Decorating Cookies

Hello everyone!

   This week was a super crazy week! I feel like I haven't said anything about the weather in a little while so I guess it's time for an update. So remember how we thought it was finally spring? Well, we were wrong. From Friday to Sunday it rained constantly! Didn't stop once. And the wind was blowing so hard. It was a 3 day Typhoon! They said it was 7 degrees C, but with the wind it felt like 5 degrees C. But this morning it was clear skys and it's looking a little more like Spring! Yeah!

   So update on the Endo family: They are SOOO wonderful!! I love them so much!!! We met them on Wednesday and taught the Plan of Salvation. And then at the end of the lesson Hibiki chan (age 10) gave the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard. So it's been hard trying to get the kids to pray with us so we decided to tell them that they could try writing out their prayers so that they would know what to say. So during the whole lesson she was writting something, but we weren't sure what it was. And then at the end of the lesson we told her it was her turn to give the closing prayer. And we realized that the paper she had been working on during the lesson was her prayer! It was so awesome! It was really one of the sweetest most heartfelt prayers I have ever heard. In the prayer she asked God to help her family so that they would all be able to go to the Celstial Kingdom. It was SOOO cute! I almost started crying, it was so sweet!

   Then on Saturday I got to have some fun with Rion (age 9) at the Primary Activity. We planted tomatoes and Lettuce, in little pots. And then we decorated cookies. Of which I couldn't eat any sadly, but they looked really good and it was fun to decorate them. Then Saturday night us, the Endo family and the Elders went to a memebers' house for dinner. We had a really fun time and we were able to share a message about how we have a living prophet today. And then we told them about how Elder Christofferson is coming to Hokkaido next week. They seemed excited, but the mom will probably have to work overtime since it's on a Wednesday night. But we are stil hoping that the girls will be able to come with us to Sapporo to meet him! 

   The Endo famliy is so wonderful and I love them so much. Sorry I say that so much, but I just feel so lucky and I'm so grateful to have this opportunity to help them, and watch their faith grow everyday. I love this gospel and it is so wonderful being able to see the change that happens when we meet people like that Endo famliy. They have so much faith and love and they will be so blessed as they continue to learn! I love this gospel and the knowledge that it has given me. I know that everything in life happens in order to help us grow. The teachings of Jesus Christ are truly the only way to reach our full potential and feel the most happy. I know this is what it has done for me and I know this is what it can do for anyone who is willing learn and change. 

Hope you all have a great week and I love you all!

Morrison Shimai

Primary Activity - Decorating cookies

Happy Mother's Day

 Hi everyone!

   So this week has been great! First of all, Spring has finally come!! Yesterday was probably the first day that I didn't have to wear tights and a big pea coat outside!! Isn't that great? We were especially excited! haha. :)

   So Endo family. Sorry, but I'm basically just going to keep repeating myself for the next few weeks probably by saying, THEY ARE SO AWESOME! and I LOVE THEM SOOO MUCH!! :) This week we were feeling just a little bit stressed becuase there is so much that we have to teach them before their baptism and we weren't really sure how they would react to everything, especially things like the Word of Wisdom and Tithing. We had scheduled to meet them on Wednesday, but the mom ended up working over time so we couldn't meet. We set up another appointment for Thursday, and we were just hoping and praying, litterally all day, that we would be able to meet with them and teach them more. We were able to meet them on Thursday are we had a good lesson and talked more about what Baptism is and we made a calender with them - outlining when we wanted to meet with them and what we needed to teach them. We could both tell that the mom was feeling a little bit overwhlmed and we knew she had a lot of questions.

   So we agreed to meet again on Friday night and this time we brought a member with us - Kikuchi Shimai. We were so grateful to have her there to help us!! Quick Side note: members are so great to have at lessons with investigators becuase 1. they speak the language (this is very important) and 2. they have had similar experiences that sometimes us as foreigners can't really relate with. So thanks to all the graet members out there that help us missionaries our so much!!

   Ok so at the lesson on Friday we talked about the Spirit and then we just planned to ask the mom what her concerns and questions were. She asked us about Tithing and the Word of Wisdom - she had been donig a little research :). The lesson was so wonderful!! The spirit was so strong and I could just watch her face and see that she was at ease now. 

   They also came to church on Sunday and we are still planning for their baptism on May 31st!! So exciting! I love the Endo family and I love this work. It is just so rewarding being able to see how these people we teach are so willing to change their entire lives in order to have greater happiness through the gospel!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Happy Mothers' Day!!

Morrison Shimai

 Cherry Blossoms (Sakura)

 (Tulip Tree)

 Still in their heavy coats 

With a member

Golden Family

Hello all!

   So this week was so great! I don't have a ton of time but I'll just tell you about our wonderful Endo family!

