Hello, loved ones!!!! i found sister ferderber before she left for brazil!!!! <3 woooooo! tell sister ferderber that she's doing super well, as expected (:

This week has been the biggest blessing of my lifeeee. I have had 0 migraines, 0 headaches. which never ever happens, especially for this length of time???? That priesthood blessing was takusan chikarazuyoi deshita ne.-- really powerful. and Heavenly Father is so loving. So now i have even more of an opportunity to learn as much as i can and grow as much as I can since He's given me even more of an amazing opportunity. 

A couple things that happened this week:

~FAMILY: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!! i should be obese. 1. because of  all the delicious food you are sending me, and 2. because my doryo (companion)'s father works at trader joes, and sends packages of the most amazing food i've ever had: cookie butter, for example. it is like peanut butter but made of cookies and it's basically what manna would be. but grundvig shimai has me run with her all the time (which i actually enjoy??!?!) and also she, violette shimai, and i divide all of our food between each other and also our choro tachi in our district andddd the girls on our floor! which brings me to another exciting gem of information:

~we should be getting more sisters this week!!!!!!! we're still sister training leaders so we get to move them in and give them the grand welcoming/tour. I'M SO STOKED!!! sister missionaries are so fun (: 

~we met a ton of nihonjin!!! (japanese people!) and one night we met 3 choro tachi, and they asked me to bear my testimony to them! so that was AWESOME! it was sososo cool and they were really nice and told me that i speak japanese really well, which is a lie. hahahah but they were impressed when i said "dispensation" and testified of Joseph Smith being the first prophet in this last dispensation? i even got a fist bump. <3

~mitch: you'd be proud. we went a day of only speaking in nihongo! i spoke less than 50 words! but we spoke english when ari and i ran together during gym time. so really it was more. also during planning. i'm sounding less and less impressive hahahhaa. 

anyway, i love you all and i pray for you all every day and night. If you're ever struggling with anything, read the Book of Mormon. I promise you it'll make your day better, every time. 

itsumo kokoro kara ai shite imasu! 

ganbatte! yoroshigo onegaishimasu! i definitely spelled that wrong. 

<3

daniels shimai

Hey fam!!! (: this week has been pretty wild but also one of the best weeks ever? I feel like this is MTC life. hahah. but really though. the MTC is both a refinery and the happiest place on earth. 

So Sunday we have a devotional every evening, usually from a church leader, but not a very well known one. This past Sunday though? ELDER OAKS CAME TO SPEAK TO THE ENTIRE MTC and the entire night was broadcasted to all of the MTCs in the world! hahahah all of the shimai tachi (sisters) in our branch went together, and apparently we sat in the right place because the camera was on us "the ENTIRE time" according to everyone that knew us. Elder Oaks is one of the greatest men to ever walk this earth. When he walked into the room he brought the biggest presence of peace and wisdom... he was so powerful. And so wonderful. 

Also, i ran into elder yeck!!! he works in the english building and trains new teachers. so that was super cool and we talked a lot about the family. He wanted me to tell you all hi!! 

hahah so my brain decided to be weird again this week. Two nights ago I started the workings of a massive headache, really more of a migraine. My nerves wa wayyy oversensitive deshita ne. When i woke up yesterday morning i felt a super deep ache in my head so i thought it'd be wise to take some immitrex, along with my regular propranolol (which i have been taking every day! and i sometimes take my vitamins... but it's okay). Sooo after I had taken all of these we went to the classroom and started personal study i got suuuuuuper light headed and nauseous and hypersensitive to light and all those things. i'm not sure if it was the medicine and i just wasn't used to the extra super low blood flow to my head or maybe it was just side effects of the migraine or maybe my brain didn't want to work, but my doryos made me go back to the room and sleep off my migraine. In the MTC you have to stay with your companions all the time so i felt super awful making them miss class, but they're angels and i love them and they're both going to be the best mothers and missionaries in the whole wide world. 

