🌺🌷🌸🌹

おはようございます🌞

This week has been packed with goodness. 

Monday frank 姉妹 and I rode another 26 miles, this time to Shinoro, to buy a ukulele so we can sing at Yuki Sans baptism this Saturday!! We came back and went straight to a lesson with Yuki San. We met with her almost every day this week and were able to finish the lessons! We took her to the temple Saturday. When she saw it for the first time she got sooo excited. She jumped out of the car and was skipping she was so happy. She tells us everyday how grateful she is for the joy the gospel has brought to her life in such a short amount of time. The gospel is such a blessing!! 

It's finally looking like spring here!!! The Sakura (cherry blossoms) bloomed and there's tulips lining every sidewalk!! I love it. 

We've started doing morning exercise at the park with like 15 grandmas and grandpas. They meet every morning to do this awesome work out routine to some awesome music haha apparently this is a regular thing in Japan. It's so much fun I love it hahaha

 Every week our elders go to Iwamizawa to teach eikaiwa since the Elders there are Japanese, this week our Elders got stuck in a lesson so they asked us to go for them. We jumped on a train and became the first Sisters to dendo in Iwamizawa.😎 We taught them about leprechauns and groundhogs day. They now think Americans are crazy. On our way to the eki we stopped at a conveni and discovered the most delicious coconut milk. We went back and bought like 6 bottles. We went back to Ebetsu and the next day we searched every conveni in Ebetsu and couldn't find coconut milk anywhere. We were so upset. Then yesterday we stopped at a conveni by our house and I headed towards the drinks and frank Shimai said "it's not gonna be there" and I told her I had to look. Lo and behold there was our precious coconut milk!!!!! We have a slight addiction. It may be a problem... but we're HAPPY :)) if you're in Japan do yourself a favor and find some coconut milk!!!! 

China or Japan?

你好!

So apparently I've been transferred to China. 90% of the people we are teaching right now are Chinese!! It's been crazy. I was talking to President Nakatsuka about it and he said Chinese people are more open to accepting the gospel. I asked him why that was and he said because even though they don't realize it, Christianity is in their background. KANJI LESSON TIMEEEEE. 船<-- this is the kanji for ship. If you look closely you'll see three kanji within that kanji: 舟 (boat), 八 (8) and 口(mouth) so yes the kanji for ship is literally 8 mouths on a boat. How many people were on Noah's ark????? Are you amazed yet?????? すごいね！

Anyways Yuki San is still doing great and is so excited for her baptism next week!!

Saturday Frank 姉妹 and I biked 26 miles out to the country side and back. It was AWESOMEEEEE!!! We were literally in the middle of nowhere, covered in bugs and dirt. I loved it. And I met and taught a Japanese cowboy.

We spent 4 days up in Asahikawa going on splits and going to Zone Conference. One day Michaels 姉妹 and I were out dendoing and there were 5 helicopters and 100 cop cars, ambulances and fire trucks surrounding a blocked off street so naturally I wanted to see what was going on so we walked down and I talked to a police officer and he told me the building had just exploded!!! It was pretty

exciting. I think everyone was okay...

Also I'm working on my Chinese and Shuwa (Japanese sign language) so by the time I come home I just might be quad lingual🤞🏼

愛してるよ！

リグビ姉妹

Morning run to Chinatown

Wait. 金人 are real???

おはようございます🌞

Everyone remember our perfect Chinese investigator we found last week?? Well turns out she's a real

life 金人 (golden person) this week we set a baptismal date with her for May 13!!! She's soooo

excited and so are we! I've never met someone so prepared to receive the gospel.  Every time we teach her something she says "I believe this! I've always believed this! People in Japan and China don't believe this. I didn't know other people believed this too!" And then she'll share an

experience related to our message. She basically teaches herself. Her name is Yuki San and she's 22

and she's teaching me Chinese and I love her. I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!

Saturday my comp and I woke up and ran to a park for exercise and it started snowing so we sang Christmas songs and that same day WE GOT OUR BIKES BACK so it really was Christmas🎄🚴🏼‍♀️ I LOVE MY BIKE

Other than that we headed up to Asahikawa for a few days for ZTM and Zone Activity and it was a party so here's a bunch of videos that sum it up...

