HI!

HI!

Good news, no bike accidents. William dont worry- the bush was nice and soft!

Happy Birthday to Joe!

Happy Birthday to Eric!!!!!!!!!! wow I cant believe you are 40 already!

So this week was a week of good growth. We spent the week preparing for an open house and game night that we invited the whole city to practicaly. It was fun to set up the church and make it look really great- we worked really hard to set up the perfect church tour. Unfortunetly, nobody came to the open house except for A few wonderful church members who came to help us practice how to give church tours. It was a great experience to help them see how hard we are working for the ward and the area and for them to get a chance to see how missionaires teach. We are trying to emphasize how every member can be a missionary. They were all impressed with our work and I know our efforts were not wasted! We had a fun game night and made some delicious treats for that!

We have really been trying to focus on teaching prepared people. I know that the only way we will be blessed with prepared people is if we are personally worthy. This means making sure we are doing everything we can in our companionships to make the relationship function like it should. I As missionaries, we have two hearts. The same thing applies to all relationships. If one heart isn:t beating right, the other one cant function either. As we shifted our focus to making our companionship better, we were able to teach with the spirit and regain some ground we may have lost. I was really humbled this week but so happy for the opportunity to grow! We found some new investigators with great potential. I am happy!

So one awkward thing. if this is too awkward or innapropriate or something for my blog you dont have to put this in haha- at the game night, some of the elders　in our district brought an investigator who was about 25. I didnt really talk to him because I was focusing on some other people and trying to understand how to play some games in japanese. who knew that they played mafia in Japan? good thing I knew the rules in english or else I would have probably sat in the corner. Anyways so as we are about to have a misionary message at the end of the game night, This elder goes `our investigator likes sister nelson!` and I was like what the heck? and then I had to sing a hymn solo so I didnt really think about it. After we ended and were cleaning up, this investigator comes over and starts chatting it up. then I realized who it was and why he was probably talking to me and I had a small heart attack. Fortunelty, another member came and saved me! so hopefully I never see him again. Except for in the Celestial Kingdom after he gets baptized and we all die.

I went out to lunch with a sister in our ward who took us to this reallllly fancy place with this stellar view! so pretty. Japan is like neverland. Anyways, she dropped like 60 bucks on us for lunch, and then drove us to like three appointments. She is such an angel! so nice. I am so grateful for her! We also had a fun ward shokuji after church yesterday. Its pretty much like a pot luck. Yum. I ate some delicious squid! mmm..........

We met this cutest girl named Aika who we are going to start teaching on wednesday! She is 17 and was really receptive to our message. The spirit was so strong when we testified to her. Also there is a spider hanging out by my face right now and so I might need to go take care of that in a second.

Okay. better. spiders in japan are so...alive and jumpy. they have like personalities. I dont know there are just so creepy.
 so I had a really fun split last week with one of the sister training leaders. SHe is a powerhouse! I loved working with her. She really motivated me to just open my mouth and speak! when I started to do that- i didnt have to think about what to say.

I am so excited to watch conference!　so we get to see it a week later than everybody in the states. SO its next weekend for us. We have the relief society broadcast this week. I CANT WAIT!!!!!!!!!! i am going to go to conference with specific questions that I want answered. I encourage everybody to prayerfully do the same! and then share with me and others your experienes! (when appropriate. some spiritual things are just for us as individuals!)

I am not sure about the singing group- we need to get some more info on that about the dates. hopefully!

This week as people are getting ready for homecoming and stuff, I just want everybody to think about what kind of experience they want to have. Think about why you want to go, and who you want to represent. What group? what clique? What is the most important thing about homecoming?

I just wanted to share a quick experience I had in school about a dance.  A friend invited me to go to a dance hosted by their club.we werent going to dance, we were theere as supervisors to make sure it ran smoothly. When we arrived, I realized that the music was horrible. The spirit was not there. I had a responsabiliity to make sure the dance went okay. I prayed that I would be able to have the spirit. As soon as I ended my prayer, I could no longer hear any of the words. I coulnd understand anything the singers said. I knew that god helped me. I also knew that because I remembered my standards, I recieved help from God. Dances can be fun, but how we prepare for them determines our experience.

When you go to homecoming, you check your bag in at the door. When you check your bag, are you going to check your religion too?

