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

Week Nine - Ohaiyō gozaimasu mina san!

I leave for Japan on Monday! Excuse me while I freak out for a second...AHHHH. Ok, I'm good haha. This seriously is so scary, but I'm super excited to! I'm excited to meet the church members in Japan, because they seem like they will great!

Here's how my week was:

Sunday was wonderful as usual. I really will miss Sundays here! The second counselor in our branch presidency's wife spoke in Relief Society, and she's so cute. I've adopted her as my third grandma! We all went on a temple walk after sacrament meeting, and that was probably our last temple walk ever. It was really funny because there was a lot of snow and ice, so people were sliding everywhere and making snowmen and stuff. It was really fun! Devotional was great as always, and then we ended the day by watching the Joseph Smith movie in Japanese. I was expecting to get about 2% of the movie, and I got about 8%. So it was better than I thought!

Monday was fine. I got the Christmas package! Thanks so much! It was really, really great! We had our last lesson with one of our investigators, Sato san. It was so sad! I don't like saying goodbye to investigators, but I know that's how it's going to be in the field all the time. Not much else happened that day! Oh, M. Shimai and some of the elders in our district tried a suicide drink where they tried every drink together in the dispenser. Gross! 

Tuesday, Christmas Eve, was a mix of emotions! It was pretty much a normal day. It was our last class with one of our other teachers, Hatch Kyodai. At one point when we were in class, he said, "Sorry, I zoned out. I was thinking about how much I'll miss you guys." It was so sad! That was kind of hard. Our devotional that night was by Elder Dave Evans from the Seventy. Turns out he served his mission in Japan! It was great to hear from him! He really boosted our spirits and made us excited to go out to Japan. We ended that night by singing Christmas carols as sisters in the branch. It was super fun!

Christmas was amazing! It kind of felt like a normal day, but at the same time it was great! We had breakfast, read Luke 2 as a district, and opened presents. As I said in my email, I loved them. Thank you so much! It was fun to open all of our presents up together! Then we went to a talent show, which was hilarious! One of our elders sang "You Raise Me Up" in it! He's a really good singer! As a choir, we sang "As Shepherds Lately Knelt" which I've never heard of before, but it's a beautiful song! Look it up if you can! It's so pretty. Guess who we had for Devotional?? Elder Bednar!! Wahoo! Dream come true! It was really cool because he passed out cell phones, and we texted questions to an iPad that he had, and he answered our questions. That's all the devotional was! It was really, really great! We haven't held a phone for two months though, so it was kind of weird haha. Elder Bednar is amazing! Then we had an hour where we listened to Jazz Christmas music. Mom would've loved it! We had sack dinners, and then watched the 2012 MoTab Christmas concert which was incredible! It was a great day!

Thursday was fine. We had another teacher who practiced door approaches with us. It was super awkward! Haha, we are going to have a  lot of awkward times in Japan. I'm so excited! We had our very last lesson in the MTC ever with our investigator, Nagashimada san. We asked her to be baptized, and she accepted! It was great, but really sad at the same time since we will never see her again. 

Friday was "In-Field Orientation" all day. It was actually really fun! At one point, M. Shimai and I were practicing role playing with members, but we did it in Japanese. The sisters sitting next to us were like, "Are you going to China?! You sound Asian!" That made us happy! We didn't realize we actually sound legit! However, that was to an English person, we will see how good we actually sound in a couple of days! We learned a lot about how the field is going to work and what we will do when we get there, so it made us really excited! A bit overwhelmed, but definitely excited!

That was my week! I'll let you know how my first week in Japan goes next week! I love you all, and I miss you. Thank you so much for all the support you've given me! I feel it every day! The MTC has been a really, really great experience! It went by super fast, but I've learned a ton and felt the Spirit every day. It's a wonderful place! I'll talk to you all on Monday! Wish me luck!

ai shiteimasu

Dansie Shimai

 

Week Eight!

HOLY CRAP! I'm leaving for Japan in a week. That's so scary, but I'm so excited too. We got our flight plans yesterday! We land in Tokyo Narita Airport at 4:55 on December 31st. Just in time for New Years! I've heard that they have a three day celebration for New Years, so I'm super excited for that.

The basketball game against BYU sounds like it was awesome! The Utes are back!!

Here's my week:

Last p-day was great! We built a gingerbread house because one of the elder's mom sent them a kit. It was super fun, and I'll send a picture of it. We also taught a Nihonjin who converted 23 years ago. He told M. Shimai and I not to worry about the language because we "radiated" and a lot of people would be attracted to us. He was super nice!

Sunday was great, as usual! Nothing extra special happened, except for M Shimai and I taught Sunday School, and we sang "One Small Babe" in choir. I've never heard that song before, but it was super pretty. Look it up if you can! That alto part rocks in that song. Also, we had the BYU Men's Chorus come perform for devotional. They were amazing! There is something good about BYU! 

