October 24, 2011

Uncle Greg, (and Waite Family too),

I don't know how far behind the blog is... but here's a small scoop of what I'm busy with these days: My MTC companion Sister Derricott and I are back together now and we are serving in Shibuya - the most populous and expensive area in Tokyo (and therefore, maybe even in the world). It is quite the place! We do a LOT of dinner appointments and meetings with investigators, less actives, and members. It feels like I'm a businessman for the church sometimes. But it's fun and pretty interesting. Sometimes I just want to go run around outside though! (In my last area we were outside streeting a lot.)

Sister Derricott's Dad used to be on a lot of TV shows here in Japan, and has accumulated a bit of fame. He no longer works on TV, but is now working with a company in making their product available in Japan. He comes to Tokyo once a month for about 2 weeks. He has been here for the past few days and has helped us a lot with missionary work. We did quite a few dinners with him and various other people. One was a dinner party at the home of a member family and they had invited 12 of their non-member friends to come.Four of those people are refugees who used to live in the Fukushima area where the Tsunami hit. They are living in hotels right now. Brother Derricott told some stories and those people were hanging on to every word. It was simply amazing! He talked about growing up and how important his family was to him how even after he had begun to be a little more famous he still came home and changed diapers and washed dishes. As he was talking, I looked around at their faces... It was simply amazing! They loved hearing some 'inside' stories from his life and were obviously getting a new perspective on what is really important in their lives. He is also really funny and cheered everyone up a lot. It was good to hear everyone laughing even though they are experiencing some pretty tough things right now. A couple of people were even teary-eyed when we and Brother Derricott left. They thanked him profusely for bringing such a good feeling into their lives. Some of them handed us their contact information as we left and asked to meet again.

I don't know how much longer I will be here in this area. Even though this is my first transfer here I sort of feel like I am going to be going somewhere else soon. Who knows though.
Thank you for your prayers for Sano. I called her recently just to see how she is doing and she seems to be ok. She got sick one weekend, and because of general conference and some other thing that came up she still hadn't been confirmed which is a little worrisome. I hope it happened yesterday and I am going to call her again to find out soon. She also said she had broken up with her boyfriend because his family was opposed to her being a Christian. I expressed my concern but she said rather cheerfully that now she could find someone who likes Christ. (What an attitude huh?).

Right now my Sister Derricott and I are teaching a guy named Yajima who is engaged to a less-active ward member. He is actually already more faithful than she is... All the time during our lessons she will ask silly questions or lead the conversation off and he is the one to tell her the right answer of somehow bring it back to the gospel. His job requires him to work on Sundays sometimes and we have had a lot of discussions that end up being about the Sabbath day and the importance of coming to church. The last time we met he seemed to be understanding the importance of it all a little more and said he would talk to his boss and see if he could have that day be his day off. So that's what we are praying for a lot these days.

We are over one Japanese ward and 2 English -speaking branches, and the church meeting times all overlap. It gets a little crazy hopping back and forth. The Japanese ward starts at 9 and is in the Shibuya area, then the 1st branch starts at 10 and is 1/2 hour away in right next to the temple. Then the 2nd branch starts at 1:00 and is back in the Shibuya building. We seem to be floating between the 2 buildings all day. The English-speaking wards give us referrals so much! it is amazing to see them reach out to the people here. It helps that a lot of them aren't here for more than a couple years, so there are always new people moving in and out which means they meet a lot of people.

Wow, this is really long. I decided about 3 paragraphs ago that this had turned into my family letter for this week too, so sorry for the novel.

Anyway, thanks for your e-mail. The thing you said about doing something this week that would be worth remembering really hit home. I love you and your family!
-Sister Waite

Oh, by the way, there is a picture of me this morning with a scone I bought at a bakery. There is also a picture of us and a member that streeted with us one day this week as part of a missionary activity that the Single Adults did. And there is a picture I took last week as we were walking under an overpass... it just felt so very Tokyo-ish, so I pulled out my camera. That's all.

Family: I started writing to Uncle Greg but soon realized I was addressing it to both his family and you too! From here on out I'll just write to you though

Family! How are you? Thanks for the e-mail Mom! I got online this morning and you hadn't written yet, and then this afternoon (Monday) I got on again and you had! But reading it, it sounds like it was Sunday night when you wrote it. This time-change thing sure throws me off. Also, I am pretty sure it's just fine if you send me Maren's play on DVD.. but I honestly don't know that I would have time to watch it. P-days are so chaotic. We rarely actually have a real one because we get random appointments that will only work on Mondays and then we just do a regular day and squeeze in laundry and e-mailing in somewhere. Either way though: GOOD LUCK MARE-BEAR! I sure do love you. A couple weeks ago Mom sent a picture of you and the other girls in the kitchen. You were standing at the bar with your back to the camera and I thought it was Hannah until I actually clicked on the picture and saw it bigger. Wow.

