I'm officially Japanese (I wore my first Kimono)

   We had a long fun week this week!!!    Basically we were traveling for most of the week.

   We went to Hakodate for Zone Training meeting this week. The Zone Leaders gave a really great workshop about setting goals and making plans. It was so fun because after we got to go on Splits with the sisters in Hakodate. It was really fun!

   Yesterday we got to go to a Sejin shiki. (mom you should look it up becasue I really don't have time to explain) Sorry :) I got to wear a Kimono for the first time. And it took approximately 40 minutes to put on. It's super intense! It was so tight and I felt like I couldn't breathe, but it was it worth it and super fun! Sorry for the short email but now I have to go to a music practice for the Mission program coming up in March

Love you all! 

Morrison Shimai

Sejin shiki (Jazmyne didn't have time to explain so she asked me to look it up):  

Coming of Age Day is a japanese holiday held annually on the second Monday of January.  It is held in order to congratulate and encourage all those who have reached the age of majority (20 years old) over the past year, and to help them realize that they have become adults.  It has been celebrated in Japan since at least 714 AD, when a young prince donned new robes and a hairstyle to mark his passage into adulthood.  In current practice, some of those attending the coming of age ceremony are actually only 19 years old; attendees are those whose 20th birthday falls between April 2 of the previous year and April 1of the current year.  (I guess this includes Jazmyne as she will turn 20 on March 4th.)

 First sunrise of 2014.

 New Year's Day

 So much snow! - Taller than Jazmyne

 Ready for the Seijin Shiki (Coming of Age Celebration)

Back of the Kimono

 Middle Front

 All dressed up!

I can't breath!

New Year's

Hello to you!! 

Today we are in Sapporo for Music Practice. It's for Ongaku no Ube. You can find a video of it on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obNhlXCHyHg&list=PLrp4UAOXJcZ1mXzJzo9jEaJHiWvktVYoq )  
The one they had last year was in May I think. And this one is next month. Kuroki Shimai (my companion) is in a special singing group so that's why we came to Sapporo today.  We'll also come to Sapporo next week because it will be a big practice for everyone.  Evans Shimai (Mission President's wife) is very serious when it comes to music... :)

About the picture from last week.  The 'pajamas' aren't really pajamas.... It's like a hooded Snuggie. So it's just something to keep us warm, like a blanket. The ward member bought them for us. I use it just about every morning while we are doing personal study... :)

Yes I love the CDs!!! It's nice to have a little bit of a variety when we listen to music. I've heard the BYU men's choir CD before - I downloaded it when it first came out, but I could never figure out how to get it onto my ipod so it's great now that I have the actual CD. The other CD is all piano music so it's nice to listen to. :)

Ok well I have to get off the computer right now but hopefully I will have more time later to write an actual letter!!! :)

Actual letter:

Hello all!!

   So this was a short week, since we just had our last P-day on Wednesday (New Years day). But now I can tell you about how my New Years was!! :) So last week was a very different week. New Years in Japan, is really a huge holiday. It's like how Christmas in America is really big - your whole family gets together, there's lots of parties and presents. Well in Japan they still celebrate Christmas, but it's more of just a day to give presents and eat Christmas cake. And then New Years is the actual holiday where families get together and have big parties and such. So Monday, we usually have P-day (which is our day to go shopping and clean and email), but it was a normal day. Then Tuesday, New Years Eve we stayed in the apartment all day and it was our day to fast and to read the Book of Mormon - All day. The goal is to try to finish the Book of Mormon. We started reading at 7 in the morning. And continued to read until 6 pm. Then we took a half hour for a dinner break. And then we continued to read until 9pm. It was a really long time, but sadly I didn't finish reading. hahah :) The Book of Mormon is long!! :) But I did make it to Alma, I'm about half way trough. But it's good that I didn't read it in Japanese, because the Japanese version is a lot longer than it is in English. :)

   So on New Years day is when we had our P-day. We got up at 6am to go to the beach to see the sun rise. The Yoneta's in the ward took us. It's aparently a tradition or it's a realy well known thing to do in Muroran. You go to a specific beach and the sun is really pretty. When we first got there it was super cloudy so we were worried we wouldn't be able to see the sun. But luckily it cleared up and we saw it. :) It was super pretty and the sun was pink!!! Way cool! And then afterward we went to Noboribetsu to see the hot springs there. And there was the little festival going on. So we just explored the city. The Yoneta's fed us breakfast. and then we went to another member's house for lunch. After, we came back to the church so that we could have some time to email and go shopping. Then we went to another member's house that night, the Kasano's, for dinner. It was kind of nice not having to make food all that day. Seriously the people are so nice here!!

