Transfer 3 / Week #22

Konnichiwa!

I can't believe I'm on transfer 3! I'm no longer a bean technically. But in reality I still feel very much like a bean. Pinzon Shimai thinks she's going to transfer next time and that I'll be left here to teach the new person how everything works in Okinawa. To which I say: No way! Why am I the one who is staying? I don't know anything!

Anyways, Happy Halloween on Friday! The military branches and Okinawa ward are having a trunk or treat for everyone. Yay for candy and handing out pictures with Jesus on them!

Well you can guess what the high light of our week was. On Saturday Sam and Jonathan were baptized and yesterday they were confirmed! I am so happy for them. Sam was lit up after her baptism. She couldn't stop smiling. And I was kind of surprised how happy Jonathan looked. He kept thanking everyone who came or helped out in some way. It's so wonderful to see a couple get baptized together. Their whole goal now is to be worthy to go to the temple next year. And I'm not worried about them if we get transferred or something. They will be well taken care of.

Now that Sam and Jonathan are baptized we are trying to find our next golden investigator who really wants to come closer to Christ. A lot of our investigators right now are not progressing or are taking very very small steps forward. So we will probably be doing a lot more finding and asking members. We want the elect!

We do have one investigator who seems to be progressing. It's been a long time coming. His name is Nitta san. He's in his 60's. He believes in the Bible but he doesn't really like the Mormon church (or any church for that matter). He used to tell us all the things he didn't like about our church. But he's slowly been softening towards us every time we see him. So now we teach him lessons from the Bible. And last time he seemed like he really wanted to hear our explanation of what we believe, not just what's in the Bible. He's still a long ways from coming to church but we just want to show him that what he believes and what we believe is very very similar. It's exciting!

Also transfers happened. Wells Shimai's new companion is Jeffery Shimai. She's from Provo Utah and we totally know the same person Kaytlyn Monsivais (Marr)! The world is so small when you're a missionary. So that's exciting. Jeffery Shimai's pretty cool. She's getting used to Okinawa life and missionary work. It's different than mainland from what I hear. So it sounds like I will have yet another culture shock when I go to mainland...whenever that is.

I hope everyone has a great week! Dress up for me and eat lots of candy!

Malone Shimai

Sam, Jonathan & Sebastian - Baptism Day

Pinzon Shimai, Me, Sam, Jonathan and Sebastian - 

The Evans Family (Great member missionaries!)

Things that were, things that are, and some things that will shortly come to pass / Week #21

Konnichiwa minisan!

This week was good. A little different than what I'm used to in Okinawa.  We did a lot of contacting and housing this week because a lot of our investigators couldn't meet with us this week and we realized that we need new investigators who will progress. Luckily, Heavenly Father is merciful and we have already found some new investigators. I'm still not good at talking to people in my limited Japanese but I'm getting better! Me and Pinzon Shimai kind of get in a groove where I introduce us and ask some questions and then she swoops in and answers things when I don't understand anymore which takes like 10 seconds...

Sam and Jonathan are doing great. We met with them on Monday to do Family Home Evening together and also combined it with teaching a lesson about missionary work. And as usual they were way ahead of us. I guess one of their neighbors was asking what church they go to and had questions about our church so they told her a little bit about it and why they like it. They're so great! 

They also had their baptismal interviews on Saturday. Sam is solid. They met with us an hour before because Jonathan had some questions about some things he had heard about from the Pearl of Great Price and about modern prophets. We just encouraged him to turn towards his Heavenly Father for answers rather than outside sources. He knows this gospel is true he just questions certain details. Their baptism is this Saturday at 6 pm! I know that they are going to be a solid family in the church and I'm so excited for them!

We've also been working with Karla since her baptism, obviously. She has already had a lot of people ask her questions and she started reading stuff online. So she started to have some doubts. But luckily we brought Sister Gillis over for our lesson and she was able to share about her and her husbands experience since they are both converts to the church. She was able to say exactly what Karla needed to hear about how this time will be difficult for her as a new convert because Satan is going to throw everything he has at her, but if she can turn to her Heavenly Father and trust in her testimony the blessings will pour down on her. Sister Gillis was amazing.

