こんにちは！this week, as every week, was amazing and full of seeing the

hand of the Lord. Since it was Easter week we had so many

opportunities to talk about the Savior and His resurrection and

testify that He lives. We were able to show many, many people the new

Easter video online at lds.org and my absolute favorite comment was

also the one that was said the most. "Wow, it's like Jesus Christ is

really involved in our lives." He was then, and He is now, and He will

be forever if we accept Him. And I think He is involved in our lives a

lot more than any of us could ever really realize or see or imagine.

But I want to recognize it more and it is one of my goals for my next

transfer to America: to be more grateful and acknowledge and thank my

Father in Heaven continually throughout the day.

I'm not quite sure what to write in this last email but fortunately

Grundvig shimai just sent out hers so I was considering forwarding

hers as mine because 1. She's awesome and 2. The things she wrote are

true. But I'll try really hard to explain at least a portion of how I

feel. How do you summarize 1 and a half years of the biggest growth,

biggest heartache, biggest change and biggest joy in your whole life?

Most of you probably know how bad I am at goodbyes but recently as

I've been facing the inevitable reality that I actually have to start

packing and saying goodbye to my friends and family here, a quote from

Elder Uchtdorf popped into my head from a year ago at General

Comference:

"In light of what we know about our eternal destiny, is it any wonder

that whenever we face the bitter endings of life, they seem

unacceptable to us? There seems to be something inside of us that

resists endings.

Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are

eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless

and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our

destiny.

The more we learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we

realize that endings here in mortality are not endings at all. They

are merely interruptions--temporary pauses that one day will seem

small compared to the eternal joy awaiting the faithful.

How grateful I am to my Heavenly Father that in His plan there are no

true endings, only everlasting beginnings."

I know that the words of this prophet on the earth are true. I know

that this work of the Lord is endless, as He is. I know that the

greatest happiness in the world is found through magnifying our

greatest calling in existence, that is, to preach the gospel. I know

that through accepting the teachings of Jesus Christ we are cleansed

from past mistakes we have made; our very natures are changed; and we

find real, lasting happiness, peace, comfort and guidance. He is real.

He lives. He loves you and me with a love that is brighter than the

warmth of the sun. He and Our Father are merciful. Regardless of how

many times we make mistakes, whether big ones or small ones, whether

the same ones or new ones, as long as we repent with full purpose of

heart, He will forgive us. We will be forgiven every time. I know this

is true because He forgives me every day. I know that I am not perfect

but I know that I am a lot closer to my Savior because of what I

experienced on my mission. It isn't a mission that changes a person,

but rather a continued application of following the teachings of the

Savior, Jesus Christ. He changes lives. And He changes lives a lot

more than once. I know that He still loves me because He stretches me

and chastens me and chisels at my heart all the time. He hasn't given

up on me yet. And He never gives me anything that I can't overcome

with His help. He lives! He restored His church on the earth 185 years

ago on this day through the prophet, Joseph Smith. I know he was a

prophet of God. I know he saw what he said he saw- the Father and the

Son, Jesus Christ. I know this is true because I have asked the Father

myself. He has told me in many ways, including through the feelings of

my heart, that it is true. What greater witness can you have than from

God?

I love you all! Happy Easter! I'll see you soon <3

Love,

Sister Daniels

I am repenting for 1. not emailing last week and 2. for not telling you about the ridiculously awesome events that have been happening in my lifetime in the past few weeks. I'm also going to send pictures and I hope that you forgive me. 

so big event number one: ELDER NELSON AND HIS SWEET WIFE AND ELDER RINGWOOD OF THE 70 AND HIS SWEET WIFE WHO IS ALSO THE DAUGHTER OF ELDER NELSON GRACED OUR MISSION. We all got to shake their hands and Elder Nelson is incredible and I can't describe to you in words exactly how it feels to be in his presence but his air is different. There's almost like a really quiet majestic, but very humble and very real, fuinki about him. we'll loosely translate fuinki to aura. It was really cool. And he is so funny and just a sweet grandpa but also a man of such faith and a man called by God to bear special witness of Him. I love meeting General Authorities. The gospel is true!!!!!! The priesthood power of God is on the earth!! 

