Week Ten.

Hello mom and others!

Genki desu! This is what I can translate from what you wrote to me in Japanese. Good Evening. Excuse me for a bit, something something... Did my cat? become something...?

Ha ha as you can see, I still havent learned Japanese...

That is so neat that you are in New Orleans again! Did you know that Rachel Worthington got called to Baton Rouge, LA? I want to go to Louisiana again! The food you ate sounds soooo good. I miss American food so much. Im not a huge fan of the food here. It is good, but I prefer a corn dog every once in awhile...

I dont get to watch conference until next week because we have to wait for the translation to Japanese. Hopefully I dont have to watch it in Japanese though!

Good job indexing. I remember that I did quite a bit of indexing at college and I thought it was pretty fun! Keep up the good work.

Thats cool that you found Sister Johnsons blog! I remember reading it before I left for the MTC and getting so much inspiration from her and now she is my companion! Its crazy how some things work out! Shes been on her mission now for almost 6 months. My other companion (Sister Morita) is the best. I have really been blessed with good companions so far on my mission. I sometimes feel like Morita Shimai gets frustrated with me because she speaks Japanese and I speak English... so we have a hard time communicating when Johnson Shimai isnt available to translate for me. I really feel bad and dont want to be a burden, but I just dont understand Japanese! Sister Morita has been out for almost 7 months. And Ive been out for 2.5 months! In Japan when you are a new senkyoshi, you are called Bean-chan. Both my trainers tell me that Im a good bean-chan, so thats good.

So here are the things I learned about Japan and their culture this week:

1. Everything is super cheap. We bought a dozen eggs for a dollar this week. Also, their thrift shops are the best. They have really nice warm coats there that are only 5 dollars. Everything is cheap everywhere you go. Except for gas.

2. If you are sick in Japan, you wear a face mask. I dont know if I already mentioned this, but I think it is just so strange. They wear those face masks that cover your mouth and nose that doctors wear. Even if you are just kinda sick and have a tiny cold, you wear one! Morita Shimai always wears one before bed and when she wakes up for some reason. I dont get it.

3. Japanese people are way into recycling. They recycle everything. And if you dont recycle, then you are just giving the recycling sorter workers more work to do because recyling WILL BE DONE. I think it is annoying. I just want to throw all my trash in the trash can but Morita Shimai gets irritated and makes me recycle properly. We have 4 different trash cans in our apartment for different kinds of trash. And there is a very elaborate trash schedule for when you take your stuff out to the curb. Today was cardboard day.

4. Japanese people love their tea, and they love their apple juice. I dont know what it is about them and apple juice, but its everywhere. We have so many cartons of apple juice in our fridge right now.

5. Their cars are like the cars off of the movie Cars. They are all box shaped. And they are all about conserving energy too, so when you are stopped at a stoplight, the cars automatically turn off to save energy and gas and stuff. They are just programmed to do that. I heard that they have a law about stalling in your car.. I guess you cant do that. Also, when they park, they always back into the parking spots. Its okay if you dont, but it is considered a little strange.

 

Thats it for the culture. It is still so hard to get used to. I wish so bad I could wear shoes in the house!

 

Here are a few random things about me/my companions/japanese people.

I already have a nick name. My companions call me Roba-chan. Chan is a title you use for a girl that is younger than you. And Roba unfortunately means donkey... So thats fun.

Any time I introduce myself to Japanese people, I always say that I am from Idaho. And the first thing they always say immediately following that is Ohh! Idaho Potato! Yes, Idaho is famous for its potatoes even on the other side of the world.

On our way to the church, we pass this little Italian resturaunt that is always playing Frank Sinatra. I always ride a little bit slower to savor the music when we ride by that place.

This week I tried raw squid legs! Disgusting. So gross. Never do it.

Oh also this week we got a refrigerator! We have been without one for 2 weeks almost. Its nice to have one so we can have some protein in our food and so we dont have to go to the store like 50 times throughout the week!

 

Okay now as for my week..

