Hello!

Well, I'm back again. This week was so fun and awesome and crazy, I'm not really sure where to start with my email. We somehow ended up eating out/being taken out almost every day so maybe I'll organize it by what I ate (there are some interesting things).

Ramen - we went out to lunch for the first time with Shi, who goes to college in San Diego but is home for summer break right now. She is super cool and actually has some Mormon relatives, even though she's never really thought much about religion. Mostly she's bored and likes hanging out with us - but she came to church! Every person that comes to church is a success in my book. It's such an important experience for everyone to have.

Cow tongue - this is not a joke. We had Mission Leadership Council on Thursday at the Honbu (took three hours by train to get there!) and afterwards met a girl and her friends for dinner. I'd met her on the train last time I went to Honbu, became Facebook friends, and said I'd hit her up if I came back. So that was cool! We told them to pick anywhere good, and they picked cow tongue - it's pretty much like small steaks. Kind of weird but tasted good I guess? I'm a monster. I'll attach a picture.

Ramen again - I went on splits in Kisarazu, which is famous for ramen, so we got some for lunch. Kisarazu is cool, but I didn't see too much of it because the sister's bike I was borrowing was broken so we stayed close to home, on foot. Got to teach Eikaiwa in Kisarazu which was really fun because they have some hilarious students. There's one man who comes to church every week and had sort of decided he's a member except he hasn't been baptized. He actually goes out knocking on doors with the missionaries sometimes, and rags on the members for not bringing enough "guests" to church. It's awesome. We actually got to have a really good discussion with him about baptism and asked him to ask God what to do. He said he would.

Vegan food - we got taken out by a new investigator and a bunch of her friends to the most hippie place I've ever seen in my life, including all of Eugene. The restaurant is called Sweet and Peace and is like walking into an Alice-in-Wonderland type dimension with all earthiness of home and cutesy-ness of Japan. They had a wish tree, where you can write down wishes and hang them on the branches (with the rule that it has to be a wish for other people) and also the desserts were covered in fruit sauce hearts and edible glitter.

Ice cream smoothie thing - it's the one drink on the entire menu of the cafe where we meet Sue that doesn't have coffee or tea in it, so we order it every time. We also made a personalized Plan of Salvation pamphlet for Taz the barista, marking sections we like and writing notes, so hopefully he'll read it.

Every single drink in 7-11 - we had a really cool, funny experience when we visited the To family. We'd met the mom before, and talked to her for maybe five minutes, but she said we could stop by again whenever we were in the area. So we went, expecting to maybe talk to them for five minutes and invite them to church or Eikaiwa, and were really surprised when they were delighted to see us and invited us in. We weren't really sure what they expected - teach their kids English? Explain the church? - but the first thing that they did was have the dad run out to a 7-11 to buy drinks because we said we didn't drink coffee. We insisted water was fine, but away he went, and came back with 8 bottles of various juices and flavored waters so that we could have our pick. As we talked to them, they...

• said they wanted to come to Eikaiwa
• offered to take us to Costco and buy us anything we were missing from home
• said we could teach them about eternal families
• told us they'd buy us kimonos to wear to the upcoming summer festival and asked what kimono size we were
• said they wanted to become Christian
• promised to take us to the beach and also like 5 other local restaurants
• said we could come back anytime, made a next appointment
• sent us off with fresh corn, pineapple, ice cream and pellegrino

Have you ever seen the movie Road to El Dorado, when the Spanish guys show up in South America and the native people immediately assume that they're gods and shower them with gifts and praise? That's kind of how I felt this week. It's gonna be a shock to come back home and not have everyone make a huge deal of me. I tell you, Chosei people will always have a special place in my heart.

We saw so many miracles this week. A lady we met on the street and talked to for five minutes, Homu san, came to church! She loved it, took a Book of Mormon, and said she'd be back next week. We barely did anything.

We also got to teach so many cool people, including Yu, a mother of four. She is so sweet and just wants her family to be happy forever more than anything. Also Iza, the lady tearing through the Book of Mormon, is awesome. She notices tons of Sunday School principles by herself and tells us about them - like the pride cycle, modern-day application, and other things. I think she understands the Book of Mormon ten times more than I do.

I love Chosei and its people and beautiful landscape - here's a shot of part of our bike ride home from church. Also Sister Sticht rescuing snails on the side of the road. The bugs here are huge and plentiful.

