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

Subject: pictures of japan!!! squid ink pasta and the temple which holds the largest free-standing Buddha

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (: I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! (: 

This is my friend from Nara and he is a deer and this is my deer face because they pretend to smile at you and ask you for crackers and then they bite you from behind and I'm pretty sure I've explained this process to you before but I just think it's super genius. But Nara was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (: We'll have to take a pit stop at Nara when we travel back to Japan!!! 

Anyway, this week was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! Croft shimai rocks. Kobe rocks. I wish I could write my whole life out on here because there are so many tiny tender mercies that happen each day but I only have enough time to write a few things. There's a lot of prayer and testimony building and rejection and lessons and people being prepared in between all of the experiences I relate to you each week. BUT I'm going to tell you two super awesome things. 

1. ELDER AOYAGI OF THE QUORUM OF THE 70 CAME TO KOBE THIS PAST WEEK AND HE DID A MISSION TOUR. He is definitely a man of God. Each time a member of the 70 comes to the mission a few missionaries get super lucky and have a one-on-one interview with him. Daniels shimai got to be one of those and really more than anything else the thing that I learned is how the gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect. Whatever challenge or trial or question we have, Christ teaches us how we can fix it. It's kind of like a tree and Jesus Christ is the trunk. and He teaches us doctrine which become the big branches. And from the doctrine we can learn principles which basically just help us understand. those are the smaller branches that branch off of the big branches. Then comes the application where we learn to live the principles that we've acquired from the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Those are the little pear and cherry blossom buds. 

Theoretically, if we are struggling to know what to do to fix a problem, we need to look at the principles behind our problem. And then we match those principles with the words of Jesus Christ in the scriptures where we find the doctrine. And then Jesus Christ just loves us and gives us the power we need to overcome our problems if we rely on Him. This might not make any sense but it definitely does in my mind. 

2. I GOT TO GO ON COMPANION EXCHANGES WITH MACKENZIE SHIMAI AND IT WAS SOOOOOO NATSUKASHIIIIII. I love her with all of my heart. We went up to Maizuru and it snowed almost every minute that we were there. it was so awesome and also the craziest feeling ever of talking with my trainee about how training is going with her trainee. I caught a glimpse of my life in like 40 years and I bet it rocks to be a grandma. I'm so proud of MacKenzie shimai. She has the purest heart and just an insane amount of faith. We went out shovel dendoing!! an old investigator of theirs lives pretty close by and we went to go shovel her out. On the way over we figured out a super good system where I stood in front and shoveled the snow in front of me and took a break to throw it in the snowbank, leaving some behind, and continuing forward. it made a dashed line of show which MacKenzie shimai scooped up and threw into the snowbank, making a perfectly paved path. I'm not sure how to explain things anymore in english. But it was super fun and we wore our Mormon Helping Hands jerseys over our coats and just shoveled for the people on the road. One family we shoveled for let us inside and we played with the little boy and taught a lesson. Missionary work is just living and telling people about why you're happy. 

sorry, there's a #3 too. We went over to a less active's house and had squid ink pasta!! it was actually super delicious. and the ink stains like wildfire spreads so your lips and teeth turn black. haha It was awesome. 

I love you all!! If my explanations aren't understandable just know that following Jesus Christ brings never-ending happiness. Because it's true!

Love,

Daniels shimai

(our family photo) (:

konnichiwa! 

