Konnichiwa!

This week was probably the best week I've had in the mission field. It was really great! A lot of fun memories!

Let's start with Tuesday! We had a lesson with one of our investigators, P San. She's been an investigator for a long time, but it went well! She speaks English, which is nice. She's been baptized into another church, but we have faith that she will get baptized soon! Also, I went on splits again to Kunitachi, but this time I was with T Shimai, who's Nihonjin. She actually entered the field the same time I did! She was surprised that I could actually speak Japanese! Haha. We had fun though on the splits because neither of us really know what we're doing.

Wednesday we tried talking to people by a river in Kunitachi, but it wasn't too successful because there weren't a lot of people at the river. I did find a lady that had visited Salt Lake before, though! We talked to her a little bit and gave her a flyer. Later that evening, we had a lesson with R San, who's come to Eikaiwa (English class) for a long time now. She's so great and really sweet! We talked about the gospel with her, and she said, after some studying, she would get baptized! Wahoo! New investigator! That doesn't happen a lot, so we were really excited! Then we went to Eikaiwa after that, which was really fun. Our friend Y San came, and she brought Kimonos! I got to wear one! I'll try sending the picture later on. I was so excited! I felt so Japanese!

Thursday we went to an all you can eat waffles place with a member for lunch. It was super fun! I love waffles, and I ate it with ice cream. It was amazing! Then we went to that big park that you looked up, Inkoshira park. It was great! The spirit prompted me to go talk to a girl who was sitting on a bench, and so we did. She actually had a lot of interest in religion and God. She has been to Salt Lake before too, so she knows Mormons! We gave her a Book of Mormon, and she seemed really happy, so we will see what happens! Also that day, we received a referral who sounds really golden! She's from the Philippines (I love Filipinos here. They're all so spiritual) and she wants to go on a church tour. I think we are meeting with her this week, so I'm stoked. After that, we went to Sports Night, where we played basketball and volleyball. It was so fun! I wore my Utah shirt, so I got a lot of comments haha. It was so fun!

Friday we went to another lunch place with members, but this time they had unlimited bread. It was amazing! We also had a really good hamburger thing. It was a great meal, and super fancy! After that, we went to the park again (we go there a lot), and in the lake, I saw a turtle! It was the cutest thing! I love turtles! That's about all that happened that day.

Saturday we went to a new park which was even bigger, and it was amazing! They have a sledding like hill, trampolines, dog park, everything! It's amazing, and we talked to a lot of people! We were so tired afterwards though. But it's ok, it's a good tired! After that, we went to yet another buffet with a potential investigator (we ate out a lot this week), but this time we ate unlimited desserts. It is literally called Sweets Paradise. So good! Remember when we went to Las Vegas and I ate more desserts than actual food? Well that happened again haha. The potential investigator we went with is K San, and she will probably become an investigator. It was so fun! Then after that, we went to a fireside with President Wada, where we talked about Alma 36! It was amazing! If you haven't read that chapter lately, it's incredible!

Sunday there was a baptism in the ward! Her name is A San, and she's from Mongolia, but she speaks perfect English. She's the cutest thing in the world! The other sisters taught her, but we all became really good friends with her. She was absolutely glowing! It was so fun! We loved seeing her, and P San (our investigator) came! It was great!

That's about all that happened this week. Some other random things though are it shocks me how interested people are in my family history and that my ancestors were members of the church. In Japan, the average is two generations of church members, so it shocks people when I have more! Our family is like, what, five or six right? I have no idea, but people love it! It's so fun! Also, my language is really coming along. I have a hard time understanding still, but I can keep a conversation with people! I'm so excited! The Lord has definitely helped me every step of the way!

That's all for this week! I'll try sending some pictures again later on. Thanks for always supporting me and emailing me every week. It's so fun to hear from all of you! I love you all so much and miss you. I pray for you everyday. Have a great week!

Love you! 愛してます

ダンシ姉妹　Dansie Shimai

 

 

Week Three in Japan!

I survived week 3! Things are looking up! We had a couple of lessons this week, but they were all pretty rough because no one seems to be showing interest. Oh well, we will keep pushing forward! We find more people everyday, so hopefully that will work out! The best way of finding here in Japan is the free English class we teach every Wednesday. It's so fun too! We always have a blast at it, and we find a lot of people!

Ok, guess what I learned this week! They have fry sauce in Japan!! We went to a diner type place for lunch, and they totally had fry sauce. I was freaking out! Japan and Utah are so similar! Some other good things I had this week are a cabbage pancake-I can't remember the actual name, but it was great, tempura, and yakisoba! I seriously love almost all the Japanese food I come in contact with! I tried mogicha this week though, which is the cigarette water that everyone talks about. It's not as terrible as I thought it would be, but if I had my way, I wouldn't drink it again haha. We also had a very American meal at a members house with pasta, bread, and salad. It was so great! For once it didn't taste like fish or rice! I also tried this Indian place near us which has amazing curry! I never thought I would like curry, but it's so good! As long as I get the mild stuff haha.

Thanks for sending me the letters! I really love reading about everything that's happening at home. Thanks for always sending me motivational stuff too, it makes my day and really lifts my spirit! Today, we went to a pet shop just for fun, and they had small little baby kittens there. It reminded me of when we first got our cats. They were so cute!! I about died!

Sounds like we might be getting iPads this week or next, so I'm totally stoked to start using them! It's going to be so fun! The next time I email, it might be on an iPad!

Also this week, I went on splits with Sister E in the Kunitachi area, and it was a blast. We saw a lot of miracles. There's a lot of gaijin power when two americans work together! Haha. I saw Mount Fuji! I was so excited! It's covered with snow, so it's gorgeous!

That's about everything that happened this week! I love you all and miss you so much! Have a great week!

