It's Olá, not Hola

Olá!

Shop Star Brazil

I figured since this was the last week of my second transfer, I should probably write hola the way they do in Portuguese. :) Sorry for lying to all of you for the past 3 months! It was just too fun.

However, it's all good because transfer calls came today and guess what? I'm TRANSFERRING!!!!! Never saw that one coming! This Wednesday I will be going to my new area in Urayasu and I will once again be speaking Japanese! I'm excited to meet my new companion and get to work. I won't be training, but I will be in the same area as Akagi Choro (from my MTC district), Kooeyman Choro (who I knew in the MTC, he is a transfer behind me) and Tokyo Disneyland (although we aren't allowed to go there).

I have loved my time in Oizumi and I am grateful for everything I have learned. It has been an amazing experience and I have met so many amazing people. They have truly changed me and I know that I have become a better missionary because of these people. I am grateful for all they have taught me!

Now let's talk about what happened this week because it was a crazy one!

Visiting one of our investigators.
She was sick so she insisted we be protected.

First of all, I am no longer a trainee!!! I have finished my training! Isn't that crazy? I have been in the mission field 2 transfers, 12 weeks.  I learned so much and I really think that it helped me become a much better missionary.

On Tuesday, we went all the way to Tokyo for the combined Mission Conference with Elder Bednar and the Tokyo South Mission. We woke up extra early to be there 3 hours early, so we were seated right in front. It was an amazing conference! The whole 3 hours was a question and answer and we were able to learn from Elder Bednar and from each other. I had the chance to stand up and share a little thought at the end and it was so amazing. The Spirit in the room was so strong and I learned so much.

The main things that I learned were that we really need to listen to our investigators and that we need to constantly be building our faith so that we can help others build their faith. Faith is something that I have been focusing on a lot these past few weeks and I feel like as a result, my faith has gotten so much stronger. One thing that Elder Bednar taught us was to take a question we have and read the Book of Mormon with that question in mind, marking everything that answers that question. When you finish, write a page about what you learned and put it in the book. He talked about that in the MTC, so I tried it and it was a great experience. One thing he added this time was that once you did it 1 time, do it again, and see what else you notice. I really liked that and so I am going to implement it in my Book of Mormon study. I really have a testimony that the Book of Mormon answers every question we have. There are answers on every page if you are willing to look for them.

Outside the Mission Home
at the Mission Conference.

The whole conference was amazing and I was able to see a few of my Kohai, as well as Elder Handly and Sister Morris who were in my ward in BYU and are serving in the Tokyo South Mission. We had to run out of the conference to catch our train back home so I wasn't able to talk to them, but it was so nice to see them.

We got home and only had time to go visit one person before Ping Pong, so we went to visit Sayuri and the greatest miracle happened! She took our challenge to heart and prayed to know what path she should go on, if baptism was right for her. On Tuesday night, after already having an amazingly spiritual day with Elder Bednar, she just told us "Sisters! I have a desire to be baptized!" It was the greatest news ever! And she wanted to be baptized this Sunday!

Unfortunately, she wasn't able to be baptized this Sunday. Throughout the week, we worked with her to receive parental permission.  Now she has permission from both parents, and she is excited to receive baptism this Sunday. We are so excited for her! She has an amazingly strong testimony that is just so inspirational. Her testimony has grown in leaps and bounds since we started teaching her and it has been truly an honor to teach her and watch her grow.

Dinner with Camilla

This week we also had the chance to meet with a less-active named Noriko. She actually lives in Maebashi and has been meeting with the Takasaki Sisters, but she works in Ota sometimes and loves the Oizumi sisters, so she takes us out to dinner every now and then. She is so sweet and she has the cutest little boys! We had a really great time talking with her and seeing how she is. One funny story was that at the end of dinner she kept saying "We have to get dessert. We can't leave until we have dessert. You can't say you are too full for dessert." Well we couldn't really argue with that and she was very adamant about dessert. There was no way we could tell her about our sugar fast, so we just looked at the menu. It all looked so good! Oh it was so tempting, luckily they had a "healthy" dessert option and I just looked at it and was like, oh that works! It was chia seed yogurt with fruit. Yogurt and fruit were both on our OK list, so we both got it (and then Noriko decided it looked good so she got it too) and it ended up being so good. Yay for healthy, sugar fast decisions!

Saturday was an interesting day. We had so many people we needed to visit, we were afraid we wouldn't make it to all of them. We didn't need to fear though because no one was home. We had so much extra time, we decided to call PI's and we were able to find 2 new investigators! Yay!

Halloween cake from Adriana.

That night we had the Halloween Party in Kiryu. We managed to get rides for all the youth in Oizumi and we were able to go and have a really good time. There was a haunted tunnel and at first everyone was terrified of going into it, so Sister Pourre and I led the way. After that first time, all the girls went through it like 10 times and then they decided to be a part of the haunted tunnel and scare others. It was so funny to watch!

