Weeks 15 & 16: I Cried in Front of a Stranger

It was snowing and we were happy!

Wow! Weird week! My MTC companion probably still has her eyebrows on fleek, so life goes on. Here in Japan, given the choice between a college-age person and an obaachan (grandma), I would choose the obaachan any day. Yesterday, we revisited this obaachan we had given a Book of Mormon to about four weeks prior to see if we could continue a religious discussion. Well, she slid open her door with the Book of Mormon in her hand and told us she hadn't read it and wanted to give it back. "I can't have a big book like this! The words are too small. I have no time. I'm an obaachan."  This was the beginning of a long discussion on who was going to keep the book. I could tell my comp was thinking we should have taken the book and left looooong ago. But I swear by being a crazy lil bean chan at all times and didn't want to walk away yet. Rejection is hard to swallow all day every day.
We said, "We'll take the book if you let us sing this church song ("I am a Child of God")."
And she said, "You mean I have to listen to you sing to give you the book?"
Long story short, we sang the song (without her being offended), and then there was a brief silence. Brown Shimai saw the obaachan lock eyes with me and start to push the book into my hands, which was kind of a long overdue transaction at this point and we all knew it was time to leave. So the obaachan started to give me the Book of Mormon, but then she took it back and held it to her chest, and Brown Shimai was way surprised. So she looked over to see what in the world was happening, and saw me crying for the first time ever. I was probably as freaked out as she was about it. And the obaachan said, "Akewatashita, akewatashita!" Which is to say, "I surrender!"
And then it started to rain, and I said, "The rain is getting in my eyes. I'm sorry!!!"
And she said, "Because you are crying, I will keep the book, but it will take me ten years to read it, ok??"
This whole conversation lasted about twenty minutes and then the obaachan came out of her house and waved goodbye in the pouring rain, clutching the Book of Mormon, smiling at us as we biked away.

Funny thing is that there is this stress test all new missionaries take, and earlier that day when I had taken it and gotten a green score, Brown Shimai had commented on how weirded out she was that I was so well-adjusted and calm with all the new changes happening in my life. She said, "All new missionaries cry! Why haven't you had a breakdown?" Later last night I had a breakdown. I guess getting asked how I am managing stress gets me stressed. Haha :P

I want to tell you about the biggest miracle I have had on my mission thus far (but that's not saying a lot is it?): we have two baptismal dates with these Filipino sisters! :D We discovered them when I was on exchanges last week with Hunt Shimai. We had decided on just this last row of apartments before biking back before curfew. We knocked on the far left door because it smelled like good food cooking. The woman answering the door spoke in English and told us she wanted us to come back, because she had met with a missionary two years ago that had been inviting her to church, but the communication had been lost somehow... turns out, she was still in contact with the missionary, but she was back in America and married two years ago. When Brown Shimai and I came again this week, we had a beautiful lesson, and they are so excited about baptism! One of them had almost been baptized when the other missionary had asked her two years ago, but now she feels actually ready. At the end of the lesson, they said,
Tris: "Thank you for coming and sharing the word of God with me. It's been a long time since I have felt this. "
Leena: "But weren't you studying the Bible everyday in your 7 day adventist school?"
Tris: "Yes, but I felt they were trying to convince me. Today you (looking at Brown Shimai) explained the scriptures so I could understand. And today as we read these scriptures, I felt you explained it so clearly so I understand not just with my head but with my heart."
I shared a story and after Leena smiled at me and said,
"That's why you're here! So you can share this with me."
I could be sent home tomorrow and feel as if my work here has been performed, because of the great spiritual joy I have felt from being with these two Filipino sisters who have such a strong faith in Jesus Christ and who are willing to be baptized on March 4, if they discover the Book of Mormon to be true. The work here is sweet. It feels like I got here just yesterday, but it's already been over a month!

The shimai-tachi in my apartment are the best! We've decided if each of us were flowers, this is how it would be:
Brown - cocoa plant
Mac - lavender
Hunt - daffodil
Rogers - snapdragon

Also princesses:
Brown - Anna from Frozen
Mac - Ariel from The Little Mermaid
Hunt - Belle from Beauty and the Beast
Rogers - Jasmine from Aladdin

Before I came to the apartment, when the Shimai would make this food called gouma pasta they would throw in whatever to enhance the flavor, including this clear liquid that made it taste "really fresh," but they had no clue what it was. Five weeks later... I'm here and Brown Shimai says, "Here, put this on your pasta."
Mac Shimai looks at the bottle more closely and says, "That's cooking alcohol."
My trainer was trying to get me drunk. She saw me writing this story and she just said, "What? Nooooooo." Because she had been hoping I forgot this ever happened. "It's cooking vinegar," she says. Nice try, Brown Shimai. ;)

I read this talk called "He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home" and this is a quote  from it that I really like:
"Surely, I thought, if man can take the ruins, rubble, and remains of a broken city and rebuild an awe-inspiring structure that rises toward the heavens, how much more capable is our Almighty Father to restore His children who have fallen, struggled, or become lost?"

