It's not junk, it's treasure!

Hello!

Happy Valentines Day (well yesterday)! (And today for some of you)! I hope that you all had fun this week! I had a good time. I feel like not that much happened this week though.

         On Monday, it was New Years (again) and that was fun, we didn't really do anything for it though. We went shopping for P-day and then we went and explored what stores are in a different part of our area that we've never been before. And that was way fun. Our area is so huge! I am always amazed at how much stuff is here, and we go places and we look to see if we are near the edge and we look and we are still like in the middle. Pretty crazy!

         Then on Tuesday, we went and visited some people and then had dinner with a member at Subway! It was really cool. The only thing is in Japan, the five dollar foot long is a five dollar six inch. So it was small, but it tasted good! Then we went home teaching with Niwa Kyodai like we do every week and that is always pretty fun. We get to visit a lot of people, and it is great having a member there, and it is really great that he has a car! So that's really nice.

         On Wednesday, we went to Japanese class in the morning and taught/learned about the gospel. I thought my teacher about the Plan of Salvation and she helped me to be able to say everything better. And she was really interested in what we believe about Satan and what his role is in the plan. Really interesting. She also said that she likes our plan better than the one of Buddhism. She said that it is a lot more friendly and happy and kind. So we talked a little about revelation and how we know that this is the correct plan, and that all of the others are really this, but they lost part of it. She loves that
idea and she wants to talk more about it this week. And she was really interested in temples and how we can help people who died without the gospel so they can have eternal life. Pretty great!  So I am going to invite her to our family history night that we are doing and that should be really good. Then we had Eikaiwa and it was super fun.  Again, because of the rain, only the Hayashi Family showed up and it was great! I love those little kids!
         Thursday, we went to visit Ayabe Kyodai and he wasn't there. So bummer. But it was ok because we found a way faster way to his house this time and then we found out there is a whole other group of stores that we want to check out over there. So that is what we're doing today for P-day. Awesome. It should be good. Then we went and talked to people and ran into Joseph, our British potential investigator, when we stopped at McDonald's for food. It was awesome and now we have an appointment. So revelation can come in the form of cravings and being really hungry. Also being cheap. But yeah that was Thursday.

         Friday, we had DTM and talked about recognizing and acting on spiritual prompting some. Super great! Then we had to go catch a train to go to Gero which is super far away in our area and the train ride takes two hours. Also it is sixty bucks. This is the train ride that at the beginning of the transfer we tried to do and ended up in Takayama. But we made it this time and it was a great family home evening and was so much fun. The Katsuragawa family is the best!

         Then on Saturday, we went home teaching with Sogabe Kyodai and Koshiba Kyodai. It was way good! And we went out to eat with Sogabe Kyodai and he ordered us the biggest tonkatsu ever! It was way too much! But it was delicious!

         On Sunday, yesterday, we had church and it was Valentines and it was fun! The sisters gave valentines to everyone and it was a little origami heart and it was way fun! And a lot of people gave out chocolate. And we even got a Valentine's Day chocolate box from our investigators that night when we went for a lesson! Awesome! And we had a great lesson and the spirit was so strong and it was a great feeling in the room.

         But that is pretty much my week and it was fun! I hope you all have had a great time this week and that you will have a great time this next week!

                         Peace out homies!!!
                                -莉茶長老

Normal district.

 

Silly district. 

Sogabe Kyodai and tonkatsu.

Everybody knows you don't eat the "E's"!!!!

みなさんこんにちは！
お元気ですか？私達は今週間に本当に忙しかったなんですけれでも、とても楽しかったよ。たくさん人々にて話したし、教えたし、英会話チラシを上げました。忙しくて楽しかったよ。

 So on Monday, we had some normal P-day activities of going to stores.

On Tuesday, we had a koukan with the Zone Leaders from Fukutoku! I got to stay in Gifu and Elder Hall came and it was great! He is a way hard worker. We went way far on bikes and it was way fun! Then for dinner we went out for sushi!!! Yes! it was way good!

