Week Seventy.

Hello!

Not the best week ever but I am hanging in there! Weather is good.. its cold but no snow. I felt an earthquake last night but it wasnt THAT strong and it wasnt very long either but I was swaying around for a few seconds. Hmm... district is good. My companion is the best ever. Japanese is getting better everyday. Getting kinda excited to participate in the joys of regular life like movies and music and stuff again but still working harder than ever so it isnt hindering the work. Oh fun fact about this week... probably got told I look like Ellie from Massan about 20 times. Now strangers are saying it to me on the streets. I need to find out a way to turn this opportunity into a mission tool ha ha.

So I know you are all interested on what happened with Dolche this week... well she decided to bring the heat and bit my foot this week. It freaked me out pretty bad. Dad I totally think that when Ishibashi san picked the name Dolche she meant the German translation of "daggers" and not the Italian translation of "sweet". You are totally right on that one.

Anyways! Ill continue on with the Ishibashi san story. So she... ugh... I dont know. She isnt interested at all I feel like! She doesnt even want to hear the lessons or anything. She just likes sharing scriptures with us. But anytime we testify or share something she always changes the subject or just says that she disagrees or something like that. She took us off on so many tangents when we visited her. I found out that this life is enough for her. She doesnt believe in eternity, nor does she want eternity. She is married but does not want to be with her husband for eternity. This life is enough. WHAT KIND OF LOVE IS THAT? We talked about lots of other stuff too. She opened up about some pretty big trials she has had in her life and even though we tried to help her and comfort her and explain why God gives trials and the purpose of life and stuff she just wouldnt hear us out and she would turn everything down we said and she is just SO NEGATIVE! She is so unhappy! Why wont she just open up and LISTEN for a second and let herself feel happiness?! I just dont get it. It is frustrating but people have agency so we will just keep trying to teach through reading scriptures because she seems to like that.

We had a lesson with Tagami san which was also a big fail unfortunately. We taught the restoration and when we asked her to pray about this church and Joseph Smith she said, "um yeah I dont want to do that really. I think any church is good! If you believe then thats good enough. Its not a matter of one church being true and the others being wrong. I am not looking to find just one true church." What the heck? Did she not listen to anything we said about priesthood and the great apostasy and the need for a restoration and ordinances? I dont know what happened there... but again people have agency. The only thing I can do is just improve my teaching skills and Japanese and be more obedient so that the people I teach can CLEARLY understand and CLEARLY feel the spirit. Maybe it was my fault that she didnt understand everything and it didnt enter her heart because I didnt prepare very well or I wasnt exactly obedient. I dont know. Unfortunately we werent able to get a return appointment but we will try to keep contacting her and set one again.

On the bright side we did a lesson this week with a less active, Touta Shimai, and an active member, Muto Shimai. We taught them the same lesson we taught Tagami san- the restoration. And it was a great lesson! Muto Shimai the active member said that it was so easy to understand and that she learned so much and that she finally GOT it! Especially the importance and role of the priesthood. Touta Shimai also was grateful for the simple explanation. We committed Touta Shimai to come to church because we had Stake Conference. Guess what! She came! And she brought her less active husband TOO! And he took notes the whole meeting! What a great surprise and miracle it was!

We received a referral this week! WOO HOO! And we contacted too! Wooo hoooo! She was an old grandma that is a member of a different Christian church. We went to her home and visited her but she made it clear that she would not enter our church but that just talking was fine. We had a nice visit and she is a happy, healthy little lady! She is way into calligraphy too so she gave us all these book marks that she made that have bible verses written on them. Thats about it with that experience.

Stake Conference was good. Usually I zone out because everyone uses too fancy Japanese so I cant understand anything, but I actually understood mostly everything this time. It was cool.
I learned that the reason I can talk to people on the streets and testify to people and visit Less Actives and share gospel truths with them and do any kind of missionary work is not because I have this name tag on. It is because I study the scriptures and pray and go to church. And if I am not mistaken, you mom and dad and family and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also read and pray and go to church, right? Hm.. that means you can have the same power that I use and do the same things that I do. You can be just as successful like a full time missionary in bringing others unto repentance. Through keeping the commandments you receive power and through that power you can touch peoples hearts and help them to change. Of course I have the authority to properly teach full lessons and get people towards baptism and stuff but that is the only difference between a full time missionary and a member missionary. It is your responsibility too I think to talk to people on the street or in stores or at activities and to bare testimony and ask inspired questions just like the missionaries do. Thats why it is good to read and apply PMG. Anyways... I thought that was so true and I want to still do missionary work even when I dont have a name tag anymore.

