Week Four

 Dearest Family,

Last week was week 4 of the transfer. I could probably just leave it at that, but I guess I should go a little more in depth.

Almost every single appointment fell through last week, so we got a total of three lessons taught. Really quite the bummer. Not only that, but our only progressing investigator texted us and told us that she can't do religion right now and is going to quit taking the lessons for a while. That brings us down to zero investigators, so we'll need to focus a lot more on finding right now.

It was a typical week 4, I guess. 4 really is an unlucky number. :P

We had stake conference on Sunday, which was great. President Dorff spoke in English about Elder Scott's talk from October 2014. I loved that talk so much! It was a really good talk. He was really bold in telling all of the members of the stake that they needed to be going to the temple more. The Spirit was way strong.

Speaking of the temple, we were able to go today! It was an English session, which was great! I haven't done an English session in a long time. I loved sitting in the Celestial Room and looking at the large picture of Christ. It is always such special time. I look forward to when I can go more regularly.

I know the church is true! I know He lives! I know He loves each of us individually!

Have a great week!

Love, Crandall Shimai

地震 (for lack of a better title)

Dearest Family and Friends,

All those affected by the earthquakes in Kumamoto and Ecuador are in my prayers.  I pray for their safety.

This last week was another really busy week.  We had exchanges with the Kasukabe Sisters.  I always love working with Sister Nicholes.  She and I have been in the same zone since she came to the mission last Fall.  She is so wonderful.  I hope someday my Japanese is as good as hers.

On Wednesday, we visited the Bishop's wife and weeded her yard.  We didn't get to all of it, but we did one part.  I guess we'll let the elders do the rest... It was so nice to do some real service, and I even perfected the Asian squat!  (Which really helped when cleaning the shower drain today!)

On Thursday we had interviews with President and Sister Nagano.  I am so blessed to have the cutest, sweetest, mission president and wife in the world.  I am so grateful for their love and kindness, and also for their willingness to hold the bar high for the missionaries in the Japan Tokyo Mission.  I know that because of their faith and vision, I can become an even great missionary.  As I align my vision with theirs and with the Lord's, I can truly reach my potential.

On Friday, we had Zone Meeting, and we decided to close with a testimony meeting this time.  It was so powerful, and I was so grateful we did.  We are excited to be starting Eiken Test Prep in May (in addition to our Eikaiwa classes).

On Saturday, we ate lunch with one of my favorite people – Kawaguchi Shimai!  I forgot to take a picture... but she made us tacos!  Or maybe they were burritos... anyway, we don't usually get that kind of food in Japan.  She shared with us her testimony.  She is in love with conference, and she watched Elder Holland's talk five times that morning because she thought it was so good.  She shared with us experiences from when she went to Utah a few years ago, and I am so excited to see her there this October!

I know this church is true!  Every day I am so grateful for the truth that God loves us!  I know that He is my Father, and I know that He cares about me.  He is aware of my needs, my desires, my thoughts, and my feelings.  I know that He knows best how I can be happy.  I want so badly to just give Him my heart and my will and strive for better consecration.  I know that doing so will draw me closer to Him and bring me more happiness.

I love you all!  Please be safe!  Remember, if you choose Christ, then you have made the correct decision!

Love, Crandall Shimai

Short Email

Dearest Loved Ones,

Sorry, I'm a little short on time, so just a short email this week.

This week was really busy.  We tried to visit with a lot of people, but our two progressing investigators both cancelled with us.  We met with a few less actives, including Sano Shimai who fed us Taiwanshoku. We found a nice lady on the street who said we could come back again, so we'll see her again tomorrow!  We saw a lot of beautiful Sakura, and now they are all falling down.  But, soon more flowers will be blooming.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be in Japan right now!  I love being a missionary, and I know that the message I bear will bring people real happiness.  I know that as we focus our lives on Christ, we will find lasting peace and joy.

I love you all!

Love, Crandall Shimai

SAKURA!

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week went by so quickly, yet things that happened just a day or two ago seem like forever ago...

On Tuesday, we visited with Sano Shimai!  I love her!  She gave me a cute kaki keychain (we set up this appointment because we thought I was leaving, but then I didn't transfer away).  We also visited with Wendy and Imanari Yuka, our two progressing investigators.  we also had time to go streeting for two hours straight.  How was there so much time in one day?

We spent Wednesday in Kasukabe with Sister Nicholes as we waited for Gushiken Shimai to arrive from Niigata.  We visited with Kanno Shimai, the lady who handed out 16 Books of Mormon in the hospital in Koshigaya area.  She is a dendou fireball.  We also found some beautiful pink trees and snapped a few pictures...