big event number two: WE GOT IPADS!!!! hahaha ahh the prophecy held true: Daniels shimai got an ipad during her mission. iPads are AWESOME!!! If I only could use it for the sole purpose of showing people the new easter video on lds.org -->HeLives.mormon.org (go watch it if you haven't already because it is incredible) then I would be perfectly content because it is GREAT for that purpose. Slash also showing everyone my other favorite video in the world called ''Because of Him'' --which you should also look up if you haven't seen it yet-- is just joy. But, also it's just great to use in teaching because we can just whip out pictures of the first vision or of baptism or of Noah when he is with all of his animals on his ark or of President Thomas S. Monson from gospel library. You can also do that if you carry the Gospel Art Book around but ipads are just super convenient and hold everything you can ever imagine inside its realm so you have more room in your bags for Books of Mormon to give to people searching for truth on the streets. My life rocks. 

big event number three: I celebrated my first and second Iranian new year(s) on the 21st!!! NOROZ MOBARAK! (happy new year) it was super awesome. I never felt so desperate to not eat in my entire life. The food was absolutely incredible though and the people are so kind and warm-hearted and I love them more than I love how comfortable my stomach feels so I continued to eat. I considered going American-4th-of-July-hot-dog-eating-contest-style where you dunk the hot dog buns (or in my case endless rice) in water so that it goes down your throat but I restrained myself. But it was way good. We ate lots and lots of rice in different styles but I think my favorite was like a huge rice-cake looking dish. But in-bedded into it was really deliciously spiced chicken and some vegetables. It was awesome. And I want to learn Iranian cooking someday. 

big event number four: LILY! We have an awesome investigator named Lily who is chinese and studying at the really intelligent university here next to the church. I can't remember if I've told you about her or not, but she is maybe 23 and loves to talk and loves to eat and loves to learn. We asked her to start reading from 3 Nephi 11 when Jesus Christ appears in the Americas and told her that it ends in chapter 28, but to just take her time and do what she can. She read all of it, twice through. And she prepared a ton of questions for us about the teachings of Jesus Christ. She has made a ton of progress this week and has so much desire to be baptized. We asked her why and her response was awesome: ''of course you would want to do this sort of thing.'' Also we've been teaching her with a young woman who has her mission call and will be serving in temple square in a couple of months and they've just become super good friends and she's doing a great job teaching and life is good. Being a missionary is just really happy all of the time. 

big event number five: the young women asked Croft shimai and I to join them in their young women activity on saturday and also the Stake president asked all of the missionaries in the kobe stake boundaries (like 50) to participate at youth conference and sit-in during the testimony meeting and support the youth. I saw my girls from Toyooka bear their testimonies (which was sooo special because they both have started to go less-active and one shared a super awesome spiritual experience that she had during the conference my prayer is that she'll be back at church next sunday) and also like 10 of the youth from the Kobe ward went and half of them bore their testimonies. One was particularly special because she talked about how she really prayed for the first time in a very, very long time and felt a lot of love from God and she had prayed a ton in the past couple of days and she just testified of the power of prayer and it was just incredible. Her whole countenance was lit up and it was on Saturday and was yesterday at church and Heavenly Father really can change our hearts and transform our whole selves. It's amazing the transformation that takes place when people remember that God loves them. And He definitely does. But! at the young women's activity we made o-bentos (lunch sacks kinda) and had a picnic in the parking lot next to the beautiful magnolia tree. We made special sandwich-looking onigiris and also fried egg roll and potato salad and wrapped bacon around asparagus and fried it and it was surprisingly delicious. I took some pictures on my ipad (; and then showed all of them the easter video (: please watch it-- it's way good. 

