Happy New Year‏

Well Let me just say!!! It was so great talking to all of you on Christmas!! I miss you all but I am really happy to be here in Japan! Like No Joke Japan is so awesome. I love it here. even though it is windy and cold and I have no idea what I am eating half of the time and I never know what people are saying to me, I love it here.

I am not really sure what to tell you this week. It has been crazy. On Christmas we went and visited some of our investigators and sang them some songs and had lots of fun with them, then we taught an English class! It was fun. We taught two of our investigators about baptism and did a little interaction thing with them so they could see what baptism and getting the holy ghost is like.  it was really awesome. They loved it. This week I have a lesson with them and I am going to set a baptismal date with them!! I hope so at least.This past week we did lots of exchanges, needless to say I am exhausted from them. Its hard enough waking up at six thirty. having to wake up at five thirty is just asking wayyy too much of me haha just joking... I love it here. So I will wake up whenever I have too.

We had zone conference with president budge this past week. IT was so great!! Gosh, so awesome. So many questions that I have been having lately were answered. it was just what i needed to hear. Some of the things that I learned are:  Be united with the Savior. If you pray in faith you will see the mighty miracles of the Lord. They Savior is here to help us. All we need to do is ask him. In 3 nephi 28 vs 1 he says What is it that you ye desire of me? If we have righteous desires in our hearts then we need to ask them. The Lord doesn't get tired of hearing from us or answering our prayers. But we need to always remember this, when we are sincerely asking for something  and we receive the answer or the revelation we must do our part and act on it. If we don't do anything with the answers that we are receiving we won't continue to get answers from Heavenly Father. Prayer is so powerful!! As long as we use it the correct way.

I love the ward here. They are so amazing. This Christmas they gave us so much stuff!! Like I honestly can't explain how grateful i am for them. The love they show me is awesome even though we can hardly talk because my Japanese is so terrible i can still feel all the love they have for me. its awesome. I really wish you could come meet all these people here in kiryu!!

I don't know I am just really happy right now where I am at in my life. I am so happy to be on a mission I am so happy to be here serving the Lord! I am so happy for all the amazing blessings in my life. I am so lucky and I have such an amazing family. Heavenly Father knows that this is so hard from me, but he is here by my side. He isn't letting me do this on my own. He has given me an awesome companion and such an amazing support system. This is how you fully use the power of the Atonement. It gives me the power to enable my self to be a missionary. I can receive the courage and the strength that I need daily because of the power of the Atonement!!!

I love you so much!! Thank you for you love and support!! 

 XOXO 

Sister Brown

santa swagggg‏

So yeah. New transfer wooooo transfer 2 here we go. Hopefully it will be successful this transfer. I am really excited because kiryu has so much potential.. So the two other sisters that are in my place now are super awesome. sister seamons is great. we were in the mtc together and were great friends so its so fun. and sister snow she is darling she is from heber and she is on her fourth transfer so we are all just little babies here in kiryu haha hopefully we don't do too much damage to this place.

On Friday night we went to the bishops house for dinner that was so fun! We had some really good food. The bishop and his family are so cute they need to make a I am a Mormon message haha On Sunday Bishop called like 7 or 8 ward missionaries so now we can get so much more help. the bishop really wants to reactivate less active members which i think is so important and since kiryu has so many less active members like it will be so helpfull. for example the other day we were housing and like we were at some dumpy apartment and like we knocked on the door and i said hi we are the missionaries from the mormon church and his reply was from the church of Jesus Christ of latte day saints hahahah and i was like yeahhh turns out he is a less active member. It just proves that kiryu has so many less active members they are just everywhere 

So like sister Taketomi she is like famous here in Japan all the lds girls here love her. Look her up on YouTube. Nami Taketomi. She is like super good at singing and just way good and has won like several competitions. its awesome, so with that being said she is always volunteering us to sing and do concerts.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEpGXwNCHtE) . which i kind of hate haha due to the fact that I can't sing at all and just everything I feel uncomfortable like it's just not me. you understand right?? Well on Saturday night we have a huge Christmas concert and like we are singing all these songs and I have to learn how to play the harmonica for it and i am a harmonica solo... like what the heck?? it is going to a disaster. So she thought it would be a great idea to do caroling... yeah...... my favorite thing in the whole world. So we go out at night and sing songs for people wearing our santa hats and passing out fliers and trying to teach lessons. hahahaha.... real cool needless to say. i will be a little happy when i can't go caroling anymore...

Well my language skills are still terrible... cool.. I don't think I am ever going to be able to speak or understand Japanese... hahaha awesome... just joking.. I mean its improving i can read the book of mormon so that's awesome. I have no idea what its saying but i can read it. I just can't ever remember anything. 

So for Christmas..... I am not sure at all what the plan is. We have a zone meeting on Thursday so hopefully that is when we will be told everything. Next week when i email you I will be sure to tell you all the details because I don't want to mess anything up and not be able to talk to you. so yeah I am not sure if we will be skyping or talking on the phone. I guess it all just depends I will  get all the details next week. and I really hope that i get to do a pre-call haha that would be awesome!! i will let you know so  no worries. 

I have my Christmas package!! I got it on Saturday I am super excited to open my presents!! AAHHHh thank you so much for it.. I will miss you all so much this Christmas, I am very glad to be here and i wouldn't want to be anywhere else. 

I am so glad that the Utes beat byu oh what  a great day!! I hope that the utes can do pretty good this year in basketball that would be really fun.

The Savior is amazing and the fact that it took me so long to become close to him really kind of breaks my heart. i wish i would have gained this kind of a relationship with him a while ago but at the same time I have never really needed him the way that i need him now. but with that being said I always need him and I will always need him!!!! Something that i love about the Savior is that he is always there for you. Over and over again in the book of mormon it says that he has his arms stretched out towards us and that he wants us to come to him. I think that is something some of us have a hard time with.　no matter where you are in your life. he will always accept you. Just go to him. it doesn't matter what you bring with you. he will clean you and make you the person you want to be. The Lord doesn't ask us to be perfect he doesn't expect us to be perfect he just wants us to try out hardest. The Savior paid for all of our heartaches and sins and sorrows and trials the least we could do is give them to him. I mean if you when to  a car dealership and bought a super nice car like a ranger rover or something and you paid in cash for it but then they wouldn't hand you the keys you would be a little sad. That's how i like to think about the atonement. the Savior wants ALL of our burdens our trials and ours sins. having an understanding of that really helps you focus and realize the true love the Savior has for all of us... I love the Savior!!!!!