Monday nothing really exciting happened. We learned that you sound smart in Japan if you can get the particles right, so I'm screwed haha. The particles are super tough, but I'm beginning to understand them more. But yeah, nothing else really exciting happened. 

Tuesday was great. We taught one of our investigators, Sato san, and that went well. We had Elder Ronald Rasband of the seventy speak to us in devotional, and he actually spoke at the Christmas Devotional! So it was super cool to see him again. Since it's Christmas, he spoke about spiritual gifts. Speaking of which, I think I get to email on Christmas! I'm not 100% sure, that's just what I've heard. So we'll see! I've been so busy with learning Japanese and getting ready to go that I've totally forgotten about Christmas. Also, I got the package that day. Thanks so much! It was great.

Wednesday was crazy! We hosted, and it was insane. I hosted 6 sisters, so I never had a break. It was always, go, go, go. So it was pretty fun! The MTC makes the world a very small place. We also got to Skype church members in Nihon that night! We talked to Miki san for a little bit, who showed us her akachan (baby), and he was the cutest thing! When we were talking to her, M Shimai accidentally told Miki san that she had three sons and a daughter. It was so funny! She recovered quickly though. Then we talked to another Nihonjin for a little bit. It was a cool experience!

Thursday was sad. We said goodbye to our teacher that's been with us since Day 1. It was so sad! We found out what happened to real John (we've been teaching him as one of our investigators). He was baptized in the Pacific Ocean, and a year later went to the temple with his family. So cute! I also had the first Nihonjin laugh at my name that day. Haha the first of many, I assume!

Yesterday we got our flight plans!! Ahh it's crazy that we are leaving! The MTC has been wonderful, it really goes by super fast.

Well I hope you all have a great week, and a great Christmas!! I hope I get to email on the day! I love you all, and miss you so much. I'll talk to you soon!

ai shitemasu

Dansie Shimai

 

 

Week Seven!

Hey! How's everyone doing this week?

Here's my week!

Sunday was great! We had Neill Marriott from the Young Women's Presidency speak to us in R.S., and she's amazing! She converted at 22, so she's an amazing woman. We watched the Christmas Devotional that night, and it was great. I hope you all enjoyed it too! We watched a movie about the First Vision and Kirtland, Ohio, after that! It made me want to go there someday! We also said goodbye to some of the missionaries in our branch that night headed to Tokyo. My district is the next to go! 

Monday wasn't very productive, but we translated a scripture from Nihongo to English, and it was pretty cool! I thought about it a little bit differently, and it was a cool experience. 

Tuesday was interesting. I feel like I kind of hit a wall with the language, but it got better. We asked Sato san (our stubborn investigator) to be baptized, and he agreed! Didn't see that one coming! He's scheduled for January 1st! We had Quinten L. Cook for our devotional! We are so spoiled here in the MTC! He did a wonderful job, and it was so cool to see him in person. 

Wednesday, we got new missionaries in our branch! They remind us of how much we really have learned. They're so cute though, we've already become really good friends. There are 4 international missionaries, 2 elders from Australia, 1 sister from New Zealand, and 1 sister from Mexico.

Thursday was great! We taught Jon that day, and it was our last lesson before his baptism on Sunday, so it was pretty cool. He invited us to a barbecue at his house afterwards. If only this was real life! A BBQ sounds so good! 

Yesterday was good. We had FHE with the girls in our branch, and it was really fun to get to know the new girls. We had two lessons, so it was really busy planning that day. They both went well though, so it was good! 

That's about all for the week! The language is still coming, there's a lot that I don't know. I'm excited to get to Japan though! It's going to be great. I love you all, and I hope you have a great week! Thanks for all the love and support, I feel it every day. I love you all, and I miss you so much!

ai shitemasu

-Dansie Shimai

 

Week Six!

TIME IS FLYING! Holy cow, I'm so not ready to go to Japan. We got a letter from our Mission President today, and I had a baby panic attack. My language is coming along pretty well, but I know it will be totally different when I get to Japan. I've been able to memorize the baptismal commitment and the First Vision in Japanese, so it's pretty exciting. The First Vision still needs a little bit of work though, so hopefully I'll have it mastered soon. Our lessons are coming along well. We can effectively communicate, but our teachers talk really slow compared to actually Nihonjin, so it should be interesting when we get out there. 

Here's how my week was! Happy December!

Sunday was great. Our devotional was on how to work with members, so really useful! We also watched the Testaments movie. It made me cry at the end. It's super good! 

Monday was good. We taught Nagashimada san, and we found out that she has some issues with her husband. We hope we can offer her some good advice next time we teach her! I also decided to start learning one kanji a day that day, so it's pretty exciting. I know some kanjis! I feel so cool!

Tuesday, woke up to snow. Gross! It snowed all day long, and we got about a foot here in Provo. M Shimai loved it! I'm glad you were all safe driving around that day. I was really worried. We taught Sato san about the Atonement, and he really liked it. Our devotional was supposed to be given by Elder Ballard, but because of the snow, he couldn't make it. We had Elder Hafen speak instead, but he did a great job! I know he was the one that was supposed to come that day. 

