Konnichiwa!!!
Ah! I can't believe I am actually here! It was so sweet walking off the plane knowing that the next time I get back on that plane I will be a crying Japanese talking gijin! We were met at the airport by the President and the assisstants. President is a small guy but is really poweful. I like him. Saying goodbye to Riley was sad and I did a pretty good job holding in my tears but I felt like Ammon saying goodbye knowing that we were both going off to do the Lord's work and that when we meet again we can rejoice in the Lord. I totally adjusted to the time change. Had no problem. I just read Riley's email and you are going to be so happy that the Lord hears your prayers because I too have the BEST TRAINER!!! Seriously could not have asked for a better person! Her name is Sister Laird and she is from Idaho Falls. She is the BEST! ah! I am sooo lucky! When she first came to the mission home she walked in and was super talkative and just really happy and all of the elders in my group were like of Shimai lets hope you get her because you two would be the best of friends. Your like twins! Which was true cause when they announced that we would be companions we were both jumping up and down! We headed out to an area called Matsudo which is a little north of Tokyo Tokyo. It's a famous area in the church because it has a five story church. Look it up! The church is huge! It's got three bishops offices in it. Tells you how much work there is to be done in this area and how strong the church will be here. It's also one of the biggest wards in Tokyo with 200something members. But pretty much it feels like an American ward becuase there are sooo many babies here! It's crazy and I love it because Japanese kids are the cutest!
The first night we got to our area we went straight to Eikwa, which is English class. It's fun. We teach these Japanese people random English. But in order for someone to come to Eikwa they have to take a lesson with us. So before Eikwa we taught a lesson, or rather Sister Laird taught a lesson. I can't understand ANYTHING! It's not even funny how much I can't understand! It makes me laugh and cry all at the same time! It's really funny cause when we go out and street Sister Laird will start talking and I try and follow the best I can and then all of a sudden she'll turn to me and go "wanna talk about the purpose of life? or wanna testify about families?" And I just laugh thinking oh okay yeah sure cause we were totally talking about that." It's such a fun game trying to figure out what she's gonna ask me to talk about. It's so hard to understand anything! I feel like my Japanese has really gone done. I cried the first few days cause I just felt so insufficient. But I have the best trainer and she has been in my shoes so she knew exactly what to tell me. I just feel like I can't do anything a lot of the time. But I know that it will come. It comes for everyone and I know that it will come for me. The next day we went over to a members house, Ishijima Shimai who was gonna drive us to get my Gijin card but before that we did a mogii lesson with her and I taught the first part. Afterwards she told me that I had good Japanese and that my pronounciation was really good. (Japanese people are really nice) But she told me that it would come and that she was here to help me in whatever way she could and that it would be okay. It made me cry. So i'm being taken care of mom. Friday we woke up and it was pouring. Really pouring. I stood at the window and just wondered if I really wanted to be here. In that moment I had no desire to be in Japan. I really just wanted to go home. Seeing how that wasn't an option, I sucked it up. And since we're missionaries and we go out rain or shine. We live somewhat close to the train station like 10 minutes so we started walking. No joke 3 minutes in and I was soaked. And i just wanted to cry. My comp was laughing so I decided after we got sprayed but a truck driving by that there was nothing I could do about it so I started laughing too. We were going to see this lady at work and met her husband because she is getting baptized of SUNDAY! YEAH! She wasn't there when we got there so we went back to the busy part of town and started talking to people. It was fun trying to figure out what they were saying. Pretty much it works like this, I start the conversation saying like three sentences. and then sister laird takes over and then stops occasionally for me to bear testimony on something. It's so fun! And is such a game becuase with everyperson you wonder, hmm...is this going to be a prepared person or what's her story. It's fun. But frustrating cuase I really have no idea what they say. After doing that for a while we went to met her husband. nice guy. Then went to lunch at a member's house and did another Mogii with her. She said afterwards that she's been kinda sad lately adn that this lesson helped her becuase she really felt the Spirit when we testified. It makes you feel good. Felt another earthquake. They're weird.
