Transfer 9 is upon us!

 Yup. That's right. 9. Nine whole transfers. Well, 8 whole transfers and the first few days of a 9th. Is it just me or is time starting to go faster and faster? I swear I was just transfer four. Gross.

I would just like everyone to know that saying goodbye to Tomori Shimai was not fun and I'm still not over that. She will be greatly missed here in the land of Hachioji. But the people of Yamate need her more than I do so I let her go.. slightly begrudgingly but none the less, I let her go.

Patch Shimai is great. Really. She's a super hard worker and you can tell she loves the Lord and this work with all her heart. She's from Michigan and did a year and a half at BYU before her mission studying environmental science (yeah, if that right there doesn't tell you how opposite we are, I don't know what will). But she's super relaxed and we get along really well. And boy, have we seen some miracles together
already!

Now for the miracles.

For starters we had like 6 new people come to eikaiwa on Wednesday! It was way good! Slightly scary teaching that many people but it was good! Everyone was super nice and I think most people had a good time so that's good, haha.

Thursday was transfer day and I just don't like transfer day so we're skipping over that for now.



On Friday Patch Shimai and I went to the Hachiōji-Minamino train station and did some streeting around there. We were also going to do some housing so while we were walking to the housing spot we had picked we stopped this lady and wait for it, she's been looking for a new English class to go to! Yay! So we introduced our eikaiwa and our free family English program and she said she wanted to do it! So we
exchanged numbers and she was sooo nice. She's busy this week but said she'll call us next week so we can set up an appointment to meet. Yaaaaaaaaas. But then after that the sky started getting reeeeeeal dark and scary and since we had no idea what the weather forecast was we were slightly concerned. So we prayed. And decided that housing wasn't what we were meant to do that night and streeted back to the
station. Fun fact: we talked to three beauticians in like one hour. What are the odds, right? One told us if we ever go to Shibuya to call her salon and they'll cut our hair for free so they can use it as advertisement for their salon, haha. Too bad we can't go to Shibuya😔

I've come to the conclusion that areabooks in the Tokyo south mission have been seriously neglected so we're cleaning up our areabook. And we texted a girl that we found and MIRACLE SHE TEXTED US BACK AND WE MIGHT GET TO MEET HER ON SATURDAY IN TAKAO. YAAAAAAAS WHAT A GOOD DAY.

Saturday we found a new investigator! Well, Patch Shimai found her but still. I was writing our report for our missionary correlation meeting (I think that's what it's called in English..) and Patch Shimai was calling some old lady's in our areabook and she set up an appointment with one for the free family English program so we'll do half an hour of English and half an hour of gospel with her. We're pretty excited about this, haha.

Here I am, rambling again. So sorry. So I'll end this now.

Here are the scriptures for the week! Mormon 9:11-13, Ether 2:24-25,
Ether 4:12-14, Ether 6:12, and Ether 12:4. As always, remember the
love💙

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 also forgot to add something in my big email.. last night when I got out of the shower I looked up and there was a COCKROACH on the wall. Yeah. I was surprisingly very calm and Patch Shimai said she'd catch it if I'd kill it so we made a deal. But then as I was getting dressed she screams sooo loud so I hurry and finish getting dressed and she then informs me that SHE LOST IT. So it's still running free somewhere in our apartment but we put down a bunch of cockroach poison stuff so hopefully it finds that and dies.. also, I had a dream about cockroaches after that and it was not pleasant. GROSS.

These campaign posters are everywhere and I think they're hilarious.
They've also been up since I got here last summer and I don't know how
long Japanese campaigns last but I feel like it HAS to be over by now, right?

Me and the Patch.

Tomori Shimai's last night😭 and our cute friend, Mayumi San. She's great.

Bringing world peace one cup of water at a time

I know what you're thinking, "Oh, Fishburn Shimai, you're so great trying to bring peace to the world!" Well, it wasn't me. I was on the receiving end of the cup of water. Tomori Shimai and I went to the Takao area on Friday and spent ALL day walking around there and since it was blazin hot. We were taking a break at this like department type store that has a food court called Ito Yokado. While we were sitting there trying to cool off a bit before heading back out this random guy walks up and sets a cup of water in front of me. What? And then he starts going off about how he believes it's important to respect people no matter their race, faith, gender, etc. I was so surprised. Especially because he was Nihonjin and he was saying all of this in REALLY good English. He also may have accidentally spit in my eye during his speech but I forgave him because of the nice water he gave me (but didn't give to Tomori Shimai😂). He told me to come back for the olympics and that I am always welcome in Japan. How nice, right? Tomori Shimai told me at first my face was that of "what the freak?" Hahaha that's my funny experience of the week.

