Week Four!

We've decided to get up at 5:30 on Saturdays to do our laundry, so you'll get early emails from me! The DearElders everyday are wonderful, too. So thanks for those! The Elders in my district have starting calling the mail "Dansie Shimai's Mail" because I get letters every day. Haha it's so funny!

 

Sunday was incredible! We started off the day by studying in our classroom, when we heard the Japanese senkyoshi (missionaries) singing hymns down the hall. We decided to go say hi to them, and they invited us to sing with them! We spent 30 minutes singing in Nihongo with them! We also sang the Sisters in Zion/Armies of Helaman melody in Nihongo, and that song makes me cry anyways, so in Japanese I was a  goner. Haha it was really the coolest experience ever! Then we watched Music and the Spoken Word again, then we had Relief Society which was great. After that, M Shimai. and I taught the Sunday School lesson about Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and it went really well! Our branch president sat in on it, and he said, "That's the best lesson I've heard in the MTC!" We showed Elder Bednar's Patterns of Light videos (which I definitely recommend watching, they're great), and we shared some experiences. It was really cool! After that we had choir, which was great again! I really like singing, even though I don't do it that well. I've also decided that I really like the alto section! I think I'll officially declare myself an alto. The devotional was great after words. We had Mary Ellen Edmunds come speak to us, and she is hilarious! It was great! Afterwards, we watched "Missions are Forever"  a talk given by Elder Holland, which was incredible! Sundays are great in the MTC! 

 

Monday was fun. We taught Jon for the third time that day, and we committed him to a baptisimal date! Wahoo! Super exciting! Also, some missionaries from our branch left for Japan at 2:30 that morning. We miss them all so much, and we hope they're doing well. They all went to the Kobe mission, so we probably won't see them ever again. 

 

Tuesday was all right. Choir and the devotional were great, as always! The man who spoke was Elder Aidukitis from the Seventy. He and his wife spoke about optimism and the Celestial Kingdom. Also, we taught Sato san (our third investigator) for the third time, and he's been pretty stubborn about not praying in the past, but we finally got him to pray with us! It was exciting! He also asked us why Joseph Smith was thrown in Liberty Jail? Most random question ever. We really didn't know how to respond in Nihongo, so we did the best we could. 

 

Wednesday, we survived three weeks! My district was able to host the new missionaries that came in. Even though it was pouring rain, it was actually really fun! I also saw one of my friends from the U who entered the MTC that day, so that was really exciting. We got new missionaries learning Japanese (we call them kohii) so we were all excited that we actually know more Nihongo then we think we do. We also read the Book of Mormon as a class, and we read about Lehi's Vision, so it was great! That's one of my favorite stories. 

 

Thursday was normal. For our service project, we took out the trash. I got the package that day! Class was great. I'm really starting to understand Nihongo! It's really tough still, but I can form complete sentences in my head that actually somewhat make sense! It's a miracle! The Gift of Tongues is real, but it goes slower than you think. 

 

Yesterday was great. Except they serve Papa John's pizza for dinner every Friday! It follows me!!! We taught Sato-san  for the fourth time, and it went better. Except I shared the wrong scripture with him! That happens a lot in the Japanese Book of Mormon. M. Shimai and I have started to read from it on our own, and it's really cool to understand the symbols, and catch words here and there. I'm also picking up on some kanji! Remember our first investigator, Man san? We learned what really happened to him yesterday. He really like the Book of Mormon, and he was a great guy; however, he wasn't baptized because he had a smoking problem. So sad! I hope that one day he can be baptized! 

 

We get to go the temple today! I'm so excited. I hope you all have a great week!  I love you all so much, and I miss you a ton. There are definitely times that I miss home, but being a senkyoshi (missionary) is the coolest thing ever! I feel very blessed to be learning Japanese even though it's really difficult. 

 

I love you all! Talk to you soon!

 

-Lexie (Dansie Shimai)

 

 

Week Three

Konichiwa!

I finally understand what everyone means when they say the days go by slow at the MTC but the weeks go by fast. It's the weirdest thing, but it feels like yesterday that I was sending the last letter. I've survived 3 weeks! Things are picking up!

Sunday was wonderful. They treat us really well here in the MTC. We got to watch "Music of the Spoken Word" which was about Veteran's Day. It made me wonder how many more times I would hear the national anthem for the next year and a half. Then we heard from a woman in the primary general presidency for Relief Society. Sacrament was great, and I understood about 40% of the Nihongo! Molen S. and I received our first calling! We are the music  coordinators in our district. It just means we pick the song for sacrament. Should be fun! We watched a talk given by Elder Uchtdorf called "A Missionary's Call," and it was amazing! It made me all pumped to be a missionary. 

