can't believe it's november!

Mina sann! Hello!

This week was transfer week, so it was crazy busy even though I stayed in the same place. Missionaries who transfer have to pack everything up and ship it to the next location, including bikes. Who knew that taking the wheel and handlebars off a bike would be so hard? No matter how hard we tried, Sister Kubota's handlebars wouldn't budge. Literally used ALL of our strength. So we eventually caved and called the Elders for help, and of course when they came over it took them five seconds to do it, seemingly effortlessly. Embarrassing. Then we gave them treats as a thank-you... I've officially become a sister missionary stereotype.

My new companion, Sister Taneda, is one of the kindest, friendliest people I've ever met in my life. Whenever she talks to others I just watch in awe. She's 24 and from Kobe. She's been on her mission for a year, and has all kinds of cool ideas, so I can definitely learn a lot from her! She also doesn't really speak English, which I was a little worried about at first, but it's worked out fine so far. We pretty much only speak Japanese in the apartment, except I use English with Sister Cortes when it's just us.

I don't have much time so I'll keep my weekly report short. Basically the first half of the week was full of goodbyes - to members, friends, investigators, Eikaiwa students, etc. Sister Kubota and Elder Howard, my district leader, both left, and they will both be missed. Hopefully with six missionaries in Oyama now, we'll be able to fill their shoes and more!

On Thursday we traveled to Omiya to meet a bunch of other missionaries and exchange companions. Before heading back we all ate lunch together... at McDonalds. Not my choice, but I was sort of curious about what a Japanese McDonalds would be like. Just as gross as America! The apple pies are still yummy though.

Sister Taneda came just in time for weekly planning, and as a companionship we all made goals for what we want to do this transfer. We all have high hopes, and having a new teacher has its advantages - there were a few investigators we were sort of "stuck" with, unable to help them progress because they just saw us as friends and didn't really care much about church things, and we managed to give both of them Books of Mormon this week and they promised to read! Miracles every day.

On Saturday a couple of policemen stopped us and asked me and Sister Cortes for our gaijin cards (visas), so that was kind of exciting. They were super nice about it, even though I don't approve of their racial profiling. We also met a bunch of exchange students from Vietnam who were really excited to talk to us, and it was so fun trying to communicate through both of our broken Japanese efforts! I think it was the first time I've heard Vietnamese (is that what their language is called?) being spoken - really interesting.

Since I'm now area Senpai (most experience) we've gotten lost a fair bit, but not as badly as I'd feared. So it's okay. My inability to navigate even helped us one time - I was trying to think of the fastest way home, but could only remember one way, which was super long and round-about. I knew there was a shortcut, but for some reason as I tried to imagine the road the image was being blocked from my mind. Frustrated, I gave up and led us to the long way home that I knew, and on the way saw a woman at a stoplight who I felt I should say hi to. She said hello back, then asked where I was from. The light turned green, interrupting our conversation, and she walked on - but for some reason I chased after her, awkwardly trying to ride my bike and fish a flyer out of my bag at the same time. I told her we were church volunteers who taught free English class, and she got really excited and said she wanted to come! I'll never know if my inability to remember the way home came from on high or from my own stupidity, but I guess it doesn't matter. I constantly have to remind myself that I'm not here to do things my way, but His.

All for now! I'm attaching a picture of Elder Justeson playing the guitar at Music Corner, and me and Sister Taneda eating ramen (sorry my tag is covered... bad missionary).

Ai shite iru yo,
Anna

Music Corner at Eikaiwa (English class).  

Anna and new companion Taneda shimai.  Note the petite bowls.

Hello from... still Oyama!

Konnichiwa mina san. This week was way fun and way busy, starting with temple day and a special Sister Missionary training on Tuesday. We woke up at four to catch the train to Tokyo but it was worth it! All of the Sister Missionaries in our whole mission were together, and we got to listen to speakers, music, do some group activities, and of course eat. It was really fun to see everyone again, and the speakers were really good. One woman gave a talk about modesty and the need to respect our bodies that I actually enjoyed - that in itself was a miracle!

