Week 13 in Chikushino

Hello Everyone!!

This week was so busy! As always of course. I love McKenzie Shimai. I am trying to learn the Australian accent and she is working on the American accent. It has been way fun! I will go through the days since I have time today!

Monday- Me and McKenzie Shimai decided to go to the mall, and when we went we found out that they had a pet store inside the mall!! We walked passed it and looked at the puppies, when one of the workers saw us and brought us a puppy to hold. I was in heaven!! Then that night after P-day ended we were out talking to people when we decided to stop by a conbini to use the bathroom, and some guy and his friends came up to us trying to speak English. He then awkwardly asked to take a picture with us so we said yes, and another one of his friends jumped in the picture. It was so awkward haha but way funny. They were about 30, and told us that they were about to go drinking. We gave them a pamphlet and told them to come to our Eikaiwa class. 

Tuesday- We didnt have district meeting this week because we had zone conference on Thursday, so we went to a language class that they have on Tuesdays here which is such a great opportunity. A lot of people ask why we are here and we also get great language help. It was way good. Then we went and got my bike fixed, because it was making a weird noise and we talked to a family who gave us a bunch of tissue holders, just because the mom likes to make them and has a ton of them! They were way way nice. We were able to go back the next day and teach them, and they said they would come to church next week! I am way excited!

Wednesday- was way funny! We were outside knocking on doors, when we see this policeman driving passed us. he then immediately stops and gets out and runs over to us. He then asks us who we are and what we are doing. I told him that we were missionaries and we were sharing our message with people. He told us that some old obachans had called the police station because they were scared of what we were putting in their mailboxes (our flyer). Haha he was way nice. He got all of our information and I gave him a flyer and told him to check out our website. Old people here are terrified of us. I have scared so many old ladies, I cant even tell you. I had someone once open the door, scream, and slam the door shut. People here, especially older people are scared of foreigners.

Thursday-We had zone conference on Thursday, so not much happened that day. We had lesson with an investigator and just dendoed. Nothing too exciting

Friday- was the best! It was also my year mark out on my mission! I dont know how that happened at all! I still feel like I just got to Japan. We went out to eat because it was mine and Jespersen Shimais year mark and then after we went to a wedding at our church! They had asked me to play the piano for the wedding so we got to go for that. It was so fun to see it! They were a way way cute couple. We also had sports night that night, which was a little sad, because not many showed up to it. But one of our amazing members came and brought us all popsicles which was way nice of him!

Saturday- We went with a member to visit a whole bunch of less actives, only 2 answered but it was good to find out where they lived so we could visit them again. Other than that.. it was just a regular day of dendo.

Sunday- President Egan came to our ward with his whole family which was way cool! He called us the night before and told us that he might be coming and then he did! It was so fun. His daughter and her family were visiting so we got to meet all of them. His granddaughter who doesnt speak any Japanese became best friends with one of the members daughters. It was so cool to see that the language barrier means nothing to children. The members daughter was holding President Egans granddaughters hand and leading her around introducing her to people. It was so cute. 

Anyway, it was a way good week! I love being here so much. I can not believe that I have been on my mission for a whole year. It has gone by so crazy fast, and I know the next 6 months will fly by as well. It has been such an amazing experience. I have learned so much so far, and I know I am going to learn so much more in the next 6 months. I think everyone needs to go on a mission if you can. It is such a growing experience. You will never be the same. Anyway, Love you all!! hope you have a great week!!

Love,

White Shimai

Week 12 in Chikushino

DISCLAIMER* This was actually written by my companion...I am too lazy today to write it all...But I have written commentary in RED

Tuesday: we met up with someone we met last Friday. Hayata san. He's
really nice. We talked about prayer and he prayed for us! It was a one
liner but God isn't too picky about length. He just wants to hear from
us. Then we had a lesson with Tomomi (recent convert). We just showed
her the church websites and recourses. After, we decided to go get ice
cream because she's been working so much and doesn't have time to do
fun things. It was raining but we enjoyed a good ice cream together. I
think she was happy we did it. We were. We love spending time with
her. She just makes us indescribably happy. This is extremely true. She is an angel and we both  adore her.