I'm sorry this email will actually be super short because we are rushing super quick because we're going to NARA today!!!!! (: nara is an area that croft shimai served in for 4 transfers and is also one of the old capitals of Japan. it has a deer park and I heard they bite you and slobber on you but I'm also super excited (: also apparently there's the biggest free-standing Buddha in all of Japan at the temple next door. but I promise I'll take lots of pictures!!! (:

something wicked natsukashiiiii was that Grundvig shimai came up to Kobe for the night on Monday night and it was AWESOME to talk to her and hear about her whole life because we don't usually see each other and if we do, it's for like five minutes. Oh my heck I love her with all of my heart. ALSO we went up for zone training meeting in Fukuchiyama and it was AMAZING because 1. that zone is the best zone ever and 2. I saw a lot of missionaries that I love and 3. almost everyone that is in my dendo family was there. that probably doesn't make any sense but my trainer trained 3 and just 2 of us are still here: Porter shimai and I. And then Porter shimai trained 2 and they were both there and I trained one, MacKenzie shimai, and she's training so it was just a group of grandma and aunts and cousins and daughters. The only one missing was Black shimai who was one of Porter shimai's trainee's other trainer but we took a family photo. (:

real quick cool missionary experience: remember our awesome investigator I wrote about last week? We found a PERFECT friend for her and she joined us in her lesson last week. and they were both so calm even when her dog peed on the floor during the middle of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. But that lesson is so powerful that it doesn't even matter. It's incredible the Spirit that comes every time you teach and or testify about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith. It's my favorite thing in the world to teach. I want you to know that I do know that Heavenly Father wants us to return and live with Him someday. I do know that He doesn't leave us alone to wander and be confused. He teaches us how we can return and live with Him through His prophets on the earth. And He still speaks. I remember when I was young and Dad used to try and help me with my math homework when I was getting really frustrated. But, being a little kid and wanting to do it myself, I did't accept his help. But when I realized I couldn't do it on my own I'd go back to him for help. And because he loves me, he'd always still give me the help I needed. Our Heavenly Father is no different. When the world rejects Him and His prophets He takes away His priesthood authority, and with that, the revelation and direction from living prophets, from the earth. But Joseph Smith asked for direction to know what church is right and know what he needed to do to be saved and God, the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to him. They restored the church and the priesthood authority and the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world through him.　I know that when we ask God, He will answer and give us the direction and guidance that we need. And He loves us more than we can even imagine or comprehend. 

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

love,

Daniels shimai

our new district     

drinking mountain water on our hike

going on splits with the Akashi sisters <3

Konnichiwa!!!! Sorry, this email is going to be super short but I have to tell you about SOMEONE AWESOME we found this past week and starting teaching. 

We have a chinese friend who isn't super seriously meeting with us and trying to learn about God but whenever I consider dropping her I feel like I shouldn't so I haven't. And the Spirit kept nudging me to call her this week so we called and she invited us to hike up the mountain with her and her doberman and then study from the Book of Mormon with her and her daughter. So we meet up at her daugher's apartment and start the hike. As we head down the street she knocks on her friend's door and yells at her to come along with us. So she takes her little Yorkie and joins us up the mountain. As we're walking up the mountain, this woman starts telling me about how she came to believe in God and how He's saved her a jillion times in her life, especially when she went to the Philippines to study international cooking. She told me that she wanted us to come over to her house and talk to her about God because she loves Him and misses hearing about Him. So we set an appointment for the next day and she was super excited and gave us a bunch of pastries when we finished the hike. 

So the next day right after district meeting we head up to her house and just start talking to get to know her a little bit. And like 20 seconds in she asks if we can start with a prayer so that God can be in the conversation with us. So naturally we say yes and we start talking to her about God and the Book of Mormon and she opens up about her whole life: how she was way prideful her whole life and then went to the Philippines to study and some nice people introduced her to Christ. And she was humbled a little bit and really started to love Christ because of the love and peace she felt at the Japanese church she found. Then when she moved back to Japan someone stole a really large amount of money from her and ran away to the Philippines and she was left with nothing and got really angry at God and ripped up her entire Bible and also baptismal certificate. And she just looked so guilty and upset. So I jumped in and told her that she can be baptized again. And her face just lit up and there was so much hope in her eyes. And we taught her all about baptism and about how when we're baptized we're cleansed of all the mistakes we've made in the past and we get a brand new slate. And we make a special promise with God that we will follow Him and He makes a special promise to bless us all the time. And we talked to her about the Priesthood and that because in this church the men hold the priesthood, when we are baptized we become able to return and live with Heavenly Father someday. And right then Croft shimai invited her to be baptized and she has a goal for the end of this month. 

