さよなら !!!

Well today was quite the day!...

We got transfer calls today! My companion and I were waiting by the phone all morning! so nervous to find out who was leaving chiba :/ So we get a call about 45 minutes earlier than the assistants said they would call. It was president Budge.. We both about peed our pants because he only calls sisters on transfer day if you are becoming sister training leader. Well that didnt happenen to either of us thank goodness! soooooo not ready! however he called and asked to talk to my companion. Her grandma was diagnosed with cancer and probably will not live to much longer. We both immediately started sobbing. I have come to love and adore my companion so much that my heart just absolutely broke for her. We didnt really know what to do. We went to the church to look at emails and get more information. The poor thing. Keep sister Willden and her family in your prayers! She is strong! how grateful we are to have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and knowing that there is life after death! how powerful the promise that families can be together forever! so very humbled today. After he broke the news he awkwardly told us about transfers hahah. Willden Shimai is staying in chiba and getting two new companions! and i am going to..... Tsukuba!!!!!!!! (i dont know really where it is) hahaha! but im excited nonetheless! I am companions with Sister Russer who is the sister training leader! we are in a three some! My other companion is a transfer younger than me. She is samoan!!! hahha! this next transfer should be quite interesting! I am so sad though to leave my companion and this area! I love chiba so much! we have the greatest ward and investigators! Missions are hard in so many ways! I have become so close with so many people and now i have to leave them all! im so happy Willden shimai is staying though! she will take good care of our investigators! she is an amazing missionary! 

So this week.. so good as usual! We had temple day on tuesday! There is no place like the temple! So happy to be there with all the missionaries! Its crazy to see Gods army growing and growing! Right now there are 69 sisters in my mission and by january there will be a little over a 100!!!! The Lords work truly is hastening! I am so lucky to be part of it! After the temple we had a sisters only meeting! it was so fun to be with sister budge and all the sister missionaries! I got to be reunited with my sweet sisters from my district in the MTC! they are all amazing and working so hard! I actually did a musical number hahah! me, willden, nagamine, and bagley shimai all sang together! it was good i think.. but my favorite part of the meeting was sister Budges closing remarks. She talked about the saviors hands. He walks with his hands always open. I think i have been waiting for him to take my hand and lead me through but in reality i need to take his hand and trust that he will guide me if i walk　in faith. I am his missionary. I wear his name on my name tag. He is by my side holding my hand. Our savior loves us all and if we reach for his hand he will hold it ever so tightly! 

Wednesday, we visited eva Shimai <3 she was my first and only baptism in Chiba. She had us over for lunch and an after baptism lesson. She made fish (of course..) except this time the fish was scary! well it was actually super yummy but the bones were still in it hahah! I took a huge mouth full and chomped on millions of little fishy bones. ew. i sat there and one by one pulled them out of my mouth hahah! it was interesting. 

Our only real progressing investigator, Yoshida san, is doing so good! She really wants to be baptized which makes us realllyyy happy! however she wants to wait for her husband and get baptized together. He though has no interest really in the church.. so thats a problem. men. 

The weather has been interesting. We were supposed to have two typhoons (no mom not tsunamis hahah) but they never really hit. Its been pretty rainy and absolutely freezing though! I think im going to die here. The cold mixed with the humidity just makes it pretty dang cold. But it will be an adventure! and no central heating! woohoo! bring it on!!!

So today, pday, i went to tokyo to see the dentist! I was scared out of my mind to go to the dentist in japan. But i went all the way out to tokyo to a guy trained in america. He spoke perfect english and took great care of me! No need to worry! He loves the mormons! hahah! It was fun talking to him! 

This next week will be crazy packing all my stuff and moving to Tsukaba! But im super exited and cant wait to serve people in more areas! I know God has people there waiting to meet me! I cant wait to meet them! I love being a missionary! 

Hope everyone is doing well! Love and miss you all! Thanks for the prayers! 

Chirstensen shimai 

Konichiiiiwaaaa!!!!!

This transfer is flying by! i cant even believe it! Tomorrow is temple day and next week is transfers! Its a little scary how fast time is going by! There just isnt enough time to teach everyone and baptism them all!! haha! 

Anyways this week was awesome as usual! It rained A TON this week! Mom you will be happy to know that i am getting such a good use out of my rain suit. The rain pants are the biggest necessity! I look like black marshmallow but at least im dry! mostly.

