Japan 3rd week--11

Picture time

 It had to be done

 This is why I was late for email, we were taking pictures

 Room mates

#YOLO

I think I have been here for 2 weeks? Is it 3? Is it 2 years? I feel like I have been here for forever, but I also feel like I just got here. The days go by so quickly, but they also take forever at the same time. So let me start off by being cheesy and creating a theme for this weeks email. Yes a theme. The theme of what I learned this week is "fearless" like Sasha fierce. So I am finding out I am not as outgoing as I like to tell myself. I love people and I love talking to them, but apparently I am not very good at hiding my fear. Even if I try to block out my fears and pretend I don't have them, they show in my face. My companion told me that I look scared when I go to contact somebody on the street. I had to change that. So he told me to get rid of the fears I have. It is just that easy. I can't think about what others are thinking, or whether or not I am going to understand what they are going to say. I just have to talk and love the people that I am talking to. It has been a crazy experience. So here are some stories to help with that. I met Grandpa Snow this week. But Asian version. We were streeting the Odori park (which by the way is super beautiful, and I am going to send some great pictures of them, but look it up on google. That is where they do the crazy snow sculptures too) and there was this crazy guy talking to himself on a bench. Immediately I ran up to him to contact him. I didn't think about what he was saying, because literally he was crazy, but I just went up to him full of love and it was a lot easier. "Perfect love casteth out all fear." that is my theme for this week. Anyway he turned and looked at me and he had white stuff around his mouth. He had rabies!!! He was actually crazy!!! He started talking about some birds he has to feed and turn on water so they can take a bath. I would ask him questions and he would talk about birds flying. We eventually got away from him and then we met Grandpa Snow. First Grandpa Snow is the greatest. He has probably prepared me more than anyone for contacting people and for sharing a powerful and individual testimony. This guy I contacted was ready for us. I said who were are and where I am from and the first thing he said was, "why me?" "There are tons of other people here, but why did you talk to me." At first I thought, well you were the next person I saw, but the answer he was looking for was we were guided to him. That is what I told him and he said, "good answer, lets go talk." He made us sit on bench and he had to sit in between both of us (me and my companion) he began by just asking us why were are on missions and then why we know Japanese. He wouldn't let us talk about anything else until we finished what he first asked us. Seriously it was so hard to try and understand what he was saying. He would ask me these questions and say, "do you understand?" And if I said no he would look away and talk to my companion and ignore me for a little bit. My companion looked at me in the middle of what they were saying (my companion even said that he was using really hard words, words that my companion didn't even know) so I bore my testimony about God and Jesus Christ and asked him a question. That was it. He just kept talking. Oh and then the crazy guy with rabies walked past us like 30 minutes later and said he saw the birds. I laughed so hard and the guy we were contacting laughed too. It was way funny. So this guy we talked to didn't want to hear our message, but he just wanted to make sure that we know that what we are teaching is true. He wanted to make sure that we have a firm belief and we do not back down from them. That is what Grandpa Snow has taught me. He taught me how we never half-do something. We give everything we ever do our absolute best. It doesn't need to be the best compared to others, but just our individual best. So this week I am working on being confident and eliminating my fears. I am going to give it my absolute best. It really is amazing how God puts people in our paths who we need to meet. WHAT?! I just realized I haven't even read the email my mom sent. Wow. Well I love you all!! Japan is the best! Asia for life! 

-Mecham Choro

 Costco food!! YUMMY

 Teranishi San. She is a investigator. The other elders are Elder Watabe ( the one from Utah octopus fingers) and Matsuhashi choro from Japan. Matsuhashi choro has the glasses

 This is what it looks like when we are trying to find a house. We just walk around. Cement everywhere

 Asians dancing in park

 Random Picture

 taking more pictures

 Yes there are asians cleaning those windows by repelling of the side of the building. 

 Sliding

 so this is in Odori koen (park) I posted a picture of it on my instagram before I left. It is a picture looking down at the park. The next few pictures are actually in the park. Try to see if you can find out where i am by looking up the pictures of the odori park online. 

