I love riding a bike in a skirt when it`s freezingggggggg haha

At the ward Halloween party

Hey World! 

First of all I didn't even know there was an earthquake until I read my emails this morning haha. I don't think we felt it. Hopefully everyone in Tokyo is safe. 

This past week was way fun. Two of the sisters came from Hakodate and we did splits with them for wednesday. Me and Johnson Shimai got to go to a yochien which is like a school that`s just for preschool and kindergarteners. We got to play with the kids outside and then we did activities with them in the classroom and ate lunch with them. It was really funny because when I was playing with a little girl outside she fell and her pants got dirty and when we went back inside she pulled some different pants out of her backpack, took her dirty ones off and put them in a plastic bag haha. She was like 4 years old. I was like ya you won't see that in America haha. Anyways it was way fun.

On saturday we hung out with two eikaiwa students all day at one of their houses and she taught us how to make really yummy bread. It was way fun. After that we had the ward halloween party. Chiba shimai teaches english to little kids and a bunch of them came to the party so it was way fun. She told her students to talk to me in english and they would just kind of look at me with big eyes and be like, water, or thirsty haha. (I was serving drinks) It was fun. 

Well sorry this is short we have to leave soon to go to Sapporo. We`re going hiking today! 

Murray Shimai

It's awkward taking pictures with elders

It poured like crazyyyyyy!!!

Chiba Shimai

Johnson shimai

Last full week of transfer 3!

Wo time is flying! I can't believe my third transfer is almost over!!! What the heck? It's getting really cold already haha. Nagamine Shimai is from Okinawa which is like the southern california of Japan. I don't know if she'll live through the winter haha. They have these bugs here called yuki mushi which means snow bug. A short time before it snows you'll see them, like a bunch of them and when your riding your bike they'll just hit you in the face and body haha. Everyday it's really cold we look for them and we think we saw them the other day but neither of us has seen them before so we're not sure if it was them or not. Anyways this past week we had zone conference which was way fun and super good. Evans shimai did a language workshop for the young missionaries and it was so helpful and made me feel okay about the language. Evans shimai is so awesome. We also learned about a new english program we're starting in addition to English Class. This new program is for families we find or friends of members, whoever. And the program is 30 minutes of english class and then 30 minutes of the gospel message. Super fun idea right? I'm really excited to find some families we can do it with. 

Yesterday one of our investigators came to church with her two little boys!! They didn't stay for Sacrament meeting which was a big bummer ( sacrament meeting is last hour) but they came and hopefully felt good and will want to come back. 

Other than that just a lot of housing and streeting and doing fun missionary stuff. We had ward FHE saturday night which was fun. At the moment I literally cannot remember what else happened haha. My brain is a little mushy these days. 

Well I hope everyone has a fantastic week!! Enjoy sunday! 

It`s getting cold here.....

From last week at the Honbu

Dear family and friends!

What amazingly uplifting and inspiring sessions of General Conference! We were able to watch all the sessions this saturday and sunday. I love Conference! It's such a blessing to hear from the Prophet, apostles and other church leaders. As I was sitting in the church building in Shinkotoni I had such an overwhelming feeling of gratitude that I am a member of this church. Just about every talk was about strengthening our faith and keeping our covenants and making choices that will keep us on the right path as the world moves farther and farther away from what is right. It's such a blessing to have the gospel principles and the guidance of our church leaders and the scriptures. Every day I meet people who when we ask if they have ever thought if there is God or where they came from, why they're here, they respond, I don't know, I've never thought about that before. It's the saddest thing to have people tell you that they don't know if God exists and they don't want to learn how they can know or that he has a purpose for them. If God doesn't exist, what is this life for? If I didn't have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, I would be so lost in this world. It is so important for everyone to share the gospel with friends and family. Everyone needs this gospel and the peace and happiness it brings with it. The most comfortable I ever feel when speaking Japanese is when I am sharing my testimony. I always feel so happy as I do so and am not concerned about if it's correct or not just that I am able to share with people that there is a way for them to find complete and lasting happiness. It's the best feeling in the world!

