week 3

It's P-day already! Not too much has changed here - I still barely understand what people are saying, but they're so kind and understanding about it. And they continue to shower us with food. Everything here is so good. The only thing I've tried and not liked is some mochi covered in what looked like caramel, but turned out to be soy-sauce-like. Blech. Also some steak that I was served at a member's house - I didn't throw up, so that's good, but I still can't stand red meat. I don't think I can ever go back.

Today was pretty eventful. We went to a Japanese class taught at a community center in the morning, where I learned a lot and remembered maybe 5% of it. I met a man from Connecticut teaching English here, and we met up with one of our friends from Thailand, Sermsi. She's kind of an investigator, but mostly just likes talking with us. We got lunch together at a curry restaurant that was really good. After lunch, I finally caved and spent $30 on a comfier bike seat. Almost everyone here has really wide granny seats on their bike - I think it's because they're all so skinny and don't have as much padding as we do.

I rode home on my new bike seat with a basket full of groceries, and my skirt held up with a clothespin tied to my bike. We biked for probably around four hours yesterday, and I suffered my first bike casualty - my skirt got caught in the brake and the bottom was shredded. I'll attach a picture. It happened to Sister Kubota too, and hers was even worse than mine. It's rough out here.

The best thing that happened today was we got our AC fixed! It's been broken for about five days, and I felt like I was slowly dying. Sleeping was especially bad - I didn't even use a sheet because it was so hot. Usually I can't fall asleep without at least two quilts! One perk to missionary life is you're so tired by the end of the day that sleep comes very easily. No more insomnia for me.

One of the cons to missionary life is you meet new people all the time who have foreign names that are hard to remember. Sometimes I'll forget someone's name five seconds after they tell me. Usually it's okay, but it's led to some awkward moments when you're asked to pray aloud for their family and you can't for the life of you remember their name. Sometimes I hope that I'll get some divine revelation and remember it just as I need to say it, but I don't think it works that way - so instead I find ways around it, like blessing "the family" or "our friend" or just not using a pronoun at all. You can get away with a lot when people know your Japanese is bad.

On Tuesday I experienced my first Japan downpour. It came out of nowhere, so we didn't have our raincoats, and by the time we got home at night we were completely soaked. I literally looked like I'd just jumped in a pool - I would send a picture, but I don't look so cute in it so you'll just have to take my word for it. Think drowned cat.

On Wednesday we had our first district meeting - there are six of us, plus the two Zone Leaders came. We had a little training, plus a pep talk-ish lesson, and discussed the people we were teaching and asked each other advice. I really liked it. Then in the evening we taught Eikaiwa, and it was really fun. We split into beginner and advanced groups, so I got to teach the advanced group with the other bean-chan (what greenies are called here, along with "greenbean").

Thursday was a little rough. We got our first actual door slammed in our face (accompanied with a "forgive me"... Japanese people are so polite). It was also the day our AC broke, just in time for weekly planning, which takes a few hours. I kept drinking water to keep myself from passing out.

Friday we spent lots of time in members' houses, visiting them and doing mogi (practice) lessons. We were fed very well. On the way home I saw a man riding a bicycle while holding and umbrella and smoking a cigarette. How do people here do it? I can barely handle a bike with two hands.

Saturday we did more visits and practice lessons. We also handed out fliers for Eikaiwa for a bit at the train station. I like being outside in the evening - it's the perfect temperature, and everything looks cool all lit up.

On Sunday there was more food - the ward had a potluck lunch after church, and we went to the Stake President's house for a pizza party with all the youth, which was really fun. One of the families in the ward is hosting an exchange student from Australia, so it was nice for me to get to talk to someone in English. We visited a few people between the potluck and pizza party who lived really far away, plus we got lost, so we spent almost all afternoon on our bikes. Hence the skirt ripping.

Lots of other stuff happened, but I can't remember everything. I started a list of funny things about Japan, so I guess I'll share what I have so far:

• All the big trucks here play ice-cream-truck-like music to warn little kids to stay away
• Japanese people like to salt their watermelon, apparently to bring out the taste. I tried it and thought it tasted like salty watermelon.
• They also peel the skins off of grapes before eating them
• Everything is open much later - like little shops that usually close at 5 or 7 at home are open till 8 or 9 here.
• It's custom to bow and wave continually until you can't see someone anymore when they're driving away
• They use mayonnaise as salad dressing. I might have said this before but I've never been so shocked because of food before
• Napkins aren't really a thing, paper or cloth - sometimes there's a box of tissues in the middle of the table, but you need like 50 of them to do the job of a regular napkin
• Even though it's a million degrees out, lots of women wear loose sleeve things that look like arm warmers to protect their skin from the sun
• Everyone wears crocs. Literally everyone. I guess it makes sense in this climate... still, I refuse out of pride.
• Most people's crocs are worn with socks, kind of defeating the purpose of having an airy shoe

That's all for now, hope I didn't forget anything too big!
Love, Anna

Anna and her new wheels!

