week 15: strawberry fields forever

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All you can pick strawberries!

こんにちは！

This week was full of ups and downs. We had district meeting in Sasebo and that was crazy fun. It turns into an all day thing for Sister Dimmitt and I because of travel. We also meet a ton of great people. So we are friends with the shrine owners, and now we are friends with a temple owner! Crazy the people you meet. We also met some Jehovah Witnesses and that was way awkward. We were both dendouing the same area. But it was super funny afterwards. Our investigator Tanaka San is having so trouble so we are trying to work with that. Megumi San, our other investigator, is progressing a ton and we are so excited.  The ward is amazing and kind and gives us a ton of food! We also went to an international tennis competition and got to watch that for a while. That was really cool!

Spiritual keiken: So this week Elder Renlund did a special broadcast just for Japan! It was amazing. He and his wife talked about members and missionaries working together. They related it to chopsticks. If you only have one chopstick, you can't lift candy (God's children) into a jar (safety). You have to have both chopsticks working together. It was super cute and so true! Members and missionaries are key to serving God's children.

Funny keiken:  So we had a member call us up and ask us if we could go to a strawberry field with her. We agreed and thought we were doimg service. The next morning she picks us up and drives us way far to a temple (where we met our new temple friend). We got a little tour of the temple and she explained some of the ceremonies. Then we went to this green house... it was a いちごごうり(ichigogouril) basically it costs $40 and you eat as many strawberries as you want for an hour. Well the temple guy let us pick as many as we wanted and take them home! We picked 4 huge boxes and took home 2 boxes! Strawberries for days!

New words: 
いちご (ichigo): strawberry
きせきてき(kisekiteki): miraculous 
I love you all and I know this church is true! Its amazing being able to see it change peoples lives! I miss you all so much!

Love, 
Thompson Shimai 


Plum temple:
lots of flowering plum trees





The temple grounds are so beautiful!












seriously...the best of friends!






Map of Kurume


City of Sasebo from the train window.
The trains are so different here.
In America, everyone talks and chats is generally loud on the trains.
In Japan, the trains are very quiet. It's rude to eat or talk.
Everyone just kind of zones out in their own world.
It's actually pretty relaxing and a nice break.


Greenhouse at the temple!


Literally eating strawberries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.




That's right...we picked ALL of those!


strawberry glamour shot




Two of those boxes are for us!!
so thoughtful!





We were able to watch part of an international tennis tournament this week.
Such a cool and difference experience!


Since Lady is always obsessing over the Japanese toilets...
I took a pic of the strangest one I've seen so far!


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