Covering SIX wards in Saitama!

This picture was taken at a recent Shimai Conference. It shows all the sister missionaries in the Japan Tokyo Mission with Sister Albrecht, the mission president's wife, in the center. Emily is kneeling in the front row, red sweater.

The Church has approved a website created by the Japan Tokyo Mission to advertise their English classes. Check it out: www.goeigo.org or in English: www.goeigo.org/en

11 Jan 2010

Hey, I just looked at the new eikaiwa website, too. They put the wrong date down for the Adachi Eikaiwa! Yadda! (That means "oh no" in Japanese, roughly).

Things are different as a stake missionary. For example, we don't ride our bikes at all. It's trains or walking. Consequently my back has been way up there on the pain scale lately. I haven't written in my journal 'cause it hurts my back to write and I am just plain pooped sometimes. We get home past curfew most days. We plan and eat, at times, on the train. President is a little concerned that we don't get all our study time in and get home late. He is also concerned about the cost a bit. We spent about 80 USD in a week on trains. We send in a reimbursement request in order to get the money back. We are lucky to ride the trains because it snowed today! Well, it was rain trying to be snow. I kind of like the really cold rather than the semi-cold though. We rode our bikes today to the city hall so I could change the address on my foreigner's card. At the end a guy came and tried to get us to sign up for insurance. I guess some elders did it a while ago, but the church is the one paying for us. Anyhow, it is a bit of a mess. We didn't sign up. We need to do some paperwork and luckily will meet the office people tomorrow cause we have a zone conference. The older guy who was trying to get us to buy the insurance didn't smile even once so that was a bit intimidating.


On Wednesday we visited a referral from an elder from last transfer. She speaks Spanish and is from Peru. She had wanted a Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and D&C triple, so the elder had bought her a nice leather one from the temple with his own money. We went to visit her and found it was for her Mormon, but less active in church, husband who was in jail. He had wanted to repent or something along those lines. She wanted us to come and deliver it to him there. Everything must be done in Japanese at the jail so guards can understand. Our Zone leader (it is their area) knew a man who he had recently baptized in a nearby area, a man who spoke English, Japanese, and... Spanish. So, the elders are going to go with Abraham, that guy. It'll be good cause he can communicate to Rina, the wife, yet understand and speak Japanese. The mom, Rina, has an almost 1 year old boy and works at night. She barely understands Japanese. She was falling asleep when we went to visit her so we didn't get much of a spiritual message across and it was really hard to communicate. My companion also studied Spanish, but both she and I are limited now because we are out of practice.

In the evening on Wednesday we went to SPM. Stake something or other meeting. It is once a month. The sisters don't go, but since we are stake sisters we were invited. Shimomiya Shimai has been once before. It is for the Zone leaders and Pres Albrecht, and the Stake presidency (Stake presidency meeting?) Anywho, my companion talked about the ups and downs of working on the stake level. The stake pres, Brother Dorff (he is American) talked about how it might be good to have another set of Shimai, and split the wards 3 and 3 between them. Pres Albrecht talked about the cost of our traveling. So, next transfer is up for grabs, but it might change to 4 sisters.



Thursday we met with three less active members. One was a woman who married the America missionary who baptized her, but he had a problem with pornography ad is now inactive and they are divorced. She is really neat and speaks fluent English. We also visited Eba Shimai. She speaks Spanish, from Peru, was once married to a Japanese man but has since divorced. She has a young daughter who we are meeting with and will be baptized this transfer! The mom sewed her baptism dress. I thought that was pretty cool. In the evening Shimomiya Shimai's mom's friend bought by some food etc. The friend had met her mom at the Temple. Shimomiya Shimai's parents live in within the Tokyo mission. There is a train she can take that goes straight to where she lives. Whoa. She even has a picture of her working in from of where her dad works, when she was in Yokohama. Whoa.

ON the 8th, we did a split. I went with a girl named Amelia, a 16 (i think) year old Australian exchange student. She is in Japan for a month and a half and will go home soon. She only had high heels so that was tough. We streeted and visited a less active (which took a long time to find, and I felt bad about that) and got kicked out of housing an apartment complex. A man said that we couldn't do door to door stuff. He didn't even smile when he talked to us, kinda of intimidating, if you will. Amelia's ancestors are partly from China and Malaysia so people tend to think she is part Japanese and can understand Japanese. She doesn't know Japanese, but is learning it. For lunch we had burritos. Yes, burritos! With tortillas! We made it in our apartment. In the evening we went to a thing at Urawa church called Outreach. It used to be sports and then institute, but institute is on a break until April so less people come. We played badmiton and volleyball with a soft air ball (which I didn't lie because I do not like volley ball, but badmiton was so much fun). Oh yeah, in the morning we didn't have milk so we rode our bikes for about 3 minutes and bought some. And, the funniest story of the day happened on the train. My comp and I sat next to two grandmas. One said to Shimomiya Shimai that I was pretty and then... "You have a good looking boyfriend" So funny! She thought I was a guy. I had my hat on. Shimomiya Shimai started laughing. The lady felt bad and said, in English "Excuse me. I am sorry." So, she mustered the English that she did know and said that to me. So cute and really funny.