I love you all and I cant wait tell i get to talk with you for Christmas!! Have a great week!! remember I love you remember to always thank the lord for everything you have!!!

XOXO 

Sister Brown

Onto transfer 2‏

WELLLL HERE IS THE BIG NEWS!!!

Okay so welcome to Kiryu again!! Ahh I am very excited to be staying here again. I really feel like I can do some serious good work here. So that's just a great feeling. So Sister Taketomi is my companion! AHH :) I am so happy. I love her to death and I have so much I need to learn from her. SO I am so excited to be able to have her as my companion again!! Sister Cheney is being transferred. I think she is happy but sad at the same time just because she has been here for so long. But wait there is more. WE are also getting two other sisters!! Our little place is going to be packed! Kiryu now is going to have 4 sisters. SO I pray that we can really start finding people now!! And one is sister Seamons I am very excited because we were in the same district in the mtc so that is going to be a blast.

 

OKAY FIRST!! TELL ME ABOUT KATE. thank you so much for sending those letter and their emails I really liked those. I don't have anytime hardly to email so getting those and being able to read them was so great so thank you!! GOSH I am worried for her. It makes me sad because I just think about how much i have here and such... :( its also sad that so many people  where she is at  want the gospel and are so ready for it but there are just not the means to have a church and such. When here I am in Japan and the gospel is all around and there are Temples and everything but NO ONE wants anything to do with it. That's really sad to me. I pray for her every night so I am just going to have to start praying for her even more!! I haven't heard from her in a while I will just have to send her an email!! Tell Cindy I will pray for her and Kate.

 

Okay this week has been a good one but a sad on. We had two investigators just break up with us.. haha One of them even had a baptismal date for the 22 :( boooooooo Its sad because he believes and he reads and prays all the time he just can't pay his tithing or go to church on Sunday he says... So yeah that was hard and the other one loves reading the book of Mormon she knows so much and her prayers are soooo good they are like better than mine, no joke!! but she said that whenever she goes to church she has a bad experience from it... so yeah. she said she needs a break. SO basically we have no investigators so cool. Tomorrow we have a lesson with a potential investigator so I really hope that, that works out!! I am praying it does.

 

The other night we knocked on over 60 doors and  we only gave out one book of Mormon and we didn't even talk to them in person they just asked us to put it in their mail box. Here everyone has speaker door bells so hardly any doors ever get opened we just talk to people through their door bells.

 

We are really trying hard to focus on activating less active members and member referral! They are so important so we are working hard with that. This last week was stake conference. It was weird I have never traveled over 1 hour for stake conference before and it was in like a preforming arts center. haha but it was so great. Even though it was hard to understand things. I was able to learn the things that the I needed to hear the spirit taught me what I needed to hear. Being a missionary I have learned that members play such A HUGE role in finding people and just everything! So since my ward is so few... like the stake president told our bishop that our church is going down to 2 hours now and that the other hour should be spent working with the missionaries!! So when i find more information out about that and when that starts going on I will be letting you know for sure!! Its crazy. But I am so excited because honestly the members know the  ones that are ready to hear the gospel and they are so helpful and getting less active members back to church!!

 

I have learned so much here on my mission. I don't even know where to start. The main thing that I have realized that the Gospel is all about Jesus Christ everything is centered on him. I also know that the Atonement gives us the power that we need to be successful. I have always thought the Atonement was just for repentance but no. The Atonement gives you the power and strength that you need. The Atonement empowers us!! But yes..

This week has been full of finding and and trying to find people. I am very excited about giving myself to Christ for Christmas!! Christmas is good here I think.. Its nothing compared to AMERICA.. Hardly any Christmas decorations but yeah.. I just love the true meaning of Christmas!!

 

OKAY WELL I LOVE YOU SO MUCH :) XOXOX

I hope next week I have some better stuff to tell you about!!

be safe and have fun

 

Sister Brown

 

p.s.   What is the recipe for the rice pudding you make for Christmas I am going to try and make it in the rice cooker for Christmas!!

A White Christmas in Kiryu‏

Well!!

Our investigator was baptized on SUNDAY!! Ahh it was awesome. I am so humbled by this amazing experience. The first lesson he ever had with the missionaries was on the first Sunday that I got here. It was a fast Sunday.  And then he was baptized the next fast Sunday. It just proves that yes, the lord is preparing the hearts of the people in Japan. He was so prepared. I remember the first lesson. He like taught us. We hadn't even shared about the restoration and he told us that he decided to live the word of wisdom and he thinks that he can pay his tithing every paycheck!! LIKE WHAT??! haha it was too classic like we pretty much asked him what he wanted to learn each lesson and then we would teach him that. One night he called us and asked us how he could get the liahona!! haha it was so awesome. I am so blessed to be here and to have gotten to Japan the time that i did. President Budge is truly inspired by the lord for giving us this challenge and this promise. We also have another baptismal date! It is set for the beginning of January but I think we might actually try to have it in December so we shall see. The kiryu ward is so small!! The number of leaders in primary is more than the number of kids... haha There are 3 kids in primary. SAD. I think the ward maybe has a total of 23 active members. Soooo... yeah... I can't imagine being the bishop of this ward. We are trying our hardest to activate less active members and part member families our goal is to find a family and have a family baptism. Please pray for the kiryu ward!!

 

AHHHHHH the Temple. OH MY GOSH. I love it. The temple is amazing. It truly is the house of the Lord. I am so blessed to have a Temple in my mission and that i have the opportunity to go to it. So we watched the old movie. It's still not translated. It's funny because since we have such a big group and our mission is like all English speakers the Japanese people have to wear translators to their own Temple. but it was beautiful. Like it looked just like a Temple on the inside but it was still like Japan. Very Japanese. The Celestial room was amazing. The stained glass windows were amazing. I loved it. I have pictures but I am sending them to you for Christmas!! SO yeah we go to the Temple once a transfer and its always the last pday before transfer calls.

