Life is Beautiful

Ohayo-konnichi-banwa my dearest family!

So that is ohayo(goodmorning)-Konnichi(Goodafternoon)-Banwa(The end of goodevning) all in one! So no matter where you are in the world it works :) haha It is just something missionaries say....not a real phrase. My Nihongene companion says it is funny, but DON'T USE IT. haha :) She is cute .

Oh what a week it has been. :) Time just flies by when you are in Japan. You guys should all come here one day. You would really really like it! And the food is good. :) Well some of it....hahha :) This week I tried Natto......It should actually be called NASTY, but I think the Nihongene are a little confused. It is fermented soy beans...... and it is really goopy and stringy and sticks to everything! haha :) But I tried it and kept it down so that is an accomplishment. The Nihongene love it!! haha Crazy... :)

It feels like it was just the other day that I was writing you! haha

Wed: Eikaiwa was so much fun! Okau Eikaiwa is always fun! haha :) Hearing people try to speak English is my favorite and the best thing about being American is everyone always tries to speak English with you if they know it. :) I speak more English then I probably should, but it is a really good conversation starter. ;) haha Anyway at eikaiwa we played "Do you love your neighbor?" and there was this one old man that was just cracking me up!! haha He just thought it was the funniest game. It was great!

Thursday: Zone Conference!! It was really nice and just helped me to feel a lot better about this mission and work and everything. I also ate my first Bento Box. YUM! and we found out we are getting i-pads for sure this Thursday!!!!!!!! :) :) YES!!!! I-PADS!!! MINI ONES!!! The Tokyo and Tokyo south missions are the the test missions for tech. So I think we are the 1st international missions to get them! I am so excited! We all get our very own too!! It will be so nice. This Thursday we have a huge conference to talk about how to use them, and dendo with them. It will be great!

Also on the way home one the train we talked to this nice lady and she loves sewing. In the end she gave both Nakamura Shimai and I a little crocheted Hot pad that she made. It was so nice of her!!! She thought it was great that we were on missions and such. :)

Friday: I really learned that God guides this work. And If you pray for something he will give it to you!! haha :) We weren't having much success and so I prayed that we would be guided to find those who were prepared on a specific street we were on. So we started knocking doors and the first door we knocked on this high school kid came out and was SUPER interested. We talked about the book of Mormon and the restoration and it gave me chills when he read Joseph Smiths account. There is so much power in that! Then 2 doors down we met another kid in Jr. high who really liked the book of Mormon and promised he would read it. 2 out of the 4 doors we knocked on. Which for Japan is HUGE cause door knocking is about the least effective thing you can do here. But Ask and ye shall receive.  You just have to pray and ACT :) It was really cool!

Saturday: I met a lady on Saturday door knocking again who is deaf. She is 87 years old and so funny and so cute. :) She told me... Well I think she told me..... That the War was bad, but now that the war is over it is okay that I am in Japan. I was able to say "konnichiwa" to her because we learned three things in Nihongo Sign language in the MTC, "Konnchiwa" , "Genki desu ka?", and how to commit someone to baptism. I probably should have tried that last one.... but she hadn't really heard our message. We gave her a pamphlet and she started reading it and liked what she read. It was really cool. :) She was too cute.

Sunday:

The word to describe Sunday is Beautiful! It was so good! I met a girl at the park who studied English in Nashville. Her English is amazing. We had such a good conversation about life and why things are hard. I shared with her the restoration and showed her how the Book of Mormon can answer questions She was really interested but is super busy. We are going to try to meet with her again this week I think. It is so GOOD to testify about Joseph Smith thought! Last night was the BEST though! We had dinner at a families house. They had a man from Italy staying with them. YES ITALY!!! haha :) He is here on an exchanged program with the students of his class. He has traveled all over the World and this is his first time in Japan. He has such a beautiful out look on life, people, cultures, food, God, etc. He really is at the perfect place in his life for the gospel. He really thought the Book of Mormon had a lot of good in it. He committed to read the WHOLE Thing and pray to know if it is true. He has been researching a lot of religions his whole life and he really was impressed by us and the Church. It was so cool to hear about everywhere he has been though!! and we ate FARMER-ON-CHEESE (Parmesan) FROM ITALY!!!! So it was a pretty cool thing :) haha

So the under lining theme of this letter is the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the Gospel is so Powerful! It is what sets our church apart from everyone else. The Book of Mormon is true. It contains the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Read it everyday. It has power because it it the Word of God. It has the Power to Change lives. It is for sure changing mine everyday I read it. I love it with my whole heart. My favorite part of the day is Personal Study because I get to read it. :) Thank you for all of your love. I have really needed it! I will always need it though...haha :) I pray for you all everyday and hope school and everything is going well. :) You are all amazing people and I am so grateful for you in my life. :) Never forget how much I love you all!! But let's be honest... Mia is my Fav!

Have a great week!

Love, Hannah Ashby Shimai