Sanjo!

Sister Yonaha and Sister Lacey in Sanjo-Shi

Sanjo

Sanjo

Sanjo

Raman Restaurant

Beautiful!

Sanjo!

Wow... Where do I begin?! It seriously feels like I just went on
another mission. The Niigata Zone is pretty much it's own mission. It
was fun taking the 5 hour bus ride up here. I won't have temple pday
for awhile because I'm so far away, but, when we have our mission
leadership council meeting Sister Yonaha, me and the zone leaders will
get to take the Shinkonsen (bullet train) down to Tokyo! I'm so
excited! Anyways, Sister Yonaha is amazing! She is the sweetest thing
ever and is also from Okinawa just like Sister Teruya. I can already
tell my Japanese is improving, she doesn't know a whole lot of english
so I've been speaking a lot of Japanese this week. It's finally
starting to get to the point where sometimes I can't remember if I had
a conversation with someone in English or Japanese because the
languages are getting mixed together haha.

I love being Sister Training Leader! I don't really do all the much
although I gave a training at zone meeting my first day here in
Niigata. Oh! I will be going to Sado island tomorrow for exchanges! I
can't wait, I will be with Sister Hubbard from my Mtc district! I have
realized why I have been given this position as STL. The first half of
my mission I feel like I focused on myself and my own desires but now
it's like a switch went off in my head and I'm just constantly
thinking about the other sisters in my zone and what I should be doing
to help them. It's definitely been a growing experience that was much
needed.

Sanjo is a lot different than Saitama. There are fewer people and
hardly no one out walking in the streets. Our teaching pool is a lot
smaller than my other areas but our progressing investigator is so
amazing. She is the most spiritual and pure hearted person I've ever
met. I really believe she will be baptized soon. Oh, and so Sanjo
isn't even a branch... It's called a group and we have a group leader
instead of a bishop or branch president. There are only a handful of
people that come to church and there are a lot of less actives. It's
just like a little family though. There are no babies in the ward
which makes me sad and there's only about 4 youth that come that are
all siblings. Sister Yonaha and I taught the two sisters for young
women's yesterday and it was so fun! And since there's only a small
amount of people church is only two hours. It definitely is a change
but I love it here. It took awhile for Okegawa to steal my heart from
Urawa but Sanjo has taken it pretty quickly. It's already pretty cold
at night but I love the scenery and a lot of people are nicer do I
have a good feeling and strong desires to see many miracles here in
Niigata! Bring on the snowy miracles!

I'm so glad and honored to be a missionary in Japan. Yesterday one of
President Naganos counselors came to church and afterwards did a
little training with us and the elders. It really helped me a lot and
he helped give me advice on how to focus on the youth and younger aged
people. Almost all the leaders of the church in Japan were converts
from age 15-25 so we are trying to focus on them because they are more
open to new ideas. I love this work so much! I have been doing the
Ponderizing and it is amazing how much more I learn and how I feel
more focused on a daily bases. I love you all so much! Thank you for
everything! Aishiteimasu!

Love, Lacey Shimai

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