4 Whole Months😱

Four months.

Four months.

My oh my. Four whole months.

My mind is slightly blown right now.

It's been a long four months. But it's also been a fast four months. The mission has this funny way of time warping everything. And I mean everything. I also can't stop singing "let's do the time warp again!" Now and I don't think that's necessarily a missionary appropriate
thing to be singing in my head because of what it's from😂 oops.. That reminds me. I accidentally deleted my favorite song off of my iPad and I'm SO upset about this. How am I supposed to start my days off right if I can't do my brows while listening to Whitney Houston sing about miracles and picturing Moses and the Jews leaving Egypt!? I am so upset with myself for making such a dumb mistake. I almost cried when I realized what I had done. It was bad.

Here's a few selfies so you don't forget what I look like👍🏻

In other news.

This week wasn't very exciting.. I cried some more because of darn Nihongo but that is nothing new. Crying is just part of the missionary life😂 don't fret about me, though, I'm fine! I have my down moments but I am pushing on! Just gotta stay positive!

So. Tuesday. Tuesday I got to go into the Tokyo mission and have a devotional with Elder Bednar. So cool! It was less of a "talk" and more of a discussion which was so cool! It's always a good time when you get to ask questions and talk about missionary work with an
apostle. So many wonderful things were said and learned and I would include them all but you'd all probably be slightly annoyed.. But please just know that latter day prophets, seers, and revelatory are on the earth today and they are amazing! One thing that I challenge all of you to do is super simple: on gospel library, search a word or a simple phrase and then go to the general conference results. Pick a random year and month and then read one of the talks. This has helped me find some of my favorite talks. It's so cool to see how by just simply looking and trying, the Lord will give you what you need. But the key is action! You have to act! The Lord is happy to bless you and help you but He isn't going to do anything if you just ask and expect it to just happen. So yes. 医女でございます。

On Friday we got to go into Yamate for zone conference. Yamate's church is at the top of one the largest hills I have ever seen in my life. Not even joking. It was killer getting there. I thought I was going to die. Seriously. I'm not being dramatic, I promise. But yes, it 'twas a lovely time and it's a great time to be a missionary in the Tokyo South mission👍🏻

Moment of honesty for the week: my knees and the hills of Kamiooka are not friends. Not even close. They haven't hurt me for a good year and a half and then I transfer to Kamiooka and they decide they don't like me again. It's partly my fault.. I fell while riding my bike and of course I landed RIGHT on my bad(der) knee. Just my luck. But do not fret. I have been commanded to start wearing my brace as much as I can by President and Sister Warnick. So yes, I am a transformer again👍🏻 but it's not too bad! I just have to take care of myself so I can keep going and stay in Japan and share this happy message.

Scriiiiiiiptures📖 Alma 36:3, Alma 41:10, Alma 44:3, Mark 6:50
"You can be all alone but you're not alone." -Elder Bednar

I hope all is well in Utah and my mountains are still beautiful. I love you all soooo much and please always remember that Jesus loves you too!! Also, please know that I wish I had a car so I could put a "I love Jesus" bumper sticker on it because I feel like that's just something you should do as a missionary. But alas, I have a bike.. Not a car.. And you can't really put bumper stickers on a bike.. But anywho, Jesus loves you! I love you! Your Father in Heaven loves you!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.
愛しています！！！
--フィッシュバーン姉妹

She writes in her planner in English sometimes and then just
stares at it and then at me wondering if she's right😂 

Her guess on devotional is my favorite thing ever.

She eats chips with chopsticks.. I told her that was one of the most
Asian things I've ever see and she told me I was racist..

"yakizakana" in kanji. This literally means "burn fish" so
Tanimoto Shimai wrote it for me haha

This Is Bean Paste...

This is bean paste. BEAN PASTE. In my defense, I had tried it before
and it was disgusting so I wasn't excited to try it again.. But
Tanimoto Shimai, being the mean stepmom, made me try it again👎🏻

I bought a bike! 

