I am so sorry--- I definitely didn't realize how much time I was taking reading emails, but the good news is that my friends and family are genki (healthy) and also I read some really amazing things about Wakayama's progress and it was the best thing of my whole life and my heart is so happy to hear that Imade san and a lot of my loved ones are doing well and accepting God in their lives. 

This week was super busy with MLC (mission leader conference) and also with companion exchanges and zone training meeting and lots of missionary work and lessons and pondering and studying the Book of Mormon in between. Takahashi shimai and I also got to present training at zone training meeting and it was way fun. Things are well in Kobe. Also, President Welch challenged the mission to read the Book of Mormon from beginning to end by the end of February and to mark the mentions of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, and also their characteristics and the things they say. I am sooooooo excited about this challenge, because I know it'll help the sisters in our areas. I know that through reading the Book of Mormon we can grow closer to God than we can by reading any other book. I've felt that every day that I've been here in Japan. And it's helped me more than I can even explain.

Thank you family so much for the package!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 I loved it!! thank you for all the letters and love inside. I'm so sorry to hear about Brother Roll-- please send his family my love.

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a wonderful week!!!

love,

Daniels shimai

Happy Halloween!!!!!! (:

I can't even describe how awesome and full of tender mercies this week was. But I will start by apologizing for not bringing my camera cord. And I know I promised I'd bring it next week, but I actually promise I'll bring it the next next week! (:

I've never been so exhausted in my entire life but I love being here in Kobe. The entire area is one big slope that starts at the beach and really quickly hits the mountains and all of the roads in between are slanted upwards toward the mountains. It's way pretty!!! But also a super good work out. But I've been spoiled my entire mission in miles of flat rice fields. BUT KOBE IS AWESOME! 

I had my first exchange with a sister this past week and it was by far one of the top 5 experiences of my mission. The area I went to was super country-side and I missed it so much <3 But fun fact: when I was serving in Toyooka there was a really awesome family of 5 (all of the primary and 1/3 of the Young womens) who moved to the area that I went to for exchanges. (It's called Nishiwaki.) And I had heard from one of the assistants to the president who I worked with in Toyooka that the 15 year old girl had gone less-active because she didn't have any friends at church and joined club activities that were on Sunday rather than going to church. SO during the exchange I asked my temporary companion about them and she said they lived pretty close to the church so we went and visited them at night time before dinner. It had been like 10 months since I'd seen them, but we were really close and they freaked out when they opened the door. Unfortunately the mom was still at work, but the dad and the 3 kids were there. We talked to the dad for awhile because the kids went back to watching t.v. and it was awesome to just talk to him because I could finally. My japanese wasn't super good my second and third transfer when we were with them haha. So we asked to take a picture with the whole family in order to lure the kids out of the room so we could share a message or testimony with them. The girl and I talked for awhile and caught up on life and she definitely looked empty-- completely different. After we talked for a while I asked to share a message with them. 

We shared a really simple but powerful message about the power of prayer and how through prayer we can feel God's perfect love for us and know that He exists. And the girl just started crying and I just hugged her and held her for a really long time-- I have no idea for how long. But the Spirit was there and you could feel God's love for her, despite her not coming to church. Heavenly Father loves us perfectly, not because of who we are or who we aren't, but because of who He is. And I whispered in her ear that God loves her and that He will always listen. And she knows. To end we sang her favorite hymn and prayed over them. It was so special and I don't know how to accurately describe to you the power of God's love we felt, but it was definitely there and it was strong and undeniable. Their dad walked us over to our bikes and told us about how he didn't know what to do because he didn't want her to hate church, but he knew how important it was for her to take the sacrament. She'll be okay-- he and his wife are incredible examples and that's all they can be. That's most important. The girl said she wants to be a missionary. 

I don't have any more time but this week was awesome and God is merciful and loves us with a love that is more comforting than the warmth of the sun.

I love you all!!! I also really love the kids' costumes!! hahaha noo!! I did not skip school on senior skip day! I definitely went. But all of my classes were empty so I did take a lunch break to a near-by restaurant with my friends. But I definitely went to school. 

have an awesome week!!! enjoy the snow!!!! <3

love,

Daniels shimai

This week has been the most emotional week of my life and also just super busy and awesome and fun. But we share 2 computers between 6 missionaries so I don't know how much detail I'll be able to go into. 

So saying goodbye to Wakayama was the most devastating thing I've ever done in my whole life. I cried every day. But only because I loved them more than anything else. They were my whole life for 6 months. It actually tore out my heart talking to Imade san and Kana san and Tateishi shimai because they told me changes they'd seen in their own lives-- whether it was coming back to church and feeling God's love again, or being open to hearing about God and being healed from some really deep food disorders or feeling God's love for the first time, or feeling a beam of light in a life that's been depressed for years. God heals lives and families. He strengthens feeble knees. This I know. 