There were also piñatas and Adriana made an amazing cake. It was a really fun night, and I think it really helped the youth to bond more. Next week is the Kumagaya Halloween Party, hopefully they have fun at that too. Sadly, I won't be there :(

At the Halloween Party

As for today, it was transfer calls, so we just kind of sat and ate breakfast/studied all morning as we anxiously waited for the call. We honestly had no idea what was going to happen and it was such a shock to me that I was going to Urayasu. After I got the call, I spent the rest of study time packing. It has been crazy, and I'm sad to say goodbye to everyone, but I'm also excited to see what is next.

I have seen a lot of miracles this last transfer in Oizumi and it has been amazing. I think the sugar fast helped with that. We finished the sugar fast after church yesterday and ate a lot of sugar...so good...but I think I learned some important lessons. It wasn't the actual "not eating sugar" part of the sugar fast that helped us see miracles, it was the fact that we worked even harder because we weren't eating sugar. We promised Heavenly Father that we wouldn't eat sugar so that we could see miracles, and so we worked even harder to find and teach people that would be ready to receive baptism, and as a result we found Sayuri. Not eating sugar was so hard, but I am really proud of us. I feel like our companionship unity increased and we were really able to see some amazing miracles in OIzumi.

Oizumi will always hold a special place in my heart. It was where I was "born" and it was a place where I really grew a lot. I will miss it! Thank you Oizumi!

See you all next week, from Urayasu!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

Is it Halloween or Christmas?

Hola!

The Halloween Train - so festive, so fun

Tomorrow we get to see Elder Bednar!!!!! I am so excited!!!! It's like Christmas!!! Even though it's almost Halloween!!! :)

I am so so so excited to see him and to hear the words he has to share with the Japan Tokyo and Japan Tokyo South Missions tomorrow. He asked us to read 4 of his talks over the past month to prepare for his visit and I re-read all 4 this morning. They are amazing talks and even just reading them and applying the things I've learned from them has helped me be a better missionary.

This week, we spent a lot of time in other areas. Besides Zone P-day, which I wrote about in last week's email (sorry that it didn't send last week, double emails for all of you this week!), we also went to Maebashi on Tuesday for Interviews with President and Sister Nagano and we went to Oyama on Thursday for Exchanges.

Interviews on Tuesday were so great. It is so nice to be able to have time to talk to President and Sister Nagano one on one. They help me so much, and give me so much strength. I have the best Mission President! The only sad news? Sister Nagano brought amazing brownies and cookies, but we had to say no because we are still on our sugar fast. :( It was so nice to see them though.) The Zone Leaders were doing iPad checks while we were being interviewed and when we came out, Elder Watabe (who was checking my iPad) just asked "So there is this video of caterpillars falling from the sky, what was going on?" Haha, good times.

On the way home from Interviews, we got to ride this super festive train, it was completely decked out for Halloween. It was amazing and so fun! Haha, not many people actually celebrate Halloween in Japan, but sometimes you will run into things like this and think "Wow, they are more festive than America."

Ping Pong

That night, we ran Ping Pong by ourselves again because the Elders had exchanges in Takasaki. Four young women showed up and it was chaos. They were just taking selfies all over the place! It was crazy! Haha, they were so fun though. Sayuri, an investigator, and Naomi, a member, both came with two friends and it was really fun. We play church music while we play Ping Pong, so you know it's a party :)

Two amazing lessons we had this week were with Dayane and Sayuri, a mother and daughter that we teach separately.

Dayane has such amazing faith. She is trying to do all she can to live the gospel, to come to church and to help her children. At the end of our lesson, we only had to ask her once if she would pray and she agreed! Then she gathered her two youngest daughters and said the prayer and it was the sweetest prayer I have ever heard. She was praying for us and the other missionaries around the world. It has been such a blessing to teach her. She really wants to be the best and to live the gospel every day. She wants the best for her family
.

Sayuri is just as amazing as her mom. She has such enormous faith as well and wants to participate in all of the activities. She is excited to go to church and learn about the gospel, and she always has really good questions. This week we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she was asking about the Celestial kingdom and she was understanding everything. It really is amazing.

I feel so lucky to be teaching this family. It was such a miracle that we found them a few weeks ago at the Churrasco, and I am so glad that we did. They are so strong and they have such a desire to learn more. I can't always understand what they are saying, but I can always feel the Spirit as we share our messages and they share their thoughts.

Exchanges with the Sister Trainer Leaders

This week we also had exchanges in Oyama with the Sister Training Leaders! I got to go out with Sister Coughanour and we had a blast! She finishes her mission at the end of this transfer, so I was able to learn a lot from her. She really helped me to be confident enough in my Japanese to survive one day in a Japanese area. When we started this exchange, I realized that my Japanese has gone down so much, it was so hard. I had almost no confidence to speak to people, but over the course of the day, I was able to rebuild that confidence and although some people would just look at me weird when I talked, I was able to communicate with people and help share this amazing message.

After dinner, we were waiting for an investigator to show up, but she never did, so we decided to call some PI's. Well, Sister Coughanour had the brilliant idea to use my ability to speak Spanish and Portuguese and have me talk to all the Spanish and Portuguese PI's. It was so weird because I felt so much more comfortable talking to those PI's than I was talking in Japanese. Portuguese feels so much more natural now. Who knew that I would ever say that? I was able to set up two appointments for the Oyama Sisters, so it was a miracle that we decided to do that! The Gift of Tongues is real! It has helped me so much on my mission so far, and I know that my testimony of it will continue to grow for my whole mission.