We found a new investigator and I taught my first lesson! Kind of! We went through the Old Investigator Progress Reports that we have and decided to call them up. We called one sister named Sata Hiroko san (She goes by Hiro san) and asked if we could visit her that same day and she said yes! So we went to her apartment and when we got there, we knocked and knocked on the door and we could hear someone inside the house but no one was coming to the door. But we still just waited and waited.. then the door knob turned but the door didnt open.. it was kinda creepy. We opened the door ourselves and saw Hiro san there. She was a disaster. I dont know if she was super drunk or what but she could not even stand up. The house smelled terrible. We entered and the house was a mess. You could not even see the floor it was so nasty. We found a place to kneel, kind of and started talking to her. I could not understand a thing she said because everything she said was slurred and confusing. She looked so sick. She was as skinny as a twig and her hair was ratty and she was drooling and her eyes were red and droopy and kind of lazy. Morita Shimai kinda led the conversation (and I didnt find out what we were really talking about until after we left the house) but I guess her older brother had died a month earlier from falling down some stairs so she was really greiving. She was crying so much. At one point she reached out to me and Johnson Shimai and just squeezed our hands, hung her head, and just sobbed. I started to cry too because she just was hurting so bad! She asked us over and over again during the lesson if she could kill herself and if suicide was okay. Morita Shimai told her it was forbidden and that we would help her and that God loves her and wants to help her. We taught a little about where you go after you die because she wanted to know about her brother. We told her that her brother is with Jesus and is happy. We also introduced the BOM and I bore my testimony that through the book of mormon we can find comfort and peace and that it helps us. Anyways... after talking for a bit we ended the lesson and asked if we could come back next week and she said yes. Later in the week we found out from the relief society president that Hiro san has schizophrenia and is very mentally sick. Shes already been taught all the lessons from previous missionaries but she isnt really capable of fully understanding them and understanding baptism. So I dont really know if we are going to keep teaching her. Honestly, I dont think it is smart to teach her. I dont know if she is capable of really progressing... and our time could be better spent somewhere else. That sounds heartless but it is true.

Last week we also taught our first member lesson to a sister named Arakawa Shimai. Her story is also a little strange...

When we arrived at her house we knocked on her door but no one came. So we knocked again, and a third time and a fourth time... we could hear the TV on so we knew someone was home. We awkwardly opened her door and saw her shoes in the genkan (entry way) so that means she really was home. We yelled her name so loud but no one was coming. Her neighborhood was super creepy too. Her apartment buliding reminded me of a haunted house. She never answered so we just decided to write a note and put it in her mail box. As we opened the mailbox we all of a sudden faintly hear a, wait! come from her house. It scared us so bad we all jumped. All of a sudden Arakawa Shimai was there and was telling us to come in! She told us she was taking a nap. She didnt hear our screams and knocks but she did hear the mail slot opening? Weird...

We also did some housing this last week at some college student housing. We live by a college (thats where I am emailing right now) so we thought we could have some success with them. Nope! As soon as they saw our name tags, they slammed the door hard! I wasnt too bothered by it. I thought it was a fun experience to have kinda. Lots of time people just ignore us and dont come to the door.

This last week I had the opportunity to teach the Kids class at Eikaiwa. That was fun I guess but I really could speak that much english in the class because they are just kids! They can only learn words at a time. I was teaching them animals but I couldnt say, do you know what animal this is? Because they dont know any of those words! They only knew the words Dog and Cat and Horse. So it was kinda hard for me. But Morita Shimai was helping me so that was good.

Yesterday at church was so long. We had a guest speaker come and teach the combined lesson. His name was Yoshida san and I guess he helped in the translation of the BOM from English to Japanese! That is cool, but I didnt understand one word of his talk unfortunately. After church we had this huge lunch party with the whole branch. We had rice and curry. I dont really like curry too much, but it was still okay. They had a really good fruit salad in some yogurt and the yogurt here is so good. I love it.

Hm okay well I think thats it!

I am doing good but America sounds so nice right now! The culture is so weird here. My companion Sister Johnson said that she went through a phase like this too but that it wont last forever. But im just so ready to be home already... I have so many countdowns already started! Its bad I know. But Im here for the next 16 months, so thats that.

Okay well I love you all! Be good and choose the right!

ANOTHER SHORT EMAIL!

The weather here is pretty much like Idaho Falls. Dry and windy... cold some days but warm others. Not humid or anything. It is exactly what Im used to.

The mission changed bike rules for sisters. We rent our bikes. It was 270 dollars to do that.  And yes, we all three ride bikes!

