Transfers!

I got transferred to Chiba Ward, my companion is Sister Nagamine from Okinawa (I keep getting Okinawajin and it's great! My Japanese is going to be so Nihonjin-poi!) and we're white washing the area!!! So I got here on Monday, and we didn't have a phone or computer so we were roughin' it big time!  We already have an investigator, and she's getting baptized on the 7th!  Her name's Catherine and she's a referral from the Filipines. We taught her yesterday about living prophets and the ten commandments, she's so excited to be baptized!  I'm excited to have a baptism :)  We also met a girl on the train who we're going to try to have dinner with, hoping to have another investigator soon.  Since we're white-washing the area we need to do a lot of finding.  Luckily this is my companion's fourth white area.  So I'm in good hands. 

My last week in Abiko was really great, we found 7 new investigators!  From Eikaiwa and referrals.  The Abiko sisters are going to have a lot of teaching and I've learned a lot about finding investigators this past week, which is great.  I needed to see some finding miracles to know that I can open up a new area and be a successful missionary!  

I still need to move in my things, we've been cleaning all day...our apartment's full of old sister missionary junk.  It's super fun going through it all.  (I actually do kind of enjoy it.) I want to make my apartment so cute! It has so much potential! 

Last Post Of Transfer ONE!

Well I'm growing up, I'm almost a transfer two missionary!!!

Wednesday mornings we do a district Kubari, so we all get together at the Kashiwa train station/shopping center and hand out Eikaiwa flyers.  I met a girl named Mari, a Jehovah's Witness, and she was soooo sweet.  She even gave me candy AND her email address!!!  So we're going to keep in touch, and maybe teach a Jdub! :) 

At Eikaiwa there's a student who has a really big crush on me, and he says he loves me and runs away almost every week.  I usually just smile and ignore the fact he's saying anything. But this past week he just came up and tried to hug me out of nowhere!  I panicked! I didn't realize that in such a short time a hug from a male would be so scary! (he's like 20...by the way) Here's to hoping I won't be completely socially awkward when I come home.

Also I had cold-stone ice cream and a turkey sandwich on wheat bread.  I felt SO at home, it was great.  They don't sell turkey here at all...so I haven't been able to get my daily sandwich fix in for a while.

So here's something interesting about Japan:  We had zone meeting in Matsudo on thursday (about half an hour by train) and as we're stopped and people are getting on the train this punk guy gets on and accidentally gets his foot caught in some nerdy guy's bag and he starts kicking it around like a punk.  (you know the type).  Anyway the punk sits down next to the other man and the other man says something to him under his breath (probably like, what a jerk thanks for kicking my bag around the train...atually we're in Japan, so he probably apologized) I was nervous that the punk was gonna start chewing the nerdy guy out or something because the punk bumps his shoulder like "excuse me, what did you just say"! But then they're all the sudden friends and the punk is slapping the nerd's knee and sharing his mints.  Even when the punk's getting off, he pretty much trips out of the train because he's waving goodbye to his new pal. I was so confused. I wish I could have recorded it, it was so interesting.  Japan has no garbage, and no violence, and everyone's so friendly!  At least that's what it seems like! 

I did however get my helmet STOLEN yesterday, so Japan's not perfect I guess. 

Today I spent the morning in Tokyo and got to do a temple session. :) It was great, but sad because that was our LAST temple day as a mission before the split so we got a picture of the whole Tokyo Mission! 

The Power of A Principle: Just Gotta Be Toughness and More Cool

Welll hellooooo!   This week was a roller-caoster week at its finest.  Junko san and her daughter Ann chan said they would be baptised on Monday!  We had the date set for the 23rd of June and we were so excited!  Since then they've completely dropped us.  Junko has decided that our relationship is over and she doesn't need the church to be happy.  It was ironic timing.  We had a 3 zone conference and just as Budge Kaicho was asking how our investigators are doing and we're about to announce we have a baptismal date set, she sends us a text saying she doesn't want to meet anymore. :( I cried.  It's still so sad to think about it. So we've been working really hard to find new investigators. 

Sunday we had lunch at a member's home and they invited three friends over (and to church) they all have BOMs and we're seeing them again!  They're so cute, I can't remember their names but they're trendy girls in their 20s and were really interested in our message!  They're not in Abiko area, so we'll have to give them up eventually. But it's still good to have some investigators if even for a day.

In Japan some clothes have English writing on them, however the majority of them make NO SENSE AT ALL.  You'll see...also the title of this email is a good example.

