(I Love Kawachinagano)

August 29, 2016

Hello Everyone! すごく忙しい！(Life's been busy or hectic)
How are you all? Seems like life's just back to the normal schedule and life is just moving by so fast, it's crazy. Goodluck in all you do family! You're great! Okay well first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVENEE! Hope you have a wonderful day and you're doing good. I just love you to death and hope you have a day you deserve. 24 now.. Wow still young. Well this week was GREAT but overwhelming at the same time. Wow. Haha being an STL is a busy crazy life. Also this ward is huge so getting to know everyone was a struggle on Sunday but it's such a good area and I have loved every minute of it so far. Crazy story though, I walk in the apartment and we always have recent concert pictures up and in two of them the missionary is ELDER FAUSETT! Haha and I've asked a few members about him, they all just said oh we loves him, he was a good missionary. So that was a cool small world. Bit anyway, I just love my companion as well, Japanese all day, hard work 24/7, but having fun while doing so. So this week on Saturday we had a service activity, I was so excited because you don't get those often here. We went to a museum and cleaned out the big waterfall fountain area and it was so fun and such a good opportunity to talk to people and have them see our service. Lots of our ward members came and also were being great missionaries. I love working with members, it helps so much! The same day we went and visited a member so I could meet them and also her mom isn't a member so we are trying to teach her but after we shared a message there was a Matsuri close by which is like a celebration fair thing. So she took us there. It was so fun! Haha we danced with them and ate weird food and etc. boy it was fun! Sunday was such a good day! We went and visited some PI and LA so we visit this one LA and her husband came out whom we have never met and is not a member and we were able to teach him about what we believe and do as missionaries. He didn't have a lot of interest but you could tell he was thinking and we hope to go back soon and he is there when we visit her again. Then as we biked to another persons house we stopped this lady and talked to her. Her name is Nakajima San and she had met missionaries before and remembers a few things we believe. She was very familiar with God and loves the blessings he gives us. So we talked to her about God and prayer. We asked her if she would let us come visit again and said yes please come again Wednesday around 4. So we made that appointment and found a new investigator. Yay! Then we went and had dinner with the Nakamura Family. It was so great. So we have been wanting to get lots of referrals from the member so one way we are trying to do that is do a role play lesson with them and they tell us what we did good or bad as we taught then talk about how they can share the same thing and they then write down a name they can share it with and when then later on we get them. So we did a role play and we are new together so still working on balance of teaching and stuff. So after we finish all of them said you guys teach as one and that's awesome. Oh it brought joy to my face, the spirit helped us so much to grow and teach better as one with in the past 4 days it's been awesome! Plus we got 3 referrals from that and we built such a good relationship. The members here are so loving and great. I'm so excited to work here with them and see miracles here. It's been a good first few days here and I'm excited for these next few transfers here and to serve the sisters here as well. It's such a blessing to be here and I can't wait to share more after this great week we will have. We have our first exchange tomorrow so wish me luck! Last is the thought of the week. I was reading a talk called Know Thyself, Control Thyself, Give Thyself by President Dunn. So I want to share a quote from it that just made me realize never quit or give up. .."there is no disgrace in falling down; the disgrace is lying there.To get up one more time than you fall is to be a winner. To stay down is to be a loser." It was so bold and just made me realize. Wow! We will fall 10000 of times but we never lose until we don't get up. Isn't that blessing? God never lets us lose unless we stop trying. So when things get hard, remember it's not the end you aren't a loser, God is there to help you get back up and you will win. I know God is there to help us up as long as we try and get up. I've fallen down so many times here but as I kept going, God provided and it just improved and for better. I know that's true. So please this week, never give up no matter what. Remember we aren't losers, God just says try please and I'll provide. I know this is true with all my heart. Love you all and miss you! Be safe and enjoy school and normal life again. #RELY #NEVERGIVEUP
Smith Shimai スミス姉妹

"Saying good bye to my friends in Toyooka"

"Love them"

"My favorite eikaiwa student"

"Thank you Toyooka for wonderful memories, Bye bye"

"English Class with my favorite"

"My new companion in my new area"

"Service opportunity! So fun, we cleaned a big fountain thing"

"Matsuri party in new area:)"

"Somewhat recent convert with Elder Faucett from St. George"

"These pictures were hanging in the apartment, Elder Faucett was here quite a few years ago"