The other thing I learned is to stop being so sad and guilty laden and regretful and hurt and to REMEMBER JESUS CHRISTS ATONEMENT. Thats my advice to all of you too :)

Love you all!
Miranda

PS- Mom you should be getting travel info when I have 1 month left... sooo after Christmas.

Week Sixty-nine.

Today is my 16th month mark! Just a bit left... Too be honest, I am not ready to go home yet but I can tell I will be ready in 2 months. At the end of your mission you just get so exhausted and just ready to get the rest of your life moving again... but I know I still have a lot to do right now.

I had a pretty good week I guess with some hard days but some other good days.

We taught a lesson to our investigator Tagami san. It was our first time doing a lesson with her. She was passed to us from the other pair of sisters that recently went home. Tagami san is a REAL investigator. She is actually seeking truth and answers. She told us her concerns and questions and we will start answering her questions and teaching her all the lessons again this week (shes already heard them all once). I see real promise in her.

We visited Ishibashi san again... and you know what that means... DOLCHE THE RABBIT. So we walk into her home and kneel down in front of the little coffee table thing like you always do when you enter a home (yeah no couches you guys. No chairs. Just kneeling for a very very long time.) and Dolche wasnt around at first but then she just kinda appeared out of nowhere and started sniffing my feet. I got really really nervous... then she started eating my scripture case and purse... then back to my feet... and I was so nervous she was going to start eating my feet or something. But then randomly Dolche ran away to.. somewhere... and I didnt see her again the rest of the time. PHEW I made it out alive this time. But anyways... Ishibashi san... she is doing good I guess. Not a REAL investigator I dont think. She has heard all the lessons and is way interested in history but not really interested in joining a church or changing her life. She just likes talking about the scriptures and the bible and stuff and sharing favorite scriptures. We will work on her this week and really figure out her needs and her wants.

We also had a lesson with Kumagai san- another investigator. She is crazy. So she is kinda a "ward missionary" for her own church. We went to teach her about Jesus Christ and what we believe about him and why his life and actions matter to us, but the lesson turned into her teaching us. So I dont know the name of her church but this is some of the stuff that she believes in. She believes some Korean guy received revelation like Joseph Smith and God appeared to him and told him to finish the mission that Jesus Christ didnt. In her mind the greatest commandment is to have a family and replenish the earth, but since Christ didnt get married in his mortal life and have kids, he failed his mission. So through this Korean guy God restored his perfect truths and restored his church I guess. Also she believes that God is a spirit and when he made man he started with Adam but since it was his first time making a person Adam was kinda the practice round and when he made Eve she was the more perfect version. Also the fall of Adam and Eve was a mistake I guess... but I dont really get that because if having kids is so important to her then you kinda need the fall of Adam and Eve right? Oh she also believes that Satan lives in every person between your skin and your muscles. Its like we all have a layer of Satan within us I guess. WHAT IS THIS STUFF! I was just blown away. She is so lost and it is so sad. I know God still loves her and I wish I could help her but when we shared what we know about Christ and his mission and his resurrection she wouldnt let any of it enter her. She is so firm in her own beliefs. If she would just let down her walls a little and allow herself to feel the spirit testify of REAL truth then she could be so much happier :( Anyways.. we had to drop her. No interest as you can tell...

Every Friday we have ping pong night at the church. I tried my best like always to talk to the non members and investigators and not the missionaries. I practiced connecting their interests to the gospel too and was pretty successful! One of the people there has a lot of interest in English so I asked him to do our 30 min Eng/30 min church program. He said he has no interest in the church so he said no. Then I also invited another person to church to watch the primary program, but he said no. Then I invited another guy to keep praying about which church is true (he is investigating our church and the Catholic church) and it turns out he has a bap date with the Catholic church... but hey. Even though my invites didnt get me anywhere and I got rejected pretty much every time, I am still happy that I fulfilled my purpose. Its easy to just want to chat about unimportant things but the best way to build a relationship is to talk about IMPORTANT things and when you show that you really want to help them and desire their happiness then they will trust you even if they arent necessarily interested in what you have to offer them.

We did a lot of housing this week and we heard a lot of KEKKOs. Kekko means "no thank you." Well technically it means "a lot" which kinda can translate into "I have enough already so I dont need what it is you are offering me." Which simply put can be "no thank you." Ha ha anyways yeah me and Iwasa Shimai sometimes play the Kekko point game. Once we reach a certain number of kekko points then we can change activities or take a break or something. Its fun.

We werent able to meet Yoshimi chan this week. She is busy with work but she said she can start meeting and doing English lessons in December. So I will let you know how that goes in a few weeks.

The weather here is cold. It isnt snowing but it is pretty chilly and windy sometimes. Some days are more cold than others. I heard it doesnt start snowing until after Christmas in Sendai. Yay!

