Week Twenty-three.

Konnichiwa minasan!
O genki desu ka? Kurisumasu wa do datta? Watashi no Kurisumasu wa subarashikatta desu! Ice cream tabemashita!
So I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! Dad I am sorry you got sick. That is the pits especially during the holidays. If it makes you feel any better, I ended up going to the hospital for something this week, too! But my circumstance is a little different.
So one day this week I was riding my bike to the church for district meeting and when we got there my nose started bleeding. I didnt think anything of it because this always happens to me especially when its cold so I plugged my nose and ran into the church to the bathroom. It was then that I realized that this wasnt just a regular bloody nose! It was pretty bad! I know this is kinda gross to talk about but some pretty weird substances were coming out of my nose... so I called the Nihonjin sisters into the bathroom to diagnose me and they said to go to the hospital. Dont get too freaked out when I say hospital. They dont really have simple doctors offices here, only hospitals. Anyways, we went and the doctor checked me out. It was terrible! She used a scope and stuck it clear up my nose and out my throat and it was so painful! I cried... but on the brightside Im okay! She didnt say what caused it but she told me what to do if it happens again. So I think Ill be okay. Unfortunately I missed district meeting ha ha.
Sister Tui and I had a pretty cool experience this week! It was blizzarding and we had time so we decided we wanted to try to find some less active members to visit. We knew the general area in where they lived but not the exact apartments but we thought we would try it out. So we start walking and walking and walking and we get pretty far from everything and it was snowing so bad and it was cold and we realized that if we kept walking trying to find this house that we wouldnt get home until late so we knew we had to turn back unfortunately. We were probably 2 hours from our apartment by foot in a blizzard! We started walking back and as we were walking back we ran into an old Japanese guy that spoke perfect English! He told us that he is a Christian and so we thought that was pretty cool. We asked him where he was going and he said to a cheap Chinese food restaurant. Then he proceeded to tell us how he hates the Chinese because they are Communists but he loves their food! It was quite funny. He was hilarious. We kept walking and talking and eventually we all decided to just eat dinner together at this restaurant! This guys name is Ito san and I guess Ito san is a regular at this Chinese place so when we walked in he kept saying to the workers things like, Oh look how lucky I am! I found two young beautiful girls on the street and now we are eating food at the best restaurant in town! We just laughed at him and said, Oh yeah, quite a blessing huh! He might sound crazy but hes actually not. We were able to talk about his family and beliefs and things. We offered him a book of Mormon but he wasnt interested but thanked us for sharing something so dear to us with him.
He was a kind man and we gave him our phone number. I will never forget how he called Britains fat and the Chinese terrible Communists...
We are still teaching the Arai family and unfortunately they are not on track to be baptized on Jan 25th. It is hard to teach them right now because who we really want to see progress is the 15 year old girl Yuria and the dad... but they are always in and out of the lessons so really all we are doing is teaching english to 4 little kids, and when it is time for the message they are always everywhere and dont pay attention. We arent quite sure what we are going to do about this situation yet but we will see. They are pretty much our only real solid investigators and they arent even progressing though so its tough. We really need to do more finding here in Aizu.
I did have the opporutnity to go to a Shuwa class with one of my other investigators though. Her name is Hirano san. And Shuwa is Japanese Sign Language! Isnt that crazy how I am learning another language through Japanese? I can say simple sentences like My name is Robertson and other simple words like I dont understand or I cant. Its pretty cool! We were able to advertise our free English Conversation Classes too and the people there seemed way interested! It was a great finding activitiy.
I got a package this week from Abby and Emily Wilding! Thank you both so much! It really made my Christmas wonderful.
Mom, I did get everything in the package you sent me. Thanks for the meat!
Today I am way excited because we are getting facials which I need so bad. So this will be a fun experience for me :)
What are everyones New Years plans? I am going to go to a Buddhist shrine! I also have two meal appointments and I plan on doing service and shoveling snow. It is also on my agenda to read all of 3 Nephi and set goals for this next year. New Years is the biggest holiday in Japan so it should be very fun!
I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. It is a great time to recommit yourself to Christ and really think about what it means to be born again. I am grateful that we have a merciful God that always gives us second chances.

Happy New Year to you all!
Love Sister Robertson

Week Twenty-two.

PART ONE.

 

(Miranda wrote this email kinda weird she sent it in two different ones, one to Mom and one to Dad part one is the one to mom and part two is to dad.)

Hello Mom, Dad, Family, and everyone,

Every Sunday I write in my planner all the main points that I want to talk about in my email home but I forgot my planner today so I cant remember everything so this might be a short email. Plus, I will be talking to you soon so I suppose thats okay.

This week we had the Christmas Party on Saturday and it was so crazy. Pretty much the reason we havent had time to go out searching for people to teach is because these branches out here dont have activities committees so they pin all that stuff on the missionaries even if it isnt our responsibility. So we spend all our time shopping for decorations, sitting in planning meetings, and setting up chairs and tables at the church. It has been quite crazy this last week with planning. All of the Christmas stuff is almost over and then we have New Years which is 1000x more big than Christmas. This Holiday season has been quite crazy!

Right now our only strong investigators are the Arai Family. We have been teaching them for quite awhile now but it is hard to tell if they are progressing or not because not all the family members are in the lessons each time so it is hard to follow up with them. They keep inviting us back so I think that is a good sign! I feel like I am running out of English to teach though! Later today Sister Tui and I are going shopping with one of the Arai girls named Yuria. Shes 15 and just moved back to Japan from Ukraine. (Shes been living in Ukraine with her mother for awhile) I figured she probably doesnt have many friends right now so I invited her to go shopping with us today and she seemed really excited about that. So that will be some good dendo time!

We had a potential investigator come to our Christmas Party and to church to listen to my talk. His name is Hashimoto san and he actually spends a lot of time at the church because right now we are getting an elevator built and Hashimoto san is the main guy. Kinda like the boss of it all. Hes so cool and nice! And speaks some english! He told me that he understood 90% of my talk which means it wasnt all terrible. Im not very good at translating English into Japanese yet ha ha. Oh dad, I used the letter that you sent me about Christmas and the sequence of holidays in my talk. It took forever to translate your words into the best Japanese that I could to share with everyone. I dont know if that part of my talk made much sense.

Anyways, I will think of cool stories and such to tell you when we talk this week.

Here are the instructions for phone calls:

1. Dial 011 (international call number)

2. 81 (country code number)

3. The rest of the cell phone number (the first zero is dropped from the 080)

 

So dial THIS--> 011-81-80-9354-4091

Since you will be in Wyoming on Christmas I think it is 4:00 pm 12/25 there when it is 8:00 am 12/26 in Japan. I think. You might have to check on that... but I will just be expecting a call at 8 am on the 26th.

 

Thanks for your prayers, mom. I appreciate that my family is trying to help my Japanese by sending that lady to me... I would teach her but I am not allowed to. She is friends with someone on the danger list that has tried to like injure missionaries before and she specifially told me she wants nothing to do with the church... I dont want to risk my life really. But I appreciate so much your prayers and that God has been answering your prayers!

