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