big event number six: THE SAKURA STARTED BLOOMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (: we went running this morning and there were just beautiful pink flowers all over the trees lining the street! and we found a really adorable elderly morning aerobic at the ginja (buddhist shrine) and we were invited to join and it was so beautiful being surrounded by sakura trees and paper lanterns and beautiful statues and my companion and kind elderly people that live nearby. i took a mental picture (:

there were lots of awesome little things in between but my neck is sore from writing this super long email. I'll put some pictures up ne(: 

have a wonderful week!!!! I love you all and I'm praying for you! 

love,

Sister Daniels

 (Grundvig shimai and ichikawa shimai came and visited china town with us last Monday) (:

Thank you for all of your emails!! and before I forget, SPENCER HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK!!!!! AUNT MARGO HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY!!! I hope you have a great week! (:

Today will be super short because the missionary couple took Croft shimai and I out for a birthday trip to the Costco over in Akashi and we spent a lot of the day there and it was CRAZY natsukashiii. hahah we might've spent a ton of money, but we won't have to go shopping for like the rest of my mission except for milk. but I think that definitely the best purchase was the 48 pack of cheese sticks which is fantastic because they don't really eat cheese at all in this country and now we have free access!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha plus cheese sticks are just way fun. 

Otherwise, in a couple of days Elder Nelson of the 12 and Elder Ringwood of the 70 are coming to Kobe and we're supposedly receiving training on our IPADS!!! President said that we would get ipads before the end of the transfer so I'm super pumped! (: 

I really have to go though, so I'm super sorry. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have a wonderful week!!! (:

2 Nephi 1:15

Love,

Daniels shimai

I don't even know how to explain to you how incredibly merciful the Lord is but He is so incredible. 

So, first off I saw the Wakayama elders this week when they came to Kobe and they told me that my best friend in the entire world, Imade san, and her son, Kouta kun, are getting baptized this week!!! I don't know how much you remember about her, but she was our neighbor who we became super good friends with and her whole story is a compilation of tiny miracles, but they decided to take the first step in order to return to live with our Heavenly Father again someday. And so at this time we were in Kobe receiving training from President Welch so I was able to ask him for permission to go to Wakayama for the baptisms. It's about a 2 hour train from Kobe, so travelling would take up a lot of the day, but President is the man and he and I have cried over how much we love Wakayama before (he served there too) and he gave me permission to go to Wakayama last Saturday. I can't accurately describe what it was like to 1. go back to my favorite place in the entire world and 2. see and hug all of the people I love with all of my heart there and 3. be reunited with Imade san and 4. see how the gospel of Jesus Christ has CHANGED her.

Please don't get me wrong, I also love Kobe and I don't want to ever leave here either but Wakayama is where my Bethel is: the place where I've been stretched the most and become so much closer to God. And the members and my friends there are my family and angels to me. My heart was beating so hard and it truly felt like a dream. Many of the people that I loved the most went to the baptism and it was soo cool to hug them and see them. One of the young women that was less active that MacKenzie shimai and I worked a lot with was there with her mom!!! 

When the Imades finally arrived I was upstairs writing a letter for her and it was perfect because when we walked down the stairs she was faced the other way getting her baptismal clothes. I crept up from behind and just put my arm around her (totally got her-- she turned the other way (; ) and then she flipped around and saw me and her face just lit up and gave me the biggest jumping/crying/crazy hug ever and we just held each other and cried and it was one of the best moments of my entire life and I don't know how to describe it to you other than my heart was just flooded with a joy that you can't feel doing anything other than sharing the gospel and seeing people accept it and be changed by it. Neither of us could say much because we were crying and just didn't need to. But we understood. It was incredible. I imagine heaven being like that. 

Another tender mercy was seeing tons of members in Wakayama again and hearing the bishop tell me about their efforts to dendo with the missionaries and also telling me about Tateishi shimai and Megu chan and Morimoto shimai (that was surprising) and many of the less actives that we were working with were either active again or really progressing and coming back to church. 