I have been able to tell that my Japanese is getting better but I still just cant understand a lick of anything! And thats the annoying part!

 

I will talk to you this week!

Oh and I did receive the Christmas package but no handwritten letter yet...

I have been trying to wait until Christmas but I have been opening one present every day.. I just couldnt wait!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Love, Miranda

 

PART TWO.

Finally after a week in a half my ear isnt plugged anymore! I am pretty much healed but now I have this weird dry skin issue. Maybe it is an allergic reaction to something? Under my eyes is so swollen and dry. I dont know whats up but it makes me look like a grandma and it hurts ha ha.

Christmas here is focused on presents and food and not the Savior. Most people dont understand the real meaning of Christmas because they are mostly Buddhist or dont have a religion. Christmas here is a time to each chicken and cake!

New Years is a way bigger holiday. They have traditions to go to a buddhist shrine and throw a coin and say a prayer. Pres R asked us to do that with an investigator or member so we can get a feel for the culture here and have a cool experience. We dont get the day off on Christmas, but we do kinda get the day off on new years. We have an assignment to deep clean our apartments all day. So we will still be working, just in a cleaning kind of way.

Love you!

Week Twenty-one.

Oh boy mina san! My email inbox is so full of emails I still need to reply to that it is ridiculous. Im sorry!

So first off... SKYPE. I havent found anyone really that has Skype in my ward so I have decided to just do a regular phone call. Sorry. I need to find a time that is good for you guys to call. On Dec 25th (it will be the 26th in Japan) can you call me around5 pm (8 am in Japan)? Let me know in the next email if that is okay or not. I dont have all the instructions right now on how to do it because we forgot to bring the paper but I know that you have to call me. My cell phone number is 080-9354-4091. Next week I promise I will give you all the exact instructions. Im sorry we cant Skype!

So last Pday after our emailing time the weirdest thing happened. This lady named Shimakage san who is an LA here in Aizu randomly found me on the street and started calling out for me in English that she needed to help me! I went over and talked to her and it turns out she has been in contact with some people from Lovell, WY possibly the Hydes that asked Shimakage san to help with my Japanese. It was the weirdest thing ever. I appreciate these people in Wyoming that I dont really know that they want to help me but I cant do that. This lady actually doesnt like the church at all really anymore and she is friends with a person on our super danger list. She isnt interested in hearing any kind of message either so I couldnt accept help from her. If I cant teach her, then I need to spend my time elsewhere. It was the weirdest experience...

So it snowed for the first time this week! And when it snows, IT SNOWS and never stops. It snowed for 2 days straight without stopping. We cant ride our bikes anymore and it takes 45 minutes to walk to the church. That kind of sucks, but oh well. There is so much snow here and it is freezing. I heard that it isnt even bad yet though... the bad stuff happens in January and February. Sister Tui and I had a cool experience the other night. We were walking home from an appointment we had with one of our investigators and it was about 7:30 at night and it was completely dark and it was blizzarding. We couldnt really see and the snow was so bad and cold that we had to keep our faces down or close our eyes. I kinda lost my way and didnt know if I was on the right rode or not so we prayed really quick that the weather would get better so we could so and that we could be warm and that wed be able to find our way safely. Right after that prayer we saw a man walk up behind us which I thought was unusual because it is freezing and no one would be out walking in this weather! Well we started talking to him by saying good evening and he instantly asked us if we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS and we said Yes we are! He said that he knew me! And I asked him his name and he said Hashimoto! And then it clicked! Lately our church is under construction because we are getting a new elevator and Hashimoto san is the man in charge so he is always at the church. So I said, Oh Hashimoto san! Shite imasu! Which means Oh I know you! And then we were able to ask him exactly where we were and how much further until the main road. He was also walking home to his apartment which was in the same direction as ours and so we talked the rest of the way until we had to part. We invited him to our Christmas Party and to church next week! I told him I am giving a talk about Christmas next Sunday and he said Nihongo de?! Which means, In Japanese?! And I said Hai! Ganbarimasu..! Which means Yes Im gonna work hard! I dont know if he will come but I hope he does. We were able to talk about him and his job and family and things. And it stopped blizzarding and we got warm as we finished walking home! It was such a tender mercy! It was awesome! I love Hashimoto san! He is so cool and speaks English too!

But with every good thing comes a bad thing... this week I got really really sick. It started out with a bad bad fever and the chills and then from then on I got a very terrible sore throat. It got so bad I couldnt breathe or swallow or sleep. Then the pain spread to my ears and I got bad ear aches and clogged ears and started hearing weird like an echo... I finally went to the doctor and it turns out I have tonsilitis! But I have been taking medicine for it so Im getting better I think. My throat isnt sore anymore but I havent been able to have normal hearing out of my left ear for 3 days now. It is clogged and SO annoying I can barely stand it. I just have to wait it out I guess.

So let me tell you about Tui Shimai. She is half Tongan and so awesome! She is from California and she is so so fun. The way she talks is so real and gangster I love it ha ha. We have fun together and we laugh a lot.  She is so hilarious and fun. I love her a lot. Things in Aizu are kinda weird right now. I am realizing that really nobody does stuff here... I cant remember the last time I really did missionary work here ha ha. I mean yeah we teach lessons but it seems like most our time is spent with the Takahashi family not really doing... anything. Just talking and hanging out. It is making everything for me a lot more happier but I supposed that isnt helping us find anyone to teach... Teaching is just so scary and stressful... I dont like it! We all need to figure our stuff out here. Our district isnt unified and we arent organized really.

Oh fun fact, I am certified to do CPR in Japan!

Okay thats it for the week I think. Thanks for sending me a package! I havent received it yet. I also havent received Isaac and Kandaces announcement. Hmm... Love you all! I will keep on keepin on but I sure still do miss home... I think about good ol America every day. Keep it real over there.

Love Miranda

PS Everytime you talk to Maria I am actually with her..! So it is fun when you email!