   The day after New Years, the 2nd, is suppose to be a deep clean day for the apartment, but another member from the ward, the Kamada's, invited us to their house. They live about an hour and a half away so we went to their house for lunch. and then we stayed there for about 4 hours just talking and playing with the kids. Then we drove another 1 and a half hours back, and the family who drove us there, wanted to take us out to dinner. So we had dinner with them. Basically we didn't have to make food for ourselves for 2 days. :)

   So that's what the holidays are like for a missionary in Japan.... hahaha :)

Hope you all are doing well!! Much love!!

Happy New Year!!      Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!!!

                                                    空けまして　おめでとう　ございます！！

Morrison Shimai

Happy New Year!!! 明けましておめでとうございます

Hello!!!! And Happy New Year!!!  明けましておめでとうございます

   So where to start?!?! It's been a great/busy week!!!!

   For Christmas we got to go to Hakodate. We took a train on Christmas Eve morning and had a little get together/party with the Hakodate missionaries. There was a total of 5 Shimaitachi (sisters) and 8 Chorotachi (Elders).  It was so much fun and I loved getting to see some of the other Shimai!   We had a White Elephant gift exchange in the afternoon and then we hung out at the church and played games all afternoon. We played Mafia and a couple other games. Then we went to go and visit Coyne Shimai.   Back in October, her appedix burst and so she finally had the surgery on the 22nd. So we went to go visit her in the hospital. Then we went to see an illumination show - which is apparently really famous in Hakodate. But we were late so we missed all the big fireworks. :(   But there was a huge Christmas tree - definitely over 100 feet tall!! And you can't find these kinds of trees here in Japan, so we found out that they shipped the tree from Canada!! Haha. :)

   That was basically the end of the night. We woke up Christmas morning hoping for a white Christmas, but we were dissapointed. You would think that we would have snow, I mean, it is winter and this is Hokkaido..... but I guess since I'm on the southern side of the island, there was no snow on Christmas. We had a big meeting with all the missionaries and then came back on Christmas.

   Today (New Year's Day) was really fun! We went with a ward member's family to see the gysers/hot springs in Naboribetsu. They are really famous here. I'll have to tell you more about it next week and I'll send some more pictures!!

   Oh my goodness it is sooooooooooooo cold here!!! But I know that I'm lucky because I'm on the southern side of Hokkaido so it's a lot colder in other places!! But I think it's the wind that makes it feel a lot colder than it actually is.......

Hope all is well! And Happy New year!!!!!!

Morrison Shimai

**************************************************************************************

Gifts from a sister in the Ward

New Year's Trip  to a Hot Springs

Jazmyne's Dad sent her a santa beard in a card for Christmas

Merry Christmas

Hello all!!!

   This week was my first full week in Muroran!! We were pretty lucky this week because it didn't snow... well until today. I'll let you know how that goes in my email next week. :)

   I have met so many people this week and I'm reminded again how hard Japanese names are to remember!! But hopefully once I've met with people more than once I'll start to put names to faces. The church members here are so awesome!!! Maybe I'll say that about every ward I serve in, but really the people are so nice to us. And when I introduced myself in Church last Sunday, I told people that I have a wheat allergy and right after church people were coming up to me and asking me what I could eat so that they know what has flour in it and what doesn't. They were all just so kind and thoughtful! 

   I was also able to meet some investigators this week. We have quite a few in Muroran so that is super exciting. It's a little strange going from only having 2 investigators in Obihiro to having around 8 here in Muroran, but I'm not complaining. :) We have one investigator named Wado San. She and her husband first heard about the church more than 20 years ago - right after they were married and just started having kids. They were super busy and didn't have time to meet with the missionaries. But now they are investigators again now that they are grandparents. :) I think she is really committed to coming to church and she reads the Book of Mormon and prays, but she is hesitant about getting baptized because she wants her husband to get baptized too. But he's not very willing to give up coffee or smoking.So we'll see how it goes with them. They are a very funny couple!! :) But they are so sweet! We had a really good lesson on faith and how if we have faith then there is no need for us to fear.

