"I have been changed for good"

Dear family :)

So I wrote that title because I knew Ashley would love it ;) haha and
this week we had a talent show for Eikaiwa!! It was so amazing. But
one our eikaiwa students sang that song with Sister Gappmayer and they
did so amazing. It was such a fun night full of good food, funny
people, and some really beautiful music. For the second to last
performance, we sang with some of the eikaiwa students 'Nearer my God
to thee' in Japanese. It was such a cool experience. We were standing
up on stage with some of the people I love so much here in Fujisawa
and singing one of my favorite hymns. The spirit was so strong. One of
our potential investigators was there and it was her first time being
in a church let alone hearing a hymn and she said she loved it. It was
such a good night. I will send you some pictures. :) the funniest part
of the night was one man did a Michael Jackson impression and man he
was good!!!!! Like way good. It was hilarious!!!! Hahah I thought of
you mom....haha :)

This week has been a really great one though!!!! We have been really
guided by the spirit in finding and teaching. We were able to find a
new investigator this week!!!! She is actually from Peru and just
speaks a little Japanese so it is hard to communicate. But it is
really cool. :) we are going to teach her the plan of salvation this
week, and I am so excited because she has the cutest family in the
world and family is really important to her. :) Hopefully all goes
well.

Saturday was probably the best day ever!!! We had a lot of finding
time so we decided to go visit some former investigators from the old
area book and see if we could meet them. Along the way we met some
amazing people and were able to give away a few copies of the Book of
Mormon. Can I just tell you how much I love giving someone the Book of
Mormon!!!!! It just makes me so happy, because I know that if they
read that book with real intent their life will be changed. I know it
without a doubt in my heart. I have seen it happen. My life has been
changed because of that wonderful book. I was reading today about the
Book of Mormon in the liahona magazine and this is what it said, "The
Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the gospel. Without the Book of
Mormon, we would know little about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.29
Because it teaches of the Atonement, the Book of Mormon helps us to
repent, make and keep sacred covenants, and merit the ordinances of
salvation and exaltation. It leads us to the temple, where we can
qualify for eternal life."
I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the joy that it brings
into my life as I share the truth it contains with others. :) I love
it!

I hope you all have a great week!!!! Oh and Happy 4th of July!!!!!!! I
hope it is a great one!!!! :)

Be safe and do some sparklers for me お願いします。 :)

Love, ashby Shimai

愛してます！

Sorry bad pic.... But this is the cutest little girl for mama eikaiwa.
She has a twin and they are my favorite!!!! Haha

Happy days :)

Dear family,

I just love all of you so much and I am so grateful for you. I guess I
never have much time.... But I really am short on time today. :) haha
sorry.

But this week has been good. I am learning so much!!! We had transfers
and I got my new companion sister Roth. She is 19 and for Lehi Utah.
She is cute and we are completely different people but we get along
well. I, for sure, am learning a lot from her and I have faith this
transfers will be a good one, as always ;) haha I miss Brox Shimai
though. She was a cutie. We had to wake up at 4 in the morning though
to take her to the station so she could catch an early train for her
new area.... It was so early!!!!!! I can do 6:30 or even 6:00 just
fine.... But 4:00 am takes a little toll on you for the rest of the
day..... :) but it ended up being a great day!!! We saw so many
miracles at Eikaiwa that night. I will tell you one cool story.....

So a couple weeks ago we met a man on the street who was looking for
an English speaking hospital. He is from Mongolia and only speaks eigo
and mong. We tried to help home find the hospital and then We talked
to him a little about being missionaries. After we gave him a flyer for
Eikaiwa and he said he wanted to come. A few days later he met the
elders in the eki and they gave him a tour of the church. He then came
to Eikaiwa last Thursday and I was so surprised to see him. He was so
grateful for us and we talked to him for a while about the church and
God. It was amazing. He is so prepared for the gospel. The elders are
working with him now. Such a cool miracle.

So yesterday we had a Japan wide stake conference. It was a broadcast
to all of Japan!!!! It was so cool. The coolest part was that the two
of the general authorities that spoke for it spoke IN JAPANESE!!!!! So
they had to translate it into English!!!!!! It was so cool!!!!!!!!!!!
I have never seen anything like it and the spirit of that meeting was
amazing! :) one of the coolest parts of the meeting was when one of
the general authorities talked about how the work in Japan is
increasing. He talked about how the missionaries called now are some
of the strongest of g

Gods children. I thought that was so cool. We have
been prepared from the foundation of the world to labor in the l

Lords vineyard and I feel that being confirmed to me as I serve. I know that

the work I am doing in Japan is directed and inspired by God. He loves
his children. It is amazing!!! The conference was so amazing!!! I
loved it!

Well this week was good. :) I know that the atonement of Jesus Christ
is real and that it changes lives. It is changing my life so much. I
love this gospel. :) I love you and hope you have a great week!!!

Love, Ashby Shimai

父の日!!!!

Family,

父の日おめでとございます！
Happy Father's Day everyone!!!! I hope it is a great one for you all!

This week has been great, but first let's start with transfer
calls..... We got them this morning..... And I am staying in
Fujisawa!!!! Brox Shimai is no longer my companion though.... :( I
will now be companions with Roth Shimai. She is actually from Lehi
Utah I think. I will let you know how it goes...haha :)

Anyway... This week was a great last week of the transfer. We had a
lot of happy days and the weather was so wonderful!