Week Twenty

Dear Family and Friends,
(Dad I got your email)
So yes, yesterday we got the transfer call! And... Im staying in Aizu! But, Sister Johnson is getting transferred! So my new companion will be Sister Tuikolovatu. She is from California and she was actually Sister Johnsons companion in the MTC so thats cool. Everyone says she is going to be a really fun companion. I am excited for sure. I kinda wanted to get transferred because we have a Christmas party coming up and things and I didnt want to have to deal with it ha ha... for some reason the missionaries are in charge of planning all the ward and branch activities here. We spend a lot of dendo time in meetings planning. Like a lot of time. Also, I am now the leader for awhile until Sister Tui gets more acquainted with Aizu but remember how I am terrible at directions? Yeah. That is still a challenge for me. I know how to get to the church, post office, and library. Also, I dont want to be the lead when it comes to our investigators. Unfortunately I dont really know that much about our investigators because I cant understand them so it is going to be hard teaching them according to their needs... Sister Johnson did a great job at talking and understanding Japanese! So I am really nervous about that.
So I learned something about me this week. I am really stressed! At Zone Conference Pres and Sis Rasmussen did a training on this new booklet out by the church called Adjusting to Missionary Life. Its an awesome book! You can take a self assessment to see how stressed you are and then the book gives specific instructions and advice on how to help. I took the self assessment and checked almost every box... Then during personal study I started from the beginning and started picking a few suggestions to work on to see if it will help. Well, I ended up getting more stressed because I got overwhelmed with all of the things I needed to do in that book! So I ended up just closing it, taking some deep breaths, and clipping my fingernails. I dont know but for some reason clipping my fingernails is so relaxing and helpful. Maybe because I have complete control over how my nails look and I know exactly what I am doing and how to do it. Seems like a weird thing, right? But it works for me! I have awesome nails right now just so you know.
I do want to try those suggestions though but everytime I think about it my throat gets tight and I feel a heavy weight. I dont know what has happened to me, but lately I have been having these tiny stress emergencies a lot. I got one after the transfer call too. And I always get them when we plan for lessons and especially on the ride to the investigators homes. I dont know how to explain it but I just get really freaked out and I just feel like I dont know what to do. After one of these stress emergencies the feelings kind of linger for awhile so it is hard to snap out of it sometimes. There are times when I am not stressed though, like when we are at the apartment at the end of the day and all us girls are being girls talking about boys and the other elders and whatnot (yes, we are still young girls. We need to talk about boys sometimes.) I am glad I have friends here because it isnt so bad when I am with my friends but when I am dendoing, it is pretty rough. I want to be excited about dendo but I cant control my feelings! I immediately feel nervous and scared always. Ive also noticed some physical symptoms. Usually I am a pig and eat a lot of food, but my appetite is going down and I am not sleeping well. I also have trouble waking up in the morning. I have trouble getting motivated to exercise and lately I have been having stomach pain and sometimes headaches. Any clue as to what this is? Is this a serious problem? The next transfer we have interviews with Kaicho (president) so I will definitely talk to him about it. I have been thinking about talking with the dendo therapist, too. Sometimes it is difficult for me to talk about how I feel to the people around me because I really dont want to bring them down. It is easier for me to talk to other people that I am not in close quarters with. It just gets tough because I hold in so much that sometimes it makes the situation worse, ya know?
Anyways, enough of that for now. Zone Conference was awesome! It was so fun. It was surely a surprise when I received some Christmas letters from my family! I bawled like a baby. Paige, your girls are so big now! Brooke and Leslies hair is SO long I cant believe it! I was so happy to hear from so many people- mom, dad, paige, bailey, abby, and grandma flash- thank you!
It was a good week for letters because I received quite a few more throughout the week! Best week ever! I got some letters from Grandma Flash and the Robertson side of the family! Oh thank you so much. It was so nice to hear from my aunts, uncles, and cousins. It really lifted my spirits. I also received letters from the Idaho Falls North Stake Young Womens presidency, the Katy TX Stake (I love receiving these letters every month!!!), and my lovely friend Rachel W. Thank you to all who sent letters and emails! I love you!
As for our investigators, it was quite an interesting week. We taught Urasawa san and Nobuko san again... well we tried to. Nobuko san doesnt like Mormons at all. She asked us how many people were members of our church and when we told her she said, Really? Why? I dont believe it. Then she proceeded to damn us. (I dont think that is swearing, but I dont know how else to put it, sorry!) She reaaaaally doesnt like Mormons. Urasawa san doesnt have a lick of interest in the gospel either. We probably are going to stop lessons, maybe. I dont really know yet. I will have to ask my new companion what she thinks when she gets here tomorrow. We also taught a lesson to our investigator Hirano san! She too isnt at all interested in the gospel. Whenever we ask her to do something as a commitment she changes the subject and gets us on a tangent until we run out of time. She just wants to learn English. We are going to keep working on her though. We also taught the Arai Family a couple times. We had a pretty good lesson with Arai san (the dad) and talked a bit about baptism and the Word of Wisdom. He has desires to follow the Word of Wisdom which is awesome! We asked him to pray to know if our message is true and from God. The next time we taught that family he was too busy with work so we only taught the kids and we didnt get to follow up with him. The kids are pretty cute! We taught them about baptism and they said that they really want to get baptized! But we told them they need permission from their parents first and when they asked them Arai san said they already got baptized. So now we will have that issue to deal with next time we teach... and I will be leading the conversation... and now I am getting nervous thinking about it... ah!
In other news, I went on a split with Morita Shimai! I love her a lot. She is a great missionary. We were able to spend some time helping some members in the branch. We made Christmas invitations for the party coming up. It was good dendo and nice relax time. I was able to talk with them a little about how I have been feeling and I was able to thank them for their help. Mom, check our FB inbox. One of the members in my branch sent you a picture of me. The message is probably in your ``other`` inbox. Also, please accept her request! She will be able to keep you updated on me and she will send you pictures too. Her name is Maria Takahashi. Shes so awesome.
Oh, bad news! My camera broke. I am so sorry! Dont worry about buying another one, I broke it so I should buy another with my own money. I hope it is my money you have been putting in my bank account by the way! How much money do I have anyways?
I dont know when I will buy a new camera... I can still take pictures, I just cant see them on my screen. Maybe I will take pictures and send my card home so you can see the pictures and copy them all onto the computer then send the card back? I have two SD cards so while you have one, I can still take pictures with my other one! Maybe I will do that. I hate spending money so I dont know.
Anyways, thanks for your prayers and encouragement. It is so helpful! I am really really really really trying to be happy and a hard worker. Some days are better than others but I guess I will just keep on keepin on... do my best and try to stay calm!
Love, Miranda

Week Nineteen.

Dear family and friends,

First, Dad! I received some emails from you this week on Thanksgiving day! Thank you!

Second, Mom! I have no idea what I want or need for Christmas honestly... Umm maybe some American cereal! Also, maybe a Christmas CD that I can listen to. And I forgot to bring that speaker you bought me because I thought it wasnt allowed but I guess it is! So you could send that too. Also, I dont really have sweaters. I bought some the other day, but if you could send some cardigans or long sleeve shirts that would be a nice gift! I really want pictures of my family so that would be the best gift of all! Thank you!

This last week was interesting. I dont remember if I said this in the last email or not, but that same family that doesnt like me and Sister Johnson now apparently doesnt like any of the sister missionaries in Aizu. They think that we are lazy, dont follow the rules, waste time, and dont work. So thats great. And the ward mission leader and the only ward missionary we have are from that family. This will be interesting!

Monday night or maybe it was Tuesday night, I dont remember, but I talked to Sister Johnson about how I was feeling about this whole mission thing and that seemed to help. I set a goal this week to be happy and for the most part I was! Its crazy though because on the good days that I had they were the same days that you talked about in your email mom about when you went to the temple and prayed for me and stuff. Thank you for your prayers.

So this week we had to go to Yamagata for Zone Meeting and because of it we had to cancel a lot of our appointments that we had set up. I wish people would tell us earlier when we have meetings, but they never do!!! Anyways, I like Zone Meeting because I like riding the bus because you can sleep :) And it is so fun to see everyone in our zone. Oh, on the way home from Zone Meeting a lady sat by me on the bus and I talked to her and she said that she has heard of our church before because she used to go to Eikaiwa in high school. Before she got off the bus I gave her a pass along card and my business card with our phone number on it. That was good!

