Week Fifty-seven.

Konnichiwa from Ishinomaki, Japan! This was a pretty busy week with transfers and everything. Transfers are kinda fun actually, if you arent the one transferring ha ha. I got to go to Sendai and see basically all the missionaries in the mission and talk to everyone and catch up on things! I got to see Sister Stice, Luk, and Morgan- the old Akita crew! I also got to see Sister Iwahashi and Sister Tuttle- the Akita crew before Stice and Luk came! It was so great. Plus it is fun to see the elders from my MTC district and see how we have all grown spiritually and either gained or lost weight ha ha. Good stuff.

Also the new missionaries came this week! Elder Akagi who is one transfer ahead of me, and Elder Wadsworth who is straight from the MTC but his Japanese is RIDICULOUSLY good. He bore his testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday and I couldnt understand a lot of it because his vocab was just tooo good. Man. I was way impressed. I think our district is gonna be way fun.

This week we did lots of hand massaging! When I get home I will make sure to give y`all a good hand massage. Its pretty fun talking to all the old ladies and stuff that come in, but their Japanese is usually impossible to understand so I just nod my head and say stuff like, "Oh really?" "Is that right?" "Cool!" and they are usually satisfied with that ha ha. Lately us sister missionaries and 2 members have been practicing the recorder and we did a mini concert at the hand massage place and everyone seemed to like it! Next time I think we are going to perform a hymn so its practice practice practice from here on out!

We had the natsu matsuri (summer festival) at the church this week! I love Ishinomaki because the branch actually plans the activities and the missionaries dont have to! But actually this branch is incredible. They function like a ward and they love each other like a family and everyone and I mean EVERYONE helps and participates in every activity and they always always support the missionaries. And there are only 20 active members. Incredible. I cant say enough about this branch... it is just too good. But the festival was good! We had 80 people come! An old grandma that me and Sister Kanno met on the street even came! It was a good dendo opportunity.

But speaking about how great the branch is... us missionaries just recently got a challenge from President Ringwood (the Asia North area president) and he said that every companionship needs to teach 20 lessons every week. 20 LESSONS. We taught 5 lessons this week. It seems like an impossible goal but me and Sis Kanno are gonna try our best! The branch is so great because they all signed up for us to do mogi lessons with them and I think we have 6 lessons planned with members just this week! And we have 5 investigators so there is 11 lessons total... then we just need like 9 less active lessons which is not very easy to do at all. A good week is 3 less active lessons... pray for the Japan missionaries so that we can do it!

Here is an investigator update.

Ryotaro- we taught him Lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He said he when he comes to know the truth, he wants to get baptized! That is way awesome, but I still dont think he really gets it yet. I dont think he realizes that getting baptized requires change and commitment... we are going to be passing him to the elders this week though so we wont really any more lessons with him.

Michiru- she was an investigator, but had no interest so we dropped her. But then we had a lesson with her again and she has a little bit of interest now so she is back in the pool! We used a cool example to help her understand how great the gospel is but she will never know if she doesnt try it. Just like with food! "You gotta try new food cuz it might taste gooooood!" And then we taught her about Jesus Christ and who he is, why we worship him, and why he matters to us. She payed attention pretty good! And we have an appointment next week!

Kimura- he became an investigator my first day in Ishinomaki but we havent been able to teach him since. We had plans to teach him but he got busy so we were only able to meet him this week outside of a super market for like 10 min and that was it. But at least we met him! We will be passing him to the elders as well.

Mitsue- she is so great! Love her! We taught her a lesson about the nature of God because she had questions last lesson about if he really existed or not. Then we taught about how the gospel blesses our families and how families are so important to God. Just so you know. I am so grateful that my loving parents taught us kids to read our scriptures and pray! I was able to share a personal experience about how waking up early in the morning with my family and praying and reading the BOM together has strengthened and blessed my family! Thank you!

