Week 6...

My sister has been married for a whole week. Weird. I had a thought: Claire, if you want to hear my voice in a month and a week, you'll have to be in Indy for Mother's Day because I'm 95% certain that I can't make two phone calls, one to Indy and one to St. Louis. In any case, I hope everything went well and was fun and delicious and all that jazz. Funny thing just happened, one of my college professors e-mailed me saying that her daughter is coming to this mission and do I have any advice. Strange little world the world is with the internet. I hope that you posted my general missionary advice, Claire. And now for the weekly report! (I forgot my notes that I take during the week so that I can type quickly, so this may not be a fantastic e-mail this week.)

Mon

We got an e-mail from the honbu saying that all current trainers, district leaders, zone leaders, and ALL SHIMAI (plus a few extra elders who are likely to become trainers/DL and such) were to report to the honbu on Tuesday for special training. So we basically dropped everything we had on Tue and hopped on a train to the Fukutoka shimai's apartment. (Fukutoka is closer to the honbu than Yokkaichi, so the AP's said to go spend the night there so that we wouldn't have to get up at 5:30 on Tue.) We met the Fukutoka shimai at the train station and walked back to their apartment. Their apartment has a perfect balcony for reciting Shakespeare, so guess what Hart Shimai and I did....

Tue

Special Training! This was training for all people who are currently leaders and who will become leaders. Right now in the Nagoya mission, there are about 14 sisters. In April, one sister goes home and one sister comes. In June, 6 sisters come. In July, 8 sisters come. So basically, by July every single sister that is currently in Nagoya will be a trainer without doubt. Hence, all the shimai were invited to come to the meeting (see attatched photo). We went over the 8 fundamentals from the MTC hand book--the Doctrine of Christ, the Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion, Revelation through Prayer, Revelation through the Book of Mormon, Revelation through Church Attendance, Teach People Not Lessons, We Invite They Commit We Follow Up, and How to Begin Teaching--very thoroughly. We had a break for lunch because it was an all day event. We got fried chicken, shrimp, and rice. Yum. Sister Baird also made us cake. Double Yum. The Choros from a town called Tsu stayed in Yokkaichi with our choros because two out of the four of them were invited to the meeting because they were training. As such, both of their bean-chan's were stuck together for a day without an experienced missionary. After the meeting was over, we went back to Yokkaichi and met the bean-chan's at the station. They made it through the day just fine and acutally seemed liked they had fun. We ate ramen and the Yokkaichi senkyoshi went to a meeting with the bishop (the Tsu choros went back to the apartment to pack). Our bishop is SO hilarious. We told him that Yokkaichi would likely become an area with 6-8 missionaries and he pulled out a little calculator. He deedled on it for a moment, nodded, and said "my wallet can handle that." When I told him that Seipel choro's birthday was on Thursday he said "I know no such thing. I have in my planner a secret meeting to talk about missionaries and missionary work on Thursday at noon. I expect you to be there and hungry."

Wed

We rode our bikes for an hour to visit the Relief Society President. We turned at a park and rang the doorbell of the house. A little old man pops out and says "What is the meaning of this? Why are you here? I'll call the police!" We apologized for getting the wrong house and backed out of his gate. He stood at his gate and watched us get on our bikes and ride away. As it turns out, there are two parks in that area and we turned at the wrong one. Ooops. We stopped by one of our investigator's houses since it was on the way home. When we rang the doorbell, we could hear a baby crying but no one came to the door. We walked away a little worried. Is she ignoring us? Is she in trouble? Why wasn't anyone helping the baby? Concerning. We rehearsed with one of the members for the talent show on Sat and the Ward Conference on Sun. After we were done, her dad came in and asked "I'm going to buy you some groceries. Is there anything that you want?" We both said vegetables would be nice, but we had some at the apartment so he didn't have to do that. Lo and behold, about half an hour later he showed up at our apartment complex with a box of spinach, asparagus, peppers, lettuce, broccoli, and tomatoes. The members here are so generous it is unbelievable. It was raining that day, so only about 5 people came to English class. As such, I taught class and Rogers Shimai slept in the back of the classroom. Everyone was so concerned about her.