Wednesday was a day of miracles. The lessons we taught went really well, we got good news from our investigators, and we found a really nice family while housing. Tsu san. When we showed her the Book of Mormon, she looked at it and said, "oh, does it say nice things like the Bible? I like the Bible. I'm really interested." Sometimes when people actually want to talk to us it's hard not to let the shock show on our faces. Just keep smiling, like "of course you do! Who wouldn't?"

We continue to teach in every language possible. We did another lesson in French on Monday, and on Wednesday we visited one of our ward members from Peru and her father. He'd speak to Sister Cortes in Spanish, who translated in English for Sister Kubota, who then relayed the same message in Japanese to the ward member who was there with us. I sat and smiled and nodded when I understood.

On Thursday we had our last district meeting of the transfer - it was kind of sad to think of all the people who will be going home soon, like my Sister Training leader and one of the Zone leaders. We had a little testimony meeting together which was really sweet, then ate lunch at a ramen shop. After that we went on splits, so one of the Utsunomiya sisters came to Oyama with us while Sister Kubota left. We had fun talking to lots of different people, and made a few new friends at the train station.

Friday it rained and rained and rained - it was the first time since coming here that I've felt unsafe on a bike. My bike light is pretty weak, so nighttime is a little risky sometimes. But don't worry! I'm a defensive biker. The one upside to rain is that no one wants to leave their house, so all the people we visited that day were actually home (it's really hard to make appointments sometimes, so we do a lot of "surprise visits" to our investigators' houses). One of our investigators gave us all big bags of clothes to take home - she says she's "too fat" for them now, but probably weighs half what I do. Everyone here is so tiny.

Saturday we went to our ward Halloween party. It was really fun and well-planned, with lots of games and activities. It was fun seeing the different types of costumes - AnPanMan, a really famous Japanese cartoon character, was a popular one. I worked really hard on my costume, as you can tell from the picture below - dollar store headband! There were lots of cats that night.

Sunday was good, as always. I like going to church and seeing everybody, even though it's a little hard to stay awake sometimes. Very mentally exhausting. I'm slowly starting to understand more and more, but it's still hard. It also doesn't help that I have to wear nylons, which I'm pretty sure are torture devices. All blood circulation is cut off from my brain.

Today we had zone P-day in Oizumi, which is like mini Brazil town in the middle of Japan. We all met at a park and played soccer and other games, plus ran into a huge group of preschool kids who were all so cute. They loved playing with us and took a million pictures. Afterwards their teachers had them perform a cartwheel/frog jump/bridge routine for us. I'll probably see some of them again, doing gymnastics for Team Japan when I come back to watch the 2020 Tokyo Olympics!

The other big news from today was... transfer calls! Oh man I was so nervous. I'm staying in Oyama, and so is Sister Cortes, but Sister Kubota is leaving and another Japanese missionary, Sister Taneda, is coming to replace her. I've heard that Sister Taneda is really nice, but I'm a little nervous about not having Sister Kubota here! Everyone really loves and trusts her so much, and also now I'm in charge of directions. My ability to navigate is still horrible - whenever you pray for me, please don't worry about my safety/happiness/health/whatever, all that is fine. But please ask God to help me not get lost.

Our mission is growing so fast that we barely have space for all the new missionaries! Almost all the companionships in my district are trios now, and we're getting over 60 new missionaries before Christmas. Crazy. I'm excited for this next transfer and hope I see lots of miracles to write home about!

Love you all, take care!
- Anna

Anna at Oyama Ward Halloween Party

Anna and Shimai Kubota and Shimai Cortes at the Tokyo Temple

konnichiwa

Well, as predicted in my last letter, I'm already regretting my wish for colder weather. I got that and more this week as I experienced my second typhoon in Japan. It wasn't too bad, just a lot of wind and rain, but it was so loud outside that I could barely sleep at all. Also all of our plans got cancelled - typhoons always seem to happen when we're busy! I've gotten lots of use out of my super shareta (stylish) rain suit. I keep meaning to take a picture... someday!

I got asked the same question by three different people this week, after seeing how tall I am: "what did you eat as a kid?" It's like I'm a walking advertisement for the milk industry.

