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.