Transfer 6

Budge shimai went home :( She's the one in the middle in the back. She was basically like all the sister's mom. She was STL for a long time and just about the best missionary and person ever!

Hey everyone!

So transfer 6 has started! I'm staying in Teine with Kapeliela shimai! I'm pumped because things are starting to really pick up. We had a lesson with This really awesome investigator and her daughter. At one point the mom asked us if we had experiences where we prayed and God answered our prayers and we said of course we have and we shared a couple of experiences. After Kapeliela shimai shared hers the daughter, yukimi, said, "I had that same experience when I was little"! And she told us how when she was shopping with her mom when she was little she got separated from her mom and she said a prayer to help her find her mom and then she found her mom right after that. It was so cool that she remembered her experience and that she recognized that God had answered her prayer! They're so awesome and I feel that they're some of those people who have really been prepared to receive the gospel. It's so exciting to teach people who receive the teachings and who want to know really. Missionary work is so awesome.

This transfer is the snow festival!! We all get to go after zone conference next week! I'm pumped! And we also have our missionary musical fireside! The songs are all so good. This transfer is going to be so much fun! Mission life is where it's at. I hope everyone is loving life and enjoying 2014!

Love,

Murray Shimai

Last week of transfer 5!

This is what our scenery is like these days haha

Well this past week was fabulous! We had a mochitsuki at the church on Saturday and it was awesome! Super old time Japan stuff haha. So that was fun. We also had quite a few miracles we got to be a part of.

While we were housing the other day we were able to teach two lessons at the door at two different houses that were only a few houses apart. The second house was this big brick house and Kapeliela shimai thought it was cute so she wanted to go to it haha. So we went and we met this way awesome lady whose son just happened to go to college in Utah for a little bit haha. Like, what? What are the chances of a nonmember Japanese person going to Utah haha. Anyways we talked with her for a while and she even invited us inside but we had somewhere we had to be soon so we made an appointment to come back this week. She asked us what we can drink because she heard a little bit about the word of wisdom and we told her we drink milk and water and juice, etc. and she was like okay when you come again I'll make us some hot milk and we can talk and we'll become friends! haha. It was really a tender mercy.

We also visited a family investigator of the Elders. They have two little kids and it was so much fun. We played with them for a while and played soccer with them in the house haha. Basically it was awesome. And today we're starting the Family English Program with an investigator and her daughter who is 22. I'm way pumped. And then transfer calls are tomorrow! Woohoo! I can't believe how fast time is going!

I hope everyone is doing fabulous! We're surviving up here! We just stick hand warmer things all over. They're like our hand warmers but they have a sticky back so you can stick them in your shoes and on your back and belly and legs....haha. Works great. Anyways love you all!

Love,

Murray Shimai

This is the mochi tsuki. You put fresh cooked rice in the barrel and then first mash it and then hammer it. And they have little hammers for kids haha.

Just had to throw this one in because this is the cutest kid in the world.

A couple of the elders doing the mochi thing.

Us - the sisters in our apt. - with Yurika shimai. She's a member in the Teine ward and
I love her!

It's snowing a little bit. And my face is frozen.

Hey everyone!

Sending lots of love and cold your way haha. I hope everyone is jealous of being outside in negative degree weather all day haha. Actually it's been pretty fun and we've had some cool experiences

talking with people who are out shoveling snow. This past week we had a lot of miracles and it was such a testimony builder to me that God really is watching over us and guiding this work. If we keep a

positive attitude and always believe that we can find people prepared for the gospel, we will be able to find them. We met this one lady housing that was super friendly and we talked with her for a while and

taught her about how God has a plan for families and I asked her if there was a way for her family to become the most happy would she want to know and she was like, "ya I do!" And we were kind of stunned by her response but we quickly regained composure and talked some more with her and hopefully things will move forward with her. It was such an amazing miracle!

I love missionary work! Things are going great and we're finding the people prepared to hear the message of the gospel. Anywhere we go in the world, in our own home towns, it doesn't matter, we can find and meet people prepared for the gospel.

Well we have a lot of snow and it's still coming. Life is fun and I am having a blast and meeting so many cool people!

Love,

Murray Shimai

It is really cold with 100% chance of snow.

Dinner with a family in the ward

Hey everyone!

So New Years happened. It basically consisted of eating a ton of food. We weren't able to see the shrine because in Sapporo is one of the biggest shrines in Hokkaido so there were like a million people and we had to be back at the Honbu for an activity and then we had an appointment so that was a bummer. But we ate lunch at a hamburger joint and it was so delicious. We also had a Book of Mormon Fast on last tuesday I think, where we started fasting in the morning and read the Book of Mormon from 8 until 6 and then we broke our fasts. It was a little bit of a struggle in the morning to stay awake but it was a really awesome experience and really cool to see the big picture, the story of the Book of Mormon. Something that stuck out to me was the story of Laman and Lemuel. Not about how many times they made the wrong choice and went down the wrong path but how many chances the Lord gave them to come back and start again. I was thinking about people we meet who maybe don't seem like, "church people" or have made bad choices and don't seem like they would accept the gospel in their lives. But the thing is maybe they just need a chance to choose it. Wealways need to give everyone another chance, another opportunity tomake the right choice. We can't decide for them whether they will or won't accept the right path. You never know what will happen.

We also had deep cleaning day! On Thursday we cleaned the apartment from like 9 in the morning until like 6 at night So that was fun and I'm pretty sure we left a trail of bleach behind us everywhere we went haha. But it was so great. We found lots of interesting things from sister missionaries of past. Good stuff.

Anyways this past week was fun and it snowed and is still snowing like crazy. The piles of snow along the road are mostly taller than us haha. It's fun. We also found a really awesome lady housing yesterday! So Yay!! Life is great! Love everyone!

Oh and Kapeliela shimai and I sang in Primarry yesterday for their singing time. Kapeliela shimai played the ukelele and they loved it. It was really fun.

Love,

Murray Shimai

Dinner with another family in the ward

The cutest kid I have ever seen! He's the youngest in a family of 5 boys in the ward.

This was a young women's activity we got to go to! And PS just so everyone knows that's my sweatshirt bumping out there. Just so we're clear.