There's so much work to be done with investigators, and less actives and recent converts x 3 wards/branches. But I'm glad we stay busy and that there is always work to be done. Okinawa is a great area! And I have an awesome district. So I will email you guys later to let you know about transfers. I really hope I get to stay one more transfer but we will see what Heavenly Father has in store for me. 

Malone Shimai

Random notes:

We went to a crossfit class at the church on Friday. Needless to say I'm REALLY sore. Why do I think I can just jump back into working out that hard?

We had a talent show after Eikaiwa. Sister Wells and Elder French sang an awesome version of Secret Prayer which included him beat boxing for the last verse. Don't worry. I recorded it.

We had Spanish class again. Anytime Pinzon Shimai asks me something in Spanish I can't reply because only Japanese comes to my mind. I should probably not try to learn another language right now.

The General Women's Meeting was awesome! Yes we're a little late seeing it. Although I'm not going to lie all the talk about temples is kind of hard for us missionaries to hear since we can't go to one right now.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transfers!

Ok so we actually got our transfer calls at like noon but we had to hurry and go to the beach afterwards. That was great by the way. I'll send a few pictures as a preview.

So...all of us are staying, except for Nagamine shimai. She is going to Sasebo which is up by Nagasaki. It's actually another military area. But we are so sad she is leaving! It's hard when you get used to living with people and love them only to have them leave. Although both Nagamine shimai and Wells shimai only have one transfer left anyways. Then they are going home! How weird is that? I can't even imagine being at that point. Anyways, I hope everyone has a good week. I'm excited to be in Okinawa for Thanksgiving! Yay for American food! 

Love you!

Malone Shimai

                                          

                               Sam, Jonathan & their son Sebastian - Oct 2014

The Beautiful Ocean - Okinawa Oct 2014

                                          How Cool is this View?

   
                                         We are So Cool!

                           By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea....

So there was this typhoon... / Week #20

Me and Pinzon Shimai were both sick on Wednesday. Well me more than her. It's not fun to be sick as a missionary. I will definitely be more careful about eating "Mexican" food in Okinawa.

The luau went really well! So many people came even though there was a typhoon coming. The members here are awesome. Haha Sister Crosby was joking saying everyone else is staying inside and preparing for Typhoon Vongfong and what do the Mormons do? They throw a luau!
The tours went really well. Although we had a lot of Japanese people in our group and all the leaders only spoke English so we tried to translate for them but I'm not sure how much they understood...anyways it was still fun! And the performances were so good. I wish I had recorded more of them. I only did a few and it's really noisy. We had a Hawaiian elder from Naha come up and sing a few numbers. And Sister Nagamine did some hula. I'm kind of sad and at the same time relieved that the luau is over. Now we will have more time for other things!

So the typhoon. Yeah. It started Friday night. During the luau all the military people's phones went off saying it was a TCCOR 3 or something like that. We were hurrying to clean up the luau and luckily the Crosby's gave us a ride home in their van because it was getting super windy. So basically we just stayed inside our apartment the whole time. We had enough food and water. The wind was super strong and it rained constantly both days.

So even though there was a typhoon on Saturday and Sunday we still managed to listen to General Conference because one of the elders downloaded the audio onto my SD card. I really needed General Conference. I don't understand how people can't recognize that these are men called of God. Apparently it's possible though because there were a lot of talks about sustaining our prophets and leaders. But everything they said just helped me so much. As a missionary I feel like I got more out of it than usual. I loved Elder Bednar's talk. I want to hand it out to everyone I meet. And President Uchtdorf was awesome as usual. I wish we could have general conference every week!

We met with Sam and Jonathan on Thursday and Sam decided to move her baptism back two weeks. But the good news is that Jonathan is also getting baptized in two weeks! They are getting baptized together! Plus Sam's baptism wouldn't have really worked out with the typhoon and everything. Of course that means it falls after transfers...but it's okay! It's not about us it's about them.

I hope everyone is doing well! Listen to General Conference if you haven't! It will answer your questions and strengthen you! I promise! Love you guys!

Malone Shimai

                                           Me & Pinzon Shimai at the beach

Wells Shimai, Me, Pinzon Shimai & Nagamine Shimai

                                            Beach Craziness!!

Okinawa is so pretty!

                                       
                                           The lighthouse in the daytime

                                         
                                            It was very windy!!

                          One of the members made this cake for the Luau

                                          The Luau - Fri. October 10, 2014

Hawaiians are so cool!!

