Sasebo week 3

Sasebo week 3 - wk 51 in Japan, wk 60 total

Monday March 28, 2016

We had a really awesome week. We had training from mission President Egan and his awesome wife. It was so cool to hear about all the miracles happening in the mission.

And a lady in our English class loves exposing us to Japanese culture, so she brought some live fish for us to eat! Ice fish. They were clear fish and you rinse them and put them in soy sauce, and cheers! You just swallow them while they are still squirming. It feels really weird.

Also, last night we had a really awesome Easter. We had dinner with a member from the Military branch ( which I realized I have been super lucky on my mission, I've had Thanksgiving and Easter dinner with American families, which means yummy American food!) and Sister Bergman's friend Emily and her daughters came over too. We were able to talk about the Savior's life and how He suffered for us in Gethsemane and on the cross. And how he rose again on the third day. Afterwards we were able to go over to Emily's house and help her pack for a trip and clean her house! It was so much fun. I love serving others, it's truly the best feeling to know that you've helped make another's load lighter. At the end of the night, Emily told us with tears in her eyes that his is the best Easter she's had in a while. And my heart was just full of love! For her and for my Savior Jesus Christ who loves each of us so much!

This week we were able to meet and teach a lady named Takai. She's really nice. It was cold when we knocked on her door so she let us in and we talked in her doorway. We came back and taught her two more times! She's starting work next week so she can't really meet very often anymore, but we are still going to try to visit her (:  Here is her picture:

From left: Tateishi Shimai (a member), then Takai San.

Service is the Cure!

Sasebo week 2 - wk 50 in Japan, wk 59 total

Monday March 21, 2016

 

It's been a good week here in Sasebo. We met with some really nice people this week. I love serving people! I am so grateful for this opportunity to put myself aside and serve all day everyday. Reaching outside of yourself really is the cure for everything sad I think. 

 

Much Love! 

 

One of my favorites! Matono Shimai! She's from Nagasaki. 

She is in the primary presidency so she came to Sasebo branch and I got to see her!

 We met with some of our friends from Vietnam and had some delicious crepes.  

 While we were studying, we saw this man clipping leaves while attached to a harness!

Fancy scrunchies, each has its own personal box!

 The wind likes to knock over our bikes while we aren't looking :(

 

 

 

 

 

Sasebo week 1

Sasebo week 1 - wk 49 in Japan, wk 58 total

Monday March 14, 2016

On Saturday we got to go to Shiori's baptism! I taught her with Klein Shimai and Clements Shimai for four and a half months, she's been meeting with the missionaries sporadically for the past year. What are the chances that she chose the Saturday right after I ended up being transferred from Okinawa!? And if I were in a different zone, I wouldn't have been able to go! It was such a sweet experience. I got to see most of the awesome members in Nagasaki that I love so much! So much!  I didn't tell any members before hand, so it was a big surprise! Shiori cried when I walked in! So happy!

Sasebo is good! The mountains are beautiful. There are a lot of old people. There is also a military base so yesterday I went to church in English for the first time in about a year! It was good. Though it was interesting, I didn't know quite how to be a missionary around American members. There are definitely different social norms between the two. It'll take some getting use to for sure. But yeah, we get six hours of church every Sunday, 3 in English 3 in Japanese.

Last night we went out in the cold rain. It wasn't very comfortable, but I thought about how the Savior's life or Joseph Smith's life wasn't very comfortable either, and it made me feel a lot better. I felt a lot of gratitude for the suffering the Savior spent in my behalf, and the opportunity I have to suffer just a fraction of that for Him.

It's been a little tough to transfer. I really love Naha. But something I've been thinking about lately is that, even when we are doing our best, working hard, doing nothing wrong, trials still come. Life is still hard. And it's not that the Savior isn't there with us every step of the way, or He doesn't love us. But like the Lord tells Joseph Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 121, we have trials for our benefit and growth. I know that through each of our difficult experiences, we are able to learn essential lessons so that we can reach our full potential.

Keiko, me, and Shiori - investigator 

who got baptized in Nagasaki Saturday!

Rules = Protection

Naha week 18 - wk 48 in Japan, wk 57 total

Tuesday March 8, 2016

Our Mission President called this morning, I'm going back to Nagasaki zone, I'll be in Sasebo area!! My new companion is Madeaux Shimai, we were in the MTC together! (when I first came I was in the Nagasaki zone but Nagasaki area)  I'm so sad to leave Naha and Cox Shimai, but I'm excited
to be going back to Nagasaki Zone. There is a military base there, and an American ward!

This was the strangest week of my mission.  Due to the personal nature of some things that happened regarding others, I am not going to discuss in detail.  However, due to these experiences I was reminded of the importance and power of prayer, and that rules are given to protect us, not to restrict us.  More specifically, the guidance given to us by God regarding our health, referred to as the Word of Wisdom, counsels us, in part, to refrain from the use of alcohol and tobacco and other addictive and harmful substances.  While some see this as restrictive, following this guidance ensures our freedom from addiction.