   Sorry I don't really remember how much I have told you about them. I really have a terrible memory. Before we opened the area, the Elders had found this family. It's a mom and 3 daughters so they can't go inside their house to teach them. So they were nice and passed the family to us to start teaching. The Elders had already made a Baptismal date with them for June 1st. And we have been teaching them for about 2 weeks now. They are seriously a GOLDEN family!! I love them so much!!

   This week we met with them. We had planned to teach the last half of the 1st lesson - Apostacy, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  They have been reading the BOM so they alerady knew a little bit about it. So we didn't get very far into the lesson beofre the 9 year old daughter brings up the topic of Baptism. And the mom is like 'oh yea, that's on June 1st right? Yea we should be able to make it to church every week and I'm pretty sure we can get baptized on the 1st.'  It was a great moment for me and my companion!!  I was so excited to hear that not only did she remember about what baptism is, but she also remembered the date and was still planning on getting baptized!!! They are a wonderful family and I'm so excited to be able to see them get baptized here in a few weeks! We still have a lot to do to help them prepare, but I just know they will be so blessed becuase of this decision they are making! Please keep them in your prayers!

   Much love! Have a wonderful week!

Morrison Shimai

Busy.. but I'm loving it!

Hello All-

   This week has been really great!! Shinoro has just been so wonderful!! The members, first of all are so great!! We felt embarrassed but we told them about how we have no food and they have been dropping food off for us and they have been taking such good care of us these past 2 weeks.

   So we are still housing most of the time trying to find new investigators, but the long days don't seem as long as I thought they would be. I'm starting to realize the joy in being able to talk to so many different people every day, and while most of them reject us, I know there are people out there searching for the truth and I know we can help them find it. Me and my companion have made it a goal to pray every hour and it has really made a difference in helping us to find people to teach. Through praying, I feel like we are showing the Lord that we are willing to do whatever it takes to find those people that he has prepared for us.

   We also met the Endo family this week!!! They are so awesome!! We started out by reviewing about God and Jesus Christ. We tried to use lots of examples and things to help the kids understand, but it's a little hard to keep everyone focused for even 30 minutes. :) But I am so happy about being able to teach a family!!! They are so great and we are still looking forward to their baptism on June 1st so please keep them in your prayers!!

Thanks so much for all your love and support and prayers!!

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!!

Morrison Shimai

Leaving Friends in Muroran

 Furue Shimai, my trainer, on her way home

New apartment in Shinoro - Kitchen

Living out of suitcases - 1st day at the Apartment

New companion, Vielstich Shimai

Meeting new friends in Shinoro

New Area and New Opportunities

Hello Everyone!

Happy Easter!!

   So I transferred this week! I left my beloved city of Muroran and have moved to Sapporo! Into the big city!  I'm not right in the middle of the city, but more on the outskirts in an area called Shinoro. My new companion is Veilstich Shimai! She is so great! We actually went to the MTC on the same day, but she is half Japanese so since she already knew some Japanese she was only in the MTC for 2 weeks. 

  The other surprise is that we are the first Shimai in the area!! Yep that's right we are opening the area!!  We got a brand new apartment. It is so nice and I promise I will send pictures next week, but they literally left us with nothing!  We didn't even have a fridge for the first day!!   So we had no food, some kitchen supplies, a kitchen table, and some futons to sleep on. Yea basically it was SOOO crazy!!   The worst part is that they didn't leave us with any mission supplies!! No pamphlets, no flyers and no BOMs!!! So we were just like ok so what are we suppose to do?!?!?!? Haha it was a pretty funny day!!  So we frantically called the elders and they gave us a couple BOMs and some flyers! And so we were just like "we don't need food!   As long as we've got our testimonies and a BOM we are good to go!" And basically that's what we did!!! So funny!  Anyway we have had some fun already, and we have seen a lot of miracles!

  We are in such a cute, quiet little area! And I already love it! It's been a little tough since neither of us know the area - so we really have no idea where we are going... ever. But it's kinda fun figuring out the area and where everything is! My accomplishment for the week:  I memorized our address (so in case we ever get lost we can ask someone :)). 

   Ok but the Elders that were already in this area are so great!!! This area is seriously SO prepared for us to come. The Elders were teaching this family (a mom, and 3 daughters) and they are so awesome!! They read the Book of Mormon every day and they came to church yesterday!! Plus they have a baptismal date for June 1st!!!! It's so exciting!! Our first investigators in our brand new area!!! I will continue to keep you updated on them. 

   I'm so excited for this transfer! I know there will be some long days, where we will be housing for 8 hours, but it will all be worth it!! I know that there are more people that are prepared for us and ready to meet us! And we are ready to find them!!

Love you all!

Have a great week!!

