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!

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

Week Sixty-six.

Hello mom and dad! Glad to hear you had a good time in Atlanta. And I am glad to hear about the new ward split, even though I already knew ha ha. Thanks Bishop! :)

I had a pretty busy week...

First off, every week we have a meeting with the ward mission leader and he is pretty intense. He is from Hawaii but he is full Japanese. He served his mission in Japan, learned Japanese, then continued to study it and ended up living and working in Japan and marrying a Japanese woman. So he is pretty much super Japanese, but with an American personality maybe? Anyways, he is pretty strong. He really expects a lot out of us which is good but it can get kind of stressful. He is the type to give improvement point after improvement point but hardly any compliments on what we ARE achieving. He said we should be finding 3 investigators every week, and easily be teaching 20 lessons, and filling up 3 pages worth on the progress record we write every week. I totally want to accomplish all those goals (and probably die in the process) but if I dont, I dont want him to get frustrated... but I have just come to the conclusion to do what I can do, think more about what the Lord thinks of my work, and remember that I will probably never see my ward mission leader again after I go home so its not that big of a deal ha ha. And so far no stress really! But he is kinda the talk in the district right now. The elders all seem pretty stressed.

Here is the big news of the week! Guess where I went this week... AIZUWAKAMATSU! My first area! I went for splits and it was so so so so so great. It was so crazy riding the bus into town and seeing everything again. It hasnt changed a bit :) I was nervous at first because I thought I was going to have bad memories about when I was a new missionary but it turned into a really good experience, and I was fine.
So I was able to visit a lot of members which was really fun and so cool because I could actually understand them for the first time... it was so awesome to see my progress in the language. Plus, everyone said I got a lot better at Japanese which made me feel good :) But the happiest thing that has ever happened to me on my mission was that I got to meet Brother I for the first time.
When I was in Aizu as a bean, I used to go to his apartment all time because he was a less active member. I used to leave notes all the time but I was never able to meet him. I met his mom a couple times though and she even said she hasnt forgotten that blonde sister that always came over. But right before I transferred I had left a note at his house saying we really wanted to meet and left our phone number too, and he called us! I remember being so surprised when he called that I forgot all my phone manners and couldnt speak or anything ha ha. But the day I transferred, Sister Matsumoto actually replaced me in Aizu and she had the first lesson with him and I went off to Akita. So I never actually got to meet him... but gradually he came back to church and is now a really strong member with a calling. I got a letter from him once when I was in Ishinomaki I think and that was the only contact I have really had with him. But when I went to Aizu for splits this week I was able to go back to his apartment that I visited so often and finally meet him. He told me that he had received lots of notes from different missionaries but it was that last note I wrote that had the biggest influence on him and he decided to change his life and come back to church. He still has the note to this day. I cried so much when he told me that. I was able to bear testimony to him and share my favorite scripture and I felt the biggest outpouring of love for him. And I knew that God loved him too.
The fact that me and Matsumoto Shimai are companions now is amazing. If it wasnt for her, he probably wouldnt be active. She is a great missionary. And really we can take it back to Sister Tuikolovatu, too... if it wasnt for her I might not even be on a mission still. And before Tui Shimai was Johnson Shimai... and without her I wouldnt have even gone to Brother I apartment in the first place. It just goes to show that we are not alone in the work. We are all working together! I used to always want to just harvest harvest harvest but I realized how grateful I am for all the planters in this mission. Their job is so important too.

So we had the Halloween party in Yamagata this week. It was pretty fun! And it was so nice to have help from the members... sometimes working in a ward is so so so much nicer than a branch. We had lots of non members come and we were able to talk a lot about our 30 min English/30 min gospel program. One of mine and Matsumoto Shimais friends came. His name is M san. We met him at an imoni party awhile ago... but he is a very good guy. I hope he becomes an investigator soon. Too bad we have to pass him though. I swear we are always finding a ton of great people for the elders but they arent giving us anyone back!