At night, our last lesson of the day, we were working with a mother and her daughter. Sister Coughanour was helping the daughter with her English speech and the mom and I just watched. After a few minutes, I decided it was probably a little awkward to have two of just just watch the daughter, Kamuri, so I moved over to the mom, Kaori, and started talking to her. It was very slow and it took a lot of hand gestures and dictionary help, but we were able to talk a little bit. She even showed me pictures of her and her daughter at their baptism. I showed her pictures of my family and we talked about families and how amazing and important they are. She was so patient with me, and I know that we both were able to feel the Spirit as we talked.

Exchanges were amazing and I learned so much. I will be sad to see Sister Coughanour go home. She has been an amazing missionary and Sister Training Leader to me. She has such a strong testimony and she is fearless when it comes to talking to people on the street.

Now for the highlight of the week...Mutual!!!!!!

Sister Pourre and I really want to work more with the youth in Oizumi, getting to know them and helping them, and all the youth here are Young Women, so we decided to have a Mutual activity on Saturday for all the girls ages 12-18. We invited the members and investigators and told them it would be a fun Halloween activity. We were so pumped for it! We bought all this cute stuff (Daiso has the cutest Halloween section) and we prepared all morning for it.

Our Halloween Costume Challenge

That night, only two girls showed up, Sayuri and Miki, both investigators. We had so much fun though! Dayane was there too, waiting for Sayuri. We did introductions then we had our Halloween Costume Challenge. We split into two teams (Sister Pourre and Sayrui, Me and Miki) and each of the girls had 30 min to create a costume out of plastic bags, toilet paper, napkins, body paint, and origami paper. It was so fun! They got really creative. Haha, Miki and I had a blast! It was so much fun, such a mess, but so much fun. We gave them all Choco-pies and Pumpkin Kit Kats at the end, and it killed me that we couldn't eat any, but it's all good. We hope to be able to have more mutual activities in the future with more of the girls to help them get to know each other better and to help us get to know them too.

Overall, it was another crazy week, but it's also been a fun week. We are starting the last week of the transfer, so next week is transfer calls! Will I stay in Oizumi or will I go? Who knows? We will find out next week!

See you next week!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

The Craziest Tuesday Night of my Life

(This is Sister Black's letter from last week. We will send her letter for this week tomorrow. - Sister Black's parents.)

Hola!

The weeks are flying by here in Japan! Can you believe I've been in Japan longer than I was in the MTC? Can you believe I've already been here almost 2.5 months? I'm almost done with training! What is this?!

Let's start with Tuesday. Tuesday was crazy because it was Elder Miller's last day in Oizumi! We tried to make Ping Pong super fun and invited everyone to come say goodbye. We even bought snacks and brought some of the youth. It was really fun, and Vivi even got Elder Miller a goodbye present, some magic toys because he loves learning magic and likes showing us all of his card and coin tricks. It was so nice. Then one of the investigators invited us all out to dinner, for one last meal.

The only problem was time. Ping Pong ends at 8:30, we needed to bike home with one of the youth because we promised her mom we would, the Elders were planning on visiting one more family and we had to be home by 10:00. As you can see, not much time. AND THEN Elder Miller got a flat tire. Never fear though, we managed to get everything done, eat in 15 min, take some pictures, and have a really good last night with our amazing District Leader. It was a crazy night, but it was super good, and we made it home on time 😊

The next day, Elder Miller left and Elder Queiroz came to Oizumi. I am officially the only American missionary in Oizumi. Crazy!

We also had Zone Meeting this week and it was so good. I got a lot of really good ideas on how to help promote Mission School (our English and English Test Prep classes) and how to better prepare for Elder Bednar's visit next week! One thing I'm really trying to do is to actually act on the talks that we were asked to read, to try them out now so that I can come up with better questions to ask. One thing I'm focusing on is asking in faith and really taking the time to be thoughtful in my prayers and come to Heavenly Father with plans and actions I want to take, instead of asking him to tell me what to do. So far it's been really good!

In my studies, the Elder Bednar talks, General Conference talks, and the Book of Mormon challenge, I've learned a lot about faith, obedience, and diligence. Everything I've been reading has really focused on those three things. Having and growing your faith, then obeying and acting, then enduring and persevering to the end, no matter how hard it is. Missions are not easy, but they are rewarding. It can be frustrating when someone doesn't keep their commitments because you know that if they do they will be blessed, but as long as we keep having these three things, we can know that God will bless us.

This week really has been a week of miracles (what week isn't?).

On Tuesday, I took the lead on a lesson we had with Lucimara. I was worried because her Portuguese is one of the hardest for me to understand, but it actually went really well. We were able to find her real needs and teach to them. It was a completely different lesson than we had planned, but it was what she needed. It was so amazing!

Saturday was a huge miracle day! We were able to teach two of our new investigators, Sayuri and Adele.

Sayuri is only 13, but she has a lot of questions that she has been looking for answers to. She really wants to learn more about Christ and how to have a happy family. She's the daughter of a former investigator that we just started teaching again and she is so sweet. On Saturday, we were just planning on teaching her the Restoration and seeing where we should go from there, but then she had so many questions that we ended up teaching the Restoration, most of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end) and most of the commandments. She was so prepared and she was so cute! We are really excited to continue working with her and helping her find the answers to her questions.

