Week Seventy-four.

Ya-ho!

So yeah... I am in my very very last transfer now. Just one left. I started at 12 left and now just ONE. It is seriously a miracle that I made it to right here. Just 6 weeks left. Not gonna lie, this year and a half has really caught up to me. I am pretty much always tired and exhausted. I dont know how the elders do 2 full years.. I would die physically speaking! I am a LITTLE antsy to make it back home to you guys and get going with the good stuff in life like marriage and school and family and stuff but I know I need to keep working until the very end. Probably these next few weeks will go by pretty fast since it is Christmas and New Years. New Years is HUGE here so that will be way fun. And then by the time it is January it will already basically be February and then I will be on a plane and ahhh. This is all so crazy!

So I picked up my bean chan this week! She is the tiniest littliest blonde little girl I have ever seen. I thought she was like 16 which I know is impossible for a sister missionary but still. She is actually 23! She is fairly quiet too. I always have to ask her to repeat whatever she says because I seriously cannot hear her ha ha. But anyways, like you said mom, she is JUST like me when I came to the mission MINUS THE HOMESICKNESS. She is way quiet, but she is fearless. She said that Japan just feels like home. And when we do missionary-like things like planning or saying our purpose out loud or something, she gets really excited and like starts shaking. Its kinda weird. Not gonna lie, she is kind of a weird person.... but she is a good person. I learned that it is really frustrating training a new person though because you really have to explain even the tiniest simplest parts of the routine that are just part of my nature now but she doesnt have any clue about that. I got really frustrated a few days and kinda had a mini flashback to my bean time. I felt like I was more the bean than she was... it was a really strange feeling. But the thing that got me through was thinking to myself, "you are OKAY. You only have 6 weeks left, not another 1.5 years. You will be okay. It will just take some time." Then I felt better. She is getting the hang of everything, but she does everything REALLY slowly so we seem to be late to stuff sometimes which kinda is frustrating as well... I am learning to give ourselves a little more time for prep to get out the door and stuff.
she actually really is a great person and we get along just fine, but I suppose the real issue is within myself and if I could just be more like Christ and develop patience and charity like Him then there would be no issues at all. My goal this week is patience!

A miracle happened in Kamisugi this week! For some reason out of nowhere a ton of new young people came to our Free English Conversation Class this week and we got like everyones phone numbers and were able to set appts with them and stuff. We went from 0 potential investigators to like 5 in one week and that is a MIRACLE for Japan. One of my fav kind of dendo activities is Ramen Dendo :) We talk to people, tell them we want to eat good food in Japan and ask if they know any good Ramen shops, then we make an appt to go together and BOOM. We become friends AND it gives us an opportunity to naturally talk about what we do as missionaries and why we are in Japan over a nice hot bowl of delicious ramen. This week I have a ramen appointment with a 22 yr old Kentaro and his friend Nao (she is a girl). And the zone leaders. Holla! Oh also, thanks for sending my the gingerbread house thing mom! I got another appt with two other girls to make it this coming Saturday! It will be after Christmas but oh well ha ha.

We had the ward Christmas Party this week. It was way fun! The missionaries job was to just talk to people and build relationships and make appointments with the non members or less actives. I LOVE being in a ward that takes care of the activities and actually lets us DENDO. Its so nice. Oh and the food at the party was SO delicious. They had meatloaf and pastas and fried chicken and soup and stuff. But it all had the Japanese flavor, whatever that is. Soy sauce maybe? But the Japanese tradition on Christmas is to eat cake and fried chicken. You best believe KFCs busiest time of the year is Christmas time! Im not kidding. Families all over Japan go out to eat on Christmas at KFC. Its so funny.

We also went caroling this week at a retirement home with the ward. That was fun doing a big service activity with the whole ward! Probably like 50 or so people came of the 100 active members.

Oh and today we are going to the mission home and performing at FHE with handbells. I am not very good at hand bells, but thats okay. I am still excited.

Man, I love Christmas! It is so fun and so spiritual! This Christmas is especially good because now I have a year and a half of solid study of my Savior behind me and so this Christmas is definitely something special. I hope you all have a way fun Christmas and make sure to thank Heavenly Father in your prayers for the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. You have everything you have and you are everything you are because of Him.

Lastly, here is the skype info. So I dont know if you want to skype or google chat or whatever... but I will just sign onto skype first and if you guys want me to do google chat then just tell me then. But I am just going to sign into my personal name. So make sure you are friends with me!