On Saturday, it was the same, taught a lesson to an investigator. She has Parkinson's disease so it's hard for her to remember what she's learned. Poor lady. But the best part of that day was we went streeting and then stopped at a corner and started handind out Eikwa flyers. THis little 12 year old girl came around the corner and I handed her one and said Hey how are you? And she stopped and just looked at me like "what this american is talking to me in Japanese. And then I asked her a few more simple questions. Didn't understand what she said back and then my comp came and took over. It was halirous cuase she was so shocked that these two big american girls were talking to her. We then asked if she like English and she told us yes and that she knew some. This next part was halrious. We then said Hello! How are you? (in English) and she said back in like perfect english. Hi. I am good. How are you? We were as shocked as she was when we were speaking Japanese. So we were both just shocked. Turned out she lived in Georgia and New York. Long story short, my companion told her that God loved her and that she had a purpose here on earth and that it wasn't over after this. (Apparently in Japan, lots of young kids think about God and wonder if they have a purpose and that since there parents don't talk about it, they make something up and go on with life, whcih is why young people ar golden investigators) I gave her a Book of Mormon (my first one!) and told her what it meant to me. Then invited her to church and she said she would come!
Sunday...Oh boy are Sunday's busy here! Holy cal! Totally not a day of rest! I was way scared about Sunday cause I don't speak Japanese and everyone here does! But it turned out good. Bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting. It was really simple and I hope that I gave a good impression. Afterwards, an old lady came up adn told me that she was very thankful for my testimony adn then said a lot more to me, which I didn't understand and then I think she sang me a song too but who knows? The little girl didn't show up but Junko san (the woman getting baptized on Sunday) did. She is so cute. She is like an American inside of a Japanese person body. She's probably mom's age and wants to learn English so badly so she always has her dictionary out. It's funny. But she told us that she felt good inside her heart and that she feels something everytime she's at church. She is so ready to be baptized.
We are going to see Miracles here in Matsudo. I felt that the first day I met Sister Laird. I knew we were going to be great together and that we would work hard and get things done....or she would get things done. :) I'm excited to be here!
Love you all!
Shimai
Riley's Letter
Hi everyone!!!
Japan is way awesome.i love it. my new area is kure. it is in the hiroshima zone,its like the one of the most northern areas.it is way pretty, it totally reminds me of is way pretty, it totally reminds me of hawaii. there are green mountains everywhere just like hawaii and it is near the water so that is way cool. i really do love the area it is way nice. i took the bullet train here so that was way cool to see the country by train. it was like an hour train ride, some elders put me on the train and i was on my own from there. it was kinda intense but really fun. it was intense because i didnt understand anything but it turned out ok. my trainer is elder peterson, he is from salt lake and he is the man. i super like him, he is way legit. he has been out 11 months, he played football and rugby in high school and left straight on his mission after high school. he looks almost exactly like tim tebow and his personality reminds me a ton of ben rudolph and quin so thats a pretty good combo to have.i am super thankful to be his companion, he is way cool, we get a long way good, we laugh like all the time, he is way funny.our apartment is good too,its super convenient, really close to the store and to the train station. its weird though, we sleep on futons, which is pretty much just like sleeping with a blanket on like two or three camping pads, not the comfiest, but it gets the job done. we also make way good food. i am learning to cook all of it so thats way good. but i have pretty given up the idea of trying to stay in shape on my mission, its definitely impossible. we eat a lot, we dont have too much time for exercise and this week we got a lot of food from members. and aparently, there is this thing called rice cheeks which is just where becasue we eat so much rice that cheeks just begin to puff, so yeah....dont know if im going to be staying in the best of shape so we will see. however, we do bike everywhere and its way hot and humid. when we got off the plane in tokyo it was so hot and humid right away, like a suana. it actually reminded me a ton of hawaii. i am way thankful to have been in hawaii becasue it really is like a different culture over there and japan seems a lot like hawaii so it was way good for me to go to hawaii and experience a different culture cuz it really helped me adjust to this culture. so twins, you should go to hawaii becasue if i had gone