Trains are great things..

Unless you miss yours and have to wait for the next one😕. Last night Patch Shimai and I went to visit a potential investigators the elders had found for us and heart attack a member that lived close by. It all went fairly well until it came time for us to return to our humble abode and missed the train because we thought "hey, let's get on the car one more down." So we walked for literally three seconds and then
the doors shut and we weren't on the train.. and the station we were at doesn't have trains super often so we just had to chill and wait. But I thought y'all would get a kick out of picturing two Americans watching their train pull away because they wanted to go down one more car before getting on. It's all good, though. We did some good phone contacting while we waited for the next one because there was literally no one at that station😂

On Tuesday I hit my 14 month mark and I just feel like such an old woman missionary now. Like what even is this? 14? Gross. Also, Wednesday was my year mark of being in Japan! Yay! But also, I'm an old woman! Yay! My mission life is coming and going much faster than I thought it would during those nine weeks in the MTC.. *shivers*

Last week wasn't super exciting.. we didn't have any lessons.. so sad, right!? But we were able to set up quite a few for this week so that's good😊 I'll have to let you know how those go next week.

We had lunch with the always entertaining Yamauchi Shimai hahahaha that woman kills me😂 she is like 84 years old and just loving life. She's so funny. I love her. She made us food from her home town, Nagasaki, and even threw in some Italian food in there haha it was an interesting meal but very yummy:) the members here in Hachiōji are the best. We also had dinner on Saturday with the Maeda family. Porter Shimai and I went and had dinner with them when I was a bean but I couldn't understand literally anything that was going on then. Nothing. And this time it was cool to really be able to talk to them because they're so nice and so funny hahaha and their three kids are adorable. I love them. Maeda Shimai and the kids made this pumpkin cheesecake which was actually waaaay good. Like, I want that recipe.

Friday was blazing hot. Seriously. We left the apartment at 10 to go visit some PI's and it was already sooo hot. And we had decided to walk to the PI's so we could try and street as we went. Well, we couldn't actually find the PI because the missionaries before didn't put an apartment number.. uh.. okay.. it's okay, we just decided to house the entire apartment building haha we didn't find the PI so we went on to the next building. And by the end we were so gross and sweaty. So bad. Like beads of sweat dripping down my nose. It was gnarly. I took pictures:) I'll send them later so you can see how dedicated I am to the work hahahahahaha😉

We had a district kubarikai (passing out English class fliers) with the elders and it was pretty good! I got to talk to a few people who seemed to really have interest in coming to eikaiwa and I even met a man who came years ago but stopped but even knew that the mission home is in Kichijoji. Nice. 'Twas a good time.

We had a PI come to church that we had never met! Yup. Haha we had texted her forever ago inviting her to family home evening at the mission home but she couldn't come and then she randomly texted us and was like "hey, I'm coming to church!" She's been before so she knew all about it and figured since the missionaries had changed she wanted to come and meet us. Awww yiiiiis😎 she was super cute and actually, the first missionary she ever met was my home girl, Gappmayer Shimai. She's cool. And she speaks fluent English. I like her. I'm praying for her.

Well. That's it for now! Other than sweating my bum off this week, it was a pretty good week. But just for the record, I want you all to know how excited I am for fall and winter because I am SO over this whole "summer" thing. Not my fav. At all.

Don't worry, this week I remembered the scriptures😘2 Nephi 11:5-7, 2 Nephi 20:27, 2 Nephi 22, 2 Nephi 25:26, and 2 Nephi 26:33.

I hope you all have a marvelous week and always remember I love you!
Also, good luck to everyone starting school! Have a fun semester😊💕

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 beloved Yamauchi Shimai

Elder Dowdle (our zone leader) turned 20 this week
so we got him an age appropriate present😊 #noregrets

Our selfie that you can't tell we're actually dripping sweat in
and trying not to die from the heat and humidity.

My One True Love😍

So since we are lucky enough to have iPads that have our areabook on them for us, we get to type our reports and such in there. And this week I told Patch Shimai that I'm a very visual person to which she responded "now all the emojis in areabook make sense"😳 she has come to realize that emojis truly are apart of my vocabulary. I even draw them on the board for eikaiwa😎

Anywho.

This week was pretty good! After temple pday last Tuesday (which was the last one of the mission because they're closing the temple to remodel it) we went to visit a potential investigator who lives pretty close to the church. The elders found her in November (yeah, forever ago, right!?) and no one has been able to contact her or hasn't really tried so we went! And she was there! And she said she read the pamphlet the elders gave her last time! And we talked for a good while and gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she'll read it! And then she gave us her phone number and told us to call anytime! いいねー！We're going to try and visit her again this week since she lives so close to the church. Miracles are a happening, y'all!

Thursday we had splits with the Kofu sisters and I went further into Tokyo to see the doctor so basically we spent all day on the train. Smith Shimai came here to Hachiōji with me and she's a funny one haha she's transfer one and is from Tennessee. Super cute and just goes with the flow. When we got back to Hachiōji from splitting in Ōtsuki, which is an hour away by train, the Kofu sister called and informed us that Patch Shimai still had the keys to the Hachiōji apartment *face palm* but we got it all figured out and just stopped by my beloved Kichijoji on our way into Tokyo to get the spare key. All was well!