Then we had a lesson with Adele, a referral from the Elders. She is Filipino and her English is amazing. She loves to learn about languages, people, and religions. She was amazing because she already understands the importance of the Holy Ghost and feeling that confirmation that what she is hearing and learning is true. She immediately believed in Joseph Smith and the First Vision and she said she wants to come to church a few times to see what she feels.

Both of these investigators came to church on Sunday and it was so special. We were watching the Sunday Morning session of General Conference, so they were able to hear the words of the leaders of our church. They had questions, and we were able to answer them, and it was so good!

Speaking of General Conference, it was played in Portuguese, so on Saturday morning, during personal study, I read all the talks in English so that I would be able to understand at least a little bit (or at least remember a bit from each talk). Well, during the actual conference I could barely understand anything, so I just took notes on impressions that came to my mind. It was weird because I couldn't write down things that the leaders said that stood out to me, I just had to listen to the Spirit to know what to write. It was a different experience to me, but at the same time I loved it. I was really able to listen to the Spirit and focus on what was important for me instead of just the beautiful words they said. I will for sure be reading all of the talks again over the next few weeks, but these notes I took during the session will always have a special place in my heart because I know that they were revelation for me.

I haven't had the chance to see or read all of the talks yet, so next week I will talk more about General Conference.

One of my favorite talks that I have studied is President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk from the General Women's Broadcast, "Fourth Floor, Last Door." Everyone was emailing me about it this week, don't worry, I've watched it in English and Portuguese, and read it multiple times, it is so good. We actually watched it with an investigator this week because it was so perfect for her. I love it because it is so true, we never know what God has in store for us, we have to push forward with faith all the way to the last possible moment.

This week was hard for Pourre Shimai and I because we have been doing this sugar fast and it can be hard to see the miracles because they aren't big ones. It was really hard for us, but we agreed, that no matter what, we will continue our fast until the very last moment. We have faith that we will see miracles, the miracles we need to be seeing, not necessarily the miracles we want. And we have! I've included a few of them in this email, but there are so many more.

We found two new investigators for other areas yesterday. We have been able to help a former investigator start to progress. We were able to meet with a less-active member that we haven't seen in weeks. So many miracles! This sugar fast is so hard (especially when your Zone Leader makes an amazing ice cream cake for Zone P-day and you can't eat it) but we know it is worth it.

Now for some fun stuff that happened this week: As I mentioned, we had Zone P-day today! The whole zone got together to do Iron Chef in Maebashi, Sisters vs. Elders. We had 45 min to cook and it was so fun! We made gyoza (Honda Shimai's mom's recipe) and Rice Krispies made with granola. It was really fun! Haha the Kiryu Elders weren't cooking because they brought a recent convert with them, and so we sent them out to buy us more marshmallows when we ran out! So nice! They got back just in time for us to finish the Rice Krispies before time ran out.

The Elders made some kind of stir fry that was pretty good, but the sisters still won!!!! Whoooooooo! Haha, then Elder Seeger brought our his ice cream cake and it looked so good! He put in Black Thunder, and ice cream, and melon pan (bread with chocolate chips). Oh it was so hard, but we resisted!

We also played a round of missionary mafia and that was really fun too! Overall, a great Zone P-day! We have such a fun zone, it was great to get to talk and cook with them.

Other funny moments from this week: At Eikaiwa, we decided to play Charades and Kai Kyoudai got Shinkansen (the bullet train in Japan) and he was so funny acting it out! I wish I had a video! He just started running around the room really fast and waving and it was so funny! When Kai Kyoudai does charades, he gets into it. He gives 110% and it is so fun!

On Sunday, some mysterious food showed up in the fridge labeled Sisters and Elders. Elder Passos talked to the lady who dropped it off. Apparently, there is a really nice woman here in Oizumi that belongs to another church, but loves to make food for the missionaries. Mysterious food!!! It was so good! It was real Brazilian food and it was delicious, bobó and esfiha. Bobó is like a soup with shrimp and mushrooms and esfiha is meat stuffed in dough. Both were so good!

It's getting colder here in Japan (like WA weather), but biking warms me up. I can't believe that another week has passed, but I will talk to you all next week!

Thank you!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

Pictures from Sister Black

(We didn't get an email for the blog this week, but we did receive pictures.  So we are sharing those with you. - Sister Black's parents)

A giant bug.  Japan has so many huge bugs.

Eikaiwa Charades - We give them such nice words.

And they give us this.

I got a cute monthly planner from Daiso this week.
This is also how I look after a busy, productive day.

Sayuri and Dayane after church - they are so cute.

Suri and her son Myles at his birthday party.
They had some good Filipino food with the chili sauce I love from home.

Beautiful view from an investigator's home.  The mountains are so beautiful here.

Our Zone P-day

Making gyoza.

The final product of a contest between Elders and Sisters .



The winning Shimai team!

Plot twist...

Hola!

Basically, every day I go to bed dead tired and then I wake up dead tired again, but it's all good because we are seeing miracles in Oizumi!

