Hot and Humid--but the Work Is Moving Forward!

(This picture is me next to the rice fields in Ishinomaki---the field is white already to harvest!)

How fast time has flown. Next week is transfer week again! My companion Hansen Shimai will finish her mission and go back to America! It’s pretty hard to believe, it’s gone by so fast.

This past week has been pretty hot – in the 90’s with humidity. One of the branch members said it’s been unusually hot here in Ishinomaki this summer. A few days ago our companion Murase Shimai told us the reason we hadn’t used the small A.C. (I hadn’t even realized we had it…) was because it was broken. So, we’d been bearing the hot weather with our two little fans. We’ll be excited once it’s fixed in the next few days. August is supposed to be the hottest month here…

For preparation day we had a fun time watching seminary videos in Japanese at the church (in an air-conditioned room). I was also able to practice/play my violin for about an hour, and was happy to find I hadn’t forgotten how to play it! I actually played my violin in church last week, and the week before I’d played the piano for a musical number. I think in the next month or two, I’ll put together a music concert/fireside. There are some talented singers in the branch here—that will help with the work here!

The work is moving forward here in Ishinomaki, slowly, but surely. 91 year old Hayashi san’s grandchildren are over for the summer break, so we’ll have to wait until it’s over to meet with her. This past week we met two times with a man we found as we were riding our bikes over to the church. His name is Kumura san. He was wondering what his purpose in life is and wants hope for the future. So far we’ve taught him the first two lessons, and he’s accepted our commitments well. He even said he wants to be baptized once he gets an answer from God! He’s wonderful and is really searching for the truth. I know the gospel will help him so much, and he’ll be a wonderful priesthood holder some day if he chooses to accept our message!

One of our other investigators was an old investigator of previous missionaries. She’s Korean, but married a Japanese person and has lived in Japan for a while (her Japanese is very good). We met her for the 2nd time today and watched the DVD “Finding Faith in Christ” together in Korean. It reminded me of when I first came to Japan and couldn’t understand anything…The Lord has really blessed me to learn Japanese!

Thanks for your letters. Sounds like it’s been a busy, but fun summer! Even though it’s hot, I’m grateful every day for the chance I have to do missionary work! It’s sad when people choose not to listen, but I’m glad I can give them that chance to listen to a message that can change their lives.

I love all of you! Thanks for your love and support!

Love,
Swain Shimai

P.S. Don’t worry Dad, even though I’m turning Nihonjin (Japanese), I haven’t yet, and probably won’t ever, develop a taste for Nato!



(This picture is Hansen Shimai, Murase Shimai and Me in the Sendai Station on our way to district meeting. The decorations are celebrating the Tanabata Festival.)









(This is me on a bridge next to the ocean in Ishinomaki!)

I Love Missionary Work!

I can hardly believe there’s only 2 ½ weeks left of this transfer! Soon Hansen Shimai will go back to America. She’ll be the 3rd companion I’ve sent back home!

It is nice and hot here in Ishinomaki. I think I’m just getting used to always having sweat on my face and body as we ride our bikes and dendo in 87 degree, humid weather. But it’s fun! Especially with two companions, every day is a party!

Hayashi san, our 91 year old friend is still reading the Book of Mormon and praying. We’re just waiting to hear if her family will let her get baptized. She’s the best!

It was another busy week as we did our best to reach the Sendai Mission Standard of Excellence – of teaching 20 lessons/week and finding 3 new investigators/week. With the Lord’s help, we were able to do it this week!

I guess today I don’t know what else to write, except that I love missionary work! Each day the Lord gives me strength to go another day and do all I can to help move the work forward. Japan is the best! I love and pray for all of you!

Love,
Sister Swain
(Me, Sister Hansen and the Statue of Liberty in Ishinomaki! There's also a Japanese Flag!)

P.S. On Sunday, I played the piano for a musical number in Sacrament meeting-“Armies of Helaman/As Sisters in Zion—my companions and a few branch members sang. The Ishinomaki Branch is small, but boy can they sing!

P.S.S. Hansen Shimai said my Japanese is getting a lot better faster. She said over the course of a week it changed dramatically! I’m grateful for her encouragement, and grateful for the Lord for the gift of tongues. It’s real!

P.S.S. Murase Shimai is a very good cook and I’m learning a little from her of how to cook Japanese meals…I promise to make then when I come home!

God Loves Each of Us!

Dear Family,

It’s been another week full of wonderful experiences! We met with Hayashi san again today, our 91 year old and genki (healthy!) investigator. She was so happy to see us and had read some of the Book of Mormon and prayed! She’s so wonderful and full of faith and I love her so much! We taught her about the first half of the Plan of Salvation—of how we lived with God before we came to earth, how we came to earth to learn to progress. As we taught about Jesus Christ and what He’d done for us, she felt like she wanted to believe in Him too! She wants to be baptized but first has to talk with her daughter that she lives with for permission. We’re afraid her family will be opposed to our church—so many are—but are praying for her and know the Lord’s hand will be in whatever happens.