On Wednesday after kids English class we were leaving the church and a member, Kumiko Shimai, walks up to the church with all this food and is like "You ready!?" And we were like "Uh.. for what?" We had asked her before to message and become friends with our potential investigator, and she was able to set up an appointment! She had messaged Tomori Shimai on Facebook but we didn't look because it was a crazy day but luckily we were there when she came! So we had dinner with Kumiko Shimai and our investigator and then were able to teach some of the Restoration. And she asked sooo many good questions. She was really opening up to us and we think she really trusts us! It was way good. But this week she's moving to Yokohama😭 Once she moves we want to get her set up with the missionaries there so she can keep learning:) she also loves English and comes to eikaiwa every week so we want to help her figure out which church is closest to her new apartment. But she said she googled it and they're all far from the train stations so she's just going to come back to Hachiōji for eikaiwa and to see us 😂😂 I love her.

After eikaiwa we always teach a short gospel discussion in Japanese and English for those who are interested and Tomori Shimai and I taught English this week. The "Obon" holiday is coming up in Japan and it focuses on ancestors and such so we taught about family history. I showed the class my family tree that I have on the "FamilyTree" app that the church has and they were all so impressed haha. So hopefully we can help them learn about their families and start their own family trees! It was cool to see them all be so interested in family history. Family history is cool, y'all. Do some. Do it for the fam.

Hahahahahahahaha recently Tomori Shimai asked me what "What the heck?" means and I died laughing when she asked me hahahaha. She was like "all the gaijin missionaries say it ALL the time and I'm just like "What mean!?'" Hahahahaha so funny. So now she uses "What the" and "What the heck" and it's the best. I also taught her "We fly". When she was looking at pictures of us and said we were cute and cool. She uses that quite frequently now as well. She has the best vocabulary ever. I love it.

Next funny story: we visited this potential investigator who's name in area book is literally "obaasan" meaning "grandma". She is so cute hahaha we didn't actually get to talk too much about the gospel but she gave us a bunch of corn on the cob and edamame. I think she likes us! She was just randomly like "Here, take this! I want to give it to you so take it!" Hahaha so funny😂 We want to go back soon and try and
really talk about the gospel with her.

Hachiōji knows how to put on a show. Wow. During the summer there's all these festivals and what not in Japan and on Saturday here in Hachiōji they had fireworks! For AN HOUR AND A HALF. So long. It was great. We went to a member's apartment with our investigator and watched them from her balcony and ate some yummy food. Fun fact: "firework" in Japanese is "hanabi" and it literally means "flower fire". I like that🌸🔥

Yesterday we had two investigators come to church! One hasn't actually started taking lessons yet but she seems to really want to know about the church. She's just really busy but recently she's had some free time! She is so funny haha she texted us before church and was like "I bought a bunch of candy and I want to give it to the kids at church". So that's what she did haha and then after church all of the primary kids came up and thanked her for the candy and she was soooo happy haha. She also asked a lot of really good questions during Sunday school and she told us "I am sad we ran out of time because I have a lot more questions" so we told her that answering those questions was why we're here and we'd love to answer them! So hopefully we can set up a solid appointment soon. We're also going to family home evening in Kichijoji with her tonight:)

Wow, I'm sorry, this is a really long email.. so here are some scriptures that I hope you read and enjoy and find some love in them! 3 Nephi 12:44, 3 Nephi 22:7-8, 4 Nephi 1:15-16, Mormon 3:3, and Mormon 5:23.

They changed when we get transfer emails so I still don't know if I'm transferring or not.. I should find out today so I'll email y'all when I know:) but it is kind of blowing my mind that I start my 9th transfer this week. Gross. I'm getting so old. WHAT THE!?

Well. I'll stop now.

I love you!!!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

愛しています💕
--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

The Tsukada family home evening😊 I love them!

This is our dehumidifier.
So not very missionary of me but,
I died when I realized what it has written on it😂😂😂😂

While we were climbing mountains and walking alllll over Takao all day on Friday.
I have become very Nihonjin with my fan and my Hello Kitty water bottle cover.

"もう回やりたい！"

You're all probably like "Sister Fishburn, we can't read or understand Japanese. Why did you put it as your subject line? Well, my dear family and friends, that is because today's subject line is what an 8 year old in the ward that we've been helping get ready for baptism said after he was baptized. It means "I want to do it again!" Wise words from an 8 year old, right? Don't we all want to be baptized again? I mean, I do..

We were super blessed this past weekend and were able to see two baptisms! On Saturday we went to Takao for the baptism of Alexandra (that's her English name, she's actually from China. I love Chinese people😊). She is so great. She has super strong faith and she just kept saying that it was the happiest day of her life. Ahhh yiiiiiis. And her boyfriend came to her baptism and was like "I've only been to church once before but I think I'll probably start going more now with Alexandra" Yes! Please come! It was a good day:)

It came. My "death letter" came. Or as the mission office calls it my "Six months left letter". Wait, what? That's gross. We're moving on from this now and won't speak of it anymore at this time.

I had the wonderful opportunity and privilege of giving a training at district meeting and basically I have just decided that I should never give trainings because they never go well. Ever. Blah. That's how I feel about trainings. Not my strong suit. That's for sure.

