Week Forty-four.

Hey there mama san! Ha ha I laughed when you titled your email to me, "Miranda san" Since Im your daughter, chan would probably be better. San is a little professional! But it was cute! Mi chan would probably be the most accurate Japanese nickname for me if you wanted to know ha ha. Cute.

So last week me and Sister Luk had quite the adventure with our investigator Hitoshi san. A while ago we texted him asking him when he wanted to have his next english/church lesson with us and he said, "can we do it will we look at cows?" and we laughed and replied and said, "sorry, your cows are kinda far for us and we only have bikes!" (Hitoshi san doesnt even live in Akita. He lives an hour or so away in a city called Oga) So then he replied and said, "Okay. Can we do it in Akita while we look at cats??" And we laughed even harder and replied, "Yeah sure! When do you wanna do it?" And we set up an appointment for this last Saturday! We kinda thought he was joking or something about the cat thing because we didnt know where you could go to just look at cats and teach a lesson at the same time. But then Hitoshi san came to our Tsuchizaki Eikaiwa on Friday and handed me and Sister Luk all these papers that he printed off the internet about places you can go to look at cats in Akita! We were laughing so hard. Typical Hitoshi san! He loves cats! So anyways, the next day in the afternoon we met at the church and biked a while to get to this cat cafe that was in town! I didnt really know what to expect exactly but when we walked into the cafe there were cats EVERYWHERE. Probably like 16 cats. There was like a giant cat house toy thing in the middle of the room and on the sides of the room were tables where the customers could sit and you could order drinks or little cakes just like a cafe if you wanted! But the cats were everywhere roaming free! They would jump up on our table or our laps and there were toys you could use to play with the cats. It was so funny and so cool. America needs cat cafes! We were able to teach an English lesson but we ran out of time for the church message so we planned to teach a short lesson later that night after a sports activity that we had planned.
Our sports activity was so fun. I got a pretty gnarly bruise on my knee from playing basketball. My district leader tripped me! Can you believe that?! Ha ha. But lots of people came. Hitoshi san came and so did Natsuko chan! Our funny ex-communicated dancing carp friend Tamura san came, like always. Also the elders had 1 investigator come and 2 potential investigators come, one of them being Justin from the Philippians! He has been way busy with school so we havent seen him around lately but he came! I found out that he is moving back to the Phillipians soon :(
After the sports activity it was kinda hard to teach Hitoshi san because we didnt have a joint and it was kinda in a weird setting and it was late. We ALMOST had a lesson. So close! We invited him to church though and he said he couldnt come in time for church but that he would come after work so we could talk and finally do our lesson. We waited forever but then he texted us and said that one of his cows escaped so work was going to go long. Ha ha ha I was bummed but it was also really funny. I mean come on! A Japanese cowboy that loves looking at cats and who gave us a live poisonous carp as a present?! I am pretty sure I have the coolest investigator ever.

The BEST thing happened to our companionship this week. I mean, being able to look at cats with Hitoshi san was pretty great, but this is even better! Saturday night I texted our other investigator Kai kun inviting him to not only Sacrament meeting but to Sunday School too. He had a lot of questions about what Sunday School was and so I had to explain it really really simply by saying kids your age all sit in a room in chairs and there is a teacher that will stand at the front of the room like school and teach about church things like prayer and God and everyone talks together and discusses. He replied and said, "Oh prayer? I have been doing that a lot lately!!" HES BEEN PRAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy! I replied and said, "Really?! I am so happy! And I know God is really happy too." But after that I went and took a shower and when I got out of the shower my companion said that Kai kun texted again and he said, "I want to learn, but I also kinda want to take a break. So I probably wont come tomorrow." I was SO sad. I thought he meant he wanted to tak ea break from the lessons and from learning about Christianity but my companion said she thought he meant that he just is probably tired from school and sports so he probably just wants to relax on Sunday but not stop the lessons. So that put me a little at ease. But anyways, on Sunday we went to church and in our branch we have RS and Priesthood first, then Sunday School, then Sacrament Meeting. Well I walked out of Relief Society and in the hallway is Kai kun! HE CAME TO CHURCH! Not just sacrament, but Sunday School too!! We ended up teaching him in a seperate room with the elders and some members about the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost. After that, we all went to Sacrament meeting and the talks were all about the priesthood and he had no clue what was going on so I hope he didnt have a bad experience. But I think it helps him to see his friends from school participating and setting good examples. But it was such a miracle that he came to church. He had a basketball game the day before and was travelling all day and he even got a black eye from his game and he still came to church! Amazing. Truly amazing.

