Week 11 Pictures

E-mail 1/5/2014

Hello my amazing, wonderful family!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The weather has been warmer and I'm bundling up with the s[c]arves and gloves you sent me--thank you thank you! Orgill shimai [Sister Orgill] and I also love the pita chips. I'll send you a great picture of that, haha. :)

Oshogatsu [New Year’s] was fun! We went whipped our apartment into shape and went to a shrine with 2 potential investigators so it was fun! But the dendo [proselyting] was really really slow. :( But now that the holiday is over hopefully that will pick up!!

Tuesday was O-soji [Cleaning]! Japan's tradition is to DEEP ULTRA clean their apartments on New Year's Eve before the celebrations so that's what we did! It was awesome! I think our apartment is the oldest in the mission and therefore it was in need of some love and lots of trashbags (to throw out all the random stuff past missionaries left there.) It was so great. The kitchen was overflowing with garbage bags. I think I've finally adjusted to how small everything is in Japan though because after all the garbage bags were gone our kitchen seemed so spacious, haha. It's probably only 10 feet by 6 feet.

Wednesday was New Years! Woohoo! Our special schedule was to go to a jinja [shrine] with a non-member or less active and to read all of 3rd Nephi and set goals. So that's what we did! We had our normal morning schedule and go ready, and then in personal study I started on 3rd Nephi, in companionship study we read several chapters aloud together, and then we kept on reading at our own pace. I kept reading until about 2pm when I finished! Woohoo! I loved it. 3 Nephi and the Savior coming and the 3 Nephites--I love that book of scripture. Then I set goals for the New Year. Well, some of them are more like aspirations, but they're what I hope for this new year!

1. Write in my journal everyday

2. LOVE the people

3. LOVE my companions

4. LOVE Japan

5. Christ-like attributes--work on and study one a month. (Faith, Hope, Charity, Knowledge, Patience, Humility, Diligence, Obedience)

6. Make my bed everyday

7. Clear off my desk every night

8. SINCE [sincere?] prayer--every single one

9. By March, be comfortable understanding Japanese

10. By June, be comfortable speaking Japanese

11. Keep in good contact with family and friends

12. Start a conversation with a Nihongin [Japanese person] everyday

13. Once a transfer, write my testimony in my journal

14. Look up all the scriptures in PMG [Preach My Gospel]

That's them! Do you have any more for me?

After that we prepped and left for the church to meet up Kaneko shimai [Sister Kaneko] and some of her friends and we all walked/bussed to the shrine together. It was so huge! So pretty! It was kind of raining but not very dark out so it wasn't too cold and paper lanterns lit the path of lots and lots of stairs lined with little market-type stands of food up to the shrine. There were lots of people! Kaneko shimai said that people believe a God lives in the godhouse of the shrine and people come to pray for a good new year from him. Shizuka-chan said she was going to pray for true love and happiness this year. I said I was going to pray for help with Japanese. (Not sure what that says about me...)

When you get up to the actual shrine/godhouse there's a row of bells with colorful ropes in front of this kind of trough (for the coins I think). When it was your turn you'd throw your coin in, ring the bell twice, bow twic[e], cap [clap?] twice, pray, and bow again. Then, if you want, you can go buy a fortune. If it's good you keep it, if not you tie it to a tree so it doesn't come true. We all did the prayer (I don't know who everybody else prayed to but I just prayed to Heavenly Father :D) and I'm pretty sure I messed up the whole bowing/belling/clapping thing. Whoops! I'm a gaigin [foreigner]! :) Then we went back to the church for dinner and Kaneko and her friends left and we had district meeting. Kim chorro [Elder Kim] talked about Unity and told this story about a bland [blind] man and a lame man who travel together in safety because they were each other's eyes and feet. Then we came home and I got a card from the Greensboro Activity Girls and from Mom! Loved it! The card was adorable! Thank you! Mom, I LOVED your letter. Thank you for the photocopies from your journal--that was so special. But what a cliff hanger! What happened with the Book of Mormon? You'll have to keep updating me. :)

