Week 9- My journey to Japan

Gusman Shimai caught her chopsticks on fire








Minasan Konnichiwa,

Holy cow, what a week.
I'll start from the beginning

Monday:
2:30 am I was loaded onto a bus, and headed toward the Salt Lake City
airport. At about 4 in the morning I was able to call my beautiful
family and tell them how much I love them! It was great to hear them
for the first time in like 9 weeks. After we got on a plane and flew
to LA, I then hopped on a 12 hr flight to Tokyo, Japan. On the way
over I sat next to a lady, that was actually very nice to talk to. Me
being a missionary and all, decided that this would be a really good
opportunity to share the gospel. I tried using as much Japanese as I
could and talked to her. She was very interested to know how I knew
Japanese I told her I was a missionary. She wasn't that interested in
the fact that I was a missionary, but was really interested in the
fact that I knew Japanese. I later found out that she was Buddhist and
her kids were Christian. We talked for a little bit, and then she
decided to watch a movie. I tried all I could to drop so many hints to
this lady about the church. I thought I was pretty sneaky too. I
pulled out a Book of Mormon, got some pictures out of Joseph smith
casually... haha it was hilarious. But, she didn't look at any of it.
Oh well.

Tuesday:
Before I landed in Tokyo I looked out my window to see Mount Fuji and
that was a really cool site to see. When we landed we headed through
immigration services which was fun I got this cool card saying hat I
am now living in Japan. After we waited for our luggage and then I
realized that they had bidet, that was really cool to see. It had cool
water sounds, haha. After we hopped on a bus and went to another
building where we would get on our next plane to Osaka. When we got to
this building we got some good tasty salmon rice triangle wrapped with
seaweed called "onigiri" and this coconut milk drink thing. We then
went through security and waited for our plane, while waiting I could
not but just stare for a sec at a tv and all the people watching it,
it was sumo wrestling. Haha... oh geez, both young and old were
fascinated with this tv. We then hopped on another plane that was only
about a hour to Osaka. When we got off we waited for our luggage, and
then went through the doors to the amazing welcoming of the Welchs
(president and his wife) as well as some other missionaries. We hopped
in a car and drove to Kobe. One of the craziest things that I did not
know about Japan is that they drive like in London, on the left side
of the road. When we got the mission home we went right to bed, I was
so exhausted.

Wednesday:
Man, 6:00 came around fast, at the mission home we had to be ready in
the church parking lot ready to go work out. We then ran to a park,
where the elders played football, and the sisters played frisbee, and
ran around the track, later we did this thing with some old people
called radio taiso where old people stretch in parks all around Japan,
and work out every single day. It was awesome! We then went back, had
breakfast and started training. After training, the sisters and I
decided we wanted to try and do some street contacting, it was a
little discouraging, I tried talking to some ladies, and the said
something that I couldn't understand, and then she said "no" . But, I
tried so. After we were about to go inside, I saw this old man,
probably the oldest man alive, and I said konnichiwa to him, but he
kept walking, about to go inside, Easton Shimai and Epling Shimai ran
after him and came back saying he wasn't hard of hearing he was
ignoring us haha. Our president also told us his two rules in the
mission. 1. Laugh at yourself and 2. Get lost!

Thursday:
Thursday was a big day. We got up ready to Go and we started running
up this really big hill, I had to start walking with this sister it
was straight uphill almost. When we got to the top we had to go up
this really steep stairs to this look out point where you could see
all of Kobe, it was a sight to see. The also had radio taiso, people
right and left started popping out of the woods around it. We then
came back had breakfast and then had a little bit more training. After
we then met our new companions. My new companion/trainers name is
Sister Gusman she is from Hawaii and has been out for about 6
transfers which is about 36 weeks. She is really nice and we get along
so so well. Oh, and I saw Elder Winegar, he was a trainer for one of
the Elders that came with us. After we met each other we got some
pictures taken and ate some food, and that was when everybody started
leaving. We then hopped on a train to my new area which is called
Wakayama! I'm in the Sekai zone you might have to look up Wakayama on
a map! But, yah we hopped on a train and headed out! We talked to a
lady on the train and told her about our church, well my trainer did I
just listened... haha. We went through some crazy big cities, and then
we finally arrived to Wakayama my new home! We walked to the church,
and grabbed me a bike that they had that I could use, and man that
bike was crazy. It's called a mamachati? But, it's like a Japanese
beach bike, needless to say, that thing is crazy, and super hard to
ride. We then stopped at a recent converts home, he was happy to see
us, but was having a hard time reading the Book of Mormon. He couldn't
understand it very well. My companion talked to him, and then turned
to me and said would you like to say some things about what you feel
when you read e Book of Mormon, me being all dazed from the long trip
we made said alright and tried to the best of my ability to say what I
could say. He said something's and then waved goodbye. She then
explained that what I had said really helped he felt that what I feel
when reading the Book of Mormon, he feels peace and the spirit, and
cooled down. We then mad it to our apartment, talked for a little bit,
planned and then passed out.