 

So thank you for the package!!! I almost died at some of those pictures. haha and the names,oh gosh it was amazing. THANK YOU SO MUCH, TELL THE WARD THAT I LOVE THEM AND I AM SO THANKFUL FOR THEIR LOVE AND SUPPORT!!

 

Japan is weird, I don't like the fact that they don't have thanksgiving. and its just the fact that they have no idea about Christ and have no Christ for Christmas really just breaks my heart. They have no idea what the true meaning of Christmas is. We are doing our best to teach it to them. We are having a Christmas concert on the 21st so that should be good and guess who is singing.. haha sounds like a mistake huh??  hopefully I don't make too many people cry.

My eps is coming in. I am doing pretty good. the only problem is i have no idea what way is north east west south... so that's makes directions really hard. there are no street names here or numbers or house numbers. WHAT A JOKE. I can get us to the area but I never know what house to go to because I can't read kanji haha so i never know what house names say GOOD thing I have sister Taketomi!! I love her.

 

I love you all so much!!

 

XOXO

I can't wait to hear from you next week!!

 

Sister Brown swag sauce

Another week here in Kiryu!

Another week here in Kiryu! It is so beautiful here. I am going to take some pictures and send them to you. Its weird because Its almost December and like the leaves are just barely changing colors. Kiryu is awesome it's like in the mountains but it's weird because it's not like the mountains that we have in Utah it's just beautiful.  if you get the chance look it up on google maps and you can look at the kiryu ward house my church is pretty big actually!!

Well lets see. The weeks are going by so fast but I feel like they are so long. SO I know exactly what you mean when you say that mom. I miss you all so much. Its weird not being home for thanksgiving. I am actually kind of missing you all. It doesn't even seem like the Holiday seasons. I doesn't even seem like Christmas is coming up. Its just weird, I don't know its hard to explain it. I bet Brandon and Josh can kind of understand it a little. But I just have to keep telling myself to focus on what things are important. Thank you so much mom and dad for your advice I really needed to hear it. Tomorrow we have our interviews with president budge so that is going to be good. I am really looking forward to those.

The mission conference was great! It was just what I needed it really made me think about somethings and made me feel so much better about that I am here doing and what not. Some thing that I have been trying to focus on is my prayers. Some of the things I learned are:  Am I really praying with real intent and I being thoughtful in my prayers. am i praying for things that i really should be praying for. With that being said I have also been working with my faith. And knowing that god is listening to me and he does hear the things that I am praying about. and having faith and hope that he does answer my prayers. One of the hardest things to do in a situation is to trust in the lord. Ether 3:11 "And the lord said unto him: Believest thou the words which I shall speak." The words which I shall speak." Do I have faith in the lord, enough faith to not only believe the words he says now but the things which he shall speak.

Also I learned that Its important to serve the lord but in doing so. Don't ask for more time to serve for example coming home from a mission don't say I wish I had more time or things like that. ALWAYS ask for more service.  When you are serving the lord and serving him according to his will the lord will be with you at all times he promises you that and that there will always be ways to do more. 

SO now that I am a missionary i look at how i attended church and participated in things. I was a terrible ward member. I am sorry. Please do all that you can to help out the missionaries. The most successful way to gain new members is through member referrals. Having members help is so important!! We cant do it on our own.

GUESS what I spent my Saturday morning doing?? Yep that's right I spent all Saturday morning doing service here in kiryu. I put up Christmas lights up for over 3 hours haha needless to say. I have a few ideas for things that we can do when I get home! hahaha 

So food wise I eat lots of yogurt and fruit and RICE so much rice i am getting some cute rice cheeks. we do like a stir fry for almost every meal so i am doing pretty good with eating i think. I really miss peanut butter they don't have that here. we have oatmeal but i haven't really eaten that. I am trying so hard not to get sick. But i have been very blessed the lord is watching over me that's for sure. AHH I drink so much hot chocolate.

OHH one more thing next week is temple pday!!!! we are going to the temple on Tuesday. so we will be staying in shibuya again on Monday night but we are going later that night. not so early pday is technically Tuesday. SO i am not really sure how emails are going to work out and if i will even get the chance to email. So yeah I am very excited to go to the temple :) and yeah. SO please email me still and hopefully I will be able to email you!! :) I love you so much and I am so glad that I have been called to serve here!! Japan is amazing and I can't wait for all of you to finally come here too!!!

Stay warm this thanksgiving tell the Fosters I say hello!!!

I love you all so much and the church is true

And yes i can ride a bike. Do you even know how to walk??

XOXO

ブラウン姉妹

Going to the city!!‏

Ahhh Things sound so good back home!! I sure miss you all. I am pretty sure mom that you have been in my dreams the past several nights! haha let me just say.,. ever since I have been on a mission my dreams have been crazy. Like really I am always dreaming about weird things and I always remember them in the mornings too.. and like I guess I sleep talk almost every night.. Also I feel so bad. One of my companions snores sooo loud every night and she has been a little sick too like coughing and such and like it makes it impossible to sleep. Well I don't remember this but I guess the other night I sat up and was like will you be quiet! and I said it all loud to her and I sounded all mad... awkward.

 

I hope that the snow works out and you get everything worked out so all the lights can be up! I am going to miss seeing them. Yesterday we were on the train and drove past a stop and it has some of the coolest Christmas lights, so hopefully I will be able to see some this year. I am not going to lie... its hard this time of the year. I miss you a ton but.. the people here are so nice, that makes it all so much better. I am really glad that I am serving a mission. The only thing that would make it better was if I could talk to someone. haha.

 

I am glad for granny and grandpa. A mission is awesome and the mtc is pretty great too!! I miss it there hahaha. They are going to be great missionaries. How long are they called for?? Tell them I say hello and I wish them all the best of luck!!