Skirt shredded in bike brake - oops

Konnichiwa from Oyama

Konnichiwa mina san!! Week two was just as busy as week one, although much less confusing. I finally have a grip on all of the ward members' names (probably around 50-60 people come to church every week) and also the names of our investigators. We teach a lot of different people right now, but only two are called "progressing investigators" (meeting with us regularly, keeping commitments). I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say their names so I'll call them K and the I family.

K is really sweet. Right now her biggest problem is just feeling comfortable with the ward members, so we've been working a lot to help her build friendships and get to know everyone. The I family are a lot of fun to teach - they all speak a little Japanese, but the husband mainly Spanish, the wife mainly Portuguese, and their daughter mainly Japanese. There are a LOT of South American immigrants here - I was kind of surprised to find out. Actually, when we knock on doors, most of the people who want to talk to us don't speak Japanese as a first language. It's sort of cool because their Japanese is about where mine is at, so I can participate a little more in lessons, but the communication barrier is hard sometimes. French doesn't really help either - I can understand a lot of what I read in Spanish, but not when it's spoken. Although the days of the week are similar, so that helped with making appointments!

People here think it's awesome that I speak French though. I've seen a lot of products and store/restaurant names in French, I think it's kind of a trendy thing. There are lots of t-shirts and stationary products and other things with English phrases on them that don't make any sense, and French as well. Sometimes they're mixed. I bought some stationary last week that said "Do you know the lovely boy having big appetite? That kid is always hungry, because he plays and talks a lot every day! If you see the kid, you'll surely love him!" Funny. That one is actually more grammatically sound than most.

Everything here is so CUTE. Food is pretty, pens and stationary and tape and little things are everywhere, and people wear pretty clothes. You see some occasional sweatpants but not like at home. Even our toilet paper is pink with flowers on it, and our apartment curtains are pink and lacy. The sunlight that goes through them makes our whole apartment seen kind of pink, so I'm literally seeing la vie en rose.

I'm trying to remember all your questions.... I think I have a 3-question memory maximum. Even if you use bullet points, Dad. Sister Kubota has only been here 6 weeks longer than me (and already training! That happens if you're a native) - we were actually at the MTC at the same time for two weeks. Today we went shopping and visited a few people - seems to be the normal P-day routine. There isn't much to do in Oyama sight-seeing-wise, but a lady in our ward said that sometime she'd drive us to a nearby hike to visit Shinto shrines. Yay!

Speaking of Japanese religious culture, I got to see a lot of it today. During this week there was a summer festival, with lots of balloons and food and music (sounds like Indian music to me, a little). When we visited a woman in our ward, we got to see her awesome ancestor-shrine set-up complete with paper lanterns, candles, offerings, etc. It was in her tatami room, filled with Japanese art and a Samurai sword. So cool. I would have taken a picture but I felt weird to ask... still don't have Japanese culture down yet. We also visited a man whose wife recently died, and he had a Buddhist shrine set up. Before we entered his living room, we each kneeled, lit a stick of incense, rang a bell, and said a prayer. I think most Buddhists here only do things because they're traditional - for instance, Christians will set up shrines during the holidays. But there are some "orthodox" Buddhists (not really sure what to call them).

I had two appointments this week where I had to sit seiza (on the floor). Sitting on top of my legs is excruciatingly painful, so I cheat and scooch my feet to the side, but it still hurts. I try not to let it show on my face but I'm pretty sure it's obvious because people always chuckle whenever I try to discreetly adjust my sitting position so circulation doesn't get cut off. Then, when I stand up, my feet are completely asleep and I have to walk very slowly because I can't really feel them.

Japanese fail(s) of the week: The word for "mother" and "wife" is okasan, spelled the same but with a very slight difference in pronunciation. More than once, when describing my family, I've said "my wife" instead of "my mom." And no one corrects me! They just softly chuckle. Same thing happened when I said "tampon" instead of "rice field." Yikes. Also, learning Japanese from reading the scriptures has its downsides - I thought I was saying "look" when I was actually saying "behold." A lot of the words we learned in the MTC are apparently very old Japanese that sound funny if you say them today.

Bike riding is getting slightly better, but my legs are sore a lot. I guess that's good since it's the only real exercise I'm getting besides a few sit-ups and push-ups in the morning. We bike everywhere, except when church members give us rides.

I think someone asked about cooking. We always cook ourselves breakfast, and usually lunch and dinner, in the apartment, but we eat out sometimes, maybe 1-3 times a week? We've been over to members' houses to eat both Sundays (always really good), and the Itou family took us and the elders (there's us and two Elders in Oyama, plus another Sister companionship in a nearby town that make up our district) out to a nice restaurant this week. It was sooo good, easily my favorite meal so far in Japan. It was seafood curry with cheese and a million side dishes. I took a picture, plus one of me and Sister Kubota. The members here are so nice, and they give us SO much food. We only had to buy milk, eggs and bread for the week at the grocery store today because we took home so much food on Sunday.