And yes, the sakura are blooming!  They are so beautiful!  This is probably the time of year that I take the most pictures!  The rivers are lined with sakura, and there are pink flowers everywhere!  I definitely want to plant sakura in my yard in the future.

On Friday we got a phone call from someone we didn't know... She was a dropped investigator from two years ago, and she wanted to meet!  It was a crazy miracle!  She came to kodomo eikaiwa and we got to talk with her about...

--

Stop!  I forgot that at this time of year all of the people running for office drive around in these cars with megaphones and tell you to vote for them!  One just drove by, and it was way natsukashii.

--

...her problems and her interests.  We should be meeting regularly from now on, which is way exciting.

Sunday was CONFERENCE!  I LOVE CONFERENCE!  SO MUCH!  We watched the Priesthood session live, and then we watched the Saturday sessions after that.  It was all really good.  I loved the music and the talks... the Spirit was so strong, and I felt so grateful for continuing revelation through living prophets.

Lastly, Sunday night we visited a referral from the elders named Kudo, and she was home!  She had been dropped a long time ago, and she said that it would be okay for us to come back next week and share a message with her family!  It was a really sweet tender mercy of the Lord!

I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love, Crandall Shimai

奇跡的な週

Dearest Family and Friends:

There were crazy miracles this week.  A lot of them.

The miracles started on Monday.  We went to Laketown (the giant mall nearby) and did some finding, which was great.  It had been so long since we had had a large enough chunk of time to just talk to people for over an hour.  Usually all of our finding happens on the way to appointments and stuff, but it was great to finally have time set aside to just find.  We were able to talk to a lot of really cool people.

Then on Tuesday, all of our appointments fell through, so we had the opportunity to find almost all day.  We first went to the Souka Eki, but upon seeing the elders we fled to Yatsuka where one of the first people we talked to became a new investigator.  We had a lot more really meaningful interactions there as well.  Wednesday was also a day of finding, and although we had only half as much time as we had on Tuesday, we talked to almost the same amount of people.  We loved being able to hand out the new Easter Hallelujah cards, and we felt that people were a lot more receptive to those than they were to chirashi.

Then the real miracles started.  Wednesday night we texted Rie, a less active youth we had an appointment with for Thursday.  She had told us that she was going to invite a friend, and so we were following up to see if things would work out.  We asked her, "Is your friend able to come tomorrow?"  and she responded, "Yeah!  But there are four of them!"  Wait, what?!  On Thursday we went over to her apartment, and lo and behold there were four high school girls there studying English.  We don't know if they were told that we would be sharing a spiritual message or not, but we went ahead and taught the Plan of Salvation.  It was a really spiritual lesson, and all four girls said that they wanted to learn more. On Thursday, we only had time to talk to five people on the street, but one of those five became a new investigator!

On Thursday we also visited with one of our investigators, Imanari Yuka, and we set really good expectations with her.  She has been investigating for about a year now, but we were really honest about what we wanted to do.  We now have expectations to meet twice a week, and she even came to the international group in Urawa on Sunday!  That was the first time I had ever seen her at church!  I am so excited to see how she progresses.  I really believe that she has real intent, and now that she really understands what we are here to do she is trying harder than ever before to make time to meet with us.  It is amazing.

We met with another investigator, Wendy, via skype twice last week. She actually lives in Adachi area, but she works in Souka, and since there are no sisters in Adachi we are teaching her.  She speaks very little Japanese, and only some English, so we taught very simply about who God is and who Christ is.  She really wants to draw closer to God, and she very proactively changed her schedule so that she could make it to church on Sunday.  We've been working closely with the Adachi Elders (via phone) to help make her experience at church great.  I am very excited because she has so much real intent.  I really think that she will progress until baptism.

Sunday, Easter, was amazing.  I really enjoyed watching the General Women's Session of Conference live Sunday morning, and then going to the international branch and having church in English was really special.  It had been so long since I had sung hymns in English or heard the Sacrament prayers in my native language.  We even sang my favorite hymn, so it was really special for me.

I am so grateful for this Gospel, for the light that it brings into my life.  I cannot even begin to describe all of the happiness, guidance, and comfort that I have received from my Father in Heaven.  I know that He is guiding His church here on the earth.

I am so excited for General Conference!  We'll be watching the Priesthood session live next week, followed by the Saturday sessions of Conference.  I so look forward to feeling the Spirit and being edified by our living prophets.  I know that they speak by the Spirit.

I love you all!  Have a fantastic week!

