watashi no Kazoku = my family

Feb. 16, 2014

私の家族, (watashi no Kazoku= my family)
Yeah let's pretend I drew those characters just for kicks and giggles.... Haha :)
Well this week in Tama was a great one!! But really it was! We got a ton of snow again!! And they are expecting more this wed. It is really crazy cause Tokyo never gets snow like this!! My Doryo is from Hokkaido and she says this is like what they get up north everyday!! So glad I was called where I am.... Just saying. Haha :) the snow is fun though. It provides a great way to serve people and what better thing to do while shoveling snow then talk about the gospel or our free eikaiwa class or invite them to church activities?? I mean the options of conversation are endless. And then they give you something like apples for helping them and you give them a Book of Mormon for giving you the apples. :) true story it happened this week. This lady was so cute. After I gave her the book and told her how much I loved it she was like ( in Japanese of course) "thank you so much for giving me such a special book." It was so happy. We are going to visit her again this week.

Anyway......This week was really great! Cold but great! I am so glad I have my rain boots!!! Cause the snow melts fast and there is so much water and slush everywhere!!
Oh happy valentines day!!! I for sure felt your love and I loved that package!! Sarah thanks for your little touch it made me laugh... ;) it was really happy and because of it we were able to give some valentines to some of the less actives we are teaching and our investigators.  So thank you!! Yeah for American candy! Haha :) I feel so blessed to be apart of this work. This week we are beginning to see some good progress in one of our investigators. We taught her about prayer and how we need to pray with real intent and pour out our souls to God. She really liked that idea but still struggles with the idea of God. She has been taught for over 6 months, but one cool thing happened the other day. After we taught her about prayer she called one of the elders that used to teach her a while ago and said that she is going to try to start living the word of wisdom. Which, she loves alcohol... So we were like what?? It was really cool yet funny. It just goes to show how much The Lord knows his children. He knew what she needed to hear about prayer so that she could have that desire within her to start making other changes in her life. She is so cute I just love her. God knows her and knows her needs and through us he can help meet those needs.
I love being here in Japan. The work is hard sometimes but it is so worth it!! One last thought.... Today I read I little about the word hope. I really love that word hope. It has so much to it. When you have hope you are confident, happy, enthusiastic, you look to the future, and you know God will keep his promises to you. I could for sure use a little more hope in my life. But there is a great Mormon message by president Uchtdorf about hope. Look it up. I really love it. He quotes Romans 15:13. "Abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." Don't you love that scripture!!! When we are have the Holy Ghost with us we have more hope. Abound in hope. I love that!
Just remember that no matter what, the Lord is bound when you do what his says. He wants to bless us. :) I see him blessing me everyday! Miracles have not ceased. I know it! Have that hope in greater things to come. I love you all and pray for you everyday!! Have a wonderful,
Love, Hannah ;)
愛してます!!
アシュベ 姉妹
Sister Ashby

crazy, fun, fantastic week!!!!

Watashi no Kazoku!!!!!!

This week was so great! It snowed like crazy!! And it never snows in Tokyo. It was a blizzard and no one in Tokyo is used to that much snow so it was such an adventure. I am so grateful for water proof clothes especially my hunter rain boots. :) yep Nicole I sure love my hunters!!! ;) hahah :) but it was so fun!!!
Monday we made sushi and ate it facing a specific direction it is some Japanese February 3rd tradition. But it is so fun! For sure making that a tradition for the rest of my life. And sushi is my favorite.

So I am not going to do a day by day anymore cause it is kinda hard and I write to

much.... So here are the important things that I remember from the week...... And I don't have my journal so I can't really remember ......hahah
So transfers!!!! I am down one transfer already..... Crazy!?!?!? Tranfers are this week and I am........ Staying in Tama with Nakamura Shimai!!!! Yay!!! I love Tama. The ward here is on Dendo fire. They are so great! We have been getting a lot of referrals from members
lately not all of them are going through but we are trying. They have a lot of faith though. That I some thing I love about my mission. Seeing the faith of people on the other side of the world. There are people here that I love so much!! And they are so good :)
This week we had a great week with lessons. Opening this area has been hard cause we don't teach much. President told me this week that he sent me here cause he felt that I needed to learn patience. Hahahahhaha I am for sure learning patience here in Tama.....haha but I love it!!

On Friday we taught 3 lessons which is like insane for us cause that never happens. It was happy. :) lately we have been teaching some less active members who are so wonderful. I love seeing them once again find their love for the Book of Mormon and it helps me
have the drive to always stay active in the church!  Are last lesson that day was amazing. It was with a sister who is dying from cancer. I think I have mentioned her before. Anyway she is amazing. She told us this week that the doctors told her that she only has a little bit left. Before we started to visit her I guess she would never pray really but after we started visiting her she started to pray again and now she says she prays all the time. It has helped her feel so much peace about leaving this life. She has never been through the temple and that is her greatest desire right now. She probably won't be able to go but we have been showing her pictures of the temples and taught her more about the plan of salvation. She is so amazing. She trusts God and feels peace. The Lord knows her and her desires and I know that it will all work out for her. The spirit was so strong that night. It was so peaceful in her house and everything just felt right. :) Heavenly Father really had a hand in that lesson. A lot of what was said was for sure straight from him.