Friday:
We got up, worked out, and then did some studies and then headed out
to get me a good bike. We got there and waited, we did some
companionship studies, and then found me a beautiful blue and white
bike. We then headed back to the apartment and got ready to go to a
members house. My trainer and I had just finished our lunch and were
talking, when all of a sudden, the table started moving, and I could
feel the house to start to shake. I didn't register until it happened
again. It was an EARTHQUAKE !!!! I'm from Idaho so I mean we have
them, but I have never felt one until that day, and that was crazy! I
could feel my heart racing afterwards, it was incredible, but so
terrifying.
We then headed out, on our way we passed by a Japanese castle. It was
beyond beautiful! When we got to her house, we had some really good
wheat/barley tea mogicha, a lot of foreigners don't like it, but I
really do. We sat at one of those tables close to the floor and had
this like heater thing on us, it was really cool. We shared a
scripture. And talked for a little, then headed out. We tried stopping
by and talk to a less active member, but she wasn't feeling good so we
headed back, but stopped to see the less active members mom who was in
a hospital. I thought that I have see scary hospitals, but when we
stepped foot into that hospital, I was scared. It was like in a movie,
really old, many people in one room. Oh man at hospital was a little
frightening. She was asleep so we left. Later that night we went to
the church, and I taught my first Eikaiwa (English class). It was a
little different, but I really enjoyed teaching.

Saturday:
Wow, Saturday was probably one of my favorite days.
That day we saw so many miracles. We did all of our studies and then
went to the church where we made these cute little origami santas with
the relief society. It was awesome, after we went to go try to find a
less active members house, couldn't find it, we literally were lost.
Well we listened to Our President really well. We then decided to do
some housing. Honestly I didn't know what to thing with housing, but I
did it anyways. One of the things that is weird about Japan houses is
that they have a place for you to press the doorbell and then they
have a camera that you look at and they talk to you through that and
if hey want to talk to you they will come to the door. So a lot of the
time we had a lot of people answer their call, and say no. But, about
4 houses someone actually came and listened so that was great. The
second to last house a young man answered and let us share a video. He
said we could come back. The last house we stopped at, we ran the
doorbell and a little boy answered the phone, we were very confused my
companion asked if we could talk to his mom. He came to the door and
opened it, we looked at him, and then his mother came, she looked like
she had just gotten up from a nap, and was rubbing her eyes. We asked
if we could share a quick message with her, she sat down and listened.
I could tell by the way she was listening, she was intrigued, my
companion then went on talking about eternal families, she said we
could come back. After we couldn't believe what had just happened, and
started hugging.

Sunday:
That was a hard day, we went to a meeting for the sisters and elders
where we talked with the bishop and counsel and talked about who we
were focusing on. That meeting was hard,I didn't not understand what
anyone was saying. After my companion explained. We then had relief
society, Sunday school, and then sacrament. I had to go up and
introduce myself which was a little hard, but I did it. After we had
this soup, that had many different variety of foods in it. It was
yummy though. We then met with some less actives and went housing. No
one would really listen to us, but we kept going.

Monday/today: we did some studies, and headed out and went shopping.
We went to a grocery store that had some really interesting foods that
I had never seen or heard of. We also stopped at a bakery and I
smelled some food that I had never smelled before, but it smelled
delicious.

Wow.. my area is incredible, it is very big, but it is a little but
more in the country in some area. I love it though and I'm so excited
to see what happens, love you all!

あいしています！
Love ロケット 姉妹

Fwd: Week 8- I have lost my English

Sisters in my Zone

Epling Shimai and I

Idaho Spuds! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Lockett!