On the bright side, I love being a missionary! I'll write more next week!

Why there are so many different Christian churches?

Naha week 17 - wk 47 in Japan, wk 56 total

Monday February 29, 2016

As a Sister Training Leader, we get to have the other Sisters on Okinawa come stay at our apartment for a day and then we go proselyting together. It's such an awesome opportunity to be strengthened by others and to help encourage and uplift others as well.

There is a member in our Ward that knows how to hula dance, like they do in Hawaii. She teaches a free class at the church and so we've started going, and inviting friends to come too! This week our friend from Taiwan (who fed us the octopus and shrimp) came too! It was a lot of fun! Also we met a really awesome mom (Oohama San) a few days ago and she invited us back yesterday. She had a lot of questions about why there are so many different Christian churches and why are they all different. We were able to teach her about the restoration of Jesus Christ's Church and she was very impressed. It seems like we were able to help answer a lot of her questions. We are meeting her again this week!

I love being a missionary. This last week was a little difficult. It's easy to feel incompetent and like we aren't doing enough or we aren't good enough. And that thought pattern often turns into, then why try? But I came to understand this week that that way of thinking is prideful and not in any way helpful. I quickly turned back to my Savior, I humbled myself, recognizing that I am weak, and that there are things I can do better. And that because of the Savior, I can overcome those weaknesses, I can always improve, there is always a reason to keep trying. Because it is in that process of always trying to become better, even if we slip and fall, that we become more like the Savior. And as we do so, we are able remain hopeful and therefore, happy. I love Ether 12:4 and share it with people all the time. When we believe in God and His Son Jesus Christ, we can hope for a better world. We have the hope the enables us to keeping moving forward.

I love this gospel and I love sharing it.

With Love,

Lowe Shimai

This is what I look like when I stop to talk to people on the streets.
Pretty cute huh? I think the helmet just makes it (:

Blue sweater- Oohama San

Pie & Sushi, Chocolate & Fries?

Naha week 16 - wk 46 in Japan, wk 55 total

Monday February 22, 2016

Sorry, no time to write today, but here are some interesting food combinations I experienced this week! 

 Chocolate and fries, 

it's a new marketing technique at McDonalds! Weird.

 Interesting Flower!

Raw Shrimp Anyone?

Naha week 15 - wk 45 in Japan, wk 54 total

Monday February 15, 2016

I absolutely love being a missionary. This week we were able to meet with a lot of different members and help strengthen them and help them feel Gods love. It's also been a week full of experiencing different backgrounds of people. There is a really awesome member that was born in Okinawa but then lived in Bolivia until she was 18. So she is full Japanese but her first language is Spanish and her demeanor is very much Latino. She is really fun. It's been really interesting to be around her after being in Japan for so long and to recognize the difference between the general personalities and social norms of people.

On Wednesday we met a lady named Kawahara from Taiwan on the street. She has lived in Japan for a long time now. She invited us to have dinner with her family the next night! It was so much fun! Kawahara's friend has just lived here for 4 months so she knows a little Japanese but mostly speaks Mandarin. Her husband only speaks Mandarin. Kawahara and her daughter speak English, Mandarin and Japanese! And Kawahara also invited her Japanese friend over who spoke a little bit of English. It was a night full of many different languages! We had Taiwanese Nabe which is basically like the melting pot restaurant where you have a pot of boiling water and then they throw lots of different veggies and meat and then you take it out one by one, dip it in a sauce, and eat it! They had squid, shrimp, octopus, and other types of fish that you either eat raw or cooked (I tried the raw shrimp!). In Taiwan they have the whole shrimp, take it apart themselves and eat it raw, dipped in soy sauce. It is so neat to be experiencing all of these different foods and cultures.

On a more spiritual note, we have been really focusing on using the Book of Mormon in our teaching lessons and people on the street. And as we have been focusing on that, I have really come to appreciate the Book of Mormon so much more! We can literally learn anything from the Book of Mormon, we can learn how we can be happy, what kind of person Jesus Christ is, how we can become more like Him, how we can be forgiven of our mistakes, how to forgive others, what happens when we die. It's so wonderful. This week before we read the Book of Mormon, we write down a question, and no matter what it is, we have been able to find an answer, no matter where we are reading in the Book of Mormon. We started this after reading the Young Adult devotional 2016
by Wendy Nelson Becoming the Person you were Born to be. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that as we all its principles and read it everyday Heavenly Father will bless us with the strength we need.


With Love,

Lowe Shimai

Happy Valentine's Day!

We went to the aquarium off of the ocean! So pretty!

 

First ever mouth wash fountain, you can gargle at the aquarium!

Lady who grew up in Bolivia

Normal Japanese food

Taiwanese nabe! See all the raw fish!? Yummy!

Me holding a shrimp, before I ate it, raw.

                                                And yes, I ate that octopus too

The nice family we met who invited us for dinner!