First of all, we started a Book of Mormon challenge with some of our Less Active members, to read the whole Book of Mormon before the end of the year. That equals about 6 pages per day. We will be checking in with them this week, but I know that I have been blessed so far. This time I am marking Christlike Attributes and all the references to Christ and it is amazing to see that his name is mentioned on every single page of the Book of Mormon. It really is a testament of Jesus Christ, every page testifies of him. I know that this book is true. It has changed my life and brought me so much happiness. I love sharing the happy message that it brings!

SIster Pourre and I also started a Sugar Fast this week. Until October 23rd, we will not be eating any sugar/candy/sweets/juice. We are trying to see miracles here in Oizumi, and we know that as we show Heavenly Father our dedication by giving up sugar, he will help us to see these miracles and really help the people here in Oizumi.

Breakfast with Vivi

Funny story, one of our investigators invited us to breakfast the day after we started the sugar fast. We told her we couldn't eat sugar and yet the moment we got into the house she had this super good looking Brazilian carrot cake with chocolate sauce. Oh my goodness, it looked so good. AND she kept tempting us to eat it, even just a bite. It was so funny, but we didn't give in! We took it to the Elders instead. They are getting a lot of sugar this month because we just give it all to them. :)

Are you ready for some of the miracles we have already seen?

First off was Isabelle, a Less Active. We visited her and ended up helping her set up her wifi. Last time we saw her, we tried to download Gospel Library on her tablet, but she didn't have wifi, so we couldn't do it. We told her the problem, and then we showed up today and she had actually gone out and bought wifi! We spent a long time trying to set everything up for her phone, laptop, and tablet. I got to use a little bit of my IS knowledge from last semester at BYU. Haha, the only struggle was the computer since all of the settings were in Japanese...which none of us could read. But we did it! Now she has Gospel Library and she can read the Book of Mormon!!!

Last Week at Shake Shack

Then the day after we started the sugar fast we had District Meeting and the Zone Leaders came. Well, the Zone Leaders walked in and Elder Seeger says "Hey guys, I hope it's okay, but we brought a friend." We were all so confused, then in walks a Peruvian who was actually super interested in learning more. It was so crazy! Apparently he just went up to the Zone Leaders on the train and started talking to them, then he walked with them to the church. It was such a miracle! Then he came to Eikaiwa on Sunday too! Yay miracles for the Elders!

On Saturday, we experienced some more miracles. We found 6 new investigators, that's a lot even for Oizumi. ALL IN ONE DAY!!!

One of these investigators is Mamta. We actually housed into her family a few weeks ago, but we couldn't figure out what language they spoke so we tried Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese before her Uncle told us they weren't interested. She looked a little interested so we were really disappointed. She came out about 5 min later and we were able to talk to her in English a bit before her mom made her leave. That night I prayed so hard that we would be able to have a second chance with her. Fast forward to this Saturday when we were biking past the apartment. I spotted a teenage girl and stopped to talk to her (because I am really working on stopping everyone) and it was the same girl! She remembered us and wanted to exchange contact information so that we could meet some time! It was so amazing! Everything really does work on God's time.

Churrasco from last week

Church yesterday was another miracle. Last week at the Churrasco we were able to talk to Dayane, a former investigator, and she still had interest so we met with her this week. Well, her and her daughters and one of her daughter's friends (who coincidentally was another former investigator) all came to church! Dayane even bore her testimony! It was beautiful! Besides Dayane and her family, we also had another Japanese couple, and a Japanese/Brazilian family all come. They were all members, but just to look out and see almost all the chairs filled, it was such a great feeling.

Last miracle was Karina. Last week we were calling Potential Investigators on the phone and we found Karina and set an appointment to meet her at Beisa (the grocery store near our apartment) on Sunday. Well we met her and it was such a great lesson. She had so many questions and they just fit the Restoration lesson so well. Everything she asked about was part of the lesson so we were able to weave all the principles together with her questions. I've never seen a lesson fit an investigator so well before. It was such an amazing lesson! It flowed so well, the Spirit really guided us to teach her in the way that was best for her.

We are already seeing miracles here in Oizumi and I know that we will see more in the weeks to come!

Now for some funny stories from this week:

All the white dots are caterpillars

We were about to leave an appointment with Laiane when her brother told us that there were these white spiders falling from the trees and that they hurt when you touched them. We were so confused, so we just started biking, but then we got to a tree and he was right! There were tons of caterpillars falling from the trees! We kind of just stood there for 5 minutes watching them fall. There were so many! I didn't try touching any of them though...and afterward we biked in the middle of the street so that none of the caterpillars would fall on us. :) It was so weird.

Also, in the middle of weekly planning we got an email with all of the dates for Zone Meeting and Zone P-day and such and we just kind of died because there was so much. Sister Pourre especially. Haha we were just like "Maybe if I don't put it in Area Book, it won't happen" but it's all good. We are excited for everything and we did put it in Area Book, don't worry :) You should have see Sister Pourre's reaction though, I wish I had a picture!