Today we are going to Yamagata again because we have Zone Conference tomorrow. We are going to spend Pday in Sendai shopping (I dont plan on buying anything really though) and then we will stay at the Yamagata sisters apartment. Zone Conference is an all day thing and we get training from President and the APs. We have this cool Christmas skit planned for it too and my district has a fun skit for it. Lets just say that yes I wrote another Christmas rap, just like last year. It is sooo awesome. I wish I could like record it then send it home somehow but I cant with these computers. Sorry.

So unfortunately this week we lost 2 investigators pretty much. Urasawa san and Nobuko san. Nobuko san gave us our Book of Mormon back and said that she will never read it because it is bad and Urasawa san said she wont read it either because she doesnt even read the Bible. We tried giving a lesson last Wednesday but I swear the planned it so we couldnt teach. We taught the english part of the lesson and then when we were getting ready to teach the gospel part Nobuko san got up and left and Urasawa san went into the kitchen and started cooking for us. They just want to learn english is all. Sister Johnson and I went back the next day as a surprise with a plan to give Urasawa san a special Korean BOM that we ordered for her and we were going to invite her to church. Turns out she already has a Korean BOM and she tried giving it back. We said no keep it! If you dont want to read it then give it to your family or friends! And she said no. We didnt have an opportunity to invite her to church because she was kinda annoyed with us... next week might be our last lesson. They arent progressing.

We taught the Arai family! We taught them about Adam and Eve and Christ and Agency. It was a pretty good lesson I think. Since all these little kids are so young, they pretty much believe everything we teach them. We still teach that they should pray and ask to know for sure though. One of the kids named Iriya is 9 years old so we are hoping that he can get baptized! He came to church yesterday so that was awesome! I think he liked it. He came with his little sister Mari.

Our branch has a goal to see a baptism on Dec. 28 and so in order for that to happen, we need our investigators to come to church at least 3 times. So we cant miss a Sunday from here on out. It is stressful. At this point, Iriya is probably going to be the one, we hope! That family is really ready I think.

So yesterday was Fast Sunday and in order for us to meet our goals as a branch to see a baptism on the 28th and also we want to see 3 LA members reactivated, we said a special prayer after sacrament meeting. I knew that I was going to have to give this prayer so I practiced so much the night before and I wrote out this super awesome prayer and memorized it. But on Sunday morning Sister Johnson got sick so we didnt go to sacrament meeting (which sucks because we had an investigator there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Sister Morita was going to give the prayer for me instead. So I didnt practice my prayer anymore! Well Sister Johnson got better and we went to church and made it just in time for the prayer so I was back on to say it! Well I was under pressure and forgot everything I memorized and pretty much said the prayer in English instead... it was embarrassing. Ugh I practiced so much! Why when I really need help with the langauge I can never remember anything!! Its so annoying.

It makes it even more difficult because I can really express my feelings and apologys in english super well, but not in Japanese so with the miscommunication and misunderstanding it makes it hard to connect with the Japanese people here. Hm, maybe I will get transferred... I dont know.

Anyways, I love you all lots and lots.

I am so grateful for the emails of encouragement! Really!

I am sorry to all those that dont receive a reply from me. I usually run out of time to reply back individually, but if you include your currently mailing address I can write a handwritten letter back to you!

Love, Miranda

Week Eighteen.

Mom,
Thank you for your experiences. I remember how hard it was for you when us kids were growing up giving you so much grief. You are a spectactular mother and everyday I am reminded how grateful I am for you. I am learning that I cannot cook at all and so I am really really grateful for your cooking skills in particular!
It sounds like you will have a good concert with that other church. Sister Johnson is a fabulous singer and I feel like my singing skills have gone down the drain ha ha so I know how you feel. Keep working hard!

A BIG thanks to all of my friends that emailed me this week! Your thoughts and words were so helpful. I appreciate your encouragement and the experiences you all shared. Some of you shared very personal experiences in order to help me. I thank you for your vulnerability and kindness in order to help a person in need. Really. I cant thank you enough. I probably look like a silly goose right now in the library because I am crying so much!

As for my week... It was not the best. This week was kinda the aftermath of the hard blow we took from the members so it took awhile to get back up and start working again. The first few days were so sad. Sister Johnson and I would talk forever about the things we missed and that we wanted to go home. It was hard to leave the apartment. We were afraid to teach. We had a lesson on Wednesday with Urasawa san, and she brought her friend from her church and we taught about Jesus Christ. It seemed to be an okay lesson, and we got a new investigator out of it, so thats good. We will teach them both again on Wednesday like usual. The day after I was still feeling pretty low and dreading the end of the week because we had an appointment set to go visit a friend of the member that got so upset with us a few days earlier. Sister Johnson and I were dreading this day so much... It was all we could think about so the spirits were pretty low. The next day was ever worse. I woke up feeling like I had no control of anything in my life. I had no control of my emotions or thoughts. No control over conversation and the language. I didnt know what to do but just lay in my bed with wide eyes looking at the ceiling just freaking out. I have never been so confused in my life. But, I had to keep going so I got up and just tried to do the rest of the day. It was on this day that I particularly was dreading teaching in all aspects. I began doubting everything I knew. My testimony was definitely challenged. My faith disappeared. So it was quite difficult to prepare for the lesson we had the next day with the family that didnt like us. But alas, the day came! When the family came to pick us up we were so nervous, but they acted like nothing had happened... which kinda made the tension a little bit awkward. We had a 2 hour drive to the friends house so we tried holding conversation, which we were able to alright. They did tell us EXACTLY what they wanted us to say at the lesson and we told experiences we had that would relate to what we were going to teach and the family would tell us if that experience was okay to share or not. We just did exactly what they said. Anyways, the appointment went pretty good. We didnt even teach a lesson in the end and just ended up talking with the family we were visiting and ate lunch. They liked us and want us to come back again, so thats good! After the appointment was over (thank goodness!) we went to District Conference which is like Stake Conference. It was nice to see the other missionaries in our zone! But when I saw President Rasmussen I got really freaked out. He is so intimidating to me. I am realizing that I maybe have a problem with leaders... everytime I see him I just want to hide and cry! It is a weird phenomenon, for sure. But district conference was all right. I didnt understand it. I remember when church used to be an awesome spiritual experience... But here church is just a big giant day of language study now. Japanese people talk so fast! I cant tell when a word starts and when a word ends. District Conference was a two day thing so we went back to conference on Sunday. Everytime Sister Rasmussen would talk I would think about you, mom, because sometimes she would say things exactly like you would or her voice would literally sound identical to yours. It made me miss you. I dont know if it really did sound like your voice or if my mind just made it sound that way. The good thing about this day was that there is a family in our branch named the Takahashi Family. They are so fun. They help the missionaries so much. They have bought me so many winter clothes just out of the kindness of their hearts. After church was over, one of the Takahashi girls that is 24 was having a hard time or something. I dont really know what was up but Sister Morita told me to go hug her, so I did. And when I did she was crying so much and she kept saying ``Arigato Roba chan. Arigato!`` Then I was able to understand that she said something that meant ``I am so happy that you are here serving in Aizu.`` So that was a big confidence booster. I started to cry, too. Then we proceded to make movies on our cameras of us acting like zombies. That was fun!
Anyways, all in all, it was kinda another bad week because we had to pick ourselves up after the disaster. I dont know how that one member family feels about us now, but I did write them an apology letter. I havent heard anything back from it though and its been a few days. Maybe Sister Johnson and I will get transferred or something because of the problem. I dont really know. Well see.
As for how I feel right at this moment, I am so grateful for all of the encouragement I have received. It makes me feel so much better and like I can do this! Everyones experiences really touched my heart.  Anyways, thank you for all the prayers and help that everyone has given me! I dont want you to think that they went to waste. They really did help me. It is so nice to know that I am loved. That is really just want I need to hear the most, so thank you.
Until next week, bye bye!
Love, Sister Miranda Robertson

Week Seventeen.

