Jordan in Japan

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Week 53: 倉敷-KURASHIKI

皆さんおはようございます！

Well it was my time to leave Yonago, and I didn't go that far either!
I was transferred to the beautiful city of Kurashiki!
And let me tell you it's been nothing but the most amazing miracles on
the planet earth here in Kurashiki!
I'm not in Yonago anymore, I'm not in a big city! Like Yonago was a
city too but we had more rice fields and it was more Inaka (country
side). Kurashiki is a big city, to me!
I also got a new companion her name is Sister Shumway from Lehi, Utah.
She is so cute! I love this girl! She has fire dendou like I haven't
seen before! She brought dendou to a whole new level! When we dendou
together, we are unstoppable. She is so bold and courageous. So, far
being in Kurashiki we have been approached many times by people just
wanting to just talk to us! We were invited to an English class so we
could have more friends in Japan! Like how nice is that?! Thats
literally what the guy said to us he said "oh, I have this English
class I go to each week, please come, I can take you with my wife,
here you can meet more people and have more friends." Of course we
want to go! Haha!! We love friends!

Also the cool thing about Kurashiki is that we get to go to J-kaiwa
(Japanese class) and guess what?! It's free! And even better I get MY
VERY OWN TEACHER!!! Like one on one teaching! Like what? I know! I was
so surprised too! It's like too good to be true, but it's true.. we
went and it's great! We go twice a week and learn Japanese.. great
finding opportunity as well! We now having some Philippine friends and
some Chinese friends! Nihaou!

Kurashiki is sooo amazing , the members are great... Kurashiki just
needs a little work which I am so grateful and happy to do. We don't
have a lot of investigators... but shumway Shimai and I have been
working our tail ends off... we have been walking everywhere because I
don't have my bike yet, but we have been meeting some cool people!

Shumway Shimai and I were talking the other day about rejections...
haha... as a missionary you get rejected a lot! I mean a lot! And some
people take it well and others don't. He trick is to take it with a
smile and keep working hard! Shumway Shimai shared a scripture with me
it's in

Doctrine and Covenants 6:29-31:

29 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if they reject my words, and this
part of my gospel and ministry, blessed are ye, for they can do no
more unto you than unto me.
30 And even if they do unto you even as they have done unto me,
blessed are ye, for you shall dwell with me in glory.
31 But if they reject not my words, which shall be established by the
testimony which shall be given, blessed are they, and then shall ye
have joy in the fruit of your labors.

And it didn't dawn on me until we talked about it. When we are
rejected we must enjoy the moments. Because sharing the gospel brings
joy! We must rejoice! God is great! Jesus is great! And if they choose
not to follow or listen, that's okay just go find the person that
wants to!

So grateful for the shining moments of being rejected haha!

Love you all!

Lockett Shimai!

Sent from my iPad

Week 53: 倉敷-KURASHIKI

Sent from my iPad

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Week 52: I thought I was suppose to learn Japanese?

P.S. I just turned 20! Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Sent from my iPad

Sent from my iPad

Dear family and friends,

O-genki desu ka?
bạn khỏe không?

What a week it has been. Nothing but working hard and miracles were
brought to past. Something that I have learned on a mission in Japan.
Is that half the time your not teaching in Japanese... I have talked
to people from everywhere around the world. I have met people from the
states, South America, Europe, Africa, Thailand, Australia,
Philippines, India, Nepal, and now from Vietnam.

But, God has enormous plans for us. We just have to have the faith
that everything will work out in the end. This week we have had
miracles come out of nowhere.

I just wanted to share a short miracle since I don't have a lot of
time. On Thursday we were biking back to the church, and we forgot the
keys so we call the Elders. Then they said they were on their way to
the church at that moment guiding a Vietnamese lady to the church. He
had housed into her, she said she had been looking for a church. We
then met her and tried our very hardest to speak a little
Vietnamese... google translate comes in handy. ;) she then started
speaking in Japanese... haha yokatta.
We gave her a church tour and told her about how we love Jesus Christ
and we learn about god and Jesus Christ. She was so interested. I
remembered before she got there that last transfer we got a Vietnamese
Book of Mormon for another Vietnamese lady but then she moved back to
Vietnam, but God has plans for us! So, I called up the other
sisters... we were on exchanges... and told them to grab the Book of
Mormon.
As we were teaching her and walking around the church, the other
sisters showed up at the church and brought the Book of Mormon.
We gave her he Book and got some contact information and she is now
our new investigator! Her name is Zunn!!

I guess I need to learn some more Vietnamese! Haha...! Well... that's
about it for this week.. sorry it's short, talk to you next week! Oh
and I was transferred early for some other reasons talk to you guys
about it later!