Hmm for Christmas I want Marshmellow Mateys. I dont need any clothes... I am actually going to start throwing away some. It will just make it more difficult to come home with my luggage weight and stuff if I have more clothes. Hmm I guess I dont really need much for Christmas to be honest! Just nice letters from everyone is good. I really like getting mail!

Hey mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! O tanjoubi o medetou! I love you lots TOO!

Love, Miranda

PS- I probably got told I look like Ellie from Massan 50 times this week 20 of those times being yesterday at church. Seriously everyone tells me that.

Week Sixty-eight.

Alll righty. So I know you are all wondering what I think about my new area. I love this place! It is the CITY and it is FUN. Lots and lots of people and buildings and shopping and happiness. And the ward has like 100ish people and it actually FUNCTIONS and everyone is so nice and my district is the bomb. My companion Sister Iwasa is the sweetest and our personalities are pretty similar so we work great together and it is sooooo nice. She actually grew up with my last comp, Sis. Matsumoto, so she is also from Tottori Prefecture. The people in my district are Elder Iida(Tokyo), Elder Jonathan? Malmrose (Los Angeles, CA), Robert Woodford (Utah), and Jeremy Reynolds (Utah). Look em up momma!

So whenever there are missionaries that go home, they always stay in Kamisugi or Nagamachi on Wed night. Oh man, it was a wild party at my new apartment. TONS of sisters (I think 14ish total) all slept in the Kamisugi apartment on Wednesday. My girl Sis Tui was there and it was soooo good to be with her. She is my favorite companion (yo, Tui if you are reading this... I love you man. Hows America?) we laughed and talked and even cried a little too. I also got to talk a lot with Sis Johnson and others. It was sad saying goodbye to all of these girls... and it was weird going from that many girls to just 2, me and Sis Iwasa... still working away... but I am glad I got to spend one more night with all of them. There are only 5 people going home the same time as me (3 sisters and 2 elders) so it wont really be that much of a party.

At my first Eikaiwa in Kamisugi on Wed night I met a 20 yr old girl named Yoshimi. It was her second time coming to English Class and we hit it off pretty good. She is Athiest, but thats better than being Buddhist ha ha... anyways, we set up an appt to go to this import store and look at American treats. It was pretty fun! She also came to ping-pong night that we have every friday. She is interested in English so we are going to do the 30 min English/30 min church message program. I will let you know how it goes. We dont really have any strong investigators here in Kamisugi to be honest... so I am really hoping that this girl is my miracle and both me and Sis Iwasa can see our first baptism. Sis Iwasa has only 1 month left though so we will see what we can do.

We met one of our investigators- Ishibashi san- this week. It was both mine and Sis Iwasas first time though, so it was kinda awkward. Because Pres Smith transfers people so much there was a 2 month gap where some sisters got transferred and then 2 sisters that dont really know the area got put in and dont know any of the investigators and stuff. So even though Sis Iwasa was here a transfer before me, she has hardly met anyone. She has only been in Kamisugi for 1 month so we are both trying to figure it all out. But Ishibashi san is... nice! She really likes history and she already knows everything about the church so I dont know why the heck she isnt baptized yet but we will work on that. She also has a pet rabbit named Dolche. So here I am petting cute little Dolche (well actually Dolche is pretty huge) but she was all calm and sweet and she even put her ears down while I was petting her. Well next thing I know Dolche goes crazy and attacks me and either bites or scrapes my finger and I start bleeding pretty bad but I didnt want to freak out Ishibashi san so I just played it cool... and acted like nothing happened... but in reality I HAD JUST GOTTEN ATTACK BY A RABBIT. When rabbits put their ears flat against their head, that means they are ANGRY not CALM. THAT is the biggest lesson Ive learned on my mission thus far. Dolche......

Also we had a lesson with 3 spunky grandmas this week. Me and Iwasa and the 2 zone leaders, Iida and Malmrose, went to this way fancy house and taught English and the restoration. At least one of the ladies seems to have interest... the other 2 just want to learn English. But the owner of the house(one of the grandmas) has little PUPPIES!!  I got to hold them and they were only 3 weeks old and so cute and ahsdjfhksj I want a puppy now! Everybody. Puppies are much nicer than rabbits.

We also had a big activity at the church on Saturday. It was the annual fall carnival. There were food and games and prizes. Lots of people came and for the first time ever my only responsibility was to just TALK to others and I didnt have to plan anything or run anything. I love wards. We set up like 2 or 3 appointments with non members. YEAH MISSIONARY WORK! Thats what Im talking about!