Thu

Since it was Seipel choro's birthday, we got up a little early and made breakfast (pancakes and scrambled eggs) for us and them. We called them and said "meet us at the church for something good." We were all pretty unexciting because it was still early in the morning, but at least we celebrated. We went to visit an investigator who wasn't feeling well and Rogers Shimai played the violin for her. On the way home, we stopped by the house of a lady we met on the street the previous week. She agreed to let us come back! She said that she probably wouldn't become Christian, but we said that was perfectly fine. Foot in the door, foot in the door. We then went to the "secret missionary meeting" with the bishop. We got to the church and talked about our efforts and the ward, and then we went to a CONVEYOR BELT SUSHI RESTAURANT. It was so delicious and so cool. I want to go again. And then Rogers Shimai flew over a garden bed. As we were traveling, she smiled at a little kid in one of the passing cars. As such, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going, hit a raised garden bed, and flew off her bike and over the garden bed. As it was happening, I thought she had fainted so I was worried. I ran over to her. She was crying, so at least I knew she wasn't passed out. She said "move my bike." When I looked, her foot had gotten pinned between her bike and the garden bed so when she flew off it got twisted. I was doing a body check, saying "Does it feel broken, are you scraped anywhere, what's going on?" Her knuckles were scraped, but other than that, she was fine. After I figured out she was fine, I laughed. She did make for a funny picture, her legs sticking up from behind the garden bed and her skirt all wonky. A lady that lived in an apartment nearby rushed out with band-aids and peroxide and cleaned her knuckles. I keep telling Rogers Shimai not to suck on her knuckles so they don't get infected, but she keeps doing it anyway.

Fri

One of our investigators agreed to come to church! Hopefully she'll follow through. We visited an investigator and taught about tithing. She fed us something that is probably my most favorite thing yet. It was a block of sweet red bean paste. I don't remember the actuall name of it though. That night we went to a sports night activity for the youth (and anybody else who wanted to come, really). We played volleyball and basketball. As we were playing volleyball, I tried to set up the ball for one of the youth to hit it over, but he managed to stand exactly in the right spot for the ball to hit him where it hurts most. I laughed and felt bad about laughing all at the same time. During basketball, Rogers Shimai and Moretti choro both had a hold on the ball. I thought one of them would just let go and let the other take it. Little did I know that Rogers Shimai is a black belt in Tae Kwan Do and Moretti choro is a black belt in Judo and Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. So basically what happened was Moretti choro threw Rogers Shimai across the gym floor. Thankfully everyone was laughing about it afterward.

Sat

We read one of our investigators who is getting baptised soon the interview questions. He had no problems with any of them except that President Monson is a prophet today. He wasn't sure if he had a testimony of President Monson's prophet-ship because he hadn't met him or seen anything from him or by him. We told him that we could show him some things online and that in a month he could hear President Monson for himself, but it's all about faith. You show your faith and then you get the sign or answer. The talent show! Two of our investigators performed and many people attended. One recent convert was a part of a band. None of the band members are members, but they all came to the show, so we were able to talk to them. One of the band members came up to Rogers Shimai and said "I want to know more about this church and that book you have." WHOA! Miricles happen!

Sun

Ward Conference. Rogers shimai played the violin and I played the cello. I wasn't very good. I wonder if the ward members know what they've gotten themselves into, asking me to play. We went to a part member family's house for dinner and had taco salads! It had been a while since I had tasted Mexican-ish food. One of the daughters of the family lives in the US and was visiting that week. She mad rice krispy treats. Also been a while since I've had one of those. It was kind of comforting to have "American food" but then again, I want to eat as much Japanese food as I can while I'm here. I mean, I'm in Japan!

This is the giant fish statue outside the apartment

Week 5!

I hope that you can fix the memory card soon! If needs be, take it into a professional instead of making the tangled knot of digital information worse. Everyone looks beautiful.

Mon

The old lady that we found in the woods working in her garden dropped us. I'm not sure what more we could have done. Perhaps we prepared her for the spirit world a little. We watched the Testiments with a recent convert. I felt the spirit testify of Christ's divinity, of his relationship with the Father.