 

Sounds like its going to be fun over Thanksgiving!! Ahh thats going to be so much fun. I love Brad and Sam and Audrey!! Sam and Brad are so cute. It will be fun not having the house be so lonely and empty :) haha Tell the whole Foster family I say hello and hope that all is well.

 

Well this past week, went by pretty fast but at the same time it seemed like it took forever. I  think time flies when things are going good and are not too hard. So my bike..... awkward. I think its fixed now.. or its even more broke I haven't decided yet.. only time will tell. So the other day I crashed on it. which was super embarrassing like I wanted to die. haha I almost did die but after I got up from crashing on it.. like my chain wasn't doing that stupid thing anymore and it seemed to be working better. It still is having a little hard time with changing gears but it seems to be doing better haha. Well even though my Japanese is still terrible I finally memorized the first vision so I am pretty proud of that! wahooo hah its like forever long in Japanese. Its starting to get pretty cold here, The wind it is terrible. Its like being back in Cedar City. Its so hard to ride your bike in the wind. oh and cool story.. not really though. guess who has already gotten two skirts stuck in her bike so now they have stupid little holes in them. Yep you guessed right. THIS GIRL. So annoying haha I am so over this whole bike already.. good thing I still have like 15 months of it left... 

 

We had zone conference last Friday and that was cool.  I got to see Owens shimai. so that was great! I miss her so I am glad that I got to see her!!  Well housing this week was funny we knocked on one door and they answered, turns out they were having a funeral..... at another door we asked a guy if he wanted the book of Mormon he said yes and then as soon as we were handing it to him he slammed the door shut in ours faces haha we were getting on our bikes one night in a little street and this lady comes out telling us to come to her house and she seems super excited I am like so excited because I have never seen this lady before so that was awesome and we go over to her house and like start walking in and she has a picture of the Temple and the Prophet and I am just like thinking. Oh this is going to be awesome!! she has just been waiting for missionaries for so long... hahaha nope turns out she is an active old lady in our ward it was just dark on the street because there are like no street lights and I didn't recognize her until I saw her face in the light. 

 

So the train ride to Tokyo isn't on a super fast train :( It's like just a normal subway train and we have to like stop and change trains like 3 or 4 times. Hopefully I can attempt to talk to some people while on the train. hah we will see how that goes... hopefully it goes well. it probably won't considering the fact that I don't know how to hold a conversation with anyone... Oh so I played the piano in church on Sunday... THAT WENT TERRIBLE. I am so bad at it like really. I screwed up so much i vow never to do that again because it was so bad.  Like I'm never going to forget that moment....

 

Thats about all that i can think about right now that happened this week! I am very excited to go to Tokyo today and I am excited for the mission conference!! I miss you all so much But I am also so happy to have all of your love and support!! I hope you had such a great week and be sure to email me :) I love you!!

 

XOXO

Sister Brown

 

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE NOOOOOOOONOOOOONOOOO

(Name that movie quote) hahaha

 

Cat Pizza Restaurant

Well lets see my week has been so good and so so crazy! I am glad that you were able to hear from the mission president! Him and his wife are so dang cute!!

Last week we went to this sushi place!! Yay the first sushi I have had in Japan! Its great. Dad you would have died and probably you would too mom. SO like you sit down and the sushi is on a revolving table and the food just comes around and around and you just pick what sushi you want haha and if you want something special you can just order and then like 5 minutes or something here it comes down the littler convaier belt to your table! (sorry my spelling is really terrible...) We also went to dinner at a pizza place too!! ahh it was sooo good. The pizza crust was like a brown rice crust so it was gluten free and it was delcious!! The only thing that makes it crappy... The lady that owns the restaurant has 3 cats that are in the resteraunt while you are there and like they are all over the place they are up on the counters and such, like one of the climbed over and got on our table!! IT WAS CRAZY. Besides the fact that that was really gross... haha the food was really good. 

 

So the bathroom at my place is awesome and so are the ones at the church they have this thing called the warmlet!! haha like a heated toilet seat. Pretty much the greatest thing in the whole wide world.  Usually I am so opposed to having a warm toilet seat, like usually it means someone just got off of it and had been sitting on it for a really long time! but this is different. It feels amazing and I love it so much!! haha nothing better then waking up on a freezing cold morning and sitting on a nice warm toilet seat. And yes they have squatters here but I haven't used them yet. They had them at the train station and they had them at the cat pizza restaurant haha. and the shower is like a room haha its so awesome. I am really lucky and have such  a cute nice little apartment. We have a bedroom and a kitchen and a little living room. We eat every meal on the floor kneeling or something.

 

SO I am a disaster riding a bike.  It is terrible you only have like 12 inches of space to ride here.  Mom, you and Karen would have some serious problems.  My bike already is broken it's so annoying. Hopefully we can get it to the back shop to get fixed. its something with my gears and such it like stalls and catches when ever you peddle its scary when you are going up a hill. I'm pretty sure we biked up a hill that was like going to Brighton ski resort. 

 

The other day we visited with an investigator that reminded me just of grandpa Wayne it made me miss him.  Please pray for Nakayamasan. He is so close to baptism he is a self referral. We met him my first Sunday I was here and he is amazing he has a date for baptism set for Dec.1. He has researched so much about the church and what not and its awesome. He is so strong and he like teaches us so much! and yesterday at church we had 4 investigators and one less active member come. There is so much potential here!

 

So we are cool and now twice a month we are doing a radio eikaiwa lesson. So we are teaching English over the radio here for about 20 minutes two times a month. Its 77.7hm Kiryu radio haha its also on fm radio  I am not sure what the exact dates and times are though.

 

The other night we were trying to find a house and we couldn't find it and it was starting to get really dark. and then all of a sudden this car came down the road and it was a lady from our ward and she asked us what we were doing and we said we were trying to find a certain house and she said well I can show you were it is, I am heading there right now! its was such a tender mercy. we needed that help for sure!  I really like housing  because you never know what you are going to get. the other day a lady answered the door in a towel haha and we went to an apartment complex and pretty sure everyone that lived there spoke a different language and Japanese was not a language that was spoken.

