Week 1 in Chikushino

Where do I begin with this week?! It's been so unbelievable. Oh my
gosh, I love being a missionary. This week was just so all over the
place. Tuesday after I emailed, we all went to the zoo which was so
much fun. I loved that district so much.
After the zoo we came home and I packed and wrote little cards for my investigators and the members, so it was pretty sad knowing I was leaving everyone. Nagamine ward is the best, I already miss them so much. Wednesday I went around saying goodbye to my investigators and some members. A member took us and the elders out to eat at a yakiniku place which is basically all you can eat meat. I'll have to see if I can get the picture and send it next week. It was so fun! Then we had eikaiwa and all the leaving missionaries said goodbye and we took tons of pictures. The next morning I went to Chikushino! I was pretty nervous to become a senior companion and was freaking out a little bit, and it didn't help because on the bus over I was sitting next to an elder who was going back to America, and HE was freaking out haha but spoiler alert, I absolutely love being senior companion and I adore Chikushino!!! My companion is Sister Bearman from Maryland. She's super cute and a 4th transfer, so just 2 under me. Thursday we came home and I unpacked and figured things out and had a lesson with our investigator who is getting baptized next week! Super exciting. She is the cutest thing ever. Her name is Tomomi and she has such an amazing testimony. I am so excited for her. Then Friday we weekly planned and went to go introduce me to some of their other investigators and recent converts which was so fun. I love everyone here! They are so kind. Saturday we had a relief society activity which was a little hard because that morning during morning exercises, my companion ran into a huge cement block corner with her leg when we went running and basically couldn't walk all day. She pushed through it though so that was way awesome of her. Sunday it was still hurting her pretty badly, but we were still able to go to church and talked to people outside after for 4 hours. We didn't use our bikes though because she couldn't ride with her leg. So we walked everywhere. I feel bad pushing her so much with her leg though, so today we are taking it really slow and just hanging out. Anyway my scripture of the week is 1 Nephi 3:7 because through the Lord all things are possible! We just have to be willing to go and do what He has asked us to do. And then miracles will happen :) love you all! Here are some pictures :)
Ferris Wheel at the zoo
This is a crocodile burger. It was actually way good. 
Me and sister Bearman Thursday night