Wednesday we got woken up at 6 in the morning to our bishop warning us about the typhoon going on outside. We live close to a river so he was a little worried about us. pshhh a little wind and water never hurt anybody! We went out the day before and visited some members. riding bikes in the rain and wind is a little bit of a challenge. Not to mention no one really stops to talk to you on the street during typhoons. So we stayed inside that next morning. Luckily it completely cleared up by lunch time! We we were able to make it to all of our appointments and eikaiwa! My companion made me pack an emergency backpack just in case we needed to leave. In it she had me pack some of my cute clothes she picked out and peanut butter. really though what more could you need? That day we visited Hasegawa San. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. She really likes learning about our church and always finds our messages interesting however she says she will never join. We may just have gotten our first drop. Its not a very fun feeling ill tell you that. I adore this lady! She is so funny and so quirky! But I think she is done hearing our lessons. sad day. We might still stop by occasionally because we love her and i know she still loves us! oh wait... this is so funny.. as im sitting here she just called and now my companion is planning another lesson! maybe we wont be dropping her after all! hahaha! wow! so grateful for all the tender mercies!!!! i think they just planned to watch the Finding faith in Christ movie and to make cookies! hahaha! 

This week nagamine shimai came back to Chiba for an exchange! We got to be companions again!! oh how i missed my trainer! So fun to be back with my best friend! She is hilarious! We had a completely white day planned which means we had no appointments or anything. So we planned to just go visit everybody we knew! We visited Sekihara San! She used to be a progressing investigator but heard some rumor about the church and stopped meeting with us. But recently she began reading from the bible and had some questions. So nice to have my japanese companion to be there to actually know whats going on! She asked if we would come back and teach about prophets! So graetful for her and her questions! before we left she made sure that we drank some more of her nasty noni juice! She is just so great! 

Im just now kind of realizing that all of our investigators are pretty funny. haha! but i adore them all! no one is very normal but thats how it should be! Then we visited Chiba San. Her two daughters were baptized many years ago but are not active. She was never baptized but knows a lot about the church. Her husband wasnt home so she invited us in. Oh she is just the sweetest thing ever! It felt like being at grandmas house! She fed us and gave us blankets to use! She has pretty strong buddhist beliefs but she said we could come back and share a message anytime! We asked if we could pray for her and anything that she needed. We prayed for her family and she was so pleased! Its always a testimony builder to me to see the faith of other people! 

Friday we brought the Bishop and his wife to our lesson with Yoshida San. I started the lesson on tithing and that was basically all the was said form the missionaries. They took over after that! Which was totally fine! I was pretty lost throughout the whole lesson but they shared experiences and stories and testimonies! The spirit was strong and i know they were able to help her with her worries! 

The best part of the week was out wards halloween party!!! saturday our ward put on the best halloween party i have ever seen! I didnt have time to take pictures but i wish so badly that i could have! they went all out!!!!!!!!! the theme was an amaerican halloween hahaha so they tried to make it super spooky and fun! the decorations were out of this world! the church did not really look like a church.. hahah! We have such a fun ward! the members are so sweet and so fun! A lot of our eikaiwa students came to the party so it was an amazing missionary opportunity for us! I painted kids faces all night long! The poor kids got ugly pumpkins and bats on their faces but they loved it! it was so fun!

Sunday we had a lesson with an investigator who has had almost all the lessons and just barely moved into our ward. She is so excited to get baptized and really just loves the church! the only problem is that she is Mongolian. Therefore she doesnt speak japanese or english.. communication was quite interesting! She knew less japanese than me! haha! Luckily she has become friends with a member in another ward who speaks both languages so she could translate! It was a pretty slow lesson but good none the less! She is adorable! 

This week has been insanely cold! and its only october! I am in major trouble! 

We just barely met with my bestest friend Hiyori San. We teach her in english cause she is basically fluent! We taught about the Plan of Salvation. She so badly wants to know if the church is true but hasnt gotten an answer. It absoluetly breaks my heart because she has so much faith and desire! We pray for her none stop! Really missions are a test of the missionaries faith as well! There is more that I need to be doing to help my investigators come unto Christ. I am so grateful for the love of my Heavenly Father! He is helping me in ways that i dont even recognize! As long as we keep exercising out faith in him really what do we have to worry about. everything will work out! His love is immeasurable! I am so grateful for this gospel and my savior! I love you all! have a good week!

Christensen shimai

こにちわ!!!

HI HI!!!! 

Hope everyone is doing well! i usually bring my journal with me to email but i forgot it so we will see if i can remember anything that happened this week.. It was a great week but felt pretty long.

Last tuesday Willden shimai, Ramos Chan and I went to our investigators house for a lesson. Hasegawa san is usually just interested in learning english from us but when we walked in she said no english today. Just church. We were thrilled!!!! We taught her the restoration of the gospel! We watched the joseph smith movie with her. She really liked it but doesnt know if she can believe. She said she wants to go to church with us this sunday though! again so stoked! We adore her! she is pretty lonely so im pretty sure she adores us too hahah! 