Monday we taught our second investigator, John, and it went pretty well, except for the fact that we gave him the wrong scripture to read in the Japanese Morumon sho (Book of Mormon). His whole family are members of the church, but he has a little bit of an issue with it. We went back to teach him on Thursday, and extended the baptismal question  to him. He accepted! It was the best day ever!! Hopefully we get many more opportunities to ask someone that. We also learned the first names of everyone in our district. Turns out their first name isn't Elder! Imagine that!

Tuesday was AMAZING! I got to write all of you letters, which it sounds like you enjoyed. Anyways, Molen S. and I decided to sing in the choir for the devotional, which is super fun, except this time we decided to be altos! It's was really cool. Guess who the speaker was for the devotional? Elder L. Tom Perry!!!! He's the cutest old man, and he gave a great talk on importance of a companionship. It was so great!

Wednesday was fine. Not much happened except the new missionaries came in. This Wednesday we get new senkyoshi (missionaries) in our district! We won't be the babies anymore! Wednesday's are actually kind of tough for some weird reason, so I'm glad it's over. 

Thursday was when we extended baptism to John. It was a really cool experience! I had the idea to read Alma 32 to him since he struggled with faith, so that seemed to really help him! It was the best lesson we've had so far. When we left, Molen S. and I looked at each other with the biggest smiles and started jumping around. It was great! 

Friday we got a new sensei! Her name is Clark Shimai, and she served in Nagoya. There is hope for us to learn Nihongo. Which, by the way, is still super difficult. We learn a ton everyday, so it gets really difficult. When I can actually say a full sentence or two in Nihongo, I'm always so proud of myself! I've definitely felt the gift of tongues while here. We taught our third investigator, Sato-san, for the second time. He's a tough cookie! He won't sing or pray with us. Hopefully he will come closer to Christ. I had a cool experience the other day where I was doing personal study, not thinking about our investigator at all, and then the thought came to me that I should share D&C 121:7-8 with Sato-san since he's had a rough life. It was so cool! I received revelation! 

Overall, being a missionary is wonderful. We've starting having a little bit of tension in our district, but that's to be expected if you spend everyday with each other. By the way, Kyodai means brother. So our sensei is Gregory Kyodai. I'm still trying to learn the language, but that's going to take a while. I'm excited to see what happens this next week! Expect pictures from me in a little bit. I love you all, and I'll talk to you next Saturday! I can't wait to get your DearElders!

 

-Dansie Shimai

Week Two!

Ohayo gozaimasu! Watashi no kazoku desu! (Good morning. My family)

I'm so happy to get to email you again! This whole once a week communication thing is weird. Thanks for the package you sent! It totally made my day. All the DearElder letters you've sent everyday are great too, and I love getting them. I absolutely love getting mail.

 

This week definitely went by faster than last. It's been kind of a crazy week. There are missionaries from Japan that arrived on Tuesday! Two are going to Tokyo South! It's so great, and they're all very sweet. The devotional on Tuesday was great! It was given by W. Craig Zwick of the Seventy. My companion and I got to be in the choir, but we mouthed a lot of the words because the notes were too high. Jumping back to Sunday, fast and testimony meeting was great! My companion and I totally forgot about daylight savings time until about 2 in the afternoon, so that was a bummer. No sleeping in for us! We got to watch a talk given by Elder Bednar one Christmas at the MTC called The Character of Christ. It was a great talk, and I definitely recommend watching it! Monday was cool.  We taught our investigator a couple of times, and it went pretty well! My companion and I decided to sing hymns in Nihongo during the lesson, and our investigator really liked it! By the way, the investigators are not actually investigators. They are return missionaries, but they play the part of someone they taught on their mission. On Monday, our sensei told us about revelation that Elder Eyring gave in 2003 that Japan would soon flourish, and a lot of people will be accepting of the Gospel message. Hopefully that'll happy while I'm there! By the way, every P-day we get to go to the Provo Temple! It's super pretty inside of there.

Here is our drawing of the Plan of Salvation in Japanese.