 

Also today, we spent the majority of our afternoon at the doctor because Jack Shimai couldn't hear out of her left ear.  The doctor said it was clogged up with earwax. They pulled some random American man out of somewhere to be a translator and the doctor spoke pretty good English anyway.  She really did have a ton of earwax in there!  They pulled it out and she could hear again! TWas a Christmas miracle! 

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH!!!!! Ganbatte imasu! Invite Invite Invite!!!

I'm SO close!

I feel like I just got here a few days ago, but I'm seriously so close to leaving!  It's ridiculous how fast time has flown here at the MTC. 

We finally got to hear from an apostle this week!  Richard G Scott came and spoke to us and he gave me soooo much confidence in learning the language. He gave an apostolic blessing to the whole MTC that we will be able to learn our language to perfection and that we shouldn't worry because the Lord is on our side!  It was an amazing experience hearing from an Apostle of the Lord! 

So this was our Tuesday devotional...so exactly a week ago. Feels like 2 days ago...In our Sunday devotional we were privileged to hear the BYU Men's choir perform and at first I was noticing the 2 guys with beards...and then Elder Sisneros came out of the choir and spoke to us about life and missionary work and I was so happy!  I love Elder Sisneros and it was awesome that I got to hear him speak for a few minutes at the MTC! 

I guess one last thing I could throw in is that the MTC does exercise classes at 6 am for 30 minutes and I actually was able to get up early one day this week to do a yoga class for half an hour....I'm never doing it again, but it was really great for people who enjoy mornings.  Sleep is too valuable.  Don't mind me if when I get home I just hybernate for 2 days straight. haha 

Pictures from the MTC!

Found Sarah!

Grandparents with Madi at the temple!

Axel from the Ann Arbor Stake!

The district!

Shinko Tsuyomero

Not a ton to report on this week, just that the MTC is a testimony builder! I'm definitely having my shinko tsuyomeri masu (faith strenthened).  The two BEST devotionals I've had here at the MTC happened on Sunday, the speakers were Mary Ellen Edmunds and Greg Droubay.  Sister Edmund spoke to the Relief Society (all the sisters in the MTC) about how important it is to teach by the spirit, that the gift of tongues is real, and how happiness is the object of our existence! She said that if I do my best the heavens will move to help me with all I can't do and that as long as I'm happy and excited and love the people I'm serving they will flock to me! I believe it, sometimes I feel like the MTC is breaking me and I'm probably not going to be the same person when I come home...and other times I want to rebel and keep the old self!  I get such good advice every single day, I read things in the scriptures every day that I know I need to work on!  I know that I'll get the language and I'll learn how to always have a smile on my face, but I also know it's going to take a lot of effort and hard work.  These things I'm told I need to be doing in order to be an amazing missionary aren't things that happen over night, and I just hope that I can keep that in mind so I can stay patient with myself. 

 

Today after the temple there was this super cute Japanese woman that my doryo and I started talking to.  She's from Tokyo so she was really excited to talk to us.  She was probably speaking the most simple Japanese she could possibly speak and we still struggled knowing everything she was saying, but for her not speaking a single word of English to us we did pretty good. We gave her a few hugs and she wished us Ganbatte! and we left being more excited for the months ahead of us than we were before we met her. I'm so so so excited and also so so so nervous! I can't believe I'm over half way done, I'm going to be a dai-sempai in one week!  (the "oldest, most experienced" group going to Japan)

 

Ai shite imasu!

Bagley Shimai   

 

Happy Easter Weekend!

Kazoku, konichiwa!

So I've been taking notes of small things that happened during my week so I wouldn't forget anything super important, and the first thing on my list is that the MTC served some chicken parmesan!  haha, I saw it posted on the cafeteria door and was excited because I love chicken parmesan!  I guess I briefly forgot that I was in the MTC and their food is never exciting.  It was probably one of my most disappointing meals because the chicken parmesan at home trumps it by like 40,000. I also wrote on my note during the week that the breakfast burritos also weren't good...for some reason I was really focused on the food this week? 

Anyway, half the elders in my district are being ridiculous about gaining weight, so they're all planning on going on a diet and working out extra hard.  Then one of them turned to the sisters and was like "wow, you're lucky you'll never have to deal with this!"  it was kind of sad and funny at the same time.  So clueless.  But hey, if I gain a few lbs here at the MTC I already know I'll sweat them off first week in the field riding my bike up those crazy Tokyo hills. 

The other day I got to talk to some elders in another Japanese district about rock climbing!  It made me miss it, but it was still fun to chat it up about how awesome it is! 