So 4 hours of napping and a meal later i finally felt alive enough to go back to class. The first counselor in our Branch presidency, Brother Willes, was in our classroom and asked to give me an interview. (back story, he is amazing and the epitome of an angel.) He just talked to me a ton and asked me about my headache situation. i told him absolutely everything. He told me that he'd been thinking about and worrying about me for the past couple of days and asked to give me a special priesthood blessing. 

That man truly is God-sent. He put his hands on my head, and through God's authority here on the earth, blessed me that I would be able to focus through the headaches i will continue to have. He told me that i would be fluent in japanese and that i would be able to express my testimony and the gospel of Jesus Christ and whatever I wanted to say easily to the people of Japan. he blessed me with the gift of discernment for my body that I would be able to know what to do when I get headaches so that they will be "significantly decreased" and much more spread out. He said that I would still get a few headaches on my mission to humble me and to remind me that it is through the Lord's mercy that I am able to withstand this affliction. He said a lot more, but all I felt during the blessing was God's love emanating through this man's hands. God's power is on the earth today. There is nothing on this earth that is more powerful than the priesthood. God is aware of us and wants us to feel His blessings that He willingly offers.

I know that there is a reason for all of this and that God loves me enough to allow His gift and power to bless my life. He cares enough about me to want to strengthen and purify me and build my faith. Life is good. Ten no Otosama wa watashi ni yori yoi senkyoshi o natta hoshii desu. (God wants me to be a better missionary.) Woo!

ai shite imasu! 

daniels shimai

11 minutes on the computer, go! 

This week was the fastest week of my life! I'm actually super struggling to remember what happened. General Conference!!!! I think i emailed after Saturday's session last week, but if not, it was THE BEST THING OF MY LIFE. actually, all of the messages were so inspired. Saturday night my district had a testimony meeting where we all just shared our favorite message from one of the apostles or the prophet of the church and it was seriously the most intense thing ever. 

Every one went wayy in depth into their life stories and it was super interesting to see how we'd only known each other for maybe 3 weeks, but we were confiding in each other some of our greatest trials and fears. But it was amazing because during General Conference the Holy Spirit touched all of us in a way that calmed our fears or gave us some sort of insight. I want to go read all of the talks again!!!! 

ayyyyy short random things:

1. i got my hair cut. a piece of me died this morning. so that's that. hahahaha i only cut 5 inches and it still reaches half way down my back so that was reassuring. i HATE hair cuts. but it looks really healthy so i guess that's okayy hahhahah

2. i met a BYU volleyball player! hahah he was easy to spot-- i actually met him at BYU really briefly once in the cannon center but now we're buds. he's serving in columbus!!!! and I MET A GIRL SERVING IN LANSING, MICHIGAN SO SHE'LL BE IN OUR AREA!!!! woo! she was cute and super nice! i hope you meet her. unfortunately i forget her name hahahha .but if you see her, tell her she met me in the bathroom once

3. vocal point came to the mtc and gave a devotional! it was SO LEGIT

4. this tuesday for devotional they're broadcasting it to all the MTCS around the world! which means that a general authority will probably come??!??!?!?!??!?! regardless, i'm singing in the choir! so i'll have a great seat and i'm STOKED

5. my senseis are amazing and i will have to write a letter or something because i am out of time. also, i'm going to be sending bryan and eliza home letters and hopefully more people.... i'm sorry that i'm the worst! ahhhhh this is a really unfortunate and i'm sorry that this sounds rushed. hahah i need to budget my email time better. next week!!!

6. we got 4 new sisters! woo!~

mina san o kokoro kara ai shite imasu! 

ai,

daniels shimai

Grundvig shimai, violette shimai and i all became sister training leaders this past sunday! basically we're zone leaders for all of the sisters in our branch: we get to check in with all of the sister missionaries each night to make sure they're doing okay and talk to them if they have any concerns or problems. also we welcome the new missionaries which we may or may not get this week... we'd give them tours and tell them all of the rules about the MTC and everything else that's important. hahah but it's kinda unfortunate because we are still learning the rules as well. The first counselor of the branch presidency that called us told us that we are the youngest/newest sisters that they've called. takusan shinko desu ne. so we get to visit lots of the sisters who leave MONDAY (there are 6) and then also the girls next to us, one of them is sister millham from michigan!!!!, but there are only two of them. we're praying for loads of more shimai tachi to come in this week!!!!! woo! also the 1st counselor is the nephew of President Hinckley and the most inspiring person i've met here at the MTC (which has been almost everyone)