Yesterday was my first time attending sacrament in Yamagata ward! We have been going to Fukushima so much lately that I still havent met very members. But I gave a short talk in sacrament and was able to meet more people, so that was good. I also taught gospel principles class on charity.. that was good too. I like Yamagata.

Today we are going to Yamadera with some friends (investigators.. members.. missionaries) for P day! It is a place where you walk up like 1000 stairs to all these shrines and stuff. I am excited!

Oh and dad... HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN JAPAN! Sorry, but this year I didnt send a present. I am trying to save money right now... but I hope you have a great day with mom!

Oh one more thing.. I got the package you sent me mom, thanks! Matsumoto Shimai was very happy that you sent gummy worms. I gave them all to her because I am on a diet... I have lost almost 7 pounds in case you are wondering! But Halloween and my split in Aizu really put me back.. But just letting you know that I am getting fit over here in Japan too!

Love you all so much.

Love Miranda

There are crocs in Japan too...

Me and my grrrrrl M@T$UM0T0

district pic at our weekly meeting with the mission leader! the mission leader hadnt arrived yet. from left to right... Elder Jake Dowdy(Australia), Elder Sho Fukuchi(Japan), Elder Austin Drenk(California), Elder Ashton Canepari(California), Sister Seika Matsumoto(Japan), ME, Sister Jordan Yim(Indiana), Sister Saki Ishikawa(Japan)

Me, Sister Nakaima(STL), and BRO I!!!!

Week Sixty-five.

Hi!

This was one of the most tiring but best weeks of my mission. It starts with my district leader asking us to pay attention to the little miracles and blessings we see everyday... and I did just that!

Miracle 1- had a great relaxing P day last week and wasnt affected by the typhoon at all! Every time we were outside riding our bikes it was dry and no rain!

MIRACLE 2- OKAY FIRST OFF FOR SOME REASON I AM IN CAPS LOCK NOW AND I CANT FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET IT OFF! SO IT IS GOING TO SEEM LIKE I AM YELLING THIS THE REST OF THE TIME... SORRY. WE HAD ONE DAY THIS WEEK WHERE WE DIDNT HAVE SUCCESS MEETING ANY OF THE PEOPLE WE VISITED AND MY COMPANION AND I KINDA GOT IN A LITTLE FIGHT THAT DAY TOO (THE FIRST ONE ON MY MISSION... IT WAS OVER SOMETHING STUPID SO DONT WORRY. WE ARE OKAY NOW) BUT WE DECIDED TO STOP AT A PARK ON THE WAY HOME AND TAKE A PICTURE WITH THIS COOL LITTLE ANIMAL STATUES BECAUSE PRES SMITH ASKED ALL THE COMPANIONSHIPS TO TAKE A PICTURE TOGETHER AND SEND IT TO HIM FOR A CHRISTMAS DVD HE IS MAKING FOR US. WHILE WE WERE THERE WE ASKED AN OLD GRANDPA TO TAKE A PICTURE FOR US AND WE GOT TO TALKING TO HIM AND IT TURNS OUT HE BELIEVES IN GOD AND HE HAS MET MISSIONARIES BEFORE! HE TOLD US WHERE HIS HOUSE IS AND SAID IT WAS OKAY IF WE CAME BACK, SO THAT WAS AWESOME! THEN AS WE WERE ABOUT TO LEAVE THERE WAS ANOTHER GUY IN THE PARK PLAYING THIS COOL BAMBOO FLUTE AND WE ASKED HIM ABOUT IT AND HE LET ME TRY TO PLAY IT, WHICH I FAILED MISERABLY AT, BUT HE WAS SUPER NICE. WE ALSO MET HIS WIFE/FRIEND OR SOMETHING AND SHE INVITED US TO COME TO HER COFFEE SHOP SOMETIME. IM TOTALLY GOING, BUT NOT DRINKING COFFEE OF COURSE.

Yes! I figured out how to get the caps lock off!