1. Disney movie reenactment (filmed in China town)
2. Southern Utah love song
3. Takamasa & Bateman
4. Catching pigeons
5. Favorite scripture reenactment

OHHHH WERE HALFWAY THEREEEEEEE!!!

HEYOOOO THIS WEEK HAS BEEN CRAZY!!!!!!!!! 

The first half of the week was actually heartbreaking. Tuesday we got transfer calls and I got transferred. :( I was sooo sad to be leaving Shinoro. Saying bye to everyone, especially Bishop, the ward and Kudou family, was heartbreaking. I love Shinoro so much!!

Thursday was transfer day (AND MY HALF WAY MARK) there was also a blizzard haha what is spring. I transferred to.... EBETSU!! It's a little city outside of Sapporo! It's so cute. My new comp is Frank Shimai from Idaho!! We were in the MTC together and it has been non stop laughs and miracles here in Ebetsu the past few days. I'll let ya in on my favs.......

1. Friday we went out to visit someone and we were walking down the street and passed these little girls that started yelling "AMERICANS! NO WAY REAL AMERICANS" so we stopped and talked with them for a bit and became besties which led to races down the street and finding dead fish. One of the girls clicked on my iPad and saw my background which was a picture of Christ and she was like "is that your dad?" Hahaha so I got to teach them who Jesus is. It was awesome. Then they found us some broken tiles and gave them to us so we would never forget them. It was the cutest thing ever. 
2. Went to a wedding in Atsubetsu. My first wedding in Japan :) so awesome!! And a bunch of Shinoro members were there so it was a party. 
3. Went to teach a girl the elders found this week. She's from China and she's GOLDEN. She wanted to learn who Jesus is so bad so we taught her, taught her how to pray, gave her a Book of Mormon and the next day she came to church!! And after she was talking about how when she gets baptized she wants it to be a special day!!! She's so prepared. I love her. 
4. We were housing one day and this guy opened the door and we said who we were and he said "oh uh I don't actually live here I'm just doing some construction" and then his daughter walked out of her bedroom and said "dad who is it?" and it got really awkward hahaha 
5. Saw wild wiener dogs
6. Found out we get our bikes back NEXT WEEEEKKKKKK
7. Found out Dallin H Oaks is coming to our mission next month!!!!!!!!!!

It's gonna be a goooood transfer here in Ebetsu!! 

愛してるよ！

リグビ姉妹

Happy Conference Weekend!

こんにちは!

HAPPY CONFERENCE WEEKEND!! (just pretend you all watched it this weekend with me) it was

AMAZING ね?! Bachman Choro and I got to sit in the back of the kitchen and watch it in English. It was the second time I've been able to understand a church meeting in 9 months (the first time was last general conference) it was heaven.

Monday we went to teach this college student and her roommate Fan San and Chan San. They're both

Vietnamese and they fed us Vietnamese food!! It was so good. It was really cool because they speak

Vietnamese, I speak English but we were able to communicate through Japanese. Then their roommate came in, she's from China, turns out she's fluent in English! So everyone was like "speak English to each other" and I sat there frozen. Terrified. She started talking to me in English and I got

through maybe two sentences and switched back to Japanese. It was soooo embarrassing and awkward.

Wednesday I saw a really cool miracle! We were teaching a lesson and usually the husband smokes in

the kitchen while we teach. So we start the lesson and I see him head for the kitchen. I said a little

prayer in my heart that he wouldn't start smoking. He grabbed his cigarettes, walked back into the room where we were teaching, listened for a second, then put his cigarettes on a shelf and didn't touch them the entire lesson!! It was sooo cool! The message of the true gospel of Jesus Christ

changes lives and God answers prayers!

愛しています！
リグビ姉妹

"I knew that I had been blessed and I knew that God knew that I knew that I had been blessed." Neal A Maxwell

Kudou family's Book of Mormon! The kids loveeeee to read and mark their favorite scriptures💕

#OnlySiberiaUnderstands

こんにちは！

Thursday I got to go on splits with Stewart Shimai in Higashi! When we left the apartment in the morning it was sunny so I slipped on my sperrys (mistake #1) right when we walked out the door it started down pouring. We walked for an hour to drop off a flyer than did some housing. By this  timewe were already completely soaked and freezing.