Yuki- she is our investigator but we have never actually taught her before. She was an investigator from the sisters that used to be here but she got busy or offended by one of the members or something so we havent been able to meet. But we did meet her for just a few minutes at the hand massage place this week and we were able to do an introduction so that was good!

Thats it on investigators. Ishinomaki is way great! I am learning lots and lots about Christ and repentance here. Its so great actually. My personal goal this week is to ALWAYS REMEMBER HIM. Yesterday in Sacrament meeting as I was listening to the sacrament prayers I started to cry because I was so grateful for the Atonement, but also so sad that I make mistakes. But it was a good experience. Its crazy how listening to the prayers in Japanese helps me understand the covenants I made better. Also we sang I Know that  My Redeemer Lives and again, hearing it in Japanese just makes it have a little bit more meaning for me! I started to cry during that too ha. Im such a baby.

Here are answers to your questions! We get the Liahona every month from the mission office which has the same stuff as the Ensign in it, so no need to worry about that! Thanks for sending a package!! And happy anniversary to you squirrely parents of mine! And happy birthday to our family! Thats kinda a cool way to think about it. They day you were sealed was the establishment of our eternal family. Thank you thank you thank you for getting married in the temple! I promise I will go there someday, too!

Love you all so very much. Dad, be safe in Kuwait! Mom, have fun on your mini road trip!

Love Miranda

Week Fifty-six.

Hey

Whoa dad you are in Kuwait! And it is sooo hot there! I complain when it is 28 C or higher but it is 50 C in Kuwait!? Youll die! Be careful! Thats pretty interesting that they have the Sabbath on Fridays. Youll have to tell me how that goes... what do they speak in Kuwait? You should tell me about the LDS population there.

Mommy! Kimonos are suuuuper expensive. Like 500.00 dollars. But yukatas which are the summer version are like 30.00 or 40.00 bucks. What do you think? I havent really thought about buying one or anything... should I? Do you want me to?
It sounds like you will be having fun on your little Idaho vacation, mom. Do you plan on going to Idaho Falls at all to the sage creek ward? Oh hey, when you are in Pocatello you can visit all my friends! I hear school is starting up there now.

So here is the transfer information! I am staying in Ishinomaki with Sister Kanno, but Sister Alcazar is transferring to Odate which is over by Akita kinda! Elder Simonsen is becoming our new district leader and his companion Elder Aono is transferring to Yokote which is over by Akita. Elder Simonsen is also becoming a trainer to a new bean named Elder Wadsworth! Elder Kobayashis mission is over so he is going back to Hokkaido and Elder Hill is staying in Ishinomaki and his new companion will be Elder Akagi who is a half but only speaks English ha ha. We were in the same zone when I was in Akita and he seems like a pretty shy person. Our district is going to be soooo different.

Well here is the big news of the week! We got ourselves a new investigator! Her name is M san. She is the older sister of a member named Sister Kikuchi and she has known the missionaries forever and ever and we have all just been waiting to know when she would finally be ready to hear the lessons and her time is finally here! We taught her a short message about the Plan of Salvation and she really liked it I think. She had questions about if God really exists or not but she also told us that she always prays before eating food with her sister and sometimes when she is by herself she prays in her heart. That is so amazing for a Japanese person. They usually have a hard time praying because usually they have something they pray to like a shrine or a picture of an ancestor or something but as you know, we dont pray to things.. we rely on our faith that God is there and he hears us. That is a very hard concept for Japanese people so it is amazing that M san prays! I love her so so so much already. I want her to be the baptism I see before I go home from my mission.

We had splits this week and I got to go on a split with Sister Orr my MTC companion! It was like we never stopped being companions so that was cool. We talked and talked just like we used to in the MTC. It was great. On our split we went to a kids center and played American games with them. We played mafia and spoons. Those kids are pretty good at taking spoons and they can really put up a good argument in mafia! Its crazy that I was playing that game in Japanese. So weird. I never thought Id be doing that.