Miracle #3- One night we were at the church and the church phone rang and it was a member asking whoever was at the church to check and see what sundays relief society lesson was so she could prepare. We told her but then also decided to stop by her house on the way home and give her the extra 2 cookies we had taken with us that day to give to people. When we stopped by she was so grateful that we came and it just so happened that her granddaughter was there and she has tons of interest in English! So the member said that we could come over again and do our 30 min English/30 min. gospel program with her. REFERRAL! A true miracle!

Miracle #4- we decided to go to an imoni party (imoni is like soup with veggies and meat in it... its hard to explain. Look it up!) with an english class student and tons of his work friends and family were there so we were able to build relationships with these people and get phone numbers!

Miracle #5- the sister training leaders for my area live in Aizu- my first area- my first area and they called last night and said they started teaching the A Family again! Last time they were taught was a year ago when I was there! I am so happy to hear that! I love that family! Miraaaaacleeee!

Miracle #6- one of the less actives we visit has a tobacco problem and for one day out of the week she went tobacco-less when usually she smokes a TON. It was amazing!

Miracle #7- we had a lesson with H san, our deaf investigator, this week. We went to her house and helped her build these pipe things for a little bit then we went inside and talked about the Book of Mormon. We were able to communicate through writing down what we wanted to say on a piece of paper and just passing notes. Also, I dont know how but I was able to catch on and understand some of the sign language she was doing and not only understand, but use it too! We were able to teach her about baptism and pretty much what we did was prepare a ton of scriptures about what baptism is, why it is important, the blessings, the covenant, how it is performed, etc and just had her read them. And since she has strong faith and believes in the Book of Mormon, we didnt even have to say anything (nor would she even understand what we said if we did say something) and she took everything for truth. We asked her to be baptized you guys... and she said YES. And we set a baptismal date! And we didnt even use words to do it. This is the biggest miracle I have ever seen. I think a lot of the time missionaries arent exactly obedient and just kinda bank on their skill of putting emotion in their words or being really good teachers and somehow get through lessons and things even without having the spirit. I know I have been guilty of that before, but in this case, I cant bank on my words. The spirit is so so so SO important and is the real teacher. A missionaries role is seriously to just be obedient so the spirit can be there and then to just let the spirit do its thing and work through the missionary. The only way I will be able to help H san is if I am obedient. That is the only way! And I have been working so hard at it. Actually, my goal this week was to really study obedience so I am really learning a lot about it. But I still just cant get over the idea that we have a progressing investigator that believes this gospel and wants to be baptized. She GETS EVERYTHING! On top of that, she also gave us a referral and she is bringing this guy to church with her and wants us to tell him about the gospel. Ahhhh miracleeee

Miracle #8- So because we got a baptismal date... and were able to contact enough less active members (6 to be exact) and help them come closer to Christ (if we visit an LA and help them but dont necessarily teach a lesson, it is called an LA point here) in the Japan Sendai mission me and Matsumoto Shimai achieved the STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE! Waskdjfdlskfjjdsalhfdjk! The first time on my mission! I am so pooped, but it is a good feeling. We worked so hard this week. We are sacrificing everything... all our personal time and P days and everything to just help others. Today we have some time to rest though which I am SO grateful for.

Of course we saw disappointment this week too though. I had my first disagreement with a companion... we taught a lesson to the O family which WAS one of our investigators but they dropped us... werent able to meet all the people we tried to meet... etc. but we need the hard stuff to appreciate the good, right?

So in the end, it was a GREAT week and I plan on continuing this streak of miracles too! Thank you for your prayers.. I can really feel their influence.

Thanks for the info about the stake pres and bishop and stuff. Bishop Fairwell actually emailed me and gave me the all the details on the new bishop he he he so I know but you dont! :) He made me promise not to tell!

Also, I heard that there is a giant outbreak of some weird disease where people are bleeding and dying in the states. Is everyone okay?!

So when I get home from my mission... I was wondering if I could spend some time of course, maybe like a week or so, in Texas and then fly up to Idaho and maybe stay with Bailey and Chad for a week or so in Pocatello... yeah? Bailey and Chad, what do you think about that? :) Then go back to TX and start working and stuff.