The Daisenpai ( All leaving to Japan) with the Robinsons

His socks though


  Konnichiwa Minasan,

Wow... I can't believe that 8 weeks has flown by this fast and I will be
leaving the MTC in T-5 days and on my way to JAPAN!!!!!

 I got my flight plans on Friday, and I will be leaving the MTC on Monday at
 5 am to the Salt Lake City Airport. I will be flying to LAX then to TOKYO
 then to OSAKA where I will be greeted by my Mission President and his wife!
 I never thought this day would come and that I would get to this point, but I stuck through and I'm almost out! A lot has happened this week. We got
 our flight plans, we had our last lesson with one of our "less active
 members" on Friday. Saturday was probably one of the most scariest things I  have ever witnessed. There is this Elder who just has had the worst time
 here, or at least the worst week, he's been having a lot of problems with
 his back and joints, and on Thursday he was playing soccer and got a ball
 kicked somewhere it shouldn't be, and on top of that, he was playing
 frisbee with some of us, and he was trying to catch a frisbee and landed
 wrong and all I could hear because you have to realize this is like across
 the field where I was, and all I could hear was yelling and screaming and I
 ran over to find that he was not able to move his arm, I thought it was a
 joke. I felt really bad I was like is this a joke? But, then I suddenly
 realized that he could not move his arm, his body was, but not his arm. All
 I could do is tell him to take deep breaths, and to not move, and to not
 panic. It took a few times for him to actually concentrate on me and to
 stop moving. We thought that maybe he just dislocated his shoulder. We
 found out later that night that he had tore all ligaments that were
 connecting his muscles. Which was devistating for all of us, because one he
 only had a week left and two because we didn't know if he would be able to
 go to Japan with us. We then were informed on Monday that he had to choices
he had to make. 1. He could go to Japan with us, but his shoulder would be
 messed up for the rest of his life 2. He could get surgery on his shoulder,  go home for 6 or so weeks and come back and do the MTC all over again.
 So... at that point we didn't know what to think. We then were informed
 that he was going to fly out with us. That Elder has so much love for his
 Savior, I just hope he does okay.

 Wow... what else to talk about?
 On Sunday night we had a special devotional, Jenny Oaks Baker was the
 speaker, and if you don't know who that is.. look her up, she is Elder
 Oaks' daughter and a famous violinist. She played some songs for us and man
 it was so amazing! Those were really the only highlights of this week, but
other than that it has been a really awesome week. I don't know what to
 say. I'm a little bit freaking out because I'm on a plain in 5 days and i'm
 stepping foot in 6 days. My time here in the MTC has been nothing but
 growing closer to my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ.

 Oh I heard about Trump, that is a scary thought, but you know I will be out
 of the States for a year and a half. But, yah.... so sorry for anyone that
 wanted Clinton and sorry for all those that wanted Trump, I'm not supposed
 to talk about politics , so anyways good luck America!

 All we have been doing for the past week is study and study and study some
 more! I don't think I have ever studying so much in my life before. You
 literally sit in a class room for 9 hours! How crazy is that! I don't know
 how I have kept my cool for this long, but I may not know that language
 that well, but it will come, and I know that to be true! I am really
 excited for that day. But, I am just so excited to go and share this
 glorious gospel with everyone I see!
 Oh.. yesterday I received a package from my family, I wanted to say thank
 you to everything that you send me, and also thank you to my Grandpa and
 Grandma Lockett, the Idaho Spuds were a hit! I was so grateful for a little
 piece of home! I am also grateful and so thank you for my sister that got
 me a chocolate frog from Harry Potter World, it ment the world to me. I
 hope you had fun! Also I just want all of you to know that I love you all,
 I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve my Savior. It never ceases
 to amaze me of how true this gospel is and how amazing it is. I want you
 all to know you all have a message, the best message in the world ! You
 have the message to tell everyone that they are a son and daughter of God!
 That is what is keeping me going, I want to share this with everyone I see!
 SO just SMILE!!!!!!! Then everyone will be asking why, and there is your
 opportunity to change their life!

I can't wait to start the rest of my mission in Japan!

 Next week I will be emailing everyone from Japan! Wish me good luck!
 See you on the other side of the world!

 Love Lockett Shimai
Love ロケット姉妹

Week 7- Lights, Camera, 12 days!

