Week Twenty-seven.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I will first start by telling dad what my study habits are with the language so I dont forget this time! I saved all my books from the MTC and brought them with me. With have this one Yellow book that we call the Pikachu and it has a ton of grammar patterns in there and it explains it pretty well. I will read about a grammar pattern and then try and practice it as much as I can. That has proven to be the most helpful, but sometimes I am not very diligent at really using it. Besides that, my language study time is usually just focused on preparing for lessons we have or messages I have to share or mogis I have coming up. Just practice with teaching the lessons in Japanese pretty much. I can teach simply in Japanese but its setting appointments and understanding peoples needs and learning about peoples backgrounds that I cant get. Understanding other people is just KILLER. Impossible! Like for example, we went to a day service center this last week and spent some time talking with some super old people. Yes their Japanese is hard to understand because they are old, but when they were asking me questions I could not understand one thing! So I kept saying, Im sorry I cant understand Japanese! And they would just keep asking me questions! So then I said Please speak slower! And when they would speak way slow I couldnt understand the words they were using. I felt so bad because I knew they wanted to talk to me but I just had to keep saying sorry sorry sorry I cant UNDERSTAND YOU! I was happy to leave that place. Sometimes Sister Tui and I try having only japanese days. But we fail at it. It is so much easier and first nature to speak english to each other. We are able to express ourselves a lot better and feel the spirit a lot better that way... so thats what we do. I wrote you a letter this morning mom about how the language is coming so youll just have to read that. But I suppose it is coming more than it was coming before... I dont really know. I appreciate that girls email that you sent me with the language learning suggestions. The thing is I am in a rut where if I come home not knowing the language super good, oh well. And if I come home and I do know the language good, cool. All I know is I am American and I eat meat and potatoes and caseroles and having that American pride prevents me from feeling stress and I hate stress!

This last week we did a lot of member visits. Sister Tui and I ended up making like 3 or 4 batches of cookies because we kept messing up... but we delivered the cookies to members with a little thank you card that we made. They were all nice and usually invited us in and then gave us food so that was awesome! That took up most of our time. It snowed again this week a few times so we had to walk a few times and that takes forever. Sister Tui also got sick this week so that kinda put a damper on the work. She kinda has what I had awhile ago... stuffy nose... stuffy ear... just, sick.

On other news, Shoko chan cancelled her appointment so we didnt even end up teaching her. Another week went by and still no investigators. The bad thing is I am so scared of teaching that sometimes I take a deep breath of relief when we dont have to plan for lessons! This next week will probably be a lot of housing. Oh housing... dreaded housing. Its gotta be done I guess.

Um, I dont think there is much else going on over here in Aizu. This whole week is supposed to be a lot of snow. Today it was kinda sunny so the snow is melting a bit, but after it melts it always snows right after. As of right now the snow isnt piling up too bad. I heard that this winter is really weak compared to others. Its been windy lately so it feels just like home.. I miss you Idaho!

I am glad to hear all about how everyone is doing. Everyone seems so happy. I have been worried that while I am gone someone is gonna die or something... please dont die.

Abby wants me to attend UW when I get home. She sent me an email saying that a ton of cute missionaries just got home. I made her promise that she CANNOT get married. I already have missed like 5 cousins weddings, my brothers, and a handful of friends. My little sister CANT get married. If she gets engaged, make her wait mom. Just one more year.

All right, thats it for my news! I miss you all SOOOOOOOOOOO much you have no idea. Keep going to church! Read the Book of Mormon!

Love Miranda

Week Twenty-six.