Then we went to kanda university with ramos chan and did some streeting. All the kids speak english so it was fun talking to them! met lots of great people and gave out quite a few of Books of Mormon however they all live far away and commute to school so it would be hard to meet them again. But it was a fun day! 

Wednesday however we met with Rui Chan who is from Kanda. We met her last time and asked her if God were standing right next to her what would she ask. She got super nervous hahah but said she wants to know what is most important. Sotuesday we met at her campus for lunch. We got to know her and talked about the Book of Mormon and that it has answers to every single question. We told her that the most important thing (2 nephi 2:25) is to have joy! God loves us and wants us to be happy! she liked that answer! We told her that the other most important thing is to learn about Christ. We gave her a Book of Mormon and are hopefully seeing her soon! 

This week i had a really bad cough. In japan thats probably the worstest thing that could ever happen.. They are super crazy germ freaks so when they see my cough they give me this look... its not a very good one. After having three different cough attacks during lessons i decided a face mask was needed. I dont know why but the face mask makes everything better. I felt cool wearing it cause i finally could blend in with the japanese! 

Thursday we had a second transfer missionary meeting. It was supposed to be the 2nd transfer and their companion. Well me and my companion are both 2nd transfers so it was funny. Our zone leaders split the companionships up and asked the 2nd transfers just to vent! hahha! to say good and bad. Just get it out. Luckily i have absolutely nothing bad to say about Willden shimai or it could have been awkward cause she was right next to me. We are best friends! I adore my companion! Shes amazing! 

Friday we met with Hiyori San our english speaker investigator! She made us lunch and then we did the restoration lesson in english! soooooooo weird!!!! It was weird being able to actually understand everything she said! hahaha! I thought that this lesson would be perfect because it was in english. No problem. But turns out its hard to teach no matter the language. She has been an investigator for like 12 years and so she kind of asks questions she knows we dont have the answers to. She is the sweetest lady in the world and probably my favoritest person here in japan but we have such a hard time teaching her. She loves the gospel and wishes she could believe but she thinks that God has never answered her prayers. She is so great and i know she would be the greatest member in our church. So we have a lot of work to do!

Then this weekend we got to watch all of general conference!!! ahhhh!!!! it was soooooooooo good!!! seriously ive never looked forward to conference more in my life! I desperately needed the guidance and counsel of those amazing men!Saturday we watched all the sessions including the womans conference! Like President Monson said, this conference was the most inspired conference of them all! I was touched by every single talk and gained new ideas on how to help my investigators! We are going to work hard this week to really apply the things we learned in conference and help share the love we felt! My favorite talk was President Eyrings talk on sunday morning! (i wish i had my journal) but he talked about how God has a plan for all his children. Families are unique and its a blessing! We were given each other to help strengthen one another! I love my family! He talked about how we were sent to be angles to help those who need saving. Well there are plenty here that need saving and i hope to do my best to bring that light into their lives! I want to be a rescuer! But what blew my mind more than anything else was the amount of prayers that go out towards the missionaries. Every person blessed the missionary efforts in that we might be able to teach and find those who are ready! The prophet and his apostle are praying for me and all of the other 80,000 missionaries! We cannot fail! I know that God answers prayers! He answers mine everyday! I know he will answer the prophets and the apostles as well. They ask for our success and so God will grant it unto us. What a sweet blessing! I was so comforted and so humbled. I am weak. The prophet knows it. He knows i need all the prayers and help i can get. But through My God i can become strong! so very grateful for General Conference and the things that i felt! What a blessing to have a modern day prophet to guide us in times of darkness! I thank my God for a prophet! 

Such a fun weekend! With conference broadcast at  homes it was basically just all of the missionaires in my zone watching conference at the church! But that was powerful too! All of us missionaries sitting in a little room watching it in english all being filled with the spirit to help us better ourselves as missionaries! 

So grateful for the wonderful weekend of general conference! So excited to see this work get carried about through all the world with the help of its members! The prophet prayers for them too! We really cannot fail!!

love you all! hope all is well!

Christensen Shimai

Turned 20 in Nihon!!!!!!

こにちわみなさん!!!

Greetings from good ole japan! had my four month mark this last week! crazy that i have been on my mission for four months and in japan for two!! time is flying by! most days.. hahah! We had a few low ones this week but thats mission life for ya! Still loving every second! 