Thursday, we tried doing area book dendo but no one answered our calls! (That was actually pretty funny because Orgill shimai and I had done all this prep so I could try and do some of the calls but then no one even answered, haha). So we baked cookies and dropped them off at our Q and member's houses. I also got the package from you guys that day!!! SO nice!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I have felt the strength of your prayers and the warmth from my new socks and mittens. :) Thank you!!! Tyler, I've been reading the book you sent me and I love it. Thank you! In scripture study that day, (Mosiah 23:21-22, 24:10-17) I really felt like God was speaking to me. I knew that he'd heard my prayers and will helkp me so that I can stand as a witness of him hearafter, and know of a surety, that God DOES visit his people in their affliction. I just need to trust him with faith, patience, and hope, and he will bless me. :)

Friday we went to this Indian restaurant to try and visit a PI [potential investigator]. It was so yummy! The actual restaurant was really cool, with Indian music playing, and the food was delicious and the server was from India and spoke like 7 different languages.

Our ward is made up of a few young couples, a good number of families kind of like ours, and a number of middle-aged/older couples and lots of grandmas. They're hilarious. Geographically our area is really small, but it seems HUGE to me. There's a TON of people. Since we have so many missionaries in our ward (9 to be exact) we split our ward into 6 groups and rotate every week. We try to visit everyone in our group (they're divided geographically) to strengthen their testimonies and to help them do dendo. District meeting is every week and it's really great. It's all in Japanese. We have an English lesson, a Japanese lesson, a spiritual thought, and district updates/announcements and training from Kim chorro (the district leader). It's really great. Since I'm in training, we have 2 hours of companion study every morning and we follow the 12 week training booklet. We mogi [roleplay] certain lessons, watch certain clips from the district [The District, a video series used to train missionaries], and read certain sections in PMG. It's a great program. It's really nice.

Saturday had dinner with the Hiyashi couple. It was really awsome. He's not a member, but their daughter is on a mission and he has a really good image of the church and they've been reading the Book of Mormon together. During the spiritual thought I could tell he felt the Spirit. And he loved me and Orgill shimai, haha. Oh, and we also randomly got Christmas cards from the First Presidency that day. Cool. :)

Sunday was fast Sunday! I fasted for Orgill shimai and I to have a great companionship, the gift of tounges, strength, for our kyudoshas [investigators] and LAs [less-actives] and to be able to get one new kyudosha this transfer--which ends in a couple weeks--can you believe it?

As we were riding back from visiting investigators on Sunday I looked down the hill out at the city of Sendai and I was filled with love and gratitude for Sendai and Japan. It was beautiful.

Funny stories from the week:

Orgill shimai was in Kirby shimai's [Sister Kirby’s] room and I was coming back from the kitchen to our room and I get to Kirby shimai's door, about to go through it, when Orgill shimai turns around and says "Hey, let's plan!" all excited--and shuts the door. Then, realizing this might've been confusing, she opens back up the door, points to the futon room, says "you go that way" and closes the door again. So I busted up laughing, and she realized that what she did totally made no sense and started cracking up too. Hilarious.

Also, my bike bell is broken, so whenever I hit a bump (which is about, you know, every 2 or 3 seconds) it rings and so everyone stares at this blonde gaigin, bouncing down the street on her orange bicycle, her bike bell ringing to announce her prescence as she rolls along. I'm sure my sanity is regularly questioned.

Candice have you joined the ranks of the benders and discovered your element yet? Lauren, way to go you basketball star! Uncle Peter's family sent me a Christmas package with American food and peanut butter! Loved it! Mom's going to be a fancy gardener.

Thank you all so much for the emails and letters and packages and prayers!!! I am so grateful for you and love you all so much!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Have a wonderful week. :)

LOVE YOU!!!!!