Love you all very much! Merry Christmas!

Love Sister Miranda Robertson

Week Seventy-three.

Konnichiwa everyone!

Lets start off with transfer calls, shall we? Well I am killing my first missionary this transfer. Bye bye Sister Iwasa! And I am birthing my first missionary next transfer! Hellooo Sister Bullock! Im gonna be a mom!!!!!! Im receiving a fresh bean from the states this week! Wow I cant believe I am going to be a trainer. I thought I was going to get out of Japan safe without having any leadership/special positions but President snagged me for my very last transfer! This is actually a huge answer to my prayers though. I had been praying and repenting a lot feeling worried that I didnt give a very good sacrifice to the Lord and that I was playing too much and not working enough. I didnt know how I could make up the time that was already spent but then I learned that the Atonement will make up the time and I just need to do my very very best these last 7 weeks and grace will do me wonders. I needed this sweet bean to come to me to help me work hard and be a good example. Thank you Heavenly Father!

Now on with what happened this last week. We had our big Christmas Zone Conference! It wasnt as good as last year I feel like but thats okay. We watched a lot of Christmas videos from like LDS.org and stuff which I really liked. We also did a  nativity and you best believe my role as Mary made the whole Mission Home Staff cry! Ive still got the acting touch, yahoo! Even though I was holding a stuffed animal in my arms and draped in bedroom sheets, I still could really feel the love of God, especially as I held that stuffed animal tight and stared into its little eyes thinking of my Savior. And seeing Japanese Joseph by my side really added that little touch of the spirit. Hehe. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and that he volunteered to come to this world and save me!

We had a SUPER awesome lesson with the those spunky three ladies we teach English to. We taught them about the creation, the Fall, and the purpose of life. The spirit was so strong and I was so happy! Oki san (the one that has the most interest of the three) said that she feels happiest when she is listening to the missionaries. She wants to learn more!!!!!!!!! EEEyaaa! But she lives in Ishinomaki. Even though I feel like I have this way strong connection with her and I really want to teach her... I cant. Booooo. But I am gonna see what I can do to get her hooked up with the Ishinomaki sisters this week.

Since this week was the last one of the transfer, AND it is Sister Iwasas last week of her mission, we had TONS of meal appointments. We started it off with lunch with the Hayashis and they fed us pasta and SO MUCH HAM AND CHICKEN. Then that night we went to the Furukawas. They used to live in Hawaii and California and they love American style food so they made us a giant FEAST of lasagna and pizza and french fries and a big giant turkey and mashed potatoes and taco rice. I thought I was going to die. You should see the left overs in our fridge. I probably wont eat any of the left overs because my tastebuds just dont seem to like American food anymore... its weird. When I first came to Japan I didnt really like the food, but now its switched and I dont like American food anymore... I want to eat my yummy sushi, veggies, and cow tongue for the rest of my life :)
On Sunday we had dinner with Bishop Furukawa and his wife (not Hawaiian Furukawa) and it was soooo good. We had noodles! And a big waffle ice cream choco cake dessert thing! I gained 10 pounds just this last week I am sure of it.

All right now for business. I do feel much better this week, and my stomach doesnt hurt anymore. Im good and regular.
I got the Christmas package today! I havent opened it yet and I had Sister Iwasa take the label of the stuff that is inside off so I wouldnt know. I will follow your directions on which to open first! Thank you!
4:00 Idaho time and 8:00 Japan time is great for the Christmas Skype call! I will have to see how things work out with my new companion when she comes but I will let you know next week. But as for now that will be the scheduled time!
Thanks for the updates on your lives. Dad, you freaked me out with your little joke about being in Kuwait when I come home! Geez Louise!
Oh hey, when do I need to get a ticket booked to go visit Idaho when I get home? Also is it even possible to give a talk in Sage Creek Ward even though that isnt even my ward? If I could... I wanna give a talk there as well as in Houston of course!

Love you all! See you in about 7 WEEKS!

Love Miranda

PS- yesterday a straight up black african came to church. Never thought Id see that in my life.

another shot of the black guy ha ha

me eating food pictures!

mary!

lesson at a members home! she is the cutest.

dendo with the elders

me and the bishops dog just happened to be matching!

Week Seventy-two.