Dansie Shimai

Week Two in Japan!

Yes, I survived another week!

 

Dad, the park you were talking about, we go contacting there all the time! It's super great. There are always a ton of people there. I swear, we go there about once a day. And they have a great ice cream place there! Yeah, the food is great here. We went to two members houses for dinner this week, and it was really fun. They both had a bunch of food, so we ate until we were stuffed. I've only tried one thing in Japan that I don't like, that's nato. I think you have heard of it, it's the fermented beans stuff. I tried it to be brave. It was terrible. Like it almost made me gag. Haha, oh well!

 

Yes, I got my bike this weekl! It's super small, but I like it. It's going to be super easy to transfer, and it's adorable. So I love it. The same day I got it though, I crashed haha. It wasn't bad though! the roads were slippery because it was raining, so my bike slipped. No big deal. My first crash is over though!

 

We haven't found any investigators yet. Still working on that. We have a lot of Potential Investigators though! We are talking to a bunch of people every day, and on Friday I actually got a little discouraged. We had spent a long day trying to talk to people, but nobody listened to us. It was almost the end of the night when we finally found someone! She is from the Philippines! She is very Catholic, but we met with her and talked with her a little bit. She's super nice! We gave her a Book of Mormon, and she said she will read it, so we will see what happens. Finding her, though, was a miracle. The Lord is always looking out for us!

 

Saturday we had what's called a "Mochitsuki" which is where the whole ward comes together and makes mochi- rice essentially. It's fun though because you have to pound the rice with this big hammer thing, so it was super fun. I'll try to send a picture if I can!

 

Sundays, to be honest, are actually the hardest days. I love the ward members, they're incredible and they make me feel so welcome. But church itself is three hours of not understanding anything, and I get so tired because of it. It's really rough, but I'm hoping it gets better from here! I'm learning more and more Japanese every day, even though I'm not good at it yet. I'm getting there!

 

Also this week, I went on splits with two American missionaries for a whole day. Because we were all white, a lot of people wanted to talk to us, and we saw a lot of miracles that day. It was incredible! We also got a lot of cat calls, that was a little awkward haha. Oh well! It was really fun.

 

Well, that's about all this week. Oh, Mom, I got the first letter you sent! It was great, thanks so much! I love getting mail!

 

I hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk to you soon!

 

ai shiteimasu

 

Dansie Shimai

 

Love you!

I'm Alive!

I survived my first week in Japan! Everything is so small here!! The buses are small, the buildings are small, the people are small. Everything! But it's great, I love it! I swear, Japan is not only the land of the rising sun, but it's also the land of spoiled dogs. Every dog here has a sweater and a stroller thing. Haha it's hilarious!
 
I live in the most ghetto, Japanese apartment, but it's adorable. I love it! My trainer is Japanese! She is hilarious! We get along really well! She speaks a lot of English, so it's nice. She does most of the talking when we talk to people because I have no idea what goes on. Literally how we proselyte is we go to the park or just walk down the road, and we compliment babies, clothes and dogs to start a conversation, but it works! We've gotten some names out of it. The food here is incredible! Seriously, so good. I haven't had anything bad yet! I've eaten a lot of ramen, rice (which I love now), and vegetables, which I love now too. Also, I tried Japanese pickles, and they're really good! It was super weird to eat them, but I like them. There is a lot of food from around the world here, which is great. Also, they have super good crepes in Japan. Who would've thought?? When we get one, we call it "crepe dendo (missionary work)" and we get a lot of great conversations out of it! It's super effective! One weird thing, the stores are crazy. They have dead fish just sitting out. I also saw an octopus tentacle in the meat section. Weird!

Here's how my first week in Japan went.

First of all, sorry I seemed kind of out of it on the phone. I was pretty much a hot mess because I was so scared to go to Japan. But I loved getting to talk to you all! It was fun! The plane ride was faster than I expected! I feel asleep for a little bit, so that helped. When we landed in Japan, it turned out that we were on the same flight as Ariana Grande (Nickelodeon star) so we were greeted in Japan by not only President Wada (who's the coolest guy ever), but a thousand screaming fans. It was the craziest thing! We felt very welcomed though! Then we boarded a bus to drive to Kichijoji, Japan, where the mission home is. Side note, I never want to drive here. The roads are super narrow, and you drive on the opposite side of the road. Super scary! Then we had dinner at the mission home, and went to bed. We woke up early on New Year's Day to go running at a park, and watch the sunrise. Apparently it's culture to do that in Japan on New Year's Day because a bunch of people were there! That whole day was filled with a bunch of orientation stuff, and then we went streeting for an hour, which was exciting! We had our first Japanese dinner that night. I ate ramen, it was super delicious!

The next day we had more orientation stuff, and then we found out who our trainers were. It was super exciting, but sad at the same time. I cried when I had to say goodbye to M Shimai. She's in another zone, so I won't get to see her that often. Then we shipped off to our areas! We spent the rest of the day talking to people, and then we had dinner at a ward members house. They spoke English, which was nice. It was a great dinner! We rode the train home then and went to bed.

The next day not much happened besides talking to people.

The next day was church, which, in a sense, was three hours of having no idea what's going on. It's ok though! I felt very loved and welcomed by the ward members! I got up and bore my very simple, Japanese testimony, so that was great! I also learned that every fast Sunday, ward members give food to the missionaries! It was so nice, we got a bunch of food. The rest of the day we went to the park and tried talking to people. As of now, I haven't taught any lessons because we don't have any investigators, but we have a couple of potential investigators, so we will see how this week goes! Also, I totally stick out here. One lady told me I had the hair of a french doll haha. So great!

Well, that's how my week was. I'll let you know how everything goes next week. I love you all, and I hope you have a great week! I love being a missionary, it's hard but great! I love you!

Dansie Shimai