Love,

Your missionary,

Bellows shimai :)

P.S. Sister Rasmussen said on Sunday: "If you are worthy of a temple recommend, then you are celestial kingdom material." Loved that. :)

P.P.S. Also for new missionaries to learn: How to give and recieve compliments, and how to thank people. Could you forward those two lists from my last email to Bishop Williams?

Week 10-ish Pictures

E-mail 12/30/2013

My wonderful family

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! I'm so glad we got to Skype! I loved seeing all your lovely happy faces. It was so fun!!!!!! You all seemed so happy and to be having a proper Bellows party. :) LOVED IT! It was so fun. :) This week has been CRAZY! And AWESOME!

Christmas Eve we had lunch with Tota shimai [Sister Tota], the one I sent pictures of. She's this adorable 84 year old, 4 foot tall, hilarious grandma who is just so sweet. While we were eating she said to me something really complicated and then "Sometimes you have no idea what I'm saying don't you." Me: Ah, so desu ne! [Oh, it’s so!] (All the shimai [sisters] knew I had no idea what she was saying to me so they all died trying not to laugh and give me away. But Tota's pretty smart so she'd already figured it out, haha.) From that we went to District Meeting--which was a real spiritual uplift. Favorite thougths: Is dendo [proselyting] fun? You must ask and do all you can and ask. You cannot move mountains by yourself. So when the mountains do move, you KNOW it is the Lord. It was really good. From District Meeting we went caroling with a couple members and the choro tripanionship [companionship with three elders] to some of their LA [less-actives]/investigators. After that we came back to the church for a Christmas Eve dinner with Date shimai [Sister Date] and a bunch of people. It was SO nice. I finally met the Canadian, Nicolas (from Montr[e]al) who does programming in Kamisugi for a Japanese companion [I think she meant “company”]. He's fluent in English, French, and Japanese. Pretty amazing. Date shimai shared the lyrics to a Christmas song as a part of her Christmas thought. I think it's called "Do You Have Room for the Savior."

They journeyed far, a weary pair,

They sought for shelter from the cold night air.

Some place where she could lay her head,

Where she could give her Babe a quiet bed.

Was there no room? No corner there?

In all the town a spot someone could spare?

Was there no soul to come to their aid?

A stable bare was where the family stayed.

Do you have have room for the Savior,

And do you seek Him anew?

Have you place for the one who lived and died for you?

Are you as humble as a shepherd boy,

Or as wise as men of old?

Would you have come that night?

Would you have sought the light?

Do you have room?

A star arose, a wonderous light;

A sign from God this was the Holy NIght.

And yet so few would go to see the Babe

Who came to rescue you and me.

This Child Divine is now a King.

The gift of life to all the world He brings.

And all mankind He saves from doom.

But on that night for Him there was no room.

Wednesday was Christmas!!!!!!! We all woke up and opened our presents, like a good old American Christmas! (Minus the waking up at6:30am. That's not very American.) You might've seen my epic photo of me opening my presents in coat, scarf, and gloves. It was a cold morning. :D It was so fun!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE the presents you sent me--it was a very happy Christmas. :) And I got the cutest package from Jessa! It was stuffed to the brim with all my favorite things--she kind of knows me crazy well ;)--and had adorable labels on all the wrapped presents. So cute! Incredibly thoughtful. Loved it! I'm way excited about my pens, pencils, notebooks, food, and bathrobe. Woohoo! I love office supplies!!!

After opening presents we had time for a little study and then we left for the Charity Concert for the 2011 Tsunami Victims. (We were volunteer ushers.) It was so funny! We were the youngest people there by about 30 years so the entertainment was geared toward that generation--Kabuki and all that. We had fun. And we went and caroled with Date shimai afterward and then had Eikaiwa [English class]. It was a merry and busy Christmas!

After skype Thursday, we went to the Monma house for a delicious curry udon noodle soup. Delicious! Hilarious moment of that day: Orgill shimai [Sister Orgill] and I were street contacting at this stoplight and this young guy asks us who we work for. But Orgill shimai hears "Do you have husbands?" and starts telling him about how we're single. DIED. SO FUNNY! The guy about fell off his bike he was so shocked and he started going the opposite direction than us. Hehehehehe. I also got the cutest Christmas card from the Freemans that day. Loved it!

