Feb. 8, 2016
This week was exhausting! Our mission president has five rules that we live by, and they are
1- work hard
2- work smart by the spirit
3- be strictly obedient
4- have fun
5- come home tired
We have definitely come home tired, which means we have really been working on the other four rules! Anderson Shimai is just a ray of sunshine and she is always pleasant. I've been so blessed with companions so far and she is no exception!
This week we had zone training meeting and it was incredible. It really re-energized me about the work and gave me many things to work on and improve. One of the main commitments from the training was to make a list of five things to give up in order to consecrate ourselves. Consecration has to be the most important, difficult thing to do as a missionary. At this point we have all turned our money and bodies over to the work, by physically being here in Japan and wearing the name tag, but it doesn't stop there. Now is the most difficult part, devoting all our heart might mind and strength to the Lord. Consecration is not necessarily giving up bad things. One of our companionship consecration goals is to only talk about family on pdays. Is family bad? Certainly not! My family is my greatest blessing! But when we are focusing on and talking about home all the time, our heart might mind and strength are not centered on the Lord and His work. Consecration is giving up something, both bad and good,  in order to receive something infinitely better. The Lord knows exactly what we need and is waiting to pour out his richest blessings upon us, but if we are filling all of our time thoughts and actions with other less important things, there is no room for us to receive His blessings. So, when we consecrate ourselves and give specific, restraining things up, the Lord blesses us more than we could have imagined.
Anderson Shimai and I have definitely seen blessing and miracles this week because of our effort to better consecrate ourselves. As we have housed, we've met many people with interest and previous connections to the church that are incredible! We housed into a former eikaiwa  (English class) student who was good friends with a couple members, two other former eikaiwa students, a lady who accepted a Book of Mormon, and a man who absolutely needed to hear the message of the plan of salvation. We have a lot of potential investigators right now and are so excited to develop relationships with them and hopefully begin teaching them!
This week we had a lesson with Shigeharu San on the plan of salvation. When we invited him to baptism he said he needed more time, but we are making progress little by little. He is praying and reading the Book of Mormon though which is incredible! And he still says the most incredible prayers at the end of lessons.
This work is truly the Lord's work! As we follow the Savior's example and turn to Him in all things, we can become more like Him and partake of His joy.
All my love,
Sundell Shimai

In eikaiwa this week, shin San asked us if we could draw Japan on the board. We definitely failed, but another student did an amazing job at it! Hers in the bottom drawing. We then made shin San draw America. Not too bad!

Here's the Fukuoka zone after Zone training

Anderson shimai's mom sent her a cinnamon streusel muffin/cake mix, but Japanese ovens are basically toaster ovens. So me made it in the rice cooker instead! Worked like a charm.