Raw eggs won't actually make you sick, mom. It's a myth. 🥚

The whole "raw things make you sick" thing is either a myth or all the raw cookie dough I've eaten in my life has built up my immune system in preparation for living in Japan where they use raw egg as a dipping sauce. Or they just process their eggs differently here than they do in America.. I'm going with one of the first two options, though. The cookie dough theory is probably the most correct🍪

You may be wondering why this is on my mind. Well, it's because I ATE RAW EGG AS A DIPPING SAUCE, Y'ALL. YUP. It happened. This week is the year anniversary of Choyo's baptism  (my male Chinese bff) so last week we went out to shabushabu to celebrate. Since it was for him we let him pick what we ate (because everyone at the same table has to eat the same thing. Sorry, it's hard to explain in email. Google it haha) and he picked sukiya which involves using raw egg as a dipping sauce. So I ate it. And it was actually really good. But the steam from the boiling sukiya kept coming RIGHT to my face and I was just like "wow, I'm sure this is really great for my skin" and I definitely smelled slightly funny for the rest of the day. But oh well. That's life in Japan.

We visited this lady that the elders found and she is a member in a Christian unification church and while we were talking she disappeared into her house and then brought out this book for Tomori Shimai to read about what her church is and believes and what not hahahaha and Tomori Shimai and I were like "hey, let's trade!" So we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said we can come back and study it with her haha so that was a funny but good thing, right?

We finally got to have a lesson with an investigator that has been really busy! And this time it was at the church and not at McDonald's! Yay! It was way good. Last lesson we had we taught the Restoration but that was almost 2 months ago so we decided to reteach it. Good call. She remembered somethings but a review was definitely needed. And she seemed to understand it waaaay better this time and kind of better accept it, I guess? Yeah, anywho, it was good. And when we gave her a Book of Mormon she was like "really!? But isn't this an important book!?" Yes, that's why we want you to have it, silly girl. I love her. Hopefully
we'll be able to meet with her again soon.

We have Zone conference this week which actually ended up being stake conference because in each stake there are two zones and both zones had Zone conference together so there were a toooon of missionaries. So many. But it was a good, good time. And I got to see Kawamitsu Shimai and Harmon Shimai so my heart was extra happy. We talked about prayer🙏🏻and oh my. So many good things come from prayer and prayer has so many good things and basically my brain was fried after from all the deep thinking that happened (because we all know that doesn't happen much for me). Everyone, please pray! It's good for ya!! Maybe study about prayer a little bit too! That's also good for ya!

I went to Kofu again. This time it wasn't as exciting as last time.. sadly.. today Tomori Shimai will go to Kofu and I'll stay here in Hachioji with Cranston Shimai. Yay, bean chan power! I'm excited.

We had three meals this week with members. Three. That may not seem like a lot to missionaries in other parts of the world *cough* Utah *cough* but it's kind of a lot in Japan. But I think that just goes to show how great the members are here in Hachioji. They're the best! We also got to hear some of their conversion stories and I love hearing them. It's so cool to hear them testify of the church and how they came to know it's true. They all always testify hardcore of whatever finding method they were found through. For example; one member came to eikaiwa because she received a flyer through her friend and this other couple started taking lessons because the elders offered to teach them about family home evening. It just makes ya want to do all types of finding as possible. Gotta find all the kinjin!!

I have a classic Haley moment for y'all (btw that's really weird typing "Haley"). I forgot my name tag when we went to eikaiwa on Wednesday. I had changed my shirt while I was making dinner so I didn't spill on it and when I changed back I forgot to put my name tag on and everyone made fun of me all night long. That's my life. I've been a missionary for 11 months and this is the first time I've forgotten my name tag. Gosh darn it! Whatevs. It's in the past.

Every time I type the scriptures I want to share I always sing "scripture power" in my head and picture little primary children screaming it and holding up their scriptures haha it warms my soul. So please enjoy these scriptures and their power Mosiah 16:8, Mosiah 18:16&21, Mosiah 19:12, and Mosiah 20:11. Remember the love!💙

Well, as always, I've rambled on for too long so I'll stop now.

Have a good week!!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

Love you!
愛しています💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

The district and Choyo enjoying some shabushabu

The Hatanaka's. I love them. They fed us yummy noodles and told ustheir rocking conversion story last night.

Fun fact: if you wear a black shirt, your hair in a bun, stand in the same spot for an hour and a half while giving out eikaiwa flyers, and have a tendency of frying like an egg you WILL get sunburned. But the good news is it's so humid here that it didn't peel and now I have a rad tan line on the left side on my neck. But the bad news is my right side of my neck is still whiter than white. I also have a pretty nice tan line from my watch🤘🏻

Tomoko Shimai. When I was here as a bean all she did was make fun of my Japanese. But despite that I still love her. She is hilarious. Seriously. We asked to take a picture together and she told us only if we make funny faces. So this was the outcome. 