Today for p-day we had a zone p-day  and went to see a super famous
Buddha it was great! I loved it. We went inside and everything!! So
cool!!!and we saw Buddhas big shoes...hahha :)
I am going to try and send a video too. I love you all so much.
This church is true. God knows our needs better than we do. And if we
let him he will make us the people he needs us to be. We have to trust
him and put our faith In him. Ether 12 :) it says faith about 35ish
times :) faith is the power! It is a simple truth. :)
Love ya! Love,
Hannah ashby Shimai

First week of I pads

My dearest family,
Okay this week has been so crazy and so much has happened!!!!! :) 1st things first. iPads!!! So they told us that they have only receive permission for 30 missions I the whole world to get iPads before April and only 2 of those missions are foreign missions. Tokyo south and Tokyo!!!!!!!! So we are really lucky but that means we have to use them wisely. We are setting the example....hahha :) but it is so great! The iPad makes the area book and planning so much more efficiently  and accurate and helps us follow the guidelines in preach my gospel, exactly. It is really quite cool actually. But at the same time we have to remember that we did missionary work just fine before we got the iPads. The advice they gave us was "think about the people and
then as you think about them the iPads will flow naturally into place." Something like that anyway.... It is just the idea that there is so much we can do now with the iPads, like show videos on the street and pull up pictures and such so quickly but we shouldn't be thinking in a finding situation "how can I use the iPad" we should be thinking "how can I help this person come closer to christ" and by doing that we will use the iPads in the way that they were intended to be used. It is weird having an iPad though.... Hahah technology :) I
love it! We have been able to use it to show videos in lessons already and it really helped to bring the spirit. Really cool how The Lord is hastening his work. Anyway the iPads happened on Thursday....let's go back to the beginning of the week.....
Tuesday:
We went to hula class for the ward. It is really cool cause the relief society sisters bring there nonmember friends and we get to all talk and have a great time. This ward is so good at having activities where they can invite people to come and become more familiar with the church. I love the Tama ward!!! :) we also went and got sushi that night for dinner and sushi in Japan is so good!! Way different then American sushi but so simple and so good!
Wed:    was such a amazing day! I just say gods hand in everything that day :) we visited a less active lady who is dying from cancer and it was so amazing. She doesn't know a ton about the gospel but she a very
strong testimony and is so at peace. She could die any week now and she has been through a lot in her life. She is only like 40 something and has a 8 year old daughter who just got baptized this year. She is an amazing lady though and so sweet. I also got my spike finally I will send you pictures!! It was such a tender mercy that I found it and I love it so much!!! It was ¥39200 $392 for everything. So perfect :) and eikaiwa was so great that night! We had some people come who haven't for a while so that was a blessing. :)
Thursday:    we got the iPads!!! We had a great training and the right after went and taught a lesson. It was the most amazing lesson. So as you can tell lessons here are few because we are the sisters opening the area.... :) which is sometimes is hard. President says that it usually takes about 2 transfers of opening an area for anything to happen but we are trying our best to change that ;) Anyway this week we had way more lessons then ever before!! Which was such a blessing. This particular lesson was with a sister who has been taking eikaiwa lessons from missionaries for about 6 months.  For 1/2 the time we teach her English and then the other 1/2 we teach gospel. During the lesson we talked about the Book of Mormon and used a questions of the soul Insert that we have. She reads the Book of Mormon every week but doesn't understand it. I was able to testify to her half in Japanese half in English about the power of the Book of Mormon and how it truly
does answer those questions of the soul that we might have. As I was testifying I had a picture flash through my head of her In white getting baptized and I had this distinct impression that one day whether it is in a few weeks or a few years she will be baptized. It was so amazing to feel that joy that comes from testifying about
things you know to be true. I love the gospel and the Book of Mormon so much!!
Friday:
I don't remember much....but we met this really cool lady on the street that just wanted to talk to us about our church and why we believe it. She wouldn't let us give her anything but she was super interested. People are funny sometimes :)
Saturday:
We got two new investigators this week!!!! It was the best!!! :) we taught one of the, on Saturday and she is so sweet. She is super shy and doesn't say much but we gave her a church tour and taught her the first lesson and she talked about how good it made her feel. It was so great! The gospel is nothing but good! Oh and I now have been in japan for a whole month!!
Sunday:     always the best day! And fast Sundays are even better :) we taught another one of our
investigators who is really more interested in learning English then anything else but we are slowly seeing
changes in her and we are trying everything we can to just help her purely feel the spirit while we are there. She is such a good lady I just her :)
Today:     we ran up a huge hill to watch the sunrise it was amazing!!!!
:) I will send pics
Pray that this week we will be able to find new investigators. :) transfers are next week and I am really hoping I don't get transferred. I feel like we are finally getting the hang of things here in Tama and I love Nakamura Shimai!!! She is the cutest little Asian :) hahah Well I love and miss you all but I love japan!!! This week I have been really able to see truly how much The Lord loves his children :) he is  always there :) and we truly need him every hour. I pray for you all!
Have a great week!
Love ashby Shimai
Sent from my iPad