Hello, everyone!!!!

Mom, thank you so much for sending me the cookie recipe (: it's completely okay, we rescheduled our activity for this week anyway so your timing was actually perfect! haha I'm excited to get the letters here. I sent a couple home so I hope they get there?? I can't find an international mail box in toyooka yet, but we just had a big mission conference in Kobe this past week so I was able to send some letters. hahha sending mail is super mendokusai.

My area is still awesome! it's definitely hard though. On average we see a person a day on the street so we get to visit a lot of people who have expressed interest in our message before and alsooo just knock on a lot of doors of peoples' houses. hahha it's unfortunate because everyone lives like 30 minutes away and usually they aren't home or tell us they're busy and to come back another time. but they don't give us their phone number so we can't schedule a time when they know we're coming. haha basically what it comes down to is that we need to find better people to teach that actually want to learn about their relationship with God and how we can be happy on earth, now, and eternally in God's presence.-- you'd think that everyone would be lining up to meet with us but even when we testify of this to them they kindly shut their doors and tell us they're busy. This week is going to be a good one though, I can feel it.

Our apartment is HUGE!!! also, we have a heated toilet which is probably the best thing of my life. No buildings have central heating in Japan-- just lots of space heaters. I have one right next to my legs at my desk and I think I'm getting skin damage but it's sooooo warm. it snows or rains almost every day here but it's really wonderful because I get to wear my rain pants!!!! hahah it's just a poncho for your legs, but it's the biggest blessing because then your skirt doesn't catch loads of rain water AND your legs stay dry AND your skirt doesn't get mud on it AND you don't have to worry about your skirt flying up in the wind (although we do have nifty little things that attach to our bike that you just clamp your skirt onto which are way nice.) they are still a little mendokusai because you have to take them off and put them on, but it's definitely worth it. (:

My companion is like the sweetest person in the whole world. She's very kind and gentle and trusts me a lot. She's a little bit shy but she gets along well with everyone. She's australian!! hahha her accent is yabbai (legit). her name is Pipers shimai.

The Church members are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhh sooo sosooo awesome. I think there are like 20 active members? The branch president is also the ward mission leader and he sets up everything for sacrament and does everything else in the branch, along with this crazy awesome family named the Muratas. Murata shimai is an english teacher and Murata kyodai is a member of the branch presidency and the coolest person i've ever met in my whole life. they have 3 kids and they're all crazy but i want to keep all of them. I think they're 15, 13 and 10? i want to keep their whole family.

That's wayyy awesome that kirsten and collin are leaving for their missions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell them good luck and congratulations for me!! actually ''ganbatte'' and ''o-medito gozaimasu''.

i love you all!! I pray for you every day.

p.s. the second picture is from our english conversation class (: and the two little boys are from the way awesome family i was talking about earlier

Konnichiwa! I'm officially in Toyooka!!!

Someone told me that Fushimi was the coldest area in the mission because it's in Kyoto. This person lied. hahahh Toyooka's colder and we've had some snow!!! last sunday they said they had a foot of snow?? but it melted before I got here so i was secretly grateful for that. It did snow this morning which was way pretty and I was super grateful it wasn't rain. A couple of days ago it was pouring outside and just above freezing and we had to bike and house for a couple hours so that was an adventure (: hahha. Toyooka is suuuuuper inaka (farmland/country) so it takes 30 minutes to bike anywhere. But I loveeeee it!!!!! there are so many rice fields everywhere and the mountains are super close and it's amazing and beautiful and the bike rides are flat and picturesque so I don't even mind them. (: also rice fields smell way good.

since toyooka is inaka there are literally 0 people on the streets so we get to house all the time! I kinda feel like we are white washing again because our investigator pool is super small but I think we'll be able to see the Lord's hand in His work a lot more as He guides us to find the people who are ready, especially since there isn't much time to waste to bike to a place 30 minutes away and then be unproductive. The area is hugeeee and all the houses within 45 minute radius from the apartment have supposedly been visited by missionaries 5 times, but there are still a million more people in japan so we'll find the people who are ready (:

we ate these delicious things called takoyaki that were a lot like ebelskievers??? i don't know how to spell that. it was like a mini pancake ball but we put a ton of stuff in there like octopus and green onions and red ginger and cabbage and a bunch of stuff that i can't remember we dipped it in mayo and octopus sauce and it was good? like way good? it was an activity with the young women and some nonmembers. also this branch is the best. ahhah it's sosooso tiny but the people are cute. we are with the zone leaders here and one is a member of the branch presidency and the other teaches gospel doctrines class and is the elders quorm president, there are lots of women here so i don't think they'll give me a calling hahha. oh!!! also it's super cool because my sensei from the MTC, Wilkes kyodai, worked here for a while so i see a lot of his past investigators. We're going to contact one of them tonight and probably a few more this week. wooooo!