It's still unbelievably hot here, but I'm used to the apartment now. We do have AC, but it's set at 26-27 degrees Celsius, which was too hot for me when I first got here. I don't feel like I'm going to pass out anymore, so I guess that's progress?

Oh right, mail. For my whole mission, mail always goes straight to the mission home, then is forwarded to wherever I am. It's kind of a pain - I got a letter from Ben a few days ago, postmarked like 15 days earlier. Ah well. Getting mail is still awesome - better late than never.

Hmmm what else... oh right! Eikaiwa! English class, that is. We teach it once a week, in the evening, plus a special smaller morning class twice a month. I love it. Usually ten-ish people come to the evening class and three to the morning one, and it's lots of fun. We practice saying words, talking, learning new grammar tools, and then usually end with a game. Most of the people who come are older. Another funny thing about Japan, everyone is like 20 years older than they look. There must be a fountain of youth somewhere. I think they also associate height with age sometimes, because everyone is always shocked to hear I'm 19, and when I show my family pictures they all think Ben is older because he's taller than me. I didn't tell them that he likes to stand on his tiptoes when we take pictures together.

That's all for now! Take care mina san. Oh I'm also sending a picture of Jesus I saw in the Japanese church building - I think I like their version better!

Love, Anna

Tasty restaurant meal in Oyama

Anna and Kubota Shimai in Oyama restaurant

Picture of Jesus in Oyama Ward building

First email, finally

Hello!! It's been a while since I've written, and so much has happened!! My last week in the MTC flew by in a haze of meetings, devotionals, and training. It was sad saying goodbye to all my teachers and the other missionaries, but luckily our whole district is in the same mission so we'll see each other sometimes. Two of the missionaries from my MTC district are in my zone, and one is in my district. Fun times.

My last MTC devotional was pretty cool actually - Jenny Oaks Baker came and played the violin. Not usually my favorite instrument but it was really pretty. At one point her four kids, all under the age of twelve, played "I am a Child of God" on the cello, violin, guitar and piano. Talk about a talented family. While at the devotional, I was sitting next to a girl who had just gotten here from Japan and she was nodding off the whole time, eventually just giving up and sleeping on my shoulder. Complete stranger. I let her because I knew that would be me in a few days.

Jet lag wasn't actually too bad. We took the Frontrunner train, then another TRAX train to the SLC airport - we must have been a funny sight, all 34 of us with millions of suitcases. Sister missionaries do not travel light. On the plane to Japan (like 14 hours I think? 16? 18? Don't remember) I was all set to stay up and study but then they turned all the lights off and I thought it would be rude to keep mine on. So I talked to the Elder next to me and kind of slept on and off for most of the flight - not super comfortable, but I must have passed out at some point because when I woke up I had three pillows and I don't know where they came from. Some people talk in their sleep, others walk; apparently I become a thief.

When we got to the Tokyo airport, after getting photographed and fingerprinted for our "Gaijin" (foreigner) cards that we carry around as ID, we met the Budges. They are so nice, and very on-top-of-it, as I knew they would be. Lazy people can't be international bank CEOs. We rode a bus to the mission home, filled out some paperwork, and slept until the next morning when we had a big breakfast and did training all day. In the evening we got to go over to the Eikaiwa (English class) that was just ending and talk to all the students there. It was really funny to interact with them and try to understand what they were saying. I was feeling pretty confident about my Japanese back in Utah when only Americans spoke to me, but native Japanese people are a different story. Especially the elderly, who speak quietly and don't open their mouths very much as a rule.

The next day, we had a little more training before getting assigned to our new companions and area. I was sent to Oyama! It's this awesome smallish town about two hours away from Tokyo by train. Although apparently if you ride the bullet train it's only 20 minutes... I really want to try that sometime. Anyway, my companion is Sister Kubota, a Nihonjin from Nagoya!! She's 21 and super cheerful and optimistic. And, luckily for me, her English is really good. She went to BYU-Hawaii for a year before coming on her mission.

After packing enough clothes for a few days I went to lunch with Sister Kubota and some of the other sisters before taking the train to Oyama. When we got there we spent a couple of hours doing weekly planning, and she explained a lot to me about the area and the people we're teaching and things like that. It was all extremely overwhelming.

