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!