We really worked hard this last week and visited a lot of people. We have a lot of potential investigators lined up right now and me and Kanno Shimai made a pretty legit plan for this next week to visit everyone and start teaching more lessons every week. It is a rule to pass our boy investigators to the elders so we really really need some new girl investigators or some families over here!

Umm what else... oh we had a super awesome district meeting recently. Elder Aono gave this great training on the kind of missionaries we should be and the kind of dendo we should be doing. Ishinomaki really focuses on the way Jesus Christ dendoed and we try to mirror that. Christ was a servant to others. Even at his very last meal, instead of hanging out and chatting with his friends and enjoying his last moments with his friends, he was up cleaning dishes and serving food. Sometimes it is easy to want to only talk to the other missionaries but we have to remember that we arent here to sit back and have a dandy ol time with our friends, we need to be talking to others and helping others and activities and things like that. We made a name for our district and it is SHIMOBE (shee-mo-bey) and that is SERVANT in Japanese. I really tried applying that this last week at one of our events and the difference was incredible. I was so so so pooped after that night but my love really grew for Ishinomaki. I definitely can see this area becoming my favorite. I already have grown to love it so much in just these last 6 weeks. I hope I can end my mission here but Smith Kaicho seems to really like transfers and he goes a little transfer crazy sometimes.

Oh this week we went to the ocean with an investigator and picked up snails or shellfish or something off the rocks and then ate them. They were pretty good actually! I will attach a picture.

We also went to the GANBARO ISHINOMAKI place again as a district. This last week in Japan was a holiday called Obon which is kinda like Memorial Day. Everyone gets together with their family and goes and visits the graves of their ancestors or family members that have passed away. So because it was Obon, we first went and looked at the remains of the tsunami at the Ganbaro Ishinomaki place and then we rode our bikes to the ocean and sang hymns together and then we prayed together as a district and individually for all those that passed away in the tsunami that they would accept the gospel in the after life. It was a really cool bonding experience and a spiritually uplifting time.

Oh today we did hand massages again and I was talking to one of the ladies there that was also volunteering and we had a whole conversation about my family and dads work and him being in Kuwait and then we talked about her mission and my mission and also about I pads and how those are gonna work when we get them. I understood everything she said to me and she told me that my Japanese is waaay good. She was like, "whoa. you can have a fluent conversation with me and understand everything and have no problems speaking! You are way good at Japanese!" It made me SUUUUPPPPERRRR happy. It really helps to have a japanese companion Ive noticed! I wanna get way good these next 6 months at this language but our district is turning into an american district besides sister Kanno so I really gotta work hard and not retreat to English! So theres that bit of news for ya.

Love you all so very much! I hit 13 months on my mission yesterday, wowee! After 5.5 months I will be home and I am for sure that it will be Feb mom. Feb 6th!

Love Sister Miranda Robertson

Week Fifty-five.

Konbanwa from Ishinomaki, Japan!

 

I only have a few big events to report on this week so lets begin!

 

Last week we tried visiting a less active we havent ever met before but she lives way far away, probably like an hour by bike. And it was HOT. We started our journey but didnt get very far when we realized we had no idea where we were going. The map we have isnt very detailed and our GPS on our phone wasnt working correctly so we decided to turn around and go visit a potential investigator. Well as we were riding our bikes we passed this tiny little apartment complex that was on the side of the road that was so easy to miss but as we road by, I looked at it and felt the tiniest of tiny feelings to stop and knock on the 4 doors in the complex. I told my companions and we turned around and did some old fashioned housing! On the last door we knocked on (which was the door I initially looked at as we were riding by) a young 19 year old opened the door and she didnt reject us! We were able to talk to her a little about her life and we also shared a message about God! Her name was Ishimori Yuki (Ishimori is her family name, Yuki is her first). She wasnt that interested herself in the message but she said her mom was really into this kind of stuff and she said we could visit again another day. How great is that! We are going to visit again this week. But I have never really had an experience like that before where I felt prompted by the spirit to stop somewhere or talk to someone. It went down a lot different than I expected though. The feeling I felt was so so so so so soooo tiny I cant believe I even noticed it. It was basically nothing and it didnt feel really all that spiritual but whatever it was was from God!