Our apartment is actually really nice - we even have a dryer! It has a 3-hour cycle though, so Sister Kubota says she doesn't even use it. We sleep on futons which we keep in the main room, because it's much cooler than the bedroom. It is SO HOT here. I think yesterday was 37 degrees Celsius (still don't know how to convert that to Fahrenheit), and it's more humid that anywhere I've ever been. Everyone carries around little washcloths with them everywhere that they use to wipe their sweat off, and little paper fans. Those were the first two things I bought when we went shopping on P-day. I used to wonder why Japanese deodorant isn't very strong if it's so humid here, but now I understand - why bother having dry armpits if the rest of you is soaked in sweat? It's truly disgusting. Especially when I wear my bag for a few hours, and my clothes get soaked underneath where the strap was. I don't bother wearing face makeup or using lotion at all. I also figured out why Japanese food is so salty - it's like their version of Gatorade. After a long day of walking outside and sweating, I noticed after it cooled off that there was some white stuff on my dress. Salt. As in salt from my own sweat. We lose electrolytes like crazy, so the copious amounts of sodium in all their soy sauce and rice seasoning is actually beneficial.

Mmm, now I'm thinking about food. It's awesome. I want to try everything I see - I spend probably an hour just standing in our kitchen looking at everything when I first came here. So many desserts, so many funny drinks (there are no drinking fountains so we usually buy 1-2 drinks from the vending machines that are stationed every 2 feet on the streets. I refuse to buy bottled water on principle so I've enjoyed trying all kinds of different ways to re-hydrate). I love love love the food... maybe a little too much. When you Skype me at Christmas time don't be surprised if I've gained a few chins.

Okay, now I have to gripe about bikes for a little bit: Riding a bike in a skirt is not fun at all. My biking skills have dramatically improved in the last few days, but I still have at least one near-death experience every day. It's made me a very prayerful person because the whole time a ride I'm thinking, "oh please Father don't let me die don't let me die don't let me die." OK, maybe that was only the first day. But still, I'm not yet skilled enough to fix my skirt when it flies up while keeping one hand on the handlebar, so I usually just let it do whatever. Sometimes my legs are sweaty enough to hold the skirt down. Trying out the bike was super awkward because I didn't know how to mount it without flashin the sales guy, so I tried to go really fast and my skirt ended up getting stuck. I think he was laughing. Maybe I'll try to wear the bike shorts under my skirt when it gets cooler, but adding another layer of clothing right now is unthinkable. Here's an excerpt from my journal on Saturday:

"Low point of the day I was riding up a steep bridge on a high gear and couldn't shift down no matter how desperately I tried because my hands were too sweaty." I live a glamorous life, I tell ya.

The people here are just as kind as promised, and more. Even when people don't want to talk to us, they're very polite about it. I loved going to church on Sunday and meeting all of the members. We had dinner at the Shimizu family's house, and it was so fun talking to them. I can't wait to get to know everyone more - remembering all of their names is really hard. So that's one of my first goals. About 50 people came to church on Sunday, and I think that's normal, so it's doable!

I definitely notice a lot of people staring at me, but not too much. Everyone always comments on how tall I am and how small my face is - two features considered beautiful here, but that I don't really like, so I'm not sure how I feel about it. Everyone also asks me if I used to be a model or play basketball, or if I'm related to General MacArthur. Apparently he's a bigger deal in Japanese history classes than in American ones.

Ahhh, I have so much more I want to say about the people we're teaching, but no time. I love and miss you all. Yesterday when we were knocking on doors a boy answered who was like an exact replica of Luke, but Japanese. Same glasses and clothes and everything. It made me miss home a little. This week has been one of the hardest of my life, but I've already adjusted so much and it's been wonderful. I'm so excited to see what's in store.

I'm sending a picture of me and Kubota Shimai (we'd just been riding our bikes, so I'm not looking so cute) plus another from the MTC.

Love, Anna

Eugene 3rd Ward Reunion - Elyse Barnes (Ukrane Lviv), Anna and Tori Butler (Japan Sendai) in the MTC

Anna and Kubota Shimai in Oyama, Japan

arrived safely

[Anna left the MTC 1 PM Monday Aug 5 and arrived in Tokyo about 10:30 PM Tuesday Aug 6.  The letter below was sent Wednesday Aug 7 and the pictures were posted to the mission blog Monday Aug 12]

Dear Parents,

We just want to send you a quick note to let you know that your missionary arrived safely in Japan last evening.  President and Sister Budge met them at the airport, fed them, visited shortly, and then sent them all to bed for a much needed rest.

Today they will receive training and will soon meet their new companions who have been chosen to train them.  We will take pictures at that time, and within a few days you will receive another email with these pictures attached.

Thank you for entrusting your missionary to us in the great Japan Tokyo Mission.  We so appreciate all you have done to get these missionaries to this point in their lives!

Sister Harrison

Japan Tokyo Mission Secretary

This is the largest group of new missionaries we have received to date.  There are 14 elders and 20 sisters!  We used every futon we have!

These are the newest missionaries, along with their trainers.  This group represents more than half of our missionaries!