Last tuesday we had a double zone conference! President and Sister Budge came for an entire day to help us be better missionaries! They had special speakers come and talk to us and really just got my companion and I ready to work harder and harder everyday! It was such a great meeting! The meetings theme was are you ready??? i still feel super new and not sure that i am ready for everything but i am so ready to work hard every day! That meeting was such a blessing! Willden Shimai and i both came out so happy! Later that night we stopped by our friend Hasegawa Sans house. We made her cookies and planned to share a little scripture with her. She invited us in however and we ended up staying and teaching the whole lesson on the plan of salvation! She is our super buddhist friend but really enjoyed our message and loved when we told her that we are eternal friends! She wants to hear more about the church and about Joseph Smith! So looks like weve got another lesson! She is really so adorable! 

Wednesday we went and visited our progressing investigator Yoshida San. We made her cookies too (seriously making american chocolate chip cookies is literally the most effective way to missionary work around here). She told us however that she doesnt want to rush into being baptized. She has already pushed her baptismal date back before and so we are really praying for her to know that it is right! We left that lesson a little down. A miracle happened though later that night! She texted us and said that after we left she went on a walk and saw a rainbow and said she felt that spirit! what a sweet tender mercy for her and for us! We felt so much better after that! So grateful for her and that she was able to recognize the spirit in her life and so grateful to our heavenly father who is always helping us out! 

Thursday was the best day!! Ramos Chan our newest convert came hung out with us all day and came to our lessons! First we had a lesson with my absolute favoritest person in japan Hiyori San! She is the one who speaks perfect english! She has been an investigator for like 10 years now.. she loves the missionaries and have met about 100 she thinks haha! She invited us over for lunch and a lesson! She made us pizza!!! ahhhh its been too long! so good! She loves the bible so we read with her from john 14 and talked about the savior. The lesson was going fine but we were hoping for more. We asked Ramos Chan to share her testimony about how she feels now being a member of the church. Boy were we grateful for her! She shared the sweetest testimony of how the gospel has truly blessed her life and her family. She said she has never been happier. Afterwards Hiyori San asked how she knew she wanted to get baptized and how heavenly father answered her prayers. We all shared out testimonies and I think we finally got through to her! She said she felt dumb that she has been investigating t\our church for so long and never joined. She still has pretty buddhist ways of thinking but we asked if we could start teaching the lessons to her. She has heard them many times before and didnt really have interest in hearing them again. This time however she said she would love to hear the lessons again!!! We are so excited to teach her! I absolutely adore her! I cannot wait to teach her and hopefully fill her life with more happiness and blessings! When the lesson was over she brought out a huge birthday cake for me! She is seriously the cutest! Such a sweetheart! and such a good cook! Later we had another lesson. We taught Yoko san! She is so cute! Shes probably like 30 but acts like a little girl with so many questions (usually about english..) and so surprised by everything! We sang hymns in english and then had everyone write down what we were thankful for and shared. This was such a sweet moment to think about all that i have been blessed with! The list went on for quite some time! at the top of her list she said she was thankful to have met the missionaries and that it must have been fate! haha! So cute! She is still more interested in learning english from us but feels happy when we meet so that makes us happy! 

Sadly after that all of our appointments canceled on us or just didnt show up. we had three lessons cancel.. may not sound  like a lot but sometimes three lessons are all we have in a week! we tried not to feel down but that was hard. It meant that we had a lot of finding time.. and sadly lots of unsuccessful finding time. it was raining all weekend but we still rode bikes for hours and walked up and down every street in chiba. Thankfully we did meet two people who may or may not be interested but said we could come visit them this week! Count your many blessings! 

Saturday was.... my 20th birthday!!!! weird spending a birthday on your mission.. hahah! it was a good day though! our elders decorated my door with heart cut outs, my companion made a cute banner and sign, and i got phone calls from missionaries from my mtc district! so sweet! we were outside all day in the rain housing! it was awesome.. hahah! no appointments that day. kind of a bummer. But my comapnion and I went to a super yummy burger place and stuffed our faces! it was a good day :)

Sunday we visited Willden Shimais moms aunt and uncle! they live like 5 minutes away and invited us over for dinner. they are not members but super buddhist. typical. They made tempera(fried veggies) it was super good minus the octopus inside one of them... uhhh. I ate a potatoish thing which you would think would be harmless. It was cooked however with some squid and was 10 million times worse than the octopus! I tried so hard not to throw up! I was gaging so hard! and doing my best not to show it. I made a super wierd loud noise and tried to cover it up saying i sneezed. i dont think anybody bought it.. hahahah! oops! 

anways.. thats the week! good and sometimes not so good but happy nonetheless! Missions are so much more fun and easier when you decide to truly work hard! every might we count our many blessings and miracles and we honestly see tons! We have all been given so much and have so much to be grateful for! I am so grateful for this gospel that brings me true happiness! So grateful for my wonderful friends and family! thank you for all the birthday wishes! love you all!!!!! 