 This s a really cool tree at a random house

park

Japan second week-- 10

Hello family and friends! I am officially in Japan. I no longer have jet-lag and I am now actually in Japan. It is still slowly sinking in, but it is becoming more real. So I am now going to answer all of the fantastic questions you asked. BUT first I am doing a shoutout. Yes that is correct a shoutout. A shoutout on a blog I have never seen and I have no idea who reads. Shoutout to Caroline Trainor. She was the first person to send me a actual physical letter in Japan. It was the greatest. Caroline you are the best. Thank you so much. #followme #instafame #instagramjokes #superlame Anyways... So the first question was "how is the train station?" So I think that implies what does Japan look like? I have struggled at taking pictures, but I am going to do a lot better from now on. It is actually one of my goals. So the subway entrance is pretty close to my appartment. We get on a subway that takes us to another subway that takes us to the train station. The subways are not as crouded as I though they would be, but they are when work ends, so like around 7 or 8. (yeah work and school ends really late) So the train station is mostly a giant mall. There are elevators everywhere and people always walking. To get to other stores you have to walk through other stores. There are so many tunnels and ways to walk and lots of doors. That is one think I love about Japan. Their doors. They are so tall for such short people. There are doors for everything and people always expect you to shut them. There aren't a lot of automatic doors, and if there are, there is a manual door (door you have to open) before the electric one. It is fun. So my companion is Brown. His name is Elder Brown. You will see the picture I will send of him. He is way cool, but I think he thinks I am an idiot. It is funny. I am trying to be myself, but it is kind of difficult when I get no responses. It is funny. I am learning how to change my mood in order to help others. It is super hard, because it is really putting others needs before your own. Super hard, but something very good to learn. So the other missionaries in my appartment are Elder Watabe (from orem) and Elder Matsuhashi from Japan. We all get a long super great and it is a lot of fun in the appartment. Every night before we go to sleep we say something nice about our companion. It is always funny to hear what everybody has to say about their companion from what happened during the day. Waking up is even funnier. We all try to work out but that doesn't really happen. We basically lay in our beds (futons) and lift our legs up in our beds to pretend that we are doing an abb work out. It is just so hard to wake up. So Watabe Choro has been here for about 7 months, Matsuhashi choro has been here for 2 months and Brown choro has been here for almost a year. They are all born in the Church so they are all very smart. All of their families are members too, so they do know a lot about the church. I play the keyboard sometimes in the room, but most of the time we are all just talking or finishing writing in our journals or something. Our appartment was way small when I first got to Japan because the hallways are super small, but now they look huge to me. One other funny thing about Japan is that the light for the toilet is outside of the bathroom. The toilets always have their own room and the light is outside of the room so somebody can turn it off while you are in there. So my sleep is actually really good. It is weird. I thought it would be super hard, but I sleep like a new born child because I am always working so hard, that I just pass out. Especially when I say my morning prayers. Those are weird. They mix with my dreams and all the sudden I wake up 7 minutes later with druel on my face. Good times. I didnt need to buy sheets. I have not used the electrical adapator yet. I don't have a bike yet. I dont have an electirc razor. But I dont need one. So we mostly eat cury. Like everyday. Rice all the time. I rove dee rice. I have eaten at one members house so far. It was a non-attending members house and it was on my birthday! So I guess it is time to talk about my birthday. So my birthday was super weird. I woke up and got ready. Nobody really knew it was my birthday. good times. Then we went streeting and talked to some people. THEN life got great. I was upset earlier cause I really like birthday's and my companion wasn't really talking to me, and then I contacted this one guy. He had really long hair and looked like a huge stoner. We started talking and turns out he is in a band and is studying art right now. He is working on graphic novells (comic books) but they are like the walking dead comic books. So we had a lot in common and talked for a good amount of time. Then we shared about our message and our testimonies and then he said he wanted to hear more! It was great. We set up an appointment and I think we are going to see him later this week and if not next week. It was awesome. I was instantly so much happier. Then we went to the train and traveled for like an hour to get to a members house. They live in teinei and we had some great food! I dont know what it was called but it was super good. It is still a little weird taking my shoes off all of the time, but it is getting better. Wow I have been on email way too long. So we ate and shared a message, then the made me a cake!!! They found out it was my birthday and we had a cake! Oh it gets better. They gave me a present!!!!! They gave me a tie. It was the best birthday ever. I was so happy. That was my week. Super good. It actually was super hard though. The language is killing me and I have had many thoughts about coming home. BUT I am never going to do that. Trust me I KNOW I can do this. I tried something today where I wrote in my journal all of the things that are upsetting me then looked for answers in the scriptures. I was amazed by what I learned. It actually gave me an idea for the yw thing you are working on. For them to Feel and know that they are daughters of god they have to believe it and have faith. So my idea was to play the "you gotta have faith" but you tell everyone that they have to get up and dance their worries away. They have to go crazy and freak out. They will probably hold it in because they are embarrased, but that means that they don't have faith. They need to have the courage to have the faith and knowledge that they are a daughter of god. When they take that leap of faith and decide to completely trust god, they will then gain their testimony. That is what I am having to do. Completely trust god and always have a prayer in my heart. That was my wisdom for the day. Wow their is a huge line behind me I have to go. I love you all!! Japan is great! Thanks for your prayers! I really do feel them and they are helping so much.

