It's a little chill

Hey everyone! So it's turned a bit chilly here and leaves are already covering the ground! But this past week was pretty fun. We had a ward activity and we drove about 40 minutes to an area called Akan and we dug up potatoes! imahori! It was way fun. And now we have a TON of potatoes in our apartment. Sure the americans will love all the potatoes, mashed potatoes everyday right? haha. No. No more potatoes. Everyday we eat potatoes. On top of rice haha. I've been Japanified and I can't help it. But it was fun. Also we met some really awesome investigators who the Elders passed to us. They said whenever they try to visit them they're never home or super busy but when we went with them we were able to see all of them and to talk with them haha. Yes, sister power. 

Ummmmmm,,,,,,,I can't remember......... Today the family that comes to english class took us on another road trip! It was beautiful! You should all come to Hokkaido to play because wow. It's gorgeous. 

Oh I just remembered one of our miracles from last week. We had an appointment to teach an after-baptism lesson and we took a sister from the ward with us and when we showed up the recent convert's friend was there as well! She's not a member and we'd met her twice before but hadn't been able to see her for more than a month! She had called that morning and said she was coming just when we did! So we were able to teach her as well with a member there. It was really awesome. 

Sorry this guy is short. I'm sending pictures so enjoy!

Murray shimai

Hokkaido is famous for the redheaded cranes and Kushiro is their home. In winter tons of them come here to live. 

We stopped at a Japanese garden along the drive.

The leaves here are like a crazy neon color! It's so beautiful!

The famous green algae balls. We went to their homeland. They only grow in this lake. 

This is a different lake.

P-day pictures that were posted to Facebook by Kanno Yuji.

After service treat!

Hey!

Hey everyone! 

This past week was a good one! We had beautiful weather! We also had splits with the STL's which was awesome! When we have splits or the elders have splits there's like 8 or more missionaries working just in our area so it's really cool. And Kushiro is pretty small so we actually run into the elders a lot. The white helmets are very easily recognizable. Random people we talk to all the time will know who we are because they've seen us biking with our white helmets haha. It's a good conversation starter. But ya so we had some good lessons with people and found a couple new people who are interested so this week should be full! 

Last week we also had clean checks! We passed! Our apartment is only about a year old luckily so it`s still really nice. The Getz's are really awesome. They are the new senior couple who came a few transfers ago. Senior missionaries are the coolest. And they gave us homemade cookies and some snacks from America so that also made a good impression haha. 

So nothing crazy exciting, I mean other than proclaiming the true gospel but you know what I mean. Yesterday we went to try and visit a less active sister and she was home! Some little boys had started talking to us when we were outside her house and she came out to work in her garden so that was perfect. We told her who we were looking for and she said it was her. She was so nice and remembered church and everything and has no bad feelings or anything but her husband is against it so she can't go. It was really sad. We've met so many people like that and all we can do is pray that their hearts will someday be softened. But I'm still glad that we got to see her. And she said that she sometimes gets cards from members so that was good to hear. Member work is so crucial to everything we do as missionaries. 

I can't really remember the week at the moment so this is all you get for this week. Sorry! Next week should be good!

Love,

Murray shimai

One of the coolest weeks ever

Hey everyone!

So this past week was one of the most miracle filled weeks I've ever had. I think I say that every few weeks or so but it was awesome. I'm just going to recap everything or else I will run out of email time. Here it goes:

*Met this adorable lady who was out cleaning the trash around her apartment and she had met other christian missionaries before but had recieved a bad impression. But we talked with her and laughed and had a good time and she said she was glad she met us so she could see that not all church people are the same and that she will go to our church if she can. We asked her if she was a member of a church and she said she had no religion because she wasn't sure which one she should go to. Yes. A missionaries favorite question to answer. 

*We met with an investigator the elders had passed to us but hadn't been home for weeks when we went before. We were able to reintroduce our message and re-invite her to listen and she said yes!

* There was crazy random rainyness this past week so we always carry our rain gear in our bike baskets. So the other day we were housing and we didn't have our rain gear on because it wasn't raining yet and we started knocking on doors but no one was coming to the door even though we could see through the window they were home. Then in like a split second the sky opened and the rain just dumped like crazy. So we walked back to our bikes and grabbed our pants and ponchos and then found a spot where someone's trees from their yard hung over the sidewalk and we huddled under there and put our stuff on. If it can be helped it shouldn't be put on in public because shoving a skirt into pants just can't be done gracefully haha. But we did that and then we decided to go to an apartment building so we could stay out of the rain for a little bit and we found this one apartment building. We went to the second floor and the second door we knocked on this really sweet mom answered. She had a little 3 year old girl and we talked with her for a while and introduced our message and asked if we could come back and she said yes! And as soon as we closed the door and turned around the rain had completely stopped. Heavenly Father really uses all kinds of ways to guide you or sometimes push you where you need to go.

*We met this really awesome girl at Mr Donuts. She teaches a hip hop dance class but a couple times a month she does an english class for her students and she asked us if we would come at the end of this month and help out! Yes. There's actually more to this story but I have to save some stories to share when I'm home.

Ya so there are more miracles and good stuff  but you'll just have to wait to hear more. Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Murray shimai

Yeeeeeeeeesssssss!!!!!

Happy day everyone!

Yesterday the church gained one new Philippino member!!! Our amazing Philippine investigator was baptized! Probably the cleanest convert there ever was seeing as she had to be dunked 4 times! But she did it! And it was amazing. The baptism and the confirmation were both done in english so that was kind of weird but awesome. Watching her get baptized and then confirmed I was just thinking about how amazing it is everytime someone becomes a member of the church. The only completely true church on the earth. And just how many more blessings Heavenly Father can give you when you choose to obey His commandments. It's the most amazing thing to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in showing people how they can receive those blessings in their life and how they can become so insanely happy! 

So yesterday was a pretty good day. Oh and Saturday night we went and watched a big firework show by the river! It was really cool. You know you're a missionary though when you go to something like a firework show and look more at the people and who is an adorable family or who looks like they would be really friendly than at the fireworks haha. It was fun. As a missionary, people watching is actually a thing or maybe it's more like people hunting but it's with a purpose so I guess it's not creepy haha. 

We had dinner at a members house on Friday night which of course was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten and the most full I've ever been. 

We visited an investigator and when we got to her house she was in her car and so we got her attention and then she said, hey, I'm on my way to go eat cake. Do you want to come with me? 

Who would say no to that? Not us. We went and ate cake. And it was good. Japan has the best cake shops. That was fun. 

The other day when we were housing we met this really cute, adorable grandma who was really friendly but wasn't interested in our message. So naturally we told her about english class and she said she wanted to learn english but because she's old she chose Korean instead because it's a lot easier haha. So we chatted and had some laughs and then she went back inside and brought us a big bag of fresh grown baby tomatoes and told us to eat them while we were walking around so we could keep up our energy. She was so sweet! And let me tell you those tomatoes tasted like candy. Like wow. We tried them as soon as we walked out of her driveway haha. It's just kind of a thing that you're always hungry as a missionary so when people give us food its really nice. And the grandmas of Japan give you food. It's incredible how many snacks and food we've received from people. 

Anyways you probably don't care about that. 

But it was a really great week! Hope you all have a good one!

Love Murray shimai

Cleaning the baptismal font. Fun, fun!