Transfer 4 of 10 and still young!

Hello Family and Friends!!

Well I'm here e-mailing from Kichijouji again, where we all meet up for the sisters who are transfering, so I have to type on the funny keyboard with the protective covering... but I have big news: I am being transfered! Again!! Yeah, so I guess only one transfer in Maebashi　(前橋） was enough for me... at least according to the Lord's time :) I was actually very surprised this time and for sure thought I was staying longer. I wouldn't have minded staying a bit longer but I don't mind escpecially knowing my new assignment. Are you ready to hear it? It's pretty cool. Ok are you ready? Really ready? :D OK I am being transfered to Nakano（中野）! That's the hombu (Mission Home's area)! Where I just went on splits with the shimai there a couple weeks ago! Isnt that CRAZY?? I'm sure there's wisdom in it, and it was crazy that when I went on splits I was really like hey, this area is kinda nice... hmm... I could dendo (do missionary work) here someday--I just didn't know it'd be this next transfer! :) Soooo my bags are being shipped and I'm carting around my carry-on and backpack and dendo bag and a basil plant a member gave us in Maebashi :) And my new companion is Shipp Shimai. She was my MTC doryo Acerson Shimai's trainer and only on her 8th transfer I think. She is way way nice so I am soo excited to work together and be in Nakano!

This last week didn't have anything too out of the ordinary, we met with less actives, had a lesson on sunday with LiHing, a chinese girl that has been taking the lessons for a long time and just got back from China, and had to say goodbye to everyone and bear my testimony in Sacrament. I did just fine packing up my stuff, but while I was packing I was looking at Ensign pictures of conference and saw a girl in a cute winter jacket. I was like, man, winter is coming huh... good thing I have a jacket like that... wait...where is... then I realized that my wool jacket must be still in Kofu! So I called and they sure did have it. Sister Perkins was packing like crazy as she is going home now (crazy--my trainer is dying!) and so they were very kind and brought the jacket to transfers. I'm so glad I remembered. It's funny to see missionaries go home now that I actually know them and got to see them work in the field, but I saw Perkins shimai at the transfer meeting place and she is still very genki and nervous but excited for this next "transfer" to America.

Well a little more about Nakano--as far as I know-- it's where the mission home is, so we'll be seeing a lot of President and Sister Albrect and of course the Hombu staff. The mission home is built right next to the Nakano chapel, and I hear the ward is pretty big and everyone is really nice. The area is not nearly as big as my last ones. Kofu and Maebashi both spanned at least a 2-3 hour train ride. We can bike all the way across our Nakano area in maybe an hour... so, much smaller and more city. But when we did splits it seemed like there are a lot of people there but not so many that it would be completely overwhelming.

By the way mom, did I tell you I fixed the shoes? It only cost $6 and took thirty minutes but they are holding up just great now. They've been getting a little bit wet this week as it was pretty rainy. The weather is just starting to cool down a little--almost to the point you want a sweater at night when it's really windy. But mostly it's still sunny and hot. And still humid! As my hair gets a little longer is keeps getting curly and crazy so I have to be creative to keep it tame! :) Ok well I better go now, sorry there's not any cool stories or anything this week, but I am very excited for this next transfer and look forward to telling you all about it.

I do have one question, though, I have the Japanese triple BOM/D&C I got from the MTC but they just came out with a small triple (like half the size!) in Japanese so when we were at the temple store I bought one..it's much lighter to carry around so now I'm not sure if I need the other triple. I had my name engraved on it so I can't give it away, but if I send it home will someone use it to read for fun? I'm not sure I want to pack it every transfer if I don't use it! :)

Thanks a bunch!! Love you all lots and sending genki-ness your way! :)

Love,
LeFevre shimai

P.S. Random Japanese culture trivia (I might have already mentioned..)--Despite the fact that they eat sushi-raw fish-and put a raw egg with hot rice for breakfast, and often put eggs half cooked on basically anything, soups, donburi, ramen... they do NOT eat cake mix--like licking the spoons or bowls or anything. My last companion had never even tasted uncooked cake mix before..! Crazy huh? :) Well I was happy to eat her half too. Ok じゃねえ！hey does this come up as just boxes or can you see the characters:　もし　わたしが　日本語で　かけば、よめる　ことが　できますか？みんさんが　すばらしい　いちにちが　あるように　がんばてください！
愛していますよ！

Last week of Transfer 3

Helloooo friends and Family!

