Once upon a time..

There were typhoons every weekend in Japan. The end.

Don't worry, they're not stopping me. They are stopping our investigators from coming to church so that's a bit bothersome. Darn typhoons. This is what I get for doing rain dances back when I was in Hachiōji. I've made a mistake and I regret it. Oh no.

Anywho. This week was pretty good! Basically all we've done is housing because whenever we try to street here we just find a lot of tourists.. and while they need the gospel too, our ward mission leader has asked us not to do that.. sooo we house. All the time. We haven't found very many people that will listen to us quite yet but we're going to keep on keeping on and doing what we can to find our friends.

Zone conference this week was suuuper good. It was all the missionaries from the stake so it was huge. Oh, there's a new bean chan here in the Yokohama stake that I went to high school with! He actually did moonlight my senior year when he was a sophomore! We were in the same dance. His name is Sam Low and at first I didn't realize it was him and then he said my name and it all clicked and his trainer (who was in my MTC zone) was like "do you two know each other..?" Haha it was kind of funny. Go Darts!💛 but yes, zone conference was way good. We talked a lot about working with members and helping them be missionaries themselves. Which reminds me, did y'all know that the brethren have asked all members to study Preach My Gospel? Well, they have. So I challenge all of you to start studying it! Plus, I forgot to write down my scriptures for this week so instead of reading the scriptures I normally send, read part of PMG. You can find it for free on the gospel library app😊

I don't know what else to say... so I guess I'll end this weeks email there. Short and sweet, I guess?

Well..

Have a good week!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

Love you!
愛してます💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

These are from lunch today! We went to Sakuragicho which is basically what everyone thinks of when they hear "Yokohama". Soooo pretty. I'll definitely be going back there one day and being the biggest tourist ever. Also, the wind today was trying to help us be more Vogue but that definitely didn't happen.

11!? ELEVEN!? Gross.

I'm so old. I am an old woman missionary, or as they like to say in Japanese, I am an obaachan. Seriously. Wow. I can't believe that I am now transfer 11. Where the heck has the time gone? 分かりません。

First of all, I want the world to know that I love Rodriguez Shimai and I miss her so much and I cannot wait for Wednesday because it's Zone Conference and since we're in the same zone still I'll get to see her. My life has not been the same since she left me. I may or may not have started crying after the nice man came to get her luggage for her on Wednesday. I also may or may not have told her that she cannot leave me. Well, sadly she didn't listen to her senior companion and now I miss her so much.

But it's okay. Because now I have Ikeda Shimai and she is wonderful. She is from Nagoya and worked as an occupational therapist before coming on her mission. She's 25 and soooo nice. Also, she loves chocolate just as much as I do so we get along swimmingly. She wants to learn English but doesn't think she's good so we mainly speak Japanese together. Which is cool because then I get to learn more from her but I also want to help her with her English so we're trying to find a nice balance haha.

It has been raining nonstop for like a week now. I feel like I'm in a rainforest. So. Much. Rain. So because of that, finding people to talk to us has been kind of hard buuuuut we've been able to do a lot of housing so I mean, there are pros and cons to all sides haha.

Speaking of rain, the big typhoon that just came through didn't manage to kill me or kick me out of Japan just yet but it did manage to keep all missionaries inside until this morning. So we did a lot of studying and phone contacting yesterday. 'Twas a party, let me tell ya.

We only had one lesson this past week and it was good but she just can't get over the fact that her religion was "chosen for [her]" (her words, not mine) because her father is the one that takes care of a religious shrine. So we're struggling with that because she keeps almost all of her commitments and really wants to learn but like, won't get baptized. Uhh.. yeah. We're in a pickle right now trying to help her overcome this little (big) hurdle of hers.

This weeks scriptures are Alma 58:10-11, Alma 62:48-50, Helaman 3:8, Revelation 1:8, and Revelation 3:10. Please read and enjoy the word of God😊

Well, I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

愛しています💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

Our beloved Jenny Shimai who has taken to
being the missionary mom. I. Love. Her.

We had dinner with the elders before eikaiwa at this super American burger place and wow. Delicious. I love Japanese food but man, I REALLY love America.

Rodriguez Shimai💙

Two of our cute eikaiwa students,
Sakiko San and Asami San

Ikeda Shimai!