 

BRANDON AND HALEY  how cute I hope all is well with them. I love everyone. I am so glad that Lizzy helped with putting the Christmas lights up! I want to see some pictures. Its starting to get really cold here!! but its all good!  I am so grateful for everything that you are doing for me!! I love you so much!  I would actually really like to have a conference ensign please send me one and also I sent home those gym pants the black ones.. maybe could you send me those.. I don't need them for the winter but I am going to want them for the spring so no rush. I just would love like anything in the mail! haha anything from you would be awesome! Maybe some candy or something the food here is good and I have been trying to be really good with eating the right things. All the candy has like cookies in it.. and they don't have anything with peanut butter in it haha so no good stuff but i stilll love it here!! 

 

WE go to the temple every transfer :) we go the week before transfers and next week we have a huge mission conference with the Tokyo south mission.  Some huge person is coming to talk to us on the 20th or something.  Next Tuesday we are going to Tokyo. So hopefully i get to email next Monday.  It will probably be really early though because we are leaving here like 8 or 9 because its 3 hours on train to Tokyo and we want to spend our pday in Tokyo!! well I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. the mission is really hard but I am very glad to be here serving the Lord!!

XOXO

SIster Brown

Japan

Well well well

 

I am finally here in Japan. It doesn't seem real at all. I am very excited to be here.  Thank you so much for all the emails it really meant a lot to me. I miss you all and I love hearing from you.

 

Alright so now all the good stuff:

 

So the flight from LAX to Japan took like forever!! I am not even joking I almost held me breath so that I wouldn't  pass out. I had the seat next to the window which was nice but it was really hard to get up. the person sitting next to me, I think was recovering from a hang over. He slept the whole time and he smelled gross haha but someone told me that is how Japan smells... so great.. haha but then the lady sitting next to him was pretty nice. She asked me what all of us were doing so we talked for a little while. She was going to Thailand to teach English or something I can't really remember. Those days are kind of a blur.  When we landed it was raining, of course but it's all good! The mission president and his assistants picked us up and then we had  like a 2 hour car ride to the mission home. The mission home was right next to the church so that was pretty cool! It was fun being so close even though we were only there for like 1 day. I was so tired when we got there. I almost fell asleep in my dinner haha I then went straight to bed. The mission home was pretty big there were enough beds for the sisters but not room for the elders so they slept in the church on futons. I was lucky and I got the room where the General Authority's  sleep when they come so I had a huge kind size bed to sleep in. SO the food we had on the airplane was really good it was just like normal American food and the food that I ate at the mission home was really good to it was like normal American food also so that was nice.

 

The first day we just did training. Nothing really exciting. The mission president is a great guy he seems really awesome. I am very lucky to have him as a mission president. You could say he pretty much spoils us so that's really nice. So Thursday came the day of finding out where you are going to be going. They had us all in the gym and then all the trainers and companions all came into the gym as well. It was like being in harry potter like everyone cheered and stuff.  It was pretty cool. They would say an area and then the companions would come up and then they would call a name. I was one of the last sisters to get called!  So I am in a place called Kiryu. It's like the country side. It is cool here it is very green and I am sure it will get cold this winter. It's not really hot here but it hasn't been too cold. It's been a little raining today so that kind of sucks but oh well.

 

So in the ward here there are maybe like 20 members that go every week. It is really small here but the members are very strong so that's really cool. The bishop is cool he has a wife and three little girls they are like the only kids in the whole ward so i bet that is probably a little hard. I don't know. It really breaks me heart seeing how few people are here and how many are back home in our ward. Its just crazy. I bore my testimony yesterday. I don't think anyone understands a single thing I say so that is really hard. I hardly understand anything anyone says to me.  I really miss home haha I miss our ward. Seeing the Bishop here just made me think about dad and such.  I know that the Gospel is the same no matter where you are so that's a huge comfort to me. 

 

I bought a bike its like a pretty legit bike I think it cost me like $500.00 I am not really sure. I wish bishop Goddard was here I would have loved to buy a bike from him!  So every meal we eat here we eat with chop sticks and lets just say I am terrible at them!! haha like it takes me forever to eat anything but oh well like last night we ate soup with chopsticks!! WHAT THE HECK!!! Who does that. IT was soooo hard!!!  

 

There are some really awesome investigators here that i really am hoping can be baptized!! This transfer we have a goal of baptizing a family. So please pray that we can find a family that will be baptized. We have a few that are investigating so i am keeping my fingers crossed. We also teach Eikaiwa. that's English lessons which those are always fun. I love speaking English. hahah I am really good at it.

 

My companions. I am in a trio.  Sister Taketomi. SHE IS LIKE MY HERO. She is the one training me. She is from Okinawa. I am really glad that I have her. WE get  along so well. She speaks pretty good english too. She also really loves David Archuletta. She almost fainted when I told her that I was friends with him haha I think she almost cried!! It was really funny. So both of us are new to this area. She came from Shibuya. that's  like the time square of tokyo. SO its been lots of fun trying to get to know this area together.

 

Sister Cheney.  She is very kind. She is really nice. I am tyring my hardest to love her. I have to pray about it everyday. I think its hard because we have NOTHING in common like I am telling you nothing. The only think we have is that she is from Alaska and thats where Mike is serving. Other than that there is nothing.  Bless her heart. She like really makes fun of my japanese and doesn't really help me with it  haha but whatever I am trying my best. She is really good at cooking so thats really nice too. She is really good at art...

 

I miss everyone so much. these past days are really hard. I have a hard time being here. Its really hard because we sit inside a lot during the day. We do the companionship study then language then lunch for an hour and then 12 week program study and then we can go out and do work. It is really nice being able to go outside that's when I feel the most joy. That's when I know I am doing what I am suppose to be doing. I love studying but sometimes i find my self distracted thinking about things and that's when I think negatively. I think of reasons why i shouldn't be here and why I should go home. I find lots of doubts and mistakes in myself. Its really hard and frustrating but i know that that it is just Satan trying to tempt me. However it is awesome because  in just a few short days I have already seen so many miracles here I am very excited for the work I am going to be doing!!