3. I SAW FERDERBER SHIMAI!!!!! she came in on wednesday and i saw her at dinner!!!!! <3 tell Sister Ferderber for me (: she's doing great!!! and her comp looks super nice. also i saw her at lunch in between general conference sessions which was great (: she's a killer missionary.

4. hahahhaahhahaha okay so one of my comps, violette shimai, is 6'1" inches tall. she's very tall. and a stunner at basketball. but she hurt her foot awhile back so she was in a boot for forever and her foot was hurting again for the past couple of weeks, but FINALLY she's all better and we thought we'd go to the gym to play volleyball with all of the choro tachi in our district. it was super crowded so we decided that we'd play basketball! but at the MTC when boys and girls play together, girls have to always be guarding each other. and, due to the lack of sisters here currently, i offered to play so that she could play-- it's been like 3 months since she's been able to and she was super stoked. Slash grundvig shimai wanted to run on the track and i thought this was the lesser of two evils. hahahahah. so anyway, i was attempting to guard a 6'1" 3-year-varsity basketball star. I, Daniels Shimai, who has never played a real game of basketball in my life. hahahaha it was WAY FUN and i loved it but obviously i was suuuupa bad. hhahahhahahah and at the end of gym time i had FIVE ELDERS come up to me. FIVEEEE. and they all said something along the lines of, "so we saw you trying to guard your comp. and it was the funniest thing ever. but great try!!! it looked like a lot of fun!" ii desu ne. hahahahahahh. i wish i could've seen it, though. 

5 GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THE BEST THING EVER. i've never been so psyched for general conference?! but today it went by super quickly and i loved loved loved Elder Bednar's talk, particularly the part about blessings. This past week I started getting really bad headaches and had a migraine and i actually received a blessing from black choro and eversole choro. I was super hesitant to at first, but it helped me IMMENSELY. What he said is true, and I've seen it SO much here. The Lord often blesses us with spiritual blessings, even when we ask for physical ones. I was praying super hard that I would be able to shuchu (focus-- wonderful word) in class and that my migraines would go away (silly) so that I could focus on the spirit and just be happier and at ease. so really what i was asking for was that my burden would be taken away from me. but burdens (omoni) would be pointless then. In my blessing, Black Choro said that this particular burden is for the intent that I learn and grow and that I can become a better leader, and be able to feel the Spirit (mitama) moto (more) as a missionary. That blessing was truly amazing and I know that it came straight from Heavenly Father. Regardless---- as I was praying to be relieved from mortal strain, I was definitely blessed with increased stamina. Since the blessing, i'll still have a lot of pains in different parts of my head, but through it all i am still able to focus on the nihongo and watashi no mokuteki as a senkyoshi. (purpose as a missionary). Slash i really enjoy all of these talks about missionary work. all of them were just so amazing!! Elder Holland's talk and Elder Christofferson's talk and Elder Soares' talk and basically the Spirit was amazingly strong and the world is just great and I have so much hope. I just feel that way all the time here-- the MTC IS THE BEST. Which reminds me-- my district leader quotes nacho libre all the time. iiit's da BEST.

ohayo gozaimasu! 

i don't even know where to start, every day is incredible here! the biggest thing that happened this week was that Grundvig Shimai's companion went home. Long story short, she kept receiving the impression that a mission wasn't where she was supposed to be, and honestly I think she's a lot happier now that she's home. sooooooo by default...

