Dec. 25th, 2015

Merry Christmas tomodachi!

So I'm a giant in this country. I tower over everyone and when I shake people's hands I feel like I'm going to shatter their bones. I'll send a picture next week of my companion and I and you'll see what I mean! It still feels so unreal that I'm in Japan. The first few days here were incredibly hard and overwhelming- no one tells you how hard it's going to be! That or I just couldn't comprehend how hard it would be to learn a new language in a new country with people who speak a different language in a city that you don't know with a companion that you don't know. However, I love it here! I have an incredible companion that is Japanese, but speaks English too! She's an amazing example of obedience to me and I'm learning so much from her. I am currently serving in Maebaru which is in the Fukuoka prefecture. The ward we are in has about 30 people and they are all incredible. The members in japan are definitely few in number, but strong in testimony! Since most of them are converts themselves, they are very helpful and involved in missionary work.
Our typical day consists of 4-5 hours of studying in the morning, contacting people of the street, knocking on home and apartment doors, trying to contact less actives, and sometimes teaching small lessons to investigators. The thing we do the most is definitely contacting people on the street and in their homes. I normally say a couple sentences, then that's about all the Japanese I know so I turn it over to komatsu Shimai!
Earlier this week a member invited us to her daughter's school Christmas play. Her daughter goes to a Christian school and they put together the cutest play. Let me tell you, Japanese kids are so stinkin cute. So I was in heaven watching them all sing me act out Christmas for an hour. At the end, they even brought in Santa to give all the kids presents! They somehow found a white guy to come and dress up like Santa, I thought it was so funny. But he didn't speak Japanese so that had to have someone come up and translate what he was saying into Japanese. It was hilarious.

Leaving the Mtc was so bitter and so sweet. I miss everyone in my district so much, especially Mckenzie Shimai. It was so strange going from a 100% mormon environment, to a non-christian country where people are kind, but for the most part aren't interested in what we have to say. My faith in the work I've been called to do was definitely put to the test. However, I want everyone to know that though this has been incredibly difficult, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I am learning every day to rely on Christ through prayer and scripture study. I LOVE reading and studying the Book of Mormon, and I love talking with my Heavenly Father through prayer. When we feel alone, incapable, sad, or lost, we can express those feelings to our Heavenly Father and receive peace. He is always there and wants to help us! I've felt his help, comfort and guidance so many times this past week.

Yesterday for Christmas Eve dinner, imashita choro invited us to his home! Elder Imashita is a member of the 70 and is from Maebaru! How incredible is that that we got to have dinner with him! He and his wife are so kind and made us a delicious beautiful dinner. The best part of the night, was the nonmember that came with us. Her name is Meisen San and she is from China. Her native language is of course Chinese, but she's also fluent in Japanese and is very good at English! Komatsu Shimai found her a couple weeks ago on the street. Last night was the first time she's really met with the missionaries though. She is so incredibly sweet and kind, and has such a beautiful spirit. Dinner was great because there was a lot of English spoken because imashita choro is fluent in English as well! So I actually knew what was going on. After dinner, imashita choro shared this year's Christmas video, and another Mormon message. I then shared Alma 5:12 and talked about how this gospel is the perfect foundation for our lives. Sister imashita then shared Helaman 10:3-5. Meisen read them all aloud in Chinese from the Chinese Book of Mormon we brought and gave her. The spirit there was absolutely incredible. The spirit was strongly testifying of all the things we were saying and it was beautiful. We then all knelt down and asked Meisen San to pray. We showed her the how to pray section in one of the pamphlets, and she said a beautiful, simple prayer in Chinese. After the prayer was over, I asked her how she felt, and she said she didn't know how to describe it, but that it felt like something was touching her heart. She felt the spirit!!! And we got to share that experience with her! How beautiful! I know amazing things lay in her future and that she is ready for the gospel in her life. And how many people can say their first lesson with Mormons was in the home of a member of the seventy?! I'm pretty sure she's the only one. She's so special.
Today, Christmas Day, I got to Skype my beautiful wonderful family! It was so nice to see all of them and hear all the kids adorable voices. I'm SO grateful for the eternity that I have to spend with them. When I get homesick and miss my family, I use that to motivate me to tell the Japan people about how they can be with their families forever! This gospel's message is so incredible.
Well, Merry Christmas! I love you all so much! I love this gospel with all my heart and am so thankful for this opportunity to share it with others.