And actually I mostly speak English because I have an american companion too. Morita Shimai understands a little english so i usually talk to her in english and she talks to me in japanese. It doesnt work very well but I cant ask the questions and say the words in japanese that i want to say.

I have a hard time remembering and retaining information too. it is very difficult for me!

The ward is a branch. it is good! they are all so nice. There are probably like 30 members? not all come every week though. I havent seen any nonmembers come yet. The way we find people to teach is through housing and streeting, but housing is very ineffective. but our branch president really wants us to do housing for some reason so i guess well keep doing that!

i tried attaching pictures again, but nope my camera doesnt work. if you guys want to, you could send me another memory card and i could send this one home so you can see the pictures and we can just switch back and forth...

it is a PNY performance card 16 GB and my camera is sony steadyshot DSC-W710

i love you!

Week Nine.

Hey mom!

So in Japan it is Tuesday afternoon right now. Usually we have P Day on Mondays but we went to a parade thing with our mission president yesterday so we decided to make that a dendo (missionary work) opportunity and use Tues as our prep day. Especially since desperately needed to send an email home.

Okay so let me recap clear from my last week in the MTC.]

MTC:

We taught a lesson my last Sat at the MTC at TRC. TRC is where we get to teach members in Japanese. It is basically like doing visiting teaching or home teaching. I was trying to tell a personal experience about receiving revelation from the book of mormon but as I started talking, the person I was talking to began to correct my Nihongo on where it was lacking, and it made me so embarrassed that I started to just cry. Fortunately it was while I was telling my experience and bearing my testimony so my companion and the person we were teaching thought I was over come with the spirit. Really I was just scared to death. That happens a lot to me! Ha ha...

Also in my last week at the MTC the computers were down for awhile and I needed to use them to do TALL which is a program we use to study Japanese. Nothing was working but I found a way around it all and hacked into the computers and listened to music on LDS.org while I udatedMormon.org profile and did other things to prepare to go to Japan. that was also the time when I emailed you a better time to call at teh airport ha ha. I felt really cool.

I also had to opportunity to attend in field orientation where you get taught finding tools, how to use the members, and other things. they really put a huge emphasis on how we need to get out there and baptize people. that was a really long day...

Oh fun fact, everyone at the MTC is injured I swear. THere are so many people that have crutches or casts or slings or wheelchairs. You:d be so amazed!

Another fun fact, pioneer devotionals happen often. So to those getting ready to serve, be ready for that!

Okay, tsugi! (next)

Travel:

I already talked to you a little about my travel experience when I got to the SLC airport, but let me tell you about what happened after we talked.

From SLC I flew to Detroit. In detroit I bought mcdonalds as my last meal in AMerica. While ordering, the cashier asked me and Sister King (who i was with at the moment) who we were and what we were doing. So we had the opportunity to tell her who we were, our purpose, and a little bit about what we believe. We gave her a pass along card and she went and put it in her bag. That was a cool experience. On my flight from detroit to Nagoya, I sat in between 2 nihonjin. I talked to them a little about why I was going to Japan. On person I sat by was a lady in her 40 or 50s and she said she wanted to learn more so she wrote down the information on my name tag and said she:d search it on the internet. I don:t know if she actually will. When I got to Nagoya I had to really use the bathroom. It was there that I experienced my first Japanese toilet. I had the option to use a squatty potty but chose the regular looking toilet. There were so many buttons on this toilet. I was told that I could spray myself ha ha so I wanted to try it out! I turned the spraying force down to low and pushed a button that looked like *start* the toilet started making noise but i didn:t feel anything so i thought maybe I turned it down too low. Then out of no where this huge blast of water sprays me and I was so surprised that I screamed really loud! Sister Orr was in the bathroom doing her hair or something and she started laughing so hard. It was the weirdest experience ever...

The airplane food was some of the best food I:ve ever eaten! They had some good rice and fruit. THey fed us a lot of complimentary meals.. it was a 12 hour flight...

When I finally got to the Sendai Airport, Pres and Sis Rassmussen were waiting for all us missionaries. It was nice to meet them. We went back to the honbu (mission home) where i slept on the most comfortable bed ever.

tsugi!