GRUNDVIG SHIMAI, VIOLETTE SHIMAI AND I ARE A TRIPANIONSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's honestly the best thing ever! we get along really well. and we taught a lesson altogether with Takenaka kyodai! i'm not sure if i've told you about him yet, but this was our third lesson with him. and then the next day he became our other teacher! so that was weird? but he's fantastic and just got back from kobe 3 months ago!!!! so he knows my mission president and all of our areas and everything!!!! our other teacher is named clark shimai and she is an angel sent from heaven. i love her sosososoos much-- she is super patient with all of us and probably the sweetest woman in the whole entire world. ALSO SHE'S IN MITCH'S BYU WARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i told her to tell you hi, mitch!!!!!!!!!! 

she will act as our new investigator, chino kazumi, a 16 year-old girl who was introduced to the missionaries and went to a church party, but doesn't know anything about God. So we meet with her on Monday and we'll teach her IN ALL JAPANESE for about 30 minutes. We've already had 3 lessons like that and the past 2 went really well, so that was a miracle. Honestly, it is incredible seeing the gift of tongues at work here in the MTC. it is real!!!!! and i understand so much of what everyone is saying, even though i've only been studying japanese for 9ish days? minus sunday, so 8?

hahhahhhh i'm trying to remember what happened this past week-- everything is bleeding together in my mind. mostly just learning japanese?? hahahhahah OH so i learned my purpose in japanese? this is it:

watashi no mokuteki wa hitobito ni Kirisuto no moto e kuru yo susumeru koto desu. Sono tame ni watashi wa, Iesu Kirisuto to Kirisuto no aganai o shinjiru shinko, kuiaratame, baputesuma, Seirei no tamamono o ukeru koto, saigo made taeshinobu koto o toshite, karaera ga kaifuku sareta fukuin o ukeirerareru yo tasukeru no desu.

woo! hahhaha uh. THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS SO CRAZY REAL. hen desu! (it's crazy!) i think the most challenging thing about it is having the faith to receive it. and the patience (: i can understand so much? sometimes i feel like japanese isn't even that difficult and then i'm humbled again hahha. we're now learning verb bases which will be WAY helpful because up until this point we've just been guessing how to conjugate verbs hahhaa. but i can officially pray and bear my testimony in japanese! a lot of the time i throw in spanish words which makes it a little bit difficult. my district makes fun of me because i pronounce a lot of things in a spanish accent hahaha. dang. alsoooooooooo i would like to share with you a little tidbit of conversation that makes my district perfect for japan. 

background: we were trying to memorize the above mentioned purpose in japanese, and someone recommended that we put it into song form so that we can remember it better. So then a group of the choro tachi (elders) began singing it to various anime theme songs, none of them working too well. hahah then someone tried putting it to a hymn tune and a choro said, "you know, i really don't think i'm going to remember this unless it's the (unknown anime show title) tune." and then they proceeded to discuss their favorite anime characters? shows? i don't really understand hahahaa. i think i'm the only one in my whole district that's never watched Avatar, the last airbender. hahaha but i do make a bunch of star wars and lord of the rings references with my district so i think they respect me almost a little bit. hahahhahahahhahahahha yay japan.

also, dad! i met the girl from kalamazoo!! she's in my branch and ,lives right next door to me!! thank you for your email! i'm sorry i didn't get to respond directly, i literally have suuuuch limited time. send me a paper letter! or dear elder!!! please!!!!!! hahahah or a package (; just kidding. but daniels family: send me dear elders!! porfa!! kudasai!!!

i miss you all and i love you all the way to the moon and back! i'm sorry i didn't really find the way to send pictures, but ari sent some to you i thinkk. anyway, this basho is subarashii!!!! i love it!!! so much. so much. so much. sunday devotional and tuesday devotional were the best things of my life and i really wish i had more time to write them out to you, or just little goodies i received from the Shu no Mitama (spirit of the Lord). 

i need to go!

I know this gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that He is the way to receive salvation. I know that coming unto Him is what He asks of us, and to extend this invitation to others is what I'm here for. I'm here because I love my Savior and I want to share the love and peace that I feel because of Him and His atonement with those who are lost. (thought I'd speak in eigo this time).

i love you all!!!!

ai,

daniels shimai