The doctor was a very nice man and definitely was NOT full Nihonjin. Nope. His eyes were green, y'all. Green. But he has a Nihonjin last name so I'm still figuring him out haha but he was very nice and all was well with that as well.

This past weekend we had stake conference here in the Machida Stake. And it was swell. So good. But embarrassing part: the Hachiōji Ward choir sang at it and they recruited the missionaries to sing too so I was in the middle back (of course) and we sat on the stand. Well, I was perfectly positioned so that I was on the camera for the waaaay back people the entire time and I also woke up with the largest zit of my mission thus far on the left side of my mouth. #mylife. But the talks were all SO good. Basically our stake president, President Savstrom, is a spiritual giant and blows my mind every time he speaks. And then we heard from the Tokyo temple president and his wife, Sister Warnick, and then Elder Choi from the area presidency and his wife. Wow. So good. And the members who gave talks too were so great and basically I just love this gospel and it's the best when lots of people gather together to talk about it.

A few things that really stuck out to me were from Elder and Sister Choi. Sister Choi just like straight up apologized to the youth and young adults of the church for our parents because she knows they have all messed up at some point. But then she said that she hopes we know they're trying. So I grabbed my planner and wrote this "our parents aren't perfect but they are trying and Heavenly Father trusts them." I don't know about you but I think that's pretty great. So thanks, parents, for trying. You're the best😘 the other ones were from Elder Choi. He said that the gospel is "the most delicious food from heaven" and that it was even better than kimchi! He's from Korea so that's a big deal. But I liked that analogy. He then also talked about climbing Mt. Fuji recently and how he started with no walking sticks and ended with two walking sticks and related them to the priesthood and the Book of Mormon. We need both on our journey up the mountain! And we have to use both! It was just a fun little thought that I wanted to share with you all😊

Well, here's me rambling again.. but I'll stop now..

Scriptures! 2 Nephi 2:6-7&26, 2 Nephi 4:32-33, and 2 Nephi 8:11. Isn't the Atonement of Jesus Christ the best!?

Have a good week and always remember there is a crazy sister missionary in Tokyo 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🐟🔥

You know

We were at the church and it started POURING and we
had no umbrellas so we ran home in the rain😊👍🏻🌧

An elder in our zone (he's probably the missions current favorite elder) is currently in the hospital so the mission is making a video with pictures for him from all of us and this was ours. 

Last temple pday😭

You know, you always imagine your last temple pday to be during your last transfer.. not during your 9th.. I hope this isn't some bad omen.. 😳 jk. I'm not going home early hahahahahahaha

Anywho, the temple today was PACKED and as a missionary, that fills my heart with joy. So many souls being saved, y'all! 

This past week was way good! We met with the cute older lady who giggles at herself when she speaks English again. SHE IS SO CUTE. When we met with her on Wednesday she said she had read all the way to 1 Nephi 10😱 whaaaat!? Yup. She's great. And she came to church! I think she was slightly confused about sacrament and then in relief society we talked about priesthood blessing sooo yeah, not the easiest day for her but she was so cute and so nice and the members really helped her a lot. I have a lot of hope and faith in her!

We also had my friend come to church finally! She's been saying for like 6 weeks that she would come to church and she hasn't..until Sunday!! Yay!! And she said she really likes coming church because everyone's hearts are so pure she she gets energy from coming. いいねー！we're hoping to get to meet with her this week and actually start teaching lessons and try and answer her questions because she has a TON. Seriously. So many.

The YSA dendō activity was sooo fun! So it was part of an all Japan conference that was held in Tokyo so they spent one day in my beloved Kichijoji. And we had about 100 YSA members who we got to go out and dendō with for an hour! It was so cool. I was with Marisa Yagi Shimai. She's half Peruvian and her parents only speak Spanish. She's hoping to leave for her mission in December so she was so excited to go out and dendō. She was so cute! We just did some housing so nothing super exciting but it was cool being with a member and seeing her excitement about it. Made me want to be more excited about housing and getting rejected over and over again haha members are the best! Also, y'all should go out and dendō with the missionaries. It's cool. Also, I realized y'all probably don't know what "dendō" means.. I believe it translates to "proselyte".. but like I don't know what people actually call it in English so yeah.. idk. I'm just gonna stick with dendō.

The ゴキブリ. Or for those of you who can't read Japanese, The Cockroach. I HATE bugs. With a passion. And cockroaches are absolutely awful. Not a fan. At all. Nope. So we actually found it a few weeks ago so we put out some cockroach killer and hoped for the best. IT DIDN'T WORK. So Monday night Patch Shimai all the sudden says "don't turn around" and I'm like "okay" *turns around* it was the freaking

Thee cockroach

cockroach! NO. So since we had to stay inside because of a typhoon we decided to end this battle once and for all. And then it FLEW!!! THEY CAN FLY!! And it hid in our bedroom light so we turn on the light thinking it will come out. Nope. They're not actually afraid of light. That's a myth. So after it had fallen onto my bed and touched literally everything on it and hid under my mattress for a bit, I had decided it was time to end it. So we got the dish soap and a Tupperware and just went hardcore on it. It fell onto Patch Shimai's bed and then we trapped it with the Tupperware and then managed to get the lid under it and we had done it! We caught it! So then we opened the lid a little bit and drowned it with the dish soap. And then taped the Tupperware shut and threw away the entire thing hahahaha so that happened. But we did it! And then we washed all of our sheets and blankets ha. Not fun but entertaining to say the least.