In other news:  we have this investigator that we teach that is basically Macrae in Asian form. He's 9 years old and LOVES video games.  His name is Yudai and is thee sweetest little boy ever. He read the Book of Mormon picture book and loved it so he asked if he could read the real book. He's already read half of it! And he knew what pages and scriptures he likes the best! What the!? This kid is golden! We asked him to keep reading and mark the scriptures he likes and write in his Book of Mormon to which he adorably replied "I can do that!?" I love him. We teach him English for 30 minutes and then gospel stuff for 30 minutes and it's the best. He also calls me "Fishburn Sensei" which is the cutest thing ever. This week his friend was there with us so we asked him to explain the Book of Mormon to him. While he was explaining the spirit was so strong. The simple words of a 9 year old boy in Japan explaining the Book of Mormon are much more powerful than one would think. It's moments like that that keep me going.

Right now, Elder Bednar is in Japan!🎉 and tomorrow he is doing a conference for the missionaries of the Tokyo and Tokyo South mission! So I'll get to go listen to him speak in Nakano, Tokyo tomorrow! Super excited for that! He did a devotional last for members that we got to go to with some members and it was so cool. Gotta love getting to hear from and apostle!!! And this time, it was in English!!!!!!! The one line that keeps playing over and over again in my head is "This is the greatest season in the history of the restored church". Just ponder that for a second.

I'm pretty sure there's a saying that goes something like "the scriptures are good for your soul". Or maybe that was about chicken noodle soup.. Either way, both are good for your soul so I hope you get the chance to eat some chicken noodle soup soon and here are some scriptures to read while you eat!
Alma 24:19, Alma 26:2-3, Alma 29:1-10, Alma 30:34, Alma 31:5, Alma 34:38, Matthew 24:30-31

I love you all SOOOOO MUCH. Really. Always remember that!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

愛しています！！！
--フィッシュバーン姉妹

We heart attached a families door that took us 25 minutes by
bike and up the worlds largest hill to get to.
But it was worth it!! Fun fact: the kanji for Kamiooka ( $B>eBg2, (B)
means "up big hill". And it's not lying.

Apparently my bun and glasses are a big hit for my
companions so they always take pictures of me✌🏻️

We were housing and found her favorite animal, a lion!!

Kamiooka is beautiful!

I gave up going to Costco for this email

The subject line isn't as sad as it sounds.

I like y'all better than I like Costco so I'm okay😊

How are y'all? I hope all is well. In the words of a wise woman "Is you good? Is you okay? Good. Cause I wanted to know!" --Glozell

Transfer weeks are crazy. So crazy. You spend basically all day on Tuesday cleaning and packing and then have a normal Wednesday and then Thursday comes and THEY KICK YOU OUT OF YOUR HOME AND MAKE YOU LEAVE EVERYTHING YOU LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN. As you can tell, I'm handling it very well.

My first day in Kamiooka we taught a half English lesson half gospel lesson. Since both the sisters who used to be here were Nihonjin they've been having an American member help so it was at her house. Her name is Joy姉妹 and she is so nice. That lesson was one of the most confusing things I think I have ever done. The English part was fine but the gospel part in Japanese went right over my head. Tanimoto 姉妹 would look at me to say something or testify and I would just freeze. But I did manage to fumble through a brief testimony of the sacrament and Christ's Atonement. So yokatta ne!

Tanimoto 姉妹 is so cute. Seriously. I love her. Everything she does makes me laugh. Everything. She's from a small town that's on the west side of Japan in the Kobe mission. She's just the best. We were both scared for our companionship because let's be real, I don't actually speak Japanese. And she doesn't feel confident in her English buuuuut we're making it work!

Kamiooka, as many of you know, is in Yokohama. Yokohama is known for having lots of hills. I must be honest, many hills but not that bad. I was expecting to die. Then again, I've only been here for like 4 days sooo.. And dad, Kamiooka is pronounced "ka me ohh ka". I really do like it here so far! It's waaaay cooler than Hachiōji temperature wise and for those of you who know me, know that that is a good thing👍🏻 I hate being hot. So much. So I am a happy camper at the moment! Our apartment is so big and nice. Well, compared to Hachiōji it is anyway hahaha you could probably fit the Hachiōji apartment in mom and dads bedroom. And it's super old. But I liked it! It was just funny walking into the Kamiooka apartment on Thursday and having a little bit of a shock hahaha. It's also above a karaoke place so expect great things from me when I get home. (jk. I don't think I'm allowed to go to
karaoke places😔)