Tue

We went to the honbu (Headquarters) for Trainer's Training. All of the people who are currently training and all the people who are getting bean-chans were there. We heard from President Baird, the APs, and such on how to be better missionaries. On the train there, I talked to a lady who I think works in a spa. She gave us "healthy juice" and told us to come visit her spa. Unfortunately it isn't in our area, so we're going to check who's area she is in and give them a referral. I'm not sure what's in the juice, but it doesn't seem like it would be anything bad.

Wed

The cello that one of the families is renting came! I played for the first time in 4 years. It came back really quickly, but I am still full of mistakes. In our English class, I asked my students to ask each other if they were happy and why. One of my students asked me why I was happy and I said because the church members are awesome and there are alot of people to teach. We then had a 15-20 min conversation about missionaries. I aksed him after class if he would like to hear more about missionaries and he said no, but he really respects what us missionaries are doing. We are sowing, ever sowing.... A new missionary came! One of my MTC kohai in fact. His name is Elder Moretti and he is from Brazil. We really need someone who can speak Portugese here because there is a huge population of Brazilians in Japan, especially in this area because it's very industrial. He has the typical "I'm lost and I'm confused" new missionary face.

Thu

We have a talent show on the 23rd (in which I am playing the cello) and so we handed out flyers like crazy. We stopped a lady walking her dog and had a nice conversation. All the time the dog was fine. As soon as I started moving on my bike (not Sis Rogers, mind you, but me) the dog started barking like crazy. Weird. We played blind man's ping pong with a less active blind man and his wife. What you do is you try and whack the ball underneath the net and stop it before it hits your side. I was a little hesitant about this because I wasn't sure how we could turn this appointment into missionary work, but it turned out that one of their friends was also there and so we talked about what missionaries do and about the church. We gave her a pamphlet and we'll see where that goes. We went to a member's house to talk about missionary work. She came out of her kitchen with what looked like hot chocolate. I took one sip and said, "This is delicioius, but it's coffee." Sister Rogers kept chugging it down and I was like "have you never tasted coffee before? This is very obviously not hot chocolate." I was torn because I didn't want to offend this woman by not drinking what she gave us, but I didn't want to break the Word of Wisdom. I thought to myself, does one get absolved of these kinds of things? If I said I wouldn't drink it, it could be a chance to bear my testimony. I was trying to figure out how to bring up the Word of Wisdom when she brought it up herself. She said she kept it. I was like "I think you missed a part" in my head. Then she turned to me and asked, "Aren't you going to drink?" I said "What is it? It is delicious, but what is it?" It turns out it wasn't coffee at all. It has no coffee in it and no caffine and it is apparantly drunk by many members in Japan and Australia. I felt thoroughly relieved and drank the rest of it.

Fri

At district meeting, our District Leader said something profound I think. He said that we often forget that the Holy Ghost is a person. He is a he, not an it. When we become Christlike, develop Christlike attributes, we are becoming friends with the Holy Ghost. Birds of a feather flock together. We went out to dinner with a convert of about a year because she was moving to a different town. I figured out how to eat tofu with chopsticks by watching her. I haven't gotten it down pat, but I'll get there.

Sat

Udaka-san (-san is a suffix that you put on people's names that means Mr. or Mrs. In this case it's Mr.) accepted all of the commandments without a blink of an eye! We thought for sure there would be something that would hold him back, but nope. He just said, yeah I'll do that. Afterward, we went to Baskin and Robins as a small triumph. I had pear ice cream. I got probably a 3/4 cup serving size and I was suprised that I was satisfied with that. Usually at home it's as big as the scoop can get, but I guess being in the land of non-super sugary desserts makes you sensitive to super sugary things like ice cream. Sis Rogers and I played for a Relief Society activity. I messed up but things seemed to turn out fine in the end. The Bishop gave a little talk and told the sisters there that I was related to Hyrum Smith. I was sitting at the back of the room and everyone turned around in suprise. It was classic!

Sun

In order to practice the cello and violin with the Relief Society for the Ward conference next week, one of the members dropped by our apt to drive the cello there so that we wouldn't have to walk it there. We raced the car to the chapel and won. One of my English class students came to sacrament meeting! She left right afterward and we had an investigator to teach as well, so I just said thanks for coming, I'm glad you came, but I hope that it was a good experience for her. An 8 yr old in the ward got baptized. I hope that this starts a string of baptizms.