😷

That emoji is me right now. I pulled a classic Fishburn Shimai and caught a cold. And it's kicking my butt. Sister Warnick told me I had to rest and sleep so I literally slept from 12:00pm yesterday until 6:30am this morning, only waking up once for chicken noodle soup made by my amazing companion. And yes, I am still sick but I feel better today so that's good! I'm going to sleep some more later so hopefully I'll just sleep this bug away real fast.

Because I've been sick, this past week wasn't too exciting.. we've done a lot of contacting from areabook.. and we've found a lot of people who don't have interest anymore or don't have time right now..but we're still digging for the kinjin!!

We tried to visit the young mom we found last week but she was busy and couldn't talk then😕 so we'll try again this week and see if she has time then! Also, we had a lesson planned with the lady the elders found for us that is just amazing, but she had to cancel.. but we'll hopefully be able to set up another appointment for this week. We're going to call her tonight and get that figured out.

Rodriguez Shimai has been a complete doll and has been taking care of me. She's seriously an angel. So great. I love her.

Speaking of companions, we got transfer emails😳 I'm super sad because Rodriguez Shimai will be transferring to Yokosuka😭 we're still in the same zone but I will miss her soooo much. She's great. My new companion is named Ikeda Shimai. She's Nihonjin, if you couldn't tell haha I think she'll be transfer 4.. but she's probably a much better missionary than I am so I'm excited to learn from her and get to work with her these next six weeks. But I will miss my beautiful Rodriguez Shimai so very dearly😔😔

With transfer emails comes a new transfer. Transfer 11 is upon us. Wow. This is my last full transfer since I'll be leaving a few weeks into my 12th. Taylor Shimai emailed me today and pointed out that we only have 9 weeks left (she's going home the same day I am) and that's how long we were in the MTC for. Whaaaat? I have an MTC stay left. That's not very long.. I mean, in the MTC it seemed like forever but I feel like here it's going to go by much, much faster than the MTC did. AHHHH I AM SUCH AN OLD WOMAN MISSIONARY👵🏻 HALP.

Yup. That's about it for this past week. Sorry, it was kind of a lame week since I was sick for most of it..

Anywho..

Here's some 聖句 for ya! Alma 40:11, Alma 42:13-15, and 1 John 3:18. Please read them and enjoy them:) also, I hope y'all are reading the Book of Mormon on your own because our beloved prophet has asked us all to do so. So please, read:) and receive some nice personal revelation for your life! Yay!

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🐟🔥

Because I was/am sick,
this is all I've got for you this week.

Happy Columbus Day⛵️

Someone recently told me that emojis were created in Japan and my mind was blown. Then it started to make sense as to why there are so many emojis that have to do with Japan and Japanese culture. That's what I learned this past week.

Well, that's one thing I learned this past week. Now I'll enlighten you all with a few other things I learned this past week.

The first thing on the agenda for today isn't something I learned buuuut I finished my third journal this past week. Yup. Three whole journals since leaving dear ole Kaysville. I'd never even finished one before leaving on my mission.. the mission changes you, man. But here we are, moving on to journal number four! Special shout out to Talise for the past journal I just finished and to Abby for my "adventure book" I've just started.

Okay, here's something I learned: I feel like I've recently said this in an email but it just keeps being relevant so I'm going to say it again. The Lord hears and answers our prayers. As a mission we've all been asked to have an exact idea of the type of people we want to find and so Rodriguez Shimai and I decided we wanted to find a young mom. So we prayed every day this week to find one. Well, on Saturday before conference we had like 40 minutes to go out and dendō so we decided to go housing at this place close to our apartment. And as expected, we prayed to find a young mom who would listen to our message. And guess what!?!? We found one!! And we almost didn't knock on her door because it was really hidden and hard to see and kind of had the "don't bother me" feeling to it but we decided to bother it anyway and a way nice mom answered the door with her 2 year old son. SO CUTE. We talked for a little bit and were able to set up a return appointment for Tuesday. He hears us, you guys!!

