Fukkatsusai Omedetou!

Dear Friends and Family,

I apologize to those who did not receive my email last week. I was short on time and unable to add everyone to the list. I am hoping that will not happen again.

Happy Easter to everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful time decorating eggs and celebrating the resurrection of our Savior! I'm sad that we were unable to watch Conference, but our fast and testimony meeting here in Matsudo was pretty great, too. The Spirit was very strong. We were hoping to get 300 people to church, but there were only 260. Oh well. Have you all seen the Easter video yet? I meant to share about it earlier, before Easter, but I forgot to. It is so good, though! We shared it with a bunch of people, member and non-member alike. #BecauseHeLives #イエスが生きておられるので

I wasn't planning on bearing my testimony on Sunday, but then the thought came to me, "If your testimony could bless the life of your investigator (Miki was our only investigator to come to church), would you bear your testimony?" Of course! I bore my testimony very simply, but I feel that I spoke by the Spirit. Hopefully Miki was able to feel the reality of her Savior.

This last week was pretty exciting. I don't care for riding my bike in Japan because the sidewalks are so narrow. Last week, we biked to a recent convert's house, and when I stopped, I suddenly lost my balance and fell over. It was so weird. It was a super dramatic fall onto my back. I kindof bruised my nose, which was really weird, since I fell on my back. My helmet probably saved me from going to the hospital... Mom, I promise to be more careful! (The only thing that REALLY HURT was my pride...)

We had temporary exchanges again because Teruya Shimai and the other Sister Training Leader had a leadership meeting, so I went to Kamagaya with Tausinga Shimai again. We visited with a sister named Ayako, but she likes to be called Baba (because she's a grandma). She had a baptismal date for Saturday (and was baptized, as planned)! She was so cute! I love her to death. I'll probably never see her again. She was so kin.

We saw several miracles this last week. We went through the area book and called several people, one of which was a Mongolian woman named Bagi. She cried when we shared our message with her and told us to come over as often as we want. She is so prepared! I look forward to meeting with her, although she just informed us that she will be returning to Mongolia for a while because of visa issues...

We met with a sister named Liu. She recently returned from China. She has had several dreams, one in particular about baptism, and one where there were three doors and certain people were going through each door... it sounded a lot like the Plan of Salvation the way she described it... During the lesson, I got the strongest impression that I needed to invite her to be baptized, so I did. She said no, but then after a bit more talking, she decided that if she did feel that this was the true church, she would be baptized. It was a really soft baptismal invite, but at least she knows our purpose as missionaries.

Every week we teach Eikaiwa, an English speaking class. I teach it with one of the other elders in our district. We both have Nihonjin companions, so they can't really help us. It is a bunch of fun, even if it does feel weird to talk to people in English... At Eikaiwa this last week, we met a girl named Margaret. She is from China and has been studying here in Japan for a few years. She has no religious beliefs and is searching for truth. She is so kin. She was very receptive to our message and is super excited to come to church on Sundays and to read the Book of Mormon.

We felt prompted to visit with an old investigator named Miyazaki san this last week. Apparently she stopped meeting with the missionaries because she felt intimidated by them. Something like that. We stopped by and shared the Easter video with her and talked about Christ and Joseph Smith. She started crying. The Spirit was so strong! I was hoping she would come to church on Sunday, but she didn't. Hopefully she will be able to take a step of faith and come unto her Savior.

This last week, Teruya Shimai and I bought some bread from a bread truck. It was kindof like an ice cream truck, but it sold bread instead. It was playing some English Folk song. It made me so happy! Bread here in Japan is so yummy! I don't like bacon, but people often make bread with bacon bits in it and it is delicious!

I learned that Teruya Shimai and I have opposite tastes. I love sweet foods, and I am super picky with what I eat. Teruya Shimai prefers vegetables, but can eat anything. We were at a member's house yesterday, and I got up the courage to try natto... otherwise known as fermented soy beans! Most missionaries hate natto. I'm like most missionaries. It was so gross! But, I am proud to say that I swallowed my bite.

I loved the General Women's Conference! We watched it on Saturday (in Japanese, but I had the English talks on my iPad), and it was so good! I loved what Sister Oscarson said about protecting the Family Proclamation. I feel strongly that I want to be a mother. I want to be one who stands up for families! I also think it was interesting what President Eyring said. At the last meeting, President Uchtdorf spoke about how the Lord wants to bless us. At this meeting, President Eyring spoke about how the Lord wants to bless others through us. I loved it! I always want to be someone that the Lord can depend on to bless others.

I love you all! Have a fantastic week! Keep working hard! I know that the Lord will bless you for your efforts!

Love, Crandall Shimai