Ohayo gozaimasu!

Wow, what a week. Not gonna lie, it was pretty terrible.

Johnson Shimai crashed her bike again and hurt her collarbone. Nothing was wrong again, just bruised like last time, but whenever she crashes the morale gets kinda glum because she is sore and tired and things... so that was how this last week felt.

We taught a lesson to our 2 investigators Urasawa san and Hirano san. Urasawa san has major issues with living prophets. She absolutely does not believe in the need for a prophet. It was a bad lesson. Nothing went smooth and it seemed like most of it was arguing. I didnt understand anything so after the lesson my companion explained. That lessons was actually a joint lesson which I think helped, but I am not really sure. I am pretty sure Urasawa san has absolutely no interest in the gospel and she only wants to learn English. I dont know what to do and I dont want to teach her again because it is scary and I have no idea what to even say. She isnt progressing!

Our other investigator Hirano san has a lot of questions about our church which is good. We planned on teaching her about God and prayer and we were able to stick to our plan! But, Hirano san asked a question about prayer at the beginning of the lesson and I thought she said something like ``I dont believe in God because when I ask for things, I dont ever receive what I ask for. He doesnt answer prayers so how can you believe in God.`` So I told a personal experience about a time when God didnt answer one of my prayers and that he didnt help me when I desperately needed help. I closed my story by saying that there is a purpose for everything and that I think God wanted me to learn how to work hard and so thats why he didnt help me when I needed help. Well, it turns out that was NOT what she said and I might of ruined my chances with her because I gave the image that we have a mean God that doesnt answer prayers. Whoops. I hate Japanese. We are teaching her again on Wednesday though.

Yesterday we had a dinner appointment with a member family and one of the members named Ai Shimai invited a friend that isnt a member to eat with us because she was curious what our purpose was and what missionaries do and stuff. So Ai Shimai asked us to talk about our purpose and things. So all night we talked about what we as missionaries do and why we do what we do and what missionary life is like and the members talked about their missions and conversion stories and about Joseph Smith and things. Everything was going awesome! And then we gave a spiritual message on Jesus Christ and how because of him we want to share about him and thats why we came to Japan and we even gave the friend a Book of Mormon and she said she was interested to read it which was awesome! We thought everything went so good! After we returned to our apartment that night, Ai Shimai called us and thanked us for coming over, but then she told us that our message was really bad. I guess her friend was really really confused and felt maybe a little attacked and just way confused. She didnt understand anything. Ai Shimai then continued to give us point after point of how we could improve and what we need to do. I personally appreciate her help because I am clueless still when it comes to missionary work. I am still just a bean in training! And I dont think she was trying to be rude or anything... we just were confused on what was expected of us. Ai Shimai was hoping for something that we didnt deliver. I feel really bad because we probably gave a poor image of missionaries and the church. We thought maybe she understood about the church because all night the member family was using church words and talking about Joseph Smith and his vision and stuff! But I guess the friend didnt understand anything. After the phone call we were both discouraged. That is my worst fear! My absolute worst fear as a missionary came true yesterday and pretty much all week! I ended up staying up way late talking with Morita Shimai (my old companion and the new sister training leader) about all of this. It was a long talk.

I just dont know about this whole being a missionary in Japan thing. I dont want to be all negative and stuff, but I kind of hate it. I keep thinking about how in the MTC one of my teachers said to our class, ``do you even want to be teaching? Because if you dont, why are you wasting your time and the Lords time`` Family, I am wasting my time and the Lords time. I am so scared of teaching and I dont like it! I have been on my mission for 4 months now and as I look back, I can say that they have been an unhappy 4 months. Probably I cant come home because its not that easy, but I really want to. I pleaded with the Lord all morning that I could. When I look at my missionary tag, I get all sorts of terrible emotions. I dont like putting it on in the morning! The night is my favorite and least favorite time of the day because it means the day is over and I get to finally rest, but it also means that as soon as I close my eyes then next thing the happens is the alarm is going off and I have to wake up and do it all again.

I am sorry that this is such a depressing email, but I figure I shouldnt sugar coat anything so you really understand how I feel. I really really really really really want to be home with my family, working a job, and being a disciple of Christ as a normal member.

Anyways, I have some other emails to write now.

But I am super excited that Paige is having ANOTHER girl! Is this one going to be Lela? That is awesome! And congrats to Kandace... I miss the temple. I wish I could be there for that!

I love you all so much!

Love, Miranda

PICTURES!

 



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

Week Fifteen.

Konnichiwa mina!

This week I spent a lot of time traveling. We had to go to Sendai for the transfers and we also went to Koriyama for church. I got lots of sleeping time on the bus so that was good! So the new bean we received isnt American like we thought! Shes a Nihonjin! Her name is Sister Kanno. So the two Americans are together and the two Nihonjin are together. It is working pretty good I think!

It is amazing how much nicer people are to me and Sister Johnson though because we are just two cute young Americans. It makes dendo a pleasant experience!

We had a big branch Halloween Party on the 30th which was kinda stressful, but I think everyone had fun! We had a lot of non members come. I dressed up as Mickey Mouse. I will try to get some pictures sent in the mail so you can see and also so you can post them on the blog.

Sister Johnson and I have one investigator! Her name is Urasawa san. We are doing something called the Family English Program with her where we teach english for 30 minutes and then share a gospel message for 30 minutes. We taught her about who God is and what prayer is. It was a pretty good lesson! Right now she is mostly just interested in the English part, but hopefully the Spirit will work with her and her desire will grow to learn more about the gospel. We have another lesson with her on Wednesday this week.

Sister Johnson is an awesome companion. We are similar in a lot of ways but different in a lot of ways too, which is okay! I have heard from other missionaries that she is a hard companion, but I dont think so at all. I think they just said that because they were stubborn companions themselves. When you are in a companionship you have to sacrifice sometimes, and thats okay. I am fine letting Sister Johnson share her opinions and ideas. She has strong opinions about a lot of things! I dont let it bother me though! And if she is having a hard day and doesnt have a good attitude (which that happens to all missionaries) you just need to love, instead of complain. Change yourself before you start trying to change your companion. Everything has been working awesome! She is really creative too so we are going to try creative dendo tools. For example, we want to go to the Aizu castle and pretend like we want to take a picture and ask someone else on the street to take the picture for us and hopefully they will ask Oh why are you in Japan? And then BOOM! An opportunity to share a message. I am excited to try that!

