore they hushed their fears" by David A. Bednar. It's so good!
It talks about overcoming fears and it even quotes Peter walking on
the water which I've already mentioned is my favorite. We just need to
trust and have faith in God and everything will work out. Everyone go
read that talk! It's amazing :)

Love you!

White Shimai

P.s. I have never loved my last name and also been so afraid of it
more than I have in Japan. I love it because when someone says
"Howaito Shimai" it means someone wants to talk to me and I love that!
It scares me because when I hear it.... It means someone wants to talk
to me and I won't understand anything they are saying haha.

 The waterfall is in the background! This is my companion Sister Mills!

 This is my companion haha I don't know what she is doing. But look how green everything is!!!

These are the elders: Suares Churo and Knighton Churo and also our wonderful member who we spend most of our time with Shinko Shimai (shinko=faith) she is literally one of the best people ever. Also she speaks English. I love her!

First Week In Japan! Miyakonojo

Okay to start off, I cannot figure out this keyboard, its killing me. the punctuation is all in different areas. Anyway oh my goodness! Im in Japan!! So traveling here was a little crazy. Our flight to colorado was 2 hours late which meant we missed our flight to tokyo and had to spend the night in colorado. It was pretty stressful but thankfully we were able to get it figured out for the 25 people we had in our group and we all made it! Finally! We flew out to Tokyo the next afternoon and I was told to help jet lag not to sleep the entire plane ride and just to sleep when I got there. So that is what I did, I didnt sleep at all the entire flight (two flights one to tokyo and one to fukuoka) and then we finally got there and I was so excited to sleep! And then President Egan told us that since we missed an entire day that we had to do training until about 1-2 in the morning!! I was soooooo tired! So we ended up staying up until about 230 am and then we got up at 530 the next morning to go to our area! My first area is Miyakonojo! (Ill talk more about that in a second) anyway so it was a 4 hour bus ride, and thankfully there was another elder that was being transferred to my district also so he helped me out a lot. I sat next to this sweet Japanese lady the whole ride and I tried to have a couple conversations with her that ended up being like: `Nihon is very pretty.` then she would say something and I would just say `i:m sorry my japanese is very bad i don`t understand` haha and then I would try again. It was really sad haha but I tried! Then I finally got the Miyakonojo and met my new companion! Her name is Sister Mills and she is super cute. This is her first time training and she is really excited to train. She has been so great and so helpful. Also very encouraging of my japanese which is just horrible haha. I don`t understand anything! Japanese people speak so fast! That first day we went to get my bike and we did a lot of planning. We met someone named Kimura at the bike store and he was the sweetest! He saw that we were American and so he tried to speak english to us (He didnt speak english at all haha) but he tried so hard! I was so grateful. People in America just expect everyone to speak English in america but everywhere else everyone tries to help you out! Especially Japanese people. Everyone comes up to me when they find out that I dont know any Japanese and will say any words they know in English and then try to help me with my Japanese. I love them! So that night we got my bike and then we did some planning which took a while.. and I didn`t go to bed until 10:30 so if you want to count that up, I only slept about 3 hours in 50 hours. (I wrote in my journal that night `I am so tired right now I think I might die.`)  So this area is very country side. Not a lot of people outside so we have to house (door contacting) to find anyone. Right now we only have a couple of investigators. One is Kodama San! He is like super legit. He used to be in the Yakuza!! (Japanese Mafia) haha so he is pretty hardcore. but he is also like 65 years old so he`s just super funny. Japanese people.. man they are so interesting. They keep to themselves and are very quiet. When you talk to them they don`t say anything unless you ask them a question and then they just say oh i don`t know haha you really have to pry to get them to talk. I`ve only met a couple that were super genki (like.. outgoing?) and even then they weren`t like americans are. I just feel like these people need to be loved SO much. I want to love them so badly but I dont know how to say anything to them! So I literally just smile at them. When my companion is talking I just smile like so big at them and hope that they can feel how much I want to love them haha. It sounds cheesy but it`s the only thing I can do right now! Yesterday it rained like crazy!! We were out housing and we got soaked. It was actually so much fun haha. Japanese people think we are crazy Americans. I absolutely love it. OH! So I said we went housing yesterday and we knocked on so many doors and nobody was interested and then we knocked on a door and this cute adorable little girl answered and we asked if her parents were home and her grandma came out. Her grandma talked to us for like 45 minutes about so many things! I didnt get most of it but they were talking about dancing and how we dont drink alcohol and just a ton of different things it was super funny! and APPARENTLY her son is serving a mission (!!!!!!) in Kobe! But she isn`t a member and doesnt really know anything about our church (WHAT!!!) It was crazy and so she told us that she wasn`t super interested in the church but that she loved us and so she would come to eikaiwa class! woohoo! So I hope she will come. Anyway, so something I thought a lot about yesterday and today that I want to share really quick. I had a moment yesterday where I was thinking about everything that happened that day and i felt so overwhelmed and just didnt know if I could do it. This was after church and before we went housing. I was so overwhelmed but then when we went housing, it starting raining so hard on us and I just had an even better feeling of peace and happiness. It was so amazing. It just helped me remember that we gain blessings after the trial of our faith. No matter what hard thing we are going through as long as we push through it and keep going we will see those blessings that God has in store for us. He will bless us! We just have to keep fighting to get them!! Okay I should go but I love you all!!! I`ll try to figure out how to send pictures :)

Love,

White Shimai

 EW. These bugs make this crazy sound. But thank you little bug for dying on our steps so i could take a picture of how disgusting you are!

 Okay, this was so gross. I thought that brown stuff was going to be like sweet and the balls were going to be like jello.. but nooo. The brown stuff was like.. I dont even know, tart? almost like sand. and the balls were like those small squishy bouncy balls that are made of rubber. Thats what it tasted like anyway. Apparently a lot of people eat this haha

Right before I tried it.

 This is my bed. you think it would be uncomfortable but after working all day and biking all day it is seriously the most exciting thing all day to get into bed. 

 This is our kitchen table haha

Okay I`m sorry for how bad I look. This picture is a lot of things in 1: first, this is right after I got home from housing all day in the rain, second this is how I eat at the table, third I am using chopsticks (not even japanese chopsticks.. korean chopsticks cuz theyre pretty legit) and the last thing- that bottle on the table is what everyone drinks here. Its super good actually. Its like water and lemonade combined but it doesn`t taste like watered down lemonade haha. 

 pictures from before we left the MTC. I love this people!!

The morning in the Hombu (mission home in Fukuoka) this was at like 6 am haha super tired!