Sooo many eventful things happened this week that I had to really think what I wanted the title of this email to be... but I think the one I picked fits the best! Keep reading!

So we unfortunately did only one lesson this week and it wasnt even to an investigator. We did the english/church program to the three women that only do it for the English pretty much. The elders used to kinda take charge and run it all and teach the message and have us just bare testimony or something but they passed it all to us so it is a giant stress on me because I have to plan the English lesson and then work with Iwasa Shimai to plan the message. For some reason though our message wasnt that good and my thoughts were everywhere and I was nervous because the zone leaders were right there and yeah. It just wasnt a very good lesson and it was stressful. But oh well.

We did a big caroling activity this week. So all the leaders in the mission like zone leaders, APs, and sister training leaders meet together every once in awhile at a meeting called Missionary Leadership Council and get training and learn stuff to teach to all the other missionaries and they always have a dendo activity too which the Kamisugi missionaries were in charge of planning since everyone was going to dendo in Kamisugi. STRESSFUL! Especially because Christmas isnt huge here so going caroling isnt a normal thing to do. The Japanese people actually dont really like it... they think it is embarrassing. But we were able to get enough appointments and go visit some peeps. It was way intimidating being in a room with all the leaders of the whole mission... I have never been a trainer, STL, or even senior comp so I felt pretty inadequate to be there for sure... but we split into groups and I got put in the best group ever! I was with Iwasa Shimai, Kanno Shimai, and Tuttle Shimai! Do those names sound familiar at all? They are my past companions! I have served with every single one of those sisters and I love them all! My best friends! So it was SO FUN and definitely a moment I will cherish forever. Caroling was fun too... the weather was terrible but I got to ride one of the elders mountain bikes so that was an adventure ha ha.

Last week we ordered Pizza Hut.. this week we ordered McDonalds. I love home delivery Mickey Ds :) You best believe I ate a Big Mac AND fries.

The elders investigator got baptized this week! YEAHSkdjSWK!!!! Baptism! It was the 2nd one I have seen on my mission, but like the first one I saw, it wasnt my investigator and it was someone I dont even hardly know that got baptized. But it was still a good experience and I am so happy he got baptized! A little bit early, but we had a White Christmas in Kamisugi this year :) After the baptism we went out with an Eikaiwa student to this fancy restaurant and ate delicious cow tongue! It is seriously soo good! When we came out of the restaurant snow was falling so gently and seeing the lights from all the skyscraper windows and things really made it a beautiful scene. We went into this way tall building to the 30th floor and looked out at all of Sendai and could see all the lights and the snow falling and it was so beautiful. See!

Also we had Zone Training Meeting this week in Kamisugi. It is always way fun to see the missionaries from other districts and areas. My zone is so awesome right now. We have Christmas Zone Conference coming up in a few days and my zone is putting on a nativity and I got assigned the part of Mary. I like acting and stuff but it is kinda awkward playing a new mother engaged to Japanese Joseph...

Here is some kinda gross news... so it was a good week but I have had an upset stomach ever since the McDonalds and it is getting kinda annoying. It is disrupting my sleep and my study time. Every morning I have to run to the bathroom like 3 times because of diarrhea. I have had only diarrhea for 4 days in a row now. I dont think it is food poisoning or anything because I dont feel sick and I am fine once the afternoon comes but every morning is kinda a struggle. Maybe it is the weather or something? I dont really know... but I am gonna really try and drink lots of water from now on and see how that helps.

Today is district P day! We are going out to lunch together after I email then we are going bowling and then we are going to play a rousing game of Life in Japanese! Woo hoo! I am pretty excited. My district is way fun.

Oh also I have 2 MONTHS LEFT AHHHHH.

Here is the Christmas call information momma.
If I can find a member with Skype then we can do that. I am sure someone has it here I just need to ask around. But here are the times I can do it...

JAPAN 12/26 7:00am     8:00am     9:00am     10:00am     11:00am     12:00am
IDAHO 12/25  3:00pm     4:00pm     5:00pm      6:00pm        7:00pm       8:00pm

Please tell me in your next email what you decide!

some missionaries and members after the baptism!

Week Seventy-one.