I know that this is where I am suppose to be even though it is really hard. I love the gospel and I just want everyone else to love it tooooo

OH yes please send me mail!! I LOVE LETTERS!! Even if they are just short and sweet. Send them to the mission home and then the mission home will send them to me and with packages if you ever send any just send them through the normal mail. that's what they told us to do.

 

I LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH

XOXO
SISTER BROWN

in front of the church

eating out for the first time

my desk

 

Jake and me before I left the MTC

 

Sister Brown is off to Tokyo

E left the MTC for Tokyo on Monday October 28.  Because my children are rule breakers Josh, Britt, Lizzy and Alisa went to see her at the airport.  They were there bright and early at 6:30 a.m. sad to say E was not.  Her group of missionaries were given the wrong time to be at the travel office and so they were quite late in getting to the airport.  Poor Josh and Britt had to leave the airport without seeing her to get to their jobs on time.   Finally the missionaries arrived, Lizzy and Alisa got to give E a quick hug and a good luck and send her on her way.

She also got to see Trent Anderson who was on his way to Toronto for business and of course our airport guru Kirk Pace.  He always looks out for our missionaries.

Maybe E should get a job at Delta when she gets home!

We talked to her for a few minutes on the phone while she was in Salt Lake.  When she arrived at LAX she called and had more time to chat.  She sounded great and was so excited to get to Japan.

We received this email on Tuesday Evening:

Dear Parents,

We just want to send you a quick note to let you know that your missionary arrived safely in Japan last evening.  President and Sister Budge met them at the airport, fed them, visited shortly, and then sent them all to bed for a much needed rest.

Today they will receive training and will soon meet their new companions who have been chosen to train them.  We will take pictures at that time, and within a few days you will receive another email with these pictures attached, and our mailing address.

Thank you for entrusting your missionary to us in the great Japan Tokyo Mission.  We so appreciate all you have done to get these missionaries to this point in their lives!

Sister Harrison

Japan Tokyo Mission Secretary

Yay she is safe and sound and we are "patiently waiting" to hear more news!

The travel plans are in!‏ Last week in the MTC!!!!

This seems so unreal to me. I have been here at the MTC for like ever but really time has just flown by. I honestly am surprised that I am leaving sosososos soon. I am very excited to go. The gospel is taking off in Japan and I cant believe that I was chosen by the Lord to do his wonderful work!! Its truly amazing. I am so humbled by this opportunity. I am scared out of my mind though.  But I need to have faith in my Lord and I know that I will be able to do the Lords work and be able to do the tasks and feed his sheep and bring them back home to him. Like I can't explain to you what I am feeling. I hardly can speak any Japanese. But I am not feeling nervous about that. I feel nervous about other things. This is the best thing that I could be doing with my life. I need not to worry about things. I need to keep a clear mind and know that I am doing what the Lord wants me to do and that HE is going to be by my side the entire time! He is watching over me, He will lead me to do the things that he wants done in his church. He knows the master plan that I don't know. I don't know but even with how hard this is going to be and how much this is going to stretch me and push my limits I have never been more excited in my life!!

Well here is what everyone has been waiting for!! The Travel plans:  Monday morning at 5:30 we are meeting at the travel office and leaving and driving to the airport! I am going to make my doryo get there at 5:15. Like this will be the only time that I will nag her about being on time. You would be so proud of me. I am pretty much late to everything because she has ZERO sense of time and I dont want to be a jerk and nag her alllllllll the time.... Its been really hard for me.  ANYWAY so leaving at 5:30am monday morning

We are flying from SLC to LAX. We are flying on DELTA flight #1813 to LAX. Our flight takes off at 9:48am and we land in LAX at 10:51.  From LAX we fly straight to Japan the airport is NRT (Tokyo Narita, Japan) We are flying on DELTA flight #283. It takes off at 1:00pm and we land at 4:55pm October 29!!!  Is Kirk Pace going to be working!!?? Tell him to look for me! I would love to see him!! :) I love Kirk and Paula! 

Its so crazy!! I am so excited. I can't even explain it. I am so nervous but at the same time I have such a calm feeling. Its amazing. This week we also get our new name tags. So like sister brown won't be in English any more its going to say　ｂロｗンシマイ  My name will be something along those lines. Which is crazy. Good thing I know how to read hiragan and katakana!! and a little romanji!!

Well this past week has been a really awesome week! Last Tuesday night Dallin H. Oaks came to the Tuesday night devotional! He did such a great job. I love the way he talks he is like brilliant!! He talked a lot about the other churches in the world and they made complete sense. That they all have some truths to them and they do good things, ours is just the best out of all of them. It was a very interesting talk but it was very very good at the same time. 

So the other day during lunch this elder came up to me holding a newspaper. I was a little confused and then he pointed to a picture and then asked me if that was me in the picture. Sure enough it was the church news with the choir singing in it and it was me. He then continued to say that him and the elders have been watching me the past days just really wondering if it was me in the picture or not and then one elder was like well why don't we just go ask her. So he did, and then he asked me if i would sign it for him haha it was so classic and so weird hah I loved it!! 

WELL good news I have had like the same 6 zits on the side of my head for the past 8 weeks cool and i am getting knew ones that are moving in and moving out all the time. Its pretty much a great landing spot. I don't know.. I guess its just a great vacation spots for zits or something haha.

Last Wednesday I was also a host for the new missionaries. It was pretty fun!! Like its weird being the one that has been here the longest. In less than a week that will change and I will be the little bean chilling in Tokyo so fresh having no idea what is going on!

Thank you for the package! it was pretty much everything I needed. I will be sending home a package in a couple of days of stuff that I don't really need!! AHHH I love you so much and I cant wait to talk to you on monday :) I miss you so much! Its going to rule!! 