General conference definitely isn't the same in Japanese but it was still good to sit and read the talks and be able to look up and see the faces of those who were talking. This conference was soo good! Elder Yamashita is basically the cutest human being and I loved his talk! I had a few other favorites as well but his was 👍🏻👍🏻

Scripture time!!
Matthew 17:20, Matthew 20:28, Matthew 23:11-12,
Alma 12:9, Alma 15:10, Alma 16:20, Alma 17:10, Alma 21:9&16
Please enjoy😊

Honesty hour. I'm not going to lie. Sometimes I wonder why I am here. Living in Japan. With a Japanese girl. Trying and failing to speak Japanese. It's so hard. But it's so worth it. Every day during our morning study I think about how wonderful it is that I get to study the scriptures every day and then go out and try and teach people about it. What a marvelous work! It's a hard work but it's a good work. People look at me like I'm crazy when I try to talk to them but it's okay!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

--フィッシュバーン姉妹

This is Ichikawa Shimai. She wanted to meet with us before I left and
she is so cute and so nice! She even brought us treats! Her daughter is
also the bomb diggity and just got back from the Kobe mission!

Saying goodbye to my mother, ポーター 姉妹😭 

Transfer daaaaaaay

Tanimoto 姉妹 made me dinner😂😂😂😂😂

Grape juice gives me hope

We had grape juice at a members house last night and I'm currently sipping on the bottle I just bought while grocery shopping. It's reminding me that I may be in Japan working hard but I can still enjoy the little things. Like grape juice.

Anywho.

This week was kind of a blur. Really. I'm trying to remember specifics and it's real hard. So this might be a shorter email.

We always teach eikaiwa on Wednesdays and this week was no different except Sister Porter went to Takao and taught there while I stayed in Hachiōji. We went on member splits and I had the privilege of going with Yamauchi Shimai. I love me some Yamauch. She is so funny. She acts like a sophomore girl talking to senior boys and I find it hilarious. She's also easily like 60. She's the bomb😂

Thursday/Friday we went on splits again with the sisters in Kofu. But this time I got to stay in Hachiōji and be with Sister James. She's so cute. I love her! She's only a transfer two so we did some wonderful bean chan dendō hahaha but really.. On Friday we had an appointment with a less active and we were freaking out. Hard core. But we tried our best and ended up talking to her for two hours. She's had some pretty rough things happen this past year and just really needed someone to listen to her. So we talked to her about prayer and how God is always listening and He hears HER prayers and HER prayers are just as powerful as ours are. She was shocked to hear that and that made me kind of sad to realize she didn't know that. She didn't know that she could talk to her Heavenly Father and that He really does listen and care. I'm so glad we decided to teach her that. It was a huuuugeeeeeee miracle that Sister James and I were able to understand most of what was going on. The gift of tongues is real!!!

Long story short: Thursday before splits a random girl walked into the church, knocked on the door of the room we were in with a member, said she went to church in Utah when she was on a home stay, wanted to learn more, and had read up to 1 Nephi 8. WHAT THE!? The Lord puts prepared people in your path (or I guess literally brings them to you)! Her name is Hikari chan, which means light. She is theeee best. Oh yes. I very much like her.

Okay. Now the bad news... We got transfer calls on Saturday (isn't that crazy? I have like 4 more days of my first transfer and then I'm a transfer two!). I'm leaving Hachiōji😭😭😭😭 I'm going to Kamiooka! I'm super excited but so sad to be leaving Hachiōji and Sister Porter. My new companion will be.... TANIMOTO SHIMAI. YES. My new companion is Nihonjin. Yes, I'm terrified. I've heard she's SO nice but Nihongo is her first language and it isn't even one of my languages at this
moment so... Little worried for that.. But it'll be good! So on Thursday I will say goodbye to Hachiōji and hello to Kamiooka. All the members keep telling me they're going to write President Warnick and tell him to transfer me back😂😂 I seriously love them with all my heart💕

We had a killer shokuji last night. I won't bore you with the details but we played a game where you had to draw and with my limited drawing abilities, I think it's safe to assume I did not win. BUT everyone loved my interpretation of Mario so I think I'm the real winner🏅

We got to watch the women's session of conference buuuut it was all in Japanese.. So I read all of those talks and am just hoping when we get to watch it next week it'll be in English hahaha a girl can only dream! But I hope you all enjoyed conference and had some good experiences! From what I've heard so far it was a good weekend!