  I'll be sure to let you know in my next email all about what Christmas is like in Japan!! And since Christmas is in a few short days I'll say it now..........

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and remember to show your love to everyone this season, because really all we want is to be happy right?? So be happy!!!! :) hahahaha there's a little Jazmyne wisdom for you. :)

Much love!!!!!!!

Morrison Shimai

モリソン　姉妹

Transfer to Muroran

Hello all!!!

   Well I have finally left my hometown of Obihiro and have moved out to a city called Muroran!! It's about an 1 and a half hours west of Sapporo (by train). And it's right on the southern coast of Hokkaido.  My companion's name is Kuroki Shimai and yes she is Japanese. This area just opened for Shimai only 2 transfers ago so I'm the 3rd Shimai who has ever been here. Pretty cool right?? Anyway Muroran is very hilly and because it's on the coast it is very windy. And guess what?? There's snow here! And a lot of it!! Haha. :)

   My first day here  we went up Muroran Yama (mountain). And yes it's mountain. Not like Mt. Hood kind of mountain but like Ladd Hill/Parett Mountain kind of a mountain, and we took our bikes up it.  We walked our bikes up a mountain my first day here and then we were going to ride down, but because of all the snow it wasn't really possible. But we did ride our bikes down the last half mile or so of the mountain. Riding bikes down a mountain in the snow is just a little bit scary! But no worries! We survived!!   :)

   On Satuday we had the Ward Christmas Party!   I got to meet all the church members before Sunday. At the Christmas party all the missionaries (me, Kuroki Shimai, Lee Choro, and Brown Choro) did a little dance and sang Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. Everyone thought it was really cute. :) Which is good because we planned it exactly 10 minutes before the Christmas party started - since we just had transfers we didn't really have a lot of time to plan anything amazing. :) The ward seems really great and I'm excited to continue working in Muroran!!!!

   Hope all is going well!

   Much love!

Morrison Shimai

Snow Angels in Obihiro

Tempura Ice Cream

Getting Christmas Package

 Leaving Obihiro - At the train station

Leaving the Obihiro Shimai

Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Muroran Ward Christmas Party

New companion is on Jazmyne's right, far left two Young Single Adult's.

New Investigators and Transfer Week

   This week we have big news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

WE FOUND 2 NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Basically we are super excited. :)

   This transfer we started out with 3 investigators, but then within the first week we went down to 2 investigators. So this transfer we have really been focusing on getting more investigators. We've been working really hard and trying our very best, even when we were discouraged. Then this last week we were lucky enough to find 2 people who are interested in hearing the gospel!!  It was truly a miracle week!!! :)

   I may or may not have told you about these people already, but since I can't remember I'm going to tell you about them again a little bit.

   One of our investigators, her name is Songumsuk. If you read that and think, 'that doesn't sound very Japanese, well you would be right!   She is from Korea!   But she speaks really good Japanese.  Anyway, she has a super interesting story about why she is in Japan. She is a part of a religion (I can't remember the name) but it's a christian church and everyone in the church has arranged marriages!  I didn't think there were that many people that did that any more, but I guess they do.  Anyway she got married to a Japanese man and they never met before thier wedding and at that point she didn't speak any Japanese and he didn't speak any Korean. So she moved to Japan to be with him and taught herself Japanese, and then he tried to learn some Korean. It sounds so hard!  But they made it work and it sounds like they are really happy now. So we first met her back in October and gave her a Book of Mormon but haven't been able to meet with her until now. She is really great and we have another appointment with her in a few weeks.

   Our other investigator is Sato San. She is married and has 3 children and 3 grandchildren. She was super open to listening to us and so we were finally able to teach her on Wednesday. We were only planning on teaching her the first half of lesson one, but since she was asking so many questions we ended up teaching her the whole thing. She has lots of really great questions and she understood everything that we were telling her! It was truly amazing. And I recited the first vison in Japanese for the first time (to an investigator). So that was really exciting too!!    REALLY, REALLY great week!!

   This next week we have transfers so I will let you know what the results of that are next week.  This is how the whole thing works..  

   Trainers get their calls on Monday night and all they tell them is that they will be traning (obviously in their same area) but they don't tell them who their bean (greenie) is. So they go to the honbu (mission home) on wednesday morning to pick up their bean.