I think I mentioned that I put Moses 7:18 and My Purpose in the Nihongo [Japanese] order in English to help me remember it better. It's pretty funny. Take a look:

My purpose--My purpose, people to Christ's presence to come (!) invite thing is. This sake to me, Jesus Christ and Christ's Atonement believe faith, repentence, baptism, Holy Ghost's gift recieve thing, end until endure thing, through, they restored was gospel can recieve (!) help's is.

Moses 7:18--Lord that people Zion called. They heart one, thought one, righteous in live from is.

Pretty cool right? :)

Friday, we had lu[n]ch at Muto shimai's [Sister Muto’s] house. It was yummy. The desert was some sort of bean thing with chewy white sweet stuff. Dai ski [I like it]. From there we biked up a mountain to one of our investigator's house (she's been ignoring us). We talked to her but she doesn't really want to meet with us anymore. 

That day I read in Enos 1:27 and loved that example of someone who had such a real relationship with Christ that he looked forward to the day that he would see the Savior and be judged of Him with happiness and longing. I loved that.

Advice for Future Missionaries:

·  DO NOT put things off until your mission (memorizing scriptures, the language, etc.); you will not have time.

·  You are in the MTC to learn how to study - not learn a langauge.

·  Be worthy. If you are the MTC will nourish you. If you're not the MTC will be very uncomfortable because we talk about worthiness everyday there. Unsure? Write down every little thing you think you might still need to repent of--make a list, make 2 copies, get an interview and go over it with your Bishop. One of my friends did this and said it was an incredible experience.

·  Any time between your call and your report date is PRECIOUS. There's a lot of focus on the stuff you have to get--don't fall into that. Study like crazy. It will help you so much in the MTC.

If you're learning a language, ask your MTC teachers to teach you to say in your new language:

·  How to pray like a native (people tell me I sound "cute")

·  Testify

·  LDS terms

·  Missionary terms

·  How to street contact

·  How to door approach

·  How to introduce yourself

·  Feelings (so you can tell if people are feeling the Spirit)

·  Name (how to spell it, explain where it comes from)

·  Family (size, brothers/sisters, missions)

·  Why you came on a mission

Maybe that'll help Riley a little bit. :)

There's this little bakery here called Ishiiya that we just love. We go there about every other week. It's so nice to eat bread! Bread is really good--and cheap!--here. Bread and eggs. (I eat those a lot...) It's so fresh and yummy. They even have a glass etching of a famous picture of Christ upstairs. My favorite roll from there has cheese, ham, and a while [white?] potato inside. Yummy!

Saturday was INCREDIBLE. That morning we got up and looked out the window and it was MAJORLY snowing. (I promptly put on tights, leggings, and 3 pairs of socks. Miraculously I still fit into my boots.) We'd planned the night before to go to Miagi-dai (about an hour north of Kamisugi by bus) for the day. The copious snow worried us a little (would we be able to get there? Would we be able to get back?) but we acted in faith and boarded the bus to Miagi-dai. Miracles happened! We found a strong PI [potential investigator] while looking for a bathroom and offering to shovel. We visited 5 members and every single one of them was home and let us talk to them. And when we knocked on our last member's door we hear (in Japanese) "Come in!" So we open the door and the Hiyasakas say "Oh, there you are. Come in! We're having dinner. President Rasmussen is here." So we end up at dinner with them, sitting down next to President and Sister Rasmussen. Their whole extended family is there--all of them having served missions. It was the yummiest dinner and they were all crazy good at Engish and Sister Rasmussen offers a ride home and Rasmussen Kaicho [President Rasmussen] sends us back out (we sang "Silent Night" for the family to say thank you first) and while we're knocking doors before riding home with the Rasmussens, we find a super strong PI family who want to joint with their LDS neighbors. AMAZING DAY.

