The First Set of Goodbyes

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

こんにちは!

Every three weeks the Japanese zones experience a turnover, and this week was one of those weeks. In another three weeks there will be more goodbyes, and three weeks after that it will be our turn! Also, as usual, this email jumps all over the place.

Spiritual Stuff:

A quote that an 長老 (elder) in my district shared during one of our discussions was, "two people can do anything as long as one of them's the Lord." This particular elder had studied Mandarin for a year before his mission, just as I had studied 日本語 (Nihongo= Japanese language), and he was really struggling with switching mindsets and learning this completely different language. However, he's seen significant improvement, and shared this quote in the hopes that it would encourage us to do our best in whatever area we struggled, whether it be with the language, the teaching, or anything else. And so, I decided to share it with you all too, because I think we could all use some encouragement in our lives.

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

On Sunday, Olson 姉妹, Ikeda 姉妹, and the 日本人長老たち (nihonjin chouroutachi= Japanese elders) looked up our houses on google maps and showed each other, which was pretty cool. Also, Ikeda 姉妹 is from Sapporo, which we've discovered is on a very similar line of latitude to Rochester! The weather is very similar, and when we looked at the current weather of both we died laughing when we discovered that the temmperatures were both exactly 17°C. We both agreed that winters were terrible and shoveling snow was the worst. Thankfully, Tokyo rarely gets snow. A couple times a week, my 同僚 (douryou= companion(s)) and I get ice cream, but because class ends at 9:15pm and we have to be in our rooms with the doors closed by 9:45pm, we always end up getting ready for bed, brushing our teeth, etc before we buy and eat the ice cream in our rooms. It feels weird becuase we've already brushed our teeth, but the other night Ikeda 姉妹 said, "...maybe God will protect our teeth because we are obedient...?" She was totally joking and we all just about died laughing. Ikeda 姉妹 left at 3:45am on Monday morning, along with several others, and now it feels like Olson 姉妹 and I have lost a limb or something. Thankfully we're going to the same mission, otherwise it would be much worse. When we woke up after she left, we discovered that she'd left a little note, some snacks, and a necklace for both of us, and we just about started crying it was so cute (see pic). So every day (except Sunday, and optional P-Day), there's a time set aside for exercise, which means you have to do something. The sisters in our zone (and sometimes the elders) always go to the fitness center and use the stationary bikes becuase nobody knows they're there and there's usually not very many people down there anyways. We also always bring 日本語 flashcards or whatever phrases or words we have to memorize and just run through them as we bike. We've been "teaching" our teachers since week one, but last Thursday we had our first TRC, which means we go into a room and there's a volunteer who's supposed to just be themselves, and we have to get to know them and teach to their needs. In 日本語. No preparation because we don't know anything, and while they're very likely going to be members, there is a possibility that they won't be. The first person we taught happened to know almost all of our teachers and had either been in the MTC or served with them, it was pretty funny.

One time while teaching in class, an 長老 in my district who went to BYU-HI and learned a bunch of 日本語 slang from his friends tried to say "God is cool, isn't he," but he used some of the slang to do it: "神様はやばいね." It was so funny because you're totally not supposed to use slang at all, let alone use it in reference to God. So, Every 3 weeks the new people come in to learn 日本語, and today we get more people in our zone! We've finally graduated from being 後輩 (kouhai= underclassmen but in more contexts) to being 先輩 (senpai= upperclassman but in more contexts)!  One of our teachers (Me and Olson 姉妹's personal favorite) is getting married tomorrow, so we're really happy for her but also sad because it means we can't see her for about a week and a half. Tomorrow is also one of the 長老's birthdays, and another birthday on the 23rd, so we'll see what happens with that. While Fernelius 姉妹 (soon to be something I don't remember) is our favorite teacher, all of our teachers have become dear to our hearts, as well as more like real people, as they tell us stories about their experiences, both in 日本 (Nihon= Japan) and not in 日本. Pettit 兄弟 (kyoudai= brother) is our second favorite (though we probably shouldn't rank them...), and he has the best laugh. He's so funny, and he apparently has a 9 month old daughter who we're dying to see a picture of.