Hello,
Yay I hit my 6 month mark! On Feb 6 it will be my ONE YEAR LEFT mark! Wow I cant believe I made it 6 months! I never thought I would get to this point.
This last week I saw a baptism!! 2 of the elders in my district had one of their investigators get baptized. His name was Hattori san. Elder Palmer was the one who baptized him. Elder Palmer is from Utah and he goes home in April I think and it was his first time seeing a baptism on his mission. Almost 2 years in Japan and it was his FIRST time! Im tellin ya, missionary work is something else here! It was a great experience though. When Hattori san got baptized it was so wonderful. I couldnt understand the talks very well at the baptism but I still felt the spirit. After the baptism a member drove us back to Aizu (the baptism was in Koriyama) but on the way home we stopped for dinner. It was a fun time, but I was very frustrated because I couldnt communicate with anyone because I couldnt understand them.
My Japanese has improved from the MTC but I am realizing that it probably should be better than it is. A couple weeks ago my district leader called me and told me he was concerned about my progress in the language so we had to have a talk about Language Study Plans and different ways I can learn the language. It was embarrassing! My companion and I just laughed and had to make fun of the situation so I didnt feel so bad ha. But I do know I need to try harder. It is difficult to study from books. I can get my point across usually and I can teach lessons in Japanese but understanding is still a big struggle. I never understand church. Never ever! And I cant understand our missionary meetings when we plan things or have district meetings or we have to report to the ward mission leader. I always have my companion relay the information to me after the meetings. She helps me a lot. She can understand quite a bit. So thats how that is going! Sometimes I get frustrated and just end up quitting and not talking or I just do something else. Hm I dont know if I am behind schedule or doing okay. Ive been on my mission for 6 months now and still not anywhere near comfortable in the language. I guess I will just have to be patient more and work harder.
This week we didnt find a new investigator but we did find a Potential Investigator! It was a member referral. Her name is Shoko. She is 19 and has a lot of interest in learning English (oh imagine that!) and so we are going to start the Free English Program we do. Her mom is a Less Active member so we are hoping that through these lessons she will have an interest in the gospel too. She knows that we are missionaries and that we teach about church stuff and she seemed to be okay with that so maybe she will have a greater interest than we think. Our appointment is on Tuesday. As for the Arai family and Hirano san, they are drops. We will teach them when they ask us to do a lesson but we are not making appointments with them.
Besides that, yesterday was the transfer announcement! Sister Tui and I are staying companions in Aizu. Sister Morita (my trainer) is being transferred to Morioka and we are getting a new sister in our apartment named Sister Gass. I will miss Sister Morita so much. She has become one of my best friends. Last night we were talking in our beds about all of our memories just crying and crying! I will miss her a lot.
Thanks for the wedding pictures that you sent! Everyone looks so nice! And thanks for writing letters. Dad, I got your letter and I am writing you back today!
It is so so so so so so so cold here. There is lots of snow and we cant ride bikes right now. It is very slick even to walk so sometimes we slip and fall and its embarrassing but oh well! I heard that February is worse for the winter but by the time March rolls around it starts getting warmer.
Thanks everyone for all you do! I love you all!
Love Sister Miranda Robertson

Week Twenty-five.

Dear everyone,

First off... OMEDETOU GOZAIMASU! Congratulations on your wedding Isaac and Kandace! I thought about you two the whole day. I think I calculated that you probably got married when it was around midnight here so I wasnt awake for the wedding... but I was awake when you were having your reception and I was thinking of all the fun everyone was having. I got a bit homesick, but I gotta keep going. I am glad I have another sister now! Kandace Robertson! Ooh that sounds good.

I am excited to see pictures. Please send me A LOT!

Oh one of the ladies in my branch told me a story about how there is all this crazy stuff happening with a family in Utah right now. A stake president went crazy and killed his wife and then his son killed himself later on? Do you know about this? I thought it was crazy. We really are in the last days.

Good news, I bought a camera! Now I can send some good pictures home and document what Im doing over here. Mom, do you upload the pictures I send home? Can you even do that? Before I left for my mission I remember that I broke the printer... sorry. So I dont even know if you can scan things into the computer anymore.

Recently I also finished 3 Nephi finally and set some goals! My goals arent anything special. Most of them are just like about developing certain attributes and different missionary work goals.

Lately it feels like we havent been doing too much because guess what, we now have (drum roll please...) ZERO INVESTIGATORS! Welcome to missionary work in Japan everyone! We have been teaching people with our family english program where we teach English for 30 min and then the gospel for 30 min but at zone meeting this week we learned that unless they have a sincere desire to learn more about the gospel and not just English, you cant count them as investigators. So yep the people we were teaching are definitely not investigators. Yesterday Tui Shimai and I set some pretty good goals to find a new Q this week. Oh we call New Investigators New Qs because in Japanese the words for investigator is Kyudoshya and so we just shorten that word to Kyu which sounds like Q! So if I ever say that... now you know what it means. We have been doing a lot of mogis lately though. Mogis are when we teach the members the lessons and ask them to pretend to be a Q. We also have had a few meal appointments here and there...but the work is quite slow.