Things are going good with our investigators. Out of the 3 companionships working in Akita, me and Sister Luk are pretty much putting up the numbers like nobodys business! We had 3 lessons total in the last 6 weeks. Woooo hoo! And our investigators are investigating for the RIGHT REASONS! Miracle miracle miracle! But.... I think the zone leaders are going to make us pass our investigators to the Elders. But I DONT WANT TO! Maybe that is selfish but I have a good reason! We tried passing Hitoshi san once when I first got to Akita and he stopped meeting with the missionaries for 6 weeks after that. And Elder Nishiie my district leader has a good relationship with Hitoshi san now,  but Elder Nishiie is probably getting transferred in one week! And the other elder doesnt really have a good relationship with him I dont think. He doesnt really talk to him very much when we have activities. Same with Kai kun. I think that me and Sister Luk are better for them. We have a way good relationship with them! So we will see what happens...

But thank you mom for your prayers. I can definitely see a difference in the missionary work here. I love you!
Love Miranda

Happiness.

Cat Cafe!

Week Forty-three.

Konbanwa everyone! That means good evening, but I guess it is really really early in the morning for everyone in America... so in that case, ohayo gozaimasu!
First off, thank you SO much for sending all the Scottish things for our Eikaiwa party. It was so fun and everyone loved the Scottish room! I think that Lita Shimai posted pictures on Facebook of the party but I will attach some pictures today of it as well. Super Eikaiwa was pretty fun. We started off with everyone in the same room and we pretended we were on an airplane. Me, Elder Nishiie, and Sister Stice were the flight attendants and we put on a little skit with the emergency procedures that the airplane people always do. It was pretty ghetto but everyone was laughing even though they couldnt understand what we were saying because it was all in English. Anyways, eventually we had Elder Earl come out and pretend to be a hijacker and he made everyone go to a different country and thats how we got people into groups and into the different rooms that showcased different countries. In one room we had Scotland, in another we had Hong Kong, and in another we had Tonga. For the Scotland room, me and Sister Morgan talked about our connections with Scotland so we showed pictures of our ancestors and talked about how and why they came to America from Scotland. Then we talked about our family crests and plaid. Then after that we talked about clothing and music and dancing. I was able to take a few moves from that video you sent me and from the instructions Abby sent me of the dance she knows to make up my own dance. Sister Morgan played her tin whistle while I did a little Scottish jig for the different groups. Then I taught them the dance! I was surprised at how well they did especially for being taught in English! But my Scottish jig was nothing compared to the huge Tongan dance! Lita Shimai got all her huge Tongan boy friends that live in Akita to come and do this way cool dance. It was so fresh! I will attach a picture of that too. All in all, it was a really fun activity!
So this week we were gone two days in Morioka for splits with the Sister Training Leaders so we didnt have much time to dendo in our own area but even though time was limited we saw amazing miracles this week in Akita.
We went to visit Natsuko chans mommy and give her brownies because she helped out a lot at our gyoza party awhile ago. It was a great visit! We were able to talk to her in her genkan (entryway) for a little bit and she told us she wants to do more activities with us and spend more time talking and hanging out and she invited us back to her home to hang out! She likes us!! Maybe this means we can finally start teaching Natsuko chan now! And not only her, but maybe her mom too! This is the happiest news I have received on my mission thus far. I know it can get confusing in my emails who everyone is, but just know this-Natsuko chan is the reason I was called to serve in the Japan Sendai Mission. She is it. I know it! She is who I was always meant to find and to teach and to help! I love her so so so much and even though she is only 16 years old, she is my best friend in Japan. Please pray that I can teach her someday. I begged President Rasmussen not to transfer me this next transfer because I know I need to stay in Akita and help Natsuko chan. He said Im not transferring :) So I will keep you updated on how things go with that. My beloved Natsuko chan is actually in the church right now with me but in another room studying for the tests she has this week. I am basically dying even just being in a different room than her! Its like a relationship or something! Its so weird! I just love her so much!