I encourage everybody to try to reflect the savior in the way you approach homecoming. You just need 15 seconds of courage to make the decision between what is right and what is easy. Take the plunge!  I am so proud of the youth for following the standards that set us apart from the world. Modesty is hottest!

Thanks for your good examples, your letters, and your love.

Find the light!!  (guess the movie) hahaha. sometimes Japan looks like dinotopia. I think about the odd spiritual significance of that movie....like all the time. its pretty cool.


Love you all!

Sister Nelson

Theres going to be an accident? (Guess the movie)

I survived my first bike accident!!!!!!!!!!! wahoo! Okay. so we all know how good my depth perception is. We were streeting one night on our way to some appartments and on a road that was full of potholes. wanting to avoid a sore bum, I rode out into the street off the sidewalk. When a car came, I misjudged the distance between the curb and the sidewalk and so I hit the curb and fell conveniently into some bushes! Good news, I wasnt hurt, just my pride. good thing it was dark. I have a lovely bruise about the size of a baby whale on my leg. cute! It was a blessing I wasnt hurt. 

This week was full of interesting and new food as well as some fun suprises and miralcles.

WAIT　a seccond I almost forgot--- CONGRATULATIONS to THe Kunz family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so exited! You are going to be the cutest mom ever! I will send you a japanese baby kimono or something. 

Yay to Kristi Lee and Race for getting their mission calls! I am so excited and proud of you both!!!!!

We are doing a lot with the members to try and strengthen our ward unity and the ward missionary work. The members have been so receptive so hopefully we can continue to grow as a ward and as missionaries becasue every member is a missionary! Helaman 7:29.

In doing this, we have had lots of interesting shokujis. (dinner appointments). I tried fish eggs. Yes. fish eggs. and ate more snot soup, eel, some wierd fish, some other wierd fish, some bones, some hairy veggitables, tofu, suuuper yummy lasagnia (our bishop is an american) and some more sushi, shrimp, the ocean floor, seawead, some odd turrnip that might have been a sea urchin...Im not really sure. I just kind of put it in my mouth and try to smile. I am getting an iron stomach. Well, kind of. SOmetimes I just stick the stuf I dont eat in my soup bowl so nobody can see it. oops. 

William- I havent tried octopus yet. Dad- my favorite fish so far I don:t remember the name of. but I will find it out! it is the brown fried sushi thing in my picture. I still love salmon though. Also I ate a really good white fish the other day with mushrooms and onions. yummmmmy. also pears here are called Nashi. They are round like an apple and have a wierd belly button thing at the top. Chan- Yes I have tried sushi! Ilike it but only in little chunks at a time. sometimes they put huge slabs of fish on the rice and Im like uhhhh.......dekinai! (i cant do it) because you have to eat it in one bite. I love shrimp sushi though. and i like the little roll ones better than the slabs.

 We had two potential investigators come to church yesterday unexpecdidily! it was so great! hopefully we can start teaching them regurlarly. We have two other appointments this week with new investigators so I have faith that they will become progressing investigators! sorry my spelling is so awful. 

We have a few more potential investigators and less actives we will be trying to make contact with this week. This week we really tried to focus on teaching the plan of salvation and talking to people about the purpose of life.　my goal this week is to use more scriptures in my teaching and when I am streeting and teaching totzuzen lessons.

Some of these scriptures have helped me to stay focused as a missionary:

 D&C 9;14 We have to be happy with where we are and what we have been called to do or else we stop ourselves from progressing., D&11; 20 This is the purpose of life- to follow the commandments with all our might mind and strength so that we can return to live with our heavenly parents!  

D&C 10:5 our blessings are contingent upon our faith IN our prayers. We have to have faith that god wants to bless us and that he will!

Also I have been reading a lot about the Gadiainton robers. When the Lamanites were opposing them, they hunted them down until they were no longer present in their land. Helaman 6:37. It is the same thing with us. The things of the world that try to creep in and destroy our families will only get worse if we dont activley hunt them down and stamp them out! if we dont oppose them, we are agreeing with them. Fight for what you know is right even if its hard. Helaman 5:47 but peace be unto you because of your faith- your efforts will not go unnoticed! Consider the honeybee- it collects enough pollen to make 1/2 of a teaspoon  in its lifetime. it doesnt seem like a lot but that ammount is vital to the hive. This is one of my favorite annalogies because so often we dont think our efforts matter- but they do! As a missionary, if I dont make an effort to spend 12 seconds talking to everybody, some of those prepared people might not get to hear the gospel. You just need 15 seconds of courage! This principle applies to our schoolwork, friends, and homelife. 