Well, Happy end of August everyone! I'm sure you are all sad to see the summer vacation go, but I just have to say I am overjoyed about the oncoming cooler weather. I am sure when winter gets bad it will be hard too, but fall and spring will be the best things ever in a missionary's life. I never understood really why we had them before, since the most fun is playing in the snow and playing in the pool on a sunny day. But at least one reason being for missionaries, I am glad it is not always blistering hot or freezing cold. ;) It's still pretty hot here, but you can feel it getting just a little cooler, without completely sweating all over, etc. I'm excited.

I am also excited for a coming dessert contest that we are planning to try and get less actives, members, and investigators all together to have a fun time. And eat lots of desserts. I think it's something that everyone likes. As we've been visiting lots of less actives this week to invite them to it, I don't really have any idea what makes them not come to church... one lady was so friendly and SO genki and played the ukalele and sang for us and laughed and was just so fun, and the thing is she lives about 100 feet from the church building. But for some very mysterious reason (actually we didn't really ask why but will soon) she doesn't come to church on Sunday..? Wakaranai! But hopefully through activities we can help them build relationships with each other.

The funny (sad) thing is that we don't know for sure if both of us will be here for it. It's the first Saturday in September, and transfers are next week... so IF one of us transfers they'll miss the desserts.. :( I hope it's not me. I dont really feel like I'm transfering, but we'll see.

Ok, so for this week week, well after Tokyo we came back and have really just been working hard to get word out about the dessert contest. Time is short so I'll be quick. We did have a big surprise on Sunday when a person showed up with a flyer we'd handed out. She had never been to a church before so we gave her a tour, went to Relief Society (our church does Sacrament meeting last), taught her lesson one with two amazing joint sisters, and went to sacrament meeting together. She is AWESOME. Her name is Itou-san. She seemed to really like everything, and was very touched by the lesson. She is coming next week to meet again and have church! YAY! We didnt get to learn much about her except that she's between school and looking for work. and 23 years old. So great. That was our miracle for the week.

Well, thanks for everyones emails and birthday wishes I feel so loved to recieve so many wishes and cards. Hope you all have an amazing week and may the Lord guide your lives with his Spirit. He is always waiting on the other side of our prayers, waiting to pour out his love :)

Love you all tons,
LeFevre Shimai

My Tokyo Birthday

Hey Everyone!!

Thank you to you all for your great birthday wishes and e-mails. I am so blessed to have such supportive family and loving friends! :) I'm sorry I can't write more today it has to be short. We came to Tokyo and did splits with the shimai here in Nakano. It was great fun and it was nice to be on streets where there are lots of people! ;) I could see myself dendo-ing in Nakano again sometime... [Ed. note: This proves to be prophetic.]

And today of course was the best birthday a missionary could ask for. We got to go to the temple, and it was beautiful, of course. And I did get your birthday package mom! I laughed a little when I saw that it was mainly chocolate... lol. I can't believe how much there is. But the shirts are absolutely perfect! Thank you! I love the green REI one the best. THANKS so much!! And Larisa, the purse is GREAT! I am so impressed! I started using it the day I got it. It works as my scripture and pamphlet tote! :D

It's still hot, but the Obon festival (day of the dead) is now past (after much incense) and so it's supposed to start getting cooler.

I hope to write more next week! Love you all so much and know you are all in my prayers as well!

LOVE,
LeFevre Shimai

Maebashi storms and earthquakes. Week 3.