I ate Cap'n Crunch for breakfast💛

Yup. In celebration of 11 months of being a missionary I treated myself to some Cap'n Crunch. 'Twas a good decision.

I feel like as I get farther along in my missionary life I should be getting better at managing time and planning when we'll have lessons and stuff so that everything isn't as frantic but man, I feel like I'm just getting worse. It's always a crazy time around here and I feel like Tomori Shimai and I probably look something a lot like chickens running around without their heads. But I think we're making it work!

Can I just express the frustration I feel when we have an investigator who believes everything is true but won't come to church or commit to baptism? It's insane. It boggles my mind. Just come to church!

We met with my home girl investigator again this week after a bit of a break and she was good! Last time we talked about the word of wisdom buuuuut she didn't really keep that commitment so we talked about it some more but this time we had a member there with us, Furui Shimai, and she shared her own experience of how when she was an investigator she was not too keen on the idea of giving up coffee but she tried it for a week and because of the reaction of complete joy the sisters showed when she told them she did it, she kept following it. I think it was exactly what this investigator needed to hear because it come from
someone who had been through what she is currently going through, not from two 20 year old girls who haven't ever even thought about having a problem with the word of wisdom. Member present lessons are the best!

On Saturday we went to Takao to their ping pong "party" because there were a few girls who said they were going to come and they did! Yay! It was a good time and they are probably going to go to the Polynesian night in Kichijoji with us in a few weeks! After we decided that since we were in Takao we might as well try and visit some people from the area book (which is a complete mess right now). People either weren't home or actually didn't have interest.. but we tried! And we talked to a few nice people and gave out a few pamphlets and a copy of the Book of Mormon so it was a good day if you ask me! But man, it was real hot. Real hot. I'm already starting to get a tan line from my watch and I don't know if that makes me happy or sad.. yeah, I don't really know.

Yesterday in an effort to clean up our awful area book we went to visit a few potential investigators that live in Kita-Hachiōji (a place I myself or my companion have never been before) and as we were walking to the second lady's house I looked over and saw a member! Hahaha my beloved Mori Shimai was at the apartment building of this lady! Mori Shimai's mom lived in the same apartment and she was there cleaning it out because she passed away a few months ago. But she was so happy to see us and even introduced us to almost all of the people who live on the first floor of the apartment building hahaha she's the
greatest. Again, no one really had interest but we were definitely happy to see Mori Shimai and we're grateful she was willing to help us try and find God's prepared children! As we were walking back to the train station we decided to house a random apartment building and we found a potential investigator for the elders who was super nice and seemed to be decently interested in our message. Yay! That's all we could ever ask for haha so we gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and asked if the elders could visit him again and he said yes! A woot woot🎉 yup. Good time, indeed.

Guess who actually has scriptures to share! I have slacked on my missionary duty to share scriptures. I'm very sorry. Please forgive me. But here are this weeks scriptures for y'all! Mosiah 3:20, Mosiah 4:15, Mosiah 5:7, Mosiah 6:7, and Mosiah 7:19. Remember to think about love!💙

I hope you had a good week last week and have an even better week this week!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

Love you!
愛しています💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

Temple pictures last week

Living that contacting life✌🏻

Here's the cherry blossoms for ya!

New record: I only cried once this week✌🏻

Yup. Only once, are y'all proud? And it was all my family's fault. Because I got to skype them!! Ahhhhhh y'all are the greatest. Saying goodbye almost killed me but it's okay because only 7 months and I'll see your averagely good looking faces again! Wow. Time flies, right? Also, happy late Mother's Day, mama💕

Weeeeell here we are again, another week, another email with a subject line I spent way too much time thinking of and still isn't witty or funny, another early morning. Yup. Everything is the same here in Japan! That's one thing you can count on as a missionary; consistency.

This past week was kind of crazy. But then again, almost every week is kind of crazy. There we go again with the consistency!

A few good miracles of the week: after eikaiwa in our gospel discussion class Tomori Shimai and I taught the English one. One of the men that came had a seriously deep thinking face on afterwards so I asked him if I could answer any questions for him. He just kind of looked at me like "I don't know if you can" and then he said "I don't know if it's the right time to ask them". Uhh what do you mean, homie? But he asked anyway and they were basically all about the plan of salvation and I was like "bro, this is the perfect time to ask! You're in a room with four missionaries!" So I answered the best I could and then gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and he said he'd read it! Yay! His wife said she'll read it too! They're super prepared. They just need to realize that haha

Moving onto our next miracle of the week: we had ping pong night. Yup. Such a miracle, right? It is. Because one of our eikaiwa students came and the elders shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon and so Tomori Shimai pulled out one so that the student could read along and then after we were talking about the Book of Mormon and she said "it sounds like one big story book! I wanna read it!" Please, read it, my friend. She also said she wants to come to church! Wow. Kinjin everywhere.