LOVEEEE YOUUUUUUUU
ロバートソン姉妹

Week Sixty-four.

Hey everyone, are you genki??

So I am gonna take this day by day! Here we goooo!

Tuesday- We visited a less active grandma that has pretty strong faith actually but her body condition is just so bad that she cant make it to church. We sang hymns with her and cleaned her nasty tiny apartment. It was pretty gross... but it always feels good to serve. After that appointment, Matsumoto Shimai was sick so we went home and she ended up sleeping from like 3 until the next day. I dont know how she did it... I spent my time reading old letters and studying the bible a little. What do you guys know about Nathan the prophet? Grandma sent me a letter once that had an experience that Grandpa Flash wrote down saying he felt like "Nathan of old". I am assuming he means Nathan the prophet but I really dont know that much about him and I couldnt find too much... hmm.

Wednesday- We had a practice lesson with Furuuchi Shimai, an active member. She gave some really good feedback on how we could improve our lesson which I was grateful for. Do you guys do practice lessons with the missionaries at all? I bet it would really help them to practice! Of course in Japan we use it to practice Japanese, but it has other purposes too. They are to practice using the Book of Mormon, practice teaching the principles correctly, and practice using the spirit. We also use our practice lessons to help the members have a spiritual experience so they will want to share the gospel with others. If we have them pretend to be one of their non member friends, it helps them understand maybe what their friend needs and sometimes we can get referrals from them. We also use the practice lesson excuse to have english students help us or less actives to help us because every Japanese person likes to help people, especially Americans! Its a great tool. We also taught english on Wed, like usual. I taught the intermediate class and everyone was pretty good at English. It was fun. We have an instruction manual about what to teach and how to teach so we arent just making up our own lesson plans or anything. We go over correct pronunciation, vocabulary about the theme for that week, and I always give question prompts to start conversation in the class. If we have time we always play a fun game too.

Thursday- We went to Tendou, a nearby area, to visit some people. We visited a member named Otake Shimai and she is like 94 years old or something. We did a practice lesson with her then spent the next hour in a half doing origami. She LOOOVES her origami! I learned how to make a penguin, dog, and little box thing. Thursday night we had DCS which is our meeting with the ward mission leader where we talk about the progress record. I realized during the meeting that I understood EVERYTHING that the ward mission leader said and I was so amazed... one year ago I couldnt understand ANY Japanese... This is seriously such a miracle. I can understand Japanese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After DCS we had a special practice lesson party! Some priesthood leaders from the ward came and for the next hour we did 15 min practice lessons and then switch people. It was so scary, but so so helpful. I became such a better teacher! Yeah!

Friday- We had zone training meeting! We learned about making goals and having purpose in everything we do. For example if you have the purpose of getting to know someone then you will probably ask questions about their hobbies and favorite food and stuff. But if you have the purpose of wanting to know about what kind of person they want to be, then the questions you ask will probably be a lot different. We were challenged to have a purpose in everything we do and have our purposes be effective and something that will help the work move forward. We also had a lesson with our investigator Eiko san on this day. It was my first time meeting her and she is AMAZING! She is the wife of a less active but her mother in law is a strong member. We taught her about prayer and she has real interest!!!! She had tons of questions about what to say when you pray and when you pray and how you do it and stuff. We asked her to say the closing prayer and she said yes so we all waited with our eyes closed for her to start but she never said anything, so Sister Matsumoto said, "first you start with Heavenly Father..." and she said, "oh, out loud??" It just goes to show that the Japanese people really dont have any clue when it comes to God being our father and christianity and prayer and how it works and stuff. They only thing they know is clapping twice at a shrine and making a wish. I love this culture and I love teaching people and seeing them understand these simple things of the gospel. We also had a lesson with Kirari chan, our 17 yr old investigator. It was really short and it was about the Book of Mormon. She has been praying regularly and she really likes this church! I bet she will for sure get baptized :) We also had FHE that night and we played this like lazer tag game with everyone using dart guns. It was so fun, yo!