-Mecham choro

this is one of me with a birthday cake on tuesday with osterloh shimai it was her birthday on monday mine on wednesday. the other one is with the member that gave me a birthday present.

The last week at the Empty-Sea

That is right ladies and gents the last week!!!! I leave for Japan in less than 24 hours!!! ERWEHOIGHDS:LIGHSDO:GIHE:FOIH!!!!!!!! I am freaking out. I am shaking in my seat while writing this email. So because of how much I have to do this email probably won't be very long. I have not even had time to eat breakfast yet. WOOO! I love missions! Hahah so let me just recap my experience at the mtc. So it was crazy hard and crazy fun. I started off knowing no Japanese and pretending like I understand. I still pretend like I understand, I just got better at guessing what people are talking about. I had amazing sensei's who taught me so much about how to better teach people and better understand the language of the spirit. That was great! To get a little cheesy real quick, because I know that is all that everybody wants, I taught 3 investigators while I was in the empty-sea. They were real people that my teachers taught but they were just pretending to be them. Yesterday was my last lessons with my teachers, but also the last time with the investigators. There was this one investigator that was really becoming real for me. Her name is Nishimura Shimai. She is the 95 year old grandma. Teaching her was amazing. I taught her so much about prayer and about Jesus Christ. She loved it all so much. After we finished teaching her and had her "baptism" our sensei showed us pictures of who we actually taught. She told us her story about the baptism of Nishimura Shimai. Nishimura shimai could not be baptized originally because her doctor said that if she went in water she would die because of how old she was. It took the faith of her grandson to be baptized to help her decide to be baptized. She said right before her baptism that the reason she is able to do it now is because she knows that Jesus Christ will help her. She had 4 people help her as she went under the water. 2 elders holding her and 2 nurses holding her head. It was crazy to hear the story. After we heard about how amazing the spirit was for her baptism and we were all so happy our sensei showed us the picture of her. As the picture was being passed around people started to cry. I didn't understand why until it got to me. She is the smallest and happiest woman I have ever seen. She had such an amazing smile on her face right after her baptism. The second I saw the picture of her I felt like she was standing right next to me saying thank you for teaching me, even though I only taught my teacher who was pretending to be her. It was an amazing experience and then our whole class cried together because our teachers were leaving us and we cried and it was beautiful. That is basically it that has happened this week. There have been other things like getting ready and teaching and listening and learning, but this is what really stood out to me. It has been an amazing MTC experience, but I am so ready to get out in the Real world again and go to a different planet called Japan!!!! It is going to be the best! I love you all so much! Please email me! and letters if you want! I love you all, I love you all, I love you all! 
-Mecham Choro


Please have everyone email me! Anyone who wants to can email me! Anyone and everyone and I can email them back. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell Julie and Claire thank you for me. Tell them THANK YOU SO MUCH for the food and letters they sent me. They are the greatest and I love them so much. We have the best family in the whole world and I always feel the prayers from them. You are all so incredible. I might just start crying in the laundry room about how amazing this family is. WEEEE!! haha I love you and I am excited to call you soon! 

week 7

What is making those shadows???????