Week 19 in Nagamine

Hello! I can't believe another week has gone by. I can't believe
another transfer is almost over. I can't believe my mission is almost
halfway done. Time is going by so fast, I don't know what to do! This
morning I got a call from Egan Kaicho. He told me that I am going to
be senior companion and I'm being transferred out of Nagamine. I got
off the phone with him and immediately started crying. I love this
place so much. It is going to be so hard to leave on Thursday. :( I am
going up to Fukuoka zone to Chikushino. Despite how sad I am to leave
I had an amazing last week in Nagamine. I used to read missionaries
emails and think, man not every single week can be amazing. But
despite the hard things that happen I always feel like at the end of
the week I did my best and I'm so happy to look back over what amazing
miracles I was able to see. It's an amazing feeling knowing you're
putting your whole heart into something. I love it here. This week
started off with us dressing up in kimonos and walking around the most
beautiful park I have ever seen! I'll send pictures at the end :) it
was so fun! It was only 400円 to rent a kimono and get into this park
for all of February, so we're glad we were able to go the last day
even though it ended up being sooo cold and windy. It actually snowed
a little bit that night haha, but it was totally worth the experience.
Tuesday was amazing also. We had our last district meeting of the
transfer, and our zone/district leader Nelson 長老 is going home this
transfer so he gave this amazing meeting on love and how important it
is as we share the gospel. Everything that God does is based on love.
Everything we teach is surrounded by love. 1 John 4:7-8.
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of
God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through him." God is love
It was an amazing district meeting, and then right after we got to go
visit one of our investigators who I absolutely adore. She is so sweet
and every time we visit her I love her so much more. We were going to
talk about service with her, and decided while we were teaching to
focus on love and showing love to her family. I mentioned that my mom
would always text me sweet messages and it always made me so happy and
through her small act of service to me I knew that she loved me. So we
committed her to try and find ways she can show service by showing her
love for her daughters and her husband. She was a little embarrassed
to do it but she said she would try. I can't wait to hear what she
comes up with to do for them. I really hope we can help her family
become closer and happier together. She is the kindest, most loving
person, but she doesn't know how to show it to her family. I think
that can sometimes be all of us though. Sometimes the people we love
the most, it's the hardest to show love to. We just have to keep
trying!
Wednesday, oh man. Wednesday I was exhausted. We went and did a Mogi
with one of our members Kaneko Shimai. I love Kaneko Shimai. She is an
amazing person. She helps us so much I can't even tell you. She loves
missionary work and missionaries. She served a mission in Sapporo and
so she has crazy dendo fire. Anyway, we went so I could do a lesson
mastery (lesson mastery is where you pass off all the lessons in your
mission language to someone who speaks the language. You do it alone
without your companion and this particular one was supposed to be
30-45 minutes long) and the whole time we were talking, her 2 adorable
kids were running around in absolute chaos. It was so crazy, but
Kaneko Shimai was so amazing and was so patient with them, and focused
on my lesson all at the same time. I don't know how she does it. She
is an amazing mom. I was more tired at the end of the lesson then she
was. She had complete composure. And then we asked her to come visit a
less active with us who lived down the street and so she packed up her
kids and walked with us. We had to take turns trying to make sure her
2 year old little boy wouldn't run into the street. Then at the less
active's house we all wrestled the 1 year old little girl as she tried
to get into anything and everything. But somehow the lesson went
smoothly, and our less active absolutely adored the kids. Everything
went so well and it was so fun but I was extremely exhausted after. I
don't know if it was speaking Japanese for 4 hours straight on top of
running around with high energy kids all afternoon but I was so dead
by the end of the night. Thursday we went to pass a potential
investigator to the 長老たちand then they helped fix my companions bike
which was way nice of them, then we came home and did weekly planning
for the rest of the night. Anyway, Friday was a beautiful day! It was
perfect weather and we got to be outside all day. I was so happy all
day! We ended it by playing volleyball at our sports night we have
every Friday. It was 8 missionaries 4 members and 1 nonmember haha but
it was way fun. We were all pretty tired at the end of it. Oh my gosh,
I totally forgot. Friday as we were outside talking to people, we
knock on this house and this lady comes out and in perfect English
starts telling us off. We were so shocked that she was speaking
English that it didn't click to us that she was not happy we were
there. Haha we just stared at her and then said we were sorry and
left. It's very rare to bump into a Japanese person who speaks perfect
English, at least here in Kumamoto. We bump into gaijins a lot and
that's fine, but not English speaking Nihonjins. It was pretty funny,
but I also gained a lot of respect for those missionaries in their
native language countries. It's hard being told off in your own
language. Ouch. In Japanese it doesn't matter because you barely
understand them anyway, so being yelled at doesn't mean anything
really. But anyway, it was pretty interesting. Saturday was such a
good day! The weather was perfect and I didn't have to wear my coat
outside. We had a relief society activity where we made Tongan food.
Our investigator brought her boyfriend which was so exciting to
finally meet him. We've heard a lot about him. And then we taught a
lesson to another investigator that night. It went really well and he
finally started opening up to us! Sunday was also a way good day. Oh
my gosh I love Fast Sundays! We went to church and were greeting
people when all of a sudden I look up and see Egan Kaicho standing
there with Egan Shimai! I was seriously so surprised. We maybe see
Egan Kaicho once a transfer for trainings or interviews, but he was
just standing there! Completely 吃驚しました. But it was so fun because Egan
Shimai got to come to our lesson with our investigator and to relief
society with us and Egan Kaicho went and did a lesson with the Elders.
It was so much fun being with them. I love them both so much! I think
Egan Kaicho came because it was one of the Elders last Sunday before
he goes home, and he used to be President Egan's assistant up in
Fukuoka. It was really sweet of Egan Kaicho to come visit him.
Monday...Usually transfer Monday's are kind of stressful but yesterday
was a blast. We went over to a Kumamoto members house with the
Kumamoto Shimai and it was so good. We all took turns sharing our
testimony and talking about why we came on missions. It was so good.
So good that we ended up being a little late to our next appointment
which was making waffles with a less active. Haha they had never had
waffles before, and she had somehow gotten her hands on a waffle
maker. It was so fun. Anyway, and that brings us to today. I haven't
written a long detailed email like this in a while, so hopefully
someone read it! We are going to the zoo today which I'm pretty
excited about, it has gotten pretty warm here recently. I'm a little
nervous for what summer has to bring in terms of weather, but I'm sure
it will be an adventure as always. I'm a little bit freaking out about
being senior companion, haha I still feel like I just got here! But
it's going to be so fun :) I'm excited for the amazing things that
will happen these next 6 weeks!! Here are some pictures!