Now I'm in Kobe with Takahashi shimai who is AMAZING. I can't describe how awesome she is. She's an awesome teacher and also is so good at recognizing points in the day where we can improve and use our time more wisely or be more proactive. She's super hard-working and she loves dendo. (missionary work). We live in an apartment with another set of sisters and the storage space is maybe enough for 2 people, but it's a group of 4 who have all been on missions for over a year and thus have collected lots of little japanese charms and old skirts and kimonos and anpan man stuffed-animals (secretly the best gift I've ever received) and also the apartment is full of ancient things from years of past sisters so it's a little cramped. But we are living in Japan. The other two sisters are really sweet and also incredible singers. One is currently really sick so she's living here close to the mission office so she can figure things out with the mission doctor. 

So we have 7 sets of sister missionaries that we kinda watch over and we will go on companion exchanges with each companionship by the end of this transfer. Which means loooooads of travelling. This week Wednesday we'll be going up to my old Fukuchiyama zone and going on splits with two hawaiian sisters. It looks like I'll be splitting with the young 4th transfer missionary and staying up in their area and training her there. We asked them to send us goals that they'd each like to work on during the exchange and so last night before I fell asleep and also this morning for a little bit I was pondering and studying how to help the sister I'll be with. We also called their zone and district leaders and asked for anything that they would want us to focus on with them. I'm a little bit nervous to go on my first kokan but it'll be way fun I think.  (: 

Last Saturday we had a ward halloween party here in the Kobe ward (which is also full of english speaking americans and philipinos) and it was way fun. I dressed up as anpan man who is a Japanese cartoon probably equivalent to the popularity of spongebob? But I carried around the stuffed animal Kana san's son gave me and dressed up like him and bought some fun face paint. Also my companion and I thought it would be hilarious to wear fake eyelashes but unfortunately I forgot my camera but I'll definitely send those in next week. It was way fun!!!!!!! And my costume was probably the best costume I've ever devised in my whole entire life. 

I have to go but I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 God lives and supports and loves us! 

Love,

Daniels shimai

p.s. thank you for the pictures of the trees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

p.p.s. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE CITY

Ai suru mina san,

I felt like it was coming, and everyone called it, but today we got transfer calls and they're tearing me away from Wakayama. </3 Even though it was kind of expected, it was still the saddest news of my life. These people are my family. This is my home. I've seen everyone come, and some go, and millions of miracles in between. Wakayama has really been my furnace of affliction and I don't think I've ever grown so much in my entire life, but also a personally sacred place where I've seen the hand of God and walked with Him. I will come back one day. 

I also got a call from the Mission President this morning and he called me as a Sister Training Leader in the heart of the mission-- Kobe. I'm not entirely sure what that entails either, but I know that I'll have 7 companionships of sisters (including the ones working in TOYOOKA!!!!!) whom I'll be praying over and serving and going on exchanges with and training and loving. We work closely with the mission president and his wife, and we are the way he reaches out to the sisters of the mission. And we'll have a meeting each month with Kaicho (president) and all of the zone leaders and we'll plan how to help the mission move forward. It'll be way weird being in one of the biggest cities in all of Japan after serving in rice fields for my whole mission, but I know the Lord called me there for a reason, and I'm excited to find out what it is! And He has my back. 

My new companion is Japanese. Her name is Takahashi shimai which should mean ''tall bridge'' if my kanji senses tingle correctly. I'm excited to have a nihonjin again and to have the opportunity to serve and work with many sisters in the mission, but also you should know I'm slightly terrified. But mostly just heart-broken to leave Wakayama. It'll be really difficult but the Lord really can do anything. And that'll be evident as He helps me fill my calling and become the missionary and disciple He wants me to be. I'm going to need a lot of help though because I feel like I definitely cannot do this. And I can't by relying just on myself. Which is zen zen daijobu (all okay) because the Lord promises us that as we rely on Him, He will ease our burdens and sustain us and lift us and give us the strength that we need and don't have enough of. And that is one of the reasons why I love Him. 

I know Broadhead shimai will take good care of Wakayama for me. It'll be her last transfer. The sister coming in my place is Derksen shimai who I love with all my heart and I know that everyone will love super quickly. 

Really quickly- some cool things that happened this week: we had some really awesome lessons, especially with a mother and daughter less-active yesterday and the Spirit was super powerful and they also fed us delicious grapes that were the size of golf balls. And they were green. We also had interviews with the Mission President and there are few men in this world who have as much love as that man does for missionaries and the Lord. We found lots of potential investigators and a less- active who I've been searching for for the past 4 transfers appeared at church yesterday so that was a miracle. And she's way cute. 

I love you all!! It's good to hear that the leaves look amazing in Michigan. Please send me pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 Maple trees don't exist in Japan. Especially in the city.

Heavenly Father lives and loves us. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and the Son of God. They have called a prophet to lead us today!!! And Christ will guide the prophet to help us safely return home to our Heavenly Father. 

Love,

Daniels shimai

p.s. this first one is a picture of us and K san, whose 4 year old son asked her to take him to the flower shop to buy us flowers. <3 MY HEART

#2 is a less active and her son (who just turned 8 and we are teaching). He does japanese-folk story-telling called rakkugo. Which means he sits in seza (sits in a kneeling position) while acting out an old japanese folk tale and wearing a kimono. This is japan!!!!