About the Pictures:

• Ice cream night! Ikeda 姉妹 loves her "Fat Boy" (the brand of ice cream sandwich)
• The little gifts Ikeda 姉妹 left for us. The necklace says "Fear Not," which is perfect because we've been saying "恐れがない!" (osore ga nai= no fear) a LOT the past couple weeks.
• All the missionaries learning 日本語, as of Sunday, after we finished cleaning up after the devotional. Several of them left, however, and we get more today so the picture is kind of outdated, I guess.
• Olson 姉妹's mom sent us face masks, so...
• Last zone games!
• A great view of the rooftop study area.
• We went on a temple walk this past Sunday, sang songs, and took pictures!
• A queen, looking over her kingdom.

Time Is Already Flying

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

こんにちは!

It seems crazy that it's already been another week, the first week went by so slowly. Maybe because we've started settling into the routine. Anyways, here's this week's email. Mostly random stuff with no flow at all, but I can't bring myself to spend the effort to do decent transitions, so, here you go!

Spiritual Stuff: 

Sometimes on Sundays we have time set apart as "Ponder Time" (or something like that), which basically means we go to one of the murals in Building T4, which has 6 floors and at least 2 murals per floor, all of which are of some sort of scripture-related theme. This past Sunday we went to the mural that showed Esther appealing to King Ahasuerus, and the assigned scripture was Esther 4:14, though I also read other verses to get some context. We only got 30 mins in front of the mural before we went to our classroom to discuss (just us, no teachers), but it was actually amazing. When you really look into the story of Esther, especially 4:14, from the perspective of a missionary, you can really start to connect with her. For example, one of the reasons she succeeded in her mission was because of the fasting and praying of both herself and the rest of the Jews. We, as missionaries, know that there are millions of people out there praying and fasting for our success and our safety. It means a lot to the missionaries who remember it, and I know that once I get out to the field those prayers sent our way will help us get through each day.

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

So our teachers all served in Japan (obviously), and they've got some pretty great stories. For example, one of our teachers (the one peeking out from behind someone in the pic below) went to an area that had an interesting member. He was unaware of this particular member, so he wasn't expecting it when, as he was saying a normal prayer (eyes closed), the member shot wasabi up his nose. Just leaned over and *fwoop*, up the nose. Needless to say, he didn't finish the prayer. Every Saturday night we have zone games, which basically means sitting in a big circle and playing Signs because then the language barrier doesn't matter, so we can play with the people who can't speak very good English. It's honestly hilarious, especially because of the language barrier. Yesterday in the cafeteria, as we were getting food, a senior sister missionary with some sort of accent stopped me and said, "You don't look old enough to be serving a mission. You look like one of my 7th graders I taught"... Great. Thanks. Ikeda-姉妹 already leaves next Monday!  Olson-姉妹 and I really don't want her to leave, but at least we're all going to the same area so we'll probably see each other again. Also, once she leaves, Olson-姉妹 and I have to move buildings, we think because a building just got finished being renovated. The Japanese-learning sisters used to be all over the place, but once we move we'll all be next door to each other, so that'll be nice. Last Friday we tried an "English Fast" (no Japanese), and it was hard but went better than we thought. We thought that some of the people with less experience would quit super early, but they did better than expected. We're going to be doing them every Friday from now on, so I'll keep you all up to date. Last week we decided to buy some American candy and write notes (in Japanese) for the Japanese missionaries, and they loved it. Also, we made sure to get them all pop rocks. I have a video of Ikeda-姉妹 trying them, but it's too big to attach, so let me know if you want it and I'll share it through google photos. Earlier this week, right as we walked into the cafeteria, the smoke/fire alarm went off. We had to wait outside for about 20 mins, and it turns out all that happened was someone tried melting cheese in the toaster. And there's a sign right there specifically saying not to do that. Turns out that our branch president went to the U of R for orthodontic school and worked at Eastman Orthodontics. Also, his daughter or son (I can't remember which) and their spouse just moved out of the Rochester 3rd ward. This is kind of random (though what isn't in this email), but apparently one of the elders in my zone, his friend's uncle is the coach in Meet the Mormons. Earlier this week we were supposed to meet with the Japanese elders at 9:15 so Ikeda-姉妹 could do some studying with them, but we waited for 10-15 minutes and they still weren't coming out. So, when two elders from our district came out, we asked them to check if they had left already. They went to their room, knocked on the door, and one of them opened the door while still sitting on his bed. One of the two elders simply said, "姉妹" (shimai= sister, btw), and the Japanese elder went "AH," jerked up his watch, and then started speaking rapid-fire Japanese to the others. They came out 5 mins later, with one of them in a tracksuit and sideways nametag. We sent him back in to change, so he came back out with tie, belt, id card, and nametag in hand, which he put on as we walked. It was so funny because they're usually so put together, but apparently they'd played basketball that morning and had gotten so worn out they just laid down for a bit...