So as for this past week. I can't really remember at the moment what happened...but it was a good one. Lots of rain. That's always fun. We lost track of our bikes....again haha. We always park our bikes at a park and then go housing and stuff. Well the other day we parked our bikes at a park and then walked to an appointment and then did some housing. Well as usual we got a little lost and then of course it started to pour like no tomorrow and of course our umbrellas were in our bike baskets haha. So we got drenched walking around trying to find our bikes and we thought we found them but it was the wrong park. There are parks everywhere. We finally found them and it was all good. But ya that was exciting. 

So as senior companion I'm in charge of the cell-phone but the phone is like the scariest thing ever. Every time Nagamine shimai is in the shower or busy with something I'm like, "please don't ring, please don't ring" haha. Usually I'll give the phone to Nagamine shimai or start out talking and then give her the phone haha. But yesterday was a big day. I missed a call from one of our investigators while watching general conference and so after it was over I went to get Nagamine shimai to ask her if she could call her back but she was talking to someone and I don't know why but out of nowhere I just had this sudden burst of courage and called the investigator and totally did the whole phone call all by myself! Boo Ya!! Well and I'm sure the Spirit. 

Well I hope everyone is having a grand ol' time!! Life is fabulous!

Love,

Murray Shimai

Pretty sweet scenery

Konnichiwa!

How is everyone doing? Fabulous I hope and assume! I'm doing pretty good myself. The time is going by so fast! This transfer is already half over! This past week was pretty awesome. Recently Sister Evans (our mission president's wife) has started doing team-ups with the sisters serving in and around Sapporo. This past week was our turn. We decided to invite her to team up with us for our lesson with Tsuji san. She is the miracle investigator we found housing the week before last. It went really great! Sister Evans is awesome and since she speaks fluent Japanese it's even more awesome! The beginning of the last week we weren't sure what to teach Tsuji san in the lesson and so we were a little nervous and I was praying so so much and then the day before the lesson the idea came to me that we needed to teach her about the Godhead and each of their roles and who they are. It was a little scary because that's not a lesson in Preach My Gospel and both me and my companion are really young missionaries so we don't really have a lot of lesson experience anyways. The morning of her lesson we did roleplays for our entire study time and it was pretty rough haha. But in the lesson we were able to teach and it wasn't perfect but it came together and I know it was only with the help of the Spirit. The cool thing is that when we asked her if she had read anymore of the Book of Mormon, she said yes and she had read the stuff before 1 Nephi. So Joseph Smith's testimony and that stuff and she had all these questions about who `Heavenly Father` is and who all the different names were like `Lord` and all the different names for God and Jesus Christ and if they're two different people and what not. The Spirit totally prepared us for that lesson. It was a really awesome experience. Our prayers truly are answered and the Lord truly guides this work. 

We actually watch general conference this coming Sunday and I think only the Sunday sessions because we have to go to Shinkotoni to watch it which is a little ways away. But I'm super excited to watch it!!!

This past Sunday was great. The Bishop really wants us to help encourage the ward members to do missionary work and to share our experiences and testimony as much as we can. So yesterday we all bore our testimonies in Sacrament Meeting. When I was sitting on the stand my mind was blank and as I got up to speak I had no idea what to say and all Japanese left and went somewhere else haha but I just started to speak and somehow I was able to bear my testimony. Spirit. 

Last P-Day was fun haha. We went curling. Yes, curling. That weird Olympic sport that I only found out about last winter olympics haha. There is a curling rink in Toyohira and they actually had olympic tryouts there a few weeks ago. We went there with some other missionaries and it was so fun. For the first hour we had an instructor and she was basically laughing the whole time because we looked really special haha. You wear a shoe cover on one foot that has a really slick bottom for sliding and then holding the stick in one hand and she had us practice going up and down the ice. It was very entertaining to watch I'm sure. Then we got to try actually pushing the weight. I went first because no one wanted be first and look ridiculous haha. You crouch down and hold the brusher in the left hand and the weight in the other hand and the foot with the slider stays crouched flat and you push off with the other foot and extend it out backwards. Let me just say that this isn't something you can just pick up one day and be good at. So hard to keep your balance. So the first time I tried it I couldn't even push the weight forward haha. Instead of my body sliding forwards my legs slid backwards haha and I was stuck in like a push-up position haha. Ya it was way entertaining. 

Anyways I hope everyone has a super duper week!

あいしてるよ！！！！！

Love

Murray shimai

Curling and photo shoot haha

Housing in the evening. Super pretty....