Week Sixteen.

Dear Mom, Dad, Family, and Friends!

I am doing very well! This week was a crazy one though.

Last P day was pretty much the worst day, ever! So Sister Johnson and I were really busy with errands that we had to run, but Sister Morita planned a bowling activity and dinner with a family in the Aizu branch. Sister Johnson and I didnt really want to go because we honestly were so busy, but we rearranged our plans to make it. We ended up spending all day from 3-9 with this family! It was really frustrating because honestly, the time was so wasted. Missionary work in Japan is a lot different than missionary work in America. Sister Johnson and I just want to WORK! But it is difficult when the families keep you over for hours and hours talking about pointless stuff. No one is direct here in Japan; the always beat around the bush. We dont really know how to handle the situation without being rude... but we are going to talk to our mission president for advice. While we were riding home from the members house Sis. Johnson crashed her bike. It had been raining all day so the sidewalks were slippery. It was not a good ending to a hard day for her. On top of that, Sister Morita got really sick and was crying, too. Pretty much all the girls in the apartment were miserable. I was miserable just because everyone else was! I prayed so hard that night that everyone around me would just be happy and that if it was possible, that I could take their pains and saddnesses and frustrations and have them be happy. I learned a lot about the Atonement that night.

The next day, Sister Johnson was really sore and not feeling well so we stayed home all day so she could rest. I felt like I needed a rest too because my problems are all emotional and it was nice to have a day to think.

The next day we went to the hospital to make sure that Sister Johnson was okay, and she is! She just had some bruises and soreness from the crash. I developed a cold this week so that has been really annoying. It hasnt hindered my work, but it is annoying to have to blow my nose all the time.We taught our investigator Urasawa san on this day. For the english class she really wants to learn conversation and so what we do is we pick a topic to talk about and just talk in english about it. She really likes cooking and she owns a Korean restaurant so we talked about cooking last week. When we teach her we actually teach her in her restaurant. We taught her about prayer again and the spirit was really strong. We asked her to say the closing prayer and she did not want to at all, but we were persistant. We resolved her concerns and worries on why she didnt want to pray, and we finally got her to pray! Her prayer was amazing! She has such strong faith. She is a 7th Day Adventist so she has a Christian background which makes teaching easier in some ways. This Wednesday we are going to teach her the restoration and invite her to church. After our lessons with Urasawa san she always feeds us delicious Korean food. This week she gave us spicey squid ramen! It was so good!

Every Thursday we do service and this old person home and this week when we went it was so fun. The old people were so genki! Lots of them tried talking to me and I just nodded my head and smiled because I cant understand Japanese yet. One lady said, ``you dont understand at all, do you`` and I said, ``Yoku wakaranai!`` Which means I REALLY dont understand! She kinda laughed at me, but I think mostly she just thought I was cute. Later that night Sister Johnson and I did 2 mogi`s with some members. President Rasmussen made this mogi program where we the members pretend to be investigators and we teach them the lessons in PMG so we can get practice with teaching and with the language, so we have to do that. It was great practice and I am not so nervous to teach now! After one of our mogis with a girl named Miruka Shimai (who is 18 and waiting for her mission call) we had a nice chat about missions and faith. She is really scared and doubting this whole mission thing. I was glad she talked about that because thats how I felt too! Sister Johnson and I were able to share experiences and bare testimony of this work and the gospel. We were all crying! The spirit was really strong. And, I actually could understand Miruka Shimai pretty well! It was amazing! I definitely had the gift of understanding that night.

This week we had Zone Conference, which was pretty good. We talked a lot about referrals. I have been practicing the referral question during my language study and I have even asked for a few referrals from members and we received one the other day! So we are going to visit them this Saturday on their day off. It is a family named the Kobayashi`s. I got a little homesick this week, but I am fine now. Homesickness comes in waves, but when it hits, it hits pretty hard and all I can think of is the things I miss and the things I could be doing instead. Its hard, but usually my homesickness only lasts a day now, so thats good.

On Saturday we had an interesting day! We had lunch with the Wojciechowski family. You are probably thinking that that name doesnt sound Japanese... thats because its not! They are a German family, kind of! The wife is Japanese, but the husband is German. Sister Johnson and I shared the spiritual message and it ended up getting taught in Japanese, English, and German. It was the weirdest lesson ever. We taught about the temple. Sis Johnson and I would speak in Japanese for Woj Shimai and then in English for Woj Kyodai, and we would read scriptures in German and if something got miscommunicated between Woj Shimai and Kyodai, they would speak in German to each other. It was crazy ha ha. Later that night we had another food appointment with the Saito family! I love them. We had delicious food and an amazing akashikai (testimony meeting) afterwards. All the missionaries in Aizu were there and the spirit was awesome. We bore our testimonies about the hard things we had to overcome to be on a mission. This same day I had a cool experience with the spirit. Sister Johnson was telling me about her extended family and she mentioned her cousin named Kyle and when she said his name I had this really strong feeling! I dont know him at all, but I just really hope that Kyle is okay! He is 15 years old (or maybe 16) but I remember that age being a hard age. You are surrounded by so much peer pressure at that time. I really hope he is safe and doing okay. I am going to write him a letter today and ask Sister Johnson to send it to him. I hope I can help him, because the spirit told me to help him.

Yesterday the best thing happened! Sister Johnson and I visited an old investigator named Arai san and asked him if hed be interested in hearing our message and he said yes! That doesnt really happen that often in Japan so this was a miracle! And plus, we will be teaching his family! It is him and he has 4 young kids. We are going to do the Family Eikaiwa Program with them. We have an appointment on Saturday with them. We were so happy we could barely contain our joy as we were walking away from his house!

Another great thing is that we have an appointment on Wednesday with our other investigator named Hirano san. She is a sweet lady in her 50s and her family has been very exposed to the church. We will only be teaching her, but we are thinking that we will see great results with her. She is so ready! We might ask her to be baptized in our first lesson if moved upon by the spirit. We will be doing Family Eikaiwa with her as well.

We now have 2 investigators and a family that we are teaching! This is a miracle for two girls who cant speak Japanese very well! We are very very very blessed.

Mom, I received my package! Thank you SO SO much. It came just in the nick of time when I needed the stuff you sent me! I am sorry it was so expensive though... I am so grateful though!

Dad, congrats on the new job project! I am glad you get to stay in Houston, but moving to PA would have been cool, or the Netherlands!

I need to do better at exercising and eating healthier here... slowly but surely I am having to put clothes that dont fit anymore away in my suitcases...

I sure do miss my neices and nephews! I am happy to hear that they are genki and doing well. Paige should let Les buy a unicorn!

Hm, and about the wine... that was kind of our neighbors for sure! Dont drink it! I guess just dump it down the drain... can you cook with it without actually having alcohol when you eat the food?

Mom, will you send me the recipe for those David Brower treats? Will you tell David Brower to write me a letter, too? Ha ha I want to hear from that boy!

Thank you so much! I love you all very much.

Aishiteimasu!

Sister Miranda Robertson