So update on my Japanese! I still cant understand anybody ha ha. Sister Johnson can understand pretty well but she doesnt always catch everything. I can say some stuff okay, but usually after I say it, Sister Johnson has to repeat what I said so the person understands ha. So pretty much, I cant speak Japanese either.

Yesterday at church, Sister Johnson and I bore our testimonies at the Koriyama church and afterwards a ton of members came up to Sister Johnson and told her her testimony was awesome and her Japanese was so good and no one even talked to me at all ha. So, I still have some work to do. It is hard to learn Japanese without a teacher. Today Sister Johnson and I are going to get an electronic dictionary for me that has a kanji pad as well so we can read. We cant read anything here and we need to! Plus, we have to write in kanji for the branch president when we give him our progress record every week. Japanese kinda.. is.... really really hard. Ill get it eventually though. Hopefully!

Thats it for this week. Thanks for finding my pants mom!! That really makes me happy!

I am going to try to send you a birthday package soon, but it might arrive after your birthday. Im sorry!

I love you so much!

And to all my friends and the readers of my blog, if you want to send a letter, my address is in my notes on FB! But I will write it again here.

 

Sister Miranda Robertson

3-1-5 Yagiyama-minami,

Taihaku-ku

Sendai-shi, Miyagi

982-0807

JAPAN

It should only take like a week or so to arrive! And it costs $1.10.

Christmas is coming up so some fun Christmas CDs would be nice :)

Aishiteimasu!

Love, Sister Miranda Robertson

Week Fourteen.

Ohayo Gozaimasu!

 

Well the big news as you know is the earthquake! According to the people here, it was only a 5.0 earthquake. If it is over 5.2 an alarm on our phone goes off ten seconds before the earthquake hits and so we only have 10 seconds to prepare. The alarm didnt go off, but I sure did feel the quake! It was around 2 am here and all of a sudden everything started shaking and the walls were rumbling. All three of us woke up and sat up and just started saying, Jishin! Jishin! Daijobu desu ka?! Which means Earthquake, earthquake! Are you okay? Then we just kinda waited it out. Johnson Shimai and I both were saying Ohh.. Oki...Ohh... Nagai!! Which means, Whoa, its big. Whoa! Its long! It lasted forever it felt like! But after it was over we just went back to sleep fairly quickly. It was kinda fun, but also really scary because you cant do anything about it. You just have to wait! 

Last week I bought myself some rain clothes which turned out to be really helpful this week. We had a rainstorm for like 3 days in a row. I basically wear snow gear anytime I go outside. I will have to take a picture one of these days and send it to you. I bought a new SD card at the store and Johnson Shimai has a card reader so I am hoping the card works there... but now I have another problem. The computers at the Aizu college wont let us email anymore so we have to come to the library to email but you cant upload pictures here! Bummer. I did print some pictures off at a convenient store this morning so I will have to send some home. I also bought a really really good winter coat. Well actually a member found a good one for me on the internet and it came this week! I was only 32 dollars. Nice!

We had a split with the sister training leader this last week, but I didnt really participate in it. She only did a split with Johnson Shimai and Morita Shimai. I was kinda happy about that because I was really nervous ha ha. It was a fun few days. Morita Shimai was really happy too because we had 2 added Nihonjin at our house for a couple days! We did a lot of walking for the tri-panionship. The people on the split took the bikes so the other 3 had to walk around. I got blisters and I hurt my left foot somehow. It hurts always. I might have twisted my ankle or something. I dont really know. But I just keep walking on it because I have to ha ha. I dont think it is anything serious.

Last week during the split Morita Shimai and Iwasa Shimai (the STLs companion) and I went with a member and visited a referral she had for us. We went sight seeing and also visited this giant shrine. It was so cool! Shrines are so pretty and interesting. It was awesome. My camera died so I didnt take any pictures...

Looking back at this week it was actually really fun! We door bell ditched one of the members and left a halloween treat on their door... We went shopping for halloween costumes and halloween food in Koriyama with some of the members because we have a Halloween party coming up on Wednesday... yesterday church was really good and I kinda understood relief society (like maybe 15%!!) so that was good. And! Yesterday we got the transfer call!

So I will be staying in Aizu.. and my companion is... Sister Johnson! Yipee! Ha ha she already is my companion and I really like her so itll be good. Two blonde Americans trying to speak Japanese... this will be interesting. This is only the beginning of her 4th transfer, and she is continuing my training! Scary right? Sister Morita is the new Sister Training Leader!!!! She will be receiving a new bean chan too! American probably... She will be busy busy. Tomorrow we are going to Sendai to go to training meetings and get the new bean. I like traveling because it is kinda a rule to be quiet on busses so you cant talk to anyone, so we just sleep. It is awesome.

Dad, happy birthday! I am glad you got my present. How long did it take? I got your dear elder 2 days ago on Saturday the 26th.

Mom, I dont know if you have sent my package yet, but if it isnt too heavy, will you send my straightner? And I am going to need a journal here in 30 days or so. I looked for journals here but all they have is wimpy notebooks. Also, I can buy shampoo and everything here. I just really need toothpaste and stuff ha ha.

Well, I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and everything.

Love, Sister Miranda Robertson

Week Thirteen.

Hey mom and dad! Thanks for your letters!

 

I did enjoy the Typhoon quite a bit because President Rasmussen told us all to stay in our apartments! So we had kinda a second P day! It was awesome. We took naps... did as much dendo as we could in doors with preparing... and had some fun taking pictures and such. We also did a lot of cleaning. It was a good day! Very very very rainy and windy though!

Also we have the occasional earthquake too here. I can never tell if it is just the apartment that has problems when a car passes by or if it is a small earthquake. But usually in the morning my desk will shake for a few seconds. Its cool.

I have a request: I have been buying a lot of clothes to protect me in the weather. It would be great if you could send me a balance of my account every week so I know where I am at. Thanks!

So we have been making a little progress with Otaki san. I found out that he is scared of crowds.. we taught him about the Book of Mormon and prayer but he said he doesnt really believe in that stuff so he probably wont pray. But he did invite us back again. With the transfer coming up and a new bean chan coming, we will probably have to pass Otaki san to the elders.

We did find two new investigators this week though! Kawashima san and Hirano san. They are a mother daughter combo! They both are so sweet and so prepared. I am excited to start teaching them more.

I feel like I dont have much to report on. But I do have a lot to ask for, sorry!

Mom, here is my list of things I need.

Crest toothpaste

PB M and Ms

zone protein bars

flavor packets

(the food is optional ha ha i dont need it.)

venus- embrace razor refills

maybelline dream liquid mousse foundation- classic ivory

CG fresh complexion concealer (it has a blue lid)

my black pants from my closet

my warm socks from my dresser (red/white, yellow, turquoise stripes)

ear warmer (can buy here)

eye drops

black tights and little socks for flats. I am a size 9 shoe.

nylons (i can buy some here so this is optional)

I bought 2 pairs of tights today and 2 pairs of little socks, but I need more to cover for the whole week. I have to wear socks in other peoples houses. Its a must.

