Week 10 & 11: Finally in JAPAN!

Hi friends and family! It's week 11 of the mission and I finally MADE IT TO JAPAN!!! It's finally a reality!! I'm probably never coming back....

Anyways, so the end of the MTC was inevitable, and I'm so sad that there are so many people that are spread out, but I know they'll all do amazing. So after waking up at 1:30 to go to the airport, we somehow made it to Minneappolis. I was able to challenge a guy to read the BOM, and then gave out a pass along card to one Japanese lady! The flight from Minneappolis to Haneda in Tokyo was very, very long. I don't even know how the whole travelling into the next day even works. Some crazy time warp or something. 

But I arrived in Japan! The airport was incredibly neat and clean, and the toilets were the craziest thing out of this world. There were way too many buttons, and I hope you won't judge me for taking a picture of the toilet because it was just waaay too nice. Japanese people are incredibly nice, and I was so grateful that I spoke in Japanese because none of them spoke in English! 

We met our mission president and mission mom, President and Sister Egan, both of whom are amazing. Traffic in Japan is crazy. Japanese people are crazy drivers. They run red lights and drive all over the place. It was nuts. I'm so glad I'm riding a bike. 

The next day they took us out to proselyte, which was terrifying and also super fun. We also met our trainers! Sister Page, who is half Japanese and from Utah, is amazing! I love her so much! I got assigned to an area called Maebaru, which is massive. We had two areas and four sister missionaries originally, but then it got dissolved and now we're taking on two massive areas! We even have two islands in our area, one is halfway across to Korea! It's all very countrysidish, and my companion said it's about the size of Utah Valley. By train it's two to three hour distance. So we have a lot of work to do! But I love it. The ocean is fifteen minutes away by bike, and there are lots of beautiful old Japanese houses everywhere. 

The people here are incredibly nice! We just get handed stuff by people sometimes. The ward gives us a fruits basket every fast Sunday, some old guy gave us sodas, and we got strawberries yesterday, which were probably the best I have ever eaten. Of course we've had like two mean people, but that's normal. There are intercom boxes on almost every house in Japan, and we usually knock, then ring through the intercom. One guy said, "帰ってくれますか?", which means "can you please return home?", which is incredibly rude, but he said it in one of the most polite ways possible. Japanese people. 

Our ward is amazing. There are about forty active members, and gajillion less actives, and right now the ward has some crazy dendou (missionary) fire. They spent most of ward council yesterday talking about missionary work. It's pretty amazing. I've been pretty blessed with the area and the people I'm surrounded by. 

Weird things I've eaten so far: Jelly soda. Soda with chunks of jelly in it, and the main portion itself fairly gelationous. Ice cream sweet potato. A sweet potato made of ice cream with a wafer skin and everything. Surprisingly delicious. Sakura shake. Shake that tasted like flowers. Peanut creme bread. Not peanut butter, peanut creme, inside a roll basically. Oden. Fish cake soup from a convenience store. 

I'm sorry this email is a gajillion years  long, but there's just so much stuff to talk about! Convenience stores are life. They are incredibly clean and you can get the best food there. 7-11 is the place to be. 

Anyways, I'll stop talking now. This has been an incredible week. I wish I had more pictures, but unfortunately we're not allowed to take pictures when we're dendouing (proselyting), which is like all the time. So anyways, until next week! Love you all!

1. Us with a recent convert!

2. Us!

3. McDonald's (super nice)

4. Outside the window

5. Fancy 

6. Flowers

Week 8 & 9: Departure Confirmed!!

Hi friends and family! Finally week nine! This Monday at 2:30 I will be getting up to leave the MTC, flying out of SLC, then to Minneappolis, and then will be arriving in Japan 6:30 their time. So some sort of crazy time change. So that's the scoop on the travel plans. 

This week has been spent with a lot of freaking out and terrified feelings and elated feelings and sad feelings. Basically crazy emotional roller coaster. I've been waiting for this for the past four years, and I'm so grateful for this amazing opportunity to serve the people of Japan. I learned so much in the past two months of the MTC, and I can't wait for all the learning experiences I'll have in Japan!

As for the pneumonia sitch, I'm mostly better now. I got some antibiotics, and they gave me an allergic reaction, which was way fun. But then I got legit ones that didn't give me hives, and they worked like a charm. I'm still trying to work on getting back into shape so I can breath and ride a bike in Japan, but for the most part, healed! I even got to 340lbs on the leg press. Yeah for goals!