Transfers!! I'm leaving and going to Osaka:)

August 22, 2016

Hello Family and Friends!
How are you? I hope all is well and it seems like life is fun down there in St.George. Seems like a fun week of parties etc. be healthy and safe Well like the subject said, I'm leaving Toyooka. I've loved serving here, not easy but so amazing and learned so much. I'm going to Osaka, way big city in Japan and I'm becoming an STL with a Japanese companion. I'm so nervous but so excited for this opportunity to serve other sisters. So this week for the work. We had a koukan (companion exchange) with the STL's and boy was it a fun / interesting/ miracle filled one. So I'll tell you about the miracles of course. So we had a weird lesson with an investigator and we both were feeling weird so we started biking to go visit a LA and saw this lady and decided to talk to her and she was so prepared and right away said I want to meet again and talk more about what you guys know. My house is there (pointed) and said come back Friday and we both were like huh? Ha wow! So we both biked off smiling thinking about how amazing God gave us this experience to boost us up a little. Then 5 minutes later stopped another lady and she did the same thing! Like literally the exact. Wow!  Well we get back from the Koukan and we had about 3 hours left to work and we were biking around trying to find people to talk too and we see this girl and we decided to say hello but wow we notice she's black. That's like SO rare here so she starts talking to us in English and she's from France here working. So we tell her about what we do and stuff and she said do you two have time I can meet again? Uh wow yes we can. So we got her number and are meeting this week when she's off work. I love our Heavenly Father.  So Thursday we worked our tails off cause we were going to be from Friday till Saturday so we had so many people to visit and just biked from place to place and talked to people all day, not a lot of success but we felt so good at the end of the day. I wish I could say we saw miracles but I just wanted to talk about how good it feels to work hard even on days of nothing.  But we did have an awesome lesson with a less active the Hamadas that I told you about last week. We showed them this video called Mountains to Climb and it's about trails and we all have them around the world and we testified of Gods help and how she can overcome any trial with him. We all had tears in our eyes and we could just feel Gods love. It just shows how much the spirit can into the lesson through testifying of just what you know. Testify brings the spirit I promise. So we had an awesome experience of watching the temple dedication for the Sapporo Japan Temple. Boy is it beautiful and it was so spirit filled. It just made me miss temple so much and also built my testimony of the amazing work we get to do there.  Take advantage of being able to go to such a close temple weekly and please go! Last is my thought of the week. It's from my study that I just loved.  It's D&C 130:21 "And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." I just loved that if we want any blessings it'll come through obedience. It's just simple, be obedient, follow God and be happy as you do it. I've witnessed that so much as a missionary. If we follow with exact obedience then the he will happily give us the blessings. Sit down this week and go over the commandments and your personal obedience and purify yourself and fix even the little things. God will bring the blessings you need I promise. Sorry little random email but I've got to finish packing etc. but I love you all and miss you lots! Have a wonderful week! #RELY #OBEDIENCEスミス姉妹 Smith Shimai

"Chiharu sent me this:) I miss her"

"Went to the temple dedication yesterday"

"So Beautiful!"

"Sleep over in Kobe"

"Shoes"

"Gone"

"Ran a lot today"