We start housing an apartment building and we see a guy standing in an empty apartment with a little suitcase open in the middle of the room filled with suspicious things and he was over at the stove doing who knows what (we may have assumed he was making drugs) so we got all pumped thinking we were about to convert this drug dealer.. turns out he was just a gas man doing his job:/ so then we start walking back to the church but went the wrong direction and ended up in Shinkotoni area hahaha. It took us 3 hours of walking in the pouring rain/snow/sleet to find our way back. At one point I needed to stop to tie my shoes (fun fact: sperrys are not waterproof) but my fingers were so cold it took me literally five minutes to tie them because my fingers could not move how they needed to. Good ol Hokkaido!! 

Don't worry, were starting to have more spring days and even when it snows it doesn't stick as much!!

We got to go to the temple Wednesday and it was as beautiful as always!! And we happened to go on a spring day so that made it even better. I don't ever want to have to leave this temple!!!

Saturday I found out North Korea has a missile pointed right at Sapporo and apparently they shot one off 2 weeks ago but it missed and landed in the ocean and now they're just waiting for the right time to shoot it again................. I was a little concerned but don't worry our 72 hour kits are packed and ready to go!!

If you haven't watched the new Easter video, GO WATCH IT!!!!! It's so awesome. #PrinceofPeace

愛してるよ！
リグビ姉妹

🌻🌻🌻🌻

HELLOOOOOO

The past week has been so crazy and fun but I don't even know what to say and this email probably won't make sense but がんばります.....

A lot of people said some really great things this week so here are some of my favorite quotes this week:

"You have God and dōTERRA. What more do you need?" -Conover Choro

"I'm Matt Conover, I don't have bad days." - Conover Choro

"I thought I was showing my investigator a video about Jesus's baptism but turns out is was about

Jesus rebuking the unbelievers" -Hackett Shimai

"Missions are the greatest university to learn and grow. And if you come to Sapporo, you're taking

AP courses." - Arrington Choro

"What's the strength difference between a person that sits on the couch and a person that goes to the gym? It's the same with this mission and other missions. In this mission you get exercised

emotionally, physically and spiritually. This is NOT an easy mission." - Arrington Choro

Monday was Nakatsuka FHE and we got to take KUDOU FAMILY!!!!!! I love them so much. We

got to walk around the temple grounds with them and they loved it! It was such an awesome experience! Teaching families in our mission is super rare. So rare that yesterday at Zone Conference one of the APs got up to give a workshop about miracles and the first thing he says is "Yesterday Nakazawa Shimai and Rigby Shimai brought a family to FHE. MIRACLE!" I loveeee kudou family!

Last week I thought spring was coming because it was getting super warm and the snow was melting-kind of -hahah but then I woke up to a blizzard that lasted 3 days hahah Sapporo...

Thursday I went on splits with Hackett Shimai. To say it was a good time is a bit of an understatement. Her family sent her stuff to make Mexican food and she literally waited a month until we went on splits so we could eat it together because she knew I'd be the only person that'd appreciate it- hahaha

One thing I learned at Zone Conference yesterday is that God doesn't make bad things happen to us, He allows them to happen because through hard times and trials we can become humble enough to change, we can grow, we can get closer to Him. He loves us soooo much that He will do what is required to purify us so we can return to Him. I am SO grateful that I can change. If it weren't for the Atonement we would never be able to change. We would always be selfish, rude and miserable. 

When I came on a mission I didn't want to change, I didn't think I needed to. But looking back these past months and seeing how much I've changed and how much happier I am, I hope I continue to change and become better for the rest of my life. Change is a blessing and sometimes it takes a trial to humble us enough to make that change in our lives. Our Heavenly Father is the BEST.

Sorry if my English doesn't make sense but hopefully you get the gist.

�郅筏皮い蓼�!
リグビ��妹

Kudou Family!! (I would just like to remind everyone I'm only 5'5)