Week 16: Traveling to the Temple in Fukuoka

Hi friends and family! It's week 16! Sorry I skipped last week! It's been like hecka crazy!

I honestly don't even remember where to start! I went to the temple in Fukuoka this Saturday! It was gorgeous!

This Monday we went to a place called Karatsu, which is very far away, in order to visit a member. The rain was pouring. I was convinced we were going to die.

I'm so sorry. These past two weeks have been nuts. So I'm just going to share a couple of experiences and lots of photos because I can't even remember half of the stuff that happened!

One experience was with an old newspaper photographer. We knocked on his door and he invited us in. We talked about his jobs for an extensive period of time, during which he took several pictures of us. This was two or so weeks ago, so we forgot about it. This Sunday the pictures came in the mail to the church. We all about died.

We were also able to perform Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing in church. They don't normally have musical numbers unless missionaries ask, so Sister Page played the violin and I played the piano. It was awesome.

Another experience that we had with a recent convert, we'll call her Kanako. Kanako has had a really rough life. Her husband abused her, and she eventually ran away from him, and eventually joined the church. She also had an abusive boss at work, and had recently started a lawsuit against him. However, it's not going good, and now his mother is saying that Kanako actually abused her. So it's really not going good. And then next she discovered that she had Menyl's disease, you've probably heard of it, and so her hearing will get progressively worse. She had been saying that she didn't even know if God was there or listening to her anymore. We tried a lot of stuff, but she was still not having it. The last lesson we had with her we discovered her making one thousand cranes by herself. In Japan, usually this is made for people with cancer by loved ones, and it's really serious. She told us that she thought that if maybe she made all these cranes, that it would show God her hard effort and that maybe he would bless her. Her faith astonished me. Throughout the lesson I had this prompting, "Tell her I love her,". When it finally came to my turn to talk, I bore testimony that God loved her and was constantly aware of her. We all cried, despite all of us not being criers at all. The Spirit was so strong. God's love can change people so much.

Sorry y'all, that's all for this week! I promise I'll be more organized and send more next time! Love you all!

愛しています!

Dimmitt Shimai

1. Temple!

2. Hugest Toori (shrine gate) ever

3. Yeah, I made that...

4. Sakura is the best!

5. Sakura

6. Sister Page teaching a member violin!

7. Sakura! 

Apartment Tour by Dimmitt Shimai

A couple weeks ago Emma gave us a tour of her apartment in Japan.  It was part of her language lesson for the day.  It's all in Japanese, but you can catch an English word every now and again.  She takes you through each of the rooms in her apartment.  One of the bedrooms they don't really use.  It just has stuff in it.  In the kitchen there is a little pull out grill they use for cooking fish.  Enjoy!

PART 1

PART 2

Week 14 & 15: Sakura is the Best!

Hi friends and family! It's week 15! Sorry I skipped last week! It's been like hecka crazy!

I honestly don't even remember where to start! I went to the temple in Fukuoka this Saturday! It was gorgeous! 

This Monday we went to a place called Karatsu, which is very far away, in order to visit a member. The rain was pouring. I was convinced we were going to die. 

I'm so sorry. These past two weeks have been nuts. So I'm just going to share a couple of experiences and lots of photos because I can't even remember half of the stuff that happened! 

One experience was with an old newspaper photographer. We knocked on his door and he invited us in. We talked about his jobs for an extensive period of time, during which he took several pictures of us. This was two or so weeks ago, so we forgot about it. This Sunday the pictures came in the mail to the church. We all about died. 

We were also able to perform Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing in church. They don't normally have musical numbers unless missionaries ask, so Sister Page played the violin and I played the piano. It was awesome.

Another experience that we had with a recent convert, we'll call her Kanako. Kanako has had a really rough life. Her husband abused her, and she eventually ran away from him, and eventually joined the church. She also had an abusive boss at work, and had recently started a lawsuit against him. However, it's not going good, and now his mother is saying that Kanako actually abused her. So it's really not going good. And then next she discovered that she had Menyl's disease, you've probably heard of it, and so her hearing will get progressively worse. She had been saying that she didn't even know if God was there or listening to her anymore. We tried a lot of stuff, but she was still not having it. The last lesson we had with her we discovered her making one thousand cranes by herself. In Japan, usually this is made for people with cancer by loved ones, and it's really serious. She told us that she thought that if maybe she made all these cranes, that it would show God her hard effort and that maybe he would bless her. Her faith astonished me. Throughout the lesson I had this prompting, "Tell her I love her,". When it finally came to my turn to talk, I bore testimony that God loved her and was constantly aware of her. We all cried, despite all of us not being criers at all. The Spirit was so strong. God's love can change people so much. 

Sorry y'all, that's all for this week! I promise I'll be more organized and send more next time! Love you all!

愛しています!

Dimmitt Shimai

1. Temple!

2. Hugest Toori (shrine gate) ever

3. Yeah, I made that...

4. Sakura is the best!

5. Sakura

6. Sister Page teaching a member violin!

7. Sakura!  

Week 13: Sakura Season!

Hi friends and family! It's week 13 and it's sakura season!

Okay Japan, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ever questioned or doubted your cherry blossom obsession, because now I understand. I too have become obesessed. Imagine a tree filled with ethereal, breathtaking, cotton candy flowers. Then have the petals fall off and look like snow. Okay, you actually can't. You have to see the sakura for yourself. It's so dang pretty! My comp and I freak out now whenever we see a sakura tree. There's a mountain in front of our apartment balcony, and half of the mountain is just pink because of all the cherry blossoms. Prettiest thing you will ever see. I will probably put more than enough pictures of sakura in the next couple of emails, so I'm sorry (but actually way not because I'm obsessed).