Morrison Shimai

New Investigators and Conference - My week was great!

 So this week was so great!!! A complete turn-around from last week! Which I am so grateful for because this is the last week of the transfer so we are ending on a high note! Yay!!

   This week we were able to gain 3 new investigators!!! It was so exciting. 2 of these new investigators are actually old investigators from about 7 years ago. We were searching through some of the old records and found their names and called them and we were able to set up appointments! One of them, Ogawa San, is a mother of 2 high school kids. She is very busy, but she made some time for us so that we could have a lesson over the phone this week. We talked a lot about God and if he really exists. We have an appointment to finally meet her in person on Tuesday so we are excited for that!

   Our other new investigator is Alis. She is from Malaysia and she is Muslim. We first met her at the train station when Gibbs Shimai and I first got to Muroran after transfers. We were able to exchange numbers with her and this week we finally met her and also one of her friends, Fatine. They speak Malay, English, Japanese and a little bit of German! I'm also so impressed when I meet people that speak more than 2 languages!  They are really awesome girls!!  They both attend college here in Muroran and so they are about 22 years old.  On Wednesday we went out to dinner with them and they were asking a lot of questions about our religion and Christianity in general. It was funny because I'm so used to explaining things in Japanese that at some points I would start speaking Japanese and then I have to sit there for a minute and think "wait how do I explain this in English??" It was super funny. So we talked to them in an English/Japanese mix. :)   It was so interesting to learn about their culture and their religion as well. They said that they really are interested in learning about our religion and they said they wanted to come to church! They are pretty devoted to their own religion, but we are hoping that as we befriend them and continue teaching them, then maybe the spirit will be able to touch their hearts!

   Oh my goodness Conference was great as always!!  We got to watch the Women's Broadcast yesterday (Sunday) afternoon too!   Here in Japan each ward gets two copies of conference DVDs. So me and Gibbs Shimai asked if we could borrow the priesthood session yesterday so when we got home we watched the priesthood session too. The Chorotachi (Elders) were telling us how good it was and so we were a little impatient and we didn't want to wait a month to read the talks... :)  So basically I watched a total of 7 and a half hours of conference yesterday... :)  It was great! 

   Did you watch the priesthood session???? If not you should definitely watch it!!!! I have to say it was probably my favorite session to watch! :) hehehe   It was so good and so insightful!! I especially loved Elder Oaks' talk!!  His talk really opened up my mind to the priesthood and there were things that he said that I had never really thought about before. And his explanation was just so simple and clear and it really makes sense. Anyway I'll stop rambling now but it was really great!!   I think my favorite talk was probably President Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude.  I liked his comparison about being grateful for things and being grateful in our circumstances. So great!!

   It was a really fantastic week! And this week is transfers and hopefully I will be able to stay in Muroran!! I really love this place and all the people!

   

   Love you all! Have a good week!

   Morrison Shimai

P-Day with Muroran and Tomokomai Missionaries - Cardboard sledding 

Sunny Days Ahead

This week was a little rough to be honest. Still a good week, but it really seemed like Satan was trying especially hard this week to work against us. So at the beginning of the week we started out with 4 scheduled lessons. One everyday of the week, but one by one they all canceled on us. One of our investigators with a baptismal date, Kasai San, we haven't been able to meet with her all transfer because she wasn't answering our phone calls and never opened the door when we tried to stop by her house. But this week we were able to make a solid appointment with her. But sadly we went to her apartment and she wasn't home. So sadly she will not be able to make her baptismal date. :( Then one by one all of our other lessons cancelled. Then we found out that Wada Family will be busy for the 2 weeks so we can't have lessons with them. So we put on our brave faces and did lots of finding and housing this week. But since this week is haru yasumi (like spring break) no one was home. 

   But it's all ok. :) Sometimes we have good week and sometimes we have bad weeks. As a mission right now we were all challenged to read the whole book of Alma in one month. So right now I'm in about Alma 30, but on one particularly discouraging day last week. We were planning where to go the next day and I was feeling very frustrated and down. So my amazing companion suggest that we go to the scriptures. We start taking turns reading from the book of Alma. We stayed up reading for a long time. It was just a small thing, but the scriptures truly bring so much comfort in our lives. This book was truly written for our day. Those prophets and missionaries of old had trials and struggles, but they made it through - with the Lord's help! And we can too, if we continually put our trust in Him and in His timing. Things will work out the way they are suppose to. And there are sunny days ahead! (literally because it is finally starting to be spring, well it still snows a little bit, but the snow is no longer sticking to the ground!!!!! )

Love you all!! Thanks so much!!! Have a good week!!!

Morrison Shimai

With Gibbs Shimai

The missionaries traveled to a members home who lives by this lake - 1 1/2 hrs away