Hot summer days but miracle unload

August 15, 2016

私の愛する人！Hello my loved ones!
How are you? I hope all is well and I can't believe summer is over for you guys already, time went by so fast. Holy cow... Haha but I hope it was a summer filled with fun times, memories, and learning experiences as well because that why we are here. But good luck in school and staring back up to normal life, I'm sure the moms are grateful for that haha well first off ARCHIE MY CUTE NEPHEW OF MINE! Happy Birthday! Holy cow you're getting so old and big. Hope you have a good day buddy, love you.  Okay I just wanna start writing about this MIRACLE filled week. Oh heavens, God is blessing us and being a missionary is just too good right now! Let's start with the scary/funny part of the week. We were at District Meeting in Fukuchiyama and as we walked from the train station to the church this guy kept smiling at me and so I just did a bow and we went on our way. Well right when district meeting ends, the guy walks into the church. I was so nervous, he just walked in and sat down. The elders ask him, uh what do you need? He said nothing, I'm a LA here but I saw that sister and she's just so cute I had to come. I was so uncomfortable and nervous ha so we always go eat after so the elders had to make a plan to get rid of him and protect me as well, it was a interesting 10-20 minutes. So Tomoka first, she's a 45-50 year old lady with 3 kids who have moved out etc and she's the one told us she wanted to be saved, yeah pretty awesome ha well we visited her and we talked to her at her door right now but as we are sharing our message, the neighbors start banging on their door from the inside and just being loud and etc. well she gets ticked ha and walks over there, knocks back and says 止めなさい or I command you to stop! Haha and they did, then she comes over and apologizes for that and we tell her it's okay and she's says no it's not, you two are like daughters to me who have a light around you and bring me a great message, you don't deserve that. So cute ha but after she said I have something I want you to hear. I really want to learn to control my temper. As you saw, I'm not good at it. So we talked a lot about prayer and the atonement is the way she can overcome that. She's been having a hard time praying lately so after we talked about that she said she would pray. We've been waiting to hear her forever. Yeah for weird knocking on doors haha So we have this cute member named Setoura Shimai, she's pretty recent convert and we teach her weekly, well her knees have been hurting her so she can't bike to the church so we have been doing phone lessons and this week we shared Alma 34:41 and talked about how if she has patience and trust in God and asks him for help with her knees then we promise they'll be healed. Well the next day she came to our souken party, we were shocked. We asked her how her knees felt and she said sisters, they don't hurt anymore. Wow! God is real and amazing. She prayed and asked for help and he saw her faith and knew our promise to her so granted that blessing to her. I love Heavenly Father and His unconditional love. Okay now the best part of the week, Sunday. Oh was it amazing. So our mission has a goal that each companionship does at least 20 lessons a week. Well it's been a little hard these last few transfers but this week my comp and I really focused on it and said we would do it. Well it's Sunday around 4:45 we have visited about 5 people, no one was home because this week is obon the holiday to celebrate dead ancestors. We needed 3 more lessons to get it. Well we go visit this LA family who I haven't been able to meet this whole time and they are family who I've heard needs help. So I'm just praying their home and well they were! And it was so heart breaking, the mom just bawled in my arms as she talked about her trials now and some pains she's holding onto is why they won't go to church. And she stops and just cried, and I wasn't sure what to say and my comp felt kind of sick because it was SO hot so I just prayed father help me ha and I just had a feeling, testify of my love for her. And so I was able to tell her I didn't understand but God does and he loves her and I felt his love so much for her that my heart was pounding. It was such an amazing moment. We will be going back soon. Well after that we still needed 2 more and we still had about 1 hour left. My comp was feeling sick and wanted to stop and so we started heading to the church and I just said okay next person I see is the one and so we turned and this lady was there so I stopped her and told her we were missionaries and we taught about God loving her and prayer. It was so guided by the spirit. So we asked her if we could meet this week at the church again so that she can learn more and she looks up and says yes Tuesday? But we will be on our exchange so we said Thursday and she agreed. We exchanged numbers and she said I'll see you Thursday at the church. It was a miracle! Right after my comp said, I'm good, let's go get that 20 and so went finding and were able to teach two more before we headed home. We felt so good and exhausted but wow I've never been happier and so aware of how God blesses us when we try and have faith. Sorry this emails longer, just so many miracles but last is the thought of the week. It's from Proverbs 29:18. "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." So I've been thinking a lot about goals, setting goals has been a weakness of mine my whole life so I've been wanting to improve that. So we read this in District Meeting and it just hit me. If we don't have a vision then we won't grow, and gods law is for us to grow so unless we make goals and accomplish then we won't feel happiness. Goals make growing easier and also make it so you can see that growth as well. Before the mission I was a bad goal setter and still have lots to learn, but I've seen the change in my own life and how much more I'm able to improve through making a goal to achieve. So my challenge this week is make goals, yearly, monthly,weekly, and daily. God will help you more if we put forth the effort to improve by setting goals and strengthen our weakness. He wants to help always but especially when he sees someone who is trying their best to change and grow. I know goal setting is a true principle of our church that can help us more than we know. I'm grateful for the blessing it has been to learn about goal setting here in on my mission. It's changed me more than I could of imagined. I love you and miss you all! Have a great week!スミス姉妹 Smith Shimai

"Our new member,  he does his hair like this, haha"

"Finding LA houses"

"Oh my"

"In people's bathroom ha, you have to put them on when you go in"

"Bleaching the state and the comp thought I was crazy haha"

"Im a pro ha all the members were so impressed with my chopstick skills ha, dads not the best anymore:)"

"This is Soumen, rice noodles they put it down slides in the summer:)

"We did an obstacle race but I was the video and picture taker..Ha"

"At the end they stuff whip cream in our faces but I wasn't there"

"So my comp wanted to include me and surprised me with a hit..Ha"

"It's a bamboo slide ha"

A good week of miracles! I love this work!