This week was pretty good, besides the typhoon. Last Monday we went to a member's house in the evening for a birthday party, and got to meet some returned missionaries who left Oyama just before Sister Kubota got here, and had come back to visit. The ward loved them, so I'd heard a lot about them. Hopefully the wards I serve in will remember me like that! It was funny because one of them was wearing a white shirt and tie, and kept asking us about all of our investigators. Still in missionary mode I guess.

We tried out something new this week by having "music corner" after Eikaiwa where everyone who stayed later could sing and listen to one of the Elders play guitar. It turned out really well, and most people stayed! We sang "Book of Mormon stories" and explained what the song meant and talked a little about the Book of Mormon.

On Thursday we had a really good lesson with H., who we found kind of on accident. His wife got baptized when she was in high school but hasn't been to church in years, so we went to visit her a few weeks ago and he answered the door instead. He didn't know anything about the church, but agreed to meet with us again to learn more, and now we've gotten to teach three lessons to him and his wife together! He's like the perfect investigator - listens carefully and understand things well, asks questions, shows interest, is honest about his opinions. It would be so amazing to get to watch them be sealed in the temple as a couple, and I hope I'll have the opportunity before I go home.

Friday we spent all morning at zone training, which is always fun. I love getting to see everyone and getting to hear pep talks in English! Saturday was really fun, because our ward had a barbecue. Lots of people came, and almost a third weren't members! So we got to meet new people, and watch our investigators form friendships with the ward members. It was awesome. We played group games (Japanese adults seem to get into games a lot more than American ones , it's awesome) and ate and ate and ate. In some ways it was really similar to a barbecue at home, except the food was way different. Yakisoba, fried pumpkin and garlic, some mystery meat that looked suspiciously like spam, and a bunch of other stuff.

Oh, I almost forgot the funniest part. There were two (possibly feral?) cats hanging around, but instead of telling their children to stay away, like Americans probably would, everyone kept trying to catch them and pet them. Even the bishop at one point crouched down and try to lure one over with a piece of meat held between chopsticks! These are my people.

Another random fact about Oyama: the sacrament bread here is way better. Usually at home it's just a scrap of whatever the cheapest bread at the grocery store happened to be, but here I swear it's like fresh from the bakery challah loaves every week. Awesome.

Miracle of the week: One of the women in our ward has been having a lot of really hard family problems lately. Her home has been described as a "war zone" - everyone fighting, lots of chaos. She's the only one in her family who's a church member and she wants so badly to have the perfect, loving, church-going family of her dreams, and had just about given up and was planning on moving out when suddenly her dad announced he'd start going to church with her every week. Both of her parents came yesterday, and really enjoyed it. The best part was seeing how happy they all were together, and how they're working together to strengthen their family.

I just want everyone in the world to know about the incredible blessings this gospel can bring! There's so much work to do!

Love, Anna

Oyama Ward BBQ Picnic

Feral Oyama cat observing the picnic

another update!

Hello hello hello!

I hope everyone is doing well. This week was hot - reminded me of when I first got here. Everyone keeps talking about how miserably cold winter is in Japan but honestly I'm so ready to be done with this heat. I'm sure I'll regret saying that in a few months, but oh well. Halloween is approaching and even though it's relatively new in Japan a lot of people's houses are decorated - it makes me feel like I'm trick-or-treating when we go knocking on doors! However, since I'm currently a representative of Jesus Christ, it might be distasteful to go back and T.P. the people who shut their doors in our faces.

I told Sister Kubota it was her turn to decide what to do for P-day today so we cleaned the apartment for an hour an a half... yay! Haha actually it wasn't that bad... cleaning has become incredibly satisfying for me. Yikes I'm turning into such a good little Mormon homemaker, it's scary. OK I shouldn't say that mockingly, I just listened to the conference talk yesterday about the importance of women in the home and how noble their work is. Kuiaratameru [repent?]!

Conference was awesome, by the way. I got to listen to it in English! I think this was the first time I've ever gotten through all 8 hours without falling asleep. Being a missionary will do that to ya. I actually listened to one talk in Japanese, and while I still barely understood anything, I was able to pick out a lot more that I thought I'd be able to. So I guess that's progress? Aki came to watch some, and K. too, and they both seemed to really like it.