Sunday was good! Everyone was so nice to me! Kamisugi is used to having 6 sisters but now there are only 2 (and I heard the area is closing soon for sisters... I will prob be the one to close it actually) so me and Sis Iwasa got a lot of attention. We had a big luncheon thing after church because it was ward conference and at the luncheon the bishop did a special '' get to know the new missionaries'' activity thing... we stood at the front of the room and people could ask us anything they wanted. I felt really special. No one has ever tried to get to know me like that before.

Oh so one thing that every Japanese person ever has been telling me lately is that I look like a character from a Japanese Drama that just came out called Massan. You should look it up and tell me if I look like the girl on that. It is a drama about a girl from Scotland with blonde hair and blue eyes (ha.. yeah similar right?) and she is in love with a Japanese guy and they go to Japan and its all about her getting used to the culture or something. I have seen a little of it here and there at members homes, and the things she experiences are like EXACTLY what I experienced so I am totally going to be watching that when I get home.

In order to find Kamisugi on a map, look up ''Aoba-ku'' the kanji is ''青葉区” if you need it. So its like the City of Sendai is like a "stake" and within a stake you have wards, right? Aoba is a "ward." There is also a "ward" called Izumi which is in Sendai but a different proselyting area and there are missionaries there right now. I can ride my bike over into Izumi area actually if I wanted. Its not far at all. But Kamisugi is like a "neighborhood" within the ward (Aoba)... within the stake (Sendai). Its kinda hard to explain but that is just kinda an example to help you understand.

I love youuuuu!
Love Miranda

Week Sixty-seven.

Hey I am sorry this email is coming so late. We had absolutely no time on P day so we are taking a little time to email today instead.

So first off I will start by saying that it was transfers this week, Yamagata got a call on Saturday night and I am transferring to Kamisugi (Sendai). That was a short 5 weeks in Yamagata for sure! My new companion will be Iwasa Shimai. It will be her last transfer so I get the privilege of killing her he he he. I guess I am excited to go to Kamisugi! Ill go wherever, I am just surprised, thats all.

We had a lesson with Eiko san last week. She has the cutest little boy that I teach English to, then we share a message. Eiko san has been praying everyday, and we introduced the Book of Mormon and she is so excited to read it. She really is progressing! I hope she can receive baptism someday. It is kinda weird writing about all my investigators knowing that they arent really my investigators anymore...

We went to lunch with Todd Ogaard- the guy you got an email from- this week. He was a missionary in the Sendai mission 40 years ago. It was soooo fun having a lunch appointment with someone that speaks English. Now I know how the Japanese people feel when we have meal appointments. They prob think it is so fun.. I think it is stressful trying to follow the conversation and manners! But it was such a relief having a good time with an AMERICAN!

This week we have been working diligently on making a binder full of all the missionary lessons to give to H san- our deaf investigator. It wasnt such a task for Sister Matsumoto, but it took a lot of effort on my part. Writing in Japanese is NOT easy. There are like 3 different character systems... grammar rules... rules for the way you write the characters... oh man it was hard. But I was able to write out some of the commandments for her like the Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, Tithing... I really felt like Moroni in the Book of Mormon. He said to the Lord after abridging the account of the Jaredites that there was a lot of weakness in his writing. He said that people will mock the words that he wrote and that the Lord made him strong when it came to speaking, but weak when it came to writing.
Then the Lord said, "Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." I found so much comfort in this. My writing is awkward but through Gods grace my words will become strong and have meaning to H san-an earnest seeker of truth.
We actually taught H san yesterday (P day.. which is why I didnt have time to email) and the lesson went great. She read the things we wrote and pretty much we taught her everything in one night. Lesson 1-almost all the commandments. I even bore my testimony in Japanese Sign Language! It was amazing and she is getting baptized on Nov. 30th! My first baptism and I am TRANSFERRING. Kinda upset about that.. but oh well. That is a mission for ya.

I leave for Kamisugi tomorrow (Wed) and HOPEFULLY I dont transfer again. I only have 2 transfers left and less than 100 days! 3 fast Sundays! 13 weeks! Have you made a countdown chain yet?? :)

I love you.
Miranda

PS Here are the answers to all your questions. Yeah Japanese people dont actually celebrate Halloween. I am excited for next Halloween where I can go to corn maizes and such. Also, Yamadera was really fun! It was so pretty! Oh and mom... dad spilled the beans and already told me what your new calling will be... THAT IS SO AWESOME! You will do great! How do you feel about it? Were you surprised?
Cant believe my little sister is in a relationship still.... she will prob end up getting married here pretty quick huh. Please dont let her get married in the next 13 weeks! PLEASE! I cant miss another one of my siblings weddings! Oh geez. Cant believe Im going to be the last to get married... did anyone see that coming? PEOPLE START GETTING THE DATES LINED UP. Now this email is just getting ridiculous... love ya! Bye!

h san

yamadera

yamadera

halloween party- i look fat but its just the picture i promise