Christensen Shimai

こにちわみなさん

Another great week in good ole Japan!! I love this place so very much! the longer i am here the more and more i like it!! i mean not everything... my futon gives me hip pains hahah but thats what happens when your turning 20 in a week... ughhhh i am not excited. I really just dont ever want to grow up. Wheres the fun in that? 

Willden Shimai and I had a great week! last monday night we went to a members house for dinner. We made our own pot stickers! yummy!! Im a pro..

tuesday we made a mogi lesson with a guy in our wards mom. We are actually not really sure if she is a member or not.. hahah! if she is, she hasnt been active for a lonnngggg time. She is a hard core smoker and in a wheel chair. For stats we didnt know if we were supposed to count her as a less active lesson or new investigator! But we taught the first lesson and she said we can come back for the second! Shes really sweet but said she will never become an investigator.. again.. still confused. who is this lady? But shes great and actually came to church with her son on sunday! so we are happy no matter what she is! 

We went and visited an old investigator named Sekihara San. She is this crazy lady who loves noni juice! my family might be the only ones who knows what that is.. but its  just nasty! like worse then all the fish i have eaten here in japan! anyways funny to see that again! She made me drink some.. still not a fan. She then read my palms and said that when im an old lady i am going to have stomach problems, she read that i love my family very much, and that i have a great talent. Shes a keeper! hahah! Shes really weird but i like her! Unfortunately she heard some rumor about the church and really doesnt want anything to do with it.. 

Wednesday we went and visited Yoshida San. She is our only investigaot with a baptismal date but she is the greatest most cutest thing ever! She has two little girls who are just crazy but so fun! Yoshida San really wants to be baptized! She is worried about tithing so we went again today to visit her and brought a ward member with us to help explain. It went so well and she is so amazing and wants to follow all of the commandments! She has a little bit of an addiction with coffee however... So last week Willden shimai and i did something we really regret. We told her that if she really tried to give up coffee for a week we would give up chocolate and peanut butter.... bad idea. Were dying!!! all i ever want to eat is peanut butter! An investigator bought me a huge one from costco and its just sitting on my shelf.. But really this actually helped her! She said she has always wanted to give up drinking coffee for health reasons and this finally gave her a reason to stop because we made a promise! She is so cute and hasnt had a drink since! She texts us everyday to follow up hahah! we are so proud of our cute Yoshida San! 

I went on an exchange this week to Narita. Its only about 30 minutes away. Its a little bit of a nicer city then where i am. The sisters there have a nice brand new apartment! Free from think black japanese hair! hahah! so nice! Its actually starting to get cold! We stayed out all night doing mitsukutaikai and we froze! i dont even feel like i am in japan anymore! weird.. 

Friday night another member invited us over for dinner. She is our ward missionary and shes american! I absolutely adore her! It was fun talking with her because it was in all english! hahaha! such a nice break! she asked me what i wanted her to make and so she made us mexican food!!!! couldnt have been happier! She made super yummy tacos and guacamole! it was a fantastic day! 

Saturday i woke up with a bad headache and really didnt want to get up. I wasnt in the best mood that morning. until.. i got the bestest package ever from the family!!!! that cheered me right up! couldnt even hold back the tears! My family knows me just so very well :) 

sunday was the kids primary program! oh my gosh they were hilarious! no matter where you go, kids are still kids. They were all crazy loud shouting in the microphones and running around all over! Felt like home! 

This week i read a great talk by Brad Wilcox called His Grace is Sufficient. It is amazing!　go read it! it talked about justice and how justice requires immediate punishment when we fall short. But because Christ took that punishment, he can offer us the chance for ultimate perfection. He can forgive what justice never could. If we see his requirements as being too much to ask, maybe it is because we do not see through Christs eyes. We have not comprehended what He is trying to make of us. The miracle of the atonement is not just that we can live after we die but that we can live more abundantly. The miracle of the atonement is not just that we can go home but that we can feel at home there. I am so grateful for my savors atonement. He is my everything! He is the reason i can do hard things! Like preaching the gospel in Japan! I was told that if i studied the atonement every day that i would become unstoppable! so thats the plan! I want to become an unstoppable missionary! preaching the gospel and sharing the wonderful truths that we can live with our Heavenly Father and Savior again. 

I love you all!!!! miss you!!! 愛していますよ！！！！