Mon

We went to a curry restaraunt for lunch. YUM. When we came out of the shopping center, our bikes' kickstands were all wonky so our bikes lean over more. I don't know who or what happened, but I think we"ll have to take our bikes in to a shop to get them adjusted. I'm just glad they didn't get stolen.

People Preparing for A Mission Listen UP!

I thought of two more things that I'd like to say to people preparing to go on a mission:

Ask people. Ask returned missionaries, both recent and old, current missionaries, and ward mission leaders/missionaries. Ask them if they think that their mission is a sacrifice. Ask them what they wish they had done before they left on their mission. Ask them what they wish they had known. Ask them for advice. Ask them what the most surprising thing is/was about their mission.

Pray for the Lord to tell you what He thinks of you. This can be a life changing prayer. That realization of what the Lord feels about you and your efforts can fill a hole of longing and inadequacy that you don't know you have. You will feel the pure love of God.

Week 4

Thanks for the letters and advice. I don't need to see the BYU clip because I saw it online and we watched it together. The mission office sends us snail mail through the post. The reason the mission home advises USPS is because then it doesn't get stopped at customs, it can come straight to our apt. If it is from a commercial company and not the government it has to stop and be inspected. My bike does have gears, 3 in front and 8 in back. I usually just leave it in one gear unless I'm going up a hill. Could I have Karen's address? I'd like to write her a letter and ask her about the opposite end of a mission. Since cabbage and potatoes are both cheap here in Japan, I'd like the recipe for Bubble and Squeak.

Mon

We went bowling with the elders from our district as well as the sisters and elders from the next district over (as approved by the ZL because he was one of the people bowling). I lost. Because we played, we got a voucher to try one of the crane claw arcade games. I tried and failed. That night we had a dinner with a less active couple. We had yakiniku, which is basically steak strips grilled on a hot plate. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. Unfortunately, Sister Rogers couldn't take all the fatty oils and felt sick the next day. Here's an experience from the week before that I forgot to send. At one of our investigator's houses, the house next door has a dog on a chain that always barks and snarls at us as we pass. He often stretches out to the farthest point of his chain to bark at us. When we were finished with our appointment, we come out and go to our bikes when we hear paws behind us. The dog had broken his chain and was coming toward us. We said to each other, just don't look at it and it won't bother us. We casually put on our coats and helmets, mounted our bikes, and bolted out of there as fast as we could. Thankfully the dog didn't chase us down the street.

Tue

A member of the ward and his wife drove us to an English teaching appointment in the mountains. Itakura Kyodai (kyodai means brother) is such a wonderful missionary. He is the perfect example of sharing the gospel with your friends. At the English class, we had octopus pizza. It was tasty. Afterward, we taught one of the English class students one of the lessons at Itakura Kyodai's house. He has beautiful flowers all over his house. I made eggplant modeled after the Ru Yi eggplant. I think I got pretty close.

Wed

We had time, so we tried to find a less active that we hadn't met before. She was outside taking pictures of flowers when we stopped by. She was kind and let us in and gave us juice. We invited her and her husband to the ward talent show the 23rd. I dunno if she'll come, but the visit felt good as we were leaving. That night during English class, the topic of the day was holidays. We talked about the difference between how Japan celebrates Christmas (you give strawberry cake to family or friends and then just spend the day at home) vs how the US celebrates Christmas (everyone is excited and loud and bright with lights and Christmas trees and pageants and presents). It made me wonder how much of Christmas is tradition and how much is actually about why we celebrate the birth of Christ.