Our District

Last, but not least, the big news of the week. The craziest of all plot twists. ELDER MILLER IS BEING TRANSFERRED!!!!! He got a call this morning saying he was being emergency transferred to Urawa this Wednesday. He called us right after it happened and we were so shocked, we just kind of sat there for 18 min. Elder Querioz is coming here on Wednesday. It's so crazy! He was in Elder Passos' District, so now two of my Senpai will be here in Oizumi...and I will be the only American missionary here. It's so crazy! He's still shocked, we are still shocked, it's just all super crazy. We will miss him though!

Thank you all for your support and love. See you next week!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

We made origiri at lunch.

Aren't they cute.  Guess which is mine?  (Hint: the one on the left.)

I Laughed So Hard This Week

Hola!

It has been a crazy week here in Oizumi! Sister Pourre and I are really trying to help Oizumi, both the investigators and the members and this week we really tried to try some different things.

A note for one of our investigators

First, we visited Leia almost every single day this week (we missed Thursday because we had weekly planning and by the time we got there, she was at work). The first time we saw her, she was really sad and downhearted, but the second time we were able to do some service for her and her mood got so much better for the rest of the week. On Tuesday, we helped her put some wallpaper and hang some curtains to cover the drawings her daughter Satomi drew on her desk and wall. It took some time, but Leia's face after we did it was priceless. She was so happy! Then Satomi came home and she couldn't stop gushing about how pretty it was. We were really happy too, because service always makes us happy :) Throughout the rest of the week, we were able to teach her more commandments to prepare her for baptism and she understood and accepted them all! It was so amazing! She learned about many of the commandments like tithing, when she lived in the Philippines, so this was more like a review for her. I think the most amazing change was just how much happier and emote excited she got as the week progressed. She even invited us to Satomi's Undoukai on Saturday.

Undoukai - so may people, but lots of fun

Undoukai is basically an event for the elementary school kids where they have running races. All of the kids participate and all the parents get together and watch. Because we had some appointments, we didn't get there until the end, but it was fun! We saw so many members and other investigators there, so we got to say hi to them.

The funny thing is that 2 investigators and a member all invited us to their kid's Undonkai, but they were all the same day and time, but different schools! We could only go to one, but we made sure to text the investigators to see how their kids did. One of them won 2nd place and another won 1st!

Naomi and Camilla

Another focus for this week was strengthening the youth. On Tuesday we were able to visit both Eduarda and Naomi (12 and 13) and although neither of them could come to Ping Pong that day, they said they would be at Eikaiwa. We then were able to share the Because of Him video (my favorite!!!) and they both really resonated with it. Immediately after the video finished, they both had reactions and it was so great to see them interested in talking about the gospel. Naomi just kept saying "Second chance, second chance" and that is so perfect! Really, because of Jesus Christ we have second and third and infinite chances. He and our Heavenly Father really want us to become the happiest, best versions of ourselves and through the Atonement we can become those people!

Because of Eduarda and Naomi's promise to come to Eikaiwa, we decided to make it a Super Eikaiwa! We tried to invite as many people as possible, then we went out and bought so so much food and we were playing music and everything. It was a really fun Eikaiwa! We some new people came and we were able to play charades and it was so fun. Haha, on my last turn, I gave our investigator Florinda the word "stripes." She was a little confused so she wrote the word in Japanese to see if she was thinking of the right word. I grabbed my iPad to look it up, then she starts acting out what she thought it was to me and I died. She thought the word was "strip." I literally could not stop laughing, I died laughing and no one else knew what was going on, but they all start laughing because of how hard I was laughing. Oh goodness, I've never laughed so hard in my whole life. She was a good sport though, and Leonardo (a less-active) helped her understand the word. Ah, that was a good Eikaiwa.

Super Eikaiwa

So every week we have Eikaiwa on Thursday and Ping Ping on Tuesday. Both of the, were super fun this week. At Ping Ping, Fabricio beat us all, multiple times. He is super good at Ping Pong. We played King of the Court, and he went through all 4 missionaries and a few investigators 3.5 times before Elder Miller finally beat him once. My Pong Ping skills are definitely getting better, but we still have a ways to go!

We also had our first Oizumi District Meeting, where it was just us. We all gave trainings and we sang Christmas songs (Elder Miller chose them, I just played the piano) and we were able to set some really good goals for Oizumi for this transfer. These goals will stretch us, but I'm excited to see some miracles from our efforts to reach these goals!

Our quick meal

This was also the week of a lot of food. We have one investigator that really likes to feed us every time we go over. Well, this time we decided, oh maybe if we go later, she won't feel like she has to feed us. Well, we show up at 8:45 and she is cooking, and we just think "oh no," but we talk and teach her a bit as she's cooking. Well, 8 minutes before we have to leave to be home by 10:00, she gives us each a huge bowl of ramen, a ton of rice, and causa (basically potatoes and chicken salad kind of). We had 8 min to eat all the food and then we had to sprint bike home to be on time. It was rough. We got home and just kind of died. Good news is, we got to get to know her sister and she seems interested in all the things we have at church like Ping Pong and Eikaiwa and church itself.

Then there was Saturday. This story requires some background information.