I am so grateful for this gospel and for the peace I have because of it. 

Love to you all, have a great week!

Nelson Shimai

Oh also- my pdays are going to be odd for the next two weeks so if you dont get an email on the normal day dont worry!

Chan I know you wanted to know about the houses-- a lot of them look like this except smaller! This one is huge.

Rocks, trees, sticks...spike

Konbanwa!!!!!!!!!

This week was amazing. So we have been doing so much finding this week its crazy. but we really wanted a few new investigators so we prayed specifically for specific things in investigators. we were out housing and found people that met our exact quallifications that said we could come back!!!!!! miracle number one.

Then on wednesday night we streeted into this lady and taught her a totzuzen lesson about the restoration. She called us a few days later and said she was coming to church!!!!!!!!! so we fasted on saturday that she would come. And she didnt... except for right as relief society got over we were summoned to the hallway because she did come!!!!!!!!!!! wahoo! even though church was over, she got to meet the bishop and said that she wants to learn more. what the heck so cool. She had trouble finding the building. I know that there is a reason for her not to come to the actual meeting, and I am trusting in the Lord to help us help her come to know the truth of the gospel. 

There are so many beautifiul farms and tress and I love it! I will try to take some good pics today. we are going to visit a buddhist temple later.

We worked really hard this week and met all of our standards of execellence a day early! I also passed off some lesson masteries, so that is good too. 

We are trying to incorporate more family history stuff to try to pique peoples interest. If anybody has some good nelson or doman family stories I would love to read them!

I might have the opportunity to sing some beethoven- there is a choir who is working on some symphony who needs more people so I am going to try to turn that into a gospel opportunity. 

We have been so blessed to get so much food from people! We always say that people accept us when they give us food.

For example yestderday we met the cutest nihonjin girl who was like 21 and she was so happy to recieve the book of mormon and to know that somebody else believed in god. She was awesome.　 of course, she lives in yamaguchi, not ube. Zan nen. (too bad.) She was so happy that she gave us some treas she had just bought. they were the best dounuts and danishes. seriously japanese baked goods are so good. 

I did meet an interesting man who believed in riencarnation...hmm. that was a fun convorsation. 

THis week I really have been studying the plan of salvation. 2 Nephi 2 is the best chapter ever. It really just outlines everything. the atonment, the reason for the fall, and the purpose of life. Adam fell that men might be, men are that they might have joy.

I just want everybody to know that! 

This week in our lesson with izumi san she said she wanted to be baptized!!!wahoo! except she has a difficult relationship with her husband which is making it hard for her to accept a date and come to church. but I know that if god brings you to it- he will bring you through it. (thanks mom). and everything will be okay.

love you all- have a great week hope the weather is cool!

This past week was ATSUI! (hot) and humid but its cooling down now.

Be a missionary today! The Lord needs everybody! you rock!

Sister Nelson

A little rain and a lot of blessings!

Hello! 

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes--- they seriously made my day! The pictures thing was so cute I can:t believe you did that!!!!!! I have the best family ever!!!!!!

My companion and the other companionship we split Ube with suprised me with a bunch of cute little presents (i will send a pic) and took me out to SUSHI for dinner!! it was so so yummy. and of course I had a chocolate cake for dessert. The sushi place is cool becasue it is on a convayor belt and the sushi just rotates around the room around all the tables. its so cool. My room mates and companion are so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week we had a lot of rain but some good weather as well. We are teaching a woman named Izumi san. She is progressing in the gospel but is having a hard time understanding the role of Jesus Christ and the atonement. In planning for her next lesson, we are going to be reading from Mosiah 24, alma 38 and 39, as well as 3 Nephi 11. All are wonderful chapters and really help you get a kick in the pants when you need it. 

We have been blessed to have a lot of people to visit. So many people here are less actives, so that means we always have people to visit and people to find. Yestderday at a nursing home while visiting an older member, a bunch of senior ladies were freaking out over my hair and wanted to touch it. They were so kooky and fun!

Sisters Buhler and Smotherman found a girl that is interested about the church and have a meeting with her tonight, so hopefully all goes well with that and we can start teaching her regularly. She has definetly been prepared to hear this message of truth and peace. 

