Dec 25, 2016

Hey all,
Still chugging along, but Akari chan was baptized this week!
It was beautiful. She came out of the water and was like, "I can't stop smiling."
She is a miracle and I needed her more than probably she will ever know. She has had a hard life but despite it all she constantly turns to Christ and his atonement. I think everyone needs an akari in their life.
the ward is good and really supportive and has shown her so much love.
Christmas was beautiful. Davis Shimai and Womack Shimai cooked up some good stuff and we spent a long time talking.

My cold is getting better too so that is good news.

I hope you all have a merry Christmas. You're all special to me. I'm grateful for the mission experience and for all the people I have been blessed to meet and grow close to here. I'm grateful for the Japanese members. I'm grateful for God who doesn't abandon us, not even in the dark alone times. I'm grateful for two very special companions who have stayed with me and supported me physically and emotionally. I'm grateful for gods plan for each individual.
Have a good week!

Love
Massey Shimai

Dec 18, 2016

Hey! It's been a while haha.

I transferred from shinkotoni to atsubetsu two weeks ago. It is the biggest ward on the island so that is excited and there are so many cute kids everywhere. I love it. I am in a trio with Davis Shimai and Womack Shimai who are both the best and super kind. I am also back in the same ward as the mission home which has had its perks!

It warmed up a little today so that is good. We are going over to a members house for dinner tonight.

Our investigator akari chan is getting baptized on Saturday, but please pray for her! She is super excited and Just thinking about her makes me want to cry. She is a good soul.

Love you all. Be safe wherever you may be and have a merry Christmas!

Massey Shimai

Nov 20, 2016

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for the emails! I am doing okay! As an update my left leg is recovering pretty well and I'm able to walk a little faster now so life is brighter haha. This week I really felt everyone's prayers so I just want to say how grateful I am for them. Lately I've been feeling very happy, like so happy that it doesn't really make sense. And I'm learning to be more grateful for the little things, like being alive and my companion and spending time with people. Also our investigator (the one who is an NAs daughter) came to church yesterday for the first time in awhile and had a good time so we are grateful for that. We are still not able to really do missionary work. On Saturday we got about 30 minutes in, which was nice. But I've also felt that I needed this to know more joy and to be able to feel closer to my Savior.

Don't forget God is watching over you and literally answers prayers! I love you guys!

Love
Massey Shimai

Nov 8, 2016

Hey everyone!

Well the snow finally came so we are officially done with bikes. It's definitely winter here in Sapporo haha. I would just like to say again how grateful I am for my companion. Without her I think I would've gone crazy. Everyone needs to hear her laugh, it's healing.

I don't really have much to report on missionary work wise. We were riding our bikes home last week and I got hit by a car, but I'm doing okay. Nothing is broken and I don't have a concussion. We haven't been able to do much the past week, so that has been kind of hard but I'm very grateful for everyone who has taken care of me. Especially my companion and the mission president and his wife. Just angels.

I love you all! Please stay safe. I hope you're all doing well and happy.

Love
Massey Shimai

Hello!

It's getting colder and colder here in Sapporo, and we'll probably lose bikes pretty soon when the snow comes.  I'm on my fifth transfer now in shinkotoni and Rigby Shimai and I are staying here for another. Rigby Shimai is a blessing. She just makes people happy. I've been here in shinkotoni for so long, I'm starting to feel like a member here. The members are like family, and they're so good. Just through and through.

Also thanks for your prayers! We found 2 new dads the day after I sent this email so your prayers worked!

We went to a school play with a less active that her daughter was in, and she said it was okay to teach her from now on! Yay!!

Also we invited Tosaka-san to baptism again and she agreed to 2/19 as her date. Please pray for her too!

And we had a ward Halloween party and a lot of non members came which was cool. Our investigator brought her granddaughter too.

I'm out of time but I love you guys!! Miracles happen and God is watching out for you and me and the strangers on the street too.

Have a good week!
Love
Massey Shimai

Oct 17, 2016

Hello!!

I hope you're all doing well.
I'm sorry for not writing last week. I'm doing good and were quite happy here in shinkotoni. Rigby shimai is perfect. It's been a little hard finding people lately so please pray so that we'll find people who need the gospel and who are prepared to receive it 😊


So a lot happened this week, with general conference, interviews with kaicho, and a mission conference, and I've been able to receive a lot of guidance for myself and for our investigators so that was a huge blessing. From conference I loved president nelson's talk about finding joy in any circumstance, and that when we are focused on the joy we can go through anything. That is something I've forgotten on my mission at times, when the situation is hard. But I'm grateful for a God and a savior who has prepared the way for all of us to feel that joy now and forever.
And elder bednar and elder yamashita from the seventy came as well and spoke to us! I don't know how to sum it all into words because it was so much more than words. The part I most needed I think though was when he told us not to beat ourselves up. He focused on the sisters and told us that we do 9 things perfect and one thing not, and we focus on that one thing that was good but not perfect. But he also said that doing this gets in the way. And it is completely unnecessary. He was super bold, but I felt a lot of comfort that day. I want to share something he told us that day: "Be good. Not perfect, just good."

Hey everyone!

First of all, just a reminder that my address has changed so please do not send anything to the old address! My new address is:
Japan Sapporo Mission
6-2  Oyachi  Nishi  1  Chome Atsubetsu-ku
Sapporo-shi,  Hokkaido  004-0042
Japan

This will be my address for the rest of my mission. Thanks always for your love and encouragement! I love hearing from you guys.

Also, Hope you all enjoyed general conference! We aren't able to watch it until this weekend because we are waiting for the Japanese translation but we're so excited!