Two years ago, Tris didn't feel worthy to be baptized. I just want her to know of God's mercy. I want her to know that she can be freed from past feelings of guilt and worry. Baptism is a miraculous new beginning, and I'm on cloud 9 right now that she has that desire to be baptized. God is always ready to help us. We need only seek Him.

Much love,
Rogers Shimai

Sorry the pictures aren't as good this week I think!

Mac Shimai and Hunt Shimai secretly used my camera and created this story using stuffed animals, and this is my favorite one from the series. ^__^

 

"I'm a missionary and people are gonna think I'm drinking champagne right now."

A recent convert has spent soo much time and energy creating these lists of Japanese sayings. I have over a hundred now. She's an angel. 渡る世間に鬼はない (there is kindness to be found everywhere.)

Hey guess what? 7/11 sushi is really good here! Haha Also I loved the coconut drink. 

 

 

 

Can't get over my comp's hair...

Queen Hunt surveying her empire

 

My squad

Trying to make a 1000 paper cranes before I return from my mission.

This is Ichigo (it means strawberry), and her mom always dresses her up in strawberry clothing. She is the cutest!

Weeks 13 & 14: Aliens and other Adventures

🐲🐲🐲

 These past two weeks have been fun! Who knew that people would rather get on the wrong bus than talk to some punky lil shimai tachi. People should be able to know who we are a mile away because only missionaries wear white helmets, so they could do a lot better to escape us and the promise of eternal salvation.

A member took some of us missionaries to a yakiniku (fried meat) restaurant. She paid over $300+ (in yen) for this amazing, truck-load of food!
Two problems here:
-there is no takeout
-you will offend if you don't clear your plate

At the Mexican fiesta earlier that same day, one elder ate seven tacos and then later that night the member kept ordering more and more food so the elders could keep their strength up. Ha ha-it was pretty rough.

Mexican fiesta!

Tuesday was hard. On Tuesday, we had all appointments fall through, except with this one girl. But then her too, because after five minutes of talking, she realized she had lost her phone and we spent forever looking for it. She later told us this creepy grandpa had stolen it, and the way they got it back was using the Find Your Phone app with the police. Weird world, huh? When we got back to our apartment, my comp and I had this moment where we just kind of looked at each other like what even--this day was strange. We ate some sketchy Japanese snacks and it was ok then. I think it was a bonding experience to have a rough day like that, because we didn't break. It helped to have someone there who was going through it too.


Japan things-

• Japanese people are really polite, even when they reject you. There are no swear words.

• Most common religions I encounter: Buddhism (Shintoism goes along with this), Catholicism, and Happy Science. One Happy Science man pointed to his wife and said with a straight face, "She's an alien." I will learn more about this star wars religion.

• Japanese people touch their nose a lot when they talk. I don't know why, but it's cute.

• This area is known for eating raw horse meat. Not gonna happen.

• When people say "No," they sometimes shake their hand with the palm facing down, like DJs scratching a track. Soundtrack of my life.

Also, who was praying for me last Monday?! Because even though most of the day was a p-day, that was the best dendo day ever! In under an hour, we had:

• a new investigator

• 2 people that set up return appointments

• 1 person that said he would listen to another lesson if he was home

• 1 person that approached us first and said he had met the missionaries 15 years ago and had been wanting to take lessons again. Super solid RA!

Rejection story:
A man was trudging back to his apartment. As he put his hand on the door, we descended on a cloud and gave him our flyer ;). "I'm not interested." But it was about time he got interested. I asked him what he thought about God. "I don't think about God."  Jesus? Same response. I told him that we thought about God and Jesus, and that seemed like a painfully obvious thing to say, but then I started testifying immediately after. It felt like flailing in the dark. (I told him that God is our loving Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ loves everyone, that through Jesus Christ we can be free from our mistakes, and that I love the Gospel.) But something in his face changed as he heard the testimony--and Brown Shimai saw it too. It was amazing actually. We talked to him for what was about 15 minutes after that initial rejection. He accepted the Book of Mormon. He accepted the idea of us coming back to talk about baptism and Jesus Christ.

To me, this was one of the many miracles I saw that night. Testifying changes peoples' hearts. It was really scary to testify to someone that was disinterested at first. But I remember Elder Holland said in a talk that we have to go to the very limits of our abilities if we want to see the miracles. You look at the cliff and think "I'll fall, I'll fall, I'll fall." But then God pushes you off and you fly. Normally, rejection isn't so scary. Why? Sister Brown says, "I keep meaning to teach you the different phrases people use when they are rejecting us, but then out of your obliviousness, you keep going and change people's minds because you actually believe they want to hear everything, and they start believing it too." Haha  :)

Mission life is hard. But in many ways, living the Gospel in everyday life is even harder. I know that living the Gospel was not meant to be easy. It's hard because it's worth it. In archery, do you think the shooter learns anything if they shoot their arrow at a wall and draw the target around afterwards? If you know your aim in life, you will achieve so much more. Through striving to keep God's commandments, He can refine us better than we could refine ourselves. Our perception of our potential is a child's drawing. God's perception is a finished masterpiece. If we consecrate ourselves to God, we can hit the bullseye every time.