Arriving in Japan:

My first day after arriving I had this huge orientation thing with all the other people from my doki (this word doesnt translate well. it kinda means, the other people that arrived at the same time I did) It was there that I met my new companions. Yes companionS. I have 2 comps. THeir names are Sister Morita from somewhere in Japan and Sister Johnson from Colorado. Okay, so I don:t know who all reads this blog but I am going to give a shout out to my friend Braeden Hill because this sister Johnson is the same Sister Johnson that we chatted to at work at the information desk on facebook that one day! Her name is Shakira! I think it is pretty neat that Sister Johnson and I talked a little before our missions and now we are best friends and companions!

Right now my companions and I are serving in the Koriyama Zone and the city we are in is called Aizuwakamatsu. We are opening this area!!! The members are all very excited to have sister missionaries in Aizu.

My first impressions of Japan are as follows: Sendai is super bubbly. There are bubble letters and bright colors everywehre. Just like anime. When I got to the ticket place to buy a ticket to get to Aizu, uptown girl was playing in the ticket station. I thought to myself, where the heck am i. Ha ha it was an interesting first impression.

Aizuwakamatsu is very mountainous. As you can see from the pictures. It is really pretty! I don:t think it is too humid either. Not too hot.. not too cold. Okay, maybe a little hot.

Japanese Culture is SO different. Let me explain.

THey don:t use paper towels or napkins really. Just tissues.

You absolutely MUST take your shoes off before entering someone:s home, even your own. There is a proper way to take your shoes off at someone else:s house, but not so much your own house. You can:t let the soles of your shoes touch the ground in your house, even if your aren:t wearing them. I hate this because I love wearing shoes! It will be something I have to get use too.

Chopsticks. I wish I woul dhave practiced. There is chopstick etiquette which is kind of hard to figure out. Also , chopsticks are hard to use I think! HOW DO YOU EAT NOODLES WITH CHOPSTICKS?!?! Also, slurping up noodles is completely appropriate!

When ever you get in someone:s car and they are going to drive you somewhere you always say, onegai shimasu! Which means, please do me this favor! When you get out of someones car and you are at your home you must wait outside until that person drives away and you can:t see them anymore. then you can go back into your house.

before you eat food, you must say itadakimasu! which means humbly partake. I always forget to do that.

Before I came to Japan, i was told that the reason the japanese are so tiny is because they eat healthy and they eat small portions. that is half true. they eat very very very healthy food, but they eat more food than I have ever seen in my life. and it is rude to not eat all the food on the table. if you can:t finish your food then you should give it to someone else to finish.

the regular food here is rice, noodles, eggs, tofu, curry, and soysauce. there bread here is so good too. so much better than harpers homemade.

tsugi!

My first week in Aizu:

my apartment is pretty nice. I sleep on a fouton because thats the regular here. My room has a bamboo floor. My bike is a brown color with a nice basket on the front. we ride our bikes every wehre. it isn:t so bad, but the sidewalks are really narrow and plus here you drive and ride on the left side of the road. I:m still trying to get used to that. my directions are really bad though and sometimes my comps make me lead when we are going somewhere and i always go the wrong way so they have to shout my name and say come back come back. ha ha thats embarrassing. My first day dendo-ing we went housing and streeting. we met a guy from tokyo i think? we met him while we were on our way to the church. we invited him to walk with us and he did. we taught him a little lesson about i don:t know what ha ha. i think he had questions abotu life after death.  anyways, he wasnt from our area so we will have to refer him to the tokyo missionaries. i don:t understand a lick of anything here. but i:m okay with that. i:m a gaijin (foreigner) and the japanese people understand.

my first sunday i didn:t understand anything either. i did have to give a self introduction though in sacrament. i wrote down what to say on a piece of paper and just read it at teh pulpit. everyone said my nihongo was jozu which means skilled but ha i just read it from a paper! so really my nihongo is not jozu at all. sunday night we had dinner with the takahashi family. they are so nice. they pulled a prank on me though. for dinner they brought out this fish that was just... a fish. and said dozo! which means go ahead. i just sat there confused because i didnt know what to do or how to eat it really. so i just said conran shimasu. which means confused. then they brought out the real food we were going to eat with was stew and salad. they all laughed and i was a good sport but secretly inside i wanted to cry. i:m just a sensitive person, okay!!