Konnichiwa Minasan,

Wow... I can't believe that 8 weeks has flown by this fast and I will be leaving the MTC in T-5 days and on my way to JAPAN!!!!! 

I got my flight plans on Friday, and I will be leaving the MTC on Monday at 5 am to the Salt Lake City Airport. I will be flying to LAX then to TOKYO then to OSAKA where I will be greeted by my Mission President and his wife! I never thought this day would come and that I would get to this point, but I stuck through and I'm almost out! A lot has happened this week. We got our flight plans, we had our last lesson with one of our "less active members" on Friday. Saturday was probably one of the most scariest things I have ever witnessed. There is this Elder who just has had the worst time here, or at least the worst week, he's been having a lot of problems with his back and joints, and on Thursday he was playing soccer and got a ball kicked somewhere it shouldn't be, and on top of that, he was playing frisbee with some of us, and he was trying to catch a frisbee and landed wrong and all I could hear because you have to realize this is like across the field where I was, and all I could hear was yelling and screaming and I ran over to find that he was not able to move his arm, I thought it was a joke. I felt really bad I was like is this a joke? But, then I suddenly realized that he could not move his arm, his body was, but not his arm. All I could do is tell him to take deep breaths, and to not move, and to not panic. It took a few times for him to actually concentrate on me and to stop moving. We thought that maybe he just dislocated his shoulder. We found out later that night that he had tore all ligaments that were connecting his muscles. Which was devistating for all of us, because one he only had a week left and two because we didn't know if he would be able to go to Japan with us. We then were informed on Monday that he had to choices he had to make. 1. He could go to Japan with us, but his shoulder would be messed up for the rest of his life 2. He could get surgery on his shoulder, go home for 6 or so weeks and come back and do the MTC all over again. So... at that point we didn't know what to think. We then were informed that he was going to fly out with us. That Elder has so much love for his Savior, I just hope he does okay. 

Wow... what else to talk about?

On Sunday night we had a special devotional, Jenny Oaks Baker was the speaker, and if you don't know who that is.. look her up, she is Elder Oaks' daughter and a famous violinist. She played some songs for us and man it was so amazing! Those were really the only highlights of this week, but other than that it has been a really awesome week. I don't know what to say. I'm a little bit freaking out because I'm on a plain in 5 days and i'm stepping foot in 6 days. My time here in the MTC has been nothing but growing closer to my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. 

Oh I heard about Trump, that is a scary thought, but you know I will be out of the States for a year and a half. But, yah.... so sorry for anyone that wanted Clinton and sorry for all those that wanted Trump, I'm not supposed to talk about politics , so anyways good luck America! 

All we have been doing for the past week is study and study and study some more! I don't think I have ever studying so much in my life before. You literally sit in a class room for 9 hours! How crazy is that! I don't know how I have kept my cool for this long, but I may not know that language that well, but it will come, and I know that to be true! I am really excited for that day. But, I am just so excited to go and share this glorious gospel with everyone I see!

Oh.. yesterday I received a package from my family, I wanted to say thank you to everything that you send me, and also thank you to my Grandpa and Grandma Lockett, the Idaho Spuds were a hit! I was so grateful for a little piece of home! I am also grateful and so thank you for my sister that got me a chocolate frog from Harry Potter World, it ment the world to me. I hope you had fun! Also I just want all of you to know that I love you all, I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve my Savior. It never ceases to amaze me of how true this gospel is and how amazing it is. I want you all to know you all have a message, the best message in the world ! You have the message to tell everyone that they are a son and daughter of God! That is what is keeping me going, I want to share this with everyone I see! SO just SMILE!!!!!!! Then everyone will be asking why, and there is your opportunity to change their life!

I can't wait to start the rest of my mission in Japan! 

Next week I will be emailing everyone from Japan! Wish me good luck! 

See you on the other side of the world!

Love Lockett Shimai 

Week 6- Almost there!

What a week! It has been nothing, but benkiyo, benkiyo, and more benkiyo (studying) as wells as some miracles!!!

So much can happen in a week. 