 

We have been volunteering at a Kids Center a lot lately playing with the little children and also helping out the staff with the different activities they put on. We met a 14 year old girl named Ami and she is just the cutest ever! We are pretty much already best friends ha but we got her phone number and hopefully we can go eat lunch or dinner together sometime then meet her family and get ourselves some new investigators! Pray for Ami!

 

We taught Ryotaro kun again this week! This time we taught him the Plan of Salvation. It went pretty good I think. He seems to understand everything we say, but I dont think he gets it spiritually yet. That will take time though for sure. We received information at our last zone training meeting that we have to pass all our boy investigators to the elders though. So you can put our investigator count at ZERO after this week. Bummer... but we have plans to work so dang hard this week to get like 4 new investigators. We have lots of good relationships with people and lots of potentials so now this week we are just gonna try and start teaching them! Plus its the last week of the transfer and one of us will be transferring so we really want to give it our all.

 

On Sunday I received the best surprise ever! I was sitting in relief society when all of a sudden the door opened and in walks Takahashi Shimai from Aizu! My first area! I was so surprised I didnt even know what to say. She said she came by herself but then after relief society Maria Shimai (the girl you are friends with on facebook, mom) comes running in and she hugged me so good and we started crying. Then her two little boys came running in yelling "Roba chan! Roba chan!" and hugging my legs. I was the happiest I have ever been ever! Then I was able to see Takahashi Kyodai and Seito kun (one of the kids). That family seriously helped me so much in Aizu. I was so sad and unhappy there, but they loved me and cared for me and I made it through! Best surprise ever.

 

So this week I got a ton of emails for people telling me to go back to ISU for college so it is looking like that will be what I do probably. I sent you an email about my scholarships so you should look at that. I guess what I need you to do then is make sure ISU didnt change any of their requirements and also find out when the application date is so I can get into the dietetics program. Sweet, thanks!

 

Yes I did know about Canepari Choros mom. It really is so sad. And also I knew about Rio! I am glad she saw Sister Morgans fam. Oh speaking of Sister Morgan, I saw her this week at our big softball game! Ishinomaki won by the way because I played a stunning 2nd base ;) And Hill Choro got his hair cut and I dont have a pic of the bangs, sorry! Does Lita Shimai know what the gender of her baby is yet? I knew she was preggo already but I dont know the gender! Oh here is an update on Sister Alcazars dad... he had surgery recently and it went great! Now he is home recovering. Thank you for all your fasting and prayers for her dad. Looks like everything will be okay.

 

I dont think I need anything from America really... so you dont need to use all your money on me to send me a package! Its all good!

 

Love you all so much! The gospel is true!

Love Miranda

Week Fifty-four.

Yo! This week was so so so soooo fun!

Last P day we went hiking as a district and played games and talked on top of a mountain. I got to see Elder Simonsen from my district karate chop a watermelon in half. Also I got to see 2 Japanese elders try to sing Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. Also I witnessed Elder Hill get his bangs cut by Elder Kobayashi ha ha. So fun! Today for P day we are going to go run some errands with a member and then later tonight we are having a movie night at the church with my district! We are going to watch the Joseph Smith video on the projector. I love P day!

On Tuesday we had plans to go visit Sister Melody the LA from the Philippines but she wasnt home so we decided to walk around and talk to people we saw on the street while we posted flyers in peoples mailboxes. We met a nice lady named Shuto san and she was so fun and nice to us! It was way hot that day so she graciously shaded us under her umbrella. So nice. But anyways, we got her phone number and name and she invited us over to this tea party thing she was having in a few days at a big festival that Ishinomaki was having. So that was a miracle!

We also went to the "Ganbaro Ishinomaki" place. I dont know if you have ever seen pictures or not, but after the tsunami some people made this big sign that said Ganbaro Ishinomaki which means Persevere Ishinomaki and the only thing you could see around it was dirtiness and broken houses and garbage. It is all cleaned up now for the most part and now it is just weeds but it was so sad to see what once was is now gone. Also there was a giant pole there showing how high the tsunami went. I will attach a picture. 