Word of the week-
Yabai means either really good or really bad, so when another sister compared Jesus to a wingman while teaching a high school girl and Brown Shimai said, "yabai," I can interpret it how I want to.

Reporting from the Bear (Kuma) Book (Moto) City of Japan,
Rogers Shiiiiimai

MTC throwback... ✌ One of the elders made this.

The snack this week was yabai. I thought the sesame seeds inside the cane sugar chunky things were bugs, so it was a traumatic experience. And also it tasted bad. But the vitamin C drink tasted like Flintstone's multi vitamins, and I felt weird and hyper in a good way soon after. 👍👍 would recommend this experience.

GU-the best shopping place evah! Cute and cheap clothes. I got a skirt for $4.

 

People we met on the street. They were kind of scared of us.

At the bishop's house!

Coming of Age Day-- when all 20 year old girls dress up in kimonos

The best picture I have or ever will take of Brown Shimai

This is where I run in the morning

Earthquake damage at the Kumamoto Castle.

I didn't write the kanji correctly, but it says, "God, Happiness, Peace"

Weeks 11 & 12: Borderline Disrespect = Disrespect

Since I've been here, lots of people have said I look like Hermione Granger. Probably because this air makes my hair crazy

This year is pika-pika! (shiny new) Today we're going to have a Mexican fiesta with the elders. So pumped! ✊ Well, my first report of the new year is that I crashed my bike. I underestimated how narrow the sidewalk would be, so I rolled into the road. The cars stopped so that's good I guess. No major injury.

My first P-day was wonderful because I rescued a kitten. I couldn't keep it though... 😢 I miss my cat. I think the pictures below would show my P-day better than I could describe it.

the kitten

 In other news, I performed "Christmas Medley" for the Christmas program (and it went better than my MTC performance), so I was really happy about that since I haven't been playing piano much since I was about 16... except now they think I can play hymns for church. I played for the sacrament meeting and it wasn't so bad. Kind of like nato (fermented soy beans) isn't so bad, but I would never eat it by choice. WHY, JAPAN? All I wanted was to preach the gospel and baptize everyone.

The language struggle--aaaaaargh. Last week, I was telling someone about the "Light the World" Christmas video. We had our Ipad ready to show them and then I said, "Please come!" They walked away saying goodbye and didn't realize I wanted them to watch the video. 😪

Three christmas parties. Yoshi! The last one we went to was extra crazy. 3 investigators, 2 less actives, 1 recent convert, about 10 members, and 4 missionaries in attendance. There was Swahili, French, some obscure language of an African tribe, Tai, English, and Japanese in that room. Two of the investigators were from Africa. I love that our area has a renowned university, because that means we meet people from all over the world!

In the words of my companion, Sister Brown, I am the "BOM giving queen" because she's never succeeded in giving away so many BOMs before. I don't take no for an answer aka it's borderline disrespect. 😅 A few days ago she said she just witnessed the best BOM handout. I approached this lady and started talking about the BOM, but she kept saying she had no interest in reading it. I was being extra persistant,  "Please just take this book! It's a special book!"  (because I don't know how to say anything else lol) She shook her head again and started to walk away. But then, she turned around like she was suddenly possessed and a split second later was taking the book from my hand, "Wait what's this book? What's the difference between this book and the bible? I already read the Bible, the Koran, and other religious texts, sooooo." I think she might read it. 🙏

First baptismal date! Yay! Kurihara was going to be baptized a few months ago, but was diagnosed with a terminal illness and took a step back. When we visited her recently though, she was so excited to be baptized again. She's been reading two pages of the BOM everyday with her mom. I'm so happy for her.

I love missionary work. I really do. I tell people I'm a missionary in the same way someone would say they are an astronaut or a scuba instructor. Like I know I have the coolest job ever, but I tone it back a bit so it isn't this big deal (even though it totally is).  I have witnessed how much power church members have in missionary work as well. Truly anyone can enjoy the amazingly satisfying fruits of missionary work. You don't need to be wearing the name tag to make it happen. Make it happen!! Referrals make all the difference to missionaries.

Hope everyone has a wonderful new year! My New Year's resolution is to read the Book of Mormon in Japanese. It seems impossible right now because...kanji. But apparently it gets easier really fast, since the same kanji words pop up again and again. Wish me luck! Remember who you are and don't let it get you down.

Rogers Shimai

Christmas lights

Christmas Shenanigans!

Sue me...

English in Japan... my fav!

Fried doghnut with ham and egg inside: surprisingly good heated up so that it's crispy crunchy on the outside and savory goodness melting on the inside. Green melon creme soda: my new favorite soda ahhh!

My companion has Great Gatsby hair :)

The cutest grandma

The biggest backpack evah (Kumanon the bear)

Yeah, I really should probably maybe be more productive with my time lol.

This picture cracks me up for more than one reason haha!

 Some girls we will teach next week!

Our apartment is right next to a temple.

In the vegetable market