We also had Zone Conference this week. As always, it was wonderful.

This past week we found out one of the church members, in her 60’s/70’s who works in and runs her own garden/farm—had a bike accident as she was bringing her harvest, on the back of her bike, to the market. We visited her in the hospital three days after it happened, and it was a pretty bad accident. It reminded me of my car accident! She asked us to help tend her farm occasionally. We went afterwards and harvested some fruit and picked some weeds. It was fun! I was amazed how she runs the farm herself!

We also met with a member, and her friend she wanted to introduce to us! We taught lesson one to her. It was wonderful to have the support and testimony of the member, who is a recent convert herself!

I love being here in Japan and serving each day as a missionary! I know God loves each one of us and gives us direction when we ask for it! I have received so much of His direction to do His work here! I pray for all of you!

Love,
Sister Swain

3 Nephi 14:7: “Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

P.S. Here are some pictures of me in my purple yukata and my companions, Hansen Shimai and Murase Shimai. We all bought yukatas (the summer kimono) and Murase Shimai taught us how to put them on. We wore them around our apartment on Preparation Day. (P-day)

Rain, Earthquake, and New American Companion!

Dear Family,

It sounds like you all had a great trip to Nauvoo! I’ve been here in Ishinomaki for a little over a week now! Last week it rained hard for two of the days. I think the rainy season is coming up. We had fun riding our bikes through a few inches of water!

This morning we had a #4 earthquake, but they’re becoming more normal to me and just feels like the apartment is rocking like a boat for a few seconds.

Last Friday we got a call from the Mission President saying that our companion, Kouyama Shimai, needed to pack her things and leave that day. She was transferred to an area they just opened for the sisters! So we were only with her for one week, but in her place Hansen Shimai (from Las Vegas) came to Ishinomaki! So now it’s a “three-some” with me, Murase Shimai, and Hansen Shimai. This is Hansen Shimai’s last transfer and the first time I’ve had an American companion since coming to Japan! It’s going to be a fun transfer!

Since Kouyama Shimai left, I’ve felt even more responsibility as co-senior companion because Hansen Shimai doesn’t know the area yet. I’ve found that the Lord has led and blessed me to love the people here, and to know who to help and how to help them.

Today we were handing out Eikaiwa (English Class) fliers by the train station when we met a cute 91 year old grandmother, Hayashi san, who took us to the nearby hotel she and her daughter runs! We learned from her daughter that 30 years ago the missionaries had borrowed the tub in their hotel to do baptisms, because there was no other place to do it in! They both warmly accepted us, and Hayashi san, even at age 91, was so humble and willingly accepted our message! She told us she felt something special while reading the Book of Mormon.

I love missionary work, and all of you! Take care!

Love,
Sister Swain

P.S. I gave in and bought a summer kimono-yukata-because it was purple and on sale! I’ll send pictures next time.
P.P.S. We visited a less active member who hadn’t been to church in four years, but now she wants to pray and read the Book of Mormon every day and come to church in a few months!

Ishinomaki and transferring...!

(This picture is all except two of the sister missionaries in the Sendai Zone...on transfer day at the bus stop.)

Dear family,

I’ve only been in Ishinomaki for a few days now with my new companions, Kouyama and Murase Shimai, but I already love it! Ishinomaki is not like the busy cities I’ve been used to in Izumi and Nagamachi—it’s a little further north and just along the ocean coastline—and it’s like being out in the country in Japan! When I first got here I felt like I was taking a step back in time here in Japan.

I’ll be learning different ways to dendo out here. Before in my other areas we’d go “streeting” and talk to those walking along the busy streets, but here in Ishinomaki there’s almost no one walking on the streets! It’s mostly houses, with a high school nearby and a few stores. So we’ll be doing a lot of housing here.

In the Ishinomaki branch, there were about 36 members that came to church on Sunday! It’s a small branch, but everyone is so kind and full of faith. It’s a very tight-knit branch, and I already love it! The branch president is wonderful and has a great vision for what the Ishinomaki Branch will one day become-through our (the missionary’s) help and the members!

It is hot and humid here-probably more humid than hot! I guess at least it’s not snowing!

At first I didn’t know how it would be being in a 3-some, but I absolutely love it! It’s like always having another person to help with the work, support, and bear testimony, and it’s so fun! I love and respect both Kouyama and Murase Shimai, and with all of our faith, efforts, and God’s guidance, we hope to see miracles happen here in Ishinomaki!

On Saturday we had a lesson with a referral, one of the branch member’s friends. We set a baptism date with her for next month! Already the Lord is blessing the work here-through the help of the branch members!