About the Pictures:

• Me and my companions in front of the flags and the mountains.
• My class + two of our teachers when we held part of class on the roof.
• The tallest and shortest of the district (plus their companions). And I think I said this last week, but yes, he's 6'10.
• They rotate through flags, but the Japanese flag was up this specific day AND it was windy AND they put it in front of the mountain, so of course I took a picture.
• The view from the 6th floor study area (Can you spot the Provo Temple?).

• Me and my two 同僚 at the Provo Temple this morning. We've taken to calling those flowers "disney flowers" because they look like they would be/probably are in a disney movie.

• Mittens-姉妹!!! (The pic was taken today, btw, that's why I'm not dressed up)

1st P-Day

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Hey everyone!

Today is my first P-Day (preparation day), the only day of the week I can contact people. It will be every Wednesday until I actually go to Japan, when it will change to Monday (I think). Also, P-Day ends at 6pm (EST 8pm), so if you respond before that I might be able to message back, but otherwise it'll have to wait a week. As for how I'll set up these emails, I think I'll do a "spiritual stuff" section, a "daily life/fun stories" section, and an "about the pictures" section so you can scroll as wanted. Also, I wrote way too much, sorry.

Note: go to MTCdelivery.com to send (for free) an email as a physical letter. Also, I'll put my address here if you want to send actual letters and/or packages.

Sister Hannah Lynn Snarr

JUL30  JPN-TOKS

2005 N 900 E

Provo UT 84604-1793

Spiritual Stuff:

There are devotionals every Sunday and Tuesday night, with Tuesdays having important people, including an apostle every 3 weeks or so. Yesterday Elder Gong and his wife came to speak to all the missionaries at the MTC, and it was seriously awesome. On Sunday I almost fell asleep during the devotional, but last night was completely different. We had been singing prelude hymns, and we started singing one right as the door opened and he came in. You could just feel the Spirit saturate the air as he walked in, it was amazing. And when his wife and he talked to us, you could tell that they truly cared about us and wanted us to learn something from what they said. There wasn't a specific thing they talked about that I could pinpoint as really spiritual, but it really was. I can't explain it. Because I am one of Sister Ikeda's companions (see below), and because the apostles shake the hands of all the "internationals" there, I also got to shake Elder Gong's hand. He took the time to personally meet and ask each person a couple questions and let them touch the pages of an 1830 (I think) 1st edition Book of Mormon that he had. We also got to shake Sister Gong and the MTC President's hands. When the first missionary heading to Tokyo South got to them and they asked where they were going, they told us that the mission president is Sister Gong's sister and her husband. Elder Gong told me to say hi for him, which was so surreal. After the devotional, our district got together for devotional review, which I was expecting to be boring, but was actually awesome (just like the devotional itself). Several people cried, including one elder I was totally not expecting to cry.

