Japan Journey: Lots of photos and I LOVE YOU!

Dear dear family! Whoa, this week felt like it was SO long! Usually the weeks go by pretty fast, but I guess because of all the new changes this week, it felt really long. But its been a good, long week!

I:m in Morioka now! Everyone who I talked to who has served here said they loved it, and so far, me too! I love it! Our church is right next to a big beautiful lake! Which is SO sweet, cause I love nature! There:s gigantic carp that are all swimmin: right up next to the boardwalk opening their big ole mouths wanting to get fed, they:re so cute! Yesterday I saw cows off in a field for the very first time in Japan!

This week when I transferred I had a little waiting time in Nagamachi where the Mission Home is. I had one day where me and 2 other sisters met up at the train station, where we all kind of switch around our companions and stuff, and then we had the day to just dendo, so we went out for lunch to Subway, first time ever in Japan! Then we walked the busy streets and talked to so many people! We had so many interesting moments, like most of the people we talked to had some sort of interesting thing like, they actually believed in Jesus Christ, or were going to a Christian school, or could speak perfect english, etc. Most of the people we talked to wanted to talk to us, and we gave away a Book of Mormon too! It was so fun!

Then had a fun time standing on the bus with all our heavy luggage, with the crazy bus driver, speaking over the intercom on the bus telling everyone which way the bus was going, "okay! Now we:re going RIGHT!" "Okay, now LEFT!"

We went to the Mission Home and had so much fun talking to Rasmussen Shimai and I showed them pictures from the wedding, and she let me read the email that you sent to her Mama! It was so sweet!

On my first day here in Morioka after Zone Training Meeting, we went and did service at a park by the lake, which is by the church! Its beautiful and Sooo green here! It was rainy a bit and we went and met some interesting people and did service for them, picking weeds in the rain at the park! It was a really Japanesy moment, all squatted down next to my companion, picking weeds in the rain, and eventually a man who works at the park came over and squatted down next to us and started speaking way hard Japanese! Sometimes, I get a little worried, cause I still don:t understand Japanese very much, but, oh well...I:ll keep trying!

We:ve also met a man who is an old investigator a couple times at the lake and fed the birds and the fish with him. He has a nice old dog named Choko chan too, which is nice. He smokes a ton, but I like him, even though his Japanese is super duper hard too! He:s fun!

Chels, you know how you said you found mold in your basement? That stinks, Im sorry! But guess what? I found mold too! Under my futon! Yuck! We threw it away today! No more moldy futons for me! Morioka rocks though, cause I sleep on not one, not two, but THREE futons! Yes!

I have a cool goal that I:m excited about! You know the thing that EVERYONE says? The whole, "Sorry, I'm not very good at names" thing? Well, I started thinking, thats not very good! We come to earth and every single person receives a name, and that is important! So I set the goal to be AMAZING at names! I want to be able to look people square in the eye and instead of saying "Sorry, no good at names over here" say "I`m amazing at names!" Its fun! I studied our little branches names and pictures before church yesterday, and when I went to church I was able to walk confidently up to a couple of the members and say their name and tell them good morning!

This week little Bella turns one! One whole year on Earth Bella! Congratulations! I love you SO much. Remember YOU ARE LOVED!

I love you family of mine! Always praying for you and loving you so so very much!

Love Kingu Shimai

This was yesterday after church. The three girls are three of our investigators!!! They are adorable! The girl in the front left, it was her very first time to come to church. Her friends, the other two girls, are way strong investigators, both of them want to get baptized, but we are still waiting to get permission from each of their parents. We taught the new investigator after church about how to pray and about Jesus Christ and the Great Apostasy and Joseph Smith. She said the closing prayer! It was the first time ever that she prayed! She said a beautiful prayer! I LOVE those moments, helping someone learn how to pray, and then being there for the first time that they try it. I love thinking about Father in Heaven, and how cool that must be when He finally gets to hear from one of his daughters in Japan after 18 years of her being on earth, she:s finally talking to Him! I love how simple and sweet my call is to serve in Japan and help people learn how to pray!

This is a picture from last week when I was in Yamagata. This is the less active sister we went and learned about bonsai trees from. Afterwards, she packed up our little bonsai trees and a couple other plants in the basket I:m holding and sent us on our happy way!