8 month old✌🏻🤦🏻‍♀️

I always tell people I feel like a giant infant wondering around Tokyo and I mean, it makes sense. I'm the equivalent of an 8 month old who can't do anything herself and has no idea what is actually going on.

In other news, I hit 8 months✌🏻

This weeks miracle was that we managed to have 7 lessons this week and I don't really know how that happened because it never happens. We also housed one day for like 4 hours straight and managed to only talk to two people and one was a drunk old man who laughed when we said we wanted to teach him about family history and then he responded with "you're young! You don't need history!" To which my history major heart was very saddened by but it's okay.

A lot happened this week but nothing super exciting.. I'm sorry, I'm boring this week.. I also forgot to write my scriptures down for this week so I'm just one big loser right now🤦🏻‍♀️

Oh. Fun story.
On Friday my eye was hurting something fierce and I was like "Oh, probably just my contact. I'll take it out after this lesson and then wear my glasses the rest of the day". So we go home, I take out my contact AND MORE PAIN THAN I HAVE EVER FELT IN MY ENTIRE LIFE FLASHED THROUGH MY LEFT EYEBALL. So painful. I couldn't even open my eye. So Harmon Shimai, being the good companion she is, called Sister Warnick and I spent the rest of the day with a warm towel on my eye to try and calm it down. After sitting like that for 4 hours, I was finally able to open my eye and it looked like the devil himself had possessed my eye. It was SO bloodshot. Like more red than white. It was bad. So Sister Warnick called us again and told me to go to bed and not to open my eye till the next morning and if it still hurt in the morning I needed to call her so I could go get it checked out. In the morning it was sore but not even close to what it was the night before so I decided the best approach would be minimal mascara and glasses for the next few days. So that's what I did. All is well now and I have no idea what caused the pain but I'm real glad it's gone now.

Also, I spilled mabodofu all down the front of me one day and kind of ruined my favorite outfit 🤦🏻‍♀️but I managed to use an entire tied to to pen and some shampoo and got out most of it so it's not too bad now. But if anyone wanted to send me another to go pen, I wouldn't complain..

I also got us lost for an hour and a half yesterday.🤦🏻‍♀️

This week just wasn't my week, let's say that.

But God is great and Jesus loves me so I guess I'll put on a smile and try and move on!

Yeah. That's it for now. I'm sorry I forgot the scriptures.. that's the most important part.. I'm very upset with myself..😔

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

愛しています！！！❤️

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

Inokashira Koen. This park is so big it starts in Kichijoji and ends in Mitaka.

🙋🏻

When the elders steal our favorite classroom, this is what happens.

Found a nice club while housing.
Sadly it was closed so we couldn't bust out some moves.

A whole lot of nothin' followed by a whole lot of wow

Another week in the Kich has come and gone and I'm still just as confused and dumbfounded and amazed because of the fact that I'm living in Japan. It's a little mind blowing to think about.

Forewarning: this email is REAL long.. ごめんなさい。

Happy late Valentine's Day to all you lovely people out there in the world! I hope it was a good day for you all❤️

Harmon Shimai and I spent Valentine's Day teaching a kids English class for a member and her friends. This isn't always my most favorite service activity but the power of positive thinking is astounding. I woke up that day just dreading going and doing this because there's always a trillion kids and they are all SO loud. But as it got closer to going I was like "okay. You can't be mad and grumpy going into it. You're a missionary. You're here to serve so suck it up and be happy to serve". So that's what I did. And it turned out to be an enjoyable hour of service. But teaching kids English class has also reaffirmed my decision to be a high school teacher and not an elementary school teacher. I do not have the patience to teach small children every
day...

Our area book here in Kichijoji is astoundingly awful. It has been neglected and just so sad. So we spent most of Saturday going through and contacting people from it and inviting them to the special devotional we were going to have on Sunday when Elder Holland came to Kichijoji. I won't spend too much time explaining all the details
because this email would turn into a novel if I did that buuuut we set up an appointment for Friday with a girl from area book! Yay! And here's where it gets even better. We had two people that we had contacted come to the devotional! One lady told us that she has recently been thinking about our church and wanted to come to church yesterday but her health has been bad so she didn't know if she was going to go but then we texted her and she was like "yes. I'm going!" She was so cute! She told us she wants to take lessons once it's not so cold so I'm just going to pray it gets warm soon. The other girl we had emailed just thought "hey, why not go?" So she came and that was great! I'm hoping that something wonderfully amazing comes from this and I think it might!

Now. The really good stuff.