Thu

We nad another phone appointment in a strange place again. We stopped at a park and sat on a bench and talked about the metaphor of Christ is a rock. We went to an appointment, but they weren't home, so we went to a convenience store and ate lunch and then sat in the parking lot and studied Japanese. By that time, the appointment got home and called us saying that it was ok to come over. We talked about the Word of Wisdom. Usually that's a problem with the Japanese because many people like coffee, tea, and alcohol. I suppose people all over the world like those things too, so it's not specifically a problem just for Japan. Anyway, she had no problem with it! She found a drink called Nomi or Noni that is supposed to be super healthy for you and when she did research on it, she found all these bad things about tea, coffee, and alcohol and so she stopped drinking them! The Lord prepares people in interesting ways, even through health drinks. After that we rode an hour to our next appointment. We rode up a hill and I almost cried. I admit that when I turned the corner and saw that the hill kept going up, my heart sank and I stopped. I pushed on a bit more and stopped again. This happened a couple more times until I got to the crest. It went down for a bit and then back up again. By the time we got to the appointment, I was so dehydrated and worn out that I felt like bursting into tears, but I couldn't waste the liquids. But the person we met with became an investigator. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven... We went to an investigator's house. She teaches English to elementary and junior high school students after school, so we went and listened to the kids read Dr. Seuss and little speeches they had prepared. It was fun to interact with them. By the end of the day, we rode 3 hours total, about half to two thirds of which was up hill. No seriously, no joke, it was uphill. Our apartment is the lowest point in the whole area, so going to an appointment is uphill and coming back is downhill. Between our morning appointments and our afternoon apointments, the elevation went up again, so we basically rode in a big uphill triangle.

Fri

We had zone training meeting in the next district over. They talked about how to become a consecrated missionary. We had an appointment with the old lady that we found in the woods, but when we got there, she didn't seem to be home, so we went to a part member family nearby. Again, a giant hill. This one was so steep that I just walked my bike up it instead of pedaling up. We went back to the old lady's house and as we rang the doorbell, a neighbor pulled up. We asked if she knew the lady and she said "wait a moment" and just walked inside. Apparently the old lady had been cooking and didn't hear us at the door. I think she's hard of hearing or perhaps not all there, but I hope that she feels the spirit. When we were going home, we ran into another American. He said "here I was thinking that no one on this street would understand me when two English speakers show up!" He teaches English in Japan and he met the missionaries once before when he was teaching in Taiwan. He invited us to go eat with him but it was 8:50 so we had to get to our apartment. I was a little behind Sister Rogers when I saw a man start following her on his bicycle. She said that she thought it was me right behind her, but when she looked back it was him. She sped up, he sped up, so she made a hard left turn and he shot past her. I caught up and at that point he turned around and came back towards us. He was about 40ish and had "I am a man of the world" written all over his face. He said "Asobi ni kite kurenai?" Which means "won't you come out and play with me?" We said, no, we're missionaries and we can't do that. We are representatives of Christ. He said, oh, well, good luck and went on his way. Afterwards, we laughed and laughed and laughed about him trying to pick us up. I also checked the scales in our apartment and I have lost about 15 lbs.

Sat

Ito choro is going home, so we were traveling with the elders to a member's house for a goodbye lesson. We stopped at a park to take pictures. When we got back on our bikes, my chain popped off. Thankfully I hadn't built up any speed, so I didn't crash. I was trying to figure out how to get it back on without stretching it, but Seipel Choro took over and fixed it for me. Hopefully it won't happen again. We had home-made sushi that was almost too pretty to eat. We had dinner with the bishop at a meat restaurant. I picked up a piece of what I thought was meat only to find that it was a whole clove of garlic. It was actually really tasty. We went to a less active's home. She has a dog, and as I petted it, I think it started purring. As we were coming home, a car passed by so close to me that I thought I was going to get clipped. But I didn't.

Sun

Two of our investigators came to church. We talked about how faith is like a seed and you nourish it by praying, reading the scriptures and coming to church. I hope that by doing these things he'll feel the spirit and have a change of heart. His wife is gungho about the gospel and wants to be baptized and so I hope that her example also helps him. Lots of in active members came to church. My heart was happy, but my head was like "now how do we get them back next week?"

 

Keeping busy and lots of love,

Leah

Pictures 2!

The first picture is of Breck Shimai. The second is of my MTC district. From Left to right it is King Choro, Egbert Choro, Kramer Choro, Wyndham Choro, then in the front it's me Miller Shimai, and Abraham Shimai

Pictures!

The first is Sister Rogers, my new companion. The second is my new bike.

Week 3?

We woke up and came straight here so that we could e-mail because later in the day we plan on going bowling. 

Mon

Our mission is changing from one bank card to another, so we were told that we had to spend all of the money on our cards. Between the two of us, we had about $150 to spend in one day. So we ate out, bought expensive groceries, and bought a bathroom scale. I think we still had about $20 between us by the end of the day, but it all worked itself out.

