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Hey everyone! 

Another great week here in Kushiro! We're having like sort of a Typhoon here. Not a full one but it's pretty fun to ride bikes in. This last week we had some hot weather which I didn't quite know how to handle but I made it through so it's all good. Wagner shimai and I had to take a few icecream breaks and that's probably what saved us haha. 

This week was pretty busy and some cool stuff happened. Lately so many people have been coming to english class and this last week we had 3 of our investigators there! It was really fun. And our philippino investigator came to church again! She is so awesome! She is such a testimony builder to me that the language of the spirit is universal because she can't understand most of what is being said in church but she always tells us that she feels so good when she comes and she feels her stress go away! The Spirit is so powerful!

We also had a neat experience about praying for guidance and receiving it. In the beginning of the transfer the elders passed us this lady investigator and told us we could go anytime  and we tried to visit her several times but we couldn't find her apartment. We finally thought we found it but no one was ever home and we found out it was the wrong place, so that was awkward. But yesterday we decided we really needed to find it so we could visit her and again we couldn't find it but we both felt we needed to find it or just really wanted to because it was so frustrating that we couldn't. So we said a prayer and then decided to go to the main road and then weave up and down all the streets in the block. We started doing that and we were biking down one and out of the corner of my eye a blue building sticks out and I look over at it and at first glance thought it was right but then realized the name was wrong on the building. But it was kind of close to what the elders told us it was called and we just decided to do it anyway. So we go there and ask a lady out in the garden near it if the investigator lives there and she told us yes! We found her!! So there's a lesson for you. Even when the elders give you wrong information, the Spirit can still guide you right haha. But seriously, it's true. 

Anyways, hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Murray shimai

Matsuri!!

This past week was really really awesome!! We had some really super duper lessons and one of our investigators told us that she wants to go to church and another one came to church yesterday!! It's really funny because right now our two strongest investigators aren't even Japanese. One of them is Korean and it's really cool because none of us are Japanese but we're teaching her in Japanese and it's just a really cool experience. She's making Korean food for us tomorrow so that should be excellent! We went to a festival with another friend on Saturday night and ate really yummy food! We randomly met this lady who we're sure is a less active member because we were walking down the street and this lady in front of us turned around and started talking to us in english and then she told us that she went to BYU forever ago!! Like, what?! haha. And we asked her if she is a member and she said right now she is too busy. So not exactly sure but she might be a member. She's visiting Kushiro with her son because she's making a documentary video about old whaling towns. Random. So that was fun.

We had zone activity and zone training meeting! For the zone activity we went to the sports center and played sports for 4 hours. It was so much fun, but let's just say that your body does not appreciate it when you don't play sports for a year and then suddenly do it for hours straight. It was pretty rough the next few days. Sitting on the bike was especially a bit of a struggle. Just had to ride standing up for periods of time haha. In zone training meeting we had our first interview with President Nakatsuka and he is way awesome. He speaks fluent english too so that's cool. 

After zone training meeting we had splits with the STL's and that was a blast. Me and Lundstrom shimai met some really cool people on the street who want to see us again so that was a success. 

Lots of amazing things are happening here! Lots of new people came to eikaiwa last week which was tons of fun! I love being a missionary!

Love,

Murray shimai

saikou! - July 27, 2014

Hey everyone!

Well another great week has past. This past week we had some pretty awesome stuff happen. We have a new investigator who is Korean! And she is so special! We had our first lesson with her last week and it was one of the all time best first lessons I've ever experienced. The spirit was so strong and she was so excited to receive the Book of Mormon and read it and I could just feel God's love for her and feel that she really is His special daughter. It's so amazing how you really can tell when someone is prepared to hear the gospel and instead of us having to nag and repeatedly ask someone to do something they want to do it! She said she wanted to read the BOM before we even invited her to! That's not something you experience too often. My companion and I were kind of in shock I think haha.

But really, I know, because I'm witnessing it, that The Lord is preparing people to hear the gospel and that these people are all around us. The Spirit will lead us or lead them but either way if we are prepared we can be the Lord's instrument to bring these people closer to Him. It's such an incredible feeling as we invite people to do things that will bring them closer to Him. 

We had ward FHE on Saturday and we played signs for one of the games. It was pretty entertaining. I don't think they play it here because it took a while to catch on but it was still really fun. 

