Date
October 23, 2017
Area
Kurashiki, Japan
Companion
Sister Lockett
Week 9 and 10
My new P-day is Monday and it has been a bit over a week so I'm just going to call this week 9 and 10. I'm finally in Japan! I'm in Kurashiki and my area is the Okayama prefecture. My trainer is Lockett Shimai and she is a great trainer and awesome missionary. Also, my small choir group got to perform again! This time it was during the Sunday devotional.
12th: We had breakfast in the cafeteria and finally got breakfast burritos! They did not live up to my expectations...so little eggs, a lot of hash browns and it just wasn't that tasty with all the unbalance there. During in-field orientation, we talked about why working with members is important and how to do that. My favorite part was the corny little play about a brand-new missionary in the field, and his first week getting to know members and investigators. After lunch, we had lunch with Ceolho Sensei and we learned all the family words we could think of. After dinner, we had class with Poelman Sensei and Miller Sensei. Because class was so short, we asked cultural questions and then they did a short mogi (role play) about knocking [don't rap on the door, just knock 2-3 times with space in between], Japanese what to do/not do during meal times and when you get into the house. Then we had exercise time and worked on packing.
13th: We left in-field orientation early because Wood Shimai had a dedication choir practice. Because of this though, I think we missed a class with Poelman Shimai. Until it began, Pennington Shimai and I just had personal study and language study time. Then we had the dedication ceremony and Sis. Oscarson, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Henry B Eyring, Bishop Gérald Caussé (Presiding Bishop) and the whole MTC presidency was there for it. After lunch, we had our last MTC exercise time. We went to the fields, and played 4-square which gave us a beautiful view of the temple. This was also Pennington Shimai's first time playing and she really enjoyed it. During our evening class, we had Ceolho Kyodai and Miller Kyodai and it was about giving 5 min, 3 min, 2 min, and 30 sec lessons while contacting. We also practiced this, which was fun.
14th: Our morning class was with Poelman Sensei and Miller Sensei, which means our last lessons with Tsukamoto-san and Kawamura-san. After class, we had 12 min to run back to the dorm, grab our laundry, and get that started, before we needed to be back at the classroom to take a class picture with all 3 of our teachers. Then we had lunch after switching the laundry and I sent off a package with extra stuff. We didn't have enough time to drop laundry off at the dorm after eating, so we just put it in the extra classroom next to ours before class with Ceolho Kyodai started. During class, we got to see pictures of his mission, and his wife. In the closing prayer, he named each member of the district and asked for specific things for each person and a few of us started to cry. We will all miss all of our teachers, and wish them luck with their next district. After dinner we had a small choir practice and we worked on packing some more.
15th: Penninging Shimai, Wood Shimai, and I taught RS for our last time at the MTC. We did something in there, which I will change a bit, and ask you to do the same. Ask people to write down a spiritual gift or two that you have, and then read those. Next flip the paper over and write down a gift you want to develop. There is also a talk from the October 1987 General Conference called "There are many gifts" and I encourage everyone to read it. In our district meeting, we talked about continuing to make goals and being the missionary that gets the most out of our mission that we can. I'll be sending my talk as usual...and again, I prepared but was not called. LOL
We did a temple walk again at long last, and we took pictures there. I also took some while we were walking back since I actually remembered to take my camera this time. We then had dinner and our departing devotional, which our small choir had to leave early because we had sound check for the devotional. The Sunday devotional was by the Daltons, and we watched The Character of Christ again.
16th: The three of us got up at 2:40m to get ready for the day and be ready by the bus area to leave at 3:50am. It left late, and that is when Wood Shimai and I parted from Pennington Shimai because her bus left later than ours. I know that she will do great things, and I can hardly wait to hear from her and the rest of our MTC district today. Then we took the train to the Trax/ tram stop. Then we had our first flight, which actually we stopped and switched planes at the Los Angeles airport. Before getting on the first one, we got to call and talk with our families. After the switch, we were headed for the Tokyo Airport.