The raincoat we bought me doesnt work. It is terrible. So today we are going to go look for a raincoat and rain pants. Hopefully I can find some good stuff. I didnt realize that it rained so much here. I bought a coat today and also a nice family in the branch i am serving in ordered me a cheap good coat off of the internet! so That should be coming soon.

I am doing pretty good, still homesick sometimes though. I hope I can pick up on the language soon. The transfer ends Oct 27th. I should be staying and we should be getting a new bean chan.

To all that have asked: for my entire mission, you should always send your letters to the mission home and they will forward the letters to me. Please, and thank you!

ALso to my friends, if you want.... I am wishing I had some music to listen to! So if you find some good church music and wanna make a good cd, you can and then send it to me! Thanks!

Thanks for all you do, I will talk to you next week.

Love, Miranda

Week Twelve.

Hey mom Im sorry that you didnt get a letter yesterday! We had a big ward activity that took up the whole day and also it was a holiday so we couldnt use computers because the college was closed. We moved our Pday to today so we could email. We had to go to the library today though because they computers were down at the college. I got my very first Japanese Library Card today! Yay! Ha ha...
Okay so this week also had its ups and downs. The beginning of the week was the bad part and the second half of the week was okay. On Tuesday nights we have institute and we are studying in 1 and 2 Corinthians. One of the members of the ward has an english lesson manual that he lets me and Sister Johnson use so thats nice. But at insitute I got asked to read a block of scripture so I did and then after the teacher asked what I thought about it but I couldnt even understand the scripture so I tried saying Oh Im sorry. I didnt understand the scripture. But everyone thought I was just not knowing how to say anything so they were all saying Oh Engish is okay! Eigo daijobu! And it was just making me freaked out because I am trying to speak Japanese to them but they cant understand me anyways! Everytime I have to speak on the spot without practice before hand I get so nervous and start to cry. So yes, I started crying in institute. It was embarrassing. But on the bright side, earlier that day we went streeting and talked to a lot of people! There was a guy sitting on the curbside and I said to Sister Johnson, I need to talk to that guy! So I went over to him with an Eikaiwa flyer and in very very bad Japanese said, Im from a nearby church! I am also an english teacher! We have english conversation class every week on wednesday. Here is a free flyer. Please come!   My companions chuckled because I said free flyer. Flyers are always free! I meant to say free eikaiwa ha. But that was cool. I did it all by myself even! He never came to eikaiwa though. Oh well.
The next day right from the beginning of the day it was bad. I woke up and started walking down the hall way to the bathroom which is a straight shot but I was blacking out. I figured, the bathroom is straight ahead! Ill be fine to just keep walking even though I cant see! But there is a door that seperates the hall from the kitchen which was the pathway I was taking and the door wasnt all the way pressed against the wall so I walked right into the side of the door and banged my head. It hurt so bad! I had two lines where the door hit my forehead all day and the days following as well. My head is still a little tender today even ha ha. But then the whole rest of that day I was just feeling poor thinking of how unclean I am and how I need to repent so much. I spent all day studying repentance and just feeling so low. I think the BOM prophets give good descriptions of the pain a person can feel from being full with sin. I felt how they felt. So it was a pretty sad day for me. But the next day I studied forgiveness and I feel as if I had a complete change of heart! The joy Alma the Younger talks about in Alma 36 is real! Also I love what Nephi says in 2 Ne. 4. The Book of Mormon is awesome! It was a good day to feel forgiven.
Also, on that same day we went to this place that is 2 hours away by car with one of the members to visit a referral she had for us. It was the nicest family! We visited a lady named Gamon san. Her husband died like a year ago and she has been so depressed since then. She lives with her parents and her mother has bad knees and has had some pretty crazy surgery so the member we went with said they have really been prepared by the Lord to be ready for the gospel. We didnt end up teaching a lesson but we did a lot of BRTing (Build Relationships of Trust) which is really really good. I spoke a lot of Japanese too and they in return tried speaking english to me! It was the only time this whole mission I have actually felt comfortable talking to a Nihonjin. I was able to tell them that at school I studied food and health and so then they started asking my all these questions about Oh what has more calories? A kilgram of flour, a kilogram of sugar, or a kilogram of rice? Ha ha I do not know the answer! Nor did I understand they were even asking me that. My companions have to translate everything for me. But I thought it was really awesome how they understood me enough to reply with a question like that! So thats cool! Later that night we also taught a lesson to Otaki san! Remember him? He is our only investigator. We taught him about God. He told us that he doesnt believe in God. He told us we could come back the next week though so we will keep teaching him. Tonight we are going to teach him about the BOM and I have to start! For companionship study this morning we practiced and I did so terrible and I think Sister Johnson was getting frustrated because I was going really slow and couldnt figure out what to say and I kept asking, What would be a good thing to say? Or how to do you say this? and Johnson Shimai said   Just say what you can! Its up to you!! I dont know. It made me get embarrassed though so I felt like crying again.. like always ha ha.
On the 11th was my half birthday! I am half way to 21 years old. On this day we had interviews with President Rasmussen so we traveled to Koriyama for that. It was fun to see some of the other missionaries in my zone. And to talk to President Rasmussen. He told me that a new sister will be coming to Aizu and so we will have 2 companionships of 2 people.
The next day was Saturday and so I got to watch conference! In the main meeting room is where the Nihonjin watched conference and the english speakers had to sit in the kitchen and watch the english version ha ha. Me, Sister Johnson, Elder Low, and Saito Kyodai were in the kitchen. Saito Kyodai is the member that gave us the english manuel at institute. He is also Pres Rasmussens first counselor. He is so nice and he speaks pretty good english so he always speaks english to me. Conference was way good. I am excited to get the conference talks. Every month we get the Liahona here which the nihonjin use as the ensign, new era, and friend all in one. Its awesome. Later on saturday night we went to the Saito familys house and ate dinner. We also did a surprise mogi lesson with them on Joseph Smith. Can you guess what happened to me since it was a surprise? Yep. When it was my turn to talk I froze and couldnt think of anything in english or japanese but managed to say something after my companions said it first and then I just repeated them. After the mogi was over I went to the bathroom and cried... Im such a baby! This week my goal is to get more confident so hopefully I can manage that.
The next day was Sunday which meant more conference! Yippee! It was the same procedure as Saturday. After conference we went to visit a lady that lives close to the church named Suzuki san. A week ago or so she donated a ton of fruit called kaki to the missionaries so we went to give her a thank you card. She isnt a member and when we went to say thanks she invited us in and we had Mugicha and did self introductions. Mugicha is the water of Japan pretty much. It is a barley based tea so it is okay and not against the Word of Wisdom. It is so gross! But I have to drink it every day because that is what they drink here! It is getting better... but I still dont like it. And when Suzuki san gave me a glass to drink the Mugicha, there was a booger and a hair in the cup!!!!!!!! Ew! But I had to be nice and just drink out of it anyways! Nasty nasty nasty.
Yesterday was Monday and like I said we were busy with a ward activity. We had an imoni kai which is kinda like a potluck. Lots of people from the community came and I had the opportunity to talk a little to a 16 year old girl named Nozomi chan. She was so cute! She has an english test coming up so we are going to go over to her house and help her prepare. We are going there tomorrow. We have plans to teach a lesson too.
After the imoni kai we went to the matsuri which is like a parade with the takegawa family. I love the Takegawa family! They remind me of my family so much. While in the car we were talking about being tired and I said, Taberu koto ato de, itsumo nemui desu. Which means after eating, im always tired. And the lady driving, Maria Shimai, understood me! It was awesome! It is kinda ridiculous how tiny things like that are what I triumph over... but its true. Plus I didnt get too scared to say it. So thats good too. Anyways, thats my week!
Thank you again for your support. My president said that my family is receiving so many blessings because Im on a mission, so youre welcome ;)