[Update- we did hear very briefly from Anna this morning after the post above was created.  See below.  More to follow soon we hope!  Nihonjin means native Japanese.]

Mama!! I was so happy to read your letter! I'm in Oyama right now, with Sister Kubota. She's Nihonjin and so cute and awesome. I'm doing well - we email from our apartment but we had some internet trouble today so I'll have to finish tomorrow. I just wanted to write a little bit so you'll know nothing's wrong. Expect my full letter sometime soon!

Much love, Anna

Oyama is under the red pinpoint "A", north of Tokyo.

Last p-day!

Mina san, it's my last P-day! So crazy to think that this time next week I'll be on a plane to Japan! Crazy.

This week has been full of awesome experiences. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, the Nihonjin missionaries arrived. This time there were only five of them - four Elders, one Sister - instead of the usual 20 or so. At first I was a little disappointed but it's been great because we really get to know them all individually and remember their names. As STLs we were co-in charge of giving them the MTC orientation and I think it would have been really overwhelming if there had been any more. Anyways, they're all so great. The one girl, Sister Nagamine, is the cutest, sweetest girl I've ever met. Her first name is Ai - the Japanese word for love. It's perfect. She is so sweet and so forgiving of our horrible Japanese. I'm sending a picture of me and her and Sister Dunn on the night she arrived. On the other hand, the four Elders are such little rascals - always joking around and playing pranks on each other. It's hilarious. They love to dump salt and pepper on each others' food when one person isn't looking, and when they joke around they gesticulate and dance around a lot. It's very entertaining to watch. One of the Elders is originally from Brazil but moved to Japan, so he speaks fluent Portugese and Japanese and has excellent English as well. He says he only ever studied it on his own, and only started about 8 months ago! It's incredible how fast he learned, especially considering he was doing it by himself, in a country where English isn't the first language. He says "I just learned it from watching Doctor House" (all the foreigners I've ever met who watch House call it that).

On Wednesday we gave all the Nihonjin a tour of the MTC, with the longest stop being at a bunch of vending machines in the laundry room. They each got a different kind of treat, sharing with each other and saying "ahh.... oishii!" (delicious) after each bite. Sometimes they decided a few minutes later that they didn't like it after all, but the first try always seemed good. The Elders are loving the food here - they eat tons of donuts every breakfast and try everything they can. Not to mention they drink Coke or root beer with every single meal, including breakfast. Yikes. I hope that isn't their greatest memory of the USA. The only thing they really haven't liked so far was some V8 that they tried yesterday morning. It was hilarious to watch their reactions to it. No argument here - V8 is probably one of the grossest drinks ever invented. It was the kind that comes out of those little cans and tastes like the metal lining of the can somehow seeped into the juice. Nagamine Shimai has found a few foods that she likes, but for the most part she doesn't really like it. We keep apologizing for the cafeteria and promising that most American food isn't like this. (Fun fact - they DO have peanut butter in Japan! Most of the Nihonjin don't really like it but Elder Sato does, and says he eats it all the time. It's probably really expensive in the grocery stores but I don't care. IT EXISTS!!!)

Unfortunately, we didn't get to do anything fun for Pioneer Day. They had been leading up to it all week, with all of our speakers talking about them, but then nothing. Oh well. We did have a special speaker for all Japanese missionaries on that day though - his name was brother Mills, and I think he was a director of some international MTC program? He used to be a mission president in Fukuoka also. Anyway, he was way inspiring. He talked a lot about the power of expectations and what we can do to set ourselves up for success. We hear a lot of "Oh, no one in Japan is going to want to talk to you" and "you'll probably never baptize anyone" but he told us to disregard all of that. If you think you won't be successful, you won't work hard or try to be successful. But if you believe anything is possible, miracles can happen. Missionary work in Japan has grown so rapidly in the last few years, everything constantly changing, and it really is the dawn of a new era. I know that sounds cheesy, but I'm so excited to be a part of all these changes. There are people out there ready to change their lives, and it's my job to find them. It reminded me of a quote I heard this week that I really loved: "What wouldst thou have from life? Pay the price, and take it" - Ralph Waldo Emerson. Isn't that sweet? I think I'll have that painted on a plaque in my first home.

Speaking of inspiring speakers, Aunt Jane asked if we'd heard from brother Carmack last week. We did! And he even invited his son (grandson? I forget) to say a few words about what he learned on his mission - I thought it was an awesome coincidence that he'd just happened to have returned from Tokyo! He gave some good advice.