I'm sorry there aren't any pictures this week, I can't get them off my camera and onto my iPad! But when I get the right connector, I'll send loads of pictures! For now here's a picture of my favorite painting in the Mtc. I've got a real soft spot for babies and little kids, and I love the tender faces of Christ and the baby in this picture. It shows Christ's love and nurturing nature. Ah I just love everything about our Savior and his gospel!

Aishiteimasu, Sundell Shimai

Dec. 18, 2015 
 Abby is finally in Japan safe and sound and so excited to learn the language and share the gospel.  Her short email to us on the 15th read -

 Hi parents! We made it safely to Japan and we are in the mission home. We are having interviews today and proselyting a little bit, then will find out who our companions are and where we are serving. I'm so excited to get to work and actually learn Japanese.
My p-day will be next friday, which is Christmas. I'll be able to email a little Monday to coordinate the phone call or skype session on Christmas day. It'll be limited to 30 minutes, so if you can figure out how to have all the family ready at the same time that would be great! I love you both and will talk to you soon!
Love, Sundell Shimai  

We just received this email from the mission president's wife.( For your information the mission home is right next to the Fukuoka temple).
 
Dear Sister Sundell's Parents,

We wanted you to have this picture so you could see you wonderful daughter had
arrived safely!  We are so thankful for the blessing of serving with her. We love her!
Thank you for raising such an amazing young woman and missionary!

She will be contacting you soon to make Christmas call arrangements.

If you ever have a question, you now have my e-mail address.

We wish you and your family and very Merry Christmas! We pray the
peace and love of our Savior will be with you at this Christmas time and
throughout the coming new year!

Sincerely,
Sister Egan

Dec. 10, 2015
 Last pday in the mtc! We fly out on Monday morning and leave the MTC
at around 4 am. It's really unreal that we are all finally breaking
out of the mtc bubble and will be teaching and finding real people.

I am practically fluent in Japanese now- here is my reasoning. You
know when people say that once you dream in your mission language,
you've made it and are fluent? Well I one upped that. Apparently I
sleep talk a lot at night and my roommates hear me. A few nights ago I
sat up in my bed, started slapping the wall like I was looking for
something, abruptly stopped, then said "ちょろうたち、たすけてください" which
translates to 'elders, please help!' So instead of dreaming in
Japanese, I sleep talk in Japanese!

One night this week, Mckenzie was sick so we went to the residence
early so that she could sleep. I was able to just sit in the hallway
and read scriptures for a few hours. The two main things that stuck
out to me were missionary work and Angels. There are so many amazing
examples of missionaries in the scriptures, they are really our
examples to follow! (Alma 26:27 is my favorite missionary scripture
right now) ((don't just read that verse though, read Ammon's entire
story)) Angles aid missionary work and I know that heaven is behind us
in this work. I'm especially lucky because I have an angel on my side
that likes Japan quite a bit, and I'm sure he will take good care of
me!

The devotional speaker this week was Bonnie L Oscarson, the general
young women's president of the church. She shared a lot of inspiring
life experiences from when her and her husband lived in Sweden as he
was a mission president. During the devotional I received a lot of
comfort and peace. I've been pretty nervous about going to Japan.
Sister Oscarson shared how much she loved her time in Sweden and the
people and missionaries she got to know there. I all the sudden
realized that I don't need to be worrying about going to Japan! In
three days I get to go to a country that will always hold a special
and sacred place in my heart. I'll have so many amazing experiences
there and I get to share this perfect gospel with the amazing people
of Japan. Also, I get to escape the mtc food and eat Japan's delicious
food instead- that's what's getting me through these last few days!
I'm convinced the mtc shortened Asian language's mtc stay from 12 to 9
weeks because the food was killing people off.

Well, the next email I send will be from Japan! I'm so excited to
serve the people there and I can't wait! This gospel is perfect!

All my love,
Sundell Shimai

My four favorite people! We all have so much fun together and have
grown so close over the past nine weeks. The two elders on the right
are serving in Nagoya so we will have to say bye to them on Monday.
You bet there will be tears. Besides that the rest of my district is
serving in Fukuoka!

