Sunday, March 26, 2017

Do it for the LINE??? Social Media...

It's Sunday night so you know what that means.  It's time for the Wunderful World of Disney...AKA Jordan's email time.  I can commiserate with her riding in adverse conditions - With all the bike riding I've done, I've ridden in some bad rain and some really bad winds so I feel sorry for her that she had to ride in that.  It sounds like it was worth it, though.  I have to admit, I have dessert stomach because I always have room for dessert.  :) . Enjoy her email and as always, feel free to share your thoughts or ask any questions you might have.

こんにちは,
We were busy this entire week, but don't have too much to show for it because it was all meetings and biking! We had zone conference, interviews, and a ward fireside where we explained what mission school was. It was a good week, and made me appreciate teaching appointments and finding because we couldn't do too much of that haha.

Line:
Line is a social media app that almost everyone uses in Japan (it's as popular as instagram and snapchat in America), but basically it's like Facebook messenger where you can just chat back and forth with people and such. Well the reason I'm going on about a social media website is its been approved for our mission! See what usually happens is we ask a high school student who is interested in English if we can exchange contact info so we can get together to study English together and they say eh no; sometimes they don't even tell us their name! But for some reason they'll always give us their line! On our way home from the train station we got 4 high school students lines and they are all interested in English and now we can actually try and meet up with them! It's a miracle! I'm so thankful for line hahaha. 

Engrid: 
We met with her this week and went over temples again and the law of tithing. We're really trying to get her ready to do baptisms for the dead! And she wants to be baptized for her grandma. She says she doesn't feel worthy enough to go into such a holy place so we're trying to assure her that she is worthy enough! She's so cute. We also taught her tithing and we still haven't gotten her tithing slips (I know, we're bad), but she asked us for them! She goes, " where can I get tithing slips to pay the money?" She's the best haha. 

Wet rats: 
We scheduled time on Tuesday to bike to a less actives house and put hearts in her mailbox and leave her a note because her or her active mom haven't been to church in awhile. We didn't realize how far of a bike ride it actually was and it ended up pouring rain the entire day; well we ended up biking 3.5 hours in the pouring rain just to take 2 seconds to put the hearts and note in her mailbox. We didn't know if it was worth it, but the next day we got a call from her and asked if we could give the Elders their address because she is sick and wanted a blessing, so I think it was all worth it. We also showed up to a different appointment looking like wet rata, no joke, we were soaked and muddy and disgusting haha oops. 

Word of the week:
Word: betsubara 
Meaning: dessert stomach 
Pronunciation: beh-tsu-ba-da 

I love you all, but God loves you more!!
愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai 

Pics:
1. Obaachan❤❤
2. Curry party yoshi 
3. Kiryu zone
4. My lovely companion acting out a pamphlet pic
5. My face is on a flier yoshi
6. Before we looked like actual wet rats 
7-10. Japanese gardens are the coolest











Bonus pictures from a guy (Donald DeBate) who served a mission in Japan about 35 years ago who was visiting Japan with his daughter and just happened to visit Jordan's ward in Kumagaya.




I've said it before and I'll probably say it every week - thanks for your thoughts, prayers, snail mail and email.  We all appreciate them.  


Sunday, March 19, 2017

Woohoo. Another Great Week With Lots of Great Stuff

I always pray for Jordan - I pray that she will be protected and inspired.  I pray that she will find those who are looking for Christ.  I pray that she will be healthy and have the energy to work as hard as she needs too.  I also pray that each week will be better than her last and that the news we get on Sunday night will be awesome and inspiring to us.  This week definitely fits that bill.  Enjoy her email.

こんにちは,
Another great week in kiseki (miracle) kumagaya. Like the McDonald's slogan says, "I'm lovin' it!"

Ogawa Obaachan:
Recently, we got a list of people from the bishop that he wants us to work with. The Ogawa family was one of them. So the dad is a less active member and he has a 14 year old son and an 85 (around there) year old mom. So since we can't work with the guys, we work with her. We biked an hour to get to their house and then the fence was locked and she wouldn't answer her cell phone  (we had made an appointment with her). So, we (being the devoted missionaries we are), climbed the brick wall to her house.  She didn't even question it! She can't really see and she has bladder cancer and she hurts all over, so I think our main purpose is to make her feel loved. We talked with her a little and taught her about prayer. 