The other big miracle of the week is, WE HAVE A NEW INVESTIGATOR! My first new investigator in Akita! I have been in Akita for 3 months now and we finally found a new investigator! But the other great thing is that our new investigator is Kai kun! Remember him? He is 16 and I met him playing basketball after I felt impressed to invite him after seeing his name in our phone. Recently we have made a really really good relationship and I just love that lil kid so much. He is a good egg. He is so naive and pure and just a little cutie! Oh that Kai kun! I just wanna pinch his little cheeks! Okay now I am getting a little creepy... but the point is I love him in a Jesus Christ kind of way, k? But anyways, this is what happened. He came to super Eikaiwa and at the end me and him were talking and I asked if he had any time to spare to listen to my message of happiness and he said that he was free on Sunday so I invited him to come to sacrament meeting! I told him that my Mission President was going to be at church (which he was because we had interviews with him. I passed!) and I told Kai kun I wanted him to meet President! Then I had my branch president simply explain what the sacrament was and what sacrament meeting is like and he too invited him to come and participate and Kai kun said YESSS! When Sunday came I was so nervous he wasnt going to show up, but he did! And after sacrament meeting, Pres. Rasmussen was able to talk to Kai kun a little and you could tell Kai kun just really respected him and thought he was just the best guy ever. Everyone in the branch was fellowshipping Kai kun all over the place. Both old and young. Well anyways, we were really crunched for time because after sacrament we had training with the APs and also interviews with President but me and Luk Shimai really really really wanted to teach Kai kun and we had about 15 minutes so we asked him if we could just talk to him really quick with all the other youth and share a simple message and he was okay with it so we taught a super simple lesson on God and prayer and even though this stuff seems so simple to us, it was like a whole new world opened up to him. He knows nothing about God and prayer so he learned a lot in just 15 minutes! At the end of our lesson he told us that he really understands why prayer is important and he committed to pray this week to know whether or not God exists and whether or not our message is true. He seemed really excited to try! He also just kept saying how cool christian church is and he said he was really happy and felt a big feeling.
Do you realize how big this is for me?! And for him?! And for Akita?! And for Japan?!?! And for God?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?! THIS IS HUGE! KAI KUN IS AN INVESTIGATOR!!! I am so happy! I have been talking about him 24/7 ever since the lesson ended. Oh I am so happy :)
Oh and I cant forget this piece of information! We taught Hitoshi san a lesson this week! He is the investigator that gave us a giant fish the other week. It was a pretty good lesson! He has sincere interest in our message and I just know he will accept it! Once he understands the spirit a little more there is no way he will be able to deny it!
So yeah, you could say it was a pretty good week in Akita :)
God is good.
Love Sister Miranda Robertson

PS- Here are the annoying questions of the week... 1) I sent a letter to Abby but I know she moved so I just sent it to our home address. Please forward it on! 2) I am pretty sure my blood type is A+ but can you double check for me? In my wallet in my room somewhere is my blood type card. Thank youuu!

PPS- MCKENZIE OSWALD IS ENGAGED?! Noooooo another one down! And another really impuortant person to me whos wedding I am going to miss! Bummer!!!

