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)