Aaaand the next miracle is we have another eikaiwa student that's my same age and she has read the plan of salvation pamphlet and really liked it. We had invited her to church a few weeks ago but she went to Hokkaido to see family so she couldn't come and then she said "it's so early!" So we were bad missionaries and didn't have much hope for her showing up to church. But wait! We should've had more faith because she came! She was able to come for Sunday school and for sacrament meeting! Yay!!! Miracles everywhere, yo.

And of course the miracle that I didn't cry during this skype until the end instead of at the beginning like I did at Christmas.

And of course I have scriptures for y'all because I'm a missionary buuut those are written in my planner and I'm currently writing this while standing up on the train to the temple so I'll try and add those later. If I don't, please still read your scriptures. They're good for ya.

Well. I think that's about it for this week. Oh hahahaha so we had Zone meeting yesterday and temple pday today so since Kofu is so far away from everything, the Kofu sisters slept at out apartment and one of them, Sato Shimai, was talking to the office staff about some things on the phone and she told them that our new apartment was so small and the word she used in Japanese translates into English as "pathetic" or "pitiful" so maybe I'll move again! Haha who knows but Tomori Shimai and I were laughing pretty hard when she said that.

Okay, I'm done with this weeks rambles. Please know I love you all and am praying for you!! Have a good week!!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

Love you!
愛しています💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

I got to go back and do some good dendō in Kichijoji this week while Tomori Shimai was at training for being a new sister training leader and I found this weird wall. I liked it. 

The elders told us to "be strong!" So yeah. I don't really know.

Classic picture for y'all

Temple with the lovely (but kinda small) Tomori Shimai

Yes, I can make real Mexican tortillas from scratch now 🌮

Yup.

I know, that's not something I thought I'd learn how to do on my mission in Japan either.

On Tuesday we had our tacos party and it was great! Way more people came than we thought would which is always good! But we ran out of veggies to put in the tacos.. but people were still happy so all is well😊 we also were able to invite a lot of people to come to church so that was a bonus and the members that came were great and talked to everyone and helped a toooon. 'Twas good.

Having a companion that's going home is exhausting that last week. Wow. I'm pooped. But I survived so that's good.

We had a new student come to eikaiwa on Wednesday and she came to ping pong night on Thursday! Yay! I was asking her if she had ever thought about God before and she said she hadn't but she wanted to learn. Whaaaat? Yaaaaas. So I invited her to take lessons and she just kind of brushed it off with "if I have time.." so I invited her to church on Sunday and she didn't say anything so that was that. Buuuuut as we were leaving ping pong night she said "see you Sunday!" And so Tomori Shimai and I stayed and talked to her and she said she wanted to come! So then Sunday rolls around and we're standing outside of the church waiting for her and it's like 8:58 and she's still not there. We were feeling kind of discouraged at this point because she said she'd meet us at 8:50. BUT then she comes running around the corner and apologized for being late! She came! Yayayayayayay!! She wasn't able to stay for sacrament meeting but she stayed for relief society and Sunday school. Again, the members were great and helped explain a lot of what of what was going on because we hadn't been able to really teach her anything other than very basic things at ping pong night. But yes, members are the best and I love them.

It's getting hot here. Real hot. Saturday we were outside allll day long and I was melting. So hot. So humid. So gross. And it's only May. I'm in trouble for this next summer. Please pray that I won't sweat away into nothing. Just kidding. Kind of..

This week was a long week but it was a good week. Tomori Shimai is stinking adorable. Seriously. She is hilarious, too😂 she isn't really comfortable with English so we speak mainly Japanese together and it's seriously been pushing me. My brain always hurts but it's a good chance to grow, right? She's a real hard worker and I feel like I'm going to be dead tired every day this transfer but I like it😊 she is from Okinawa and turns 21 next month. I'm super excited for the rest of this transfer with her! Much pumpedness is being felt right now.

Scriptures! Yeah! Scriptures! Wooh! Awoot woot🎉 2 Nephi 28:30, 2 Nephi 29:7-8, 2 Nephi 30:5-8, and 2 Nephi 33:3. I'm still studying about love💙(blue heart because the Book of Mormon is blue) so find the love, my friends💕

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

愛しています💕
--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

Happiness in a jar!

 

Transfer daaaaaay

Transfer daaaaaay

Transfer daaaaaay

Transfer daaaaaay

Tomori Shimai and I while we were out
trying to find God's prepared children

Only the lucky get to return...