We also biked to the other edge of the map and visited a member who lives out there. Her mom isn't a member and we were able to visit with her for a while and that was fun. The other day we were doing some housing and it was pouring and we pinged one house and the lady told us she wasn't interested and so we left. As we were walking down the street we heard someone calling out to us. We turned around and it was the lady from that house who had just told us she wasn't interested. She told us to wait and she went to her shed and brought us her umbrella and told us to use it and then bring it back when we were done. People are so nice! We meet people all the time who have no interest in our message but they give us food or tell us to do our best or just show so much kindness to us and it's so amazing. I feel so blessed everyday! I love being a missionary!

Love,

Murray shimai

A member has a massage chair in their living room. Ya, that was a cool surprise.

Wagner shimai and I

Another week in Paradise!

So we finally are getting summer weather for a consistent amount of time! Although compared to everywhere else it's probably still spring weather. But it makes it really nice for biking. So this week was pretty awesome. Here's a quick recap:

*Had a lesson with a phillipino lady who understands a little Japanese and a little english. It was interesting, not really sure how much she understood. We asked her if she would be baptized if she knew this was true and she said, `ya if I don't have anything going on that week`.......awkward pause from us.....okay....haha ya so it was interesting. But she did come to church yesterday so that was cool.

* Found this less active sister and she invited us in and talked with her for like an hour. And guess what we held while we were there? I bet you can't. A baby flying squirrel. Ya, bet you didn't see that coming. It was so cute. 

*Met this lady housing who spoke really good english and told us she lived in Ireland for a year or so when she was young. That was cool and she also teaches classes on bread and cake making apparently. She wasn't interested in our message but she did give us an entire loaf of freshly baked sesame bread. Best bread ever. 

*Biked to the farthest area on the map while fasting

*Went to same 7\11 4 times in 15 minutes for various reasons. Ya it got a little awkward.

*Played basketball with the elders and some youth and now my arms don't lift above my head without much added assistance. We ride bikes all day. Our arms don't really do much.

*Had some really good lessons with investigators and members and really saw some growth. 

It was a pretty fun and really interesting week. Tons more but you know, I gotta save some stuff to share later. 

Hope everyone has an awesome week! 

今週、皆さん、楽しんでくださいね!

愛してます!

Murray shimai

Yep, that's a baby flying squirrel..sooo cute!

Sunset

Wagner shimai and I

Transfer 10! I'm a grandma!

I'm in double digit transfers! That's the most frightening realization I've had lately. But anyways. Here's the update. The trio has unfortunately been broken. I'm staying in Kushiro with my new companion Wagner shimai and the two Johnson's got transferred out. It's a little sad and lonely but Wagner shimai is awesome so I'm excited. 

Last week was transfers so half our week consisted of traveling to Sapporo and traveling back. Oh, last pday was awesome. So there's this way awesome family that comes to eikaiwa and they are like our family. On pday they basically took us on a road trip. They drove us to all these famous sites and it was sweet. It was super hot and sunny which wasn't normal I guess but it was so much fun!

Ya not really much to say this week. Weren't able to meet with investigators but this coming week is going to be crazy busy so that's good. 

Have a great week! Pictures will be more exciting than this email so enjoy!

Murray shimai

The really beautiful lake is called Lake Mashu. It was created from a volcano erupting. It's gorgeous.

Hokkaido is pretty much one of the most beautiful places ever.

We ate the best soba in the world. At a soba farm!

And went to a place that looked like the moon. 

This picture was taken after the onsen so our hair is all lush and beautiful haha.

Transfer week!

Another transfer is over! Too fast! But it's been a blast! This past week was really fun. President and Sister Nakatsuka came to Kushiro! They are way awesome! It was really easy to just love them right away. I'm really excited to be working with them. We also had a 4th of July party at english class! It's really handy having two companions because you can represent all the colors of the flag. So that was fun. We also met with one of our investigators who we haven't seen in a while. It was really fun. She's awesome and we recommitted her to read the Book of Mormon and she said she will and we're really excited for her. We also visited a PI that the sisters found several transfers ago but hadn't gone back to visit and she was way sweet. She's near our age and has a little baby girl and we talked with her for a while and introduced more of our message and asked if she has time if she would want to hear more and she said yes! Super stoked to go back there and visit her again. We also found this really awesome neighborhood the other day where we went housing. It's like on a mountain and is all filled with trees and greenery. It was super fun and it felt like we were in the jungle haha. 

A family that comes to Eikaiwa took us out to eat sushi the other night and today they are taking us around to show us some cool stuff around Kushiro! They're super cool. 