i don:t hav eproblems with my comps or the work, but i struggle emotionally and spiritually. given teh choice, i would be home right now. i talked to my mission president already abotu it and he pretty much told me i dont have an option. i:m here for 18 months. he gave me a blessing and said my desire to serve will increase.

yesterday we went to a parade. i don:t know what it was about at all. but we went inside a cool castle!

also, another cool thing is on wednesdays we have eikaiwa which is english conversation class. it is a good missionary tool to serve and also people who come often ask who we are and things. it gets them familiar with the missionaries.

well that:s it! oh sorry about my lack of apostraphes. i am using a japanese keyboard adn they dont have apostraphes.

okay, well i will talk to you next monday for me, and sunday for you! i love you!

sister robertson

PICTURES!!!

Week Eight.

Hello my dear friends and family!

First off, Mom ha ha... all I can do is laugh about your story. That sounds exactly like me at the MTC. I have gained so much weight and you can totally tell. Good bye flat stomach and hello big hips. I am really hoping I lose some weight in Japan. Yesterday I was feeling all discouraged because it was a hard day AND I noticed that I was getting fat and I honestly wanted to cry more over the fact that I am getting fat rather than I can't speak Japanese ha ha. It's bad. My dietitian dreams are going out the window! No!

Anyways, good luck with Weight Watchers! When I get home, I expect to see a SUPER fit mom and dad. So work hard!

I liked the pictures you sent. I printed them off and I'm going to keep them in my journal so I can look at dad and miles whenever I want! I really like receiving pictures. Speaking of pictures, I have a LOT to send home this week. I don't have a little card reader right now because I always borrow one from one of the girls in my district and I'm not with her. But I'll send lots of pictures later today sometime.

My week was pretty good I guess! It all kinda runs together and by the time P day comes around I always forget what I did for that last week. I did make some bullet points in my planner though to remind me of what happened this week. So I'll just talk about those in a sec. Yes, I did get the cookies! It was the nicest surprise ever! Whenever I receive a package slip I all of a sudden turn into the really annoying girl on campus because I always scream and jump up and down. Then I make my companion run with me to the mail room. It is always a huge moment for me :)

This week I learned more Japanese! I learned how to say ____ is ____ than _____. So for example, Sendai is better than Sapporo! And I learned how to... uh... I can't even remember. I learned how to count some things! They have so many counters in Japanese. You use a different counter for EVERYTHING. Counting days is different than counting heads of cattle which is different than counting apples. So that's going to be fun to learn I guess... it seems to me like everyone in our district caught on to how to do it pretty quick but I really struggled. So that's kind of frustrating.

We don't really learn cultural things. We only learn them if we ask about them. We learned that on Christmas in Japan, EVERYONE goes to KFC and eats chicken and eats cake. And that's Christmas! I think that is so funny! I want to get my senseis KFC giftcards as a going away present but I'm at the MTC. So that's kind of impossible. 

Everyone in the MTC that is going to Sendai on the 16th will fly together. I am not sure how many other zones there are, but I know of at least one other zone that has some Sendai people. I think we figured out that for Sendai we will have 27 people arriving on the 17th. That is a RECORD! The most missionaries Sendai has EVER received at one time! So that's pretty cool.

I have a lot of business I need to take care of like my phone call at the airport and other things, but I'll write about that later. 

Let me update you on my week according to my planner!

So first off, I am not the sister training leader anymore! I got released on Sunday. It is so weird to have time in the evenings! I forgot what that was like! So to all those people out there that are waiting for replies, I'm getting on it I promise! I am trying to write a letter every night. Expect letters this week sometime! Also, since I am leaving the MTC next Monday... please be aware that if you send mail to the MTC too late, I might not ever get that letter! It would be best if you either sent the letters NOW ish or sent me Dear Elders for my last week. If you want that is!

While I was still a STL though, Orr Shimai and I needed to interview the Nihonjin shimaitachi which was quite the experience for me. Orr Shimai did fine, but the only things I knew how to say were, "How are you?" "How was your day?" "Are you happy?" and "What do you like about the MTC?" The sisters would reply to my questions, but of course I couldn't understand them so I would just say, "Ah, so desu ne." Which means "Ohhh, I hear ya." Those poor sisters are probably having the worst time ever and I just kinda sat there smiling! They were very short interviews and when I ran out of things to say, I would just say, "Ja... ikimasho!" Which means, "well.... let's go!" And then the interview was over. It was so awkward ha ha. JAPAN HERE I COME.