... to the promised land of Hachioji, that is. As many of you know, we got transfer calls on Saturday! Ahhhh! Dad said he was betting I'd be a trainer and fortunately he was wrong. I'm still junior companion. And my new companion will be Tomori Shimai! She came here to Hachiōji after I left and was with Porter Shimai for two transfers here and then left for three transfers. But she's coming back! The elders that are leaving this transfer are praying that they'll be lucky like Tomori Shimai and I and get to come back. But not everyone is as lucky as we are so we shall see what happens with them haha. Tomori Shimai is the cutest. She's super tiny. Like real tiny. She's like 4 foot 9ish. She's itty bitty. I have accepted that I'll never have a tall companion. I also realized that I'm pretty sure I'm the tallest sister left in the mission and she's the shortest. This is just my typical life. But I'm excited to work with her here in the beautiful Hachioji! Also. My mind is being blown by the fact that on Thursday I will be a transfer 7. When the frick did that happen?

This week we started having gospel discussions after English class for those who are interested and we had a total of 12 people stay. TWELVE! That's amazing! So cool. And one of them is named Helen. She started coming to eikaiwa a few weeks ago and is super nice. The gospel discussion was about who we think God is and after she told me "I believe in God. But I think I believe in a different God than you." And all I could think was "thats more than most Nihonjin can say!" So we told her if she wants to learn more about who we believe God is we can teach her and she said yes! Yay! We also talked to her about prayer and how we can come to know that God is there and to better know Him through prayer. I gave her a little how to pray booklet made by the insanely talented Kawamitsu Shimai and she was so excited! She kept saying that she can't wait to try and pray using it! Yaaaaaaaaas. She is so great! As she was leaving the church she saw the Liahona's we have in the entry way of the church and we told her if she wanted she could have one and she looked at us like "really!?" And then asked if she could take one in English and Japanese and was so happy when we
told her yes haha seriously, so great. I have great hope in her. She also came to our ping pong night with her daughter and wants to come to our tortilla night we're doing on Tuesday! Yay!!! So pumped.

The Elders all work real hard and find us a million potential investigators so we went and visited one on Saturday and she was super nice. She straight up told us that she doesn't want to join our church but she wants to learn more about it and SHE ASKED US IF SHE CAN COME TO CHURCH *jaw drop*. Yes. That happened. She's busy right now because it's Golden Week (like 4 holidays all in the same week) but she said she really wants to come. Yayayayayayayay! Hopefully she'll come to church and feel the spirit and have more of a desire to learn with us and one day receive the wonderful gift of baptism and the Holy Ghost😊

This week I don't have a scripture for you because instead I have a letter for you from someone very special. Please enjoy. It's a little long but a member shared it with us in church yesterday and I want everyone to read it as well.

"My Special Child,
    I remember well the day you left my side, wandered through the veil and ventured for to fulfill your earthly mission. I had a tear in my eye each time I clothed your spirit in a cloak of love and sent you off to school. Be assured that my thoughts are with you now, as always.
    I love you with all my heart. I know your life, the good, the bad, your grief, you disappointments, your unrewarded efforts, your frustrations, your temptations. But always remember, all that I have is yours if you will only come home again.
    Dearest child, realize that in you I have placed a bit of heaven, no one was exempt. I love all of my children. You have some blest gift, some talent, some little part of me in you. Search for it, develop it, use it, and most importantly, share it with others. If you really love me then help others find themselves and lead them to me. Show your love by serving others.
    Repent of your failings and humble yourself. Make yourself ever teachable and continually strive to improve. I gave you weaknesses to help you to be humble. Don't condemn me for that. I did it because I love you. I'll come if you need me.
    Cease your idle contentions. Be a peacemaker, for it breaks my heart to see so many of my children fighting. If they could only see what I have helped, planned, and desired for them. My heart breaks as I watch them. But you, my faithful child, are my hope. It is through you that my work must proceed. You haven't much time and there is so much to be done. I beg you to get started. Accomplish the mission I gave to you before you left me. I'm nearer to you always than you might suspect. I have so much I would like to tell you but I can't here.
   Come to me often in prayer. I love to talk to you, my beloved child. Be diligent in my work and my kingdom shall be yours. I'd love to talk to you in my arms, but, I too, must wait patiently. That time will come. Till then, I leave you with peace, my blessing, my love, and never forget I am nearby whenever you need me.
    I love you and miss you so much, and how I am looking forward to your return again to me.
                       All my love,
                           Heavenly Father"



I love you all so much and I hope this week is a good one for ya!
Please know I'm always thinking about you and I can't wait to see your
bright, smiling faces in 13 days!!!!!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

I love you!
愛しています💕
--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

I went to China Town

Our investigator, Ogawa San and our rocking members,
Masako Shimai and Mori Shimai, who came to the lesson with us.

My (male) Chinese BFF, Chouyo.
He's going on a mission, y'all!!

My beloved Minami Shimai and her adorable baby girl, Hinata chan.