Wow. I really can not remember what else happened this past week at the moment.

Anyways hope you have a great week!

Love,

Murray shimai

The elders heart-attacked our apartment!

Dinner at a members house.

A member gave us kimonos yesterday...having a little fun with them. :-)

First sunburn in over a year!

Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a fabulous week last week! I had an interesting and great week! All three of us are getting over colds so that's been fun. When all the sisters in the zone were here one of them was sick and after they left Johnson shimai started getting sick and then I got sick and then the other Johnson shimai got sick. So we weren't the prettiest site last week. We would visit people and then as soon as they shut the door we would all cough and blow our nose and try to get it all out before the next person haha. That was fun. But we're all pretty much better just nose issues but other than that life is great! And last week even though we were sick we still had lots of miracles! One of them was that the sister in the branch who has a friend that we're teaching invited us over to her apartment wed morning because the friend was also going there before work. So we went there and the member made way yummy pudding that we enjoyed and we talked and it was fun. And then the sister started asking her friend how lessons were going and the Book of Mormon and stuff. And then she shared her own personal experience when she first started taking lessons and praying. It was way incredible and the spirit was way strong. Our investigator was listening the whole time and after we invited her to pray for herself and to keep reading the Book of Mormon and she said she will! She's so awesome! 

On Saturday we had the branch yakiniku party! It's Japanese style bbq and way yummy. You have like charcoal pieces or whatever they're called that get hot and then like wire things that you set over the coals and then put vegetables and small pieces of meat down on it and just take it and eat it when they're done. It's soooooooooo gooooooooood!!! Anyways that's not what's important. What's important is that like a ton of people came! And lots of nonmembers came!!! It was way awesome! And surprise, the sun came out on Saturday! It wasn't supposed to be sunny at all but it came out in the morning and stayed through the bbq! And the bbq was right on the edge of the river! It was so much fun! And the three of us got sunburned! I forgot what it felt like. It's never that intensely sunny here so we didn't even think about getting sunburned but it happened. And afterwards when we were dendoing everyone was like, did you get sunburned? haha. Can't really hide the bright red nose. 

Anyways it was a great week! And tomorrow our new mission president is coming here! So everyone is coming to Kushiro again tonight! Fun fun fun! I love being a missionary!!

Love you all!

Murray shimai

We made Phillipino friends at the BBQ! The elders found them while housing. 

At a members house for the Dad's birthday.

Where we had the BBQ. It's on the far side where you can see small white dots which are cars.

Hey mom and dad. So missionary report. I guess I don't have any profound insights or anything to share but I do have something of a sort to share. In Japan missionaries always write their home ward letters and they share them in sacrament meeting so I'm going to do that too.

Dear Coolest ward ever,

I'm in an area called Kushiro. It's by the ocean and summer doesn't exist here. People on the streets also don't really exist. Sometimes I think we get a little scary because we race down streets to talk to the one lady going to get in her car a mile away haha. But really it's an awesome area and really a blessed area. We have tons of investigators and are seeing tons of miracles everyday!

I want to tell you all how much this gospel is awesome! I'm pretty sure you all know that but I'm going to say it anyway. It is the greatest gift we could ever receive!!! And Heavenly Father loves us so much he just lets anyone who will take it have it!!! It's so special being a missionary and offering this gift to all we come into contact with. Lately I have been thinking about my mission up until now and all the crazy and unique and amazing experiences I have had. And I've come to the conclusion that a mission is unlike anything else you will ever experience in life. I could never have imagined all the things that I would experience and will experience. I never could have imagined that I would eat something that had tentacles still attached or meet a lady that is going to show us japanese bamboo magic ( kind of scared) or have the capacity to eat enough for 3 people in one sitting and then get on a bike and bike home in 10 minutes to make curfew. And I also couldn't have imagined how good it would feel to stop complete strangers on the street and testify to them about the Book of Mormon and how they have a Heavenly Father or how much love I can feel towards people I just met. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this truly is the Lords work. It's not at all like I expected it to be but life usually isn't. I've learned and am still learning that Heavenly Father loves us so much and has a plan for us and for those we meet. No matter what kind of circumstance it is, we can love those we meet and show them the joy of the gospel. Being a missionary really is the most amazing thing ever and it's really great because another big thing I've learned is that Heavenly Father totally has a sense of humor. Everyday really is the greatest and sometimes weirdest adventure!

I love you all! Thanks for your prayers and love and examples! 

Love,

Murray shimai