Week 18 in Nagamine

To start off, I am just exhausted so I'm sorry this email will be
short. This week was SO good though. We started off this week by again
going to the Kumamoto castle.. Haha I've been like 4 times. So I'm
sorry, more of the same pictures. But some flowers are starting to pop
out so its way pretty :) and then the rest of the week was lessons and
finding people. Same old, but for some reason it was just the best. I
am loving life with my companion. Sister Parmley is just the best and
we have so much fun together. And I love my district. I love the ward
I am in. Basically I'm surrounded by amazing people and I'm so
grateful! Also my old companion Kawahara Shimai came down to visit
from Tokyo (she ended her mission in December. I "killed" her which
means I was her last companion before she went home) so she came back
to Kumamoto to see us and hang out with the members. She is currently
hanging out with us as we email haha, but we're going to spend the day
with her and hopefully do something fun. Other then that, I had a
couple moments in personal study recently that just really uplifted
me. The Book of Mormon is so amazing people. Even reading just a
chapter makes me think of my life in such a different way, and no
matter how many times I've read that specific chapter, I can find
something at applies to me right then and helps me understand things.
I know anyone could have those experiences. Just read it :) anyway,
love you all!

Week 17 in Nagamine

Hey hey,

Oh my goodness. This week was crazy. It all started Tuesday. So we've had a little mold problem in our apartment for a while. (Our apartment has been rumored to be the sisters apartment for over 15-20 years??) so it's a crazy old apartment, and with Shimai coming in and out every couple of transfers it just isn't taken very good care of. So on Tuesday we got to go apartment hunting! Which was really fun. We went with this agent person who took us to different apartments and we got to choose which one we liked. It was way fun. After as she was dropping us off I look over to where my bike is (and pause for a second, back story. We have gotten into a game of messing with the elders bikes just like moving the seat, putting it backwards and they do it to us. It's like an on going prank.) and I look over to my bike and see this: 

 My bike was hanging from the ceiling by my bike lock! I started freaking out a little and then the lady who came with us to apartment hunting started laughing and taking pictures of me with the bike

It was way funny, but it's okay cuz I got them back. Anyway, after that happened we got all the Nagamine and Kumamoto missionaries together and put together a dance for our talent show in eikaiwa which was really fun. I love the missionaries I get to be around. They are all so much fun and so amazing. Then Wednesday we had the talent show and Sister Willson from my doki came down from Beppu and got to stay with us that night because we had a taikai (conference) with Elder Yamashita of the area 70. The conference was good. The Nagamine missionaries sang at it (me and my companion and the elders) which was fine, but then after they asked us to do a role play in front of everyone (like 70-80 missionaries) which ended up being a complete disaster because I forgot the first vision in Japanese! Oh man. It was so bad. But it's okay, because now I'll never forget it again! Anyway. It has been a way fun week even though we were so crazy busy with everyone we didn't have a ton of time to do lessons. 

Anyway, I'm sorry I haven't been sharing a lot of spiritual experiences lately!! This week I was studying the talk "Stay by the Tree" by Kevin W. Pearson in last April conference. Oh my goodness it is such a good talk. This is one of my favorite parts

Lehis message is to stay by the tree. We stay because we are converted unto the Lord. Alma taught, Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. As we yield our hearts to God, the Holy Ghost changes our very natures, we become deeply converted unto the Lord, and we no longer seek the spacious building. If we stop doing those things that bring about deepening conversion, we regress spiritually. Apostasy is the reverse of conversion. 