Dad, most Japanese people's Patriarchal Blessings claim they are from the house of Ephraim. Which I think means that they really are... :) Interesting huh?

Ok, gotta go.

Love from across the pond,
-Waite Shimai

October 17, 2011

Dear fam-

I'm 疲れた！(worn out).

Today we went to Kamakura with a member friend and saw the big Buddha statue there. (Evidence is included in the attachments.) We were able to go inside of the statue and there is a picture of Sister Derricott and me looking up towards the inside of the head. Afterwards we went to a temple as well. Thursday night Sister Derricott's dad got together with us and the elders and he kindly took us to a cake shop where we all talked about missionary work and specifically the problems we are facing in Japan. We talked

(I'm back... I'll continue from the draft I saved yesterday. Our P-day got cut short.)
We talked especially about the challenges that members in Japan seem to struggle with the most and how to help them. It has been interesting to serve in an area with Americans. We have 2 English speaking branches and 1 Japanese ward. There is a striking contrast between the two cultures. The English speaking branches are a lot more jovial and have a really light, happy atmosphere. The Japanese ward is much more serious it seems (I have never been because the ward times overlap). Even more so than the Japanese wards I served in in my last area.
Anyway, it's gotten to be sort of a problem - even some of the Japanese members who doesn’t speak any English at all have started coming to the English-speaking ward because they don't like the Japanese church. Japanese people have a strength of being super meticulous and exact, and sometimes they take religion so seriously that they are unable to really enjoy the fruits of living a righteous life. We are really focusing now on getting to know the members better and be examples of perfectly obedient people who still have a lot of fun. The Japanese ward has a lot of less-active members that we would like to work with, but before that happens we need to get the ward to be a place they would actually want to be at. Interesting. It's been a good reminder to me too to just be happy sometimes and enjoy the fact that we have God's truth.

I have received a lot of mail lately so be sure to thank everyone if you see them: Aunt Chelsea and family sent a really great package, Grandma and Grandpa Waite sent a letter, Annie Holliday sent a letter, and you (MOM and DAD) are so dutiful to keep me updated. Thanks a bunch. (Also, Mom you asked if Jesse actually sent a letter... he did. That was nice of him.) Mom, have I ever told you that I LOVE the CD you sent for my birthday? I do.

So on Saturday Brother Derricott called Derricott Shimai and I and asked if he could take us to lunch. We thought it was sort of odd since we were scheduled to be with him all the next day too but he was sort of persistent so we went. As we were standing outside waiting to go in, this guy on the sidewalk walked up and put his arm around Sister Derricott... it was her little brother Jeff. He flew here and surprised her. He is a senior in high school and reminded me a lot of Cam. We had a great lunch and then on Sunday all 4 of us went to Sister Derricott’s old area where she and her dad were speaking. During the English-speaking branch's church there, they asked me to translate during Relief Society for this lady who had come to church for the first time with a friend but actually just spoke Japanese. I'm nowhere near being able to translate yet, but there wasn't anyone else so we gave it a go. The lesson ended up being on the scattering of the house of Israel... Pray that the lady will come to church again despite her experience with me! : )
Will you all do a favor for me? Tell one other person in the family that Mariah loves them, because I do.

Ja ne..

-Waite Shimai

October 10, 2011

愛する家族：
Alright I'm back.

Mom, it certainly is very interesting to be Derricott Shimai's companion. Today we went to a lunch with a lady that Derricotts stayed with in Japan when they very first moved here. They are nonmembers but have remained friends since and had pictures of Sister Derricott and her siblings when they were little and had come over to the house.

Also, tonight we had dinner with some members and arranged to have a gathering next week with a whole bunch of their non-member friends and invite Brother Derricott. We are really excited about the effects it could have and the doors it could open for missionary work. This kind of missionary work is something I wasn't exactly trained for... but it is certainly interesting.

Something else: This week Sister Derricott ate the last 2 green olives we had left in the fridge. We lamented over that for a few moments and then forgot about it. The next day we got an e-mail and as Sister Derricott read it she said jokingly, "The Lord really does know every detail of our lives; my dad just asked if we wanted some more green olives when he visits us! God even knows about our olive situation." I jokingly asked, "You mean He knows 'olive' our situation?"

I'm for sure not telling you this because I think my humor is of any quality (I know it's not...), but that has sort of become the theme of our lives lately. The Lord does know 'olive' our situation. He knows what circumstances we are in and expects us to still follow His commandments.