Love ロケット姉妹

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Week 51: The story of 2 Seekers of Truth

Isshiwori Shimai

Party!!

Yonago!

Team Nakada

The Matsue fam!

Yonago

Do you see the coin?

iPadから送信My beautiful friends and family-

Good morning!
This week was probably one of the best weeks!

We went to Okayama again! But, this time we went on exchanges with the
sister training leaders! I had the great great opportunity to go with
a great friend of mine Sister Holkanson. She definitely knows how to
meet my goals. My goal was to learn how to talk more about Jesus
Christ. And she nailed it. That morning we did some service at a local
hospital where we folded diapers. I was able to learn about her and
her mission. We were able to talk about what joy this gospel brings to
us. We also met with a sister that I love too too much! I'll talk
about her later.

I think that jump started my finding methods for the week where I
would just talk about Jesus Christ. And I did... I looked for every
opportunity to speak and testify of him. And we saw miracles! I think
one of the greatest miracles that come are when you testify of Christ
and when you are grateful. Quite a few of our lessons fell through
this week... but it was all smiles here! I couldn't just but smile,
because I knew that if something fell through it was back to finding!
And to be honest I love finding! I used to not like it... it just felt
so tiring... but once you let God choose your path for you, if you
listen to the spirit, and try to follow the promoting, you will be
surprised what happens. Life is full of miracles especially on the
mission, but we must have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. We
must keep our mind wide open.

Yesterday we were at a park walking around and we met a lady who at
first my companion was hesitant to go and talk to so I pushed through
and I said "hello, we are from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints.", her face kinda lit up, "oh, I've met you before.. I
actually have a Book of yours.. the Book of Mormon," what??? Turns out
she was a old investigator who was dropped because of being busy. So
we got her contact information and we will be meeting with her soon.

Okay.... now my title of my letter is "The Story of 2 Seekers of
Truth". Well there are probably millions of people on this earth just
waiting and seeking for truth, but I wanted to focus on a Nepali
sister and a Japanese sister.

Okay... so to finish the story of Okayama. I had the great privilege
to go and meet a sister preparing for baptism. Her name is Isshiwori
Shimai. She came from Nepal with her husband. When I met her, I didn't
really know what to expect, I had heard really really good things
about her. Like amazing miracles and I was still trying to find out
what they were saying. So... we came over and sat down with her. And
let me tell you.... I was in for a treat. We had a lesson for an hour
and that was the most amazing lesson I have ever been in! Her story is
incredible. She had been searching and seeking for the truth, but
haven't found it yet. Then one day the sisters in Okayama pulled up
next to her.. she is literally one of my favorite people on this
planet. Her faith is out of this world. When they would ask her to
keep a commandment she would say "if God said it or if Jesus said it,
No problem," in her cute Nepali accent. I learned many things about
Nepal, her family, how people are baptized in Nepal, And how far faith
can take you! She always says "I love Jesus too too much ." When in
actuality she's saying "I love Jesus so so much." She still is working
on English. But, how much my testimony of Jesus Christ grew that day.
This past Friday she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints. How grateful I am for the Okayama sisters for
following prompting of the Lord, and for Isshiwori Shimai for having
the courage and the faith to follow our Savior Jesus Christ.

The last story is about one of my investigators! Her name is Chiaki
chan. She is from Yonago and was found last year. But, let me tell you
her faith is unwavering. She knows that what she is doing is right.
Last transfer Catron Shimai and I picked her up. She is so ready for
all the many blessings or church can give to her, the only problem is
her mom is hantai(against) the church. But, yesterday I had the grate
privilege of seeing her at church, I was a little nervous she showed
up late, but made it for sacrament meeting and all the other classes.
She has so much faith she even bikes over 45 minutes just to be at
church. Oh how grateful I am for her willingness to keep Gods
commandments and come to church. I am also so grateful for her
willingness to keep pushing forward with faith!

May we all try doing the same, push forward with faith and love Jesus
Christ will all our heart, might, mind and strength!

Love you all have a great week!

Lockett Shimai

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Week 49: A Child's Prayer

Grapes!

Cookie challenge!

I love this ward!

Ren Shimai and I!

Gyoza ( my new gyoza making tool from Daiso)

Sent from my iPadHello friends,

Oh how beautiful the song "A Child's Prayer" is.

"Heavenly Father, are you really there?
And do you hear and answer ev'ry child's prayer?
Some say that heaven is far away,
But I feel it close around me as I pray.
Heavenly Father, I remember now
Something that Jesus told disciples long ago:
"Suffer the children to come to me."
Father, in prayer I'm coming now to thee."

Never has this song touched my heart more deeply than this week.

