Week 6!!

A gift from Sister Miles!

It started snowing on P-Day!

Missionary Statue at the MTC

Ohayo Gozaimasu Kazoku!

Hello everyone! I'm glad you're all doing great! Thanks for all of the emails! This week has been great!  On Thursday, Coughanour Shimai and I did sealings for the first time and it was amazing! I love it so much! The temple is so amazing! Teaching on P-days are my favorite because our lessons always seem to be the best. I know its because we have just been to the temple and feel the spirit so strongly. We had an amazing lesson with Ookusa and I know that the gift of tongues is so real and powerful.  On Friday, we taught Tsuboyama shimai the Word of Wisdom and I thought it went really well but Coughanour Shimai was having a bit of a rough time and I just told her that I've been feeling like that the whole time we've been here and she finally realized what its like to not understand and then she felt bad for me, so we've both experienced the ups and downs. 

I love my patriarchal blessing so much. The more i read it the more i get out of it, just like reading the Book of Mormon.  On Saturday, Cook Kyoudai was helping me out and he challenged me to say 100 sentences testifying out loud in Japanese in 20 minutes. It was rough, I was only able to do 32 in 15 minutes, but I feel like I learned and improved so much.  On Sunday, the focus was on baptism and our devotional was on how we need to know the doctrine of Christ and the order of it. It was really good. 

On Monday, our senpai left for Japan so we are now the oldest Japanese missionaries! YAY!  A week from Friday we will get our flight plans! I am so excited, I can't wait. My district and I realize that we never sleep. At night we go back to our bedrooms close our eyes and then all of the sudden we are back in the class room. The days are such a blur. If I didn't keep a journal I would forget everything!

On Tuesday, Cook kyoudai taught us a lot on having an effective companionship study and I learned so much. He has a lot of good advice. Our senseitachi (teachers) help me improve so much each day. Even when they tell us we need to figure it out on our own, I still learn so much and it helps me grow into a better missionary. Our song for Tuesday was 'Jesus Once of Humble Birth' and I loved it so much! Our talk was about being a bold missionary but in order to do that we need to be humble. We need to have as much trust in ourselves as the Lord has in us. It was a really good talk and has continued to help me realize that I need to be more confident and trusting in the Lord. OH! I encourage you all to watch the video "Choose This Day." It is so good. It will help make sure we are prioritizing correctly. 

I love being a missionary so much. This gospel is so true and I can't wait to share it with the people in Japan. I learn so much everyday and I am growing closer and closer to my Lord and Savior and to my Father in Heaven. I love you all! Thank you for everything! Aishitemasu!

Love Lacey Shimai

1,000 Views!

The blog just hit 1,000 views today!  Thank you all for your interest and support of Sister Lacey's missionary experiences.

'We Thank Thee, Oh God for a Prophet' in Japanese

MTC Sisters singing 'We Thank Thee, Oh God for a Prophet' in Japanese

Week 5!!!

Sister Lacey and Sister Smithson

All dressed for Barentain's Dei (Valentine's Day)

No classes on Preparation Day :-(

Her mom's favorite drink and candy (Swedish Fish)

New skirt mom just sent :-)

MTC Zone at the Provo Temple

Sister Leung-Wo, Sister Coughanour, and Sister Lacey 

Konnichiwa Kazoku!

This week was seriously a blur. The weeks are going by way too fast, I can't wait to get to Japan, but I'm scared I wont know enough Japanese! Okay first off, I keep forgetting to answer questions. The MTC food has its ups and downs. Mostly downs. I miss your cooking mom and dad! I hardly ever get a good nights sleep. There's been maybe a total of 3 nights that I actually slept like a rock, but other than that, it takes awhile to fall asleep and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, but I'm surviving! Thanks again for the packages you have sent me! I love you all! 

So last Thursday our lesson with Tsuboyama Shimai was rough! I felt good with my Japanese, but my heart hurt. Her family doesn't want her to be baptized and today we learned yesterday that she is having even more struggles so we are trying to figure out how best to help her. But she gave us good news! She said she prayed and received an answer to her prayers and she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet! We were so happy and thankful for that!

Barentain's Dei was fun! Thanks again for the packages! It was kind of funny because I gave everyone chocolate kisses so I was the Shimai (sister) who gave the Chorotachi (elders) "kisses"...