When we went to Takao we decided to spend the day there and work there since we've been kind of bad at having two areas and have slightly neglected Takao.. so we visited some people and didn't actually end up talking to one lady we had meant to talk to because she wasn't home but her daughter was home and we talked to her. She is only 12 years old but is waaaay mature and seems to have thought about faith and God a lot before. She said we can come back and talk with her more next week so we're excited to see how things go with her!

President has decided that instead of sending transfer emails on Saturday, from now on we'll get them on Monday. So next Monday when I email I'll hopefully be able to let ya know what's going on with me next transfer!

Scriptures! Helaman 15:3, 3 Nephi 1:10-11, 3 Nephi 4:8-10, and 3 Nephi
4:29-33. Remember the love💙

I hope you all 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

This is Alexandra.

My beloved Gappmayer Shimai came and visited me in Hachioji!!
Not going to lie, I almost cried when I saw her. I love her💕

I found one!!!!!

I did it. I have found a Wendy's in Japan!! There is one at the Machida train station. Despite the pure joy I felt when I heard this news, I did not eat Wendy's. After the initial feeling of euphoria left I was left feeling nothing but straight fear. What if I ate Japanese Wendy's and it ruined all Wendy's for me? So I have decided to wait and not eat Wendy's until I am back in the land of bald eagles and cars on the right side of the road.

In other news this week was hotter than hades in Tokyo and it's just going to keep getting worse. It is safe to say that my dislike for summer is still there and stronger than ever.

HAPPY LATE INDEPENDENCE DAY TO THE LAND THAT I LOVE SO DEARLY🇺🇸🇺🇸 I hope y'all had a great day and felt the love that our forefathers had for that beautiful land.

Okay. I'm done gushing about America now.

In celebration of the Fourth of July I wore a red and white striped dress that's pretty long. Mistake. We went to Toyoda that day and we were there all day so we just brought with us little umbrellas in case it rained. It did. And we were like "oh, it's fine. Well just go do some housing and we'll be fine". WRONG. I was drenched. The bottom of my dress got so wet and was so heavy it started dragging on the ground. I was walking around holding it up off of the ground. It was bad hahaha and the rain was coming down soooo hard. We couldn't hear a single thing through any of the intercoms. But hey, we were trying haha.

On Thursday Tomori Shimai went to MLC in Kichijoji and I went to Machida on splits with Ni Shimai. She's cool. I like her quite a bit. She's half Chinese and half New Zealander(?). But she grew up in Fukuoka haha interesting, right? Her first language is Japanese but when she decided to go to BYU Hawaii she started learning English again (she learned when she was little but forgot it all) and now she's fluent in English too. She's wicked smart. And SO nice. We taught a lesson to their investigator who I had taught before when I went to Machida last month. It was way good. The investigator is really wondering why we have the Book of Mormon and why it's so important. When she said that I was like "this woman needs the Restoration! Give it to her, Machida Sisters!!" Haha but she's way nice and I feel like she will definitely be baptized one day. It may take some time but one day.

We also taught another investigator on Thursday. Hahahaha she's so funny. I wish you could all meet her. Seriously. I love her. We help her with her English class homework and then teach her after that. We taught the plan of salvation to her and she was like "I actually have thought about what happens after we die and it's always RIGHT before I fall asleep and then I can't sleep the entire night because I just think about it the whole night" hahaha so at the end we asked her "did we help answer your question?" And she was like "yes!" Hahaha the gospel truly does answer the questions of the soul, yo!

Saturday night our district leader called me and asked me to give a training at district meeting next week and let's just say I'm a little worried about that. I become the least eloquent speaker ever when I have to give trainings. Nothing at all ever comes out how I want it to haha but for now I'll just hope and pray that my district can at least
learn something from my rantings about the Book of Mormon that I've prepared haha.

Yesterday we had splits with the Kofu sisters and luckily they both came to Hachiōji and we had two companionship working here. If we didn't do that, I would have had to go to the temple from Kofu. That's like a 3 and a half hour train ride. And I did NOT want to do that. Nope. But we also had a Zone blitz last night so it all worked out perfectly in my favor haha. Our zone blitz was good. We had a goal to give out 10 copies of the Book of Mormon and gave out a total of 7. Cranston Shimai and I streeted for about two hours and talked to more people than I think I ever have in one day but NO ONE wanted to accept the Book of Mormon. They were all really nice when we were talking to them and introducing the Book of Mormon but when we tried to give it to them, they all were like "why would I want this?" So that was rough but again, we were trying! And at least we've given those people something to think about and hopefully left a good impression of the church and missionaries.

This weeks scriptures are Alma 61:9, Alma 62:40-41, Helaman 3:27-30, and Helaman 5:9-10. Remember the love💙

I hope you all have a wonderful week this week and never forget there's a crazy sister missionary in Japan who loves you!!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

Love you!
愛しています💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

After our zone blitz🤘🏻

Ni Shimai and IWe got "Mr. Waffle" which is Belgian waffles. So yummy!
Ni Shimai's sweet tooth is probably worse than mine (not even joking)
so we were both very pleased with our choice of a break timesnack.

Kofu shimaitachi!
Cranston Shimai is a bunny and
Hirata Shimai is just adorable.