On Saturday we did a new thing called TRC-Teaching Resource Center, where we go and give a Preach My Gospel lesson to volunteers.  I was really nervous before because we were going to be giving the lessons in Japanese, but they're more like visiting-teaching lessons because the volunteers are usually members of the church.   Once I got in there and started getting to know the people I was teaching it was great! I couldn't really understand what they were saying, but we were able to get our message across.  Two of the people we taught were from Japan, one from Tokyo (her name was Horiuchi, and she was probably 80-some years old...so kawaii), and another was from Nagasaki, her husband was a geijin, so he translated some of what she was saying for us into Eigo...which was helpful!

I'm a sempai now!  Meaning, I'm no longer the newbie of the Japanese missionaries!  We get 63 tomorrow!  Which is a crazy amount of people to be "more experienced" than, they're probably going to ask me questions on how to say things and I'll be like "wa karimasen!" (i don't know!)

On Sunday there was rumor that we would have an apostle speak to us! It ended up being Bishop Cause, the presiding bishop, which I didn't even know we had...oops.  It was an amazing talk and it was a cool experience having the sacrament passed to our whole MTC!  That's 3000 people getting the sacrament at one time, on Easter too.  It was really neat.

Also I think I know what scripture I'd like on my plaque: Alma 29:13. 

Yesterday I had an interesting memory of how much I loved Japanese people when I was in elementary school.  We were able to select any country we wanted to do a report on, I was probably in 4th grade at the time.  But I remember it being such an easy choice because I just thought that Japanese girls were so pretty and I really wanted to research Japan because of that!  Sister Jensen told me an interesting thing about how where we go on our missions could have to do with who we were friends with before we came to earth.  I don't know if that's doctrinal stuff, but it was a cute idea that made me think about how at a young age I was drawn to Japanese people. :)

I'm working on my testimony in Nihongo this week! Hopefully I'll be able to type it up soon!  Write me letters and I'll write you back!  I love you all!!!!! Ai shitte imasu!

Ai,

Bagley Shimai

Konichiwa!

This week was a lot easier with not getting too stressed out about the language. I struggle with being attached at the hip to someone all the time apparently. 

So I'll just start my letter at last Tuesday! The devotionals are super great here, and they're always geared toward being better missionaries and last Tuesday's devotional was especially great because the Elder that spoke and his wife both served in Tokyo!  They were great, but it was kind of nerve-racking to hear how miserable the fact that Japan has no central heating is.  He mentioned how he would put his shampoo in the fridge to keep it from freezing over night.  So I'll probably be needing some warm love from home next winter. 

The rest of the week my classroom instruction was mostly planning and organizing lessons and less of Japanese language training. We've done a lot of work on grammar this week and it's kind of confusing but I bet if I studied it a little harder I could get it.  

In my gym time I usually stretch, because I have a goal of being able to do the splits by the time I leave because half the girls in my district can. And I sometimes run on the indoor track. (10 times around is a mile...and that gets pretty boring so I usually just run 5 laps.) I do lots of push ups and there's a pull-up machine I go on every once in a while. Yesterday I didn't really work out though because me, my companion and Davis Shimai (another sister in my district, from Provo) were trying to memorize the baptismal commitment and started talking to the Nihonjin sisters. They're so cute and they were telling us how to say all sorts of things.  It gave me a lot of confidence seeing how patient they were with us learning their language. :) I loved it!  

Our district is really close, we eat together and go to the temple together and class and devotionals and everything. On Friday our District Leader, Elder Fernellius, decided that we should hold a district testimony meeting.  So at 7am on Friday we were all sharing how the gospel has touched our lives. It's kind of a different feeling bearing testimony as a missionary.  It's pretty wonderful! 

On Sunday our Sacrament meeting was the same, except I'm in a different branch now.  So only my branch president knows how to speak Japanese fluently, but the others are learning and trying like the rest of us.  I can sing hymns in Japanese! I can read Hiragana now, which I thought would take forever!  Of course I can't translate what the songs are meaning to say but at least I can keep up!  Next week is a special Easter sacrament meeting with one of the 12 Apostles, we're not sure which one.  But I'll be in the choir with my doryo and we'll for sure get seats in the actual devotional room instead of the overflow.  I think Easter will feel so special here at the MTC. Of course I'll miss you all, but I'm really excited to hear from a general authority!