Now for the miracle of the week... we set a baptismal date with Aki!! She still has trouble believing she'll be able to make the necessary changes in time, but I think having a concrete goal will help motivate her and give her self-confidence. She works so hard, and has to take care of so many people in her very complicated and confusing family situation, that I want more than anything for her to be able to experience the peace and happiness the gospel brings. She deserves it. I've never met anyone with more desire - or more obstacles in their way - to get baptized.

We had a special 2-zone conference on Thursday, where we got training from the Budges, the APs, zone leaders, and mission doctors. They put a lot of emphasis on being ready - we talked about emergency preparedness, staying healthy, and preparing ourselves to teach. There were a lot of football analogies and we all now have a PDF file made by President Budge called the "playbook" where we can store all of our favorite scriptures, stories, and teaching aids to have on hand at all times. We also got a chance at the end to hear from all of the missionaries leaving next transfer - I knew them all, and they were amazing examples to me of faith and dedication. It's hard to imagine our mission without them.

One good consequence of the zone conference was that after all they said about the importance of cardiovascular exercise, Sister Kubota said she'd set a goal to run every morning this week! So now I can too!! I'd been missing it. I always feel bad asking to go running since neither of the other two ever wanted to. We had a few times before though, whenever Sister Kubota could tell that I needed it. Haha like one time when I was pounding down potato chips saying "make me stop! I'm stress eating!" and she suggested that we run the next morning. There's a small park next to our apartment with a round dirt path surrounding a grassy hill where we like to go. P.S. I'm in awful shape and get out of breath way too fast. Biking builds muscle but doesn't work your lungs so much.

We finally got around to buying Sister Cortes' bike this week, and she picked a really cute red one. For the first time I noticed how dirty and beat-up mine already looked after two months. We all named our bikes too - Sister Kubota's is The White Avenger, mine's the Black Cat, and Sister Cortes' Sakura chan (Japanese cherry blossoms). As you can see, we're super creative and didn't just pick names to go along with the bikes' colors.

Sister Kubota's been encouraging me to lead whenever we go anywhere on bikes, to help me practice remembering directions, and I've been struggling. My inability to navigate is even worse here (no street signs! How is anyone supposed to find anything?) and the thought of being senior companion terrifies me. Our phone has a GPS but it's all in Japanese characters, so not super helpful. I really have no idea what's going to happen next transfer - me leaving, Sister Kubota leaving, or all three of us staying. I'm trying not to think about it.

Also I'm still a freak here - people stare at me everywhere we go. Today was a good morning because BOTH people I said konnichiwa to while biking past said it back! Usually I get blank stares. And it's not because people are rude - Sister Kubota always gets konnichiwas back when she says it - it's because they're shocked to hear it from me. It'll be nice when I go back to school to get lost in a sea of tall white people.

Kyotsukette, ne! (take care)

- Anna

time flies

Mina sannn!

This week was probably the busiest yet. The biggest thing that happened was that our new companion, Sister Cortes, came! She's from around Mexico City. It's been fun watching her react to everything and remembering when I was the same way... a few weeks ago. Time goes by so fast I'm nostalgic already. It's been pretty easy adjusting to living with three people instead of two, but we're definitely in need of more closet space. When we cook we make a little more, and Sister Kubota showers at night now, but no huge changes. We had to rearrange our two desks into an L-shape thing to accommodate three people.

We had a full evening planned for the day we got back from Tokyo to pick Sister Cortes up. Poor thing had to teach a lesson in Spanish after being here for like an hour, then we didn't have time for dinner, then we went to Eikaiwa. Oh and she'd never ridden a bike before, so she got to try that out on a borrowed bike, in the dark, in Japan. She's been a trooper.

It's been a huge miracle to finally be able to communicate in Spanish. We have lots of new investigators already, and have taught two lessons to a Peruvian family who lives near the church. It's funny watching them learn together because the mom has a Christian background, but the husband doesn't really know anything about religion, which sometimes shocks her. When we asked him if he knew who prophets were and he said no, her eyes got huge and she shrieked, "no sei que es una profeta?!" Or something like that. I can sort of understand some of what they say, but Sister Cortes translates for us. But they're super nice, and have two really cute kids. And the dad is a chef, so we got to try some yummy Peruvian food last time we went over!