Tue

2 appointments canceled. At one appointment, a sister gave us cake that reminded me suspiciously of fresh apple cake. One of the Zone Leaders was on exchanges in Yokkaichi for one day, so we had lunch together. I learned how to make omurice (omlette rice) and Japanese fried chicken at a less active's house. She used to be a nurse and when Sister Rogers told her that she was having the same dietary problem (namely when we over eat or eat certain foods we feel sick) she knew exactly what it was and how to help it. Apparently, when your body feels stressed, your digestive system starts slowing down as if it had been working out really hard. When you eat just a little, it says "Oh I can do this," but when you eat a lot it's like "Ugh, no more, can't handle it." So basically you've got to eat like you have the stomach flu for about a week and your body will have time to reboot itself. First off, you eat 5 small meals through the day, not 3 big ones. Meat, dairy, oily foods, raw vegetables, citrus fruits, and cold drinks are bad. Grains, eggs, boiled veggies, apples, bananas, and warm drinks are ok. She was the first person to ever be like "Yes, I know what's going on and I know how to help you." At her dinner, she gave us fried fish. I thought mmm, yum, fried fish, but when I bit into it I realized that it was a whole fish, not a fillet. It tasted good and the texture wasn't bad, so I just said don't look in the middle and you'll be fine.

Wed

A sister gave us hot lemonade. It was actually very good. I made homemade fajitas. We couldn't find any tortillas, so I tried to make some. They turned out more like crepes, but they still tasted good. We are teaching a children's english class and the oldest is about three. What do you teach 3 year olds? Colors? Shapes? Time? Also, what action/dance/educational songs do you teach them? We've taught them Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, the Hokey Pokey, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider, but I'm not sure where to go next.

Thu

One family in the ward said that they would rent me a cello so that I can play in the ward talent show. I think we also got volunteered to go play at member's FHE. We drove with a member and our recent convert to the city of Nagoya to listen to Elder Callister of the Seventy speak. His wife talked about how a Patriarchal Blessing is like a blue print for your spiritual mansion. He talked about worldly math and spiritual math. He said the world thinks 1plus1 is 2, but spiritual math says God plus any number, no matter how small, is greater than the opposition. I ate real ramen from a ramen shop. We stayed at the sister's apt in Nagoya with 4 other sisters. I got your package at the meeting (since it was right next to HQ, they just handed it to me rather than mail it).

Fri

We had an all mission conference with Elder Callister. He taught us the Plan of Salvation using scriptures from the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants. It was interesting to hear it from the Bible perspective. I saw my friends from the MTC. We got off the train at home, had lunch, and then went off to an appointment in the rain. When we got home, I could wring my coat out like a rag. The Bishopbric called us and said "come to the church building" so we went out into the rain again. The bishopbric and the Elders were there with a strawberry birthday cake and other food. We sat and talked for a while. Sis Rogers made me a chocolate cake. Thanks for the presents! I almost cried when I saw Claire's corsage. I'll make sure to wear it.

Sat

We went to the house of the old lady we helped in her garden that we met last week. She became an investigator! WHOOOOOHOOOO! We rode over 40 km which is about 20 miles total. We were both exhausted by the end of the day. I had the best BLT that I have had in a long while. One investigator got a spiritual answer that the Book of Mormon is true. We're hoping that her experience will influence her husband to start reading as well. We had tea with real dried roses in it. It actually tasted pretty good. It was raining and snowing off and on the whole day, so we would get wet, but be warm because we were biking, then take off our coats at a member's house and then put them on again, and get cold because all the sweat and rain had cooled off. We rode up another mountain. A truck blew it's tire. There was a big bang and I thought someone had been shot.

Sun

One of our investigators came to church again. He said that the Book of Mormon was easy to understand. Praise the Lord for investigators who get what it's getting at. We went to a eulogy service for a member of the ward who passed away. Rogers Shimai played the violin. There was such an outpouring of love for this family. We had ginger tea and it was SOOOO delicious. I sat on my legs for so long that I literally couldn't feel my fingers touching my foot.

Gotta go! Love you,

Leah