Also I got to have the experience of telling one sister in my zone to stop flirting :) That was also awkward! Every once in awhile flirting becomes a problem so I got to be the lucky one to handle that one. She was really nice about it though and received my counsel with love so that's good.

I have had the opportunity for the past like 3 or 4 weeks to host in new missionaries as they arrive on Wednesdays! It is fun, but I also hate it because I'd rather be studying instead of helping them.. ha ha I am a bad missionary! But I am obedient, so I just help anyways and miss out on my language study time.. grr. If I could, I would study Japanese all day. Most missionaries here would say that they would have personal study all day where they can study the scriptures and Jesus the Christ and PMG all day, but I always lose focus and fall asleep during personal study. I really AM a bad missionary! I am trying to do better and repent but sometimes I get so bored and am always watching the clocik. Any ideas on how to fix that?

This week we got another lecture from Kosaka Sensei! Whoopie! Our Nihongo still sucks! He said, "I am going to feel sorry for you when you get to Japan. You are going to suffer." Ha ha that is almost a direct quote. I don't get offended or anything. If he didn't think we could improve and change within this last week I don't think he would have said that. So it's good to know he still has hope. I have been working hard to ONLY speak Japanese all day for this last week. Our whole district has improved a lot within just a few days. I don't know if we really are just not doing good or what, but it does kind of freak me out a little!

Okay that is all the news really of what happened this last week... next P day letter you receive will be from JAPAN! Yay! I'm so excited! 

Now for all of the business...

My travel plans are as follows:

16 SEP 2013 leave SLC 7:30 am

16 SEP 2013 arrive Detroit Metro, MI 1:01 PM

16 SEP 2013 leave Detroit Metro, MI 3:40 PM

17 SEP 2013 arrive Nagoya, JPN 6:05 PM

17 SEP 2013 leave Nagoya, JPN 7:50 PM

17 SEP 2013 arrive Sendai, JPN 9:00 PM

So I can call whenever. I figured out the what time it will be in Texas when I am at all these different airports. I will write what times I could call and I will be using Central Time.

Before my flight leaves SLC so sometime before 8:30 am on 9/16

1-3:40pm on 9/16

4:05-5:50am 9/17

I would prefer to call on 9/17 between 4:05 and 5:50 am so that way dad could be there before he goes to work. And I will be in Japan by then so I could tell you that I arrived safely. How does that sound? Send me a DearElder to confirm that, please. If a different time works better, send me a dear elder and tell me and I will just do that. Thanks!

I will be getting my second Hep A shot this week as well, just so you know mom.

Make sure I have lots of money in my checking account. I need $100 dollars I can withdrawal in Japanese money for emergency situations. And I also need money for a bike and for winter clothes and for maybe luggage fees. I'm not sure yet. Just make sure I have lots of money! I will forward the email I received today about things I need to know before I arrive in Japan. In that email it says how much money I'll need for a bike. 

Okay well I think that's all the business I have! 

Here is a little something from my own personal small plates for your enjoyment!

"Yes, a mission is hard. Yes, you're going to have some really horrible times. But you know what? None of that matters. Stop thinking about yourself! Just quit it! It's not helping yourself and it's not helping others. If you start to feel sorry for yourself, snap out of it and SERVE someone else. Serve the closest person to you! Serve someone far away by writing them a nice note! Just stop thinking about YOU and start thinking about OTHERS. There are souls to save! There are people waiting for you, Miranda Robertson! FORGET YOURSELF AND GO TO WORK."

I love you all! I'll talk to you in a week, Mom and dad!!!

Love, Sister Miranda Robertson

PICTURES!!!!

orr shimai, me, and all the nihonjin sisters

 class with willard sensei

this morning we went to the temple with kosaka sensei. we are missing bickel and dawson choro in the picture.

SAND VOLLEYBALL WITH MY DISTRICT!! 

 me and sister mack. sister mack is the wife of our branch president. she is like my mom at the mtc. i love her!

 this is happening at the mtc! JAPANESE ONLY!