Then on Wednesday, we switched back from that and then we went to the Oni Festival with Tami, who is one of the sassiest Grandmas you will ever meet. It was way fun! They threw beans from a balcony in packets and you had to try to catch it, and they are lucky. Then you have to eat as many of the beans as the age you are turning this year. And some of the packets had prize tickets inside them and so everyone was trying really hard to get the packets of beans. The crowd was like going to a concert! Then we had Eikaiwa and it was way fun! For kids eikaiwa, only the Hayashi family was there so it was great. They are the best little kids ever! We talked about the different "Hello" words
like "good morning, good night, etc."  It was way fun! Then we taught them how to write their names in English letters. And then Manaho-chan (she's secretly my favorite) asked us how to write Star Wars in English!!! Way too fun!!!
 
For Thursday, we had another koukan but this time it was with the Ogaki Elders. It was great! We got to finally meet Elder Montoya, because he just transferred in from Hamamatsu, and he is great! Then
we went to Stamina Tarou which is an all you can eat meat place and it was great! We were not really hungry for dinner!!!

Then on Friday, we had a good old time doing the normal Missionary stuff. Like housing! I actually love it!  And I love it because it is the only time we are allowed to talk to the women of Japan and they are way nicer to us than the men are. And grandmas will open their doors and say they don't want to talk to you but to take this bag of food with you, but get off of my porch.
Then we met with a guy the previous Elders who were in Gifu met and he was a blast! He was crazy good at magic and he brought a couple of his friends with him and they were way cool too! We want to meet with him a lot! Also we had DTM and then went out for Indo curry afterwards (of course).

Saturday we talked to a ton of people and it was good! And it was way weird because I woke up that morning and thought that it was Sunday!!! So that just made the rest of the day a little off balance for me. And we went to try to visit Ayabe, but he wasn't home. Oh well. It was still good. We got to bike far and get some good exercise.
 
Then on Sunday we had church and it was good. It was fast and testimony meeting and I love it! And there was a member of the Stake presidency there and it was good. Gifu ward is the best! There are so
many cool people to talk to. It is great!

I hope that you all have had a great week and that you will have another one! If you guys do anything cool, send me pictures!!! I want to see it!

I have been asked five times this week if I was Japanese. So yeah. I must look like it or something. And people don't believe me if I say that I am not.   They just ask where in Japan I am from or just straight up say oh you're Japanese.... Yada yana and then they are like ok maybe half or whatever.  So there's a funny thing this week.

Peace out Homies!!!---莉茶長老

Oni Festival throwing bean packets.

 

This is the first sentence that all Japanese people learn of English in school.

*insert snarky subject line here*

This week went by really quickly! On Monday, we went and had district activity at the mall in Kakamigahara. It was way fun, we did a photo scavenger hunt where one team goes and takes a picture and then you trade with another team and they have to go find it and recreate it. The mall is so huge that it was way hard! The picture we got, I knew what store it was in, but it still took us a long time to find it! But it was so fun! We were with a lot of missionaries that day and it was nice to see everyone right before they all got transferred.

Then on Tuesday, we had a regular day of just talking to everyone, not even anything crazy...disappointing.

On Wednesday, we had eikaiwa and that was great. We got to talk about school things and that was really interesting, the hardest part was trying to remember my schedule (because it was hard enough to remember it when I was doing it) but it was good! And funny enough, that was what me and my teacher ended up talking about during Japanese class that day.

On Thursday, we had a member appointment and it was way fun! At the end, Shimizu Kyodai asked us if we had a special talent and then he said, for example, mine is magic!!! Then he had a little magic show prepared for us and it was great!!! It amazed the sisters so much because they hadn't seen one of the tricks before that everyone usually knows, so we were having a good time "explaining" it to them. You know, he opens a portal to the other dimension and then he pulls the handkerchief out of there.

On Friday, it rained a ton!!! So we went and talked to people at the eki because they have the things that all the people are under because then they don't get wet! Like walkways or something. It was good.