I got some really good advice from my companion about rejection. She said it doesn:t really matter if we have a perfect approach. Jesus had the perfect approach and people killed him. They still rejected him even though he his the only way to salvation. This made me feel alot less inadequate. (although I still feel so unquallified every day...its good though.　i am growing!)

THis week at our english class we had A HUGE SPIDER THAT JUMPED come visit us. OH my gosh i seriously died. its like a brown recluse on steroids. The english students woulndt kill it and instead decided to chase it down the stairs and out the door. hmm. I wanted to get a butcher knife and some gun powder. They are better people than me.

If you could send me your addresses if you want me to send you a letter at some point, that would be great!! 

We are teaching a lot of less actives. It is a little bit difficult to make appointments  because people don:t like to make them, so we do a lot of drop　by appointments and teach on the porch.

A cool experience from this week was when we were teaching a man who didn:t really want to listen to our message, but as we took the time to understand his concerns, he decided to let us in and we were able to bear our testimonies about prayer and set up a follow up appointment.

I love this work. It is hard every single day but it is worth it.

I love all of you and miss you so much!

ps. who made U-choir?????

these are my birthday presents!! not the books.. thats my desk. 

Olivia's Address

For those of you wanting to write Sister Nelson, here is the address to the mission home where you can send her letters. From what I've heard it should take around 2 weeks to get to Japan, give or take. She would love to hear from all of you!

Nelson Shimai
Japan Fukuoka Mission
9-16 Hirao Josuicho, Chuo-Ku, Fukuoka-Shi
Fukuoka 810-0029 Japan

The plane broke down. Guess I am a wide load after all.

Hello from Japan!!!

I have about a billion and six things I want to say. This week has been so crazy. I guess I will just try to do a time line of sorts.

So last monday we left the MTC at 2:30 am. We then boarded a plane that was supposed to leave at six. But after two hours of sitting there, the captian decided the plane wasn`t safe to fly. He said he had a really bad feeling about trying to fix the pressure thing manually. So we got on the next flight to Dallas at five that night, spent the night in Dallas, and went to tokyo the next morning. From tokyo we flew to Japan, Went to the church for a two hour orientation from 11 pm to 1 am because we all had to leave the next morning because we were a day behind schedule. The mission president and his wife are so so so nice! Anyway, so when we got to Dallas, this nicest member family was ready with snacks on snacks on snacks for us! It was so nice! Miracle. Also, because of the delay a lot of people were able to share the Gospel. Okay back to the mission home. We spent the night in the mission home and then I took a bus the next day to my area. I am serving in the Yamaguchi Ube area! I will try to send more pictures when I have time to take them.

My new companion`s name is Sister Sharp. SHe is so great and has such a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She just got to Japan three months ago and is already a trainer! Wow! We are learning a lot from each other and a lot together. We also live with SIsters Buhler and Smotherman. GUess what? SIster Buhler was in  Jackie`s ward in Loveland! She was her young womans leader!!!! Small world. They are both great missionaries!

My pday will be mondays. Also, my address is the mission home. 

There are a lot of less active members in this area. SO so so many. So we focus a lot of our effort on teaching them. We had a miracle yesterday that was so cool. We were streeting on saturday and ran into this lady who we started sharing ourmessage with. She was interested to hear more and gave us her phone number. We tried to call her to set up and appointment and she didn:t answer. Later that day, the other sisters mentioned how they met this lady who had an appointment with us on tuesday. 

Anyway, we had no idea who they were talking about, but we figured out it was that lady! THEY RANDOMLY TRACTED INTO OUR CONTACT! what??? obviously it was in Heavenly Fathers plan for our day. We fasted for heavenly father to prepare a new investigator for us and he did! She is actually a former investigator. I am excited for tuesday! (when we made that appointment, I have no idea! haha).

I am doing really well, seeing a lot of miracles and wish I had time to write them all! My ward is so great. It is all old people pretty much. BUt they are so great. This one lady came up to me and was freaking out that I was so white.　apparently they love that here. that was a first for my life that people coveted my paper-like skin. 

Okay well Thats all i have time for, LOve to you all!!!!! 

Nelson Shimai

 Olivia's new companion, Sister Sharp.

 

MTC District-They all went to Fukuoka!

The view from Olivia's apartment window in Japan