God prepares His children to accept Him. He has a very special plan for each one of us and for each and every person on the bus, train, street and at work. And you can bet that you're a part of it. And it's our opportunity to be good examples and invite them to hear about the thing that will make them happier than anything else in the world. 

I have to go, but one last super awesome thing: it was Croft shimai's birthday and the ward was so cute and awesome to her but also our mission president, President Welch, and his incredible wife took us out to get super delicious american-style burgers and it was 1. delicious, but 2. the most uplifting dinner I've ever had. 

I love you all!!! 

Love,

Daniels shimai

Hello!!!!!!!!! So today we only have a couple minutes because Croft shimai and I are going shopping for HER BIRTHDAY THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woooo!!!! 

But something super awesome this week was that we went on kokans (exchanges) with my old companion Black shimai!!! oh my heck it was sooooo natsukashiiii! We opened Wakayama together when she and I were just 5th and 6th transfers. This is now her last transfer and it's such a special opportunity to see how the gospel changes the ones who preach it. She's still just as bright and happy but has so much more confidence. We talked a lot about Wakayama and the miracles we saw there despite being still so inadequate and small. And we talked about how even though our language improves and our teaching skills sharpen we're still just as small and inadequate as to changing the hearts of others. That's the Spirit of God's job!! we just need to teach truth and teach simply so that he can testify of it and enter our hearts. It was so fun to be with her for one more day. 

We also had interviews with President this week and I just love him because whenever I'm with him I feel like I'm his best friend and the most important person in the world. I want to receive that spiritual gift. I received a lot of super good insight for how I need to keep my mindset for the rest of my mission so that I don't get distracted. It's just the same as enduring to the end: being faithful and doing the little things, but fundamental things, every day. To not separate yourself and your best self, but rather be your best self every day. 

Real quickly, one more awesome thing: there is a philipino family in our ward and they are AWESOME and invited us over for dinner. Once we got there we found their family friends, this AWESOME philipino family of 5. They're probably some of the coolest people in my whole life and are SO prepared to hear the gospel. They are Catholic and have incredibly great faith. We talked with them a ton about missionary work and testified about how the gospel blesses families and about the Savior. Man, those are my people! I think when I'm going to go on a couples mission 40 years in the future that they'll send me there. They also eat almost-developed baby ducks straight from the eggs. I don't know that I'll eat that but everything else they told me about the culture sounds awesome and also every person that I've met from the philipines has rock solid faith in Christ. It's been so long since I've met a Christian outside of our church. 

Disney looks awesome!!!!!!!!! thanks for the pictures! I hope skiing was fun for liz and bry and Dad. 

I love you all!!! Mahal kita! (tagolog) Ai shite imasu!! 

Love,

Daniels shimai!

p.s. did you get a picture in the email from one of our investigators?? she says hi <3

Hello!!! 

I heard that Ohio State smashed Oregon in the National Championship Game this past week which was lovely news to start my email time off to. It sounds like everything is going well!!

So this past week was INCREDIBLE! And also super sad because half of my heart went back to America to be the best ward missionary ever. And also super exciting because my new companion is also incredible!!!!!!!!!!!! Her name is Sister Croft and is from Salt Lake City, Utah. She is a 6th transfer and is just super hard-working and has rock-solid faith. Her japanese is wayy good and I love her with all of my heart. We had a great week!! We found some really cool new investigators, one of whom is American and living here in Kobe because he married a japanese woman. His name is Mr. Hanks and Hunt shimai and I must have run into him 6 times on the same street in that short span of 6 weeks that she was here. The 3rd time or so we prepared a Book of Mormon to give to him and last time he gave us his address and email. And this week we visited him and learned that Heavenly Father has actually been guiding him a jillion times more than we thought and also that he is a secretly famous white man in the japanese television life. We brought up a famous quote of his during our ward coordination meeting and everyone freaked out. We're basically teaching a Will Smith. 