At a Brazilian restaurant

So Laiane is a new investigator we found last week, and earlier on Saturday we tried to stop by and she said she was busy, but we set another appointment and it was all good. Her boyfriend then started telling us through the door that he knew the missionaries a while back and he even went to Ping Ping and Eikaiwa. It was really cool and we were excited that we had another appointment with her.

Fast forward to 6:00, when Vivi called us. We usually visit Vivi about 9:00 on Saturday nights, but today she invited us to a birthday party for the daughter of a former investigator. I was a little hesitant to go because how was a birthday party going to help us dendou (do missionary work)? But we said we would be there and at 8:00 we got to the Churrasco (family BBQ party) and guess who we see? Not only is Vivi (a current investigator) there, and Dayane (the former investigator), but Laiane is there too! It turned into a great night because we were able to teach some lessons, and build relationships with our investigators. And yes, there was a lot of food. Brazilians really like their meat. When we left, they still hadn't even grilled half the meat yet, and there weren't even that many people there. It was good though.

Sushi that looks like sandwiches

This is turning into a super long email, but it was just such a good week!

On Sunday, 5 min before church, none of our investigators were showing up and we were getting really sad again. But then a miracle happened! Eliana and her daughter drove all the way from Takasaki (1.5 hours by train) to come to church in Oizumi! Eliana was a referral from one of the members. She speaks Portuguese and only a little Nihongo so she wanted to come to church in Oizumi, but at the same time her daughter speaks Nihongo and only a little Portuguese and Oizumi is far away. She has a real desire to learn the gospel, but there aren't any Brazilians in Takasaki to help her. We talked to her over Facebook once and it was so good. We've actually been working with the Takasaki Sisters (Larson and Honda Shimai) to contact her and see if her Japanese is good enough for them to teach her. Then randomly this week, she messaged us on Facebook saying she was coming to church in Oizumi, and she did! It really was a miracle and it was so good to see her!

I think the best surprises are when I'm playing prelude or the opening song on the piano and all of a sudden I get distracted because the door opens and an investigator walks in! It's the best feeling!

The sisters from our zone

Ok, last dendou miracle. Yesterday we were leaving a less-actives house because she wasn't home and I saw a woman outside her house. I've been really working on being bold and talking to everyone, so I biked up and started to try to talk to her. It was a little difficult though because she was Chinese and didn't speak Nihongo. Then her two teenagers came out and they came over to translate for her. It was a rough conversation because I barely know Nihongo and they only know a little bit, but it was so crazy because they are interested in hearing more about Jesus Christ! It's so crazy! I found a Chinese family, in Japan, that wants to learn more about how God can help them in their lives! And I did it in Nihongo! Ah! I am so excited! The Elders have some Chinese pamphlets and we have a Chinese Book of Mormon, and that's all we really need. The lessons will be interesting since there is a huge language barrier, but the Book of Mormon and the Spirit are the real teachers, so I am not worried. I am just so excited!

As for today, it really is a blessing to be able to go to the temple once a transfer. I really want to help our investigators come receive the blessings of the temple. I know that they can do it! The temple is such a beautiful peaceful place and I love it so much. I hope everyone can come to the temple one day.

I was also able to see Barton Shimai again and she is doing amazing! I'm so glad she is so close by so I get to see her a few times every transfer! I was also able to see Elder Ricks from my home stake. He is adjusting to Japan very nicely. Haha, he stands out quite a bit though since he is blonde and super tall. He just got here 2 weeks ago, but he's doing well.

Today we also had a special surprise. Sunday Night, Honda Shimai called to ask about Eliana and church and then she dropped a huge bomb on me, there is a Shake Shack here in Japan, 1 stop away from the temple. I repeat THERE IS SHAKE SHACK IN TOKYO! So naturally we went there after the temple today. It was probably the best combination of things ever, the temple and Shake Shack. For those of you who have never had Shake Shack, let me put it in perspective for you. My family went to New York City a few years ago and we were only in the city for maybe 3 days...and we had Shake Shack 3 times. That's how good it is. Anyways, it was amazing, I loved it, my companion loves it now (it was her first time, since you know she's from Brazil). Shake Shack!

I found this on Facebook

Lastly, I don't know if I mentioned it in my last email, but Elder David A. Bednar is coming to the Japan Tokyo mission! We are having a super special combined mission conference with the Tokyo South mission on Oct 18th and I am so excited! Elder Bednar is definitely one of my favorite apostles. I had the special opportunity to hear him speak in person twice in the MTC and now he is coming to my mission! He asked us to study 4 talks in preparation for the conference, and it has been such a blessing. I love studying the words of the prophets and apostles. I am very excited for his visit, it will definitely be a special experience.

Sorry for how long this email was, it was a crazy week (as they all are) but thank you all for your emails and love.

ブラクラ姉妹
 Black Shimai

How many times can I say crazy in 1 email?

Hola!