While biking to church Sunday morning, Orgill shimai [Sister Orgill] biffed it; turned, hit ice, went flying, and landed with the bike on top of her. Ouch! She's okay, just bruised. Her biking confidence is still intact so no worries there. :) The Rasmussens were in our ward and Rasmussen kaicho talked in church. It was really cool to see/hear him speak Japanese--gives me hope that after I learn some I'll still have it in 30-40 years. :) It was way cool. And the entire 3rd hour was focused around the book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" which one of the Hiyasaka relations translated into Japanese with his students. Amazing!

Today we had lunch with the Sato family--so fun! I give the spiritual message and Orgill shimai was kind enough to translate my story for me and then I bore my testimony in Japanese. I really felt the Spirit. And the food was way yummy. :)

Our ward has 80-90 active members with a big range of ages, but not a whole lot of active YSAs [young single adults]. Most people know a scattering of English words, and a few served missions in the United States and speak really good English. Our apartment is pretty normal. I drew a floor map and took a picture for you. :) It's starting to get snowy here. Biking in the rain and snow is very slick and scary! We slow down a lot. There's a couple of mountains in our area where members live so there's a few hills for us to bike. ;) I'm starting to understand more of what people are saying, but sometimes there's 5 minutes or more where I understand absolutely nothing. Our ward mission leader is amazing! The District all hopes he'll be a mission president someday. I don't think we have any ward missionaries. Sister Orgill is very funny, and very obedient and has a great voice. She's got a way intense personality, but is very loving to the members. They like her a lot. They think she's hilarious. She plays violin and picked up the ukelele [ukulele] a couple transfers ago.

I'm so grateful for all the letters and emails and the Skype we got to do this week!

So excited to play those board games when I get back! What kind of puzzles did you get for Christmas? I love your gigantic puppy Lauren! Is he an airbender like Appa or a waterbender? Dad, I'm so excited to read Grandma and Grandpa's history! I want to read the Sandberg interview too! I think the Japanese love to sing but a lot of them also really love American songs. Candice, who did each of the gospels write to? I loved the pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Bellows. :) It was so fun to each about your Christmas! Was Kelsea there during Skype? When did she fly in? Did I miss her?

I love you all SOOOOOOOOO much!!!!!!!! You are amazing!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love,

Your missionary,

Bellows shimai :)

P.S. My goals: Write in my journal everyday, Learn 5 vocab every day, finish the Book of Mormon by Mother's day... any other ideas? I want to hear your goals too!

Week 9-ish Pictures

E-mail 12/22/2013

Hello my wonderful family!

I'm still in Japan! Can you believe it? This week has been majorly hilarous. And I'm second guessing all my spelling because the only time I see English is when I write it myself or read the scriptures. Whoops! I suppose it's the only way I'll learn Japanese!

Tuesday was Orgill Shimai's [Sister Orgill’s] 20th birthday! Boy, was it memorable. So after a normal day of dendo [proselyting] we went down to carol at the mall in English as a district and hand out Eikaiwa [English class] flyers and it was great, we all wore Santa Hats and people seemed to like it. So, we'd been there for a while when a blind gentleman comes over to us and yells at us in Japanese and then gets on his phone and starts calling people and walks away. A little confused, we pick a new song and start singing again and about 10 minutes later the police show up and start talking to the chorro [elders]. Not the shimai [sisters], just the chorro. (Our only nihongin [Japanese people] in our district are shimai and they tried talking to the officers but the officers just ignored them and talked to the chorro. Some of our chorro look Japanese and have really good Japanese so they might've thought they were Nihongin.) Long story short, we left the mall. We show up at the church later for DCM and there's a homeless gaigin [foreigner] there alone on the church phone talking to President Rasumussen. Apparently he'd had a really long and interesting talk with the APs. And the District Leader forgot Orgill shimai's birthday. And I got the most incredible package from Jess! It was the nicest, mind-blowing--I can't say enough about it! It was a memorable day, to say the least!