Thank you for always thinking about Sano. I was thinking about her and remembered about the night before she got baptized. We had prepared all that we needed to for the program, had found a dress, and were ready to go except for one thing: we needed some white underwear. At about 7pm that night we started getting a little nervous; stores were beginning to close. Isn't it amazing all the little teeny things that can keep someone from being baptized? We had gone to several places and hadn't found any. We came out of yet another store that did not carry our much-needed item and offered a fervent prayer, that of all things, we would somehow be able to cross paths with a pair of white underwear. At 7 we had a dinner appointment, so we went there and trusted that things would work out. They did: the members suggested another place to try and we left the dinner early to go check, and they were there. (God really does know olive our situation.)

Last week when Cam sent me a letter he referenced Alma 41:14-15. I read it and thought about that a lot. Before, I have mainly thought of our resurrection being a physical restoration. But reading the first part of verse 15 that says "That which ye do send out shall return unto you" made me realize how spiritual it will be. Kind of a karma sort of phenomena: what goes up must come down. That all the good, all the mercy and justice and love that we have given away in this life will be restored to us in the next. Really, our happiness that we receive in the next life will be proportional to the happiness we give out in this one. It makes me think of the scripture 'He that loseth his life shall find it...". God can't 'restore' something to us that we haven't already given up... so if we want to receive mercy and justice, we have to give them. That's a really basic principle that everyone besides me probably realized, but it's something I've been thinking about lately. And now I have a testimony of karma. : )

Alright, I'll stop pretending like I've got anything else interesting to say.

Goodnight! Love from Japan! お休みなさい！

ーウエイト姉妹

October 9, 2011

Dear Fam-

Sister Derricott and I just finished watching General Conference - it was fantastic as usual. It was fun to sit in the church yesterday afternoon and hear Elder Yamashita talk about missionaries in Japan. It’s funny how every conference naturally fits right in with your situation... this conference was ALL about missionary work I thought.

We don't have much time and need to go soon, so hopefully I can write later today. My SD cards are both full so I'm sending them home.

This week Sister Derricott's dad is coming and he will be working with us a little bit - this Sunday he and Sister Derricott will both be speaking at a fireside. I'm glad I'll just be along for the ride and get to take the place of 'Sister Derricott's companion from Idaho...".

More later.
Love,
Sister Waite

October 6, 2011

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY TO MOOZE!!! Moozey your Homecoming picture where you are smiling super big made me and Derricott Shimai laugh so hard... Derricott Shimai can't wait to meet you because of it.

I waited to e-mail you all until today just so I could wish Hannah a Happy Birthday!
Just kidding! We were so busy on Monday with appointments and other things that we couldn't take that day as a P-day, and today was the next available day. Sorry about that.

I'm including a couple of pictures of our apartment, as evidence that it is indeed very un-posh, but certainly located in the 'posh' part of town. I have no clue how much it costs per month, but if the cockroaches cost extra it must be pretty expensive : ) We really can't complain at all though; Cam's cockroach friends would eat ours for breakfast. We are on the 5th floor of a complex that's located above a convenient store. It's one of those set-ups where you walk from the sidewalk in through the main door and then take the elevator to where you are going.

(Pix: 1-inside our apt; 2-view from the street of our apt. main entrance; 3-walking in the main doors 4-view of the street from our apt. main doors, 5-the sidewalk outside our apt. 6- our study room and beds, this is the only sisters' apartment our mission that has beds - and sometimes there are 3 sisters here so that's why there is an extra).

This morning Sister Derricott and I went for a jog and got into the 'Babylon' part of town... We don't go there much so it was fun to see what's down there. As we were going along I caught a glimpse of our reflection in a store window and couldn't help but smile... we didn't fit into that scene at all. All these really sleek, high-class looking people were walking either to their work or home from a night of partying and we looked somewhat ridiculous in the middle of it all. Plus I was wearing a BYU-I shirt. funny... later we were jogging by a pile of garbage and a crow that was picking at it flew up with a big piece of meat (bigger than my hand) in its mouth and then dropped it right as it went over my head. Strange. Thankfully the meat landed a couple feet away.

Mom, Sister Derricott's Dad doesn't actually do TV anymore. He retired a few years ago but now is working with a different company here. Also, we will be watching General Conference this weekend in our English branch, and since we have the computers we have actually been able to start watching some if it online already.

Dad, you asked about how the language is coming, and how I like the food. I LOVE both! Language: I know that having Saiki Shimai as my first companion forced me to learn basic language skills faster than most missionaries. Communication was pretty interesting that first transfer, but now I am so grateful because even if it doesn't sound very pretty, I feel comfortable speaking. Listening is harder, but thankfully Derricott Shimai is a lot better than me because she grew up a little bit with the language. Learning a second language is so different than I thought it would be... I finally realize that I'll never understand everything I hear, but hopefully things continue to become more and more understandable.