Hope all is well at home! Talk to you next week.

Anna

Cow Tongue restaurant in Tokyo

Bike riding home from church in Chosei

Sticht Shimai rescuing snails from the road side.

Hello from Chosei!

Greetings loved ones. What a crazy week. Transfer weeks are always nuts of course - there's just never enough time to see everyone you want! I'll take you through the week.

Monday I mostly spent packing, so that wasn't actually too exciting. Once again, marveled at how much junk I'd managed to accumulate during the last four months. In the evening we visited the less-active nocturnal family and found out that they're currently in the process of shifting their sleep schedule! They said they'd be able to go to church the next week.

Tuesday we went out and tried to squeeze as many lessons as possible into the day. The last one of the day was with Kay, at his house. It was the first time we'd been over. In Japan it's kind of a big deal for someone to invite you to their house - a lot of the time when we teach people they only talk to us at the doorstep - and he said he wanted to because he was grateful for all that we were teaching him and helping him understand. It was a really cool experience.

Wednesday was, like all last Wednesdays are, amazing and full of love and really sad. One small miracle that meant a lot to me was that I'd been really bummed about not being able to see Ru and his family before we left, and then they all showed up to Eikaiwa. Ru didn't have too much interest in English and spent most of the time running around and playing games on the iPad but I was so happy to see him and everyone else. Lots of other members came too, including all the ward missionaries, and they had a goodbye party for the four of us missionaries transferring out. I'm sure you saw the video on Facebook, but basically all the students and members secretly wrote out little notes on heart-shaped sticky notes and came and stuck them on us. At first I didn't know what was going on and felt a little freaked out (they had us shut our eyes) but it was so sweet. You never know how much your Eikaiwa students care until it's time to leave. I'm really happy we're using Facebook now because it'll be so much easier to stay in touch with people!

On Thursday we taught in the morning and them came home to eat and study a little before it was time for me to leave. I said goodbye to Yamauchi Shimai and then me and Sister Hall took the train to Honbu [mission headquarters]. Actually on the train I met a nice university student who lives near there, and we have an appointment to meet her again next week after we go to Mission Leadership Council. So that was cool. At Honbu I met Sister Sticht and we went back to Chosei together, and met one of their Investigators Sue at the station. Sue is a surfer from California who came to Japan to get away from America and currently teaches English. She is a very deep thinker, curses like a sailor, and one of the more interesting people I've ever met. But she's reading the Book of Mormon! She's been meeting with the sisters about a transfer now for weekly "Metaphysical Hour." Later in the evening we went to the church for music night, where I got to meet some of the members.

A little about my new area: it's beautiful! Being in Tokyo for so long, I'd forgotten what plants look like. Biking out among the rice paddies and flowers is almost surreal. Definitely very rural - Chosei is technically classified as a village, not even a city. But the church building here is pretty nice and good-sized. About 60 people come every week, I think. My companion Sister Sticht is from Montana and she's awesome! We laugh all the time. There are six missionaries in Chosei - two Elders and four Sisters - so we share an apartment with Sisters Cheney (from my MTC district) and Chandler (fresh outta the MTC). We're so blessed to be working with lots of great people right now. This is the first time I've ever been transferred that wasn't a whitewash, so it's nice not having to start from scratch.

On Friday there was supposed to be some big typhoon but, like all other typhoons I've experienced here, it didn't really hit our area and was way over-hyped. But it DID make it unbearably humid. We met one of our neighbors in a nearby park for a picnic lunch, and she surprised us by showing the plan of salvation pamphlet the sisters had given her earlier. It was completely marked up and covered in questions she had written. Another lady we taught that day, Iza, is also a big studier. She's reading like 15 chapters of the Book of Mormon a day! Super awesome. She also gave us homemade cake to eat, sent us off with carrot salad for the road, and made our next appointment for us when we forgot to ask. I was on cloud nine. I could get used to this country hospitality!

Unfortunately not everyone is so willing to learn. On Saturday both of our appointments cancelled, so we had a full day of biking out to "surprise visit" people who weren't home. At least we met some really cool people on the way - I'm learning to always stop people you pass by! It's a little hard in Tokyo, with so many people everywhere, but here we try to stop everyone if we have time.