I don't know if I've ever said anything about our branch presidency members, but they're awesome. President Mack is so nice, and he happens to be Spencer W. Kimball's grandson. Kinda cool. I guess that means we're distantly related somehow, through the Heber C. Kimball side. And his first counselor, brother Bradford, speaks fluent Arabic. Isn't that crazy? He teaches it at BYU. I know he also speaks German (he served his mission in Germany, and that's where his wife is from) but I don't know how many other languages. He used to work for the government, so his family has lived all over the world. All of the counselors have traveled around the world and had all these cool experiences, and they all have like 50 million grandchildren too. I love seeing baby pictures. I miss babies here!

We've had a lot of fun showing the Nihonjin our family pictures this week, as well. They love to see them and ask who everyone is. We've also played basketball with two of the Elders a few times, and they're surprisingly really good! One of them especially looks like he might have played in high school or something. I wonder if they have any kind of basketball league in Japan? I'll have to ask.

One not so fun thing that happened this week was getting sick. It was short-lived, but painful. Just after lunch I was on my way back to my room to change for gym when I got these really bad abdominal cramps that didn't go away for a few hours. I'm not sure what caused them, but I have a suspicion it might have been the sketchy chicken that was dumped onto my salad with an ice-cream scoop. Anyways, I only had to miss a few hours of class and felt a lot better afterwards. But even that wasn't the low point of the week - the low point of the week was on Sunday night when I crumbled cookie pieces into my cereal, which I ate with chocolate milk, in the same bowl that had held the ice cream I'd finished minutes earlier. I need help.

Overheard at the MTC this week:

"...yeah, that was the only time I ever shot a cah-yote"

"Ah sweet, what kinda gun'd you use?"

Reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite. I thought Dad would like that.

Well, this is it! I'm not sure when I'll get to email next. The MTC's been fun, but it's time to move the party to Tokyo!!

Ai shite imasu, mina san.

- Anna

Anna and Sister Dunn with new Sister Nagamine

Anna's description:  Some of my district when we decided to wear our rain coats for no reason. After 8 weeks here, you find weird ways to entertain yourself.

greetings from the mtc

It's almost week 8, mina san! So excited. We get our travel plans THIS THURSDAY, can you believe it? I'll be in Japan before too long. Japan. I've gotten some emails from missionaries who were here before us who've been out there for a little while now, and everything they say just makes me want to go even more. Minus the parts about the extreme humidity and earthquakes. I realized that I've never been in an earthquake before... scary. Sister Dunn keeps telling me they're no big deal at all... I guess that's a Californian's attitude.

Thank you for your letters! The one from the CTR 6 class was so cute. Complete with crayon drawings and everything. I love hearing from Ben too - I noticed all the envelopes are addressed in Mom's handwriting, haha. Thoughtful of you to send those with him. Elyse also gave me an envelope of printed emails that she'd gotten from home when I ran into her last week, so I got to read some of Porter and Victor's emails. Crazy that they're coming home so soon! It was also cool to real Tori's emails, to see her perspective on the same experiences I'm going through. Her letters are much more spiritual than mine.

Hmmm, where to start. We had our Bastille day picnic last week, and I'm sorry but I forgot my camera! I'm the worst at remembering to take pictures. Luckily some other girls in my district are the designated documentors, and when we all come home in two years they'll all go online for everyone to see. And their cameras are nicer than mine anyways. Still, I'll try to make a conscious effort to take more. Anyways, the picnic was really fun and the food very delicious. It was a bit of a struggle to get through La Marseillaise - it might have been caught on video, actually. Hopefully that never surfaces. After the picnic and other things, Sister Dunn and I went to go pick up a new Sister from Tahiti who joined our branch this week. International missionaries come earlier than the rest. Her name is Sister Mataoa and she's very sweet. Her English isn't very strong - she actually understands more Japanese than English - so I spoke to her in French the whole time. It was nice to be able to use that skillset for something. Although, now whenever I try to speak French, Japanese comes out. So frustrating. I still understand everything just fine, but speaking is a struggle. How do those Europeans who speak five languages do it? Everything is so mixed up in my head.

On Wednesday, the rest of the Kohai came in. We got two new districts of 12 missionaries each that joined our branch. In the morning, I hosted new missionaries again. Like last week, it mostly consisted of waiting my turn instead of actually walking the newbies around, so I only got to host two girls. One was going to Brazil, the other Pittsburg. It's so cool getting to meet other missionaries going to different places and learning their stories! The girl going to Pittsburg is the only active member of the church in her family, and she said it's hard to make them understand why she wants to go. I'm always amazed by the courage of so many people here - people who left a lot more behind than I did, with much less support from home. I think of Sister Mataoa being taught Japanese in a language that she barely understands and feel guilty about complaining about how hard my language study has been. Everyone has a different story of how they ended up here, and they're all such great examples.

