I'm Gonna Die!!

One of the English phrases I taught to my new companion this last week J

Dearest Loved Ones,

This last week has been so amazing!  After saying goodbye to Sister Burke, I went to the Honbu to pick up my new companion.  Her name is Sister Tanda, and I first met her in Kisaradzu when she returned home early from her mission in Koube for medical reasons.  She will be in the Tokyo Mission for two transfers, and then will be returning to her mission in Koube.  She is at transfer six right now, so I'm not actually training, but it has still been a lot of fun.

Tanda & Crandall Shimai with President & Sister Nagano

We saw a crazy miracle on Thursday.  One of our Eikaiwa students brought a friend, and upon finding that it was too hard for her, Tanda Shimai offered that we teach a private English lesson.  She said that we would like to share a gospel message as well, and the lady readily agreed!  It was a miracle!

We've been praying really hard to teach a family.  We are both determined to find and baptize a family before I go home in September.  Well, yesterday at church, a member came and got us during Sunday School and told us that a mother and her daughter had come to church!  We were confused but, come to find out, the mother that has been bringing her three year old daughter to children's Eikaiwa every week decided she wanted to see what church was like.  We went to nursery together, and then afterwards we shared a short message about God with her and then set up expectations to meet with her and her husband before kodomo eikaiwa to talk about what we believe!  I am so excited to see where things go!

I'd like to invite you all to read President Eyring's talk from April 2003, “A Child and a Disciple.”  I truly believe that there are people all over the world who are prepared to hear the Gospel!  I know that we can all share the Gospel, no matter our strengths or weaknesses.

I love you all!  Please be safe this week!

Love, Crandall Shimai

Training, Round 2

Dearest Family and Friends,

As expected, I will be training this transfer, and probably for the rest of my mission!  I am so excited to have this opportunity to work with bean faith again!  I love training.  I'll meet my new companion this Wednesday at the Honbu.

This last week, our zone had a goal to prayerfully drop those investigators that were not progressing.  As we have had zero focus investigators all transfer, we decided to prayerfully choose which less actives to stop focusing so much attention on.  We've been able to narrow our list down to five names, and this last week we had WAY more time for finding.  I've never cared much for housing (I've always preferred street contacting), but I finally bit the bullet and we spent most of the week knocking doors.  On Saturday, we prayed and decided to go house around one of our investigator's (Okay, so I guess we do have investigators?  They just never meet with us because everyone here is too busy) apartments.  It was a small neighborhood, and we didn't have too much time, but we found two women who said we could come back later (they were too busy right then) and a man who was WAY interested in learning more.  He came out of his house to talk to us (usually people just talk to us through their interphones) and asked me for the Restoration pamphlet I was holding!  We're hoping that we can teach his whole family so that we don't have to refer him to the elders... We decided to go back yesterday, and we knocked a few more doors.  We found another woman who said we could come back later, and we found ANOTHER man who was way interested in religion!  We even set up expectations that we are going to come back with a friend.  We gave him a Restoration Pamphlet to prepare, and we invited him to include his whole family.  In this little neighborhood of 20-30 homes, we found three women who said we could come back later and two solid men who are interested in learning more!  I think we're going to go back again when we can.

We found another lady this last week.  Her name is Lyne, and she is from Laos.  She was way interested in church, and she really wants us to meet her sons (probably to help with English...).  Hopefully we can meet with her again before she moves back to America at the end of this month...

Yesterday we had Stake Conference, but it was really interesting.  The first thirty minutes we heard from the Stake President via broadcast from Matsudo, and then we watched a broadcast of Elder Bednar and some other general authorities.  It was really new, and it was amazing to me to see how technology allows us to be connected all over the world.

I am so grateful every day for the opportunity I have to be in Japan at this time.  I know that this place is so ready for the Gospel.  I feel that the people are just waiting for someone to invite them!  I know that as we invite others to come unto Christ, we are fulfilling our missionary purposes, whether as full time missionaries or as member missionaries.

Have a fantastic week!

Love, Crandall Shimai

救いと贖いの主。。。

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry, I'm short on time today!  I just want you all to know that I love you!  We were able to talk to a lot of people this last week, which was great.  I have really enjoyed working with members here in Tsukuba.  The members here are stellar.

On Sunday we sang Savior, Redeemer of My Soul in Japanese in Sacrament Meeting.  It was really beautiful, and I really felt the Spirit.  We sang with a member, Yoshie Shimai.  She is going back to BYU this week.  Her friend came to hear us sing, and it was fun to watch as Yoshie Shimai helped her friend understand what was going on during the meeting and then gave her a Book of Mormon all marked up and beautiful.  She's a natural.

I know the church is true!  I know that God answers our prayers!  Just keep trusting Him!  Heaven is cheering you on!

Love, Crandall Shimai

Here's a Joke for you!  How do you turn water into ice in one second?

...like this!     水 ーー＞ 氷

Barbecue

Dearest Family and Friends,

I'm pretty sure my email titles get lamer every week.

Wow, this last week went a lot better than the week before! Mostly because we were actually in our own area this week. We've met with a lot of less actives, and we're slowly but surely working through all of the PIs in the area book.

We were able to visit a member referral this last week. She actually doesn't live in our area, but we got permission from President Nagano to visit her since the member was willing to drive us and go with us. This woman is from Taiwan, and she talked our ears off. We asked if we could share a short message, and she said she was too tired; then continued to talk our ears off. It was pretty amusing. She excitedly accepted a Chinese Book of Mormon, and we left a Plan of Salvation pamphlet with her. I'm excited to see how things go with her.

There was a barbecue at a members' home (the same member who gave us the referral) yesterday, and WOW their house is HUGE! It's big compared to American homes, which means it is GIANT here. The father is an architect, and the mother is an interior designer. It's a beautiful home. Anyway, we got there about an hour early, and they were shocked when we said we would go dendou around nearby. I think it made them really happy. Anyway, the barbecue was SO GOOD. I definitely ate too much food.

Crazy miracle: Yesterday, before church, we got a phone call from a number we didn't know. It was someone who had received a chirashi from us several weeks ago! He was asking if he could come to church... Well of course! He came, and then he even came to the barbecue afterward! It was way cool. Hopefully the elders can continue to meet with him.

The church is true! The work is true!

Have a great week everyone!

Love, Crandall Shimai

Sister Amelia Crandall

Japan Tokyo Mission

4-25-12 Nishi Ochiai

Shinjuku-ku Tokyo-to 161-0031

Japan