Sunday I got to meet all the members, and they're awesome! Very willing to help out. The speakers went a little short, so in order to take up time, the Bishop asked me and Sister Chandler to get up and introduce ourselves and share testimony. There isn't a gospel principles class in this ward, so I went to regular Sunday School for the second time in a row. I've been learning a lot about David! Interesting to study the Bible for a change. After church we went out visiting investigators and ended up unexpectedly getting invited to dinner at a members house - homemade tenpura! Mmmm.

Hopefully I'll get the chance today to take some pictures of all the nature here. Here's one of me and Sister Sticht hanging out in 7-11 to email. I wonder if they ever get annoyed at us for using their free wi-fi all the time?

Love you all!
Anna

Sticht shimai and Anna

Elder Kawamura (who baptized Ru in Tokyo) with Kathy and Ben the night before he flew home.

Transfer results:

I'm transferring to Chousei! It is in Chiba, across the Tokyo Bay from where I am now. My new companion is Sister Stitch, who was in my zone two transfers ago, and I'm excited/nervous/stressed and all the range of emotions that come with being transferred. I've loved Senzokuike so much, but Sister Stitch says that they are teaching really amazing people in Chousei so I'm excited. We'll be STLs together. Apparently Chousei is sort of country-side-ish, so after my short stint in Tokyo I'm back to country livin'.

Wow I can't even think what to write... I have lots of packing to do and people to call and letters to write. Crazy.

I guess this past Sunday was my last in Senzokuike, and it was a good one. The Izus both came to church and had a really good time - they especially loved the gospel doctrine class where we studied about David and Saul out of the Old Testament. I didn't really understand anything. They both insisted on going to the "most difficult" Sunday School class after trying Gospel Principles last time and insisting it was too basic.

We also got the opportunity to go to church with Kay! We've been asking him to come for months, and he finally agreed - although it was in English. He has work on Sunday mornings, and the English ward starts at 1:30, so it's what works for now. Kay had a really good time and even stayed for all three meetings, including Priesthood (with some very helpful fellowshippers, including Elder/Brother Kawamura). I swear like half of our ward stays for English church after ours in Japanese - they like the practice. Six hours every Sunday. Anyway, Kay really liked church, just like we knew he would. It was interesting going to gospel principles class in English, where the teacher is a voice actor (who does the Aflack duck among other characters).

Actually, I had a lot of interaction with the English ward this week. On Tuesday I went on splits with Sister Ipson, in my same area but English speaking. It was fun and I got to practice "gaijin hunting" which is basically following and talking to anyone you see that isn't Japanese. Sort of awkward sometimes, but it's really easy to start a conversation - where are you from? Why are you in Japan?

Then, on Saturday, we went to a 4th of July BBQ (technically on the 5th, but Japan is ahead of American time) hosted by the English ward. Whenever the English ward throws a party all of our Eikaiwa students go, so it's a good dendo opportunity for us. We got to teach Kay (who made good friends that he saw at church the next day) and also Tomi, who goes to every church event known to mankind except church. Can't quite figure it out. She told us she's not ready for church, but loved the fireside she attended last week.

Other cool miracles:

Having our first lesson with a really sweet less-active family. Going to church now is difficult because they are currently living on a nocturnal schedule. I guess he youngest child kept waking up and wanting to play in the middle of the night, and the whole family adapted to it. First time I've seen that. They said they'd start adjusting their schedule gradually in order to get back to normal, so hopefully we can help them with that.

Having our first after-baptism lesson with Ru and seeing him act like an angel. It was so sweet the way he was hugging his cousin and showing love to everyone. His whole family is so happy and things are going great.

Well, time's up but I'm sure I'll have lots of cool stories next week! Love you all and hope you have a good week.

Anna

Ru with congratulatory letter from Kathy

5/12 ths of Anna's original MTC district at lunch

Chosei in Chiba Prefecture

Update

Hello!!

We had an awesome week. One of the best so far. The highlight, of course, being Ru's baptism yesterday! It was at 7:30 in the morning but so many members woke up early to support him (not to mention the elders arriving at 5:30 to fill up the font) and everything went perfectly. Elder Kawamura was there, wearing an Oregon pin on his jacket, and I was happy to get good news from home. I played the piano and Sister Yamauchi led the music, and the Elders were the witnesses for the baptism, so it was nice that we all got to play a small part to help. After he was baptized, Ru got up to bear a simple testimony, where he talked about being excited to keep learning and coming to church and preparing to receive the priesthood. I'm excited to hear about his missionary stories someday! [Elder Kawamura is Ru's uncle who just finished his service in the Oregon Eugene Mission this past week and baptized his nephew upon his return home.]