Previously on the Empty-Sea week 7,

Yes that is write ladies and gents, I am exactly 8 days away from being in a different country. Basically a different world. So this last week was the worst week I have had in the MTC! WOOO!!! Washoi! (party) Seriously was so hard. Guys satan is the worst. He likes to attack your thoughts and emotions constantly. BUT too bad cause we are bigger and better than he is and we are going to win. I started realizing all I am going to be leaving and how crazy far away I am going to be, and that I can't even communicate with the people I love so much, and that I am going to be tired for 2 more years, and that I am not going to know what to do, where to go, or who my companion is going to be. Missions are hard. But they are so worth it. I am noticing so many blessing I have been receiving since even deciding to serve a mission. Basically this last week was the worst because my brain decided to give up on me. It decided that I needed a break from Japanese and that I would no longer understand it. I could not understand anything anyone was saying for some reason that I don't know. This allowed me to become very sad and have a week full of 'off days'. This really taught me how to create better situations for myself and how to have fun when life gets super hard. I can't listen to music when I am sad. I can't go sit alone and just stare. I can't go watch a happy movie. I can't go eat the food I want to eat. I can't text my friends. I can't call my family and ask for help. BUT I CAN always pray. Prayer is probably the greatest thing a missionary can have. I am learning how to say better and more meaningful prayers. I can pray to my heavenly father anytime, anywhere. I can read the scriptures and receive revelation. I can talk to my companion and ask for help. I can receive a blessing of comfort from any elder. I can sing songs in my head and visualize what I need. I can think to myself and pray and thank my Heavenly Father for everything I have. I can go serve the Lord and help bring others to Him. Okay yeah my life is gooood. I just needed to remind myself of who I am representing and what I am doing. That is how I changed my attitude and made it so this will be the best week ever. So this last Sunday we (my district) sang Nearer My God to Thee in Japanese for sacrament meeting. Yes the same version I wrote for my farewell that my beautiful sisters sang. It was amazing. I was so gald we were able to sing it. Also the kohai got here last wednesday. They are the newest missionaries going to Japan. So there are only for sisters and one elder going to Sapporo. Super crazy, but still we are so excited. My companion and I had to do an orientation for all of the new missionaries including the Nihonjin (japanese missionaries) I have never talked so much Japanese in my life. It was hard. We had to show them how to do a companionship inventory, what their new schedule is like, and the rules of the the MTC. That was fun. It is so crazy how I am able to talk to people in a language that I have only been studying for 7 weeks. The gift of tongues in real. So yeah there really is not much to report from this last week because my brain was always somewhere else this last week. I don't have my travel plans yet. The travel office is being mean and they still have not printed them, BUT I am going to get on later today because we are forcing them to print them because we have to let family and friedns know what is going on. I love you all so much. Be excellent to each other.

-Mecham Choro.

this picture started off with just the nihonjin sisters and it ended with this. I am on the right side and the choro to my right in picture. actually it is my left if you put yourself where I was but looking the picture on the right that is the elder going to sapporo. the only one.

The nihonjin are in love with the idea of my name being Mikan choro (the japanese orange)