It's the small and simple things that completely changes us. But we need to do things that will allow him into lives. I know Heavenly Father can help us become the person we want to become. We had to remember Him and put our faith in Him and any and all things are possible!! 

Have a great week!

Love

White Shimai

P.S. If my English is weird, I am stuck half way between Japanese and English right now and I can't tell if some of the sentences make sense. I hope they do! 

Week 16 in Nagamine

Hi Everyone!

Haha I never know what to write. Okay I will start off by saying that
one of our investigators who didn't believe in God a couple of weeks
ago said last lesson that he now fully believes in God and has felt
Gods love!!! Oh man, we were so excited when he said that! He has been
reading the Book of Mormon and praying every day. We have been meeting
with him for almost 3 months and he has always said he just didn't
know if God was there. It's such a cool thing to witness! Things don't
happen right at once, it's over time through hard work that we can see
the result of our faith. He wouldn't have believed in God unless he
acted on faith and prayed and read scriptures even though it was
probably a very weird concept for him to do. So good :)
Other then that our week was way good but pretty normal missionary
stuff :) it's so much fun being here! We always find random Buddhist
temple things as we bike around. Here is one

And here is a picture with me in it. It was raining all day!
We also found a fun park when we were with the elders going to visit someone so here are these pictures..

Annnnd #japanesemissionarylife

At least they wrote it in English right? Haha this didn't happen to me, but one of the elders in our area. They went back to a return appointment and found this on the porch.
Anyway that's all for now :) happy Valentine's Day!!
White Shimai

Week 15 in Nagamine

Hello :)
This week was so great! Me and sister Parmley have just been running
back in forth to lessons all week which is basically the dream mission
life. It's been so good. This next week we have so many lessons
planned we barely have any time to actually go out and talk to people
but we are going to try our best to make time. It's really been so
awesome. Our 3 main investigators are all progressing really well.
They all have their own concerns but they really are doing so well.
It's been slow, but still very good. I'm so excited to see them every
time we have lessons with them. Yesterday as we were out talking to
people, we knocked on this door, and I start hearing Ariana Grande in
the background and so when the girl answered the door I got really
excited and asked her if this was Ariana Grande and then she got
really excited because we are Americans and so we started talking
about music and how she loves one direction and Justin Beiber even
though she doesn't understand the lyrics. It was so fun! She is 22
with 2 kids!! Which is sooo rare in Japan. Her and her husband are so
cute though. Anyway, she invited us in and read out of the Book of
Mormon and loved it! So we gave her one and talked about eternal
families and we are going back to visit her on Tuesday. I'm really
excited about her! Her name is Yuuki which means courage :) Anyway, I
am way excited about this next week to see how all of our lessons go.
I don't know how we are going to fit everything in but I'm so excited!
Oh also, one of our amazing members that comes to lessons a lot
invited us over for dinner tonight. I seriously love our members so
much. It's going to be so hard to ever leave Nagamine. We have been
doing lessons with members a lot so we have gotten really close to
them. Yesterday a member pulled us aside and asked if she could just
talk with us for a few minutes because she felt like she hadn't talked
to us for a while (and because she wanted advice how to share the
gospel with her other Christian friends...what!!?) I just love it
here.
Anyway, love you guys!! I hope you have a great week!
Love,
White Shimai

Week 14 in Nagamine

こんにちわ皆さん
So transfers were this week which means we spent a lot of time with
Wilkinson Shimai who transferred up to Fukuoka. I am staying with
Parmley in Nagamine which I'm super excited about :) I love her so
much. We taught lessons, talked to people did fun stuff. Basically a
normal missionary week. We did do service at a retirement home where
we basically just sang hymns to the sweetest old people ever. They
were so cute! I have pictures, and the people do not look happy in
them haha but they are really old....and I promise they were smiling
for at least part of the time we were there haha. Anyway, this week
went by like crazy fast and I can't believe it is p day already. So
crazy! Anyway here are some pictures from eikaiwa and at the
retirement home. I hope everyone is having a wonderful last day of
January, first day of February! (Shoutout to Jamie whose birthday is
today!!🍾)
Talk to you next week!
White Shimai