Our district devotional was on repentance and we had a really good discussion. For choir we sang "Consider the Lilies" and it was so beautiful. I LOVE singing in the choir, it is so amazing. Our devotional speaker was Brother Stephan B. Allen again and he is so awesome. He talked about the importance of companionship and obedience. 

Afterwards we watched a video from Elder Holland called 'Missions are Forever' and it was so good! He talked about how we really need to focus and do our best and how important missions are and we need to be obedient and convert ourselves. I love Elder Holland!

Monday was our one month until Japan mark! YAHOO! I'm so excited! Only about 3 and a half weeks left! It went by so fast! It's still hard to imagine that I am going to Japan! AHH!

The other day we had a 'How to Begin Teaching' practice and we actually taught it in English to see how we should improve our Japanese lessons. At first it was hard to teach in English, but then things just started coming! It was nice, I can't wait to improve my Japanese lessons.  Tuesday class was a little rough because I just could not understand. But then yesterday Olsen kyodai came back from vacation and Coughanour Shimai and I improved so much! It was subarashii.

Well everyone, I miss and love you all. Thank you for everything you do and your love and support. You are all such a blessing in my life. I'm so thankful for my mission. It is helping me learn and grow so much. It's funny because before my mission i would think "oh I better get my 5 mins of reading the scriptures in" and now I get so sad when I only have time to read for an hour! So remember to read and study the scriptures diligently! Make them your first priority! Love you all! Until next week! Aishitemasu!

Love

Lacey Shimai

Almost 1 month done already!!!

Lacey Shimai and Coughanour

In Class at the MTC

Provo Utah Temple

 

Konnichiwa Kazoku!

I can't believe that I have been here for a month! It makes me sad that I only have 17 months left of my mission. My doryo and I decided that we really need to work harder to have a more successful mission. We don't want any regrets and we only have one shot. This week has been really good and I have learned a lot. I realized that I need to not be so timid in the language and during lessons I shouldn't rely on my notes so much. I think I'm going to try going into a lesson with nothing but scriptures and a Japanese dictionary and see how that works. An elder in the zone said this is why we have the MTC, to make mistakes and learn from them. I learned that its okay to mess up because then I can learn from my mistakes. Took me long enough, huh? 

I love my doryo (companion) so much. We learn a lot from each other. We realized that we have been through very similar situations, its almost scary.. We have been able to give each other advice and to learn from each other. The other day we had a good comp inventory. We realized that we have different mindsets on personal and companion inventory. She focuses just on the kyudosha (investigator) and I focus a lot on myself (what I need to do in the lesson). We noticed that she practically plans the lessons during personal study and then when its companion study there is nothing for me to really put in. We discussed this and read in Preach my Gospel and we decided that we both needed to change. I need to focus more on the investigator and she needs to focus more on herself and then we can come up with the lesson during companion study. I love her to death and we are already talking about rooming together in college when we get back from missions. 

I love my senseitachi (teachers) so much too. They teach so well in different ways. One day when Olsen Kyoudai was teaching he was telling us about experiences during his mission and one Shimai asked if we have to eat all the food people give us and he had us turn to Alma 8:21-22 and it says, 

" 21 And it came to pass that the man received him into his house; and the man was called Amulek; and he brought forth bread and meat and set before Alma. 22 And it came to pass that Alma ate bread and was filled; and he blessed Amulek and his house, and he gave thanks unto God." 

We thought it was so funny because Alma only ate the bread! Anyways that was just a funny story. 

I noticed that I second guess myself too much because when we are in class translating sentences I ask the sensei to check it and they're like "Lacey Shimai, that's perfect." I need to be more confident.  On Sunday, Coughanour shimai and I taught the district devotional on the Atonement and we loved it! Not only because it was in English, but because it is our favorite topic. We shared Elder Holland's video "None Were with Him".  It is such a powerful video. I love my district so much. The devotionals here are amazing. We learn so much. 

On Tuesday, Elder Larry Y. Wilson spoke and he talked about the power of the Book of Mormon and how we need to read with our investigators because only 1 out of 20 investigators who read the Book of Mormon on their own have a spiritual experience. We also need to make sure we have members helping investigators. 

Well, I love you all so much! I pray for you always! Thank you for all of your love and support. I love you all but I'm not really homesick... I picture myself at home and I would not be the same person I am now. I love you all so much! Have a great week! Aishitemasu!

Lacey Shimai

Week 3!!