Another tender mercy was meeting with a bunch of really awesome people this week. We had our last lesson with Farhad before he left for Iran for the next month and it was really sad to say goodbye. He gets back to Japan like 3 days after I leave. We met with our other Iranian investigator too and she is just the purest woman I've ever met who hasn't been baptized yet but she taught us how to make a super delicious Iranian food with raisins and lamb and cinnamon and lentils and delicious things. Another tender mercy was just being led soooooo much this week. It was so incredible. You don't meet people that you know on the streets in Kobe because there are just thousands of people here. But we ran into 3 less-actives and a few investigators and it was perfect because it was just what one needed to set another appointment and we had a super spiritual lesson with him last night. The church is true. God directs this work. I love my life. 

ALSO! We had a super awesome week of training on prayer and I've changed my prayers A TON this past week and I feel like maybe I've had this many tender mercies all along but I'm seeing them a lot clearer this past week. It's written in the Bible Dictionary under ''Prayer'' that prayer turns our hearts to the Father and our will becomes His. This is so true. I don't know if you've ever done this before, but one thing that I've done differently is whenever I say a personal prayer before bed or before study or planning I sing a song. As a companionship we do the same thing and the feeling when you pray is a lot more sincere. ''A song of the heart is a prayer unto me''. 

Life is super good. One more tender mercy: Grundvig shimai and MacKenzie shimai and their lovely companions Stevenson shimai and Ichikawa shimai stayed the night in our apartment last Monday for training the next day and it was just so happy and natsukashii. God loves me.

Have a wonderful week!!! (:

love,

Daniels shimai

I love Kobe. and I love being a missionary. 

I don't have any time left and I'm super sorry that this email is going to be short but I will attach pictures. (: 

This is an an pan man vending machine and I bought a really delicious strawberry milk. 

This is Kobe!!! it's a little cloudy and not super lit up BUT this is the docks! 

I'm super sorry, I promise that I'll write an email this week! All I know is that the power and authority of God is on the earth today and that it has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know because I prayed and I asked God if it was true and He sent confirmation to me in my heart that it was. I feel that God is there and that He is my Heavenly Father. I know He loves me and that He sends tender mercies to me each day to remind me. I'm so grateful for Him and I love Him with all my heart. It's easy to do what's right when you love God. 

I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Daniels

transfer calls came and I'm staying in Kobe with Croft shimai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I'm super grateful. <3 <3 I don't have a ton of time because we're going down to Sannomiya to get lunch with all the missionaries and our assistant ward mission leader and a bunch of awesome people from church and I'm so excited!!! (:

We had some super awesome lessons with our friend from Iran (we'll call him F) and also some amazing japanese women. We taught our friend from Iran about the Restoration of the gospel and all about prophets and it just clicked in his mind and he was soooo intrigued about the prophet that we have on the earth today. And, thanks to the office elders who already have ipads, we were able to pull up the last conference and watch President Monson speak in PERSIAN!!! it was awesome. (: well I guess it was a translator, but whatever language it's the word of God! The light in F's eyes was brilliant and I'm so excited for him. HE'S SO PREPARED I CAN'T EXPLAIN IT IN WORDS. The Spirit is so incredible in lessons with him. 

Also I've concluded that my favorite thing in the entire world is listening to investigators pray, especially for the first time. I wonder how Heavenly Father feels when His children pray to Him for the first time. I can't even imagine how excited He is because He loves these people perfectly and has been guiding them for so long to turn to Him. MISSIONARY WORK IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Also side note, all of the 8 missionaries in this ward sang with a boy in our ward who leaves on his mission to Sendai, Japan in 2 weeks in sacrament meeting yesterday and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We sang ''I know that my Redeemer lives'' and the Spirit flooded the room because it's true!! Jesus Christ lives again!!!!!! And He's sitting on the right hand of God and is always there to help us if we turn to Him!

I love you all!! 

Daniels shimai