We saw another huge miracle at church yesterday too. The night before, the Izus called to tell us they had a last-minute appointment and couldn't come to church, and we were really worried that no one else could come. So we called and emailed everyone we could think of, mentioning that there was going to be a lunch afterwards, but still no one said they could come. So we just had this feeling that we'd done all we could, and said a prayer asking for someone to be prompted to come the next day.

After Ru's baptism sacrament meeting started, and none of our investigators were there (although a less-active couple we've been teaching came for the first time in like 20 years, which was awesome). The rest of church went by. Then, just as the luncheon was ending, we saw Mi and her daughter, who just started coming to Eikaiwa a few weeks ago, walk into the church. We'd invited them before, but they didn't seem too interested. And then they came! And the best part was, after eating and talking to some members, they said they wanted to check out church in English, which was starting in 15 minutes! So we got to go to that with them, answering all the mom's questions (you're not allowed to play sports, right? Or have a job? I swear I have no idea how these weird Mormon rumors get started). They had a great time at church, making friends with lots of the Japanese moms who attend in English, and hopefully they'll come back next week to go in Japanese.

Other events this week:
-Facebook being launched to the mission. All 250-ish missionaries can now use it if they want, and it's kind of crazy. Most people seem way more excited about it than I was and are already posting away. The ZLs and STLs are sort of in charge of leading by example, answering questions, and monitoring Facebook in our zones, and we totally lucked out because our ZLs happen to be the the tech elders so they know everything!

-We went to the Furomae shrine on P-day with Sisters Hall and Ipson, which was fun and interesting because Sister Ipson actually knows some things about statue's meaning, etc. Sort of kicking myself that I didn't do any research on Japanese culture before I came.

-Going on splits in Nakano, which is where the mission home is, and the Budges happened to stop by our lesson. President Budge entertained all the kids by juggling and teaching them dodge ball - it was fun to see the playful side of my mission president.

Love you all so much! Hope next week is just as amazing as this one was.
Anna

Anna, Sisters Hall, Ipson and Yamauchi at the Furomae shrine

Ru before his baptism

Long time no see

Hello again everyone! This week brought a range of emotions, which I will explain through stories. I'm trying to find ways to make my letters more creative.

When I was impressed:
We had stake conference this week, which included a broadcast from Salt Lake that everyone watched on the big screen. Some of it was translated, of course, but two of the speakers - William R. Walker and Gary E. Stevenson - spoke in Japanese! I didn't even know they were fluent. I heard somewhere once that it's a sin to forget your mission language because God will have further uses of you down the road. Maybe "sin" is a strong word, but still. Not sure how I'll incorporate Japanese into every day life in order not to forget, but there may be Jpop and a lot of weird TV game shows in my future.

When I was scared:
Yamauchi Shimai and I got something this week I've never gotten before as a missionary - an online self-referral. This lady gave us her address and asked us to visit, saying she wanted to know how to join the church. Pretty cool, right? So we skip on over there only to meet a very suspicious man who demands to know which of his friends played a prank on him by sending missionaries over, and he asks us to follow him to the police. I actually said a silent prayer in the middle of all this and got a feeling that everything would be fine, so it wasn't that scary. We didn't end up going to the police, and no hard feelings. Plus he barely stood over five feet so Yamauchi Shimai and I easily could have taken him.

When I went "awwww":
Ru is doing awesome. He's getting baptized next Sunday before church, and has been coming every week and enjoying it. He's a bit of a rascal sometimes, but then has these really sweet moments like when he prays or sings primary songs. He really loves singing, and I love hearing the songs in Japanese because they'd so cute.

When I remembered home:
I've now seen three people wearing UO stuff, but all of them were men close to my age so I'm not really supposed to talk to them. Frustrating. We also had to take a while to explain the missionary opposite-sex rules to all the people at Japanese class this week, and they all think we're pretty weird and funny. Whatever. I already stick out so obviously here just by what I look like that I gave up caring about being normal a long time ago. It makes it easier to talk to people sometimes, knowing that no matter what I say, I'm sort of weird, and it's okay.