The weather has been so nice here, but I'm so scared that when we get to Japan it will be so hot and I'll be sweating buckets! 

Our branch president got released as well, which we were so sad for, because he was basically the coolest old guy ever. He was so well-versed in the scriptures, and we would have so many great discussions with him! 

We also had a devotional from Linda K. Burton, the General Relief Society President as well. She was an amazing speaker, and I actually got to meet her and give her a hug afterwards! 

Anyways, I won't be able to email next week, and I don't have a lot of time today as I still need to start packing my life away, again. Sorry I wasn't able to go into much detail, but thanks for your emails and all of your support! I will carry that into Japan! Lots of love!

1. Nihonjin Shimaitachi and being cray cray!

2. Sister Conley!!!

3. Branch president and zone!

4. Amazing quote

5. Savage/satsubatsu face

6. Freaking out over travel plans!

Week 7: Pneumonia and the BYU Health Clinic

Hi friends and family! It's week eight and the countdown till Japan is twelve days! 

So this letter will be pretty short and not terribly exciting, mostly because I've been stuck in bed for majority of the last week. In case you were wondering why, I'll tell you my sad tale of woe.

So this week I came down with a nasty cough and a crazy lack of energy. Thursday I woke up with a fever of 103 degrees, and then had to go to urgent care in the BYU Health Clinic. They then told me I had a virus, and sent me home telling me to sleep and I would be better in three days. For the next four days, I had a fever that fluctuated from 100 to 103. Then on Monday I went back to the doctor, got a chest x-ray, and then got deemed with pneuomonia. I got some drugs, and then spent the majority of the day sleeping in the sick bay in the health clinic. Which happened again Tuesday. So basically for the past week or so I've been sleeping and trying to survive. The doctor says I should be good by Monday, so I'm excited for that.

So that's really all for this week, sorry it wasn't terribly exciting. I should have  more adventures this next week as my health improves and I have more of a desire to get out of bed. It's a miracle I'm even writing this much. But it's okay! I got antibiotics and I've got the Lord on my side, and as soon as I'm healthy, I'm going to baptize at least five hundred people!

Thanks for all your love and support! 

愛してます！

Dimmitt Shimai 

Since I was in bed all week too...no pictures...sorry (＞人＜;)

Week 6: Brazilian, Spanish, or Japanese?

Hi friends and family! It's week six...seven...seven? I'm pretty sure it's seven. I didn't get to write home my first week so I'm convinced it's week seven. Which means...I have two more weeks until I go to JAPAN!! JAPAN OR BUST!! 

This last weekend all the dai-senpai and the Nihonjin left again. It's always so sad saying goodbye to old friends, but it's also so exciting as you have the opportunity to make more and cheer on your friends who get to go to work!  

A little bit of language humor: This last Sunday my companion asked one of the Nihonjin sisters what she ate for dinner. She said salad. In Japanese, salad is pronounced, "sarada". But my companion thought she said "karada", which means "body". You can imagine the surprise and the confusion that ensued afterwards. 

My companions and I also have a favorite "curse word" we like to say. "Satsubatsu", or "blood-thirsty savage", can be applied in any situation, I promise. Also Chidester Shimai is a beast and made 57 free throws in a row, smashing all the boy's free throw records into the ground. She's pretty bomb. 

Apparently no one can decide my ethnicity. This week I got asked if I was from Brazil, Spain, or if I was half Japanese. None of which I'm pretty sure I look like. I'll just keep them guessing I suppose. 

As for goals this week, I successfully got to 320lbs on the leg press, got my freaking Japanese name tag!!!!, played volleyball and didn't suck, I ate the infamous MTC Graham Canyon ice cream for the first time, and taught the law of chastity for the first time with minimal to no awkwardness. Whoohoo! 

So I already mentioned that Elder Ballard came to talk to us a couple of weeks ago, and discussed the importance of making goals. I may have gotten a little overly ambitious, and made like eleven ridiculous goals. A little word of advice: you will never complete them. Especially if you're trying to do eleven+ all the time. It's still important to have goals, but I was run so completely ragged by trying to do all my daily goal stuff all the time that I ended up throwing most of them out the window. So I think it's best not to do that. 