PICTURES!!

we went to the zoo today. this was the "humankind" exhibit

KAI KUN!!!

tongans!

 family picture! Our "mother" in the middle-Sister Morita, and from left to right First Oldest-Sister Luk, 2nd oldest daughter-me, 4th oldest daughter-sister arashiyama, and to the left of sister morita is sister konishi who is my mission "aunt"! Sister Morita and Sister Konishi got trained by the same person so they are "sisters"The 3rd oldest daughter of Morita is not in Morioka zone so she isnt in our picture.. but her name is sister kanno!

 we went to hitoshi sans farm a few weeks ago! me and the cows! oh and it might be kind of weird to see me with a mask but it is normal to wear those in japan. they are super clean and healthy like that.

super eikaiwa! scotland room

Week Forty-two

Dear kazoku ya tomodachi,
(Family and friends!)
I am so so glad I got to talk with you this morning! It was so fun to see my WHOLE family and the new additions too! The little babies are so cute!
Everyone looks so happy and it was fun to listen to you talk about American things :)
I know I already mentioned some of these stories when we talked on google hangout but for the blogs sake I thought I would put my stories in writing.
So the dancing carp and the cowboy. You know must of this story already but I left out a few details. So we have this investigator named Hitoshi san. He is 33 year old but pretty much still just a little kid. He is just the cutest. Every week he comes to our Eikaiwa class and after Eikaiwa he usually brings sometime strange to show us. Its not strange to him, but very strange to me! 2 weeks ago he brought two cats and one of them actually got away and is now roaming the streets of Akita somewhere... it was funny because he didnt even care. He just said, oh well so is life! and moved on to the next cat. Last week we walk outside to his car and this time he whips out two giant carps. I guess he went fishing earlier that day and wanted to show us what he caught. The fish were still alive when he showed them to us. He took both the fish out and gave one to the sister missionaries and one to another Eikaiwa student member whose name is Tamura san. Tamura san is pretty interesting... hes actually an excommunicated member but he still comes to all our activities. Well speaking of this Tamura san guy, he really likes to dance and we have been begging him to show us what kind of dance he does so in the  church parking lot he turned on some music on his phone and started dancing. It was like a mix between ballet and hip hop and traditional Japanese stuff. It was kind of cool and he looked happy but he wasnt necessarily the best dancer Ive ever seen so it was funny to watch. But next thing you know someone yells, CARP! and hands him the carp and he just keeps on dancing! I got a movie and some pictures, dont worry. But just imagine this! An excommunicated member poorly dancing in the church parking lot after english class with a carp. I never thought I would ever see something like that in my life, especially on a mission. In Japan. It was so funny. I love my mission!
You already know the story of us sisters trying to cut up our carp with a dull kitchen knife and a box cutter... we werent very successful. Plus we learned that carp can be poisonous and it is actually really hard to make food with them because they have so many bones. Good thing it was garbage day the next day! Now our little carp is in fish heaven.
For those of you that dont know, we tried to gut the fish in our kitchen sink but couldnt really do it. I will show you all the movie in 8 months! Its a good one.
But there is Hitoshi san for you... hes a great guy and we NEED him in the church! He would add so much to the Mormon Japan culture! I wonder what he will bring next week...
Before I change the subject to something else, Hitoshi san invited us to his farm last week. Yep, he is a Japanese cowboy! He raises cows and then sends em to the slaughter house. He loves his job, but also hates it. He really likes animals so being with the cows is so happy for him, but when he sends them away it is pretty sad for him. He will email us on our phone sometimes asking us our opinion on raising cows for meat. Its cute! I guess I dont really have an opinion on the matter. But I like to eat meat!
This last week we went to Morioka for zone training meeting. I saw two miracles while I was there! So the first one is this- Sister Luk lost her CTR ring in the Morioka Sisters apartment so we were searching for it forever but couldnt find it. We said a prayer together that we would be able to find it and then we kept searching and we found it! Seems pretty simple, but we were both really grateful! The next miracle was when we were on our way back to Akita me and Sister Luk were sitting in the train station eating ice cream waiting for our train to come when 4 elders from our zone walked by saying that one of them lost their ticket to go back to their area. We felt bad and said, we will pray for you! because thats just what you say as a missionary whether you really pray or not. But I actually felt pretty bad for them so I turned to Sister Luk and said, hey! Lets actually pray! So we said a quiet prayer together and right after we opened our eyes, maybe 10 seconds later, the elders come walking by saying, we found the ticket! And we said, Whoa! We just finished praying for you! And they said, Really? You should keep praying more often!! So yeah, there you go! 2 Miracles in Morioka. That could be the title of a book someday.
Yesterday in church I learned a lot in Primary. I like primary because it is simple Japanese so I actually learn and feel the spirit. There are 3 Tongan boys that come to primary and their family isnt super active in the church so they dont know very much about church stuff. One of the boys is 9 I think so he has been baptized but I asked him who baptized him and he said his dad. I told him that his dad could baptize him because he had the priesthood but the little boy had never heard the word priesthood before so I told him it was Gods power and that he could have it too someday when he turns 12. I told him when you have the priesthood you can pass the sacrament and he said, Oh like Tiuana Kyodai! (Tiuana Kyodai is another Tongan in our branch. He is Lita Shimais husband) and I said, yeah just like him! So he was really excited about it. Then I said, after you got baptized, do you remember when you received the Holy Ghost? And he said, Oh yeah that thing that is inside of me! My moms friend told me that if you dont listen to the Holy Ghost then little by little you cant hear it anymore. So you have to listen. I was in awe at this little boy! He doesnt know very much, but he remembers these adults around them and their examples and the things that they have taught him. It just goes to show that people are watching us even when we dont expect it. Later in Primary the Primary teacher asked this same little boy to say the prayer but he didnt want to so he told his brother to do it, but he didnt want to either so they both kinda fought a little until I said, Who wants to choose the right? and the both instantly raised their hands high and said, I want to say it! Pick me! Then they did the Japanese verision of rock, paper, scissors to see who would get to say the prayer. I thought it was the cutest thing ever, but we can also learn something from this. I would hope that me and all of you, when faced with a decision, will raise our hand to righteousness. Remember the blessings you receive from choosing the right, even if you dont want to choose the right at first! Just like these 2 little boys. God will always provide a blessing for doing the right thing.