So. Yesterday there was a multi-stake conference because Elder Holland is in Japan. So they broadcasted that from the Matsudo stake center in the morning and my goodness. I just love Elder Holland so gosh darn much. He talked about 3 Nephi 17 and how when the Savior told the Nephites that He would leave and return they looked at Him with tears in their eyes as if to say "don't go". Isn't that what we all want? The Savior to stay with us and never leave? It really was just amazing and I wish you all could have heard him give this talk. He also said something along the lines of "Most of our problems would be solved if we let the will of God rule our life". Wow. Talk about a call to repentance and a need to be humble. SO GOOD, YOU GUYS. But wait. There's more. I don't know how this came to be but Elder Holland ended up scheduling a devotional to be held here in Kichijoji Sunday night. Once again, oh my goodness! I can't even put into words how wonderful it was to hear him speak to the people of Japan last night. He started off by telling us that he didn't have a real plan of what he was going to speak on and that he was just going to talk to us. And after he finished I don't think I've ever been so sure of the reality of the Spirit and
the priesthood power that the Quorum of the Twelve hold. He spoke of "broken things". We are all broken in some way. We all have little cracks and scratches and chips but he asked us to "remember that God loves broken things" and that "God is invested in fixing broken things". God is invested in fixing us. God is invested in us. And the part of us that God loves the most is our broken hearts. Our broken, damaged, bruised hearts and contrite spirits. He later went on to explain exactly how the Savior died. Of course, we all know He died on the cross in more agony than any of us could ever imagine. But it wasn't the crucifixion that killed him. It was a broken heart. It was the weight of the sins of the world on His loving heart that killed Him. Wow. But it is because of the love that is contained in His precious, broken heart that we are able to be fixed. All it takes is us saying "I'm sorry for my sins" as we partake of the broken bread of the sacrament each week. Wow. I think it's safe to say that there wasn't a dry eye in the chapel by the end of Elder Holland's devotional and if there was, that person probably doesn't have a working heart at this moment and they need to see a doctor. The Spirit was so strong and I just wish so badly that all of you could've been there. I seriously can't put it into words but I wish I could.

With all that being said the scripture I'm going to leave you with today is 3 Nephi. Especially 3 Nephi 9 & 17 but the whole book of 3 Nephi. The Savior's earthly ministry to the Nephites on the American continent is something we all could study a bit more and better understand. I know it's something I definitely want to study more and
better understand.

I'm sorry, this email is forever long. Please forgive me.. I just had a lot to say.. but I hope you all have a wonderful week and always remember to look to the Savior when you feel a little broken.

Love you!💕
愛しています！！！

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.
--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

Our Valentine's Day heart

Zone meeting. Shout out to Harmon Shimai for the new skirt✌🏻

We were a tripanionship with the always adorable Morris Shimai
for approximately 3 hours so of course we had to take a nice selfie
before our time together ended.

Straight 🔥 in the Kich

Mom, don't worry but Harmon Shimai and I may or may not have accidentally got a nikuman on fire.

In other news: Harmon Shimai is the cutest person ever and even though I miss my favorite Nihonjin, I love Harmon Shimai! She's from Idaho and is my age but is a transfer 8 so she's four months ahead of me. She's also going to go to Utah State after she gets home so yay for that! Go Aggies🐮💙

Monday night we had the sisters from Yokosuka come stay with us because one of them had to go back to America early for medical reasons so then her companion, Black Shimai, joined Kawamitsu Shimai and I until transfers on Thursday. Black Shimai is great haha really, she's super funny and so nice. So it was a good few days with her and the Kawamits. We just went about our normal dendō business and 'twas
lovely.

The dreaded transfer day finally came. I was NOT excited for Thursday in the slightest. So I was a little grumpy but I was trying to get over that and be a big girl. We went to Machida to meet a bunch of other companionships so we could all get our new companions and make sure no one was alone. So it was Machida where I officially became companions with the always lovely, Harmon Shimai! I had met her like 3 times before but it was always brief and so we were both a little like "oh, hey.. we've met before but like.. yeah.." but we got over that real fast. But poor Harmon Shimai woke up sick that day and was miserable. So the next day we called Warnick Shimai and asked about her symptoms and she told us that Harmon Shimai probably has the flu. Yaaaay! So we had a super chill weekend of staying in the apartment and her sleeping while I studied and wrote emails and such to send to some people in our area book. Super exciting weekend. But when she wasn't sleeping we just talked and talked and talked. GUYS SHE THINKS I'M FUNNY AND ACTUALLY UNDERSTANDS MY JOKES😭🎉 it's the best hahaha after four and a half months with a Nihonjin, it's weird having everything I say be understood. But yes. We have gotten way close way
fast. I'm super excited for this transfer with her!

Because Harmon Shimai has been sick we haven't had much real dendō time so I don't have any stories about that.. OH MY I ALMOST FORGOT HOW COULD I FORGET THIS. Y'all are never going to believe me when I tell you this. Are you ready? DRUM ROLL, PLEASE *drums roll in the distance* I ate cow tongue. Yup. COW TONGUE. So my homegirl, Li San, was like "it's so yummy! Let's go get it before Kawamitsu Shimai transfers!" And I was like "oh..yay.. so excited.. a woot woot.. *half-hearted fist pump*" so we went. And I ate. And the outcome was that it tastes fine but the idea that I had COW tongue on MY tongue was just not very appetizing. So yeah. I ate cow tongue.