Typhoon Vongfong from Space Station

Typhoon Vongfong - October 11, 2014 - Passed over Okinawa

Sis. Ashby in Okinawa sent this to my Mom

Me & Pinzon Shimai at church             

Konnichiwa! / Week #19

Konnichiwa!

So to answer everyone's question. We haven't seen General Conference yet! So don't spoil it! We see it a week later. But I'm so excited! All I've heard so far is that no new temples were announced.

And yes supposedly there is supposed to be a typhoon but I think it's missing us. It's just been really windy the past few days. I believe it's actually cooling off a little bit. The breeze is pretty nice. 

This week was good. We had a special training this week in Naha. The only thing is we thought it was here until the night before when we got a call saying it's actually in Naha... So all of us were scrambling to find out bus times. We couldn't find out a time so we went to the bus stop the next morning at 7:30 and looked at the map and then waited for the right bus to come. It was actually kind of fun. I like public transportation. Is that weird?

The training was awesome! Kaicho talked about helping our investigators have personal religious experiences so that they know for themselves what repentance, the Holy Ghost, etc, feels like. They also gave us a CD of awesome mormon messages we can show our investigators. One of them is the Because of Him video. It's so powerful! 

Also there's this cool one about this bishop who lives in London. He's originally from Jamaica and he reads parts of the Book of Mormon in the coolest accent ever. Not that that's the point...I don't know what it's called but you should try to find it and watch it!

Also we found out the next day that Elder Wynn, one of our zone leaders, has chicken pox. What?! How does that happen? And it was the day we all went to Naha with like 30 other missionaries so if anybody hasn't had it...they might get it now.

So a lot of our appointments didn't work out this week, but we met a few times with Sam and Jonathan. They are doing really good. We're trying to finish up the lessons with them to prepare for Sam's baptism on Sunday. She got up on Sunday in fast and testimony meeting and bore her testimony in front of everyone! It was amazing. She spoke about how everyone keeps saying they have the truth, they know the truth. The first time she came she didn't understand, but as she has been learning and reading she understands now. I couldn't stop smiling. She is definitely ready for this.

Jonathan is also doing well. We teach Sam and Jonathan the same things and give them the same commitments and he does all of them. Even with the commandments he has had no problem so far. He's reading the Book of Mormon and he's up to Chapter 7. He just wants to be sure of himself, which is good. He told us he's planning on being baptized in a month. Yay!

We also met with Emi this week. We read from the Book of Mormon again together. Then we actually started talking about fasting and why we do it. She had been taught it once before but I think she had forgotten a lot. So we've decided we're going to start teaching her the commandments. Who doesn't love commandments?

We've been busy planning the lu'au this week. I don't know if I've talked about it before. We're having an open house, followed by a lu'au. There will be delicious kalua pork and entertainment! We're in charge of decorations so we've been meeting with sisters who have far more artistic talent than we do. They are seriously so awesome. They made this tiki pole things and painted them all colorful. A lot of the work will be done on Friday when we set up everything but the members have been so helpful. It's going to be great! Hopefully all the members bring their friends!

Sorry this one is so long. There's just a lot going on, which is a good thing I guess. I hope everyone is enjoying conference! We are so blessed to have prophets and apostles to guide us!  

Aishiteimasu yo!

Malone Shimai

Lemongrass footsoak at a member's house

My doki, Cox Shimai (we came to Japan in the same group)

                                           Kirakira Beach on P-day

Baputesuma! / Week #18

Konnichiwa minasan!

So I'll start with the big news I guess. Not that it's a surprise or anything. Karla was baptized on Saturday! It went really well. There were lots of people who came to support her. And her husband also came. I'm still not sure how he feels about everything but I'm thankful that he's not opposed to it. I think now we're going to try and work on having families invite Karla and her husband over for dinner so that he is involved too.

Things with Sam and Jonathan are going really well too. We taught them Lesson 3 on Thursday with the Evans. As always the lesson went really well and they had lots of questions. They also came to a baptism on Sunday for two eight year olds and Sam told us that she wants to be baptized in two weeks. Wow! She's totally ready for it but our only dilemma is Jonathan. He's not quite ready yet but we really want them to be baptized together. So I guess we need to talk to them and figure out what they want to do. We're praying that he will be ready in two weeks and then they can just be baptized together.  It's tricky, but they are both doing great and really progressing. They are awesome!

