Ohaiyo gozaimasu!
As week 5 of the transfer begins, I can't believe how time is flying!
Week 5. Where did this transfer go.
It is weird to think that I've been in the field longer than I was in the MTC now. Doesn't feel like it. The MTC was an ETERNITY. And not the good kind.
This week was good. Super fast. But good. On P-day, Taneda shimai and I went to the "fashion center". Grateful and pleasantly surprised that I could fit into clothes made for Japanese people, I bought a light gray jacket. It kind of looks like a blazer...but it's not. It was an incredible find. Only paid $16 for it. That was good.
As for boots...ugh they don't have my size out here. It is kind of a pain...because I've actually seen some really cute shoes here.
On Tuesday I had an exchange. Nagamine shimai is still my STL, but now she is in Narita, training 2 new sisters, Williams and Jones shimai. They were in my branch at the MTC, I like both of them alot. Williams shimai is from Las Vegas and Jones shimai is from Sydney, Austrailia. OH...sidenote...so that article you sent me from the ensign last week. Well the pictures of the two sisters in the Ensign from that article. That is Reusser and Nagamine shimai. They are both in Tokyo mission. Anyways.... I went with Nagamine and Williams shimai for the exchange. Being in a san-nin doryo was fun! Lots of voices talking all the time. Kind of refreshing. While I do communicate alot more with my companion ...it has definitely been a challenge with the language barrier. The new missionaries who just came in...have really good Japanese. Mine is definitely not that good...but my understanding is so much better. Recently I've been able to understand alot...but also I wonder if that is because people are talking to me more simply.
I'm anxious about the upcoming transfer call. We are both like 99% sure we are getting a call. We both just have ZERO idea what is going to happen this transfer.
The exchange was good. It was a very busy few days. RIght after we got back from the exchange we had a member appointment with the T------ family. T------ kyodai asked me what my favorite Japanese food was. I told him that I really loved maguro sashimi. He was surprised that I liked sushi at all. Then he asked us where we usually eat sushi. After telling him that we go to the 100 yen sushi place, he flipped out and insisted we go somewhere higher quality. So they took us to this really nice sushi place. I wish they hadn't because...now my expectations for sushi are so much higher. And there is no way we can afford to eat places like that. But it was so oishkatta.
On Thursday I had my 2nd transfer missionary conference. Elder Hamada really stressed me out with his goal setting training....he also kept calling on me in Japanese which was annoying...but I made it through it, and learned alot about the type of trainer I want to be as a missionary. We will see what next transfer has in store. On Friday Taneda shimai and I decided that our investigators really are not progressing. While we can still visit them ...we can't control what they do....so we decided it was time to find some more investigators. We went into Okubo. It is a few trainstations away, but still in the Yachiyo area. There is a big daigaku or college there. So we decided to do some dendo there. We talked to one girl about the BOM and she said she was interested in reading it. We then taught H----- shimai Friday night. On Saturday we had conference. Fortunately, we were able to watch in English. It was great. The member/missionary emphasis was intense on Saturday right?
I kind of felt like it was hard for alot of the talks to apply to me as a missionary. While watching I just kept thinking about how I would apply some of the talks in my life at home....so that kind of made me homesick. But it was good. I really enjoyed the Prophets talk on Sunday morning and Elder Nelson's talk about self mastery at the End of the Sunday afternoon session. Elder Holland's talk made me think of Poppa. The talk was on depression...and I know Poppa doesn't have depression or anything, but then end of the talk spoke about broken vessels...and how beautiful it will be to see people we love who have struggled with something that affects their character in this life on the other side. Poppa is probably not the same man he was when he was younger, but I know that it will be so beautiful to see him when he isn't struggling with that disease anymore.
Anyways. That was kind of my week. I love you guys so much!
Ai shite imasu!
-MC
As week 5 of the transfer begins, I can't believe how time is flying!
Week 5. Where did this transfer go.
It is weird to think that I've been in the field longer than I was in the MTC now. Doesn't feel like it. The MTC was an ETERNITY. And not the good kind.
This week was good. Super fast. But good. On P-day, Taneda shimai and I went to the "fashion center". Grateful and pleasantly surprised that I could fit into clothes made for Japanese people, I bought a light gray jacket. It kind of looks like a blazer...but it's not. It was an incredible find. Only paid $16 for it. That was good.
As for boots...ugh they don't have my size out here. It is kind of a pain...because I've actually seen some really cute shoes here.
On Tuesday I had an exchange. Nagamine shimai is still my STL, but now she is in Narita, training 2 new sisters, Williams and Jones shimai. They were in my branch at the MTC, I like both of them alot. Williams shimai is from Las Vegas and Jones shimai is from Sydney, Austrailia. OH...sidenote...so that article you sent me from the ensign last week. Well the pictures of the two sisters in the Ensign from that article. That is Reusser and Nagamine shimai. They are both in Tokyo mission. Anyways.... I went with Nagamine and Williams shimai for the exchange. Being in a san-nin doryo was fun! Lots of voices talking all the time. Kind of refreshing. While I do communicate alot more with my companion ...it has definitely been a challenge with the language barrier. The new missionaries who just came in...have really good Japanese. Mine is definitely not that good...but my understanding is so much better. Recently I've been able to understand alot...but also I wonder if that is because people are talking to me more simply.
I'm anxious about the upcoming transfer call. We are both like 99% sure we are getting a call. We both just have ZERO idea what is going to happen this transfer.
The exchange was good. It was a very busy few days. RIght after we got back from the exchange we had a member appointment with the T------ family. T------ kyodai asked me what my favorite Japanese food was. I told him that I really loved maguro sashimi. He was surprised that I liked sushi at all. Then he asked us where we usually eat sushi. After telling him that we go to the 100 yen sushi place, he flipped out and insisted we go somewhere higher quality. So they took us to this really nice sushi place. I wish they hadn't because...now my expectations for sushi are so much higher. And there is no way we can afford to eat places like that. But it was so oishkatta.
On Thursday I had my 2nd transfer missionary conference. Elder Hamada really stressed me out with his goal setting training....he also kept calling on me in Japanese which was annoying...but I made it through it, and learned alot about the type of trainer I want to be as a missionary. We will see what next transfer has in store. On Friday Taneda shimai and I decided that our investigators really are not progressing. While we can still visit them ...we can't control what they do....so we decided it was time to find some more investigators. We went into Okubo. It is a few trainstations away, but still in the Yachiyo area. There is a big daigaku or college there. So we decided to do some dendo there. We talked to one girl about the BOM and she said she was interested in reading it. We then taught H----- shimai Friday night. On Saturday we had conference. Fortunately, we were able to watch in English. It was great. The member/missionary emphasis was intense on Saturday right?
I kind of felt like it was hard for alot of the talks to apply to me as a missionary. While watching I just kept thinking about how I would apply some of the talks in my life at home....so that kind of made me homesick. But it was good. I really enjoyed the Prophets talk on Sunday morning and Elder Nelson's talk about self mastery at the End of the Sunday afternoon session. Elder Holland's talk made me think of Poppa. The talk was on depression...and I know Poppa doesn't have depression or anything, but then end of the talk spoke about broken vessels...and how beautiful it will be to see people we love who have struggled with something that affects their character in this life on the other side. Poppa is probably not the same man he was when he was younger, but I know that it will be so beautiful to see him when he isn't struggling with that disease anymore.
Anyways. That was kind of my week. I love you guys so much!
Ai shite imasu!
-MC