Mckenzie and I reenacting the nativity on our Sunday temple walk

Dec. 3, 2015
I love having Mckenzie shimai as a companion. For so many reasons. She
has never seen snow before. So last week After it snowed we were
walking to the temple and most of the snow had already melted by that
point. However, there was a huge chunk of snow on the grass field that
was most likely a snowman that hadn't fully melted yet. As we were
walking she pointed out the big chunk of snow and I decided to have
some fun with her. I said "yeah sometimes when it snows huge (4 ft
diameter) chunks of snow just fall from the sky" she looked at me with
this really confused look and I proceeded to tell her how dangerous it
is because sometimes the chunks land on cars or houses and do a lot of
damage! She was so cute and gullible and it was just so funny. I had
to keep a straight face the whole time because I just pictured her
thinking about a massive snow Boulder falling from the sky. Since then
the choro tachi in the district have been sliding in little stories of
how a snow Boulder fell on their car, etc. She still has no clue. Its
so fun.
Thanksgiving was a really nice day. For thanksgiving lunch we had REAL
mashed potatoes which was so exciting (the mashed potatoes here are
normally stuff
that closely resembles cement) and stuffing, turkey, green beans,
rolls, and cranberry.
Dallin H Oaks was the speaker, but he only spoke for about ten
minutes and it was more of a thanksgiving history lesson. Not too
exciting. The best part of the devotional was the musical numbers. His
daughter is an incredible violinist (Jenny Oaks Baker) and all her
children are musical protégées. They all performed a few numbers that
were gorgeous.
But the best part of the day was definitely the service project. We
packaged meals for "Feeding Children Everywhere" and it was such a
blast. Since Mckenzie and I are stl's we helped extra with the project
(setting up, taking down, leading and teachers everyone at our table,
etc.) Look up the organization. The ceo is amazing. He's a pastor I
think but not LDS but when he spoke at the devotional today the spirit
was there. It felt a little different, but I felt of God's love and
appreciation for this man's faith and service.

Last night we had a Skype trc lesson. Trc is like an fhe lesson that
we teach to a volunteer for about half an hour. Normally it is byu
Japan rm's that come to the mtc and we sit in a little room and teach
them. Now, we are doing skype trc and skyping real Japanese people in
Japan! Last night we Skyped with Megumi San and HER SEVEN MONTH OLD
BABY GIRL. I was in heaven. I'm sure you all know how much I love
little kids and babies so it was a dream come true! I'll attach a
picture at the end of the email. It was so fun to get to teach her and
talk with her. She was so kind and it made me really excited to get to
Japan and meet all the amazing people there!
This week's tender mercy was when I got to host Reagen Alexander! It
was a crazy sequence of events that led up to it but it was so nice
seeing a friend! We leave the same day so hopefully we will be able to
travel to the airport together! I also saw Priscilla last night! She's
doing really well and is beautiful and happy as ever!
This week we taught a lesson to a sister on the law of chastity and it
was incredible. I was a little worried going into the lesson having to
teach about something so sensitive and widely unacceptable. When we
explained what the law of chastity was, she got really quiet and said
she had something to share that she was ashamed of. Before she was
married, she got pregnant. She married her now husband because she got
pregnant, and she has felt guilty about it ever since. We told her
that through repentance she can be forgiven of this thing that has
troubled her the past five years. Her face lit up. It was incredible
that we were able to share one of the gospel's glorious truths with
her. She felt the cleansing power of repentance and Christ's atonement
and it was amazing to watch.
Going along with that experience, and while we are on the topic of
repentance, there were some beautiful lyrics in the choir song this
week. The song was "Behold the wounds in Jesus' hands" and my favorite
lyrics were these: 'Empty is the heart of man when it is Filled with
sin.' I love the contrast of empty and full in these lyrics. I know
that when our hearts are full of sin, that we can repent and become
clean again and let Christ's love fill our hearts instead!
Thank you for all your love and support! I'm so excited to get to
Japan. Say a special pray that somehow the people of Japan will
understand my Japanese please! I need it.
I love you all!
Love, Sundell Shimai
Ether 12:27