Hopefully someday we'll get to the point where we can all contribute equally in the lessons. Right now Sister Kubota does most of the teaching in Japanese and Sister Cortes does almost all of it in Spanish. I actually have my first lesson in French scheduled for tonight, with Patrique, the man we met from Congo. I'm a little scared - we never learned religious vocabulary in high school!

This week has been a great one for Oyama. We've been busy busy busy with all the new people to teach, and the Elders here set TWO baptismal dates this week! Both of them are young boys - one in high school and one in college - and they're both way cool and way nice. I'm so excited. Hopefully we'll get to see similar miracles soon! Aki really wants to be baptized and is working hard to find a new job so she can be independent and make some needed life changes. She has such an amazing desire to learn and be a better person, and I want so badly for her to feel the happiness she deserves.

We went to a cool sushi restaurant for lunch today - the kind where everything comes around on a revolving belt and you just take whichever plates you want. It was way fun, and most of it yummy - but I finally tried the infamous nato that all the Japanese returned missionaries talk about! It's fermented soybean goop and just as disgusting as promised. But besides that, oishii!

Since we had technical difficulties last night (technology hates me) I'm finishing my email now Tuesday morning, after yesterday's lessons. I taught Patrique in French. It was awesome! Sometimes between Sister Kubota's Japanese and Sister Cortes' Spanish lessons I feel a little useless, so it was nice to finally contribute. That wasn't the best part though. The best part was seeing him learn and understand, and hearing him say "I want to know more so I can decide if this path is right for me." Yay!

I'm sending a picture of me with my (short) companions, and one at the sushi restaurant. I apologize for the latter - being a missionary has changed me in some ways, but I'm still not photogenic.

Sayonara!

Love, Anna

New companion Cortes Shimai (from Mexico City), Anna and Kubota Shimai

Anna eating sushi - Yum!!

Oyama update

Hello! I can't believe another p-day is almost over... time goes by so fast here it's scary. I'll have wrinkles by the time I come home.

News! Our third companion is finally coming, so we'll take the train to Tokyo on Wednesday to pick her up. Yay! Now we have to rearrange our beds and figure out how to best share two desks.

Today Sister Kubota and I went to the community center Japanese class again, which was fun - we've developed a fun group of friends there, and we all went out to lunch afterwards. Our friend from Thailand is back, so we got to talk to her again and eat some treats she brought back with her! I also finally got a haircut to fix the hack job I got in the MTC. Warning to all future missionaries: it's tempting to take advantage of the free MTC barber shop, but know that they value quantity over quality. Ten minutes is not enough for a decent women's haircut.

Last week was busy - on Wednesday we had our first district meeting of the transfer, so I got to meet the four new missionaries in our district! Thirteen new missionary apartments opened this transfer, and more and more new missionaries keep coming. It's awesome. But it also means experienced missionaries are becoming scarce - it's not uncommon for people to start training after only being here 3 months (less time if you're native Japanese). Scary.

On Thursday we had a really, really good lesson with K. She had a previous baptismal date but cancelled it just before I got to Oyama, so we've been very careful about not putting too much pressure on her. Still, we wanted to help her progress, so we'd been praying all week to know what to do. Then, after our lesson, she finally opened up to us about all of her concerns and why she'd cancelled before. It was a miracle for us because now we finally know exactly what she needs and wants to learn.

Everyone is different, which is why it's so important for us to really get to know the people we teach and love them and gain their trust. Teaching is a two-way thing - we can't drag anyone towards understanding. They have to work with us and be willing to meet halfway. We like to refer to ourselves as "guides" - our job is to teach people what we know, and help them know how to find out for themselves if our message is true - not to debate and "convince" people to be baptized. It is ultimately up to them what they decide to do.

Friday was a little rough. We biked for an hour and ten minutes to get to someone's house - we'd never met her before, but I guess she joined the church as a teenager and hasn't come in years. Anyway, after the long ride and asking a few neighbors we finally found the house - and she stared at us for about five seconds before shutting the door again as Sister Kubota was mid-sentence. I have to admit I didn't have a very Christlike attitude and sort of grumbled under my breath when Sister Kubota suggested we say a prayer for the door shutter, bless her heart. But on our way back home we met a young mother of two who accepted a Book of Mormon from us and said we could come back and teach her family! So the day ended up being a success.