August 8, 2016

Hello Everyone,
How's summer? Crazy it's coming to an end already. But time to get back to normal schedule soon I'm sure, especially for moms ha you awesome people. Thanks for the love and support. I really do feel your love and prayers everyday and it helps me so much. You have no idea, so thank you! JENNY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! One year older and more beautiful too.  Hope you have a good day and all is well with your family. Treat her well family. Okay so this week we saw some miracles for sure. God is blessing us here in Toyooka. Tuesday we visited a cute old lady who is 89 and just going crazy but she is over joyed when we come sing to her and pray with her. That experience always makes me happy and brings a huge smile to my face that's for sure  Sunday was hard, I won't lie. We went to visit my favorite LA who has been doing so well and just really listening to us and we stopped by but her friend was there so she didn't have time so we asked for another time and she looked at us and said sisters I don't want to come back to church so there is no need. I love you missionaries but I am just not coming back. It crushed my hear, I have grown to love her so much and she was so dear to my heart. But after I said a quick prayer in my heart to feel peace and I felt god tell me, it's okay smith Shimai, she'll  experience to know God was there to let me know she'll be okay. So we got back from Kobe Thursday and we go to the church and the elders are like we just called an old investigator and she is coming now so can you stay and we will give her to you. So she is from the Philippines. Her name is Susan and we talked to her and why she wanted to meet again and she said sisters, I love the bible and I am hungry for Gods words. So we made an another appointment with her and we are so excited to meet her soon. So last week I think I told you about our Eikaiwa student Yamada. So we met with her again this week. It was so good! She prayed and said she felt peace of mind and comfort in her heart. So we talked more about God loving her and he answers all our answers.  heavenly father and after she said I love this video and feeling I felt. We testified of God knowing her and he will listen. So at the end she prayed again and asked if he was there and she said God lead me to you sisters. Ah it was such a wonderful feeling. But then she also came to church this week! It was the best,  she had to leave early but she said she loved it. So we are hoping we can get her growing more and more. So some fun random news ha we have a new member from California in our branch. We are welcoming the members and this American walks in and all of us were so confused. But she served in Japan a year ago and she's great. But it was fun to talk to her and speak some English and stuff. Well my thought of the week is from the Book of Mormon. We read it in Zone Meeting and sorry I talk about this subject a lot but it's about Gods love. 1 Nephi 11:22-23. "22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. 23 And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul." As a missionary, I have this amazing opportunity to share the love of god. Especially in a place where most people do not know that. I guess that's why I've come to have such a strong testimony of gods love because I get to testify of it daily because no one knows. And I loved in verse 23 it is the most joyous to the soul. And boy is that true. I know for me, the time I feel the most joy is when I feel his love. Sometimes we don't recognize when it's there but it is always there if we choose to have it always there. If there is any a time you feel it's not there, please take a moment, pray and see at least 3 blessings at that time. I know they are there. Everyday we find 3 gods hands, and I want you all to try they for a week. Every night before you go to bed, write down 3 things that were gods hands or blessings. It makes you feel his love that much more. Why? Because it's always there. I know that is true. So look for gods hand everyday, it is there whether you think so or not. I love you all and miss you a lot! But keep being amazing. Have a great week! #RELY #GODSHAND
Smith Shimai スミス姉妹スミス姉妹のから

"MY FAVORITE PERSON EVER! Alec Gibson:)"

"But she goes home in two weeks..."

"Sushi with a member ha"

"He goes home so we are "killing" him apparently.."

"Zone"

"More of the Zone"

"Mako the cutest YW (and only one) in our branch"

"Fruit store heaven ha"

"Peach parfait aaahhh"

"My comp got honey toast ha"

"Yum, its all so pretty"

"Members Fruit Parfait"

"Hasegawas"

"We are opposites so ha"

"New Shirt you sent in the package"