First of all, we are now Disenpai which means we are now the top dog! I know that's so scary to think about! Second of all, I got a new calling in our zone! I am now a Sister Training Leader which is crazy because I feel like I just got here, but My two Dōryōs and I are now in charge of all the sisters in our zone! There is quite a bit of responsibility with this calling. We are in charge of picking up the new sisters that come from Japan which was last night and they are fantastic! We are just missing one other sister and Elder. But they come in today. Oh... we get a phone, which I actually don't like having, because it is a hassle to lug around. Demo (but), if any of the sisters need to get a hold of us for any reason they can either, Go to the front desk, or call from the phone in the residence, and they will get a hold of us. So, that's really cool. Also my Dōryōs did not want to have anything to do with it, so I'm in charge of the phone. Also we are in charge of doing interviews every week with the sisters. We also go to meeting every Sunday with the branch president, and we help get translation for the Japanese sisters for devotionals if they need it and the sisters that we have so far need it, they don't know really any English. We also do orientation with all the new missionaries tonight. So we will introduce ourselves, and get to know them. We have a group of missionaries coming in today from the states. Also tonight we start skype TRC, which is basically you skype with someone from Japan and do visiting teaching with them for 20-30 minutes. 

   Oooo..... for my family or anyone that might now them, but guess who I saw at the MTC? I saw THE LATHENS!!!!! The ones that used to live like 5 minutes away. Well, apparently they are going on a mission, and they we called to Shirlonka! Yah, try finding that. I also asked who was watching their house, and apparently they just like sold it, they sold everything (cars, house, furniture) so they could go on a mission. Wow... what amazing people. They we really excited to see me, it felt like home for a split second. They leave this Friday! 

So... well we are past the half way point and now have less than 3 weeks... I am so excited! But, I also can't believe how fast time flies. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be here, I have learned so much, yesterday we had an amazing devotional, Elder Nattress from the seventy came and talked to us about missionary work. He had a quote that said "be not afraid only believe" and that was just such a testimony builder to me how great and amazing my Savior is. Of how much I just need to believe in myself and believe in him.

  One of the things that opened my eyes is in 19years I have never thought about how the bread and water represent Christ, okay let me rephrase that. I knew that they represented that, but when I was told that when you look at the bread and water under the sheet it's like Christ laying under there. And when they break the bread it is a symbol of him being broke up for each and everyone of us and we get a piece of him!!!! What? That opened a whole new world for me! And like after we have partaken of the bread and water, he is now gone and the sheet is folded up as was it in the tomb.. "kaboom" yah that just changed your life! 

My Dōryō Epling Shimai and I were studying and preparing for a lesson and for so odd reason we started talking about this amazing scripture story that is found in Numbers 22 it is the story of the talking donkey in the scriptures if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's about a story of this man who would not listen to God and when God said do not go here, he did anyways so God placed an angle in his way, but only his donkey could see this angle with a sword, well that donkey was not going to go this way and kept turning around, well this man kept hitting his donkey and after 3 times God opened the mouth of this donkey and he asked the man "why are you hitting me" and the man didn't even hesitate and kept talking with the donkey like it talked on a daily. Well the story ends with God opening the eyes of the man to see the angle. Moral of the story: Listen to your donkey. 

Well.. crazy things are going to happen in the next 2 1/2 weeks. This week we should be getting our name tags in Katakana which is awesome! Mine will look something like this "ロケット姉妹" , next week we should be getting our flight plans and the week after is our orientation to the field I believe. Oh and I figured out I want to be for Halloween! I want to be a senkyōshi (missionary) yahhh! 

  Oh and on Sunday we had the great opportunity to here from Sister Ann M. Dibb (President Monson's daughter). She was amazing and she talked about her dad it was a very sweet talk. So, being here in the MTC I have heard from some of the most amazing speakers and I heard from someone would might be hearing from Elder Holland soon! But, I'm not positive so don't hold me to that! 

Well hope you all have a great week, and enjoy all the many blessings you have. I also wish you all a very Happy Halloween! I would mind if you send me a picture of your costume!

I love you all and I'm so very grateful for what wonder examples you and dad have been mom! Umm.. for dad I need you to send me a carry on bag ASAP!!!! Tell all the kids I love them and that I pray for each and everyone of you each day! Keep sending me things, maybe if you can print out some pictures of our family so I will have a picture! I love you all! Keep updating my blog and thank you for all you do!

あいしています!!!!

Ai shite imasu!

I love you!

XOXO 

ロケット姉妹