Thursday night, Sister Dunn and I joined the Zone Leaders and the rest of the branch presidency to give the big orientation meeting to all the new Kohai. Mostly the branch presidency members talked, but for the last 45 minutes or so we and the ZLs gave a short presentation on rules and the importance of getting along with your companion. It turns out there was an boy in the other district who was also from Tahiti, so we had a French translator there sitting with the two Tahitians. It was a huge relief for me, because earlier in the week our branch president had asked ME if I could translate. I said I would, but translating other people's words at the same time they're saying them is really hard. I did end up helping later though, when we gave all the Kohai a few minutes to get to know their companion and ask questions. I was with the Tahitian elder and his companion, and the love and enthusiasm between them warmed my heart. The language barrier makes communication really hard for both part-Tahitian companionships, but their companions have been so loving and supportive. I continue to be so impressed by how hard others have to work. During the new Kohai meeting, each new missionary stood up to introduce themselves for a couple of minutes and say why they wanted to serve a mission. I think I cried both times the French-speaking missionaries shared their stories. This place turns you into a huge baby.One of the most beautiful things about the MTC is seeing how the gospel is the same all around the world, and how we all share such important beliefs even though we were raised in different cultures. 

Thursday was also Sister Dunn's 21st birthday, so we celebrated in classic MTC style by stuffing our faces with all the junk food we have stored in our rooms. We also found a bunch of glowsticks in the free bins, so that was a good time. Speaking of junk food, Sister Dunn and I made a great discovery a while ago. There's a teacher's-lounge type area near some picnic tables where we go for personal study time, and there's a microwave in there! What does this mean? It means we've been eating popcorn while we read ever since. Through the free bins and packages from home, we've managed to stockpile a pretty big stash of microwave popcorn packets. Mmmm. Oh yeah, and I've gained three pounds since I came here.

On Saturday we went to the TRC again, but this time we were supposed to teach a 40-minute lesson instead of 20 minutes. It was a little daunting, especially because we were supposed to focus on getting to know the person through small talk and questions - two of my weaknesses. When I have to talk about anything that doesn't use religious vocabulary my mind usually draws a blank. But it ended up being awesome! The man we taught is from Hawaii, and he served his mission in Sapporo a while ago. He was super nice, and when we ran out of things to say he just asked if we had any questions about Japan. So he talked a lot about cultural things he learned on his mission, and taught us how to politely refuse food (could come in handy). I hope I'll make time to volunteer at TRC sometimes when I come back - everyone there is so, so nice.

Pioneer day on the 24th is coming up, so hopefully we'll get to do something fun for that. Apparently it's a huge deal in Utah, with even more fireworks and celebration than July 4th. All of our devotionals and lessons last Sunday were about the faith and determination of the pioneers - again, hearing those stories just makes me feel guilty. I guess waking up early for seminary wasn't as bad as losing my feet to frostbite or eating wood chips because I had no other food. Although I still have trials! A bird peed on my head while we were walking around the temple grounds, looking at flowers. Ewwwewwew I hate birds so much. It made me think of that one time we were in Williamsburg a long time ago and a bird came and dropped a bomb on Marilyn's khaki pants. I've been kind of scared ever since, and getting bird pee on me was definitely the low point of the week. I guess that means I don't have too much to complain about.

Japanese fail of the week: I was practicing using the Katakana alphabet, used for non-Japanese words like names, by writing my Senseis' names on the chalkboard. I guess I misspelled one of them and accidentally wrote a dirty word instead? He won't tell me what it was, so it must have been bad. Oops. Besides that, though, Japanese is going well. Of course I still feel so behind, but so does everyone else. We took a grammar test on the computers last week, and I was extremely ashamed of my 58% score until I found out that everyone else got around the same. My Sensei told me that my language skills are improving very quickly - "much faster than average"  was what he said. That was comforting.

OK, I managed to get a few pictures in this email. Most of them are dumb. The glowsticks ones are from Sister Dunn's birthday (don't look too closely at anyone's face), and there's one of me with popcorn. Again, limited selection.

Hope everyone's doing well! Ai shite imasu.

-Anna

Shimai Dunn, Shimai MacArthur and two other Shimai roommates

Shimai Dunn 21st Birthday (with scavanged glow sticks)

Anna unfortunately discovers the microwave to make popcorn

hello to my kazoku

Ohaiyo Gozaimasu, mina san!

This week has flown by. They always do; however, it's starting to feel as though we've been here a longggg time - we've seen so many people come and go, while we just keep on keepin' on. A few days ago, our devotional speaker was the same one who spoke to us the first week we were here. To be honest, I didn't even notice (notetaking is still not a strength of mine) but one of the girls in my district did, and she leaned over to whisper "you know you've been here too long when they start recycling speakers." Same with the cafeteria food - there's a pattern to what they serve, and we've now been able to notice the schedule repeating. Update on my efforts to eat meat again: I can do small pieces in soups or salads just fine, and maybe even full pieces of chicken or turkey, but I tried a bite of roast beef last week and instantly gagged. Oh man it was so gross. I'll have to work on that before I go to Japan so I don't offend some kindly family.