SCRIPTURES!!!🎉
Mosiah 24:21-22, Mosiah 27:29, Alma 2:28, Matthew 8:10&17, Matthew 12:30, Matthew 13:9, Matthew 14:27

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.
愛しています！！！
--フィッシュバーン姉妹

Nakazawa Family shokuji✌🏻️ 

Walking around Tama

Classic selfie from Sister Porter and I. You're welcome.

Yamauchi Shimai!!!! She is seriously SO funny😂

What really happens during Sunday
night conference calls

O-hayo konnichi bonwa!

3 months! I have been a missionary for over three months now!
WHAT THE EVEN IS THAT!?
So crazy.

Anywho.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO ELIZA (Chinese middle name I can never remember) LIN!! 20 YEARS OLD TODAY🎉🎉🎉

Also, I would like everyone to know that I love Hachiōji and I'm never leaving.

President Warnick closed the Takao sisters and now Sister Porter and I get the privilege of technically having two areas👍🏻it's slightly stressful.

Since we're working in Takao now we got to go teach eikaiwa there on Wednesday. Which was great! We taught the kids eikaiwa and got to talk to some new students from the advance class who are interested in learning more about the gospel!!! YAAAAAAAAS. We're actually going to the Warnick's family home evening with one of them tonight so yay😊

Thursday I got to go to Kofu! I went on splits with my STL, Sister Watson, and it was soooo fun. I rode a bike. My bum was real sore after that day and I was absolutely awful at it but I did it! I'm just real happy no one from home was there to witness that hahaha. Kofu is beautiful. It takes about 2 hours by train to get there from Hachiōji and everyone always teases that if you transfer to Kofu, you've been banished. It's so far from anything and anyone. But it was a great day filled with sharing the gospel and giving myself diabetes. There's this thing that apparently missionaries love here. It's called a supa kuupa. You take melon pan, hollow it out like a bread bowl, put vanilla ice cream and a black thunder (which is basically the best candy ever and I need to send some home for y'all), and then put the top back on. I almost died from the amount of sugar I consumed in that moment but it was delicious and I do not regret it. So yes, mom, I'm being very healthy👍🏻 Sister Watson also made me talk to people and start conversations on the train by myself and it was terrifying. My Japanese is real bad, folks. Real bad. No one ever understands me. It's like I'm speaking Haleyian again. SO BAD.

Friday was an adventure. Sister Watson and I woke up at 5:55 (after having only like maybe 3 hours of sleep due to the poor condition of the futon I was using😂) and left for Hachiōji at 6:45 to be back in time for me to be interviewed by President Warnick at 9:45. After our interviews, Sister Porter and I got to go to Tokyo! Like real Tokyo. Shinjuku, to be exact. So I was all over Japan on Friday haha.

Saturday we had a stake blitz in Tama, where Elder Tomita is from!! I actually met his parents! They say thank you for feeding him and taking care of him! During the blitz it was POURING rain. And we had a goal of giving out 74 Books of Mormon in about an hour and a half. I don't think we got the goal but we tried our best and considering the rain, I think we did great! I got to go on splits with Sister Watkins, who is just so funny and happy about everything, and Sister Suzuki, who is Nihonjin and probably the nicest person I've ever met. She's on transfer 12 so she only has one more and that makes me real sad. She is seriously the best. That hour I spent with her was my favorite!

I've talked about the members here in Hachiōji before but I just can't stop! They are the greatest people! We always have shokuji's (meals) with them pretty much every Sunday and usually at least one other dinner every week which is crazy for Japan haha. This week we were lucky enough to have three shokuji's! Last night we went to the Tsukada's for dinner. They're this cute old couple who I just adore. They're actually the bishops in-laws so his whole family came. It was just them and the missionaries and our Chinese friend Choyo who comes to everything hahaha. I love these shokuji's because it's the most normal I feel. Just chilling with some good people eating some good food. I LOVE being a missionary, but it's nice to feel like a real person sometimes haha. It's a weird thing to try and explain haha.

Our investigators are so frustrating! We have some really promising people but EVERYONE in Japan works so darn hard and never has time for anything. So we never get to meet with anyone. It's okay, though. We're still trying our hardest and trying to show the Lord we won't give up! The work is hastening but that hastening requires effort on our part!