to provo, never going to hawaii i would have been way more culture shocked but i wasnt becasue hawaii has its own culture so i was just used to places doing things differently. anyways, japan looks abnd reminds me a ton of hawaii, so that is way good because i feel comfortable here. me and elder peterson had a good week. we visited a lot of members and less actives. we tried to meet with three of our investigators multiple times this week but they all fell through, so that was a curveball that we had to just adjust to. on sunday we had stake conference, our branch president and his wife picked us up and we drove into hiroshima. it was good, i probably onyl understood about 4% of the whole thing but thats ok, it will come eventually. but after stake conference we ate with our branch presidnet and a lot of other japanese people and we walked into the room elder peterson and i knew we were in trouble due to the smell. i had a plate of this funky rice with objects in it whose smell and sight were new to me except for i did know one thing one my plate and that was little nemo, lots of nemos. there were like twenty little fishies on my plate, like whole fish with their eyeballs and spines and everything.so yeah, i ate nemo, lots of little fishies, it was pretty gnarly, i just had too not look at my plate while i was eating it or else i probably would have yacked. but it was a way funny experience. i got the giggles and elder peterson and i just made each other laugh the whole time by just muttering funny one liners to each other. so it turned out all good, the people there were impressed that i ate my plate, it was funny.
but being out in the field is awesome, i definitely wasnt prepared for how awesome the field is. it makes everything so real, like the gospel and teaching and the investigators are so real, it awesome. it feels like i am living a dream. i love it. i love going out and streeting and housing becasue it is such a classic scene, just these two white boy missionaries out in a forgein land just teaching in their white shirts and ties. and other thing is that i am big in japan, so thats pretty cool. i am just starting to get used to ducking my head in our apartment when i walk through the door ways, i have already hit my head on the door ways like four times. and the roads here are super small and narrow to go along with their super small cars. japan is awesome, so beautiful, the japanese people are way nice, its a different culture but its good, like i said i really creadit hawaii to exposing me to differnt cultures so i have adjusted quite well, so going to hawaii prepared me for my mission in a way that i didnt expect.
the work is good. elder peterson works hard and his japanese is really good so i can feel that the people are ready and that miracles are going to hit kure. we just have to be the best missionaries we can be, work are hardest and then its up to the peoples agency and heavenly father whether or not they accept the message. we are meeting with this man on wednesday for the first time, the elders last transfer when they were on splits found him and when they prayed with him the man said he felt way good, so this lesson on wednesday has a lot of potential, i am way excited. prettty much all of the japanese people are buddisht becasue that makes it way tough becasue their whole families are buddusht and have been for cenuturuies so nobody wants to cahnge, like when i went to contact someone on the street before i said more then five words he said i hate religion and walked away (i had no idea thats what he said to me but peterson told me after). and last night we were streeting and we were talking to this guy and he had never even seen a picture of jesus christ let alone heard of him so they need the gospel way bad. the lord will prepare those people who are ready, we just have to find them. the language is intimadting sometimes, like i pretty much have no idea what people are saying to me and some guys on the street couldnt even understand what i was saying but its all good, if i work hard, the lord will bless me and it will be ok, i figure getting down on myslef and stressing out wont do me any good so i will just take everything jsut one day at a time. i cant wait to really learn the language and really teach these people but i know that its through the spirit not through my words that they will be converted, it will all be good. i am so excited to be here. the gospel is so true, the japanese need it so badly, i am honored and thrilled to help bring them to christ, it really is the best. love you all so much, thank you for being the best family. love you, ill send another email pretty mcuh same time next week. i love it here, missions are the best. i am happy and doing wonderful. love you.
elder stevenson
ps dont know natalies email so if u could send it to me that would be good. she is probably doing awesome, she is the best. and look up kure on google earth, it s way sweet, and hiro is also in our area.
love you all
pps tongiht we are going to try and set a baptismal date with this woman, hope it goes well
:)
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