 WE RECEIVED OUR TRAVEL PLANS LAST WEEK

 all missionaries leaving september 16th to japan!!!!!!!!!

 we had a crazy storm this last week. trees got ripped out of the ground! there was a waterfall of water going down some steps at the mtc.

 my district

 just for fun. this is king shimai on the left and mataoa shimai on the right. we were eating sack breakfast and so i took a picture of them to show what normal missionary life is like at the mtc!

 our district with the nihonjin district

district 27 F with some of the nijonjin sisters but not all 

Week Seven.

Ohayo gozaimasu mina san!

Mom, I'm glad to hear that Kay Grandma and Jesse Grandpa got all moved. I'm sure that was busy work! I'm also glad you got to celebrate your anniversary with dad even if it was a few days late. Congrats on the calling at church! You will do a good job. You are a good teacher in all aspects of your life! I'm sure you will like your calling. By the way, I love getting updates from you about my family even if it isn't the most interesting news. I feel like my life is really boring too. I just like to hear from you!

I sometimes write Julie but I haven't ever written Mark. What is his email again? Is it just mark.robertson@myldsmail.net? I am not sure.

Thanks for writing me! 

Okay so this last week was very good and also very interesting! I learned a lot.

So last Tuesday there was rumor that a general authority was going to come for the devotional and guess what, one did! We had the opportunity to listen to Elder Neil L. Anderson of the 12 apostles. He gave a good talk on missionary work and how sometimes it is hard but that we can do it. Also he talked about not thinking about ourselves so much and just loving those around us. Orr Shimai came up with this cute little saying to go along with that message. It is "turn 'I' into 'ai.'" For those of you that don't know, ai is Japanese for love. I thought it was so clever! I wrote it down in my small plates ha ha. I went and say "The Character of Christ" again by Elder Bednar on Sunday evening and at the beginning of his talk he said that we need to keep our own personal small plates of what the spirit says to us. As we know, the large plates are mostly just records of the people, but the small plates have all the good stuff on them. How often do we really go back and read what it was that a speaker talked about? Never... but if we write down all the things the spirit says to us, chances are we will remember it and ponder back on it as well. That is what is important!

After the devotional last Tuesday there was a HUGE rainstorm so MTC Security made us stay in the Marriott Center until it was safe to walk back to the MTC... while we waited we sang more hymns and Elder Anderson came around and shook some of the missionaries hands. I didn't get to shake his hand unfortunately but it was cool to watch him do that! Finally it was okay for us to go outside but it was still raining pretty bad. I got so soaked. I don't like getting so soaked. After I got out of the rain I had to still go to Devotional Review with my district where we just talk about what we learned, so I couldn't even go take a shower or change! I was so sticky and I didn't like it! But I guess it is good prep for Japan.

Listening to Elder Anderson was a great start to my week (at the MTC it is like our weeks start on Tuesday/Wednesday because that's when we arrived ha ha.) From that point on I had a super week! Orr Shimai and I gave the best lesson ever. It was to Kimura san and we taught him about the Law of Chastity! It's funny how you can still have the spirit even when you are teaching an awkward lesson! Orr Shimai started by talking about the Plan of Salvation and how on earth we have the opportunity to learn and grow and receive bodies. Then I talked about how important our bodies are and how we need to respect them etc. etc. Kimura san said that he would live the Law of Chastity and also that he really wants to repent from his past mistakes because after teaching him he realized that he hadn't been keeping the Law of Chastity. I admire how much he wants to change and repent! I love teaching him! After that lesson I just felt so good. I could really see Kimura san come closer to Christ. And then it hit me. THIS is why people love their missions so much! Because the opportunity to see just ONE person come closer to Christ and change their life is worth 1,000 terrible days. I would take every bad day ever just to see another soul get closer to Jesus Christ and use his Atonement. It was the most amazing feeling and I really actually LOVED my mission! It was from that point on that I realized, "what am I doing complaining all the time! Yes this is hard, but the path has already been prepared! The hard work has been done! The Atonement has already been performed! All that is asked of me is to keep the commandments. I can do that! I have tools to help me along this journey. I have the Book of Mormon. I have prayer. I have leaders and a district that love me. I have a brain that works. Everything I could ever need is right there in front of me. THIS IS POSSIBLE!" It was a superb revelation! 

