Hola from Japan

Hola!

 You read that right. Hola from Japan. I am currently in my first area in Japan! I am in Oizumi which is kind of a suburb kind of a country town kind of place. But the most important thing you need to know is that it is filled with Brazilians and Hispanic people. So, I am not speaking Japanese, I am trying to remember the Spanish I learned in Middle/High school and I am learning Portuguese. But more on that later.

I will start with the airplane. That was a rough airplane ride. I was able to call my family when I was in the airport in Salt Lake City and it was so nice to hear their voices. I love my family, they are the best. Our first flight was to Portland and that was pretty ok. I mostly just read my scriptures.

Once we landed in Portland though, our flight to Japan was already almost done boarding. We all thought we would have an hour in the airport, but nope, it was straight on to the next flight. That flight was about 10 hours so I tried to sleep, but it was hard. I only fell asleep for 20 min at a time. The food was pretty good though and many of the missionaries had the chance to share the gospel with others. I talked to one of the flight attendants about missionaries because she sees them flying to and from Japan all the time.

Black Shimai with Mission President and his wife

We landed in Japan at about 3:00pm and had to go through customs and get our luggage before going to meet our Mission President, President Nagano. After which we drove almost 2 hours to the mission home. We were all so tired and I had the worst headache, but I couldn't fall asleep. I wanted to see Japan. There is a lot of green here, in some parts, so it's a little bit like WA.

When we got to the mission home we had a light dinner. That was the most delicious soup and rolls I have ever had! Maybe it was because I was so tired? Then President Nagano interviewed each of us briefly. At this point, I was about to fall over and die, I was so tired.

Anyway, earlier at the airport he asked if any of us knew Spanish, so me and 2 other Sisters said yes. During my interview, I explained that I took 6 years of Spanish. He prayed for inspiration on where to send each of us and apparently Oizumi is where I am supposed to be. So, that's how I ended up here.

After the interviews we all collapsed in bed. It was only 8:00 but we were so tired. The next morning, Hill Shimai, Barton Shimai, and I ran around the block a bit for exercise then got ready for training. Training was a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be. I didn't realize that in training, they don't really teach you how to be a real missionary, your trainer does that. Training was over by 1:00 and then we were given our area assignments and our trainers and we were sent back to our areas.

It takes about 2-3 hours to get to OIzumi from the Mission Home, so I got to see a little bit more of Japan. My trainer is Sister Pourre (pronounced Poh) and she is from Brazil. She has only been in Japan for 2 months, so we are both kind of new!

Black Shimai with her new companion Pourre Shimai

Oizumi is great though. I have only met some of the investigators and members, but they are all amazing. It is really frustrating that I cannot teach lessons or really talk because every one speaks Portuguese (which is very different from Spanish). I have been struggling over the past few days because I can't help much because I am new/don't really know how to be a real missionary and I can't speak/understand anyone. However, I am on my way to learning the language, and a lot of my Spanish is coming back so I can speak with our Spanish investigators.

Besides the constant struggle of learning the language, there have been some miracles.

1. Because of my thumb, we couldn't bike the first few days which meant we had to do a lot of walked. Many of our investigators live far away from each other so we could only visit a few a day and it was really hot and hard. However, on Saturday, my thumb felt good enough that we got permission to start using bikes! I'm using someone else's bike for now, but I'm getting my own soon. I will send you pictures next week. 2. One of our investigators, Leia, came to church on Sunday! She speaks English, so when we visited her last time I was able to help teach her. We emphasized the importance of church. She had never been to church before. This time she said she didn't want to make a promise, but then she showed up! It was so amazing! 3. Last night, we were tracting and we were able to give out a Book of Mormon. That just felt so amazing. We can tract for an hour and not find anyone, but we found her within 10 min. It was amazing!

So yeah. It's been a rough week, but there have been some small miracles. My trainer is amazing, she always supports me and helps me. She also rides her bike super fast, so I'm trying to push myself to ride faster as well! We also have 2 Elders here, Elder MIller and Elder Passos. Elder Miller is kind of like me, he came to Oizumi 3 months ago and has had to learn Portuguese. His is so much better than mine though, so I hope that I can be like him in 3 months. Elder Passos was actually in my Senpai group so I already knew him. At the MTC, he was super quiet though, but his English is so much better now and it's great!

All the new missionaries with their companions and the mission president

Other fun moments...In Japan, we teach Ekaiwa which are English Classes. This week we played charades and it was so fun. I had to try to act out "Shrek" and someone else had to act out "Disneyland". We also tried to have a volleyball activity. That was the first time I've played volleyball since I hurt my thumb.

Also I have cooked! What?! We walked into a little store one day and I saw the same Japanese Curry squares that my mom uses at home so we bought some and made curry two days in a row. It was super good. Haha, my companion can't cook at all, so I do most of the cooking. I also convinced her to buy some fruits and vegetables at the grocery store today. :)

Japan is so fun! It's hard to be learning 3 different languages, and sometimes I accidentally use a mixture of all 4 that I know, but it's great. I feel really fortunate to be teaching so many people and helping them come unto Christ. I have basically just been getting to know people so far, so hopefully next week I can tell you a bit more about them. Also, I don't understand what most people say, which makes it hard to have stories to tell you about. It's getting easier though! Baby steps. Thank you for all of your support and prayers! I can really feel your love!

ブラクラ姉妹

Black Shimai