With the choratachi (elders)

District Sisters and Sister Training Leaders

 

With Sister Smithson!!

Provo MTC - January 29, 2015 

Provo MTC - January 29, 2015

Konnichiwa Kazoku!! 

Thank you everyone for your emails and DearElders!  FYI, we missionaries love DearElders! So, last P-Day we went to the temple and had an amazing time! I am so glad we get to go every week! So, and update on the sister from Australia, she has been re-assigned to the Sydney Australia Mission. She isn't too excited about that because she didn't want to serve in her home country, but I know she will be great there. I love her so much, she has been such a great example to me of enduring through trials. 

So, I forgot to tell you all, but our second Friday here we got our iPad Minis! It's pretty cool. I hardly use it, but its nice to show videos during lessons. Also, 4 people in my district, including myself were interviewed for the pre-MTC website and they videoed us and asked us questions about it and if it impacted us and wanted us to give advice to people and they are going to show it to people who will use the website. It was pretty scary and they asked me to bare my testimony in Japanese and I totally messed up but oh well, it was still fun.

On Saturday while Coughanour Shimai and I were planning our lesson for Tsuboyama San, I felt like we should share the "Because of Him" video, so we did. The spirit was so strong during that lesson and when Jack Shimai (Tsuboyama) taught our class she told me that she actually showed that video to the real Tsuboyama! It was such a neat experience! I am so glad I listened to the promptings of the spirit.

Fast sunday was awesome! 24 hours goes by really fast at the MTC. It was the last day with our Senpai becasue they left for Japan on Monday morning. I'm going to miss them all. The mission conference on Sunday was great! The presidency talked about obedience and having faith. TRC appointments were fun, but my doryo and I realized that we haven't improved much in a week so we are really trying our hardest to do better. We were discussing this all as a class and then Olsen Kyoudai shared Alma 26 and said "If you feel like this is frustrating and you feel like turning back, congratulations. You are just like Ammon. But the one thing Ammon didn't do was hesitate when he had promptings of the spirit." I love our sensei. They always know how to help us.

Later that day our lesson with Oosuka went really well and the spirit was definitely there. 

My doryo and I have decided to only write a little bit of words down for our lessons so we can learn better. 

The Tuesday devotional was really good and the speaker was Elder Schwitser of the 70. He spoke on keeping the commandments and how the steps are 1- What commandment do you want to focus on, 2- Why do we have that commandment, you need to 3- Want to follow it and then you need to have that commandment be 4- Within you or you need to Become that commandment. It was so neat and a good way to help us become more like the Savior. Afterwards we had a district devotional with President Butler and we had a really good discussion. For some reason I was just feeling really down and I was going to ask president to give me a blessing, but at the end of the discussion he bore his testimony to us and that is exactly what I needed to hear.  I am so blessed to be in this district. It is so amazing and I am strengthened everyday.

So on Monday I found Holly Hele and she is going to Fukuoka JAPAN!!! I was so excited!!!!! I almost screamed when she told me! And then yesterday my district was asked to host new missionaries and I prayed that I would be able to host Brittani. First, I hosted an international missionary from Korea and she was super nice. Then, I hosted a girl going to Thailand and I had a lot of fun with her. Then I was about to host another girl and I look at the next car and Brittani was running up to me!!! My prayers were answered!!! I was so grateful to see familiar faces and be able to show Brittani around. After hosting was done I felt so sick. I could barely stand and we still had 6 hours of class left. I just prayed to make it through the day. The first 3 hours were rough and we taught Tsuboyama and it didn't go well at all. My doryo (companion) got really frustrated and it was rough. We were both frustrated with ourselves but then had fun at dinner. Then Olsen Kyoudai taught us and we learned so much! He taught really well and we were understanding everything. It was definitely a good ending to a rough part of the day. We are so sore today because we have been working on core during gym time and then we were carrying around suitcases yesterday, it was rough especially with how week I am :-). 

Well, thank you for everything you all do for me! I sent a letter to you on Monday, so you'll probably get it today. I love you all so much! I am so grateful for my mission and how much my testimony is growing. One of the elders in my zone said something interesting. He said how he always wanted to go to Japan and felt like he would and he said "I don't know if I was sent to Japan because Heavenly Father knew I always wanted to go or because I was for ordained to go there and I somehow found out about it." I just thought that was a neat way to look at it. I love you all! Thank you for all your prayers and love!

Aishitemasu!

Lacey Shimai