When I was enlightened:
We had zone conference this week, which is always awesome. Every time president Budge gives a training I just watch in awe and want to try so many new things. Did you know he's written books? On the top of my after-mission reading list. Anyway, all of the ZLs and STLs gave short trainings on teaching to non-Christians, and my topic was on reincarnation vs. resurrection. I kick myself sometimes for not doing any research about Japanese religion before coming here, thinking that my 10th grade IHS knowledge would suffice.

When I saw my reflection and cringed:
The summertime sister missionary tan lines have begun. I have some pretty defined t-shirt stripes, and the ballet flat lines are working their way up there as well. The rainy season is weird because it seems to switch on and off - last week we never saw the sun, and this week there's way too much of it.

When I was exhausted:
There seems to be an unwritten rule that every Japanese lady over the age of 40 is required to take at least 20 minutes to prepare treats for missionaries no matter how much they insist that it's okay and that we have no time. We visited Mits san last night, who is way sweet, but thought that making sure we had even numbers of cookies to take home was more pressing than our insisting that we had to go in order to make curfew. This kind of thing happens all the time with long dinner appointments, lessons, etc. Way too many times we have to choose between being polite and being obedient. Obviously obedience wins, and people can't believe we're leaving "so soon." Anyway, we literally ran home and arrived dripping with sweat but just on time.

And a miracle:
The Izu family continue to blow my mind. They want to know EVERYTHING - the mom has already skimmed through the whole Book of Mormon and is now reading again, and also wants a copy of the D&C. The daughter also wants to know what all the commandments are so that she can know what she'll have to do before getting baptized. We set a date for next month! Way excited for them. Honestly one of the most prepared families I've ever met - they do everything for us. All we have to do is show up at appointments (half of which they make themselves) and answer their questions.

Love you all and hope you have a good week! Here's a group shot from the Eikaiwa party we had last week. Note the missionaries are the only ones doing peace signs, in our attempts to fit in. Maybe our Eikaiwa group is too scholarly for such things.

Anna

Eikaiwa Party

Hamburger!

Konnichiwaaaaa,

Another busy week that went by in two seconds. Some highlights:

• Ru passing his baptismal interview. Things are looking good to go!
• Losing to Ru in an arm-wrestling match. He kept complaining at the start that I wasn't trying hard enough, and just letting him win, begging me to give it all my strength despite my embarrassed confession that I was. Gotta do some more push-ups. Oh yeah and this was right after his grandma told us that he was the smallest kid in all of fifth grade.
• The rain letting up after Wednesday, but not before we got completely drenched and barely made it home on time to change before Eikaiwa.
• Meeting some inactive members of our ward who happen to live and work at an animal hospital full of puppies. The ward asked us to visit them a lot and I'm only too happy to comply.
• Trying to answer a member's questions about the Book of Mormon, particularly the Isaiah chapters. Contrary to popular belief, becoming a missionary does not magically change someone into a scriptural scholar.
• Wrapping a ton of small gifts with related scriptures (ex pack of tissues with a verse about tears of joy, a piece of candy with a verse about feasting, etc.) for Izu san's birthday. She's really busy and we can't meet super often, so this will help her learn a little every day on her own.
• Spending an entire day without my name tag on, and of course the one day I forgot happened to be when we went to Honbu for Mission Leadership Council. Tried to make sure my hair was covering my shoulders whenever President Budge was near.

One of the biggest miracles this week was Kai Shimai, who got baptized about thirty years ago but hadn't really been to church since then. We'd met her a few times, asking her to come back, but she was so depressed and thinking that she wasn't good enough to go to church no matter what we said. It pained me to see her so sad, and I knew she needed to come back. So we managed to make an appointment to eat dinner with her and one of the few members she remembered. When we asked the member to come, she said she didn't remember Kai Shimai, so we told her please DON'T say that in order not to offend her. We'd already told Kai Shimai that the member was looking forward to seeing her. So, we all get there, and the member looks at Kai Shimai for like ten seconds and goes, "have we met?" It was a face palm moment but luckily everything turned out okay.