On Sunday the Branch President announced that sometime on our missions we'll have ipads!  I thought the laptop computer thing was exciting, but ipads seem super legit!  Of course I'll be limited in what I can do with them.  Also he mentioned that while we're in the MTC we can email friends and other family members. I really want snail mail though, because I only have half an hour to read and respond to any emails I get. WRITE ME!  I haven't gotten letters from anyone!  It's sad.  I choose not to ask if the DL has already passed out the mail because I'm usually disappointed when he says he has and I didn't get anything AGAIN.   

Ai shitte imasu!

Love, Sister Bagley :)

A Child and a Disciple

"I've heard that Eyring gave a talk in 2000 about how there will be a day when everyone in Japan will flock to the gospel. Could that be now!?"

Here's the talk!

"A few years ago I spoke to the missionaries in the training center in Japan. I promised them then that a great day would dawn in that nation. I said that there would be a great increase in the members speaking eagerly to those they met of their testimony of the restored gospel. My thought then was that the courage to speak would come from an increased admiration for the Church in that land. I know now that the great miracle, a mighty change, will come inside the members, not in the world around them.

They and members across the earth will love and listen and talk and testify out of changed hearts. Bishops and branch presidents will lead them by example. The harvest of souls will be great, and it will be safe in the Lord’s hands. ⁶

To be part of that miracle, you must not wait until you feel closer to Heavenly Father or until you are sure that you have been purified through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Pray for the chance to encounter people who sense there could be something better in their lives. Pray to know what you should do to help them. Your prayers will be answered. You will meet people prepared by the Lord. You will find yourself feeling and saying things beyond your past experience. And then in time you will feel yourself drawing closer to your Heavenly Father, and you will feel the cleansing and the forgiveness the Savior promises His faithful witnesses. And you will feel His approval, knowing you have done what He asked of you, because He loves you and trusts you."

The First Week at the MTC!

The first week is super tough!  I walked into my first class and my sensei's not speaking a lick of English! It was really intense walking in there trying to figure out what was going on.  I guess since the first day I've learned quite a bit, it just doesn't really feel like it in comparison to how much I still have to learn! 

My companion, Jensen Shimai is so great!  We're never apart, and we don't really mind it.  I'm already used to having roommates (4 of them) and all of the shimaitashi in my district are also so great! Subarachi! It's amazing how many sister missionaries we have here at the MTC right now.  My district is 13 people, 8 elders and 5 sisters (chorotashi and shimaitashi). We all get along really well!  We all love each other and it's like a little family away from home :) It makes it a lot easier to have people I enjoy around me all the time.

The spirit here is always so strong, I've learned so much about myself than I ever thought was possible.  I think I started the week off with too many expectations and the MTC was nothing like I thought it would be.  I am only in language training for 3 hours a day, and the rest of the day I'm doing companion study, personal scripture study, companion/personal language study, etc etc.  At first I was frustrated that I was doing everything on my own and that was getting me down because I felt that it was going to be impossible to learn Japanese by myself.  I think that at that point I realized, yes it would be impossible to learn Japanese all on my own and there was one person I definitely could rely on to help me.  I knew that Heavenly Father was there, willing to listen to my prayers.  My struggle with the language is real, and I needed to take the burden off of myself because I don't have to do it on my own. 

On Saturday my district took an online questionaire to see what our strengths and weaknesses were.  I scored pretty low on patience...I new I would.  The whole week I had been dealing so much with being impatient with my companion and impatient with myself that there's no wonder I was getting frustrated with learning Japanese!  I've set some goals to work on my patience and I've been a heck of a lot happier since then.  :)  The devotional we had on Sunday also talked a little about how we need to rely on the Lord's time table instead of our own, and I know that was speaking straight to me.

Sacrament meeting on Sunday was all in Japanese!  It was overwhelming at first but I think I'll really start enjoying it.  It's actually pretty cool, our branch is splitting because yesterday we just got 12 or 13 Nihonjin (Japanese missionaries) who will be here for a couple weeks, then we are getting about 60 new English speaking missionaries going to Japan the week after the Nihonjin leave!  God really is speeding up his work! 

Getting the Call

Friday, January 25th, 2012, I received a letter that will change my life...I'm serving a mission in Tokyo, Japan!  I'll be reporting to the Provo MTC on March 13th and will remain there until I arrive at the mission home on May 14th to begin my service in Japan.  I am so excited!  I know that this call is from God and this is where I am supposed to serve.  I feel nervous at times, especially knowing I'll be going to learn Japanese, one of the toughest languages in the world.  But through faith and obedience I can overcome those anxious feelings and know that with divine purpose the Lord is sending me to Tokyo and He will help me every bit of the way as long as I am serving Him righteously.