Wednesday we got to host in the freezing cold, but it was still fun! I hosted three girls. One was from American Samoa! It was really cool getting to talk to them.

Thursday was like Christmas for us because we got our Japanese name tags! They look so cool!! They came really early, so we were all super excited! Also, it was 11 degrees that day. So it was kind of terrible. Haha oh well! Thursday was great. 

Friday we had our first lesson with a member present. It went really well! We taught Sato san about the Gospel! The member, Tanaka san, really related to him, so I hope he can come to the rest of our lessons with Sato san! 

Overall, it was a great week. I'm super scared to go to Japan, but way excited at the same time. I'm glad to hear that the Utes won their last game. I hope next year goes better for them! 

I love you, and miss you all so much. I'll get pictures out soon. I hope you have a great week!

-Dansie Shimai

Lexie wanted to make sure she represented the U. while living in BYU Cougar country, so she wore her knee-high University of Utah socks with her boots!

Week Five - Halfway There!

One month down! 17 more to go! It's crazy that the next time the 30th comes around, I'll be getting on an airplane. I don't know the language! Oh well, I'm super excited! It's going to be awesome! 

Here's how my week went:

Last P-day was great. We go to the temple every Saturday, except it's closed now for cleaning, so we don't get to go anymore. Sad day! I also learned how to write 1-10 in kanji! Wahoo!

Sunday was wonderful as usual! Three of the branch presidents' wives spoke about their experiences on their mission. Afterward, we had the usual Sunday School, Sacrament, and study time. We go on temple walks every Sunday where we just walk on the grounds, so that was really fun. The devotional was great! It was given by Stephen B. Allen, and he was hilarious. He said we would have bbqed grasshopper in Japan...made me super excited. We watched, "Mountain of the Lord" afterwards which is about the building of the Salt Lake Temple. Since that's my temple, it made me cry. It's a great movie, you should all watch it!

Monday was normal, just taught our investigators. Apparently one of our teachers had an allergic reaction to a flu shot, so we haven't seen him all week. Poor guy! We had FHE as a branch. We read, "You Are Special" and ate a ton of food. It was so fun!

Tuesday was great! We sang "Jesus Once of Humble Birth" in choir, and the devotional was given by Elder and Sister Teh from the Seventy. They were wonderful. Next to Sundays, Tuesdays are my favorite days in the MTC.

Wednesday was normal. We didn't get to host because no new missionaries came in since it was Thanksgiving. We taught a new investigator, Nagashimada san, who is really shy, but receptive to our message. She's great! We get to teach her twice again this week. That's one thing I'm going to struggle with in Japan, Japanese names! They're so long and complicated! Guess what I found out this week? The only reason I've been called to Japan is for comic relief. Want to know why? Apparently "Dansie" means man in Japanese. My name is literally Sister Man. Haha oh well, it will make the Nihonjin laugh!

Thanksgiving in the MTC was WONDERFUL! A lot better than I expected it to be! We sang Hope of Israel in the choir, which was super powerful! Russell M. Nelson came to talk to us!! He's the cutest! He really did a wonderful job, and we all freaked out when we found out he was speaking! Also, it was M Simai,'s birthday, so we sang to her at lunch, she hated all of it. Haha it was so fun! We had the classic Thanksgiving feast for lunch, and it was so cute because our district decided to go around and say what we were grateful for, as well as say district prayer together. It was so cute, and one of the highlights of my day. Then we went on a temple walk, which was super fun. We had a Thanksgiving Program afterwards where the first Thanksgiving Story was acted out, and we watched a bunch of motivational missionary videos. We had a sack dinner afterwards, which was actually really good! Then we went to the service project where we bagged 350,000 bags of lintel soup for kids in Utah! It was so fun! I hope that two of those bags will go to the girls that I helped with in the play last year at Neighborhood House. We ended the day watching Ephraim's Rescue, which was even better the second time. It's such a great movie! When we were walking back to our apartment, they turned on the Christmas lights around the MTC! It's so magical! This Thanksgiving was definitely one that I won't soon forget. 

Friday was pretty good. Normal day with class and studying. I was flipping back and forth between the English and Japanese Book of Mormon, and it's super trippy because the Nihongo one is backwards...or is the English one? Deep thought for the day. M Simai and I also figured out how to say the "Want to know how an animal eats their food?" video in Japanese. It goes like this, "Anata wa do yatte dobutsuu ni taberu koto mitai desu ka?..chakai mite kudasai....MOO" Haha it's so funny! Pretty good day!

Well, I have to go! My time limit on email is up. I love you and miss you all so much! If the next 17 months goes as fast as this past month has, I'll be home before you know it! I hope you all have a great week, and I can't wait to get your DearElders. Also, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! 

ai shitemasu 

-Dansie Shimai