Wednesday we had interviews with President Smith. He said in the interview that he wants us to do door to door finding. He is really focusing on finding and getting new and lasting investigators. The APs gave us this fancy training and introduced this new teaching funnel and pool chart thing that the whole mission is using now. So theres a little something about the book work part of a mission for ya.

We also had a lesson with Ryotaro kun on this day. We taught him about the restoration and I think it went pretty good. He recently read the intro to the Book of Mormon and really tried to figure out what all the words meant and understand it, so thats progress! Plus he said the closing prayer! So thats awesome too! It was his first time praying really so it was amazing. Good for Ryotaro kun!

On Thursday we had recorder class! He he the sister missionaries and 2 members from the branch are learning how to play the recorder so we can eventually perform a song in sacrament meeting in a few weeks. I pretty much suck at the recorder but I am kinda getting the hang of it! 

We also went to a little bit of the big festival that happened this week. At night they had candles floating on the river to remember the tsunami victims and there was also a small fireworks show. I LOVE FIREWORKS. It was fun walking the streets seeing all the booths and food there. Also, pretty much ever single girl was wearing a yukata (traditional Japanese clothing for summertime. It is like a kimono) and everyone was soo so so pretty. I wanted to wear one really bad. 

Friday was the festival allllll day! It was so hot and I got sunburned! We watched a parade of elementary school marching bands and lots of Japanese dancing and things. It was so cool. I even got to be IN the parade! The area that I live in had a part in the parade so me and 4 other missionaries got to be in it. We learned a Japanese dance and walked the streets for an hour doing it and it was so dang hot and humid, geeeeez but it was worth it! Plus Japanese people are really nice so they kept giving me free stuff to cool down. I am now the proud owner of a pretty sweet fan, face towel, and neck towel ha. We also went to Shuto sans tea thing! We werent there for long, but she gave us mugicha (barely tea) and some Japanese snacks. Mmm and we took pics together! But the pictures were taken on someone elses camera so I dont have them currently, sorry!  That night we went with some Eikaiwa students up this giant hill to watch the big firework show. It was pretty good! It was really fun but I got attacked by mosquitoes.  It was a loooooong day but also really fun. I was able to talk to a lot of people at the festival and gave out a few business cards and handed out flyers for eikaiwa too. It was a great dendo opportunity! 

Saturday was another looooong day of fun! In the morning we went to the Elders investigators house because he wanted to give us a lecture on fishing ha ha. So we ate lunch together and learned about fishing. After that we had softball practice with the branch! Next Saturday we have a softball game against the Izumi ward. I am so pumped for that. After softball we played ultimate frisbee with Ryotaro kun and our branch president. I am getting better at that game! After that we went back to the church and had a short lesson with Ryotaro kun about how the gospel blesses families. I dont know what was up with me but I couldnt think of what to say or how to say it so my 2 other companions pretty much taught the lesson and I just kinda sat there embarrassed. Everything I said didnt make sense and other times I didnt have anything to say at all so it didnt go so good... but he is still meeting with us so I guess that means I didnt totally blow it. After our lesson we went to Sega which is a giant game center to kill some time with Ryotaro kun because later that night we were all going out to eat ramen with the branch. I attempted one of those claw machines and with everyones money and effort we successful got ourselves a fuzzy little frog which is now hanging on my bag. Yes. It was a good day and that nights dinner was pretttttty yummy! 

Sunday was fast Sunday. Nothing too exciting happened though. We went to visit an LA that lives forever away and of course it was hot like it always is so we got pretty sweaty while riding our bikes. After that we did some planning the rest of the day. 

Pretty good week! Next week we have Zone Training Meeting and another festival and the softball game! Should be pretty fun. Hopefully we can find a new investigator too.

Love you all!

Love, Miranda