Friday morning we also visited a very sweet obaachan [grandma?] who loves nature and music, so we sang "For the Beauty of the Earth" as she showed us her garden and gave us a bouquet to take home. We took some glamour shots with it, which I'll attach.

Saturday we taught some good lessons and had lunch at a lady in our ward's house, which was really fun. She's very funny and talkative and told us her conversion story - I guess her dad felt bad for the missionaries for some reason, so he told her to go and take lessons from them, even though they were devout members of another church. So she started meeting with the missionaries out of pity, but eventually realized what they were teaching was true! Ha ha I guess it doesn't matter how you get there.

I had a really embarrassing moment after lunch though - since we were sitting on the floor, one of my legs fell completely asleep. I underestimated just how numb it was though, and put all my weight on it as I stood up, which made me completely fall over, arms pinwheeling and everything. It was a miracle nothing broke. Easily the least graceful thing I've ever done, and coming from me, that means a lot! Yikes.

Church yesterday was awesome - so many people came that there wasn't enough room in the chapel! That's the kind of "problem" we love to have.

Now that the horribly humid summer is ending, I get to enjoy Fall. Biking is more enjoyable, and we often pull over to take pictures of the landscape or sunsets. I'll attach one from a few days ago.

Hope everyone is well!

Love, Anna

Bouquet from obaachan's garden

Oyama landscape

another week goes by

Greetings, mina san.

This week had its ups and downs, but flew by, just like all the others. I feel like I wrote my last email only a few days ago. Still no new companion - hope she comes soon!

I started the week with splits (companion exchanges) so I was in Utsunomiya on Tuesday. It's a lot busier than Oyama, so we talked to LOTS of people. It was fun to see some more of Japan - and cats! There were so many cats in the streets. Awesome. Unfortunately while I was gone someone stole my bike light - kind of random. I guess this country isn't perfect after all. I'm actually kind of impressed they managed to get it off the bike - I've tried to move that thing before, and it was impossible.

On Wednesday some members took us to the Japanese version of Sears so we could get a futon for our new companion. Everything's all set and ready to go! I also taught Eikaiwa, which continues to get bigger and better. We always play a game at the end with everyone, and people get really into it.

Thursday was awesome - one of the men in our ward's mom used to take the missionary lessons, and we've been trying to set an appointment with her for about a month now. She unexpectedly emailed us in the morning with a question about the Book of Mormon so we called her back and said, "are you home? We can answer in person, right now!" So we quickly biked over and got to finally teach her and set up another appointment. Yay! She's very kind and fun to talk to. We kept seeing miracles all day when we ran into three other people we'd been trying to contact while on our bikes or at the station. They can't avoid us when we're face-to-face! Haha. So that was way awesome. I've never had a feeling like "hmmm, I think the Spirit is telling me to go down that street now" - all of the run-ins happened by "chance". As long as we keep doing all we can, we're guided to where we need to go and everything works out.

Early Friday morning, maybe around 3am, I was woken up by my first-ever earthquake. To be completely honest I was pretty scared - it wasn't the most peaceful way to be woken up. I think it was only about a 3.0 in Oyama, though. So all is well.

We met lots of new people over the weekend. Sister Kubota said some of them had a "funny vibe," which of course I didn't pick up on. I think everyone here is funny. Because I'm not super familiar with Japanese mannerisms yet, it's harder for me to tell if someone is drunk, mentally handicapped, or just a character. I also don't always pick up on emotions or hints. Yikes. Let's hope I learn to be less oblivious soon.

Sunday started out really well - Aki came to church for the first time with her friend, and said she really liked it. And I was able to understand some of what the first speaker was saying! It probably helped that he was 12. I couldn't understand a single word of the other talks. We had a full schedule of appointments planned for after church, all of whom cancelled on us. So it was a long afternoon of knocking on doors. I was pretty spent when I came home, and chose to ease my pain by eating a huge bag of potato chips, which I usually don't even like. I have a problem.

Sister missionary weight gain update: I've gained one or two kilos since entering the MTC, but it's been pretty constant lately. So maybe my body's found its happy place and it'll stay that way? Let's hope.

Thank you for all your good news from home, I hope everyone is well!
Love, Anna