Oh mine and Tui Shimais big project right now is translating the member record with all the Less Actives from Kanji to Romaji. Kanji is the Japanese characters like this 姉妹 and romaji is when I spell Japanese words out with the english alphabet. It has been taking forever!

Besides that, nothing else is really going on. I just am way curious to hear about the wedding!

I love everyone lots and lots!

Love Sister Miranda Robertson

Week Twenty-four.

Hello everyone!
Happy New Year! I hope you had a good one. My new year was a little different than the fun party I am used to with my friends and family.
On New Years Eve we spent all day cleaning our apartment-every little crack and corner. It was actually really fun and relaxing. It felt good to get organized. On New Years Day, the sisters and the zone leaders went to the castle that is in Aizu and we walked around and took some pictures. We also went to a shrine (that I learned was actually Shinto not Buddhist) and did the whole traditional ritual that they do. You walk up to it, throw a coin in, ring the bell twice, bow twice, clap twice, say a prayer, bow again, then walk away! It was kinda fun and way cool. Sister Tui got pictures but my camera is still broken and I havent bought a new one yet so sorry... I guess we are all going to miss out on this time of my mission. After that we all had lunch with the Saito family in our branch. And then after that we had a dinner appointment with the Takahashis! We ate so much food! Because of our appointments we didnt have time to read 3 Nephi and set goals. I still want to accomplish that so I have still been reading in 3 Ne but I still havent set goals (besides lose weight!).
So I was reading in 3 Nephi Chapter 21 yesterday in the Book of Mormon and the last verse says,
 "And they shall go out from all nations; and they shall anot go out in bhaste, nor go by flight, for I will go before them, saith the Father, and I will be their rearward."
I knew that this verse was talking about all the missionaries that are coming from all around the world to help gather all of Gods children but I was kinda confused about the part that said they shall not go out in haste etc. I thought, why wouldnt we want these missionaries to get out there quick?! But then I thought of it differently. Maybe it is saying, "All the missionaries will come from all around the world and they will not go HOME quickly or leave because they are fleeing from a difficult situation because I, Jesus Christ, will go before them and lead the way and I will also be behind them protecting them especially when they are trying to retreat back home because they feel defeated."
I looked up the definitions of haste, flight, and rearward (or rearguard) and came up with my very own "Miranda Robertson Translation". I thought, Hey yeah. That is true. So many missionaries get out on their missions, realize it is hard, and want to go home. But, Christ knows how important this work is so he is on every side of us trying to get us to stay out there! He is in front of us, behind us, on our right hand, and on our left. We have the best support in the world so lets just do this! Lets find those people!
Speaking of finding, Sister Tui and I really want to get out and find a new investigator this week. We only have 2 investigators really. One doesnt have interest in the gospel at all, and the other is a bunch of wild kids that dont listen to anything we say. So we kinda arent seeing any success right now. We had high hopes for the Arai Family because they are such a good family but we really want to teach the dad WITH the children instead of teaching 5 crazy kids, most of them under the age of 8 years old that cant even be baptized. On Wednesday when we see that family next we are going to try to get to the bottom of this and see if they are really that interested in our message or not.
As for our other investigator, we are going to teach her english and then for the message part, Sister Tui and I are going to try a mogi approach and just ask her to let us practice our Japanese with her and after we share our message she can give us tips on how to improve our Japanese. Buuutttt that way she is still hearing the lessons and hopefully she will be touched by the spirit! He he tricky, eh?
That is really it for this week. Next week I am sure I will have a lot to report on because we are hoping to finally GET OUT of our apartment and find a new investigator that has real interest in our MESSAGE and not just ENGLISH!!!!!!!! Now that the Holidays are over we are hoping to really get some work done.
I love all of you so so much! Thanks for your letters and prayers.
Love, Sister Miranda Robertson