The shampoo and conditioner here is very expensive. But I can use dendo money for it... I dont know if you can send shamp and cond though via mail. You shoudl let me know and email about it next week. But I like sulfate free shamp and conditioner. I need razor refills as well. I have a venus 2 or something? I dont remember. I will have to look and email you next week. I would like my black pants too. the pants I brought on my mission dont fit anymore because I am too big. Also, I need those little socks for flats and more nylons but I think I could find those here probably. ALso i need mascara and foundation as well... but they have that here. It is just twice as expensive. But I can use dendo money. Oh and I need peanut butter M and Ms! Thanks!

Thank you so much!!!

And today I am going to buy a coat but if you find good rainpants you can send those. Also a few pairs of black tights maybe. I have black leggins but I cant wear them because i have to have boots to cover the end since they dont cover my feet. I will look for boots here too. Thanks!!

Week Eleven.

Dear mom,
I will get to listen to the conference talks this coming Sunday in English! I am excited to hear what the apostles have to say about member missionary work. I am glad you made a personal mission plan too. Member missionary work is very very important! Make sure to build good relationships with the neighbors so you can help them! I have faith that through your efforts, you will help someone get baptized and start on the path towards the temple. Have faith!!
Okay and about all the news, OH MY. So many things are happening in my family! I had a dream last night that all my cousins were getting engaged and lo and behold, my dream came true! Everyone is getting married! Sam, Susie, Isaac... everyone! Congrats to them! I am excited about Baileys new boy and I didnt know that Paige was pregnant until right now! That is so exciting!!! Congratulations to everyone.
We still dont have any investigators unfortunately. But we received some referrals and have one potential investigator that we found housing so maybe things will finally get started. I am currently serving in a branch. It is pretty small but everyone is really nice and I have met some great families that I feel I will be friends with forever even if I cant talk to them at all right now ha ha. The language is still coming like it always is. I can understand maybe 3% of what people are saying now ha ha but really I am still clueless. It doesnt stress me out really though. This week I made a pretty good Language Study Plan that I think will help me a lot. I am going to have more courage too and ask the members to help me with my Japanese and maybe do some mogi (role play) lessons with them. It is an assignment from the mission president anyways to do mogi lessons so we just need to schedule them into our week is all. Thanks for thinking of me in the temple!
The weather is cooling down a bit. It is getting a little windy. I need to buy a coat today probably. Today is Morita Shimais 22nd birthday so after emailing we are going to the mall and going shopping! Maybe I will find something good there.
So here is a recap of my week.
On last weeks P day after I already sent my email we had district P day and went bowling! It was really fun and I got to wear pants! Yay! And then after that we went to this sushi bar which was way fun. I tried lots of interesting food! Then we road our bikes up this terrible hill and walked up like 1000 steps to this haunted Buddhist shrine. It was so creepy and scary, but really fun! It was good exercise for sure ha ha. I had a good time bonding with my district. They are all so great!
So now it is October and Pres. Rasmussen asked the whole Sendai Mission to do a special sacrifice of something we really love for the next 3 months so we can get a new investigator every week and hopefully see 25 baptisms in the next 3 months. My sacrifice is bread. It is so hard! The bread here is so good!
On Wednesday I taught kids eikaiwa again. That will always be my assignment. Morita Shimai and I taught them body parts and we did Head Shoulders Knees and Toes with them and they seemed to have a good time. I like eikaiwa because I get to speak English! I also experienced my first misting on this day. It wasnt quite raining but it was still wet outside. It seriously felt like it was misting. It was kinda nice!
On Thursday we went and taught Hiro san again. I dont remember if I referred to her as Sato san or Hiro san in my last email, but it is the same person. She was a lot more genki this time. But I dont know if we will really keep teaching her because she has schizophrenia and cant really comprehend the covenants that she would be making if she got baptized. We taught her lesson one and I shared a bit about the BOM and Jesus Christ. We are going to teach her again this coming week and this time with a member. I will let you know how it goes.
That same day that we taught Hiro san I had a cool experience with my companions. Earlier we were looking at this big map of Aizu and we didnt know where to go housing that day so we layed the map out at prayed together about where we should go. Then we took some time to think and on the count of three we pointed at the area we thought about going to. After a cycles of doing this we were able to agree on an area so later that night we went housing in that area. We met a potential investigator named Otaki san. He was busy when we met him but he said we could come back later which is a big deal in Japan! We will go back this week to see if we can teach him. We also met a guy from spain when we were riding our bikes home and he spoke english! He wasnt interested in Christianity because he was Shinto but he was really nice!
On Friday we had Zone Meeting in Yamagata. It was so nice to see my whole zone. Jones Choro from my MTC district was there and it was comforting to see him and the other elders from my doki. We all shared about the progress we had and apparently their investigators are crazy too ha ha.
Yesterday we went to the Koriyama for church. It was testimony meeting and I bore my testimony. Oh man it was so scary! But lots of people told me good job after church so that was good. I also went to Young Womens and shared an experience about tithing. It was really simple. All it was was When I was a college student, I didnt have money. But I knew that tithing was important. So I payed my tithing. Then I received a miracle. I received two jobs. After that I had money. Ha ha... really simple!
Okay so I have a BOM question. Right now I am reading about the interpretation of Lehis vision and in chapter 11 it says that the Spirt of the Lord was teaching Nephi about the Tree of Life and showing him the vision. But then in verse 11 and 12 Nephi asks to know the interpretation of it and the Spirit says, Look! So he looks but the spirit disappears! And then Nephi sees the Heavens open and an angel comes down and ends up teaching Nephi the rest of the interpretation and then some. Who is this angel?! Do we know? At first I thought, is it Jesus Christ?? But I wasnt so sure about that. Do you know?
Thank you for your prayers and your thoughts. Congrats again to my family! I love you all! This week was much better and I am getting happier every day. I love you all so much!
Love, Miranda

PICTURES 

 SERVICE 

 CHINS OF DOOM!

 heart attacking the elders door to tell them good luck with their sacrifices and thanks for district p day

MIRANDA BEING MIRANDA AND RUBBING OFF ON HER COMPANIONS.

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!