Tamiko san is doing good too. We took a member over to her house for the lesson which is a definite improvement. We read from the Book of Mormon together and talked about the history of the Jewish and Christian religions. We invited her to read that chapter again or to read the next chapter before our next visit. She really does have a love for the Book of Mormon and knows it's true. Now we just need to extend that knowledge to other things.

Sunday was interesting because we didn't have Sam and Jonathan show up or Yuliya so we were thinking that we wouldn't have any investigators at Church this week but in the Japanese ward Minami and Zukeyama san showed up! It was definitely a miracle. We also had a member bring his girlfriend and so we gave her a quick tour of the church during the second hour and then went with her to Gospel Principles and Relief Society.

Random notes-

I've been in Japan for almost two months now and I had sushi for the first time on Friday! It was pretty good. Much better than Utah's sushi. It was on one of those conveyor belts too where you just grab it as it comes around and then the plate it's on tells you how much it is.

I love mac and cheese. Yes I'm five.

It's so hard to not be able to hold people's babies. Why is this a rule?!

Thanks for everyone who wrote me! You are all celestial! Those of you who didn't write me are...probably still celestial. I hope everyone has a good week!

Love you!

Malone Shimai

                                                                   

                                                      Karla's Baptism - Sept. 27, 2014

View from a tall building in Okinawa

Satomi san (investigator) let me try on this cool cultural hat

Still hot / Week #17

Konnichiwa minasan! 

It's still hot as ever here. People keep saying it's going to cool down but this week felt just as hot as August. But now everyone is saying once it's October it will get better.

This week was really good. Karla is getting baptized on Saturday! I'm so excited! We're trying to get everything ready for Saturday. Her and her son have been sick recently so we've had to rearrange some of our appointments and what we teach her when, but it's all going to work out! We've taught her all the commandments so we just need to finish lesson 5. Her baptismal interview is scheduled for Wednesday. Other than being sick though she's doing great and feeling excited for Saturday!

We met with Sam and Jonathan for the second time on Thursday and it went really well. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and both of them really felt the Spirit. Sam especially, she said she felt like crying after learning about it. She is really ready for baptism I think. Her husband Jonathan has never really been religious at all so I don't know if he's quite as ready but he's praying and keeping the commitments too. We gave Jonathan his own copy of the Book of Mormon so that he can start reading it. Sam is already on chapter 12 of First Nephi. They also came to the branch social on Friday so they are getting to know more people. Some people thought they were already members. In other words, they're doing great.

I also had my first zone training meeting on Thursday. It was so good! The zone leaders and the sister training leaders did a really good job. I was writing down notes and ideas for investigators during the training. We went through Alma 22 and broke down each verse to see what Aaron did to teach King Lamoni's father, because Aaron's an awesome missionary.

We finally met Tamiko san after a couple weeks of not seeing her. We met with her on Friday and Saturday. We shared Ether 12 verse 27 with her. She has been struggling with some things and this scripture really helped her. She wrote it down so she could read it again and again. We also started talking about the Book of Mormon because that's a strong point for her. She knows the Book of Mormon is true even if she doesn't understand everything in it. So we committed her to read the introduction and next time we will talk about Joseph Smith and how if the Book of Mormon is true then everything else is true. I'm excited. Even though we hadn't seen her for a while she seems like she's more ready to hear these things now.

We biked the furthest we've ever biked this week and let me tell you at the end of it, it wasn't pretty. We were so gross. But we got no sympathy from the other sisters because they bike that far all the time...anyways, I think I made up for all that biking because the two military branches both had a branch social and there was lots of delicious food...yeah.

Some important notes-

On Sunday we went up north to a members house and I finally got to see the ocean! I mean I'd seen it from far away but we actually walked on the beach. It's so pretty! Sometimes I forget I'm on an island.

Happy Birthday Bri!! September 26! It's you first birthday in Texas!! It's probably going to be better just because of that. Have some fun! But not too much fun, if you know what I mean.

There's lots of Jehovah's Witnesses here. One day we saw them twice in two completely different areas. Maybe they decided to follow us. I don't know.

Elder Ho says hi. He's Hawaiian so he's cool.

Have a great week everyone! 

Malone Shimai

Me & Pinzon Shimai on the beach