Hmmm, where to start. All of the Daisempai (6-9 weeks) left this Monday morning, so we've graduated to Daisempai! It was sad saying goodbye to them, and terrifying/exciting to think that we'll be the next to leave. We're 2/3 done.

Sister Dunn and I have been adjusting to our new calling as Sister Training Leaders. This week we interviewed all of the girls in the branch to get to know them, and I was surprised how talkative they all were! It was awesome. In my interviews, I was always like "yeah, yep, doing good, I'm fine, no I don't have any questions, are we done yet?" But a lot of girls really liked the opportunity to talk. They're all so sweet. This job forces me to be more social, which I guess I needed. It's a lot of fun.

Last Tuesday, after I sent my email, my district had our weekly P-day picnic lunch. We have lots of free time in the afternoons, so we ended up playing werewolf for like two hours. Today, we're having a little party with the care package you sent (thank you!! I have the best Mom ever!). Then on Wednesday, I hosted new missionaries for the first time. Hosting is mostly standing by the sidewalk, waiting your turn when cars pull up - I was there for about two hours, but only hosted 2 girls. But it's all good. You help the new missionaries get their luggage out of their car; say goodbye to their family; then take them to get their name tags, drop their luggage off in their room, and grab the books they need before dropping them off in their classroom. The first girl I hosted actually came here with her twin sister, and they're both going to Korea! Crazy. She was so sweet, and I had a deja vu moment when I took her to her classroom and her teacher greeted her in rapid Korean, never pausing to explain anything in English. I saw the bewildered, wide-eyed look she gave him and remembered doing the exact same thing to my Sensei six weeks ago. Another fun fact I learned this week about the MTC: All of the classrooms and residence halls for English-speaking missionaries are wayyyyy nicer than ours. Not fair at all. They all have comfy chairs, huge TVs, decorated walls, etc. and we're in a tiny room with a chalkboard. CHALKboard. But it's okay.

Friday morning I woke up to find everything wet - I guess Utah has some storms in the summertime. It rained on and off for the next two days, and everyone was SO excited about it.

We've had a lot of extra teachers come in recently, for more opportunities to practice teaching or get individual coaching. It's cool to listen to each one of their Japanese styles, especially the native ones, because everyone speaks differently. We were also visited by Brother Mortenson, an Italian teacher, and he said he knew Marilyn! "Oh yeah, Sister Bradford is great" is what he said. Which, of course, she is. I love reading her letters home. We also get more opportunities to teach new people in TRC - this week, Sister Dunn and I taught the Taguchis, an elderly Japanese couple who come all the time. Apparently they used to live in Salem for a long time! They were very nice, and spent almost all of the lesson time explaining the meaning of the characters in their names and telling us other facts about Japan. They had a whole binder full of laminated pages covered in maps, pictures, and other charts - clearly they've been doing this a long time, and have their presentation perfected.

When we were taking a walk around the temple grounds on Sunday, we ran into a lady from Tokyo who was very excited to meet us. She took lots of pictures and talked to us for a long time, constantly bowing and apologizing for keeping us from dinner but then taking more pictures. She was so sweet. It was really encouraging that I was able to understand her, even though I'm sure she was speaking slowly and dumbing down her words for our benefit.

Oh, I got to play the piano last night for the first time in what seems like years! It was amazing to see my fingers remember what my brain couldn't. We had some extra time after class ended before we could go back to our rooms so we went and found a room with a piano so we could all sing together. It's amazing how fun stuff like that becomes when you don't have Netflix or other things to do.

OK, now I have to include one ridiculous story that happened this week. Venting about things helps me not to feel angry, so I'm considering this therapeutic. Anyways, Sister Dunn and I offered to send any last-minute packages that the Daisempai had after they left Monday morning. One girl told us that she had a couple boxes of things to send home, which she'd leave outside her door, labeled and ready to go. So when we got there, we were shocked to see TEN boxes, all of them overflowing with junk, and a few addresses written out on paper next to them. And I mean BIG boxes - at least three of them were the kind produce comes in at the grocery store. Nothing was sealed or ready, and she didn't leave money or anything. Did she really expect us to pay for all those boxes to be mailed off? It would easily amount to over $100. Anyways, we weren't sure what to do so we called our branch president (Dad asked about that, I think - Our branch, about 100 missionaries, has a president and three counselors) and gave him the girl's mom's phone number so they can figure it out. They live in Provo, so they'll probably be able to come and pick it up in person. I don't know. In the meantime, we have to store all of her stuff in our room. I guess I should have seen it coming - this girl received THIRTY packages from home during her stay here, so it's safe to say she probably lives a charmed life. I hope being on her own in Japan isn't too big a shock. Actually, I take it back. She needs a wake-up call.

Well, time's up! Matta ne!

-Anna