Love, Crandall Shimai

PS:  Today was transfer call day, and I will be staying in Koshigaya one more transfer!  In fact, my entire district is staying the same. I'll have been here for about six months by the end of this next transfer.  Crazy!

Evelyn

Dear family and friends,

Evelyn was the highlight of my week last week. We had been struggling finding all week, so we finally went to Souka Eki and just pushed through it. As it was coming to about time for us to go home for dinner, someone calls out to us, "HEY! Can we take a picture together?" What the? We proceeded to talk with Evelyn and her husband, Yuuji, for the next fifteen minutes (yes, we missed our train. Luckily they come every ten minutes and not ever hour like in Kisarazu). Evelyn is one if the funniest ladies I've ever met. She just kept talking, and talking, and talking. She and her husband have lived all over the world (she's Filipino, he's Japanese). She told us about how they believe in love. She was like, "Christ taught us to love our enemies. Well, I married mine!" She then proceeded to tell us all about the unfriendly feelings between the Philippines and Japan. At the end we were able to get in the new Hallelujah video, and their comment was, "wow, it's nice that they included people of all different colors!" The whole interaction was just so hilarious that we were laughing for the next 15 minutes as we returned to our apartment.

Sakaniwa Kyoudai spoke in church yesterday! I've decided that he is also one of the funniest people I know. He is so quiet and reserved, but every once in a while he says something that is hilarious! As he was introducing himself, he was like, "my family consists of me, my extremely beautiful wife, my daughter and my son." But the way he said it was priceless. He was just so serious the whole time! Anyway, his talk was really good. He has such a strong testimony. He bore testimony of how the gospel has blessed his family since he got baptized and shared an experience he recently had while working (I may have zoned out midway through and missed the important parts of that story). Anyway, it was great.

We were able to meet with two less active Filipino families yesterday - the Hipos family and the Ano/Tuling family (referred to us by Hipos Shimai). Both families are going to do their best to come to church this next week, which is way exciting! It is so fun to work with them, as they are so willing to work at becoming more active.

Lastly, we had dinner with Bishop Node and his wife on Saturday! I ate so much that I was still full when I woke up Sunday morning. I love spending time in their home.

I know that the church is true! I am so grateful for restored truth! This last week I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Japanese for the first time, and it was amazing! Reading the last chapter, I felt so much peace. I know that that book is true. I know that through the Book of Mormon we can draw closer to God, we can draw closer to our Savior.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Crandall Shimai

#Hallelujah #ハレルヤ

Referrals

Dearest Family and Friends,

It rained a lot this last week.  It really brings back memories from when I first came to Japan.  I came last March, and it was COLD.  I thought that winter wasn't too bad, but I guess it just gets really bad in March with the freezing rain.  It's a good thing I'm not in Niigata!  Anyway, I'm sure it will pass - it did last year!  The cherry blossoms have already started to bloom.  I love seeing pink trees all around!  Hopefully we'll be able to go see the flowers with some of the SA’s.

We visited a referral less active named Ano Shimai from Hipos Shimai this last week (weird English, sorry).  She is also from the Philippines, and her records never came out here to Japan.  I feel like there are a lot of people like that here in Koshigaya... Anyway, we found her apartment, and as we were praying we heard her walk up behind us!  She let us in, and we got to meet her two kids and her mom.  She agreed to let us come back over on Sunday and share a message, which went great!  Her Mom (named Elora) still has a way old triple combination, and she says she reads from the Book of Mormon, the Relief Society handbook, or other church materials daily.  Ano Shimai is a little less active, but we challenged her to come with her family to church on Sunday, so maybe we'll get to go to the international group on Sunday.  Also, Ano Shimai said that she has a friend who might be interested in learning more about church... It's like a referral from a referral!

We started visiting high schools this last week to promote our new tutoring service.  Japanese high schools all look like prisons on the outside, and we found out that they look like prisons on the inside, too.  They had a huge genkan where we took off our shoes and put on the slippers they had provided for visitors.  ...only in Japan.  It was actually a lot of fun, although the public high schools were pretty straightforward in saying that they couldn't promote it to their students or anything.  Kind of a bummer, but we believe that acting in faith will help our program to be a success.

I read a good scripture in 1 Nephi 3:5-6 (I think).  It is Lehi talking to Nephi, and he says something like "Laman and Lemuel have murmured at my request, but it wasn't me that requested it of them - this is a commandment from the Lord!"  Sometimes our church leaders, namely the prophet, will ask us to do hard things, but it is important to remember that they aren't the ones asking it of us - it is the Lord!  And His commandments really are just a way to receive more blessings.

I love you all!  Have a fantastic week!

Love, Crandall Shimai