XOXO 

Sister Brown

Temple walk on a rainy Sunday

yay the nihongi are here

last Temple trip of the MTC

Sister Ellis she is so cool!! we love all the same tv shows

MTC Week #7

This week was the bomb!! It was probably the most eventful week I have had since coming to the MTC.. well besides singing in conference. So last Wednesday we did this thing call TRC. We do it every week and it's where you have lessons with members. Well this week we did a skype TRC and we skyped with members from Japan!! It was so awesome!  But it was really hard haha I just realized over and over again how bad my Japanese really is... Oh well. I think I was able to get my point across for the most part. So at the start I was introducing myself. I told the lady I was skyping with that I had 10  older brothers... whoops. She laughed and was like well that's okay to have 10 older brothers because we are Mormon.  When I told her I was sister Brown she laughed and said Chairo Brown funny funny... not really...I guess I better start getting use to that joke now. Well then she asked me what I liked to do I told her that I love to play soccer!! and she looked at me and said what are you like a man or something??! hahah. OH man that was terrible.. And then I tried to pray with her and she asked me if I had memorized that prayer... and of course I had to tell her the truth and said yeah... awkward. It was all fun and games talking with skype. I shared a scripture with her and I talked to her about repentance. It was really good. I can't wait to do it again!! 

So this whole week I had been feeling like I was going to get called on to speak on Sunday. So when we go to Sacrament meeting everyone has to prepare a talk on the theme that we are speaking on. And then after the Sacrament that's when they call on people so you have no idea if you are speaking or not... Well on Saturday night the people in charge of getting people to say prayers asked me if I would pray and I said yes. So I was thinking okay perfect I am saying the prayer I won't get called on to talk... but then again all week I had been feeling like I was going to be giving a talk. So I had no idea what was going on. Well sure enough after the Sacrament they announce the speakers and I am the very name that they say.. and then he finishes announcing the rest of the program and was like we will also have a closing prayer by Brown shimai. All I have to say is that is was the Brown show in Sacrament meeting. I also made a fool of myself too haha because everything is in Japanese. I only had to say one verb right the whole time and everything would be okay but I messed that up. So at the end of my talk when you are saying in the name of Jesus Christ amen, it's a little different than in English. I said O-inori ( and that's what you say in a prayer) when you are saying a talk or like testifying you say Akashi. haha ughh  I messed that up so bad.. It was too classic. 

Well now me and Jake Brown have class right next to each other. They made us all switch class rooms last night. All of west campus is going to be Spanish speaking. So its just a huge mess over here.  So we had to move out of our building and move to a different one. It totally sucks because we used to have the top floor of a building and it was just us in it.. it was amazing and now we are on a floor with all the other Japanese speakers which is probably a really nice thing, but its packed and super loud and it smells funny so that's annoying.  At least it will only be for a few mores days because I am leaving SOON!!! AHHHH 

GO UTES!! I am so proud of them for winning!! I bet it would have been an awesome game to  be at!! And lame the picture of Josh on ESPN didn't work it was like an email of just a huge link and yeah.. which sucks hah I am just happy they won!! Sarah Bell emailed me and she sent me a picture of her and Kamille at the game! It looked so fun!

Only one more Pday here before I go to Japan. I am so excited!!  We should hopefully be getting our travel plans on friday :) weird!!!! I can't believe that its actually time for me to go!!! 

The church is true and there is no other place that I rather be at than here serving the Lord!  I cant wait to share the gospel with the people living in Japan. 

XOXO

Brown Shimai

MTC Week # 6

Another wonderful week at the MTC!! Its crazy I only have two more pdays left!! WHAT THE HECK!! Soon enough I will actually be living in Japan, That is blowing my mind!!

This week was hard. Like maybe it was the fact that it was conference and that made me a little home sick or maybe it was the fact that I am realizing that I am gong to be in Japan really soon and I don't know if I feel very well prepared to be there. Like I am feeling pretty confident in my gospel vocabulary. I still need to learn some notes, I am doing good but like I have  no idea what people ever say to me and if it's not about the gospel then I just am so lost. Like the other day when we were teaching our investigator he said that he hated it when it was freezing cold and raining. And I had no idea what he said so I just said yea, I love it. haha What the heck?! No one in their right mind likes when it is freezing cold and raining. And I just find myself nodding my head and said yes or no trying to not look to confused. Even when people say a statement or ask me a question that obviously needs more than a yes or no answer. So in Japanese to say that you don't understand you wakarimasen. Well this is what I find myself doing. I nod my head like I know whats going on and like I am understanding but then I also say wakarimasen. Its pretty funny. Well its funnier in person I guess and its probably funnier when you actually speak Japanese.  I guess that my sleep talking has gotten out of control. I am talking all night long, but I do have some help in learning Japanese, I am sleep talking in Japanese... haha so thats always a good thing.

So conference. Lets see. I actually watched every single session and I didn't fall asleep once. So that was really cool. I am really glad that I was able to watch it here. Like this conference was really amazing. The whole time I felt like it was talking to me directly!! I am so excited to be doing the Lords work. My favorite talk was by Richard G. Scott. I liked how he talked about you can't let satan get to you. He tries and will bring back memories of past sin and past guilt. That is something that can be so hard for you and something that can make the mission seem almost impossible. It just makes you feel inadequate and I have been feeling that a lot lately.The over all message that I got from conference is that I need to come unto Christ. Not just when I need help or when I am struggling or when I need to repent, just come to him like he is there in person with you and you can talk to him about anything. I have really been having a hard time doing that, I have all this pride in me and it's been my biggest struggle letting go of it and going to Christ, but I can  say that I am improving with that every day!   Day by day I am getting better so that is really great. I can feel Gods love for me and that's a great feeling.  I am go grateful to have had conference at the time it was, I really needed it and really has changed and helped me out so much in the past couple of days, I am very excited for the future and what can happen now.

I am sorry that the flowers are freezing, they kind of start looking crappy at this time of the year anyways. I love fall, that's something that I am missing for sure. Like I just love it.  My district has come up with this awesome musical number though... hahaha we sing I am trying to be like Jesus to the tune of Harry Potter. It's pretty much the coolest thing in the whole world. haha The things we do to stay entertained in the mtc

Thanks for sending my pic and address to James and Vivian. I love them!  They are so cute and I miss them!  Every time I meet an elder or a sister who is going to Brazil I think about them. I am so excited for Katie, hopefully she has a girl! That would be so cute!!! :) I remember her and I were making jokes about her getting pregnant like when she moved hahah awkward.. So I finally figured out Kate's email and I emailed her last week, and she wrote me this week! OH what a cutie!! I told her we are basically going to be neighbors in about three weeks.