Of course there were a million other good things that happened this week but we'll just leave it at that for now. And of course I forgot to write down what scriptures I wanted to share this week so I'll just share one that I found and LOVED. Jacob 2:8. This message heals "the wounded soul". Wow. I quite like that. Please read the scripture and enjoy it as much as I do😊

Anywho.

I hope you all have a good week! And always remember that I'm praying for you and I love you!!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay classy.

愛しています💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

The campaign posters here are on point.

Classic selfie by a river

We had a YSA pre-mission event with YSA from
all over Japan and this was who I was with!
Her name is Marisa Yagi and is sooo cute.

Last Temple Trip of Mission

It's raining cats and dogs here so we just took some
nice selfies outside of the temple hahaha

Zone Conference

I lost the kouhai😳

Yup.

It happened.

We were on our way to visit some people in the Takao area and Patch Shimai and I had split up on the train to try and talk to some people. Well, we reached the station we wanted to get off at and I got off and thought she saw me get off and when I realized she hadn't, I turned around to get back on the train and the doors shut! Yeah. And off went my companion.. with no phone.. and we kept forgetting to write our phone number down for her.. so after some waiting, going to the next station, searching, and coming back and waiting some more she finally showed up again and all was well! And she now has our phone number written in her planner and we have a plan for if this happens again.
Oops..

I'm sorry but I literally didn't take any pictures this
week.. we were just too busy trying to find those kinjin!

This week we worked real hard. And we weren't really seeing anything come from those efforts. So we were kinda sad. But on Thursday we had a lesson with a new investigator. She is so cute. She's retired but wants to try and learn English for the 2020 Olympics so we're doing half English, half gospel lessons with her. She's REALLY beginner so we worked on pronunciation of the alphabet and she just laughed at herself the whole time. Hahaha so cute. Then we talked about God and who she thinks He is and who we think He is. We read 3 Nephi 14:9-11 with her and she seemed to really understand from that. And then we related it all back to prayer and taught her how to pray. It was a good time:) she promised she'd read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and try to pray and when we called her a few days later she said she did both!! Yaaaaas. I have high hopes for this one!

But then after that lesson we just kind of fell into a slump again. We were trying SO hard and just nothing was working out. Nothing. And we had one investigator who said she was going to come to church and she never showed up so we were kind of bummed about that.

But wait.

Half way through sacrament meeting a member came up and asked us if we had anyone who was going to come today because a random girl just walked in and sat down. Wait, what? Yup. So we go to see who it is and we have never seen this girl before but we found out she doesn't speak Japanese so we invited her to come sit by us so we could translate buuuut I think she was kind of embarrassed to get up and move during the meeting so she stayed where she was. We got to really talk to her after and she is from Nepal. She had met the elders while they were handing out fliers and decided to come. Her English is okay, you just have to speak clearly to her. But she's a Christian and wanted to stay and learn more about our church. So since she can't speak Japanese and English is kind of hard for her we were like "uh.. she can't go to normal Sunday school and relief society..what do we do!?" And one of the ward missionaries is fluent in English and offered to teach Sunday school for her. So the member, ward mission leader, and another ward missionary and us three all went and had Sunday school together. The members were all trying so hard to speak English for her and it was so cute and nice of them! We got to build a good relationship with her and when the member, Yamada Shimai, asked her why she stayed for Sunday school she said it was because I was so nice to her and she wanted to spend more time with me. MY HEART😭 it exploded. She was SO nice and she's going to come to church early next week so we can have a lesson before sacrament meeting with her. Heavenly Father saw we had been doing our best and He helped us see a miracle. He's looking out for us!

Today we were supposed to have a Zone pday and climb Mt. Takao buuuut yeah. Didn't really want to do that and half the Zone isn't coming so that got canceled. The elders still want to go and play sports with those who can go buuuut man, it's just too hot to be outside right now more than we have to. So Patch Shimai and I have decided to opt out of that and take some nice break time where there's air conditioning.


Now for some of the word of God for ya. Moroni 7:44-48, Moroni 8:3, 16-17, Moroni 9:5 and this part from Moroni 8:28 "Pray for them, my son". I really liked that part of that scripture because I feel like if you truly love someone you should always pray for them. If you want to love someone (because not everyone is as easy to love as I am😉) you should pray for them. Basically you should just pray for all those around you. Show 'me some love!

Again, sorry there's no pictures this week. I'll try to be better for next week! I can't wait to email you again next week and tell you what miracles I've had this week!

Love you!!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

愛しています💕

--フィッシュバーン姉妹🐟🔥

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.