Before I go, I want to make a request to all who read this. I already requested this of my family, but if you have the time please send me a hand written or typed letter of your conversion story. To convert means to change something from one thing to another. When you become converted to God you change from your natural ways to someone who follows Christ. If you have been changed I would love to hear your story. I know some of you got baptized at 8 and some at a later time in your life or some of you havent been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints before, but I believe we are all converted in some way and it doesnt have to be from one big giant moment, but rather a series of moments that you have experienced throughout your life. I would love to hear your stories, and if it is okay I would like to share them with people I am teaching so they can see they arent alone! Your story could help somebody in Japan with their conversion.

I love you all so much! 愛しています!
Love, Miranda

Week Forty-one.

Dear Mommy!

Thanks for the update! I bet it was fun having grandma and grandpa over for a little bit. I didnt know that grandpa had a broken rib, or at least I dont remember that! I hope he is okay and is healing okay. That is really scary! Hey, I sent a letter to grandma but since they are kind of homeless right now I just sent it to our house. Did it happen to get to her while they were visiting?

That is so exciting about our stake! I kinda remember a Camille from the YSA activities, but not really... but good luck to her! Dad told me that Bishop Fairwell talks about me every Sunday. Whaaat? He does?! I got an email from him once which was a great help to me when I received it but I havent heard from him since. He is a good bishop even though I dont know him that well. I get an email from the stake maybe once a month or once every two months. They used to send letters but now I just get emails from them.

Thanks for mailing me a package! It will be way helpful for the big Eikaiwa event we are doing. I have a printer here too so if there is anything information you want to send about Scotland or recipes or anything like that I can print it off just fine.

Oh so you are friends with Ryujiro Ishida now on Facebook? Hm interesting! Ha ha... yeah he is a recent convert that moved away from Akita. He is 18 right now but I guess you could say I convinced him to serve a mission earlier than he had planned... He wants to earn money, learn english, then go on a mission, then go to America. He... he is a good guy! It is funny that you say he is quite the character. I think so too.