Dear Family and Friends,

Yeesh! I'm sitting here in shock just from reading your letter dad! You guys have been having a rough time!... Yikes. I'm so sad to hear about Jazz!! That makes me want to cry! Poor guy... well I'll keep praying you find him too, but that's pretty scary if he's been gone almost a week now. And Grandpa! Getting a concussion by being run over by a horse! I guess this means I need to pray for my family more diligently! It also means I shouldn't complain about my little tired body and sore legs from dendo... I'll be more grateful from now on! (wow-I think being a missionary for sure makes normal things ten times more emotional... :) Ok well this week has been a little slow for us, but safe. You may have heard that Tokyo area had an earthquake. They did. I guess my companion thinks she felt it a little. But we were riding our bikes. I didn't feel a thing.. :( I would have liked to! But I'm sure I'll get another chance... Japan has lots of earthquakes. Anyway, we're fine and there's no problems. Some of the Elders in our nearby area were saying they were in a lesson and felt it. Lucky! but yeah, everyone's fine.

This week we had zone conference and interviews, which were great! We talked about baptism and how that's still our main focus even if we do end up doing a lot of 'seed planting' or just teaching, it's really baptism that opens the doors of the kingdom of heaven for these people. From there they take their own journey, but it is the gate. I think the thing that stuck out to me the most, though, was in my interview and in the conference President Albrect talked about how very soon in the mission young missionaries are going to be going senior... because that's what we have to work with. During the conference he said, especially in the case of those missionaries, to not worry about the language! Study hard and do our best but the Lord will help us say what we need to say through the Spirit's help. He referrenced the story in PMG from President Hinckley about the two missionaries, one who was well-educated and persuasive and had a great confident personality, and one who had earned money for his mission as a sign-painter. He said to the first one, "Well, the Lord can still use you" :) And I have felt that the Lord does make up for our weaknesses and I've said things in lessons through the Spirit's promptings, but I guess as I learn more Japanese skills, I have to keep reminding myself it's through the Lord's power I need to speak. Even if we can speak perfect Japanese, if we don't have the spirit with us the words won't mean anything. Well anyway, while he was saying all that it really hit me and I get the feeling I might be going senior pretty young (especially when I found out the day after conference my companion told president in her interview that she thinks I could!). I have a total of about 10 transfers and am on my third. We'll see what happens!

Ok and the other cool thing this week was on Satuday they had one of the biggest summer festivals. Maybe not the biggest but it's a huge deal. Everyone dressed up in their Ugatas (which are like Kimonos but for summertime) and there was a big matzuri (fetstival) down by the river here in Maebashi and then starting at 7:00 and going for... at least until 8:30 maybe 9:00 they had a HUGE fireworks show. Well I took a whole lot of pictures and video of the fireworks, until my battery ran out. They were gorgeous and so many types! The only bummer is it was raining the whole time! And at the end it was really coming down. We had to wait in this sea of umbrellas for everyone to go back up the stairs to the bridge for like 30 minutes there were so many people. But we went with the Kitagawa family so it was good time. We were going to go to the waterfall with them today too but a typhoon is supposed to be coming so they said it was dangerous. It hasn't really hit yet. Hopefully it can wait until we get back from e-mail :) But I did send off my SD card with Dad & Austin's package. There's a whole lot of pictures but it's not full but just unload them and send them back ok? I have a 2GB one here I'll keep using until I get it back. It should be there about two weeks from now. That was the cheaper way. Sorry it's really late from birthdays I really need to start planning ahead with those things!

Ok and last thing really fast then I gotta go. Next P-day will actually be a Tuesday because they changed it again! (Monday the temple is closed and most e-mail places too) Sooooo we are going to the temple! And I called the Nakano elders who have been trying to meet up with Kouki. I guess he's looking for a job right now but they said if we could all meet together he'd probably make time and it could be a great introduction for them. So (for my birthday!!) I get a P-day and to go the temple and possibly see a great old friend. I'm pretty excited :D

Well thanks for all your e-mails and mail. Grandpa--get better fast! Thanks for your letters! It was Ayumi that was in my Kofu ward... :) And btw so everyone knows, the time for letters from US to Tokyo is 1 at the fastest and 2 weeks at the slowest.