BUT! I wanted to share with you something I learned this past week from studying my Book of Mormon. I was reading in Alma 36 all about when the prophet, Alma, is retelling his conversion story to his son, Helaman. So Alma was being super rebellious and pulling a lot of people away from God when finally an angel appeared to him and commanded him to stop trying to destroy the church. And then Alma kind of fell into this coma of tasting the punishment of his sins. I'm just going to copy and paste what he says because it's incredible:

But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins.

 13 Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.

 14 Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.

 15 Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds.

 16 And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.

 17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

 18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

 19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

 20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

 21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

Now usually when I read this scripture the thought that comes to mind is ''wow that's incredible how much he was able to change because he repented. The light he must have felt, the relief on his shoulders and in his heart contrasts soo much with the darkness he felt as he said 'tormented by the pains of hell' or 'racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.' '' And it's true: repentance is real. Repentance really does allow us to be freed from the chains of hell and from feeling of the incomparable  dark hole in your heart. Repentance is a process and it can be painful but it is worth it because it allows you to receive forgiveness and eventually to inherit the Kingdom of God. 

But this week I thought of something a little bit different. When the feelings of being racked with torment and harrowed up with the memory of his sins is taken from him, where does it go? Does God just stop sprinkling fire and brimstone down upon him once he's decided he wants to change?   No. Whether or not it's Alma, someone has to receive that punishment because justice demands it. God is just. And God can't deny Himself. So those feelings of a soul being 'harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all [his] sins' were not just dissolved. Someone had to receive them. Someone had to suffer them. SomeOne took the inexplicable pains upon Himself so that we didn't have to suffer the everlasting chains of death. That someOne is Jesus Christ. That makes Him our Savior. I love this passage in Alma because he tastes a little bit of what the Savior did for each and every one of us, and for everyone that lives on this earth and has lived on this earth and will live on this earth. He did it because He loves you. And He'd do it again. And He did it willingly because He wants us to accept Him because He knows that that is the only way that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again and our families forever. He lives and He is guiding this work in Japan and all around the world. We can be relieved from our sins when we accept Him. He will pay the price for our sins if we follow Him. All He asks is that we keep His commandments. 

I love you all and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love my Father in Heaven. I'm grateful for their everlasting love for me. I feel that love everyday when I read the Book of Mormon. It's unlike anything else. 

Have a great week! 

Love, Daniels shimai

Konnichiwa!!! (: We got transfer calls today and I will be staying in Kobe!!!! Unfortunately Hunt shimai is being transferred back to America because her mission is all done, but my new companion is named Sister Croft. She's a brand new Sister Training Leader and is AWESOME!!!! I don't actually know her very well but she was super best friends with my trainee when they were in the MTC and I've heard that she is incredible. I'm so excited!!!! But I'm so sad to see Hunt shimai go home-- I've never gotten along so well with anyone. But it's okay because we're going to be super close back in America and at BYU. I LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!! I need to write all of the things down that I've learned from her-- she's incredibly wise. 

This week was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper busy with our two farthest exchanges and mission leadership council and zone training meeting but it was sososososo fun too!! I got to go on exchanges with two super young missionaries and it's AMAZING to see how Heavenly Father is preparing His missionaries more and more. I'm so amazed by them. 

I want to tell you about 2 really awesome lessons that we had this past week because they were just way awesome. 

