They have Kit-Kats here. I almost cried when I saw I could buy a big bag of them. Gotta love American candy. Don't worry, dad, they have snickers too.
SO. I am in Japan. How crazy weird is that? Let me be the first to say it's definitely not Utah. I miss Utah but Japan is beautiful. It's kinda weird, though haha everything is so close it's basically all just stacked together but there is SO MUCH green. Like I don't think I've ever seen so many trees and plants in my life. Just randomly on a pretty new building there will be shrubbery growing from the side. So. Much. Green.
For our last devotional in the MTC we got to see The Nashville Tribute Band again. Yes, I did thoroughly enjoy myself. I love them. I am constantly singing their songs. Poor Porter Shimai has to listen to me all day.. Whoops..
Porter Shimai. She's the cutest. She's my trainer. In the field they call her my "mom". Don't fret, mama, she's just trying to fill the hole in my heart where you belong. But yes, she's great. She is incredibly nice. Seriously. We'll be walking and she'll just randomly pull out her iPad and be like "it's time for a walking selfie". I don't know what else to say about her other than I think she kinda looks like Martina and I love her. Oh, and she's from St. George and we are serving in Hachiōji.
BY THE WAY, shout out to mama fish for the Mormon muffins. You da real mvp, mama fish. Those things saved my soul those last few days in the MTC.
Saying goodbye to people is real hard and I don't like it. First we had to say goodbye to Hansen Kyōdai. Then we had to say goodbye to Gappmayer Shimai (yes, I cried. I love her, okay.) and then we all had to say goodbye to each other. Leaving my district was reaaaaaal rough. I just really like 'em. Saying goodbye to Smith Shimai was awful. I had to just walk away before I cried again haha I think it's clear that I'm very happy she lives so close to us in Utah.
Thanks to traveling, I was awake for a full 24 hours on Monday/Tuesday buuuuut thanks to that I didn't have any jet lag at all. So yay for that!! Traveling was kind of awful though haha I guess I just don't like that part of the adventure. Although, I got to see the ocean for the first time. Granted, it was from a window of a plan but I still saw it! And I also saw lots of rice patties. Welcome to Japan.
Every day I'm pretty much all good and then like 6:30/7 hits and my brain is just like "let me rest!" Trying to understand Japanese is probably the worst part of it actually, it is the worst part of it all. If you ever want to feel alone, go to a foreign country where you are the minority and no one will talk to you and when those few people do, you can't understand ANYTHING and you look stupid. Literally. I love Japan but it's been rough.
Yes, Heidi, my hair has been a giant frizz ball. No, I haven't done anything to even try to combat it. I'm embracing it.
Whenever we go dendō (literally means missionary work) my job is this: "konnichiwa! O-genki desu ka?" And then Porter Shimai jumps in and does the real work while I just smile and nod my head with an occasional "hai!" Thrown in from time to time. I'm so good at this whole "missionary" thing.
Literally, and I don't use this word lightly, right as we got to our apartment and dropped my stuff off the chōrōtachi called us and asked if we could meet them at the church, which is a solid 15 minute walk from our apartment, which normally would be fine but in the humidity, it's always awful. So we make the trek to the church there is a girl waiting for us. Her name is Miku San and SHE stopped the elders and asked to talk. How great! So we talked with her for a little and she is so great. She seems so interested but she's also soooo hesitant to let herself believe because of the Japanese culture. She told us she doesn't know if she can pray like us or believe in God like we do but we're going to try out best to help her! We're teaching her tonight so fingers crossed it goes well!!
HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY, HEIDI!!!! I hope it was a great 22nd birthday😘😘 I had real ramen. Yes, it is delicious. We also went grocery shopping today. That was interesting. Japanese food is weiiiiird. Even the packaging is weird. I also bought a ton of Japanese candy. I had too.
Church. I can't tell you how it actually was because we had ステーク タイカイ(stake conference). Oh boy, I thought everyday conversation was exhausting, I was wrong. Staying awake and trying to listen killed me. But I survived. I even understood like 6 words.
Everyone here is so nice. I mean that. SO NICE. The members are the besssst. They offer to drive us everywhere and take us home after dinner and come do member present lessons and give us food and yes. I love them. They're all so cute. There are like a trillion classic old Japanese ladies in this ward and I love it. They are exactly how you'd picture them to be hahaha.
Last night we had some dendō time so we went a couple train stations over and did kubari (passed out flyers for the free English class we teach each Wednesday). And big surprise, it was raining. It's always raining here. And when it's not raining you pray for rain so it will cool you down because it's freaking hot. Humidity is not my friend. Anywho, kubari. It started pouring. So hard. But we were like "we said we'd stay here until 7:25 and we are staying!" So we stood out in the rain and got "keko desu"ed (I'm okay). But I still enjoyed it haha we had a few people stop and talk in to us. These three people I talked to probably only stopped because I am a gaijin but they stopped! They were super surprised when I said I was 19. Everyone is always shocked to find out how old we are. Always. It's crazy to them haha. But yes, kubari is fun, even in the rain.
I'll send pictures in another email:)
SCRIPTURES (OH YEAH!)
D&C 6:36; D&C 84:10; 1 Nephi 3:15; D&C 88:6-13, 40, 49-50, 63-64, 73, 76-80, 104, 118-119, 124-126 (that whole section is good but these are bomb).
I love you all! Getting to talk to you on Monday was the best thing EVER. I hope you all know how much I love you and miss you. Stay safe!!!!!!
I love you. I love Nihon. I love Nihonjin. I love this gospel. I love Heavenly Father. And I love Jesus.
--Fishburn 姉妹
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