A lot happened this week! Both of us got sick so we were out for a lot of it, but we found some really cool people when we were able to work! We were housing and found a lady who was looking for the true church, and loves Christ and the Bible and feels free to choose her own path now. And she really wants to hear our message and come to church! It was a cool miracle being able to talk with her and share with her he Book of Mormon, which she is reading!!

Also this Sunday was fast Sunday so I chose to fast and pray so that we would find someone who was prepared to hear the gospel and to be baptized, and that night we were housing again and found a man who was also looking to find the true church and felt like if there was a God, then he would restore his true church and so there would be one. And so we were able to share the message of the restoration with him which he really liked and connected with!

And we got to go to the temple today which is always a blessing! Today sitting inside I really felt that this work and this life is so much more and so much bigger than me or my companion. That the Lord is in command and that he has a plan and that in the end we will be able to live with him again, which is his purpose for everything. I know that there is a purpose to why each of us and here and we don't have to go through it alone. That we were not intended to go through this alone because we are eternal beings and sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. And I am s grateful for that.
I love you all ❤️

 

Hello!

I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've last written. A lot of things have happened!


We got to go through the Sapporo temple for the first time and walking in and feeling that special feeling and spirit at the temple was so special! It felt like home! I'm so grateful for temples we have that help us get back to our Heavenly Father, and help give us strength to keep going until the end. I'm grateful for a loving God who has prepared all the things to help us.

And we had transfers, and sweet Aoyama shimai was taken away from me, but I am training! Her name is ribgy shimai from st. George, Utah, and she is perfect. I love her so much already, like more than I thought I could. She's just a great big blessing. To life.

We've been doing a lot of finding this week, and it is cool to see that God definitely puts people in our paths! We've had a lot of cool conversations and teaching opportunities with people on the street this week. One day we gave out a couple pamphlets but they all said no to hearing the lessons and I was a little sad, but then we went and visited a member and we were talking about her conversion story, and she said she was converted because she had received a pamphlet before and when she met the missionaries by chance again, she recognized the pamphlet and decided to listen and eventually be baptized. It was a sweet feeling that God recognizes us and knows what we are feeling right at the moment, and that no effort truly is ever lost.

We also went to stake conference this Sunday, and I got to see a lot of people from Asahikawa and from shinoro, where I used to teach eikaiwa, so that was really special! Our mission president and temple president spoke, and one story Nakatsuka kaicho shared really stuck with me. He said there was a little boy who told his mother that if she saw Christ today, to tell Him he said hi. And his mother got a little nervous and said, I think Christ might be a little busy today. And the boy responded, "mom, if you look really hard, you can find Christ."

I'm so grateful  for all that He has done, and still does for us. I know that if we just seek Him out, even or especially in our darkest days or hardest moments, we can find Him. And I know he is always there waiting for us to let him help us, because I've felt him and I've seen him help and change the people around me, and even me.


Love you guys ❤️
Be safe and have a miracle filled week!
Love
Massey shimai

Hey everyone!

I love you guys ❤️

A lot happened this week, but probably the highlight was getting to see a less active member again. This transfer we've starting meeting with her and it's so cool to see Gods hand in her life.  So we met her for the first time at the temple open house, and a member introduced us. We've been trying to see her forever but she was never home. And then Aoyama shimai and I visited her for the first time and one of her member friends from a neighboring ward was there at the same time in her home, and it was her first time seeing her in like 4 years too. And then we went again just in time for her daughters birthday and were able to serve her. And then the third time we went on the exact day the elder who taught and baptized her 16 years ago came to visit from America. So we gave her a lesson invite and invited her to let her daughter hear the lessons too and she said yes, that was what she wants!! So now we can teach her 9 year old daughter too and prepare her for baptism!

One reason I love being a missionary is that you can really feel the love God has for His children. And you get to see his children progress and come closer to Christ and be happier.

Also Saturday was really crazy. We planned everything out the night before right, but then we start heading out to the area we planned to go to and Aoyama shimai feels that it's wrong and we shouldn't go. So we go back a little and pray and don't know what to do. So we pray again and we both feel like we should go see a member in our ward who is elderly. And it was one of the strongest promptings I've felt so I was worried she wasn't okay, and she didn't open her door, but we wanted to make sure she was okay so we went inside because the door wasn't locked. Lol. And we looked around but she wasn't home. So in the end I guess we intruded into her house, but with really good intentions! She ended up being perfectly okay! And the rest of the day followed similarly as we kept praying for what to do next, and in the end when we came home the outcome wasn't what we expected or hoped, but we knew that we followed Gods will that day, and in the end that is why we are here! Sometimes I get confused when things don't go according to my expectations, or we don't meet our goals, but I know God is in command and as long as we are doing his will, then we are succeeding.

I love you all! Have a great week!!

 Love
 Massey shimai

Sapporo Temple Dedication

Hey everyone!

I'm sorry I'm a little low on time today but we had the Sapporo temple dedication yesterday and it was so beautiful. And so special. We got to be with kobayashi shimai the whole time and she is starting on her family history too! It is so special being able to be with them together in the temple, in the house of the Lord. It felt like being home!


Elder Nelson and Elder Stevenson from the twelve apostles came to dedicate the temple, and when they entered the room the spirit was so strong, and unmistakeable. Being there made me so grateful for the Lords plan and that he is in control. And he never ever leaves us alone. That everything centers on the fact that we are His children and He loves us and has given us a family we can be together forever, and that He will take us safely home in the end. I'm grateful to be a missionary and all the things you learn through the experience and all the times you can see the hand of the Lord in the work. Sometimes it is still hard to keep moving or to believe that you're doing okay, but I know that if we hold on to what we know to be true and keep moving, even if we can't see our path clearly ahead, we can and will make it!


Also our investigator with a baptismal date shared with us yesterday all the times she thinks she has felt the spirit and it was so cool to see her recognize it.

I love you guys!