On Saturday, we had to do our weekly planning session and that took a little while because we have a lot of people we are focusing on. And so we did that and then made some kyozai (like lesson example things) you know where you have the plan of salvation out and you can move it around. Like little laminated things with pictures on them. But we made a plan of salvation.

Then for Sunday, it was way good. We had a devotional after church about the area plan for the Asia north area, and then after that we had a little celebration because it was Anrichan's birthday!!! So we
had food and stuff and we had all signed a big card and it was great!! She is one of the Shimai's investigators and she is super good! It was great to see how much the ward really loves her!

Then the plan for today is to go get haircuts. And then buy food, and other things. But something will probably happen today that will be fun. It usually does!

Well peace out for now homies!!! Hopefully I have better stories for next week!

莉茶長老

This is what you do when you're on the phone and have a whiteboard handy.

Life in Japan.

 

We made muffins!  Sort of.

There is someone's birthday today, but I can't remember whose. . .

Mina San!!!! Konnichiwa!

This week was great!!!! Still a little hard, but great!

        On Monday, we went shopping and stuff, because that's all there is to do really! But it was fun, we went to a store called treasure bomb! Which is like a recycle shop, but way cooler! People only sell their cool stuff there! Like there's a ton of clothes obviously, but there's also stuff like yugioh cards and guitars and Gundams and power rangers and all sorts of stuff! So we looked around and Bunch stopped and looked at all the yugioh cards for a while, of course, and I perused the rest of the store. There were a ton of cool clothes and some way sick guitars! But I didn't buy anything, Bunch got some yugioh cards for really cheap though!

        Then on Tuesday, we had a great Mogi with the Imai family and they helped us create a master lesson for teaching about the Atonement of Christ and the Fall of Adam. It was great, we are loving these mogis, and I love this family! Then we went and housed in the cold and boy it was cold! There were even little tiny flakes of snow that were really hard to see, but they were still there!!! Then that night we went and did some home teaching with Niwa Kyodai! It was super fun! It was really cold, but we met with three less active member families and shared a short message and invited them to the sports meeting that we are having on Saturday! It was great! One family said that they would come to church this week probably! Super cool! Oh, and while we were walking earlier that day, we got to see and pet a real Dalmatian!!!! That was so cool!!!

        Then on Wednesday, we woke up to snow!!!! Lots of snow!! And then the Honbu sent out a text asking us not to ride our bikes so we don't die!!! It was a really good thing that since on Wednesdays we have a Japanese class that we go to and we normally go by bus, good thing we didn't go by bike normally because we wouldn't know how to get there by bus and would have had to leave like around ten thirty!! I am glad we don't have to walk, it is cold and it is far!!! Also that morning, I woke up to a head cold!!! Yay. I couldn't see anything that morning right when I woke up because my eyes were foggy still from sleeping and I didn't feel good and then Bunch was like, "look at the snow" and I was like, "mnnnnh" and then I woke up and sat there a little while. But on the bright side, I got an excuse to wear the face masks that all the Japanese people wear when they are sick!!! Yay. But yeah, Japanese class was way fun! Me and my. Teacher talked about all the things that I have enjoyed and foundered in Gifu and then about where I could possibly be going. She has been. Like everywhere and so she told me which places have good curry, fish,etc. then we were on the bus ride home and we were giving the sisters a hard time about not OYMing this girl that was waiting at the bus stop with us and we were like, you should talk to her and then she turned around and it turns out that she can speak English, and she just got back from a home stay in New Zealand. Way cool! Then we kept talking to her and the sisters got her umber and they are going to go out to eat sometime. Great! And
then we went and did some housing and then had eikaiwa and a girl (ok, she's like 40) that the sisters met on the street came and brought her two guy friends! That was way fun, they were super genki and her English was way good! And Hideki came (who we went to the Aerospace museum with last week). And that day, because Baskin Robbins had a special thing going on, we went and got ice cream! It was good!!!