One was during an exchange with one of the sisters who is currently in Toyooka. She and I stayed in Kobe because we had a lesson with an investigator who Hunt shimai hadn't met before and she lived super far away. This lady is named Oonishi san and is a grandmother and also a member of the SGI religion. In japan it's pretty big and is kind of a mix between Buddhism and Christianity. But they don't believe in Christ-- but have a similar teachings-- especially when it comes to peace and living healthily. Either way, I've taught her about 3 times or so and she's never really been suuuper interested in learning from us because we are too young to have experience about the world but really wanted to talk about peace so she still asks to meet. The day before at Mission Leader Conference they trained us on using pamphlets more in our lessons and contacting. I've always kind of avoided them and I don't know why because they are AWESOME! They've made this new pamphlet other than the regular lessons that we teach that is called 'Who is God?'' and I figured it would be perfect for her. I mainly just wanted to use it to 1. apply the training I received, 2. because it explains everything super clearly, and 3. I wanted to use the awesome pictures BUT it was also super great to use it because it brought sooo much validity to what we were teaching. In previous lessons we were using the Book of Mormon to teach, but I think her image of us was that we were just teaching some things that we've come to know as we've read the Book of Mormon. But for some reason learning from that pamphlet opened her eyes and heart a ton. I've never seen her so interested and asking so many genuine questions about God and how He differs from Jesus Christ and why Christ is important and how come she feels like she can feel God in her heart. It was awesome!!! The Spirit was there and she could feel it. I'm super excited because that lesson was kind of the deciding factor whether or not we were going to continue to teach her. But Christ can change anyone!! And He does!!

The other experience I wanted to share was with Farhad!!!!!! He is our investigator from Iran and IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a super cool lesson with him a few hours after church yesterday and we had some elders teach with us since we're still trying to find a man in the ward who is in town and can come help us teach. Anytime we teach with him the Spirit is SO STRONG and we talked to him a lot yesterday about the Godhead-- especially the Holy Ghost and what the Holy Ghost does. He is the best and has been studying the Book of Mormon (in persian) super diligently and was eating up Moroni chapter 10. He told us that he wishes he had an hour every day to read the Book of Mormon and heaven rejoiced and we told him that even if he doesn't have time like that every day he doesn't have to read for that long. I am also learning my Persian numerical system and it is surprisingly extremely easy and I can finally tell which chapters are translated in the Persian Book of Mormon. Fun fact: in the word for ''prophet'' there is a smiley face and the sound is a ''te''. Fortunately he rocks at english. 

Otherwise, this week I participated in an omochitsuki!!! (: It is a super japanese cultural activity where you make your own mochi-- pounded rice. I'll send pictures, but basically you put a freshly-made batch of special rice in a big wooden bowl and you hit it with a hammer a jillion times until it makes this gooey pizza-dough-like substance. And then you roll it up in a ball and stuff it with japanese things. My favorite combination was strawberries and chocolate and sweet beans, but I made the first transfer missionary that I was on splits with try the fermented soybeans. (; Every missionary must try it once!! Hahah I don't think she'll try it again... but we got her a strawberry right away to wash away the taste. 

Also!! At zone training meeting Hunt shimai and I were asked to do training on obedience!!!! haha it was my favorite training ever. 

I love you all!!! Have an excellent week!! I'll try to send some pictures on this email. 

Go bucks!!!

Love,

Sister Daniels

p.s.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grundvig shimai became a SISTER TRAINING LEADER!!!! Unfortunately she's not my companion but maybeeee?... (: I'll definitely get to see her at MLC!!

Also!! 2 of my old companions, MacKenzie shimai and Black shimai have moved into my stl area and I'll get to go on exchanges with both of them!!! (: MacKenzie shimai is training!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm a grandma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 She's training a second transfer missionary-- actually the one I was on splits with and we went to the ward omochitsuki!! Yay!!! 

ALSO ELDER NELSON IS COMING TO OUR MISSION IN MARCH WITH HIS SON-IN-LAW, ELDER RINGWOOD OF THE 70!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND A JAPANESE MAN NAMED ELDER AOYAGI  FROM THE QUORUM OF THE 70 IS COMING IN FEBRUARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know how we get these set-ups, but I really enjoy them. Woo!!!!