Eikaiwa:
Eikaiwa is going great and we've already seen growth! We had our most students ever come to Wednesday night Eikaiwa (13), we had 2 new kids at kid Eikaiwa, and 1 new student at normal Eikaiwa on Saturday! Yoshi. Sister Gorner and I teach the beginner Eikaiwa class both times and we always say that we have 1 rule in our class: you can't say fine or good when we ask how you are. It's so boring!! So the students always have to think of other things to say.

Okonomiyaki party: 
We had an okonomiyaki party after Saturday Eikaiwa and a lot of people came! Okonomiyaki is a Japanese food and kind of looks like a pancake but you put veggies in it and it has this really good sauce so definitely not a pancake. But it was great and we got to know our students more and talk to them about what we do as missionaries. 

We have 2 moms in Japan:
Rowena came to church!!! After church Engrid took us to her house again and we taught her the plan of salvation, but before we taught her, she made us some delicious food. We read through the plan of salvation pamphlet and basically after every paragraph, she would stop and summarize what she just read and then say, "That makes sense, this is true!" She then said that she is also our mom in Japan so now we have 2 moms in Japan! She told us that she wants to bring her son and husband to church next week and asked us if that was okay... Umm heck yeah! And she also told us that she knows a person who might be interested in the church. Yup a referral from referral.. we hit the gold mine! Also, Engrid was able to testify to her that she knows that this is the true church and again she said how much she has changed; I'm just so impressed by her and I love her soo much!! 

Word of the week:
Word: haha 
Meaning: (my) mom
Pronunciation: haha  

I love Japan and I'm so grateful to be here; it has truly changed my life. 
愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai 

Pics: 
1. Our moms! Engrid and Rowena ❤
2. Okonomiyaki party selfie 
3. Dont be fooled.. its not a pancake..Okonomiyaki 
4. Eikaiwa student and a less active!
5. It's really common in Japan to have pots of flowers in the front of your house
6. Biggest group of Eikaiwa! Yoshi
7. We got matching pajamas #companionshipgoals 
8. A cool little bridge thing over the road (way common in japan)
9. A park yoshi










 As always, we are greatful for your thoughts, prayers, emails and snail mail.  Jordan loves them all.  Feel free to post / share your thoughts or questions.  We love them as well.




Sunday, March 12, 2017

Another Baptism and a Miracle Referral...Exciting Stuff

Does anybody know what time it is?  That's right, it's email time with Sister Jordan Wunderli.  This was a great email for a few reasons.  First, I LOVE the word of the week.  I can just hear her saying to me.  More importantly, I love the fact that she has another baptism coming up with a lady who she taught a couple of times when she was on spits in Niigata.  Very cool.  Finally, I love the referral from Ingrid and the story behind it.  I can't wait to see how that story develops.  At any rate, here's the email - read it for yourself and enjoy.

こんにちは,
The weeks keep going by faster and faster... I've now been in Japan for 6 months and a missionary for 8 months. Where has the time gone?! I love being a missionary!! 

The miracle referral:
A few weeks back we got a call from the Niigata Sisters, who were my old sister training leaders, so I was thinking why the heck are they calling us?! We answered the phone and that's when they told us the best news ever: "Our investigator is moving to your area and she wants to be baptized." WHATT. As if it can't get any better, I asked the investigators name and it was Kiriko; I know her!! I've met her a couple of times when I went on exchanges with Niigata Sister back in my Sado days. 

This week, the Niigata Sisters set up a Skype call with us and Kiriko so that we could meet her. I was a little nervous that she wouldn't remember me but she totally did!! We talked to her about Kumagaya and told her how great the ward was and just got to know her a little better. She's moving here on March 19

My mom in Japan (Engrid)
We had a lesson with Engrid this week about temples and family history. Right now we are trying to prepare her to go to the temple so she can do baptisms for the dead. And she said she really wants to go to the temple! She told us that she's been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and that she's trying to apply it to her life (she's so amazing). At the end of the lesson, we asked her if she had any friends who she thought would be ready to hear the gospel and she said yes! She told us about her filipino friend. Then she called us later and told us she set up an appointment her for the next day. We thought she was busy so we asked her if she had enough time to go and she goes, "This is important; we're saving souls!" Wow I could go on for days on how strong Engrid's faith is, how good of an example she is, and just how much I love her! 