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

I have two companions! Trios are pretty uncommon, but i happen to be in one (see pictures). Sister Olson is from Gilbert, Arizona, and Sister Ikeda is from Hokkaido, Japan. We're all going to the Tokyo South mission, but Sister Ikeda is only here for three weeks instead of nine because she already speaks Japanese (She's in the Japanese ADV class). Her English is a little better than our Japanese, but we all help each other with both languages. There are three Japanese elders who came at the same time as us, but there English isn't as good (see pictures). Even so, it's still a lot of fun talking and studying with them (or at least trying to lol). Thankfully we can usually get by with Sister Ikeda and I translating/explaining to those who speak our native language. Also, when we have workshops/seminars/ devotionals together, Sister Olson and I get to sit at the front with them because we're SIster Ikeda's companions and she gets an interpretation headset. They gave us miso soup and ramen the other day and it was so funny. The Japanese missionaries' ages range from 22-25, including Sister Ikeda, who is 25 and apparently worked as a nurse at the blood disease section of a hospital before her mission. Yeah, she's awesome. As is Sister Olson, who taught kids English in China for a semester before her mission (and she talked in Japanese in her sleep the other day LOL). Also, random comment, I've seen a bunch of people I know from BYU, including from classes, the Nelson Scholar group, and/or my ward. For example, Elder Huang, who's in my zone, was in my Japanese class both semesters (He's going to Tokyo North, though). As for daily life, we have an hour of exercise every day at 7:45am, and all the sisters in our zone do bikes on variety mode. The first day was a nightmare... The second day was better, but then I caught a cold (still a bit sick) and did just easy settings. I also bought so many mini packs of tissues at the MTC store... But anyways. Two of the elders in my district have no Japanese experience (including the tall one, see pics), which means that we have to start from the beginning, including hiragana. Thankfully we move at a good pace, though maybe not for those two... Also, our teachers are all people who served in Japan and most of them, if not all of them, are currently students at BYU. They're totally willing to answer any questions I have and let me go ahead of the people who are a bit behind. Actually, the people in my district have taken to asking me when they have a question instead of the teachers if we're not actively learning from them... It was pretty funny actually, when I was practicing kanji on the whiteboard and they asked me so many questions I couldn't practice (we were just studying, the teacher wasn't around btw). The teachers kind of threw us into teaching in Japanese the other day, with no warning. We thought it was just practicing introductions and praying, but suddenly it's also sharing a message and questions we didn't practice. It was ok, though they didn't tell us it was one of our teachers so when Sister Olson and I saw who it was we got so relieved we just walked right in, instead of knocking and doing a door approach. So one of the things we are supposed to do is SYL, Speak Your Language, as much as possible, so Sister Olson and I insert random Japanese words into our conversations, and when we don't know a word, we'll ask Sister Ikeda and vice versa. We also teach her random stuff. For example, the other night Sister Olson taught her American dance moves like the whip, the whoa, and, her favorite, the worm. Even though our communication is not 100%, it's still so much fun and we're already super close. Our district is also already super close, which nobody was really expecting, and Japanese mistakes have just gotten funnier. We totally have inside jokes now.

About the Pictures:

• The cat's name is Sister Mittens and she is the friendliest most cuddly kitty on the face of the planet. She's totally welcome to petting from anybody who happens to see her, and I've seen her at least once every day, sometimes 3 or 4 times.
• The view from one of the study areas scattered around the MTC campus. This particular one happened to be a balcony. On the left you can see the rooftop study area, which is also great.
• The view from one of the "ponder areas," which are at the end of halls with music at the press of a button.
• My zone, made up of three districts, at the Provo Temple this morning. All of us are going to Japan. Two people from Australia, four people from Japan, and the rest from the US (the tall guy is 6'10").
• My district + the Japanese district that came at the same time. We're technically separate districts, but Sister Ikeda goes back and forth so we interact a lot. Everyone but one Japanese elder and one American elder are going to Tokyo South (They're going to Sapporo).
• The sisters in our zone (Going to Tokyo North/South or Kobe).
• Me, Sister Ikeda, and Sister Olson

Talk to you all next week!

愛しています! (as we say to our zone members)

Sister Snarr