Everyone's favorite part of the email: SCRIPTURES🎉
D&C 50: 40-46; D&C 138:59; Mosiah 1:6; Mosiah 7:19; Mosiah 12:27; Mosiah 15:8; Mosiah 18:30; Mosiah 20:11(this one talks about dragons. They're real).
I hope y'all enjoy those. I do.

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.
--フィッシュバ-ン姉妹

Also, one of the Elders in my district didn't believe me when I told him I once received a "Little Miss Sass Pants" award. Jokes on him. It's in my room. He also asked me what dominate race dad was because he looks Mexican and said Miranda looks Mexican too. In that moment all I could think about was convincing one of Miranda's boyfriends in high school we were half Mexican😂😂

This is what happens when you tell 18-20 year olds
to teach an English conversation class 

District meeting

A nice selfie for y'all while we were walking to the church

Cutest little girl ever sharing a scripture with us after a shokuji with her family💕  

Happy Half Birthday to Me🎉

Minami 姉妹!! Isn't she so cute! I love her😊

Hello, my beloved family.

This week was definitely interesting. Don't worry, it was a good week overall, just not what I expected it to be.

I know every week I tell you all I'm homesick, and that's true. I am. Very. But I hope you also know that it's a weird type of homesickness. I miss you all SO much. I also really miss my mountains. But I don't want to be home right now. I want you all to be here in Japan with me, experiencing this all with me. That's how I am feeling right now. That and 15 months seems FOREVER away. But daijobu desu. Subete wa yoshii.

This week really was a good week, though. We didn't have any crazy or exciting things happen. It was just a solid week. My feet hurt at the end of almost every day so there's room for improvement but at the same time, I'm happy😊 we also reached a pretty high goal we set for ourselves one day so 👍🏻👍🏻 to us!!

Our potential investigator list is forever long. Seriously. There's people in there from over a year ago who haven't been contacted. So hopefully some of those people will become investigators! Buuuut our actual investigators right now are maybe 2. We think one might have dropped us but we're not real sure about that.. So yes, lots of work needs to be done here in Hachiōji. BRING IT.

Yesterday we had a "Chinese Night" (S/O to my Chinese BFF Liza Lin✌🏻️) and it was great fun. We invited every Chinese person we could find. Literally. Everyone brought food and we had a few good Chinese foods and everything. One of the members here is from China so he planned the whole thing and talked only in Mandarin. So everyone was as confused during those two hours as I am all day long. We were finally equal in some sense! But anywho, he shared his testimony and his conversion story and it was so cool to listen to. We also watched the "Because of Him" video in Chinese and that video is the bomb.com no matter what language you watch it in. I highly recommend it. President and Sister Warnick came as well since Sister Warnick speaks Mandarin and she shared her testimony too. We also had one of our investigators come!! Her name is Nomoto San and she's from China, married to a Japanese man. I think I've talked about her before. But she was so happy to be able to talk to sister Warnick and other Chinese speakers. It was great😊

Also, I'm going to start using Facebook soon so if you post anything about my blog or anything like that, please don't tag me in it! There's a million rules we have to follow for it. Kinda lame but I totally get why. So yes, you'll see my face pop up on your timeline again soon enough!

Weekly weird thing about Japan: 1) they only sell milk by the quart. QUART. Sister Porter and I together in a week half of what I drank by myself in a week at Utah State. It's killing me. Bread comes in packages of 4, 6, or 8 slices only. Lame. And they don't waste ANY of the meat here. It's nasty.

SCRIPTURES
Jacob 5:36, 41, 59; D&C 33:8-10; D&C 101:16; Jacob 6:5; Jacob 7:25; D&C 135:3, 4, 6
Also, please read the talk "Faith is Not by Chance, but by Choice" by Elder Andersen from October 2015.

Shorter email this week because sometimes you don't feel like talking all that much about your repetitive life haha but I love you all!! And I hope you never forget that!

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

愛しています!!!
--フィッシュバ-ン姉妹

Fun fact: I opened my call 6 months ago😱

Here in Japan, they are VERY superstitious
of the number four. Idk why.

Our new nice friends from Nepal👍🏻 that food
was SO good. And they're way nice. Really.

I could fit a small island off Italy under this umbrella