Okay, mom, now I'll explain the fire. So since Harmon Shimai has had the flu she hasn't eaten real food since Thursday. So yesterday she says "I think I can eat real food. I wanna try a nikuman" so I put it in the microwave for her and normally that's all you have to do and then like 45 seconds later it's done. For some reason, that didn't happen this time. So it was in the microwave forever and next thing we both know, there's smoke coming out of it! So Harmon Shimai grabs it with a towel and runs out of the apartment while I stand there trying to fan the smoke away and then I go over to open another window and the smoke detector goes off and we're both just like "fantastic!" So once we get it to stop Harmon Shimai runs that outside too so it doesn't go off again and the whole time this is happening people are walking past our apartment just staring at us like "stupid Americans" and all we can think is "we can't let the elders know this is happening right now!!" So we get it all sorted out and nothing is damaged and we have all the windows open and everything but our apartment smells so bad. Sooooo bad. So we spread a frick ton of air freshener trying to get it to be okay and it's just not working. So our apartment still smells weird but slowly it's getting better. We also decided we should call the recorder and see if this is an incident we have to report. So we called Elder Pratt and he just laughed at us and said that since there wasn't any damage we're fine. He also didn't know how to report that and didn't want to figure it out so it all worked out for everyone hahaha.

Scriptures!!! Alma 29:1, Alma 31:5,38, Alma 32:6, Alma 33:11, Luke 24:31. I've also been reading "Our Heritage" from the missionary library and I highly recommend it. Maybe I just like it because it's history and I'm a history nerd but it's super good!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.
愛しています！！！

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

The always adorable Harmon Shimai and I decided to
take some selfies for y'all. Please enjoy.

 

Our adorable kids English class students came to sacrament
meeting to hear Kawamitsu Shimai speak before she left

The cow tongue incident

I love James Shimai so much. She's the bomb.com

NOT THE NIHONJIN😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

This weeks Kawamitsu Shimai's drawings

Transfer week! How in the world am I going to be a transfer five this week? Wait. What the what? So crazy! But yes. Transfer emails were received on Saturday. Good news: I'm staying in Kichijoji. Bad news: my favorite Nihonjin, Kawamitsu Shimai, is transferring to Machida😭 no, I'm not okay with this and yes, I will be crying when I have to say goodbye to her on Thursday. I will miss my Nihonjin BFF so much😭
But my new companion, Harmon Shimai, is super cute and I'm excited to work with her!

This week seems like it was foreeeeever long. I don't know why but it was real long. Real long. But it was still good! We had zone conference this week and that was great! I love conferences hahaha getting to learn from the mission leaders so that I can improve my dendō is honestly so great. I always come out like "wow. I need to be
better!" But that's not a bad thing! It just means that each time I'm learning something new and I can improve so I can better help these wonderful people here in Japan! Also, that same day we had eikaiwa and we're slying getting our eikaiwa students to pray by asking them to pray in English because they all think it's so cool to be able to pray in English. Slightly deceiving but I mean, they have to realize that we're missionaries and that we're going to do everything we can to help people come unto Christ! So I don't feel bad about it haha💁🏻

Kawamitsu Shimai and I went to a new place this week and as we were walking around we both looked at each other like "this feels SO much like Kamiooka!" (Because she was there before I was) and then we found some hills and we were like "yup, definitely not in Kichijoji anymore. We're in Kamiooka again". It was a good time. We also found some prime housing spots that we really want to go back to sometime and a giant whale so it was a productive day, if you ask me!

We tried visiting a whole lot of less actives this week and they either weren't home, ignored us, or we couldn't find their addresses. SO FRUSTRATING! Gosh darn it. I just wanna talk to these people! I just want to be their friend😔 but whatever, I will keep trying! There are like 400 less active sisters in the Kichijoji Ward so there are
plenty for me to visit haha

We had a lesson with my beloved Liさん again and she is just as wonderful as ever! Last week we asked her to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and then when we asked her about it she was like "of course I read it! I read to here!" And points to right before Joseph Smith's testimony. Yaaaaay!!! You can tell it's all really
different for her since she has zero knowledge about Christianity but she's being so nice about it and I feel like (for lack of a better term) she's taking it all really well! I love her😊

Scriptures! "Who against [all] hope believed in hope..." -Romans 4:18, Alma 26:3, 7, 26, & 36 (if you can't tell, I really like Alma 26), Alma 28:14

Well, homies, I love you all! Always remember that!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy!
愛しているよー！
--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

The best picture we could take as a district ha

Zone conference *woot woot* and yes, I'm crouching.

Hitomi Chan. She's a kids English class student and I love her!
She took my name tag and said "Fiishubaan sensei desu!"
Meaning she's me hahaha so cute!

Another one of Kawamitsu Shimai's drawings