We also had a waaaaay good lesson with a super nice lady who the elders found while housing. And by the way, her house is so American, it's crazy. Rodriguez Shimai and I were freaking out the whole time, haha. During the lesson we talked a lot about prophets and so we invited her to come to General Conference. Most of the time when we invite people to church or things like that they're like "yeah.. if I have time but like.. yeah.. I don't know.." but she was like "oh, I don't have anything! I can come!" Yaaaaaaaas!!! And she really did come! She said it was hard but she liked it. I told her that we can read the talks on an app and she was like "what's it called!? Can I
download it!?" Whaaaat? She's so cool! We're meeting her again on Friday:)

I know I'm a week late (because we're a bit behind here in Nippon) but I hope everyone had a chance to watch conference and received sooo much personal revelation and answers to prayers and questions. It was such a good weekend! A few of the themes I noticed were service, focusing on the now and putting away social media and our phones, humility, and (my personal fav) THE BOOK OF MORMON!! Also, how good was Elder Andersen's closing talk!? Wow. Talk about a mic drop. I mean, I quite enjoyed it. Also, President Nelson's talk was waaaay good. Basically I could go on for days so if you would like to know specifics, please email me at Haley.fishburn@myldsmail.net and I will respond to you ASAP.

Well. Since I brought up the Book of Mormon, it's only fitting that I add some scriptures to this email (yes, I remembered this week!). Alma 34:8-15, Alma 36:13-21, Alma 38:8-9, and Alma 39:15.

Have a good week! And find someone to serve along the way😊

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

Love you!
愛してます💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

Zone conference picture from forever agooo

When the members really like you😏
Just kidding, it just has some Japanese
candy in it haha #yamatelife

I found Stonehenge

Mama Fish is the real MVP and sent
Reese's puffs all the way to Yokohama, Japan

   

Preconference selfie while we were
waiting for an investigator to come

Our "Shimai" dresses from
Mama and Papa Fish

"I don't particularly love this hill"

Those are the wise words of a young American boy living here in Yokohama who was riding his bike up a hill with his friend. I felt the meaning his words on a deeper level in that moment and wanted to share it with all of you.

This week was a pretty average week. But it was a good week, none the less.

We had interviews with President so we went to Kamiōoka on Tuesday and every time I go back there I'm just really glad I don't have to walk those hills every day. It was a great area with great people but the landscape was definitely not my fav..

The elders found a woman housing a few weeks ago and passed her over to us and we went and visited her on Wednesday. Well, it was perfect. She had just gotten home right before we got there and she came out to talk to us. She was so nice and said she had read the pamphlet that the elders had given her! She had a lot of questions about the Bible and the Book of Mormon and all that so we were able to talk to her about it for a little bit and then gave her a Book of Mormon. She was so happy to receive it! It always makes me happy when people are like that. It's just like "yes, you can already tell it's a special book! Please read it and feel even happier:):):)" it was way good. And we were able to set up a return appointment to meet with her this Wednesday as well. We're pretty excited about her.

We also had a less active member come to eikaiwa on Wednesday! It was a day of miracles. She's only less active because she moved to Yamate 10 years ago from Hokkaido and didn't know where the church was here. So it was cool to get to talk with her. She said she's also been trying to share the gospel with her friends and wants us to meet them. Yay! Member missionary work!!

I've realized I never write a whole lot about my companions but I just want you all to know that I love Rodriguez Shimai so much. We're really similar in a lot of ways but really different in a lot of ways. It keeps things interesting, hahaha but we get along super well and it's been so much fun being her companion. She's helped me more than she'll ever know.

I just realized I'm the worst missionary ever and forgot to write down my scriptures for y'all AGAIN! They're in my journal... in our apartment. G*sh d*rn it. I'm sorry..

Zone Olympics were held today and I think they were one for the history books. It was quite interesting and we even had a flag ceremony where we sang national anthems. And old lady who lives by the park we were at watched us from her window and clapped for us when we finished USA's national anthem. It was beautiful. And yes, I failed miserably at most of the games but hey, I had fun🤘🏻

Well... I can't really think of anything else to write about at the moment sooo.. I'm going to leave you all with the invitation to (if you haven't yet) watch general conference and enjoy hearing the words of the leaders of the church. I know I'm a week behind.. but in my defense, this week is conference week for us in Japan so I'm doing good if we're going off of that, haha. But yes, please watch it or reread the talks:). We got to watch the general women's session on Saturday and it was sooo good. I loved the talk that Sister Joy D. Jones gave. She said something along the lines of "you maybe a little less worthy but that doesn't make you worthless." AHHH SO GOOD. The leaders of our church know what they're talking about.

I also heard that Elder Hales passed away. My STL told me that at our zone Olympics and it made me so sad. But I'm sure he was welcomed home with a warm hug and more love than any of us could ever imagine.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

Love you!
愛してます💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

Going up a reaaaaaally long hill..

Going down before mentioned
reaaaaaaally long hill.

This is Yamashita Park. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite places to go.