Goodness gracious I can hardly believe it myself. I'm actually here!
So leaving the MTC was way exciting and sad at the same time. Those last
few days were just tears and goodbyes pretty much. It was hard to say goodbye to our teachers and our branch presidency. They've taught me so much these past 9 weeks. If its one thing Ill remember from them its that for Japan missions, everyone thinks, `Oh you'll be lucky to get 1 or 2 baptisms your whole mission.` But I refuse to believe that. I'm not here to make any small impact on this island. I'm here to baptize. I'm here to bring everyone I see closer to Christ. I'm not here just to plant seeds. Its time to harvest.
We had to say goodbye to the part of our district that was going to Nagoya.
It was so sad. It was just like saying goodbye to my family again.
But we all got to the airport okay. I walk in through the doors of the
Airport and there was all my family!!! It was so good to see them one last time! It was so easy. It was like I just saw them yesterday instead of not seeing them for 9 weeks. After pictures we all said goodbye and headed out!
We had a layover in LA and then went from LA to Narita, Japan. It was a 12
hour plane ride! But to be honest, it wasn't that bad. I was awake for most of
the time. On Heritage Tours last summer, we studied on a bus for hours at a
time, so this was nothing new to me. I was use to it. Once we landed in Japan it just kind of hit me. Oh man. I'm in Japan. I'm half a world away from everyone I know. But it was still super exciting! For some reason I thought this whole country smelt like fish. Like when you breath there was a slight after taste of fish. Idk, maybe that`s just me. But everything is so green. Its so pretty.We only had about 2 hours to get on our next flight to Fukuoka, but we had to go through customs and get all our giant bags. We had no idea what we were doing. Everything was in Japanese. We might as well have had `Gaijin` (foreigner) written on our foreheads. We hurrying with all our giant bags on our cart and trying to find out where to go. People probably thought we were a bunch of loons looking for Platform 9 3\4. Everything took so long that we missed our flight!!! So we were just a bunch of kids chilling in a Japanese airport with no
flight to Fukuoka till the next morning. The airport people said that we could just stay in the airport till morning. Thank goodness we had some Japanese sisters who could actually speak to the airport people and they arranged for us
all to get a hotel. We we sooooo tired. It seriously took 4 hours to get our jinsei`s(lives) together. But everything worked out. We got on our plane to Fukuoka and met our mission president and his wife. After we stayed in the mission home for a night,
that next morning we all headed out to our areas! It was super hard to say goodbye to Doi Shimai and Nelson Choro, but I bet I`ll see them in the field.
So leaving the MTC was way exciting and sad at the same time. Those last
few days were just tears and goodbyes pretty much. It was hard to say goodbye to our teachers and our branch presidency. They've taught me so much these past 9 weeks. If its one thing Ill remember from them its that for Japan missions, everyone thinks, `Oh you'll be lucky to get 1 or 2 baptisms your whole mission.` But I refuse to believe that. I'm not here to make any small impact on this island. I'm here to baptize. I'm here to bring everyone I see closer to Christ. I'm not here just to plant seeds. Its time to harvest.
We had to say goodbye to the part of our district that was going to Nagoya.
It was so sad. It was just like saying goodbye to my family again.
But we all got to the airport okay. I walk in through the doors of the
Airport and there was all my family!!! It was so good to see them one last time! It was so easy. It was like I just saw them yesterday instead of not seeing them for 9 weeks. After pictures we all said goodbye and headed out!
We had a layover in LA and then went from LA to Narita, Japan. It was a 12
hour plane ride! But to be honest, it wasn't that bad. I was awake for most of
the time. On Heritage Tours last summer, we studied on a bus for hours at a
time, so this was nothing new to me. I was use to it. Once we landed in Japan it just kind of hit me. Oh man. I'm in Japan. I'm half a world away from everyone I know. But it was still super exciting! For some reason I thought this whole country smelt like fish. Like when you breath there was a slight after taste of fish. Idk, maybe that`s just me. But everything is so green. Its so pretty.We only had about 2 hours to get on our next flight to Fukuoka, but we had to go through customs and get all our giant bags. We had no idea what we were doing. Everything was in Japanese. We might as well have had `Gaijin` (foreigner) written on our foreheads. We hurrying with all our giant bags on our cart and trying to find out where to go. People probably thought we were a bunch of loons looking for Platform 9 3\4. Everything took so long that we missed our flight!!! So we were just a bunch of kids chilling in a Japanese airport with no
flight to Fukuoka till the next morning. The airport people said that we could just stay in the airport till morning. Thank goodness we had some Japanese sisters who could actually speak to the airport people and they arranged for us
all to get a hotel. We we sooooo tired. It seriously took 4 hours to get our jinsei`s(lives) together. But everything worked out. We got on our plane to Fukuoka and met our mission president and his wife. After we stayed in the mission home for a night,
that next morning we all headed out to our areas! It was super hard to say goodbye to Doi Shimai and Nelson Choro, but I bet I`ll see them in the field.
My area is called Chukushino. Its a really cute place. Its like a mix between a small city and rural area. My trainer is Nelson Shimai. She is so great! Her Japanese is great and she`s super understanding. I love her! I had my first lesson like 3 hours after I arrived. It was awesome! I could hardly understand anything, but I bore my testimony to our investigator named Kakihara-san. It was a good lesson. I could really feel the spirit.My second lesson was on Friday. It was with this 27 year old girl named Shinagaua -san. She is totally a golden investigator! Her family investigated the church 6 years ago, but one of the Elders that was teaching them, decided to be stupid and wanted to marry her! So the family stopped taking the lessons. And have avoided the church ever since. I know. He`s an idiot. But! She called us and we met with her. We were only planning on just getting to know her for our first lesson, but no she brought up religion and the spirit just took over from there. It was the perfect lesson. We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation and who God and Jesus Christ are. You could see in her eyes, the wheels turning. I explained to her how to pray, and she prayed. It was amazing! After she prayed,
she told us `ah! I feel warm!` She explained how she felt this way 6 years ago to when she was investigating the church. We explained that that was the spirit and gave her a Book of Mormon. It was just so perfect! I could hardly believe what was happening. I was waiting for someone to come out and say `Surprise' haha we just joking. shes a member and we siked you out. this kind of thing actually never happens.` But it did. The Spirit was so obvious.The rest of the week was good. introduced myself in Sacrament and made people laugh. Well got to go! wish me luck on my second week! Love ya!
she told us `ah! I feel warm!` She explained how she felt this way 6 years ago to when she was investigating the church. We explained that that was the spirit and gave her a Book of Mormon. It was just so perfect! I could hardly believe what was happening. I was waiting for someone to come out and say `Surprise' haha we just joking. shes a member and we siked you out. this kind of thing actually never happens.` But it did. The Spirit was so obvious.The rest of the week was good. introduced myself in Sacrament and made people laugh. Well got to go! wish me luck on my second week! Love ya!