Because of that I am now very excited to serve. Yeah it will be difficult. Yeah I won't be able to speak at first. But hey, at least I know how to say "I know Jesus Christ loves me and that he lives" in Japanese. Sometimes that's all you need to know! And I'm sure there must be someone in Japan that needs to hear just that. Why else would Heavenly Father make that stick in my brain rather than other sentences and words? There is a reason for everything! God is so good you guys!

So the first part of the week was so good, and the second part got so crazy. Well, actually, it was only last night that was so wild. So our zone is lucky enough to get a Nihonjin district every once in awhile and we were supposed to get one today. Since Orr Shimai and I are the sister training leaders, we have an obligation to make sure all the Nihonjin sisters are taken care of and to give them an orientation and a tour of the campus (yes, in all Japanese of course). Well, last night Orr Shimai and I were planning for our next lesson for our new investigator Yoshida san and we got called to the front desk. We go there and see 7 new Japanese sisters with all their suitcases! We were very unprepared but I guess they came a day early or we misunderstood when we were supposed to get them. It was crazy. So right then and there we had to go find their room and well.. take them with us to the rest of class! We still had 2 more hours left of class! So we picked them up, took them to their room, and kinda figured out what was going on. Then we went to our class and surprised our district with 7 new sisters ha ha because we didn't know what else to do! Our sensei Saito Sensei was really flustered because he didn't know where to put all these sisters. We have very small classrooms and not enough room for even one more person in there and we had 7 ha ha. We ended up kinda dropping all our plans and just having a get to know you/testimony meeting with them. It was fun to get to know them and hear their Japanese! After that, Orr Shimai and I left class early with them to give them an orientation and then a tour. She did most of the talking because I don't know any words outside of religious words. Finally it was time for them to go back to their room but when we got back there they told us that they were told that once they got to the MTC they were allowed to call their familes and email them to let them know they arrived safely so then we had to go BACK to the front desk and try and figure that out... we also called President Mack our Branch President to figure out what we were even supposed to be doing ha ha because up until this point everything was just improv. Anyways, it turns out they couldn't call at that time but that they were allowed to email. So we took them to the computer lab so they could email but lots of them didn't have LDS accounts made so we had to try to figure out how to explain to them to make an account and such... there was one sister who had an account but couldn't remember her password and the computer wouldn't let us reset it or make a new one. I ended up just letting her email on my account. It was quite the crazy experience! So while the sisters were emailing, Orr Shimai and I hurried back to our room because one of the sister's luggage got lost on the flight over so we went to grab her a towel, shampoo, soap, clothes, and garments for her to use. All of the sisters in our zone were so willing to help out and offer some clothes or bathroom supplies for her to use! Then we went back and got the sisters from the lab and took them back to their room and got them settled. We tried to explain what their schedule was for the next day because the MTC people gave them their schedule in English for some reason... I am not a very good translator though ha ha. Thank goodness for Orr Shimai and also that Japanese people often study English in school! I spoke some pretty good Japenglish though! Ha ha. 

It was a really stressful night of running around and confusion but I think we got them taken care of. And today we went to make sure they were in their class and we saw them all there so I think they are doing okay. Woo what a fun experience!

Before I go, I have a request to make. I was wondering if those who read this email and feel up to it, would send me some quotes or good sayings or something like it so I can have a big stash of uplifting or helpful quotes to share with the other sisters or people I come in contact with if they need it. Also it would help me too! Don't feel obligated too but if you are bored and heard something that helped you lately, feel free to share! You can send a Dear Elder or a written letter or an email if you'd like. Just remember that I can only check my email on Tuesdays though. Thank you!

I have one more thing. Mom and Dad, I don't know if you already told Brother Bown my mission scripture, but if you haven't, I want to change it to 2 Ne. 33:6. I wrote Jake Bown a letter this week and told him the same thing to tell his brother ha ha. If the plaque is already in the making, that is okay. I like the other scripture I gave you as well! But I have decided that 2 Ne. 33:6 is my new favorite scripture.

To all those that haven't heard from me in awhile, don't worry! I just sent like 9 letters yesterday! Grandma Flash, Paige, Rachel Worthington, Kim Archibald, Abby Odell, Abby my sister, Jake Bown, Nicasio, and Heather Hill.. expect a letter in the mail soon! 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts! God has been listening and has blessed me so much. Make sure to thank him for that! 

Be good! Remember Christ every day!

Love, Sister Miranda Robertson