Last Monday I went to my first sushi conveyor belt restaurant! You can either order sushi and it comes to you on a little train, or just pick up sushi plates from the conveyor belt thing. Afterwards you play a game with your plates and slide them into a slot to see if you win a prize. SO TASTY. We met a Slovenian man that night who spoke English and gave him a BOM. I raced with a junior high kid on my bike even though we're technically not supposed to do that. I'm repenting right now. He won. 

I also got my bike this week! It's my new favorite thing. I named it Saikou-chan. Saikou in Japanese means the best. Which she is. We can bike really fast. The other day my comp and I were late for an appointment and we biked a normally thirty minute bike ride in ten minutes. Please, hold your applause. Still repenting. 

My comp and I made a bentou this week for a less active, and we had tea in super cute heart shape cups with a member. We also ate oranges called belly button oranges. We gave a Book of Mormon to a lady who owned a dried fish shop. We had the door answered by a naked ten year old. It was an interesting week. 

This week my comp and I also got to watch general conference in Japanese. It was very distracting because I could hear the English under the Japanese interpreter. But general conference is still the best. 

It's been pretty rainy and not very sunny for the past week or so. A sweet member in our ward made us little sakura shaped cookies, and so we've been giving them out to people as we got out dendouing. That has been super fun. We like to ask people where they think sakura come from. One time we were talking to one lady, when this little old gramma calls out to us and tells us that she is a less active. Then she asks us if we want to go see the cherry blossoms together. We didn't know her, nor had we ever heard of her, so we agreed. The ride to the cherry blossoms has aged me ten years. She refused to bike on the sidewalk, and the majority of the ride was either in the middle of the road or a third of the way out. Cars would honk at her and stuff, but she just kept biking. I prayed aloud to Heavenly Father, begging him for her not to die or to cause a car accident, or end up killing one of us. So much stress. Luckily we made it there in one piece. 

Something I've been thinking a lot about recently is the tender mercies that the Lord gives us. Because He loves us so much, He gave us beautiful things, like cherry blossoms. In Japan especially, where it's incredibly beautiful, I often marvel at how much Heavenly Father loves us to give us such beautiful and complex things. I'm so grateful for this wonderful earth we live in. 

I love you all! 愛しています!

Dimmitt Shimai

1. Sakura cookies!

2. My comp looking like a freaking model

3. Bentou!

4. Sakura covered mountain

5. Saikou-chan!

6. Tea party with one of our favorite members

7. Hanami with a less active  

Week 12: My bike is out to get me!

Hi friends and family! It's week twelve and I'm still alive!! This week has been crazy nutsos. 

First off, I'm pretty convinced my bike is out to get me. I've fallen off my bike five times this entire week. It's actually not my actual bike, since I have yet to receive it, so I'm pretty sure it isn't happy that I'm not the former missionary who once rode it. Let's just say my whole leg will be black by the time I get home....

This week has, as said before, been crazy nutsos. As I've said before, our area is ridiculously huge, so we have to take the train a lot to get to a lot of our lessons. And zone conference. And district meetings. We spend a lot of time on the train. Nobody likes to talk. It's kinda funny. I inappropriately laugh at certain inappropriate occasions just because everyone tries to fake going asleep or find something incredibly intriguing on their phones. 

Japanese people here are obsessed with cherry blossoms. Like obsessed. There is a sakura (cherry blossom) broadcast and everything. Everyone talks about when the sakura will bloom. McDonald's has sakura-flavored (what does that even mean?) everything. One of the sweet members in our ward made sakura cookies for us to pass out and dendou (missionary work) when the sakura bloom. 

When you're a gaijin (foreigner) in Japan, you're basically like a celebrity. Everyone turns and looks when you ride by, and when you talk to people they get weird. Like uncomfortable weird or excited weird. Especially when you speak Japanese to them, and then they look at you like you fell from the sky. One of my favorite things is saying "Hello!" to Japanese kids, and then they all hello in English back. 

But being a gaijin has its perks. You have excuses to talk to people because you don't know what or where anything is. Since people are already looking at you, you can explain why you're here in Japan. If they say something rude to you, you can pretend you have no idea what they're talking about. If they like English you speak English! Since you're American, you can be as outgoing or friendly as you want, because you're a gaijin. It's pretty awesome. So many opportunities to dendou come from being American. 

The people here are also incredibly kind. They give away food and other items very freely. Even people that reject us will sometimes give us food. Whenever we visit someone elses home they always provide drinks and snacks. The members of the ward put together a basket of food to give to us on fast Sundays. People just love to talk here too. I've had some awesome experiences of just feeling how much the Lord loves His children in Japan. 

This week the Easter initative video came out! I love it so so much, and we've been showing it to as many people as we can, be it in the streets or during lessons. I know it's way inspired. I usually don't do challenges in my email, but maybe it comes from the missionary lifestyle. I think it would be great if all of you shared the video with one person. Just one person. It's like two minutes. They should live. The music and the videography are great if anything. It doesn't matter if they agree or not. I think testifying of Christ is the most important thing. As Easter approaches, share the peace that you've received from the gospel with others, and I think that this is one way you can do it. 

I love and pray for you all! 愛してます!

Dimmitt Shimai

P.S. Weird things that have happened:
- cotton candy and pizza party with an investigator
- chocolate yakisoba with sprinkles (yeah, you didn't see THAT coming)
- finding HUGE fish in the gutter thing
- yeah, that's it

Pictures!!:

1. Chocolate ramen with sprinkles

2. Can't believe how delicious these cream puffs are

3. Normal dinner

4. THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS!!

5. Japanese moneys

6. White strawberries??/

7. Me freaking out because that park was so pretty

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!