 

Japanese is still coming. I've learned a ton in the past week. On Wednesday, we got a new sensei, and that was a little frustrating because it was like day 1 all over again, but I snapped out of being frustrated. I had a really cool thought this week. As a missionary, I'm standing on the path towards the tree of life, and I'm inviting my investigators to enter the path. It was really awesome! The days here in the MTC are essentially the same. Wake up, eat, study, class, study, eat, work out, study, eat, class, study, go to bed. But they're good days! I've really liked it here in the MTC! It makes me want to go out to Nihon and teach. The missionaries that are going there in two weeks just got their travel itinerary. They're all super excited!

I miss you all so much, I really do. I love being a missionary, though! I feel so blessed to be here. I know there's someone in Tokyo who needs me. I love you all, and I'll talk to you soon!

-Dansie Shimai (but you can all still call me by my first name. It's weird not hearing it here.)

 

Reminder of Lexie's contact information:

 

Alexis.dansie@myldsmail.net (or you can send a letter for free through dearelder.com, letters are printed and delivered daily)

 

Sister Alexis Jaina Dansie

DEC31 JPN-TOKS

2007 N 900 E

Unit 71

Provo, UT 84062

MTC Room!

Week One!

Surprise! My P-day is on Saturday. Thank you SO much for all the letters and the package. It made my entire day receiving them. What a crazy long week...or four days...it has been. It feels like a lifetime ago that you dropped me off at the MTC curb. These past few days have been some of the longest days of my life, but everyone says that if you can survive the first week, the rest of the MTC goes by fast. Here's to hoping it's all downhill from here!

Even though it's been long, I'm really enjoying the MTC. M Shimai is my companion!!! I'm so blessed to have her as my companion. She is so great, down to earth, funny and super spiritual. We get along really well together, and she pushes me to be the best missionary I can be. We are the only two in our room, so that's nice. We have 8 chorotachi (elders) in our district, and they are phenomenal. I swear they've all had Nihongo (Japanese) practice before, because they all seem fluent. My companion I are the only shimaitachi (sisters) in our district. We spend about 6+ hours in the classroom a day. We've learned a lot the past couple of days, but the more I learn Nihongo, the more I remember French. It's super inconvenient haha. Our sensei is really great, but he speaks 98% Japanese. The first day I was totally lost, but It's gotten better! All the girls in my branch are great, and we workout together everyday (which I'm still trying to get used to). By the way, I was named senior companion for the first four weeks! It was exciting. We taught our first lesson in Nihongo yesterday! We didn't understand what he said back to us, but I could totally feel of the Savior's love for him. It was a really cool experience! He invited us to come back and teach tonight.

It's been a long, hard week, but I love being a missionary! I've definitely caught myself having thoughts of home, but it's gotten better. I love putting my nametag on every morning! I love the challenge of learning Japanese! It pushes my beyond belief. I miss you all, and I hope you're doing well! I love you all so much, and I'll talk to you soon! The Church is true!

-Dansie Shimai

 

 

Lexie Reports to the Provo MTC!

We wanted to thank everyone for their love and support as Lexie prepared to serve her mission.
It certainly has been an eventful week. Lexie was so relieved after her farewell talk was over and had such a great time seeing everyone at the open house after. She was her normal self Sunday night, and even entertained us by playing musical tunes with her macaroni noodles at dinner!

Monday, the hard goodbyes began, and she became quiet and pensive over the next day. On Tuesday night, she was set apart for her mission by the Stake President. It was a wonderful blessing and she was told what we've all known for a long time: that people would be drawn to her because of her light. When the blessing was over she was officially a missionary! She was so excited and said, "When do I get to go to Japan!" We all felt a great sense of peace.

Wednesday, October 30, she reported to the MTC at 12:45. Someone once said that you can't explain an MTC drop off to anyone, that it is an experience unlike any other. What a true statement. She was happy and smiling as she walked away with her host for her next great life adventure. We will miss her, but know she will be happy and successful - her life changed forever!

Thank you again for all the love and support. Our family is anxiously awaiting p-day to receive her first email.

Getting the Call!

After much anticipation and checking the mail box every day, my mission call has finally arrived! I saw that big white envelope with my name on it and about passed out. With my family and some of my closest friends around me, I read the words, "Dear Sister Dansie: 

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Japan Tokyo South Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months. 

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, October 30, 2013. You will prepare to teach the gospel in the Japanese language."

Can you believe that?? JAPAN! Excitement, fear, joy, nerves, and love consumed me in that moment. That's definitely the last place I expected to be called, but I can't wait to serve the Lord in Tokyo! The Church is true!