Saturday- we hiked the mountain that you can see from our apartment! It was fun. We went with a member. When we got back down the mountain, we went with Elder Drenk and Canepari from my district and ate McDonalds and it was SO GOOD. I havent eaten mcdonalds in forever. Then we went back to our apartment but we accidentally locked ourselves out of our apartment so we had to go to the church for general conference in our hiking clothes.... but when we got there the other sisters were there so we grabbed their key and hurried home to change then rode back and just ended up being late for conference. I like conference though! I havent seen all of it in English yet though. Tonight I will watch the session with Holland in English. One of the members said I could borrow the DVD and watch it in our apartment, so thats nice!

Sunday- General Conference! I really loved President Monsons talk about being Christlike. Just like Christ is indistinguishable from the Father, I want to be indistinguishable from them too. That is the goal of my life!

Now its Monday... and yes a typhoon is coming! We are instructed to stay inside our apartment from 6 o clock on tonight and tomorrow we are not allowed to ride our bikes if it is raining which SUCKS because we live so far from everything. It takes 20 or 30 min by bike to get anywhere. But hey I havent felt any earthquakes... I dont think Yamagata gets them too much. I bet if I was still in Ishinomaki I would be feeling them though.

So I got my trunky letter this week... It is a letter that pretty much tells you not to get trunky and that the Lord wants finishers. It was weird getting it because that means I am close to being done, but it still feels like I have 18 months left. Im not trunky at all. But I need to get some information from you guys... I need the name and address of my Bishop and Stake President and the name of the ward I will be going home too... and since our ward just split what do I write? Can you please tell me that information next week because I need to send in my returning home information ASAP.

oh btw I looooooove my companion sister matsumoto. She is a second generation member. she is from tottori prefecture. we speak japanese all the time, sometimes i still cant express myself and when i tell experiences or stories i dont exactly tell them smoothly but she understands my short choppy sentences so thats good. i think that is my biggest challenge right now.. telling personal experiences smoothly and so all my thoughts connect.

i havent practiced and sign language. I dont know how really. we have an appt with our deaf investigator this week. I will just write her notes.

Also... I have a package request! Deodorant, toothpaste, and gummy worms! Thanks!

Love ya! Miranda

Week Sixty-three.

Hello.

Here is a weather update! It is FREEZING. And it is RAINY. I guess it is a typhoon today or something so it makes getting around a little bit harder. My bike is sooo heavy and hard to ride sometimes especially in the rain. I already fell off of it once today when trying to dismount ha ha. Good thing I was wearing rain clothes.

So Yamagata is pretty good though! Lots of mountains... the name Yamagata actually means "lots of mountains" so yeah ha. The view outside my 5TH FLOOR APARTMENT room is way pretty. There is a giant mountain covered in trees! I cant wait for the leaves to change. The ward (yes I am in a ward! My first one on my mission!) is way great! But I havent actually met anyone yet... on Sunday we went to Fukushima for church, which means I probably have some serious radioactive poisoning or something, but it was nice to meet all the Fukushima members. They dont have missionaries in their area of course so when the missionaries come, they are so happy and so nice!

I came to a way great area where the missionary work is on fire though. We have like 8 investigators and 2 or 3 of them are telling us they wanna get baptized so that is pretty AWESOME. One of our investigators, H san, is deaf... so now I have the challenge of learning Shuwa (Japanese Sign Language) on my own with no resources! My prayers now consist of "please give me the gift of tongues and the gift of... hands?" She is a way nice lady though. When we want to communicate we just write it down on a piece of paper and talk that way. But even writing in Japanese characters and reading it is sometimes difficult so it has already been kind of overwhelming and frustrating for me. But hey, the spirit can teach and be present no matter what language you are speaking or signing!
We have another investigator that is 17 and she is Korean but fluent in Japanese. Her name is K chan. I have only met her once but she is really cute! Her and Matsumoto Shimai have everything in common. Me and K chan dont have anything in common... but that is okay. She is one of the investigators that wants to get baptized but it is looking like it might be a challenge to get permission from her parents.