I’m so happy serving the Lord here in Japan! I love and am praying for all of you!

Love,
Swain Shimai

P.S. Thanks for your letter from Nauvoo! It sounds like you’ve had some wonderful experiences. Aren’t sister missionaries the best?!

P.P.S. I just found out that Helen san, our investigator in Nagamachi, passed her baptism interview! She’s getting baptized! I’m so happy!

P.P.P.S. This picture is me and Kamen Rider in downtown Ishinomaki. He's famous in Japan for rescuing those in danger. We have the same job!

Transferring to Ishinomaki!

Dear Family,

Today we received transfer calls, and I will be leaving Nagamachi! I’ve only been here for two transfers, but I love the people here and will be sad to leave!

My companion Kouzawa Shimai will stay here and become a trainer of a new Japanese sister missionary. I’ll go to Ishinomaki, where I’ll become companions with two other Shimais—we’ll be a three-some! One of them is Kouyama Shimai, who just has one more transfer left before her mission is finished! We’ll be co-seniors. My other companion will be Murase Shimai, who will start her 2nd transfer as a missionary. This picture is Kouzawa Shimai and I with recent convert Kimura Shimai after Stake Conference.

Ishinomaki is a bit farther north but is still in the Sendai Zone, the same zone I’ve been in my whole mission! I’ve heard that there are no elders serving there, just sisters—and it’s a branch, not a ward, so they’re aren’t as many members. One of my college friends is living there with her husband and daughter (teaching English) and she is the Young Woman’s President there (for the one young woman who was taught and baptized by the sister missionaries a few months ago)! It’ll be fun to be in the same branch with them!

So, while I’m sad to leave Nagamachi, I’m looking forward to the new experiences I’ll have in Ishinomaki. I won’t be able to see Helen san’s baptism here, which is scheduled for next Tuesday—but it’s OK. I’m just happy that she’ll be getting baptized! (And my companion promised to send me a picture.)

This past week has been busy! On Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference, which was wonderful. The Sunday session was a broadcast from Salt Lake (shown to all the stakes in Japan and a few surrounding countries). Elder Evans of the 70s gave his talk in Japanese. He invited all the youth to serve missions! It was great. My companion, Kouzawa Shimai actually decided to come on a mission because of a similar talk he gave in her stake about a year ago.

Over the weekend I caught a little flu bug and fever but I was able to rest a little and am now feeling fine. (Thanks for all the meds mom.)

Yesterday we taught our friend Moloko san, from South Africa, about the Restoration of the church (lesson 1). We taught in English and the mission home couple (the Sudweeks) joined us for the lesson. Moloko san is wonderful and said she’ll get baptized when she receives an answer from God if this church is true or not. She said she has been confused (like Joseph Smith) about the many different churches and understood the need for a Restoration! She already believes in God and Jesus Christ and has great faith!

I love all of you so much! Take care!

Love,
Sister Swain

P.S. After our lesson in English with Moloko san, Sister Sudweeks said my English had become a little strange. I guess that’s what happens when I only speak Japanese all day!
P.S.S. This picture is me and my college friend, Jul Lamb and her little baby girl, Elsa. She's living in the branch I'll transfer to!!!

"Teaching in English..."

Dear Family,

Next week is transfers-time flies! It sounds like all of you have been busy with BBQs, Nauvoo trips, family reunions...I hope you have a wonderful time! And that’s exciting that David is horseback riding again! I’m almost jealous!

This past week we met with Helen san and finished all her lessons. She’ll take her baptism interview this coming Friday, and if she passes she’ll be baptized on June 29th! We’re praying for her and we’re so excited.

As we were walking back to the church after returning from Soma (where we met Helen san) last Saturday, we ran into a cheerful, sweet girl from South Africa who’s been in Japan for the past two years teaching English! She believes in God and listened as we explained about our church and the Book of Mormon. We set an appointment with her for this next Tuesday! We’re so grateful we could meet her. We really feel like the Lord placed her in her path! We’ll teach her in English...my companion Kouzawa Shimai has practiced teaching in English to me, and thanks to her hard work and prayers, I’m sure she’ll be able to do it.

I’m grateful for all your love and prayers. I love being a missionary here in Japan!

Love,
Swain Shimai

P.S. I love you all!! God lives and loves us. Christ is our Savior. The gospel is true!
P.P.S. I’ve included two DVDs: one is our mission concert before my first transfer in the Izumi ward—I both sang some of the songs in Japanese and played my violin. I also bore a little bit of my testimony as I introduced “Where Can I Turn for Peace.” The second DVD is of our concert we did at the Kamisugi church (stake center) in collaboration with the four missionaries there. I played my violin in several songs and as background music during a slideshow, as well as sang. It’s interesting that Morikoshi Shimai accompanied me on the piano—this was before we became companions!