Snarr-shimai: Throwing Beans at the Devil

Monday, February 3, 2020

こんにちは!

This week we passed six months since we came to 日本! We celebrated by eating 2 ice creams each, bought before we even realized what day it was.

Spiritual Stuff:

This past week we had zone conference, and it was themed around the Restoration. One of the things we did as preparation for it was listen to the Joseph Smith Papers podcasts, which I highly recommend you all listen to. Every time I think I know everything I ended to know about the first vision, there's something new, and I love it. Please take the time to check it out!

One cool mini miracle we had this week was on Wednesday before 英会話 (eikaiwa= English class) as we were walking to meet someone we'd met on the street a few days earlier and invited to 英会話. We were planning on going to a bakery and getting dinner together. As we were walking, we passed a member of our ward, who recently moved in and is totally fire. She wanted to come to 英会話 and actually thought she was late because for some reason she had written 6pm in her calendar instead of 7pm. When we explained what we were doing, she asked if she could come along. It turned into a fun meal and eventual gospel discussion, which our new friend listened to with open ears and an open heart. We were able to give her a Book of Mormon and she wants to meet with us and that member again sometime. We can't wait to get to know her more and help her learn more about the gospel!

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

For P-Day last week we went with the 長老たち (chouroutachi= elders) to an aquarium in our area. It was actually pretty cool and we very much enjoyed the touch tank, which had 2 types of sharks and stingrays. See below for some pictures!

Last Monday night we went to the 本部 (honbu= mission office/home) for our mission's monthly FHE with a young woman from our ward. You're only allowed to go if you're with someone, and both Olson姉妹 and I were way excited because Odawara and Kofu are way too far to be able to go. It was a lot of fun and we got to see Ikeda姉妹! MTC companion's reunited. We love being in the same zone.

On Monday night we got back a bit late, but we still had to stop by the church to pick up our groceries (that we hadn't had time to bring home) and bikes. It was at this point, as we're standing in the rain after 9pm curfew, that we realized that at some piunt during the day, the keys had disappeared. The keys to both the church and the apartment. Long story short, our theory is that they fell out when my bag was open and we were changing trains. At Tokyo Station. Aka one of the biggest and busiest stations in 日本. Again, long story short, we ended up staying the night with 2 sisters (literal) from our ward because nobody was answering the phone, though we did eventually get through to our leaders. Everything's fine now, we got extra keys the next day, but the lost keys are probably never going to be found.

During zone conference we did a もぎ (mogi= role play) where we practiced stopping people on the street. Another missionary/one of the leaders was given a role to play, and we were to stop them and lead into our purpose as missionaries. In front of everybody. Needless to say, there was a lot of awkwardness and a whole lot of laughing. Especially when two of the 長老たち were given the role of playing a highschool couple very much in love. And when all the 日本人長老たち (nihonjin= japanese) and President Esplin were asigned the role of a grouo of highschool boys, and President Esplin took the lead by taking off his jacket, untucking his shirt, and rolling up his sleeves, and then oroceeding to throw his suit jacet over his shoulder and drop into a gangster crouch. The 日本人長老たち followed with completely straight faces and we were all dead.

We went out for dinner with a ward member and were shocked when she told us that around the time she was baptized in Nakano ward (in Tokyo zone) years ago, Napoleon Dynamite was serving there as a missionsry. Or rather, the actor was. Apparently he was pretty quiet and his companion seemed like someone who would become an actor and be famous, so when the member saw the movie she was pretty surprised to say the least.

Yesterday was a holiday called Setsubun, onehich in 日本 someone in the family, usually the dad, puts on a demon mask and the kids throw beans at the "demon" to get him to go away. It's supposed to symbolize chasing the bad out of the hiuse, but because it involves throwing beans at the devil, of course we had to do it. See the pic and video below!

Today we went to an island in our area called Odaiba, which has all sorts of things, among them the Olympic Rings, a digital art museum, at least 3 giant malls, and delicious food. Look forward to more pictures next week!

New Foods:

-Korean lettuce wraps

-japanese strawberry shortcake