Wednesday: we met a lot of fun people today. First off, we met some
members from Hong Kong and their precious daughter. They came to us
and started talking. We had no idea that they were members. But their
daughter was really excited to see us. Eventually they told us they
were members. Then we saw Kouchiyama and Suiju (recent converts) who
we haven't seen in over 2 weeks and they haven't been contacting us.
We were able to chat with them and pray with them. Then we were off to
the doctor, where the biggest miracle happened. It was a normal
doctors visit. He fixed my back. He said everything should be good.
And then we were chatting with him in a mixture of Japanese and
English. And he spoke to us in a mixture of Japanese and English. He
wants to learn more English so we told him about our free English
class. We asked where he lived (the hospital is not in our area, it's
in Fukuoka Fukuoka) and he named off a neighborhood in our area! We
told him to come to our Eikaiwa. He said he would try when he can get
off work. He has interest in what we are doing in Japan too! The only
way we would have ever met this guy who lives in our area (he works
and studies from before we get out in the morning to after we get back
in the evening) is if I hurt my back. Wow. Big miracle. Then we had
Eikaiwa and we played pictionary with the kids. They had to say the
answer in English. One kid drew tofu and when we said it was tofu he
said "you have to say it in English!" He didn't know tofu in English
is tofu. It was way funny. Then he drew an elevator, and we said elevator and he said No!! You have to say it in English!!! and we told him again, that elevator was in English!

Thursday: we weekly planned. Then we had another lesson with Tomomi
which rocks. She has the gift of interpretation of tongues because she
understands our Japanese even when it's all over the place. She was
way tired from work when she came but after the lesson she was really
full of energy. We asked her why that was. She said "I know whenever
I'm tired and I come to church or meet with you guys or pray I get
more energy from God." She is the bomb. Then we went out and dendoed.
People literally ran away from us. It made us sad. But then we were
walking along and the other sister come running up to us to say hi. It
made our night. Because most of the people were doing the running in
the opposite direction. Rogers Shimai saw us, and literally ran to us. It made us feel so much better

Friday: we made cookies for Kouchiyama shimai because, despite running
into her on the street, she's been avoiding us. She wasnt home but we
left cookies and a note. Then we went out and stopped literally every
female we came across. And everyone seemed to want to listen. It was
awesome. The we got to the place we wanted to house. And we decided to
run dendo. We ran from house to house. It was way fun. And the block
got done way quicker than usual. If we hadn't ran we wouldn't have had
enough time to finish the block. And the last house we knocked on in
the block was a Christian lady who when we asked to pray with her, she
prayed for us. What a miracle. We also met a lot of college students.
And when we stopped them, we started off by talking about ice cream.
We asked what their favorite ice cream was and talked about how eating ice cream makes us happy. It was way fun. Then we talked about how
God gave us these happy making things because He's like our father and
He loves us. It was really effective and really fun.

Saturday: today we were lead by the spirit to do things we hadn't
planned on. We were biking on our way home for dinner and my lovely
companion, White shimai, suddenly stopped and said, we shouldn't go to
home for dinner. So we decided to pray to find out where to go. We
both thought of 7/11. Well, since 7/11 has food we decided to go. We
had no idea why. So we get to 7/11 and we both feel like we should go
in and buy food and sit outside and eat. So we do. We were way lost
and confused. We had no idea why we were doing what we were doing. But
we felt good about it so we continued. Then we remembered a less
active who was on the way home from where we were and decided to stop
by. We've been trying to meet with her for 2 transfers but she always
sends family members to tell us she's busy. But we met her!!! And
we're able to share a short message!!! God's plan is greater than
mine.

Sunday: I didn't write much in my journal. I was so tired I went to
Ben right after we were done planning. But church was fun. It made me
really tired.

Monday: I had rice for breakfast because we had no cereal. I saw her and ate rice too. I put brown sugar in it and it tasted like oatmeal! I felt very
Japanese. We biked up a mountain and met this VERY rich guy with
cheetah skin by his high end cars. But he came out and talked to us
and he said he loves Jesus. He told us to come back and talk to his
wife. We're going today. I'm excited. We also met this cute Vietnamese
girl. With a combination of English and Japanese we communicated. And
she said she wanted to meet again!!!

Today we're going to the beach. I'm way excited (even though there
won't be swimming involved). The beach is one of my favorite places.
No word on transfer calls yet. I'll let you know...

Love you all. Enjoy the pool. Get a tan. Don't wear a watch in the sun
because you get an atrocious tan line. Not speaking from experience.

LOVE
ベアマン姉妹

とホワイト姉妹