Then, on Sunday, Kai Shimai came! She had a great time and the members were so good at welcoming her and showing love to her. She introduced herself to everyone as "Sister Kai, less-active member" which was kind of funny but I guess she was just taking that day's Sunday School lesson on honesty to heart. People really can change, it just takes our reaching out to them. Patience and love can solve 99% of the world's problems.

Today's picture is me eating a hamburger with a doughnut as a bun - a glorious creation that was made possible by Mr. Donuts making a business deal with a Japanese burger chain. I would just like to point out that, 1) this is not in America and 2) this is my first hamburger in seven years. Actually, there was no patty - some weird sausage thing instead - so I guess the streak's still alive.

Hope everyone's having as much fun as I am! Probably not but it's okay.
Love, Anna

Hamburger with doughnut bun - please don't judge me.

"I Love Japan"

Hello again.

Well, it finally came - the rainy season. We return home every night completely soaked through, even with rain pants on over skirts. It's not too bad but having wet shoes kinda stinks (literally). Sort of regretting not buying the ballet flat-style Crocs at home (stupid pride!) since all my shoes are leather and take a few days to dry out.

People are always so shocked when we visit them and it's raining, which is funny to me because what else could we be doing? Sitting in our apartment? The work does not take breaks for bad weather. If it did, Japanese missionaries would only be out three months out of the year.

The Izu family came to church again this week, and they are awesome. Usually when investigators come to church you have to take care of them the whole time - help them make friends, explain everything, make sure they have someone to sit with - but they do it all for themselves. They even exchanged emails with one of the members last week and set up am appointment for yesterday to meet with her and us to answer some of their questions! They are really considering joining the church and are willing to put forth the effort to learn. So great.

Our lesson with them was good, but one of the men there helping us sort of talked a LOT about random church organization trivia and history and unrelated, complicated things. A note to anyone who gets asked by the missionaries to help them teach: keep it simple. As members sometimes we think that explaining deep doctrine in detail will help someone understand better, but most likely the investigator will just be confused.

Ru is doing great as well. Lately we've been working on being kind, specifically not fighting at school or hitting his little cousin. Of course I take it seriously, but part of me kind of smiles and remembers when Ben and Luke would get in these huge wrestling matches in order to show off whenever company came over. Ben and I used to punch and kick and scratch each other every day, but we turned out fine, right? Although I understand Ru's grandma's concerns, and we're working on it. She says there's been good progress.

I love Japan and the people and would never want to change anything about the culture, but I will admit it makes me sad when women are so, so dependent on their husbands sometimes. About 80% of the women I've met who stopped going to church did it not because they had a crisis of faith or anything like that but because their husbands didn't want to come.

We met a member this week, Tera, who hasn't been to church in 30 years. Tera still has lots of friends in the ward and wants to come back, but says she's waiting until her husband will come back with her. "It would be weird to go without him, right?" was what she told us, to which we replied no it's fine, but she's still not sure. For a lot of women the idea of doing something without their husbands there is hard to imagine. We've also met a lot of older widows, and when we ask them "don't you want to see your husband again after you die?" they usually say "ehh maybe not. I'll look for someone better." Yikes!

Transfers went smoothly, and it's nice to have those behind us. Only 3 sisters left our zone, so it's mostly the same people. I'll miss Sister Gates, but am happy to welcome Sister Ipson (from my MTC district) into the apartment. Yamauchi Shimai and I also had a meeting with the Zone Leaders this week, who are Elders Keith and Shumway, also from our MTC district. Actually they were companions in the MTC (starting June 5th, 2013) and were made comps again exactly one year later, June 5th 2014! Pretty crazy. I've gotten lots of chances to do doki dendo (working with people who I was with in the MTC) and it's fun to see how everyone has changed/stayed the same.

Last miracle: we pulled our bikes over to check a map while looking for a member's house yesterday, and a man walked up to us and said "are you Christians? I want to learn. I have interest." He then suggested we exchange numbers and set up a time to meet at the church, saying he'd read some of the Book of Mormon we gave him before then. Literally zero effort required on our parts. You always hear those stories of prepared people just being led right into your path, and I'm here to tell you it does happen.

Hope everyone is doing well! Love you and talk to you again next week.
Anna

Picture: me with Sisters Hall, Gates and Yamauchi before transfers.
Not the best angle but 4-person selfies are sort of limited.