        Then for Thursday, We had a lesson with Ayabe and it was way fun! We played ERK (Egyptian Rat Killer) and it was fun! Then we got to watch a missionary broadcast! It was way good! Then after that FOUR HOUR adventure, we had a lesson with an investigator ,who lives super far away, through Skype! It was great lesson! We drew on a whiteboard to make it easier to see and I got to get a lot of great kanji practice! And I drew the best earth that I ever did!

        On Friday, we had DTM!!!! And also Yogenkai (where we "prophesy" where everyone is going)! Cause, you know transfers!!! Way fun! But then we all went and had Indo curry of course and it was awesome! (DUH) and it was a good time! And that night we went over to the Ishii's house (No relation to the Mission President that I am aware of) and had a great lesson and dinner! They made tempura and it was great! At one point, Bunch Choro thought that the squid rings were onion rings and so he ate one and was like, ah what is this (He kept his cool and just asked politely) but in English he was like ah, I just ate something and I don't know what it is!!! But yeah! And he
hates all seafood! Hahaha! But it was really fun!

        Then on Saturday, we had a sports kai which translates to sports meeting, but it was like when the stake has a sports day! We went to a gym by the bishop's house and it was way fun! The bishop is so bomb at badminton! Then after the sports kai, there was a YSA activity at the bishop's house and it was good! We played games and taught people how to shuffle cards and other stuff like that! It was fun! Ayabe eve came to those and he is like a secret Volleyball King! And he was good at everything else there too! The only thing is that when he runs, he is so goofy! But I love that guy! Oh yeah, and there was like transfer calls that went on that day...

        On Sunday, we did the norm, went to church, talked to all of the people and stuff like that! We had a good lesson on the Atonement of Christ and it was good. A guy that we called in the Former
investigator list came to the sports kai and he was way cool! Then after, he called and said that he wanted to come to church! So we sat with him and he had a lot of really good questions. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he said that he had a good time! Then after church, we had a lesson with the Imai family and it was way good! And that night we went to. The Tsutsumi family and had family home evening and it was way fun! We
played the game where you have the paper on your head and have to ask yes or no questions about what you are and they were all gospel words and Tsutsumi Kyodai was SATAN and he got really close, but he eventually asked, am I God? And we were all like no! Haha and then the next turn he was like oh, I'm Jesus Christ right! And we were all so hysterical that we could hardly answer! It was so funny!!!

        Then today, we are going to have district activity and it will be way fun because we have a lot of people in our district that are transferring. And think that it might be someone's birthday or something...or at least that's what I heard. And I graduate beanhood tomorrow! Yay!


ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS I HAVE RECEIVED VIA EMAIL!

1. The P in Pday stands for Preparation
2. It has been really cold here and just only this week has been snow
3. People call me Jasmine Tea because that is the meaning of somekanji that the pronunciation is RICHA ( 莉茶) and so that is how they shortened my name to make it easier to remember/say.

 

Doing the sorority squat and the Sisters were "dame."

 

Picture of the city from the tallest tower--we were inside on the top floor of Tower 43.

Well and the news that some people have been waiting for!!! I have not been transferred and neither did Elder Bunch!!!!!! And he was made our district leader!!!!

 

みなさんこんにちは！ (Hello Everybody!)

今週はちょっと大変でしたけれでも、たくさん人々にあいさつしました。ちょっと寒くなりましたよ。雪がないけど風は大きくて寒いです。マフラーとジャケットを着ないと行けない。雪が降るかも知れません。来週に多分転勤します。暖かい所に行きたい。今から英語を話します。

This week was intense, much like camping. We had to run from place to place at the beginning of the week, and since then, we have had no money! It is so much fun! We are waiting for our reimbursement to go through, but we kept forgetting to send it and it should take about a week. Luckily, because people gave us some food in the food basket at church, we have enough food for the week, but probably not to do anything else! Oh well. But all is well in Gifu, we have talked to
lots of people and gotten lots of kekkos. Which means, "I'm fine" essentially. We found some people through phone dendo, where you just call former investigators on the phone and they are pretty great. One of them lives so far away that we teach her through Skype.