Everyone else gets their calls on Tuesday (usually in the morning). They call us and tell us what our next area is and who our new companion is. Then everyone who is transfering and their companions (usually) all leave on Thursday morning.  We all meet at the "transfer spot" which is a specific spot inside the subway station in Sapporo. Then you all switch and find your new companion and then head to your new area. So usually Thursday is spent traveling all day. Sometimes it's different. Like this last transfer since none of us were transfering we all stayed and Miyamoto shimai just came with the elders. So they try to save money whenever possible because traveling in Japan is really expensive!!!  Our bikes are shipped to our new area as well as one of our bags so when we travel we only have to take one bag with us so that is really nice. :)  So that's how it works here. :) I've actually never been to the transfer spot, but who knows maybe this transfer I will. :)

   Hope you are all doing well! Much love!

 

Morrison Shimai

Fun in the park with Lundstrom Shimai when the weather was warmer.

A dog sled?

Jazmyne and her companion always seem to find matching outfits.

Sushi for Thanksgiving

   So this week was a really weird week. It started out on Monday, we had a little birthday party for Kozuma Choro, one of the elders in my district. He turned 20 years old so I am now the only 19 year-old in the district! Hahaha :) At the party the elders made this huge ice cream sunday. And I love ice cream so I ate a lot. Then on Tuesday, I woke up with a really bad stomach ache (probably from all the ice cream..... :)). So we weren't able to leave the apartment becuase I basically slept all day. :( Then on Wednesday I was feeling a little bit better, so we went and did some housing and then hung out with a member for about 2 hours, but that was just too much for me, so we had to come back to the apartment and then I slept for the rest of the day again. :(

   Ok but on Thursday we actually did stuff!!! YAY for not being sick!!! We met with a couple of people. We met this lady named Sato San. She is really nice and we talked with her for about 30 minutes and just got to know her. There is a really good possibility that we will be able to teach her a lesson next week! We also had a little mini Thanksgiving feast with the other missionaries and the Single Adults from the ward........ :) The elders made mashed potatoes and stuffing. And then me and Bastow Shimai made thanksgiving cake (since there are no ingredients to make pie).  Then we had to go to KFC to get chicken since they don't have turkey here. All in all it was honestly really lame. :) But we got a good laugh out of it. But the sad part was that I didn't even eat any of it becuase it all had gluten in it. So before the little get-together, we went and bought some sushi for me to eat. So I just ate my Thanksgiving Sushi. And it was really good :) It will definitely be a Thanksgiving to remember! 

   On Friday we had a sports activity with all the missionaries and a couple investigators: Akari chan and Koharu chan came. I think I've told you about them before. They are 22 and 23. They both moved to Obihiro for their work. And they come to Eikaiwa sometimes - they both speak very good English. We rented out a gym and we played basketball, volleyball and dodgeball. I wasn't very good at basketball. It brought back some bad memories of my last expirience playing basketball here.... :) Volleyball was really fun and we used a short net so I even spiked the ball once! Pretty amazing right? Haha :) Ok and I guess people in Japan don't play dodgeball the same way that we do in America. It's hard to explain in writting, but it is SO intense! Basically by the end it's like everyone against one person. I was the 2nd to last person out and let me tell you I was a little scared for my life at one point. Hahaha. :) The best part about Friday was that we were able to meet Agnes!!!! We were both really excited. Earlier in the week she wasn't feeling good, so we went by her house on Thursday to drop off some soup and that night she called us and asked to meet with us! It was a mini miracle! We talked a lot with her about prayer and the influence that prayer has on our lives. She really wants to teach her kids correct principles so she has been really focusing on reading the Bible with them. At one point she was asking us about our families back home and about our plans for the future. So as we were telling her she asks "Are you normal American young adults??" And me and Lundstrom Shimai just looked at each other and then together we both said, "No we are really not." :) What normal teenager would leave the fun life of college and take 18 months to go to another country to try to teach people about God and Jesus Christ? I can tell you that not many would. We just testified to her that we're the people we are becuase of the great things we have learned from our parents and from the gospel. It's truly why I am the person I am. And I know that I am so happy to have the knowledge that I do!

   Hope all is going well!! Much love!

Morrison Shimai

Thanksgiving Cakes instead of Pies

Thanksgiving Sushi

Doing service at a Care Center