Konnichiwa from very cold rainy Japan! It was like a shower today on my bike ride to the church so I could email! I dont like rain very much, but it is also fun to watch all the people walking around with their umbrellas. I remember in America (at least in Idaho) when we did have rain mostly people either played in it or just kinda toughed it out or if they had to go outside they just ran really fast and tried their best to put their jacket or hand or bag over their head. Well, you will never see that in Japan. Everyone here is equipped with an umbrella, both old and young! I saw the cutest 3 yr olds walking today with their cute little umbrellas. It seems like a small thing but now when I see umbrellas I will always think "Japan."

I went on splits this week with one of the Sister Training Leaders and guess who it was...! Sister Kanno! My old companion, and also my FAVORITE Japanese companion! It was sooo fun. Ah she is the best. We had a lesson with 3 ladies that we teach English to and then teach a short church message. 2 of the ladies dont seem to have too much interest in anything but English but one of the ladies (Oki san) seems to have some interest! We taught about prophets and the priesthood and committed them all the read the prophets words in the Book of Mormon and start from the beginning and to read every day. They were all way surprised when we talked about how we have a living prophet today. I wish every investigator would have a reaction like they did because it makes me feel like I am actually helping people understand stuff ha ha. Anyways, we will be seeing them tomorrow. Oh but one thing that sucks is Oki san actually lives in Ishinomaki, one of my past areas. So if she does become an investigator she will become the Ishinomaki sisters investigator. Boo.

We visited Ishibashi san like always. We taught her about faith and gratitude- 2 things she very much lacks. And of course like always she just shot down everything we said and said, "well this is what I think... and so thats how it is." You cant change truth lady! Whether you like what we are telling you or not, that is how it is gonna be in the end! But the other day we were planning what to teach her next and I realized that I need to have more charity for her and her dumb bunny (as you can probably tell...) So I am praying a lot to have charity for her and I think that will help change the atmosphere and help her feel the spirit more and I dont know.. change somewhere along the way maybe? I will keep you posted.

And now for the highlight of the week! Thanksgiving! Since we live way close to the mission home, me and Sister Iwasa and then two of the elders in our district went to the mission home and we had a big nice American thanksgiving with president and his wife and some other missionaries from other areas. SO FUN! And the food was so so good! Japanese people of course dont celebrate Thanksgiving so it was just another day for the rest of Japan. But it was a great day to remember all my blessings. I am so grateful to be in Japan right now and to be a missionary! I am so grateful for this gospel! I am so grateful for Jesus Christs sacrifice and for repentance and forgiveness! The list goes on...

This really doesnt have much to do with anything but we ordered pizza this week from PIZZA HUT mmmm. A medium pizza was super tiny and it cost $17.00. Can you believe that?!

At church yesterday the missionaries did a special musical number in sacrament meeting. Since no one is really that musically talented in our group of missionaries I got put as the leader of the whole thing and had to teach everyone their parts and play the piano while we practiced and stuff. I really am not that good at piano and especially singing! But whatevs. I just told everyone to try their best and to do 3 things and our performance would be great: 1. put love in it  2. have confidence  3. sing
We messed up a lot in the performance but hey, I felt and heard a lot of love coming from those elders mouths so I thought it was the best performance ever!

I am glad you had a fun Thanksgiving with Abby. The times have really changed huh. Sometimes it is really sad to look back and see how much we have grown and how you cant stop time. It was fun being a kid with all my siblings. But at the same time, it is a very happy thing to see everyone get married and go to the temple and have their own families.

The Christmas tree looks great! When I worked at Eagle Rock Nursery I was always told that Home Depot had bad trees and plants and they didnt take very good care of them, so I hope you got lucky and found a good healthy tree. But maybe Texas Home Depots are different than Idaho ones.

Good job on all that running you guys! You are going to do great in your half marathon mom. Running my halfie was probably my greatest accomplishment. Once I finish this mission then the marathon will move to #2 but for right now, it is number one! Definitely the hardest thing I have ever done physically, but so worth it.

Well thought Id let everyone know I am getting fat again! But whatevs yo. YODO. (You Only Dendo Once) I will just deal with my rice cheeks in February when I get home. Whoa. I will hit my 2 months left mark on the 6th. That means you will be getting travel plans in like 4 weeks mom! Ahhhhhhh. I still have so much to do here!

Have a great Juuni Gatsu! (December) 愛してるよー


Love, Sister Miranda Robertson

Thanksgiving

Pizza hut pizza!

 Eating sushi and waiting for the bus!  Now you can see why I am getting fat. All I do is eat food!