1. this is most of our zone-- 2 more of our sisters had to catch a bus and couldn't make the picture

2. this was at the omochitsuki-- the two ladies on the right are members: one is less active, and the one in the apron is active and has THE COOLEST CONVERSION STORY. Remind me to tell you sometime

3.

pounding rice^^

GET OUT OF HERE OHIO STATE TOOK OUT ALABAMA IN THE SUGAR BOWL!!!!!!!!!!???!?!?!?!? I will continue to wear my lucky Ohio State sweatpants to bed each night. I switched to my Christmas pajamas (which are AWESOMEE!! THANK YOU) but I'm going to do all that I can do to help the cause over here in Japan. Woo!! Go bucks!!!! I appreciated all of the updates on the game. haha cheer loud for me during the championship game!! Cardell Jones sounds amazing. 

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (: (: 

This week was amazing and awesome and super busy and an awesome New Years celebration!! The only unfortunate thing was that my cold got a lot worse and it was really bad for a couple days but it is slowly going away and is basically gone now. I received a blessing last Monday and my heart felt a lot more genki and since that day I felt a lot more energy that was the biggest blessing ever. The rest was manageable with lots of medicine and water and sleeping during meal times. 

Every single day this past week members had us over for meals and it was AWESOME to get to really talk to so many of the members!!!! The members in this ward really do have dendo fire and they just didn't know how to involve the missionaries so we got lots of referrals and ideas for where we should dendo. We will be having lots of fun this week following up with that. Also we became super well acquainted with dinosaur maps of Kobe. So I can't remember if I told you already, but we used to have this miracle application on our phone called EZ navi where you could type in the address of where you wanted to go and it'd tell you, it could tell you where you were, pull up maps of the surrounding area, and most importantly tell you train times and the fastest ways to get to the place you want to go and alternative travel routes and it was the best thing in my whole life and saved my life-- literally-- in Wakayama when we opened the area and also helps me IMMENSELY as we travel to do splits with sisters in super far away areas. Sorry for that run on. (: That application was like a Liahona to me. I might even go as far to say that it was my best friend but regardless of how much I loved it, when our mission got new phones because there is cheaper plan on a different company we switched phones and the new phone does not have EZ navi. It was probably the hardest thing of my whole life. Because travelling in Japan is a special scavenger hunt when you can't read the jillions of different kanjis. But Heavenly Father knows all things, and in His plan of knowing all things has been preparing Daniels shimai for this tragic switch and guided her through the depths of her super old apartment to a pocket map book that has little katakana readings (one of the alphabets I can read) written above the kanjis. And it's super old-school but I carry it with me every where I go and it has saved my life finding members' houses. Heavenly Father knows and loves me so much. 

Anyway, we had lots of delicious meals with members and had some awesome opportunities strengthening them quite a bit. BUT my favorite part of this week was meeting again with our friend from Iran-- Farhad!!! HE IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! He is the one that came to our ''Purpose of Life'' fireside ages ago and ate everything up and became our good friend. I gave him a call this week just as he was returning to Kobe and he came and met with us and 2 elders who have recently moved into the office. He blew me away-- I have never met someone who is more prepared than he is to accept this gospel. His heart is one of the biggest I've ever seen and the Spirit was there so strongly and he was talking about what he think he believes and IT WAS ALL TRUE DOCTRINE. He loved the plan of salvation from the fireside and really wants to learn more about the church. We have the mission office next door so after the lesson we took him over and helped him pick out his own copy of the Book of Mormon in his native tongue. There is a huge showcase of probably like 30 different languages of the Book of Mormon in the office and fortunately we had a Persian one there. So he-- and we-- now all have Persian Books of Mormon and we also gave him an English one because the Persian book only has selections of the Book of Mormon. The numbers aren't the same and it looks a lot like Arabic but he promised he'd teach us a little Persian as we study the Book of Mormon with him. I'd say it's a fair trade. 

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and making lots of goals and seeing the hand of the Lord in your life. It's all around us!! And we have to look for it and thank Him. Life is so full of light that way.  

Love you! 

Sister Daniels