Snail Mail Photos from Natalie!

But first, a bonus photo of Natalie and her brand new companion, Lundstom Shimai!

Just before a super fun lesson!  Ai Chan's sister was in town from Abashiri so we got to do it together, and the Elders happened to stop by the church before it started (Aee Choro knows her sister from Abashiri)

Tsuchida Shimai's birthday at Eikaiwa

With Yamashita Choro and Shimai - they were so wonderful and gave lots of great advice!

Bowling activity on p-day with the Elders in our district

The Mini Cooper dealership in Asahikawa.  It may be one of my favorite roads to take... I may have found Mini Cooper stickers the other day.  And bought them.

It is spring so we decided to take our break in a park this week - Tsuchida Shimai got stuck in the snow up to her knees!  Not just once, either...

Snowman missionaries.  They're made for Hokkaido weather!

A farewell dinner for Brother Nogiwa at the church with the Elders.  He's been doing a fantastic job as ward mission leader here, but is going back to school at BYU Hawaii at the end of the week.

Double bonus: a photo from Natalie's companion Tsuchida Shimai with a note on the back!

I became a mother!... Well, in missionary life.

Hello!

So as some of you may know, this past week we have transfers, and it was special because we had 17 new missionaries come!  7 of those missionaries were sisters, so our numbers increased dramatically here.  There were three native Japanese sisters, two sisters who are half Japanese so they are already like fluent, and one sister from Ohio.  The sister from Ohio`s name is Lundstrom Shimai, and she is my newest companion!

It`s the first time I have had a companion who hasn`t been a native, so it is a ton of fun to be able to speak English all of the time. I need to step it up for our lessons and stuff though! Northrop Shimai is training too, and she got a 19 year-old Japanese sister. Cool stuff. Lundstrom Shimai is 20, and has no Japanese experience (although she does know Spanish because her mother is from Venezuela, so we`ll need to find somewhere we can use that) other than her 9 weeks at the MTC but she is fearless and even bore her testimony at church yesterday. She studied at BYU-Idaho before coming on the mission, and also taught English for 6 months in China, which is really cool. And will come in handy for our kids English classes!

We`re going to try and get her all set up for missionary life today with buying her a bike and all of that. We had all day training on  Wednesday in Sapporo (including everyone going to a baptism at night, which was really cool), and then we had our sisters training on Thursday. It was especially fun because this time all of the sisters,  even the ones who live far away were able to come! Another fun fact: since so many sisters came and there weren`t very many of us to begin  with all of the sisters except for six are in training right now. And the rest will probably be doing it soon... because I don`t think we`ll have enough for how many are coming this next time! Maybe some will have to double up? It is kind of crazy. They opened up a new area to sisters this time, in Eniwa, and it will probably be the first of many. I`ll probably be heading home right around when things really start to expand, but it is really cool.

This week was also really great because one of our investigators was able to come to church for the first time! She has been wanting to come forever, but hadn`t been able to because of work. But because she switched jobs this month she was able to come for all three hours, and since the first sunday of the month is fast sunday she even fasted!  She is so awesome. Next week she will come to General Conference (which was this past weekend in the states, but we watch it later because of the time difference. You can watch it online at lds.org  whenever you want! I recommend a peek), which will be a lot of fun.

Love you all and hope you are having a fabulous time!!!

Easter in Japan?

So the thing about Easter in Japan... is that it is kind of hard to tell when it is happening, haha. They just don`t seem to celebrate it at all! My companion didn`t even know what it is. There were a couple of speakers at church who gave really good talks about the atonement of Christ (the fact that he died to free everyone from their mistakes and pains, so they can return to live with God and loved ones again) though, so it was an enjoyable day.

After church we even met a super cute young mother. Hopefully we will be able to meet again soon!  We also met a really fun 21 year old on the street at the beginning of the week who just moved to Asahikawa for work, and then she invited us to dinner at her apartment the next day. We had a great time chatting and eating together!

Tomorrow is transfers -- I think I will probably be in Asahikawa for my last two transfers, but you never know! I will update you all next week. I hope things are going well for all of you!!!

Birthday Fun

Hello everyone!! 

This week in the Sapporo mission was quite fantastic and special! This past Thursday we were able to head down to Sapporo, because we had a special zone conference on Friday. It proved to be great timing, because I got to stay in Ebetsu the night before and even go out to dinner with the Ebetsu Shimai and a really fun 23 year old that I met on the street with Imanishi Shimai.