On Monday, we went and shopped and then that was pretty much it.

Tuesday was fun, we had a mogi lesson (role-play, practice) with the Imai family and they taught us some really good ways to teach the plan of salvation, they have been doing mogis with the missionaries for about forty years, and they take all of the best ideas from them and then teach the next missionaries. It is really good, they have a lot of examples that make it really easy to understand.

On Wednesday, we went to Japanese class, and my teacher is really sad, because I am abunai, dangerous. In other words, there is a pretty likely possibility that I will be transferred. And so next week, she wants to have me teach her about what I liked in Gifu, and what interesting things the missionaries do, etc. so it should be fun. And I will be able to say the things that I will need to say to the members in my next area!

On Thursday, we met with a British guy who we met before, it was not the one who yelled at us, but the one who was really cool and came up and talked to us shortly thereafter. His name is Joseph and he is hilarious, he has done lots of cool things and he knows lots of things about the culture and can teach us so we understand lots of things like that. Also, he used to work for the CIA, kinda cool. Then after lunch with Joseph,  we had a koukan (exchange) with Ogaki elders again! This time I was with Elder Dana in Gifu! It was way fun, we played Jenga and visited a bunch of Less Active Members, then we found out that a former investigator's house doesn't exist, or at least not where her address is. Instead there was a warehouse and this little shed with a dog that was so worked up over us being there, he couldn't decide to act tough or to be friendly. It was hilarious!

Then on Friday we had DTM and then an apartment inspection. It was good, we think we passed. Then we rushed over to Indo curry and that was great as always! Then we went and tried to visit more less active members.

On Saturday, we went to the Kakamigahara aerospace museum with a former investigator and we ended up teaching one of the workers a little bit and gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and everything. It was cool. Then we went to Starbucks, which was weird and got some white hot chocolate. It was good, not coffee, but super weird to be there as a missionary.

On Sunday, it was Shokujikai! Which is translated to meal meeting! At the end of church it is like a potluck and people come and eat. Pretty great, we should start that in America. Our investigator
Yamamoto San, came and his wife was going to but she got sick. It was fun, he said he had a good time.

And that's about it for the week,  I hope you all had a great time and did some cool stuff, peace out homies!

莉茶長老

Kakamigahara Aerospace Museum

Random statue right next to the eki that I've never seen before.

 Sometimes you have to take pictures with stuff.

 



Best elevator ever!

I found him!

 

I love this sink!

 

Little Chickens

This week was way fast!

On last Monday, we had a gyoza making party with some of the  members in the church! It was way fun! We ate a ton and then we just sat and talked, it was great.

Then on Tuesday, we went over with the Shimai to the Imai's house and had a lesson and Imai Kyodai cooked us little chickens! It was awesome.

Then on Wednesday, we had eikaiwa and that was as fun as ever. But that day we had Japanese class that these ladies teach in a night school during the day and it was way fun. On the way to the eki, we
were riding our bikes and then Satan decided to push me off and I ripped through my pants and skinned my knee pretty bad...again. But it is getting better.

On Thursday, we had a great koukan (exchange) with the Ogaki Elders. I went over there with Klein Choro, and we had a blast. We went and met with some less active members and then we went to go find a recent convert. We only knew the area that she lives in and her name.  Luckily for us, every house has the family name on it in that neighborhood.  We went and fund one with the name and so we knocked and a guy opened the door and was like, "oh, senkyoshi!" Then he told us that his sister (and he gave her name so we knew that it was the right house) is in China and will not be back until probably February. That was lots of fun. And a relief. Then we went housing for the rest of the night and absolutely no one answered their doors. Weird.

Then we had ZTM in Fukutoku on Friday morning so we just switched back there. ZTM was a lot of fun, it was weird without our old zone leader Elder Moulton, who went home at the end of last transfer. But now we have Elder Callahan and he's pretty cool. After the training, we went out for Indo curry as always, well not always but you know, and it was as amazing as ever!