Saturday we met with a woman who is a referral. She has a son who is 7 but has something wrong with his body so he looks five and his skin is not healthy looking and his hair is thin. Well, the RS pres of that ward came with her two boys (3 and 9--i think 9). Shimomiya Shimai stacked up some paper cups with pictures on them to represent how Christ built his church. The 3 year old said, in Japanese, "So, when are we going to knock it down?" So funny! Well, when the apostasy part came, we took one cup away at a time, from the bottom, and he was happy when it fell. Before the lesson we did a quick English lesson and afterward we ate spaghetti. I was having a hard time being positive and smiley 'cause my back hurt. Later that day we passed out eikaiwa fliers at an eki for like 10 minutes. A little girl, probably age 5, came up to ME and took one. So cute! You know, usually people avoid those who are passing out stuff, but the girl came to me! There was also a party thing at Urawa Church, the stake center. We ate oshiruko. That is mochi with anko. It wasn't a ward activity, but mainly SA and people ike that.


Sunday we went to church at the one by our apartment-- Fijimi Kawagoe ward. There was a baptism of the elder's investigator before church, at 8 am. I swear the elder was chewing gum when he performed the baptism. Then we had dendo chosei shukai, the meeting about missionary work, at 9. My comp was stressed and upset and etc etc so she started crying and had to leave in the middle. After church Lin came and did the clean check for our apartment. Lin is Chinese. She is 21. She got baptized recently. She has been in Japan for about 2 years to study Japanese and is going back to China next month. She speaks fluent English. She reminds me of Bonnie Rosell, if I had to choose someone. Really nice and a people person, like that. She wants to serve a mission. I wish you could meet her when she comes, but she will have gone home. Sad! She said that, in China, people eat Gyoza (known as pot stickers) for BREAKFAST, not dinner or lunch. Whoa. We went to Li's house for dinner. She is a less active, also Chinese. Last time when the sisters went, she started drinking alcohol or something not good like that, when they were there, saying that she needed to because she was sad. When we wet this time, we found two empty bottles. There was a not good feeling about her apartment. I found it hard to concentrate because of that. She said her body and stomach hurt. She took two packs of some kind of powder and one set of pills while we were there. She is in poor condition. We committed her to keep the word of wisdom and Shimomiya Shimai asked if she could toss out the alcohol bottles on our way out. She said yes. It felt weird to carry those out. I am really worried about her. She is thinking about going back to China for 10 days or so and we think it is a good idea, to clear her mind.

Well, I have about 5 more minutes. Monday I learned from a 14 year old girl we are teaching (who is getting baptized next month!!!) that she was taught to avoid fruit juice and drink tea. I thought that was interesting. In the evening, coming back after the day was done, a guy we didn't know tapped my comp on the shoulder and as if she wanted to eat some KFC he had in his hand. He was really creepy. I said that we ate already and that he could eat it. We walked quickly to another area on the train platform. We were on our way home from the church, at FHE. The elders had found a 30 year old or so guy on the street with a guitar and brought him in. He gave an hour concert and was SOOO good. He even sang Black bird singing in the dead of night.. and feelin' groovy.... He had a gorgeous voice. So talented. He has played since he was 18, has a real natural gift for it. The RS President made everyone dinner. SO cool. It is FHE for the SA. We watched the 5 min or so Finding Happiness video. At the end .... hey, well, my time is up. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I have probably three more things so say.

At the end a guy said before he joined the church he was sad and wanted to commit suicide but the church changed his life. Another girl said she built a good relationship with her parents and heard her father say thank you for the first time in her life.


Well, well, I must go. Long story short I am stressed and don't really know what is going on. I dunno how I will ever learn the trains. I hope my back feels better. We speak TONS of English, which is maybe not so good so we are going to focus on Japanese. It is kind of fun to speak English though, of course, cause I have voice my self clearly since it is, well, my native language.


love you.