17th: The flight to Tokyo was about 13hrs long, but I just couldn't fall asleep no matter what I tried so I played games on the personal monitor with a few of the Elders and I also watched the Joseph Smith movie from the Gospel Library App. For some odd reason the Japanese fast-tracked missionaries going to Kobe had a different flight to Osaka than the rest of us going to the Kobe mission. This last flight was about 1hr long, and I finally got to fall asleep during it. Then we got our luggage and left the airport in the care of our (President Smoot) mission president, (Sister Smoot) his wife, and the APs (Assistant to the [mission] president). Sister Smoot gave each of us a nikuman (meat bun) and a water bottle. At the mission home, I volunteered to sleep on the futon and gave Sister Bagoya and Sister Wood the beds.
18th: We woke up early for exercise time and the APs took our group of beans (new missionaries) for a run/walk up to a park to do radio exercises with the Japanese. We all tried out our first water fountain in Japan (only one so far like this), where the water just shoots straight up! Kobe is so pretty, but I didn't have my camera on me...After breakfast we had training. At lunch I discovered that I love Japan's pears. Then we had our first interview with President Smoot and while we waited we got to send our email home saying we were alive. The office couple (Brother and Sister Bills) also talked with us while we were doing that. Then we had more training about what to have on you at all times. We got to go out for a few minutes with the Kobe missionaries and I got to give a Book of Mormon to a 15 year old junior high school girl who was walking home from school.
19th: Since it was raining this morning, we did "Around the world ping pong" which was really fun. After breakfast we had more training. Then we got to meet our new companions and find out what our first area is! Elder Philburn is my district leader now and Elders Salas and Queiroz are the zone leaders. Then we had lunch, bought a few things at the honbu and traded our American money for Japanese yen. For future reference, we had been living in Kobe at the honbu. I found out the post offices here also serve as a bank.
20th: Well, I found out that Lockett Shimai likes to cook which is great for me because I don't. So far she has been cooking for us and I have been doing the dishes. I do plan to learn more about cooking from her during this first transfer (6 weeks). We met up with a member at the church and met some others while we were there who gave us a different version of mochi than I have had before and it was really good. Then we went with the member to go buy a bike for me. Too bad they didn't have the right size of bike for me, frame wise, so I had to order it. It is supposed to be here 10 days from the 20th. My luggage did come which is good. Other than that, we studied a lot of different things.
21st: We walked to J-kaiwa (Japanese class,free) where I met Nakamoto-san who also teaches an eikaiwa (English class, free) that we help out at. After lunch we met with Takahashi kyodai who is our ward mission leader. He is letting me borrow a bike of his while we wait for my bike to come, and gave us a list of the ward members and their info. He has already been such a great blessing to me since I came here, and he speaks a bit of English too! Other than biking around after dark, in the rain trying to find Honda-san's house and instead going to Nakanishi-san's house, we just studied a lot.
22nd: Stake Conference Sunday! You would think that would be easy right? Well, it was and at the same time it wasn't...At one point a speaker asked a set of Sister missionaries to stand. Since no one did right away, Lockett Shimai stood. To my horror and surprise I saw her stand up, and since she is my companion I stood as well. Then I was terrified when the speaker called us to the front and had us give testimonies. Luckily mine could be in English (I forgot to say he was the only speaker who gave a talk in English and had it translated), Sister Lockett had to give it in Japanese. We also went housing/ contacting out in the rain (with a typhoon on the way) after it was dark. Because we had gotten up in Stake conference, knocking on doors was not scary at all, LOL.
I love you all and I wish you the best of luck this coming week,
Sister Megan Smith
Side note from Andrew and Lisa: The mission President emailed us and let us know everyone is safe and sound. Also, she never sent the talk she had prepared so it isn't attached here. The photos this week are actually a mix from the MTC and Japan. She forgot her cord for the camera for others she took.