Wednesday we had a lovely mogi [roleplay] lesson with the Takakos family and a really fun activitiy that Nagaoka shimai [Sister Nagaoka] (a kyokaiin [member?]) planned. It waws [was] a dish decorating party and there were lots of members and nonmembers there and we made the cutest things! I'll have to send you a picture. It was really fun and natural dendo.

Thursday was kind of weird. First off, the phone that is our morning alarm got left outside so we all didn't wake up until 7:30 am. Whoops. Then we had a very strange lesson with a ward member... And only 3 people showed up for FHE [family home evening]... and it was rainy... it was just kind of a strange day, haha.

Friday, we had district meeting, had a ginger bread making activity with a ward member and one of our kyudosha [investigators], delivered thank you brownies, had weekly planning, and got really really wet! (It rained all day). District Meeting was all in Japanese. I'd been asked to give the spiritual thought. I wrote it all down beforehand and had Orgill shimai help me so my Japanese sounded REALLY good. Unfortunately then they thought I didn't need translatation during the district meeting. Whoops. Pro-pretender skills right there--so pro I preteneded myself out of a translator! Not my intention. Orgill shimai died laughing when we talked about it afterward. Actually, in that meeting we were told we're going to be taking CPR classes here--and I got really excited... until I realized that we're going to be taking them HERE... in Japanese... That's going to go great...

Saturday was the ward Christmas party! It was great! There were a lot of non-members so get did a lot of great dendo. I talked a lot to one of our fantastic Eikaiwa students. She's 14 and REALLY good at English. We played games, had lunch, did handbells (senkyoshi talent), had Santa-san [Santa] arrive and a live Nativity. There were a lot of strong PIs [potential investigators] there. Abe-san [Abe] (from Eikaiwa) was there too. The grandpa Orgill shimai and I sing to all the time. We're like his iPod. He LOVES music. Especially Celtic Women. And so do Orgill shimai and I. So that works out nicely. Afterward, we tried to pursuade him to come to church and he was so tempted but kept on telling us "no." The zone leaders just barely started teaching him. After that we had the Furukawa Christmas Dinner! American and Japanese food cooked by a Nihongin and a whole table full of it--it was amazing! I was overwhelmed with their generosity! And yes, we ate on the floor like proper Nihongin. :) Our fridge is stuffed to overflowing with delicious leftovers. :) And they've invited us back again! (Everyone in our district was there.)

Sunday, Abe-san came to church! Best day ever! He even came with the ward when we all went and caroled at a nursing home after church. (Orgill shimai and I sang a duet there). That was really cool. They had us all take our shoes off in this gigantic geinkan [like an anteroom] (like you would at any other apartment) and gave us all slippers to wear. There was one lady there who was 101 years old! She was so cute!

We have so many fun plans for this Christmas season! I can't wait to Skype you! We're going to have a really fun season. :)

Thank you all so much for the beautiful emails and letters and love and support!

I'm so glad life is doing so well! MERRY CHRISTMAS! Sounds like it's going to be a warm Christmas! So glad the Christmas program and recital went well! Have so much fun! Give the missionaries lots of referrals. ;)

I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Love,

Your missionary,

Bellows shimai :)

P.S. My thought:

Recently I've been pondering "why is prayer a commandment?" After that, I read 2 Nephi 4:35. If we want to have a relationship with God we must pray. God wants to help us. But because we have agency, recieving blessings is our choice. When we ask God for blessings it shows our trust in Him and our relationship with Him is strengthened. I am grateful for prayer.

P.P.S. Can you send me important dates for 2014 so I don't forget? Including U.S. holidays because they don't know those here...

P.P.P.S. Japanese fridges all have only one door but open from both sides. It's pretty incredible.

Candice I'm so excited for you! Lauren, I'm very excited about Christmas Earth. I don't think I'm going to recognize my family when we Skype in a few days. ;)

SO GLAD Riley's visa went through!!!!!!!