The miracle referral part 2:
So on Sunday we had to do member splits (Sister Gorner and I had members as our companions) because we were so busy! Gorner Shimai went with Engrid to meet the referral and I was stuck in 5 hours worth of meetings for church! The meetings were indeed long but we got a lot of stuff done so that was good. Now for the exciting part: the referral! Apparently the referral is just kin (golden). She was saying how it doesn't make sense that there is more than one church and only one God and how she's been searching for the truth (sounds a little like this guy named Joseph Smith ya know). But anyway Gorner Shimai and Engrid taught her the restoration and Engrid was able to testify to her of the truth and how this church has changed her. Her name is Rowena and she's a filipino and we're going back next Sunday to teach her and she's coming to church! I can't wait to meet her!! I think we need to start a filipino branch with all of these Filipinos were teaching.  DANG! 

Word of the week:
Word: chichi 
Pronunciation: chee-chee 
Meaning: (my) dad

I love seeing what affect the gospel has in people's lives. The gospel has definitely had a tremendous impact on mine and has made my life 100000x better. I love this gospel.
愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai 

Pics (sorry we took hardly any this week oops):
1. Nap time with the comp
2. Wednesday night Eikaiwa is where it's at 
3. I love Obaachan with all my heart





As always, thanks for your support.  We really appreciate your thoughts, prayers, emails and snail mail.  Jordan always mentions how thankful she is to get any of these things.  If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to share them.  

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Temple P-day, Girls Day (an actual holiday in Japan), Small Miracles and Hamburgers are GOOD!!

It was a Temple P-day this week and because of that, Jordan's emails were over a day later and VERY early on Tuesday morning so none of us were up to respond to her.  I'm really looking forward to this Sunday when we can have some interaction in email time.  Here's her email with some more small miracles and a few other interesting things that are new for her.

こんにちは,
This week was full of finding and mission school! Now that Engrid is baptized, we really need to find some new investigators.

Girls' day: 
On March 3rd, it is Girls' day in Japan and everyone goes to these doll festivals that they have. So a member took us with her daughter and her friend. Apparently, the biggest doll pyramid is in my area! This festival/holiday has been going on for thousands of years so it was really cool to see more of the history of this amazing country! 

Mission school miracles:
As you all know, we're trying to build up mission school (those English classes) and this week we had a few small miracles with it. We were biking home one day and we stopped on the side to wait for the cars to pass by so that we could turn and this car pulls up right next to us and the lady in the car says, "You teach English right?" We nodded our heads yes in amazement and then she said, "Great, I can't come today but I'll come next week!" We said great and she went on her way.

Then we had a day full of rejections. We had been finding all day and no one had interest. We went to a member's house to teach a lesson and she ended up being too busy, so we went to one of our investigator's house but she wasn't there either; nothing was going the way we wanted it to, BUT we got call at around 8:30pm from someone we had no idea who the lady was saying she wanted to bring her son to kid Eikaiwa the next day. And they came!! Tender mercies are everywhere! 

Finally, we had a new student come to Eikaiwa 2 Saturdays ago and this week she came to Wednesday night Eikaiwa (we have 2 Eikaiwas, one Saturday, one Wednesday) and she brought 5 of her friends so we have 5 more new students!! How amazing is that!! Woohoo building up mission school! 

Engrid: 
Engrid is doing absolutely amazing. She took us out to sushi (yum) on Tuesday to thank us for preparing her to get baptized. She texted us and told us that she knows that the LDS church is about families being happy and that she has noticed a change in her life because of the gospel. The amount of faith she has continues to amaze me and I'm so grateful to have her in my life.

I love you all. I love Japan. I love my mission. I love the temple (we had temple P-day this week). And I love hamburgers. 
愛しています,
Wunderli Shimai 

Pics:
1 and 2. TOKYO TOKYO like in the movies 
3. The best hamburger I've had while on my mission. Boy it was yummy and I'm so grateful for it. 
4 and 5. temple Pday!  
6-8. the Hina dolls for the festival 
9. The girls 










A few more pics Jordan wanted to share that weren't in her regular email:
1. The largest pyramid of dolls in Japan
2. Wednesday night Eikaiwa went from 0 to 6 real quick
3. We made origami hearts and put fliers in them to pass around one day





As always, thank you so much for your thoughts, prayers, emails and snail mail.  We probably appreciate them almost as much as Jordan.  Here's her email for those of you who would like to email her but may not have her address:  jordan.wunderli@myldsmail.net.