We taught a lesson to our other investigator, K san. She is a young mother with two of the cutest little kids I have ever seen. She was pretty busy with her kids and so we only taught a short message in her entryway. She seems to have real interest so that is awesome! She likes English too so good thing I transferred here!

We get to watch conference next week. Thats cool that they are letting people speak in their native languages! Is this going to be a new thing they do every time? I am excited to watch conference for sure  :)

My older sisters kid is 3 years old now! Ahhh time is going by so fast isnt it. Sometimes I wanna get home fast, but other times I am a little bit scared to get back into real life. It is nice not having a real job ha ha and only having this one thing to do. But I still have 4 months left which sometimes feels really short and sometimes reallllly long. But in the end it is still just 4 months. I will do what I can with the time I am given!

Oh by the way, I got your package in the mail this week! Thanks so much! I am going to have to lose some weight before I can wear the skirt ha ha.. I cant get it on... but it is still way cute! I am working hard on my diet but it is impossible when I have to just eat what everyone else is eating in the apartment and at the same time when everyone else is eating because thats just how it goes. Hmmm at least I have a whole summer before I go back to school to get running and stuff again. Yeaaahhh!

Love you all so much!
Love Miranda

During transfers all of the Morita family was able to get together! From Right to left... Sister Morita (mother) Sister Luk (1st child) Me (2nd child) Sister Kanno (3rd child) Sister Arashiyama (4th child)

The mountain I can see from my apartment balcony

The sunset last night

the S Family in Ishinomaki. I cried when I said good bye to them. I will miss them so much.

A toilet I used this week ha ha.

Week Sixty-two.

Yaho!

Transferrrrrrs! This time they came on Saturday night instead of Sunday and that really surprised me! But heres what is going down in Ishinomaki! Elder Simonsen and Wadsworth are staying. Elder Akagi is staying, Elder Hill is going to Hachinohe. Sister Kanno is staying, and I AM TRANSFERRING! I am going to Yamagata! I have been there before a few times. When I was in Aizu we used to go to Yamagata for Zone Conferences and stuff. This is what I know about the area... it is FREEZING in the winter and it snows A LOT. The sisters apartment is super far from the church. And there is really good soba there (a kind of noodle). I also heard that the only kind of dendo I will do there is member dendo, which is AWESOME! It is a ward so there are about 70 people there which will be sooo different from everything I am used to. The largest branch I have served in was Akita and they had 35 people at church on a good day (that is including the 6 missionaries). I am actually way excited to go to Yamagata though. I feel like all of my areas have prepared me for this last area and I am so ready to just work and apply all the things I have learned and see some big time miracles! My new companion will be Sister Matsumoto! Yes! Another Japanese! I hope I get to be fluent by the time I go home.

I can barely remember anything that happened this last week. Hmm... we had zone conference which was good! We talked about finding techniques, teaching techniques, and being kind and showing love to our companions and other missionaries. It was really good. I really enjoyed the testimonies at the end of the conference of all the missionaries that will be going home this transfer and the next. I love all the missionaries here. They are such great examples!

Hmm we had a softball game against Furukawa. That was fun. I played on the Furukawa team because they didnt have enough players. I prayed that my team would win, and you best believe Furukawa won! Whoop whoop!

We did a lot of FHEs with members this week! And guess what, we played Silly Stories the JAPANESE version! Everyone really really liked it. It was so so funny. I will write some of my favorites down for you in this email :)

Besides that, it was a pretty normal week. We didnt really have any lessons though so that sucked. We did lots of mogis and we did some LA visits. Lots of our time was spent in Sendai for Zone Conference and at meal appt with members. In Japan meal appts last 3 hours just so you know... thats just how it is.

Ah! I was going to write the silly stories but I forgot the paper I wrote them down on at the apartment. Sorry! I guess you will just have to trust that they were funny.

Sorry this is so short and boring... do you have any questions for me about Japan or anything?

Love you,
Miranda