May sounds very busy for you, and it is pretty busy for me too! We have Zone Training Meeting this week then Mothers Day. Then President Rasmussen is coming to interview the Akita missionaries after that, and we have our super eikaiwa activity and we are doing a sports activity too. Then before you know it it will be transfers! But this transfer is 7 weeks instead of 6 for some reason, so the transfer call is June 1.

Mom I will definitely write more paper things for you when I have the time. I might have some time today to get started on that! I am glad that the paper about your "mom face" was the very last one your read. I think Heavenly Father helped out on making that happen :)

So here is my update!

We didnt teach any lessons this week unfortunately. Every week we make goals about how many lessons we will have or how many referrals we will get or how many less active lessons we will teach and things like that. Well, this last week our results were all ZEROS. Usually we have a few 1s here and there but not this week. Too bad. We tried to teach a lesson to Yurie chan but she is just so busy that it is hard. Hopefully this week we will teach her.

We had a big gyoza party last Tuesday with all the youth! Do you know what Gyoza is? It is this super delicious little thing with meat inside. I dont know how to explain it. I just know how to eat it. But Natsuko chan (the girl I really want to teach but her parents wont let her listen to the lessons) is mostly Chinese and she makes way good gyoza so we had a big party at the church and Natsuko chan made the food! But what is even better is her MOM came and helped and so me and Sis Luk were able to talk with her mom a little! Her mom is more comfortable speaking Mandarin Chinese and I just so happen to have a companion from Hong Kong so they were able to bond and talk Chinese to each other! Yeah! Maybe we can teach Natsuko chan AND her mom now! Yip!

The party ended up being really successful. We had lots of youth come. But here is the highlight of that party for me... so I am not sure if I told you about Kai kun or not but let me do a quick recap of his story.

So I had been in Akita for maybe a week when we had our first Zone Training Meeting. ZTM is in Morioka which is like a 5 hour train ride so while I was sitting on the train I was going through our cell phone and trying to organize all the phone numbers in there because we had a TON. Well because I was still new to the area I didnt know ANYONE in the phone but as I was going through names I felt impressed to ask about about a person named Kai Yokoyama. Sister Tuttle told me that he was a boy that her and her old companion met once at night at a bike rack as they were leaving a gym. They talked to him for only 5 minutes, exchanged numbers, and rode away. Sister Tuttle said she hadnt talked to him since and that was 5 months ago. Well a few days later we had a sports activity and maybe 2 hours before the activity I felt like I should text Kai kun and invite him. Tuttle Shimai said I dont think he will come but you can text him! Well, I did text him. And he DID come! And from that activity on, he has been coming to EVERYTHING! We have become pretty good friends. 

Okay now fast forward to the gyoza party. Kai kun came and I was talking to him and I had a thought to ask him if he wanted to take the lessons. Before I had a change to rethink it and chicken out I just asked the first thing that came to mind. I said "when you met Sister Tuttle and Sister Nakaima(Tuttles old comp) did you ever hear their missionary message?" and Kai kun said "no I have never heard it" and so I said, "Do you want to hear our message?" and he said, "Yes! I want to hear! I want to hear!" so then I explained a little bit about what our messages are about and we set up an appointment for yesterday on Sunday, but he cancelled... but thats okay I think we will have an opportunity to set up an appointment for a different day. But isnt that amazing!? By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. 

The other big news of the week is we had a big giant BBQ on Saturday and lots of Potential Investigators and Investigators came. We played lots and lots of card games. It was seriously just like a Robertson Sunday after church! We played hearts and spoons and BS and Old Maid.. you know.. all the good stuff! It was so fun! And I ate 3 GIANT BURGERS. They were so good. Our beloved Brother Checketts made them. He is a good member, but also a little crazy. But I love him.

I am super super pumped to talk to all of my family on Mothers Day! My mission pres is awesome for letting me do google hangout, dont you think?　I will be so sad when he leaves in just a couple months but I heard with the new Mission President coming in that we MIGHT be getting I Pads! And I ALSO heard that once we receive our I Pads... they are OURS TO KEEP AND TAKE HOME. How cool!

I love you all so much! Sayonara!

Love Miranda