The reason we had a special zone conference is because Elder Yamashita, a member of the Quorum of the 70 who is from Fukuoka Japan, came to work with all of the missionaries here. It was a really great experience, because we don`t have the opportunity to hear from a member of the 70 too often -- for those of you who aren`t too familiar with our church`s structure, we believe in the same structure that Christ established for His church when he was on the earth. We are led by a living prophet who has two counselors, and then have 12 apostles, and then the 70 (Luke 10:1) and so on.

This is getting kind of off track... but with the selection of the new Pope (which I`ve honestly only heard minor details about, so I`m no expert), we`ve had a lot of opportunities lately to talk about the structure of the church. A lot of the Japanese people we meet on the street think that all Christian churches are the same and have the same beliefs, so they are super surprised when we say there are tons of varieties and are even more surprised to hear that we have no connection to the Pope.

Our church is probably a lot different from some other churches in that we don`t have any paid clergy -- everyone is working as a volunteer. For the worldwide leadership positions of the church the majority of people are probably still American, but there are people from all different countries, like Elder Yamashita, and for the most part they`ve retired from their regular jobs and are now serving in church positions. Local church leaders, like the Bishop of the churches people attend every week are just normal people who have normal day jobs in addition to volunteering at the church. The church is really a service organization designed for everyone to participate and share their talents so everyone can learn and be strengthened together. It`s way cool.

But anyways, back to this week... Tshuchida Shimai and I actually lucked out because not only did we get to hear Elder Yamashita and his wife speak on Friday at zone conference, we got to hear him at a member fireside in Asahikawa on Saturday and then they came to our church in Asahikawa yesterday. Then we met him on the street on the way to come here to mail! In church he talked a lot about the fatherly love that God has for us, and it was great. It was also fun because since Tsuchida Shimai is also from Fukuoka, their families know each other! Fun stuff.

My birthday was a lot of fun! I felt a lot of love. I got to go out to dinner with a friend from our English class, and then we went to hear Elder Yamashita speak together.

I am going way over on time though... so I better get off before someone says something! 

You`re all fantastic! Hope you have a great day!!!

Another Wintery March E-Mail

I might be running out of ideas for email titles, haha.

This week was another super fast one! One highlight of the week was Tsuchida Shimai`s 22nd birthday on the 15th. It is fun because we both have birthdays close together! We are going to go out for sushi next week to celebrate them. On Friday it was our English class, so everyone sang to her and it was fun. I made her a simple picture storybook in like ten minute increments while she was making meals and not looking my way.

I think I mentioned this before, but I`ve been teaching a children`s English class again here in Asahikawa. Recently it has been a lot of fun teaching them simple words and then playing bingo (thank you so much for the idea Kerri!) There are five kids right now, and they are all cute!

Another highlight of the week was when we met a really nice mother who let us into the entrance of her house when we knocked on her door for the first time. She even offered us a hot beverage and delicious cookies! It is really amazing how much of a difference just a little bit of kindness can make in brightening up a day.

I hope all of you are doing well, and that some spring sunshine is coming your way! We`re still waiting for it to arrive here, but the weeks are way fast so I am sure it will come soon!

Plus bonus snail-mail photos!

Recently we've been all stopping by Baskins and Robbins after our District meetings!  3/1 was 30% off.  Good stuff.

There is still a bit of snow by the side of the street.

(Front and back of a photo from Natalie's companion!)

This is a picture from when we went to visit a fabulous member's house, the Yasuda's.  They actually were senior missionaries in another mission in Japan.

One Year in Japan

I only have like five minutes left to make this email happen, but the biggest event of this week is probably the fact that it will mark one year since I landed in Japan!

It`s so crazy that it has already come. When I was studying Japanese at the MTC a lot of people kept saying that it generally takes about a year to really start understanding Japanese conversations and participate in them functionally. Hopefully I`ve reached that point! I do know that I definitely feel a lot more confident in the language
now than when I got off the plane!

Ah and time is up! But things continue to go well here, and I am learning new things everyday!

And into March!

Hello everyone!

I don`t have much time left to write (my focusing power might not be at 100% lately... oops!), but things in Japan are still going well!

Yesterday was the Hina Matsuri, or festival of dolls, in Japan. I don`t know many of the details about it, but it is a festival for girls where they get together and chat and eat in front of traditional dolls (they are actually in one of the pictures I sent last week with the cute Fujita family). Tsuchida Shimai made a traditional meal for us; it is fun to experience these little bits of Japanese culture!
I will definitely have to do a lot more research when I get home.

I can`t believe it is March already... partly because the weather doesn`t reflect it! But we are still having a lot of fun and meeting with a good amount of people, both being able to share our message and learn from them as well. It is a great experience.

Sending you all lots of warm wishes!

Hina Matsuri