Food favorites: I drink more mugi-cha than I do water these days. It's a wheat-tea that most people think tastes like cigarette butts when they first taste it. I love it. We also eat natto: fermented soy beans. When I first tried it I thought I would throw-up, but it is so yummy now, especially on salad. I love going to ramen shops here- they give you this HUGE bowl of broth with noodles and boiled eggs and all sorts of other things just floating around. When we eat noodles we slurp a lot because the noodles are hot and it cools them down. Anoko is another thing I love: it's a sweet paste made of red beans and sugar and they do all sorts of things with it - I like it inside of bread rolls. I'm also getting pretty accustomed to other Asian foods as well - especially Kimchee(sp?). We eat it a lot on rice or with noodles. OH and noodles: There are about a billion different kinds. Ramen, somen, soba... I can't describe all the things we do with them. I need to stop talking about all this food because I'm getting hungry, but I must say I have found a replacement for apples as my #1 favorite foods ever: Nashi, asian pears that are so so so good.

Anyway, I better go but you just need to know that I love all the letters you send! I am so so blessed. Yesterday I got a DL from Dad and a letter from Cam in the same day. Cam sounds like he's never been doing better.

-Waite Shimai

Christmas Idea: I would love another big tub of Cetaphil lotion!

September 26, 2011

Hello Dear Fam!

Have I ever told you that I just LOVE Japan! And I LOVE being a missionary!

On Saturday we rang this lady's doorbell and a teenage girl answered. She didn't say much but her mom came out to talk to us which sort of shocked us. (Most people here don't even open the door, they just talk to you through a speaker). She started out by telling us that we are all children of a Heavenly Father who loves us. We got really excited. Then she pulled Sister Asai up in front of her and turned her around and started massaging her shoulders... or at least that's what it looked like. Then she grabbed the sides of Sister Asai's arms and squeezed her shoulders up and down. After that she let go and held her up in the air to the side of Sister Asai's head and asked if Sister Asai could see anything. Sister Asai turned her head to look but the lady grabbed her head and made her look straight forward. Apparently she was hoping Sister Asai would see light coming from her hand.

Anyway, then she just kept talking and any time Sister Asai tried to turn her head the lady would just straighten it. She talked for a long time and then did the same thing to me - only she also made me take my backpack off so she could feel my lower back muscles. Afterwards she reported to Sister Asai that I would be able to give birth very easily. I knew I would learn a lot of things on my mission... but that just tops things off. (By the way, I couldn't see any light coming from her hand either.) Afterwards she gave us each a little pamphlet to this 'light' religion that she belongs to and told us to come anytime. We walked away wondering whether it was us or her that did the proselyting.

The next day, Sunday, Sano Chieko received baptism by water. It was wonderful. The ward members treated her like a princess, and by the time she left the church building her arms were overflowing with all the flowers and presents people had handed her. When we first planned the baptismal service with her she said she didn’t want to bear testimony in front of everyone, but after she was actually baptized we asked her again and she said she would. It was so simple - she just said who she was, and that she felt like everyone was so nice to her at church, and that she had decided to be baptized because she wanted to follow Jesus. And then she ended in the name of Jesus Christ just like we had practiced 3 seconds before.

Yesterday was a fabulous way to end my time in Kanagawa. Today, I am typing from my new apartment in my new area with my new companion... you'll never guess who I'm with: The incomparable Sister Derricott. Yep. My MTC companion. And we are in Shibuya - the priciest, worldliest, fastest-paced part of Tokyo. We are in the depths of worldliness here. I can't believe it. I just asked Sister Derricott how she would describe Shibuya and she started singing, "Oh Babylon...". The apartment we are in now is the most expensive missionary apartment in the world. Wow.

Sister Derricott and I have joked before about asking to be put together as companions again... but we had assumed that would be at the end of our time in Japan once we could speak. Oh well. Who needs to communicate anyway? This transfer will be really interesting, but I'm excited to see how we manage. It really shouldn't be too bad though because we only have 1 Japanese ward and our other 2 branches are English speaking.

I wish I could include a picture of Sano from yesterday, but we took all the pictures with Asai Shimia's camera and then didn't have time to swap before I left this morning. We will see each other soon though at a conference and can switch then. I did put on a picture of me and Yayoii Shimai - she has helped us out so much. My SD card is full to I'll try to send that home soon.
Christmas idea: a cardigan from Downeast??? I don't know.

I haven't been able to hear the any of General Conference. It is a week late here for translation. I am excited.

Dad- thanks for the DE's!! MOM- thanks for the e-mails with all the updates. Right after you finished talking about Great Aunt Ann's funeral you said you and Aunt Sara were going to go visit Aunt Ann for 5 days.... I did figure out which one you meant though. Mooze- sister Derricott loved the joke!

OK, well... I just love you all. Grandpa Wadsworth: I sure do love you!!! Thanks for the birthday present!

Sister Waite

PS- the other guy (Shingo) hasn't been baptized yet but will be soon.