Some exciting news: my companions and I are now the new Sister Training Leaders (or STL's)! That's basically like a female zone leader. So now our last couple of weeks are going to be super busy. So we're getting 20 kouhai (underclassmen) altogether, half of them are Nihonjin. Last night most of the Nihonjin got here, so that was fun being able to herd these poor missionaries who had had an eleven+ hour flight, didn't really speak English, starting to experience jet lag, and didn't have a clue what was really going on. They're all so sweet! It was actually pretty fun getting to speak with all of them. One of the Nihonjin elders was the younger brother of one of our most recent Nihonjin sisters who left on Monday. 

While being a STL can be fun, it also has it's drawbacks. I'm starting to get sick again, and so we all went to bed pretty early last night. One of the sisters arrived at 10:30, so we had to get up, put our church clothes back on, and then go get the sister and her luggage. It will be all worth it in the end!

I'm super excited for all the amazing things to come. This gospel is so true. God lives. Jesus Christ died for us and all we need to do is come unto Him to receive His help and guidance. The Book of Mormon is the true word of God, and the more I read it, the more I know that it was no accident that everything has happened the way it has. Thanks so much for all  your support and for your words of encouragement!

愛してます！

Dimmitt Shimai

1. Me being a spaz because of my Japanese name tag

2. Companions and Nihonjin sister's! 

3. Hearts with the Nihonjins!

4. One more heart with Nagata Shimai!

5. And a jidori(selfie) practicing Japanese poses just cause with Nagata Shimai

 

Week 5: My New Japanese Name!

Hi friends and family! This is week...five? Six? I don't know. Anyways, I'm supposed to be leaving the MTC on the 22nd...or the 21st....I don't know...I'm バラバラ  (all over the place).

Sorry about the musical number! I finally tracked down the elder who took the video and coerced him into giving me the video. (Jk Jk, I promise I was Christ-like) Anyways, I'll be sharing that via Google Drive because apparently it's too big for email. So hopefully you'll be able to access it. I'm sorry!

This week was a week of lovely spring weather. It was so warm! The snow melted completely and we were all eating outside and soaking in the sunshine, but today it started to snow! When we went to the temple this morning there was at least a foot of snow on the temple grounds! There won't probably be a whole lot of snow in Fukuoka, so I'm making all the snow angels I can make now!

Everyone is so sick right now! Most of our zone has this horrendous cough, while the few healthy ones are all carrying around posies and cough drops for our sick companions. Graviet Shimai and I are convinced that Chidester Shimai might die. We've been washing our hands like every five minutes, and I'm trying to get as much sleep as possible. Cross my fingers and knock on wood I won't get it!

This week I had the chance to have class with the Nihonjin, which of course, was in all Japanese. On one occasion the teacher was an actual Nihonjin, and so I had a really difficult time understanding. One thing I love about native Japanese is that they speak super quickly, slur all their words, and also speak super quietly. I barely survived. I have such a long ways to go with this language! But I still had a lot of fun.

As for goals this week, I seizaed for 35 minutes, got to 300lbs on the leg press, mastered 10 new kanji, and went on a walk in the hail! We'll be getting our third investigator sometime this next week. It was a pretty productive week. The Nihonjin also gave me kanji for my name.

For those of you who don't know what kanji is, it's basically Chinese characters used in the Japanese language. A lot of times names are spelled with kanji, rather than basic Japanese kana. So the Nihonjin gave me kanji for my first name. The first one they gave me was for "e", and they used the kanji for smile. "笑" So far so good. I like smiling. The second they gave me was for "ma", and they used this kanji. "麻" This kanji means flax, or cannabis... So, "smile", and "cannabis"! After explaining the English meaning to the Nihonjin, they said that it's a pretty normal kanji for names. I about died. But then we later picked this kanji "真", which means truth. A little bit better.

Anyways, this week wasn't terribly exciting, but nonetheless still fun. I'm so blessed for this opportunity to preach the gospel to a people who don't have the most religious background. Just seeing our own "investigators" here at the MTC progress is such a joy and a pleasure. I love being able to be a part of this work and to partake in the blessings that come from teaching Christ's gospel.

Hope all is well with y'all! 愛しています！

Dimmitt Shimai

Sorry only one pic! 

1. P-Days in the laundry room