Hello!!! I just got my travel plans for real!! So here is how it is going to happen. First on Wednesday May 8th we leave the MTC at 7:30 am. We get in a car and drive up to the airport at 8 so we can be there by 9. We arrive at the airport around 9 to be on our first plane at 11:15. We leave from SLC to Seattle WA airport at 11:15 and land in Seattle 12:23 seattle time. (I dont know the time change or if there is one) We have a layover there from 12:23-2:20 so that is when they want us to call home. It is either a short phone call in the morning around 10 ish maybe, that is a maybe because of lines and all that good stuff, or a longer phone call about 30-45 minutes around 12:30 ish. Let me know what will be easier for you. Wow. Of course I forgot to make a list so I can email you what I need. Well too bad. Looks like I will just send you a letter. I was planning on doing that anyway. So we leave from Seattle at 2:20 Pm and land in Tokyo Japan on May 9th at 4:45 pm. Yes a whole 26 hours of time change. Then from Tokyo we fly to Sendai at 6:55 pm after another 2 hour layover. Then we land in Sendai and wait for 35 minutes to board another plane to leave at 8:40 pm to land finally in Sapporo at 9:55 pm. Holy Tako I am so excited. If you have any questions comments or concerns just dear elder me. If it is really important I will send a letter and if not I get another email next week too. Yes we have p-day the day before we live. Our lives are gooood. All of the missionaries going to Sapporo are on the same flight. There are 7 of us total going there. It is pretty awesome. I have never been to Seattle before I am so excited!!!!!!!!! Oh and Japan will be pretty cool too. So my doryo is just typing his email now. He is not as fast as I am at typing so he takes a lot longer to do email than I do. So I have to sit here and wait to get him going. But instead I would like to take this opportunity to write a longer email!!! Except I don't know what to talk about... So how is everyone doing? Jenalyn's hair looks even more red!! It looks very nice. Juliann I loved your letter you sent about your soccer game you are probably the greatest soccer player the world has ever seen. Shhhh don't tell your friends. Just kidding tell everyone. Justin your baseball story you shared with me made me laugh SOO hard. I remember when I did baseball and whenever I was outfield I would just sit there and play in the grass and Danielle all the time, or in Japanese I would "bu" Yes bu is fart. Mom would come to our games and yell, "GO angels! You Suck!!" So funny. We really were the worst, but it was still a lot of fun. Jenalyn I just want to take this opportunity to sing a song to you. A song that you will have to make up because you can't hear what I am singing. But I am singing it very beautifully (so really it is so nasty) Jenalyn you are almost done with school!! You can do it cause it is very important. Seriously you can do it. Trust me. You have an amazing family and amazing friends who support and love you. We want the best for you and you will get the best. All three of the little children only have one month left. Work as hard as you can, cause summer will be so much better. Oh! I wrote this all over everything this last week, "the path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell" Oh and the song just ended. I finished singing cause some sisters just walked into the computer lab I am in. Kimazui! (awkward) yes I was actually singing. So some things I forgot. Brother Lewis sends me the greatest letters ever. Tell him that please. And he wants to make sure that my scripture is the right one. And yes it is. Tell him it is Doctrine and Covenants 18:10. Thank you! I feel like there was something else!!! OH!!! yes I remember. Tell sister PUGINA that she is the nicest person the world has ever met. Attack her with gratitude for me. I am trying to send her a letter, but I am so lazy and busy. She sent me a package the other day with reses in it and a letter with 20$ in it. She is so nice. Also the Scouts!!!! WHA?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!! Seriously I was laughing so hard when I got the toilet paper messages. I rolled it out all over our classroom and everone ate it. We also destroyed the chips and salsa within 3 minutes. It was beautiful. POP ROCKS!! Holy wowowowowow I was so happy. That is a treasure and a blessing. Thank you so much. I loved the letters from everyone. It is so fun to read. I loved the Haderlies (?) (I can't spell) message and Secret Egget (yes she did sign Secret Egget) that was awesome. Also to see all the scouts talking about their missions is inspiring. The work is really moving forward! and the Bishop writing on it hahah I was honored. Seriously that was the best package ever. BUT!! What the what?! The latest package came and blew my mind. Larry the cable guy chips!? Hahahahah I am scared. I ate a few of them but they were kinda gross so a kohai ate them. They loved it. Best honey butter and bread so far. Thank you very much! And the veggie chips!!!! YES!!!! I am in Ten (heaven in Japanese) So yeah that is my gratitude for right now. Wow I am so hyper. I just got out of the temple and it was great. I am so amped and excited for Japan. It is going to be so hard!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Oh yeah super awesome! hahah I made a japanese person say that the other day. So funny. I love you all.

SO much

ALOT

Tons

And even more

And some more

 

 

moist (Shimepoi)

 

Yes I looked it up.

School of Hogwarts