This week was more focused on how deeply our faith, my faith as a
missionary can grow. For we must all walk by faith in this world, as
well in the mission field. To say the least, faith is what develops
action! Faith to talk to someone, faith to ask someone to be baptized,
and faith to have courage to not let fear and doubt stand in your way.
We were faced with tremendous times to act and stand firm. On Monday
we had a lesson with one of our investigators Ono San. For the longest
time, he would not take the Book of Mormon. But, last time we were
able to get him to download the app on his phone. Acting by faith, we
asked him to read just the introduction. He said he would. I had a
feeling he probably wouldn't, but that's when I needed to trust in God
and his plan as well as relying on someone's word. When we got there,
he was so surprised we had come back, he sat down in his little
doorstep and listened , I asked "Ono san, have you read from the Book
of Mormon this week?" To my surprise he said "I did, I read the first
3 chapters, and had this question." I almost fell over, I couldn't
just stand here with the biggest smile on my face. Ono san had started
to progress and really was interested why two young missionaries would
come back every Monday and talk about God and Jesus Christ. Especially
since the Monday we came back, it was right after a Typhoon. But, the
storm had let up for this lesson. Before we ended, Ono san already
told us, he said "I will read the Book of Mormon this week, because I
like the history part of this, and I really want to know why you
keeping coming back, why is this so important." After we said goodbye
and he shut his door and turned off the light. We couldn't, but just
smile about how amazing the power of the Book of Mormon is. Now at
this point the storm then down poured hard!!! We then hopped on our
bikes and bike home singing in the rain!

My companion Lenfesty Shimai is just such an amazing missionary. She
is a little quieter. But, has a good heart. At he beginning of he
transfer, I did a lot of stopping people, but this week she started
acting. We have a goal that we set everyday, and on Tuesday we decided
to set a goal to talk to as many people really as we could. Catron
Shimai when she left, left us so cookie/brownie mix. So I decided to
get us to talk to more and more people, I made a game. Because I love
games! The game was called the "cookie game". The rules of the game
were simple. You had to stop someone, get their name, teach a
principle, and invite! So we made it a goal. We went out and there
was NO ONE! Literally no one. Oh man.... :( so I started to look
closely for anyone that we could talk to. We were biking back and I
saw these two older ladies walking down this road and as my companion
puts it "I turned around and booked it after them like Alma when he
was commanded by an angel to go back to the city." My companion
started doing it to, she hopped off her bike many times to talk to
people. We were biking through this mall type thing (shotengai) , and
I could feel that my companion wasn't behind me I turn around and it
looked like a movie. She was walking with this old grandma. I couldn't
just but want to cry. It was beautiful. As I looked to my right, there
was a grandma looking through a window at me, haha I turned and smiled
and waved. He then waved back. My heart was just happy!

Friday was a crazy crazy day! The elect are coming out of nowhere!!!
Like what happened?! We had a really good district meeting that day!
We also went to this youth mission activity. And guess who showed
up!?! CHIAKI CHAN!!! Our investigator Chiaki Chan was there! I
freaked! She is so ready. All we need to do, is talk to her family. We
need to get them interested in the gospel. When we walked to the front
of the group. I went and gave Chiaki chan a little pat on the
shoulder. She turned and realized it was me and also freaked! Her face
just lit up!! She was glowing and she's coming to church on the 27th!!
I love that girl! After we left, I texted her and said "Chiaki chan,
thank you for coming today, we love you!" And we got a reply later
saying "Lockett Shimai, it was so fun, love you too!" Like my heart
just melted hat day!
That day was also the day we knocked on a door of this lady that was
so cute, we came with the approach of using this family Book hat we
have. This lady was a little interested in the Book. It's a book about
how to improve our family relationships. After we went over to out
investigators house but it turned out that she was still in the
hospital. So you guessed it, we booked it to the hospital. We got
there and found her. We talked to her about the Restoration and the
Book of Mormon. She was just so happy. We decide to try and ask her to
be baptized. She said at this moment "no". But, she wants to come to
church! Yes!!! After we left and headed to Yasugi Eikaiwa. It's where
we teach English in another city really close called Yasugi. We
dropped off our bikes and at this point it was raining again in a
downpour. As we were waiting at a light we could feel that it wasn't
raining on us. We look up and this lady had a umbrella over us. She
was so so nice, she had put her umbrella over us and her. We then
walked together to the Train station. It was like a movie, we said
thank you and then at the last second I handed her a Mormon.org card!
And said thanks and left! That night we were biking home and this lady
was walking and we started talking to her. She was coming back from
Bible study, we gave her a chidashi (flier) and left.

This week we just have had amazing moments to plant seeds!