Then on Saturday, we had a great old day. In the morning we did some mall dendo, where we just go talk to people on the mall. And I got to play a 2000000¥ guitar in a music store we walked into. That's like twenty thousand dollars! Crazy, and some people were watching me and so we went and talked to them. We walked around some more and strategically place Eikaiwa flyers in places where they will fall out when people look at stuff and move it. Also we found out you can movie popcorn without getting tickets for a movie. So we bought some and walked around and there was this dance off festival going and so we watched for a little bit and that was really good. Then that night we
had a combined YM/YW activity and we played games and had food. We played volleyball and then taught the kids the game "ninja." They love it and we made it a rule that you have to make ninja noises. It is hilarious. Especially since most of the Japanese public lacks basic motor skills, hand-eye coordination, reaction times, etc. I really must belong here. Haha. But yeah, we taught all of the youth how to be ninja.

On Sunday, I gave a talk about missionary work and it was pretty good. People laughed when I was telling a funny story, so  I think it was a success. Then we had a great lesson about service in gospel
principles and then for priesthood meeting we talked about repentance.  It was really great. And this Sunday was when all of the girls who are twenty right now dress up really fancy in kimonos and do up their hair really fancy and it was a lot of fun. They all wanted to take pictures with us for some reason. But it was really fun.


Well keep on steppin' my friends and remember, every small act of faith punches Satan in the face!

莉茶長老

Shogatsu...or, in missionary eyes, DEEP CLEANING!!!

This week was great, for the most part! Since it was New Years, we  were asked to not do any missionary work on the 31st, 1st, or 2nd. Super  weird! On New Year's Eve we stayed home all day because everyone was asked to not go out and house or do streeting or do surprise visits to members. Everyone was asked to do deep cleaning! Yay...

 

Luckily, me and Elder Bunch decided to just stick it out and finish the cleaning that day rather than spread it out in the three days we were given. So we were busy on Thursday. But let me back up a little. On Monday we did the norm, you know shopping, cleaned our bikes, called former investigators on the phone, etc.

 

On Tuesday, we had an activity with the young men and came to the church and made Soba and then went bowling after a short message from the missionaries. (That's me).   Bowling was great, except we found out that Japan oils their lanes weird or something and our balls kept spinning to the side way bad. Then in the second game we got the hang of it.

 

Then Wednesday was the last day to do dendo (missionary work) for a little while, so we hit up all of the less actives that we have in the ward, and that night we went out to eat with a return missionary and her less active brother. They are the best! He likes all he same type of things I do so we get along really well. It's really great.

 

Then on Thursday it was cleaning, I already mentioned and then Friday was killer, we had DTM (District Training Meeting) and that's always a blast to get together with missionaries and talk about goals and have a testimony meeting. Then after DTM we tried to find a place to eat that was open. There was only one coffee shop that was open. Luckily it has good sandwiches. Not even McDonald's was open!

 

Then we went home and realized we had like six hours to do absolutely nothing. We studied for an additional three hours, we did our normal three that morning, and then we looked at each other and decided to see if the mall was open. One of them was not and we went to another one and it was, so we walked around and talked to people who talked to us, since we weren't supposed to be proselytizing. Then we realized we had a whole other day that we had nothing planned. We did six hours of study that day, then we just kind of sat and did whatever. We listened to music and played yugioh  and yep that's about it. Then on Sunday it was back to normal! Thankfully.

 

But yeah that's the week pretty much. Oh yeah and on the 2nd when we were about to break down out of boredom, an almost investigator guy called and asked if we wanted to go to a temple, since it is a really important thing in their culture to go to a temple at the beginning of the year, so we went to the Inaba Jinja and then went out for Chinese food. It was really fun.

Inaba Jinja

 

 Bowling with the Young Men

 

The "I Am Legend" Street 

 

Tune in next week, same bat time, same bat channel!

- 莉茶長老