I can't believe only Dad and Austin are going to Ed week...? And Mom what's this I hear about you running in a marathon? And don't let Nathan forget about me!

Love you all so very very much!

Take care and have a fun (safe) week! DAD GOOD LUCK WITH ED WEEK!

LOVE,
LeFevre Shimai :)

Weekly Update: Maebashi is still hot

Family and Friends,

Well, the summer has officially started! The Semi's are loud and strong. Everyone's out for summer break (even though they all still have homework...?) and so playing at the parks and shopping and even here at this computer shop where they have this little e-mail place I get to use a computer at. It's unfortunately pretty far from our apartment :( and we came here an hour ago but they were full so we did some shopping and came all the way back and I was lucky to get a spot now.. so it might be tricky to e-mail these next few weeks with everyone out of school and places busy but we'll try.

They have a big fireworks show here in Maebashi on the 8th, so we've been invited by some less-active members to watch it with them. Then the next monday (for P-day) they're taking us to see a famous waterfall! It'll be exciting and a good excuse to build relationships with the family. Both the parents are members but the 14? yr old daughter is not and she's kinda free-willed but they seem like a really nice, good family. The mom actually came to church for the first time in a while last Sunday. I think she wants to come back the most (she's a returned missionary, and probably the dad, too).

Anyway, other than that we've had more lessons with our investigator Akutsu-san and they are maybe getting better. This last one was more based around questions that were of value spiritually... but she still just has to keep her reading committments!

The Book of Mormon is SO important! I can't believe there were days I didn't read it before.. and I don't know why but for some reason as senkyoshi (missionaries) we're not distracted by so many other things of the world so we just get so fine tuned to our emotions! When we watched the Joseph Smith Restoration movie a couple weeks ago I noticed it because I just wanted to bawl and leap for joy all in the same place! It was SO strong... but before dendo I probably thought that movie was pretty boring... So maybe from that our feelings when we read the BoM are more noticeable but it just all makes so much sense and is so amazing, like wow I never thought of it like that before.

Like for today's study I looked into how we need faith for miracles. Akutsu-san was asking last night why the Israelites could have seen Moses part the Red Sea and still not believe, or why the Jews could have seen Christ and still not believed. She proposed that if she had been there at that time and seen those kinds of things she would have zettai (without fail) believed. I think most of us would like to think that. But would we really believe? There's numberless examples in the Book of Mormon, and numberless scriptures I found studying.

To name a few there's Laman and Lemuel of course who saw angels but still turned away from the Lord in the end, and then there's many who by their faith wrought miracles, the prisoners with Lehi and Nephi who had faith to call upon God for repentence and were all every one enveloped in pillars of fire (Helaman 5). The underlying theme I got from my study was that God IS a God of miracles, and the only reason that miracles cease is that people forget God and do not believe (Mormon 9:20). If you want an interesting reading see Moroni 7:21-end. I went through and highlighted key words of Christ: faith, every good thing, angels, miracles, repentence, covenants. Then just to read through those highlighted words, well it may not have had much litteral meaning but it's clear that miracles start with the faith and love in our hearts.

Ok well other than that, not much exciting happening in Maebashi, we're still really trying to find investigators so pray for that will you? And I'll try exercising MY faith to work those kind of miracles too :)

And thanks to everyone for your letters and e-mails! I love you all lots and hope you have a fantastic week!!!! and remember to do you missionary-member work! :D

LeFevre Shimai

PS! Dad HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW wakaranai...) !! And Austin HAPPY BIRTHDAY in a couple more days!! LOVE YOU GUYS! (your presents are on their way :D)

PPS. Mom, you fire baton during halftime shows? ;D that was fun to read in the ward newsletter but .. can you still twirl? That'd be such a steki skill to brush up on.. :D

OK loves!!! G&G Leach you're so awesome for writing me every week, just so you know it was not Aoki in Kofu but I wrote her real name in my other planner :) I'll write it in snail mail!