On Saturday one of our investigators said she wanted to go to
basketball! So she came to eikaiwa(English class) and we went
together. It was kinda sad I could only walk in basketball. Since a
week and a half ago I sprained my ankle, but it's been doing God so
far, everyone and myself included has been really surprised it's
heeled so quickly. But, we had a great time, she is so jouzu (skilled)
in basketball, we had a great time!

Now to end things great! I have a beautiful story to share about a girl!
One of the most precious moments in my mission so far happened yesterday.
We were biking to the church, since we were having no luck with
housing, since this week is the holiday called Obon. It's where people
clean their houses and he graves of their ancestors and prepare their
houses so that their ancestors can come into their houses. It's a big
deal here in Japan. And I didn't know about it, but everyone is so
busy. (When you have time, look it up on Google.) So we headed to the
church. As we were coming down this road to the church. I could tell
there was this girl. Doubt and fear just kept invading my mind, I
could easily just go on the other street... but I then realized that I
shouldn't. As we were coming closer, I then again had the feeling of
you could just go past her, just say hi and leave. But, what would
that do? That's not what we do as missionaries, we are to invite. So,
without thinking, I stopped right next to her. She was a lot younger
than I thought... we shook her hand..
"hello, we are missionaries from he church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints. We are church volunteers."
"Wow, that's cool" she replied. We asked about her. She's plays music
right by the church. She plays the base, and is 13!
"We believe that God is important." I said.
Her face lit up.
"Me too!" "I pray everyday and on Christmas I go to church and pray"
My companion then turned to her and said "I know that God answers and
listens to your prayers!"
I then turned to her as well... "we believe that God is like us and
real. He listens to our prayers." After a few minutes she turns to us
and says "arigatou wa Eigo de 'thank you' desu ne?" (Arigatou is thank
you in English right?)
"Yes!"
""Thank you!" She said. I couldn't just but want to cry the whole time
we were talking. My heart was being mended back together, every time I
was told "no I don't want to talk to you", all the door slams, all the
"I'm Buddhist ", and all the Kekkous (I'm fine), just was swept away
and my heart was mended back together!!!!

I know that God answered that girl's prayer that day! I know that God
answers my prayers! I had been praying to find someone that would be
ready. And I have been finding them everywhere! No words can really
been written of how powerful and beautiful that experience was to me!
God is real!!!!!
This work is so important and I love it!
I love my savior!
And I love the beautiful plan of God!

May we all love God too! Because he sure loves us and sure loves the
beautiful Japanese people of Yonago!

Love ロケット姉妹

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Week 47: Hope is sometimes the only thing we can hold on to.

Sent from my iPad

Dear Families and Friends!

Konnichiwa!

This past week has been exhausting, didn't think i would be this
exhausted! But, this was amazing! Monday we got to meet with a past
investigator. She had once had a baptismal date, but wasn't able to
make it. Chiaki san is her name. And it was one of the best lessons I
have ever been in. The spirit was so strong and it was just so
powerful. This girl is so prepared. God does prepare his children to
hear this gospel, and I have no doubt that he does provide a way. We
taught one of the most beautiful lessons. We talked about the Book of
Mormon. Such amazing power comes from this book! In the lesson we
found out that she reads from the Book of Mormon and prays everyday!
We were also told that she has family influences against the church...
but, God has a plan. I have come to find that Gods hand is in this
work so we must ALWAYS trust him and his plan. We are now teaching
Chiaki san lessons! The hope is what keeps this young girl and me
always trusting and exercising our faith in Christ.

There was one more story I would like to share. This is about a less
active named Eiko Shimai. Every time we visit Eiko Shimai she makes us
delicious food. But this time we visited was for transfers we had a
feeling that Catron Shimai might be leaving so we visited and we
talked with her about her life. eiko Shimai is an amazing person! She
has traveled all of the world. She went to Europe, Ireland, Jerusalem,
and many more... but what made me think the most and what struck me
the most was that she loved everyone that she met, she met many
different people everywhere. Who she would just meet once and love
them. She also likes English so she would try her best to speak to
these people. How amazing is that! What an impact can once person do!
I love this lady!

So transfer day came and Catron Shimai left... she went to THE ROCK!
She went to Takamatsu! I was then put with a 4th transfer, her name is
Lenfesty Shimai and she is from Texas. Really nice missionary, she
knows her scriptures but she is really shy so we will see how this
transfer is going. My hope is that I will be able to work on my
Japanese and stretch it. As well as help my companion, so we as a
companionship will be able to find those who are waiting for this
gospel!

Love you all!!

Oh and yesterday we got invited to go with a member to watch
fireworks, there was soooooo many people!

Yonago is great!

Lockett Shimai

Saturday, July 8, 2017

First payment via money gram

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