Baptism!

Hello my dear FAMILY! Oh I LOVE YOU MORE THAN EVER! I love being Family! Its so MUCH fun! I love you I love you I love you!!!!! 

How are you all? Are you genki? 

This is a brother in our ward. Just look at him! Isn:t he amazing! He is our brother! A couple of weeks ago he received the Melchezidek Priesthood, and yesterday in church was his first time to say the Sacrament prayer and to stand in the circle to confirm Rio Shimai! He is so sweet and talks nice and slow for me. He likes birds! I love him!

This week I had a cool moment. I was sitting at my desk having a marvelous time reading a hilarious and letter full of love from my Mann family, and I was also drinking my barley tea. Now, you might wonder why that is a big deal. Well it is a big deal! I used to HATE barely tea. But here in Japan, we drink it a ton. We drink it hot. We drink it cold. Pretty much every time you go to someones house for a visit, instead of giving you water, they give you barley tea. When I first came to Japan I dreaded drinking it. I just wished I could drink water. But drinking it over and over, my body has gotten used to it. Isn:t that cool!? I didn:t even have to drink it, cause I was just at my apartment, but I did cause I wanted to be Japanesey! 

Mama, Oh sweet Mama! I got your beautiful wedding photo book this week! It came all on the same day with a letter from the Manns and your weekly letter! Happy day! I have 2 of my very favorite photos in there! One of them is with the sunrise behind you and you look like you are laughing a little bit and you just look so happy and beautiful! The other one I really like is the one of you and Dave walking down the dirt road.

I like it cause I think its symbolic kind of. When I saw it, it made me think of Micail:s farewell talk before she left for her mission, when she talked about doing the White Rim Trail in Moab and how it was so hard, but once she realized that that is why she was there, for the trail, then she learned to love it. That was I like to think about when I look at that picture. "Here for the trail." 

Mama you got a calling in Young Womens again! That is the calling for you! Remember how amazing our experience was in Young Womens together? You have so much influence on us young ladies Mama! 

I laughed about the fact that you literally took frozen apricots with you to Kansas. Oh, my Mama is so funny! Don:t feed the missionaries weird food!!!!!! 

How did your open house go? Any offers on the house yet? I:m praying that the house can sell!

Chels thank you so much for the little video of Bella walking! It happened so fast! I loved the video and the pictures you sent! The mohawk one is adorable! And when I looked at the splash pad photo it was like "What! Whoa! Bella is just standing there all by herself!" She is so strong and beautiful! Did my birthday letter make it there yet? 

Mama I am proud of you for practicing with the missionaries how to invite your friends to learn about the Gospel! 

Yesterday was such a good day! Rio Shimai got baptized! She was SO excited! Everything went pretty smoothly and I played the piano for a couple primary baptism songs that the missionaries all sang together during the Baptimal service! 

Rio Shimai:s Baptism!!!!

Yay!

We had a couple lessons after church with a couple of our other investigators that went really good too! Haruka chan wants to keep learning and wants to find out if the Book of Mormon is true! We committed her to be baptized if she finds out for herself that this is true, and she said yes!!! YAY! 

We get to meet President and Sister Smith this week! 

This week I celebrated our Daddy Papa. I remembered him especially on Friday June 27th. I think June 27th is a sacred day. I:m glad that we celebrate Dad on that day and we go to Macks and get chocolate marshmallow malts for him! Lets do that all together next June! 

I love you so much! My whole soul loves all of your whole souls! 

Love King Shimai

Here is a photo from this week. Look who it is! Its me and my first companion Mataoa Shimai from Tahiti!! This week she and her companion came to Morioka for a split with the 2 other sisters in our apartment! Mataoa Shimai is so happy and fun and bright! Its amazing to think that we:re coming up on one year ago of being companions in the MTC! Its interesting looking back now, and knowing it was so hard when we were there in the MTC. But now, everything is okay! And I love her!