It was a "すばらしい" week!!!!!!

Dear family and anyone else that reads these, :)

This week was so wonderful! I love Japan more and more every week I
think. As this transfers comes to and end the weeks get better and
better and I am really wanting to stay here in Tama!! But I will go
where ever the Lord wants me to go. Time really does fly though!! This
transfer has gone by so fast!!!
So many cool things happened this past few days and so many small miracles. :)
So sorry this letter is late... We had Pday get changed to today so we
could have sister zone Pday at the zoo with some of our investigators
:) it was a lot of fun!!! I will send pictures :)

So on Tuesday we had interviews. President Wada is such an inspired
man. It was so good to talk to him. He gave me a lot of great advice
and it really helped me to feel good about the work here in Japan. I
feel so blessed to be serving here in the Tokyo south mission. The
Wada's are amazing people and are helping this mission so much.
President focus a ton on our purpose and our mission motto. It is
really cool.
This transfer Nakamura Shimai and I have been really studying our
mission motto. We started first with "obedience is the price" then the
next week "faith is the power" and so on. This week our focus is
"Christ is the reason". What a great focus ね! :) I have been
reading a lot about Christs atonement lately and I love it. It is for
sure one of my favorite subjects. It involves so many aspects of the
gospel. During study though I found this quote and I wanted to share
it cause I loved it.
"Prior to his call to the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Bruce C. Hafen
explained that the Atonement is not simply God’s method for righting
wrongs and satisfying the demands of justice. The Atonement is
rehabilitative, a miraculous power that can help us change who we are:
“I once wondered if those who refuse to repent but who then satisfy
the law of justice by paying for their own sins are then worthy to
enter the celestial kingdom. The answer is no. The entrance
requirements for celestial life are simply higher than merely
satisfying the law of justice. For that reason, paying for our sins
will not bear the same fruit as repenting of our sins. Justice is a
law of balance and order and it must be satisfied, either through our
payment or his. But if we decline the Savior’s invitation to let him
carry our sins, and then satisfy justice by ourselves, we will not yet
have experienced the complete rehabilitation that can occur through a
combination of divine assistance and genuine repentance. Working
together, those forces have the power permanently to change our hearts
and our lives, preparing us for celestial life”

Through the atonement we can gain the power to permanently change our
hearts and lives. That is amazing. We can permanently become better,
more holy, and sanctified through the atonement of Jesus Christ. That

is such an amazing gift!!! Are we using it to its full capacity?!? We
currently are working with a lot of less active members who have been
less active for a long time and seeing them be able to change through
the atonement has been so amazing. They are slowly gaining the desire
more to return to the place they were once before yet now more
refined, with a stronger testimony then they had before. I love the
atonement!!!!

Anyway... This week we had an investigator come to church!!!! It was a
miracle!!! She is one of our eikaiwa students!! This week we started
Sunday morning eikaiwa right before church and she decided she wanted
to stay for church and she loved it. She came with us to the zoo this
week and she is coming to church again on Sunday. :) she is so great!
She is actually Chinese but speaks perfect nihongo. I don't know if I
talked about her before.... But she is teaching me some words here and
there in Chinese... Man I am glad I am learning nihongo over
Chinese..... :)  Chinese it is hard dad!!!! Haha

Yesterday we went over to one of our PIs houses and she practiced
teaching us how to wear kimonos!!!!! It was so cool!!! 
Those things are amazing but they have so many layers!!! 
Such a fun experience though. The one I wore is a 
traditional coming of age kimono that girls 
wear when they turn 20. So perfect for me cause 
I am turning 20 this year..... 
Weird.... I feel so young yet 20 seems so old....
It was a lot of fun and we took some fun pictures :)
and I just remembered it was st. Patricks day 
yesterday and the kimono I wore had green on it!! 
How perfect :) she was truly inspired to have
me wear that one... ね

Oh Saturday I went on splits with the dearest Sister Miskin. She is my
favorite :) she is so cute! We had such a fun time! And we got to do
Kubari with some street performs. The chorotachi in their ward got
permission from president to put on a music fireside so they got to
advertise for it by performing on the street at the eki :) we went to
help pass out flyers and talked to so many people. It was a lot of
fun. :)

This week was the best! I love my area and my comp :) we saw so many 

miracles in some of our investigators this week too but I don't
have time to write them all.... Haha
You guys are the best and I am so grateful for your love a support!
Keep doing all the subarashii things you are doing!! :) I am praying
for you and I love you.

Love,
Ashby Shimai

愛してます!!!


アシュビー姉妹


Fun with brown Shimai :) she remind me a ton of Michelle perry :) haha