On wed. I went on splits with Tanaka Shimai in Odawara. It was the best!!! Odawara is probably the closest thing to Utah in Japan. There are beautiful huge mountains and it is a little more country side and less city like. It is so pretty and we met a lot of great people. We also saw this beautiful old Japanese castle. I will send you some
pictures. It was a lot of fun!

On Saturday I got to go to Costco for the first time!!! We went with a
less active member of the ward. She wanted to take us out to lunch
there!!! It was so great and it is the exact same as it is in Utah!
I didn't get homesick at all. It was more just happy to be reminded of the
happiness that is in Utah! Haha :) but it helped me to see how much I
love being in Japan and how much I am learning and growing form being
in Japan.

I learned a lot this week about the importance of testimonies. We have
been visiting and working with some less active members lately and it
has really opened my eyes to how important it is to constantly be
nourishing your testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to
have a strong testimony of every aspect of the gospel so we don't have
any cracks in our rocks. :) One way to strengthen your testimony is to
share it. So if you have the opportunity to share your testimony with 

someone this week share it!!! Pray for opportunities to share your

testimony. I know when I do that God always helps me find a way to do
that.

This gospel is true and it is the only source of true happiness in
this life and the life to come. :)
I know it! I live it! I love it!

I hope you all have a great wonderful week!

Love,
Ashby Shimai

アシュビー姉妹

Rainy season has arrived. :)

Dear family,

It is rainy season in Japan!!!!! That means that for the next about  

Hannah and her shoulder angel

month it will rain a lot. So far it hasn't been too bad.... 

But riding bikes in the rain as been fun! Haha :)

This week has been great!! We had some cool experiences but I don't
have much time today so I will tell you about my favorite one and a
little small miracle that happened to me.

So the otter day we were able to meet with one of our eikaiwa students
who we have become great friends with. We gave her a Book of Mormon
before and she has been reading some of it. She loves the ways that it
makes her feel. Her husband is abasing her learning more about
Christianity though. He had some hard times with his parents and
religion as a child and so now he is afraid of religions. But as we talked she was so open to it all and had such good thoughts and
questions. It was amazing. The spirit was guiding that lesson so well.
Everything just flowed from one thing to the next. Right now she can't
learn more but we are still sharing with her things from the Book of
Mormon to read. She is so great and I hope that one day she will be
able to really investigate the church but for right now she can just
learn little by little. But that is okay. It is all in gods timing. :)

Okay small miracle..... So we were going to visit someone and I forget
my train card, so I had to buy a normal ticket. I started putting in
the money and realized that I needed ¥10 more so I turned around to
ask my companion if she had ¥10, but right when I did a ticket
just popped out of the machine..... I was like what?? Haha :) just a
small miracle. Tender mercy. God really does watch over his
missionaries. :) haha

Well I love you all!! Have a great week! And enjoy the pics. Today for
Pday we went to Endoshima Island and walked around the whole place. It
is so pretty!!!! There was a cool bell that people in love ring
together and then they put a lock on the fence to lock their hearts
together. It is super cute. :) there where tons of locks! It looked
way cool.

Well I love you and I know this church is true!

Have a great week!

Love, Ashby Shimai

アシュビー姉妹

Schools out for the summer :) But not in Japan.....they start school In April....

.

Hello family!

I hope you all are happy and healthy and having a wonderful summer break!
Japan is warming up pretty quick now....summer is for sure here!!!!
Haha :) And it is humid and it is just going to get hotter. This summer is going to be one I will never forget. But it is fun! Haha

This week has been really great. I went on splits with Gappymayer
Shimai. (Picture) she is so fun. :)
We had a lot of cool little miracles happen this past week with
finding people to teach. But one really cool experience was yesterday
afternoon we came to the church really quick to get something. A few
minutes later a girl walks in and is looking at the flyers on the
table. So of course we go talk to her ;) she is from Brazil and she
said that she used to come to Eikaiwa (English class) at the church when she was
young. Her dad recently died and she decided to start coming again. We
talked to her for a while and then I looked on the table and saw a
plan of salvation pamphlet in Portuguese. How perfect!!!! We were able
to give it to her and she is going to try and come to eikaiwa this
week so we can see her again. She was so cute. It was so cool.
Everything just seems to work out perfectly in that moment. I love
those moments when sharing the gospel just flows so perfectly. :) I
love that about missionary work. Sharing the gospel just seems so
natural. Like why wouldn't you start talking to the person next to you
about God and their family?? Haha :)

I was reading about hope this morning and I read this quote by Samuel
Smilies, 

"Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts
the shadow of our burden behind us.’ … Hope sweetens the memory of
experiences well loved. It tempers our troubles to our growth and our
strength. It befriends us in dark hours, excites us in bright ones. It
lends promise to the future and purpose to the past. It turns
discouragement to determination.”

 I loved it!!!! Hope. We must have
hope. When we have hope we look towards Christ and the light that
comes from him. He is the light and life of this world and when we
have faith in him it allows hope to fill our lives. Hope can get us
through anything. :)

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. :) you are all
amazing people. Enjoy the summer time and play lots. :) enjoy
yourself. You deserve to have fun! "This life isn't meant to be
endured but enjoyed!" Remember to enjoy it. I for sure am!!!!! Hahah I
love Japan! :) I love being a missionary!!!! And I love my family!!!
So much.

Love, Sister Hannah Ashby

アシュビー姉妹

愛してます！

Look we found Mushu from Mulan!!!! Or however you spell his name...haha :)