Sister Pourre told me something funny

It has been a crazy week, and we tried lots of new foods,so be prepared for pictures! Haha :)

So, firstly, I forgot to write about Carina last week. Carina and her husband, Leonardo, came to church 2 weeks ago, it was a complete surprise miracle. Leonardo is less active and he just called the Elders one day to find out where the church was and that Sunday he and his family came. Carina isn't a member, but we set up an appointment to do Family Home Evening with them that Friday with the Elders. It ended up being super fun! They made us a ton of food (including steaks which were super good and Mac and cheese) and we were able to talk and have a good time. Then we taught about temples and Leonardo started testifying about temples and how he wants to go with his family. It was so good! We actually finished the lesson at 9:48 and if you remember from my schedule last week, we have to be home by 10:00 if we are teaching a lesson. So basically, all 4 of us had to bike super fast to get home on time. We made it across town in 12 min, it was super impressive ^^

As for this week, we had a lot of crazy lessons.

Sometimes I get cold during study time

This was the week of the cute, crazy children. We were able to teach Maria Gushi this week and she has 2 daughters and a newborn son. Her eldest daughter does the craziest dance every time we come and it is so hard to stay focused. Her younger daughter loves my clothes and she gives me the biggest hugs, it is so cute. Anyways, her children are so high energy, but we do our best to bring the Spirit to our lessons and help her stay focused as well. She is so sweet and she is always willing to talk and read. It's actually pretty funny, she is Peruvian, but she speaks Portuguese because her husband is Portuguese, so I was really confused about which language I should speak. She was reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish, then speaking a mix of Spanish and Portuguese, and Sister Pourre was speaking Portuguese. Ah it was crazy, I ended up speaking a mix of both because I was so confused.

Our rain gear

Then we also visited Dalva. The first time, her daughter, Julia, was running around and saying the colors of different things and it was so cute. It was hard to teach though. The second time though, her daughter was asleep and we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation. She said it is all so new and she doesn't know if it's true yet, but she feels good and that is so perfect! That is the Spirit! She said the most beautiful prayer asking to know if this is the path she should be going on. We are so excited to visit her again this week!

Keisy

Then on Wednesday, we took a train to Hanyu (45 min train ride away) to visit Keisy and teach her the Restoration. She knows a lot about the Bible, so she had some interesting questions, but it was so nice to be able to understand her Spanish and be able to help her answer her questions. She is so sweet and we hope to visit her again soon as well! For now, we teach her over Facebook since going to Hanyu and coming back takes a lot of time.

That same day though, we had a really special experience. Luiz's son has been pretty sick for the last week or so and so earlier this week we asked if he would like the Elders to come give Ikel, his son, a blessing. He said yes, so Wednesday evening the Elders and us went and visited their family. The blessing was so beautiful and seeing the faith of Luiz and Lillian was amazing. They are such a strong family. This was also a testimony builder for me. The priesthood is such a special power, it is power from God and I know that it is a blessing in my life and in the lives of those around me. Ikel is doing much better now and I am so glad that I was able to participate in that special experience with this sweet family.

We had some pretty amazing miracles this week as well.

1. Daiane. We found her last week and we're finally able to visit her this week and it was amazing! She understood everything and really felt that it was right. Then when we started to explain the Book of Mormon she just looked at it and said "Another Testament of Jesus Christ? Yeah that makes sense" She totally understood it, even before we explained how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together to testify of Christ. It was so amazing, she is so prepared! 2. Sofia. Last night we visited Sofia and it was so special! When we rang the doorbell she opened the door then ran and grabbed her Book of Mormon to show us a scripture she liked. She is so excited to learn more and it makes me excited to teach when I see people like Sofia who have such a strong desire.

Honda Shimai and me

Yeah, so this week was crazy good. So many miracles and spiritual experiences. Like I said, it was also a week of food.

First up, Zone meeting. We had Zone meeting this week and afterwards all of the Sisters (including a new missionary straight from the MTC) went to get Indo Curry and it was so good. Oh my goodness...this was one of the many things the MTC teachers raved about and it lived up to its expectations. It was so fun to get to talk to the other Sisters too and just have a good time. As always, Honda Shimai and I had a blast :)

This week I also tried Japanese Cheese Mochi, basically mochi filled with a little bit of cream cheese. It was super good, but I forgot to take a picture! I'm sorry! Also, since it's almost Halloween, Fanta came out with a Blood Orange flavor and it's really good. I forgot to take a picture so I was going to take one at the grocery store today, but they didn't have it! So here is a picture of the label

See the frog on the window ledge

Then on Sunday, Elder Miller made the ward brownies! When he went to his old area, Abiko, last week, he got a bunch of American brownie mixes and he shared! It was so good and everyone was really happy. Haha, it was a little taste of home for me, so that was nice.

Other crazy stories:

Early in the week, we stopped by Adriana's house and she was washing her car, so what did we do? We started to help her! Haha, it was so fun to help her wash and dry her car. It reminded me of washing my mom's car, because my mom loves washing the car. She says it's relaxing. I love you mom!

More Frogs

We also started finding frogs everywhere. I don't know where they came from! We were at 7/11 this week and they were just all over the window. It was crazy, but so fun. The Elders have some funny pictures where the held the frogs and everything. Sister Pourre wanted me to hold some of the frogs, but I didn't. ^^

So yeah, I don't know how many times I've said it, but it really was a crazy week. I love writing these emails every week because it helps to remind me of all the miracles I've seen here in Oizumi. I love you all, thank you for your emails!

Have a great week!

ブラクラ姉妹
Black Shimai

Blood orange Fanta

Mochi Ice Cream