i love you all and i pray for you every day. Thank you so much for your emails and love. Also, Grand Rapids ward: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LETTERS!!! that was the most thoughtful thing of my life. i'll start working on responses today (:

love,

sister daniels

it was sososososososoossoosoooo awesome to talk to you on the phone (: I loved hearing your voices. hahah sorry i cried. 

they:re moving me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! </3 i:m actually sosososoo sad because everything is going so well with our investigators and we just met this awesome girl who:s Russian and is studying at the college right next to us and she:s fluent in english and and i was so stoked to be a missionary in ENGLISH but now i:m not going to teach her </3 and she has the best accent.Allred shimai is staying in fushimi so at least i know our friends will be in good hands. also i am officially a gypsy.   

they:re transferring me to a place named toyooka and my new trainer will be sister piper. Allred shimai will still be my sister training leader so hopefully we:ll be able to do splits (: ahhhhhhhhhhh i:m going to miss her. i can:t leave my people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but i:m excited for what lays ahead of me in toyooka! Allred shimai told me that my new companion hasn:t had a lot of success in a long time and she:s been kinda down. She:s a 7th transfer and that:s all i know about her! I:m excited to meet her!!!!! I:m excited to figure out why I need to be in this area right now and find the people i:m supposed to help bring unto Christ. 

And thus completes my first transfer! Christmas was amazing! half the ward had us over for meals and i was starting to really click with all of them. they spoiled us and everyone bought us Christmas presents too. i:m happy we already made our thank you notes and delivered those yesterday (: we totally thought i was going to stay. they were way cute: allred shimai taught me how to make paper cranes and we glued them onto pieces of paper and wrote little notes on the back. 

Oh! and last week we went to Fushimi inari which is a shinto shrine and we hiked up the mountain. woo! it rocked. Most importantly, our mission hit our year-end goal of 200 baptisms! we got 204! woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! 

again, sorry this is short: my computer was/is having major issues.

i love and miss you all! 

meg/daniels shimai

so in japan they say merry christmas and kirisutomas o-medito gozaimasu! but really actually neither because people here aren:t Christian -yet- nevertheless it:s been a magical week

but allred shimai and i are going to go exploring to some crazy awesome arches in the mountains and i only have like 3 minutes left on this computer so i:ll just make things really quick. 

-i spoke in church yesterday which was 1000 times better than i was anticipating

-we had a tsugoi subarashikatta lesson (really really wonderful) with natsumi shimai yesterday with a recently returned missionary who came along with us. also, while we were talking about the Book of Mormon i testified to her of the truth of it and how it, along with the Bible, is the sacred word of God and testifies of Jesus Christ and I explained my experience in praying about it and asking God if it was true and how I felt super strongly that it was correct and the best part is that the words that I spoke made sense and definitely were guided by the Spirit and we hadn:t planned any of it before the lesson but i felt inspired to share that with her and basically it was just the coolest experience of a taste of the gift of tongues. 

-japanese christmas ward parties are way fun and i competed in chubby bunny against some kids from new z who had really crazy accents and allred shimai. hahhahha i lost. it was super close but so difficult. i think i got to 11? but japanese marshmellows are like half the size of jumbo marshmellows so it:s really not as impressive as it sounds. but the ward likes to make fun of me for it. i:m just happy i can understand them (:

-we went caroling with the young women last night!!!!!! to investigators. caroling is the best thing of my life and i:ve decided that it:s one of the best tools to feel God:s love, even when the people don:t know who God is. works like a charm. 

FAMILY: i am so excited to talk to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! don:t forget to call me. that would be sad. also i love you. and i hope you:re enjoying the snow (: here it:s like 40 degrees and i love it. mostly because i would:nt want to be outside all day in the snow. .

-BIGGEST HIGHLIGHT: I SAW GRUNDVIG SHIMAI AT TRAINER TRAINEE TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was the best thing of my life and i missed her so much. she:s a champion and i love her. and we:re cousins because my trainer and her trainer were trained together by the same missionary. the conference was also legit but so was seeing grundvig shimai (:

i love you all and i:m so excited to talk to you on your christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have no idea what to say. zen zen daijobu desu

ai shite imasu! 

danieruzu shimai