I love you so much and thank you so much for all of your support and everything you do for me!! I love you lots.

XOXO 

Sister Brown.

Brown bag lunch with the district

My district in front of the Temple on Sunday.. what a bunch of keepers

Me and Elder Redd!! or known as Mormon. He was in my youthlinc group and we went to Mexico together so it was fun having him in my branch.  We always talked and such, it was great!!

The two nihongi, they are so cute and they left on Monday!! They told me they love the way my voice sounds... haha awkward because I sound like a man..

Weekends at the mtc are pretty slow so I have resigned to taking pictures of myself hahaha

I couldn't find that mtc sign so I took this picture  instead.

MTC WEEK 5

This last week was amazing!! Choir was amazing! It was a once in a life time opportunity and I am so glad that I was able to participate it in. It was great fun! We left the MTC around 12:30 and didn't get home until  about 9:30! It was a full day gone from the mtc haha I was loving it. But it was actually kind of weird being out in the real world and not being in the mtc or the mile radius of the mtc haha. We got there and we sang sang sang. We had really good food and then sang some more and then it was time for the meeting to start!!  The two songs we sang are awesome and they were just such a reassurance to the fact that I am exactly where I am suppose to be serving the Lord :)

It made my day seeing you the other night :) gosh it was so great!! Like I don't even know how to explain it. I cried just a little bit the first time we waved at each other. Pretty sure I just stared at you the whole meeting!! It was great.  It was weird though because even though I miss you and I was so happy to see you, like I wanted to come home with you but at the same time I didn't at all!! I love being on my mission. Its amazing. Even though I am only in the MTC, I just love it here.  I got to give Sister Burton and her two counselors hugs so that was nice. It was so amazing. The conference center is huge!!! Like all the back stage areas. So crazy. It was just overall such an amazing experience and opportunity. So my companion was in the choir actually. But she was in a different part than me and like leaving the conference center was crazy back stage so I just left and was hoping I would see her on the bus. One brother told me to just go to the buses. That's the most important part was to make it to the bus and that your companion would find you somewhere haha So I went to the bus!! So it was fun. All of the sisters that are in my district were in the choir. 

Well another week down!! It is crazy how fast time is going. I am not sure if I like it or not. Its just weird. I am officially well, my district is officially the oldest now.  Its so crazy, I still feel like I can hardly say anything that isn't written down on paper.. My memorization skills aren't very good, they really need some work. I feel like I just learn so much in one day that it is impossible to remember it all. But I can officially read and write in hiragana  that's such a great feeling I am really slow at it, but it's coming along and I am making some major progress.  On Sunday we had a really great fireside about going to the Temple! I am really excited about going because of the fireside and because of this questions I have been thinking about lately. I was reading the scriptures and the question or statement "Dare to be consecrated" has been in my mind the past week. It's something that I have been studying a ton about so yeah. I am really excited to go to the Temple today because of that!! 

 

Things in the mtc are good I think I am gettting fat haha I eat so much!!  However I have been feeling really sick the past couple of days.. Its  been terrible. I have like an awful cold. A headache that won't go away and sore throat, my ears kill and that awkward chest pain haha my body is so sore too. I am tired of being sick. It makes it impossible to pay attention in class when you are feeling like this. Hopefully it gets better soon.

 

I love you so much and I know that this church is true. Try not to miss me too much!! I love ya 

XOXO 

Sister Brown 

あい　して　ます

Week 4 of the MTC

I am doing pretty well the mtc is treating me fairly  good for now. Lets just say that I am getting use to it and I am actually really having a great time here hahah. Its nice having a strict routine and always being busy. My japanese is slowing making progress! I memorized the missionary purpose in Japanese last week so thats a step, next up the first vision. That will be a real treat for sure. Hopefully I will be able to do it. SO exciting news, I am in the choir for general Relief Society meeting!! I can't wait until Saturday!! Wahhh its going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity! I am very lucky to be blessed with this. I am still not sure how I made it in the choir because I have like THE worst singing voice and I have no choir experience. But i don't even care!! I am just so excited that I am going to be singing in it!! 

 

I see Jake Brown all the time! So far he seems to be doing good, he might just be acting tough around me, I couldn't tell you for sure!  But it's fun actually talking to him, He never has talked this much to me before, I love it hahah. We pretty much were in the same boat about coming to the mtc  having no prior knowledge of Japanese, unlike everyone else in our district. We aren't in the same zone/branch so that's lame but I still see him all the time! I only have like 4 and half more weeks here I can't believe its already gone by so fast!! 

 

 

So my sleeping hasn't gotten much better. I am like sleep talking all night long and doing weird stuff haha, but I do have hope, my companion said that last night I was sleep talking all in Japanese.. Well if only I could do that when I was awake!! Tonight is our last night for having our devotionals at the Marriott center how sad.. I love that little freedom of crossing the street and and being outside of the mtc for a few hours.. The only bummer is that I am going over to BYU when we leave! I am so glad that UTAH WON! On Saturday I wore red and I also wore red on Sunday too. It was so crazy walking back to my little dorm thing and hearing the game!  The whole time I was hoping that Utah was going to win! and sure enough they did!!  Brandon told me that the BYU fans were like throwing garbage and stuff at the refs, what a shame.

Thanks you so much for the package!! what a treat! It's great getting some of my favorite foods and such, and yes I just got grannies and grandpa's  package yesterday!! Lets just say everyone was jealous of me when they saw me walking in with that huge box! I am so grateful for them.

 

I can't wait until I get to Japan and I get the chance to change lives in so many important ways. It will be the best feeling ever!  It is crazy! only 17 more months.. I am so afraid they are going to go by way too fast!  I love my mission so much and I am so grateful to be serving the Lord, he has taught me so much in my life and I don't know where I would be if it wasn't for Him!! 

 

I love you so much and hope all is well :) keep having fun

xoxo 

Sister Brown

Week #3 of the MTC

So I am pretty sure that the high of the MTC has worn off! Things are getting pretty hard again! I keep realizing how much I still have left to learn and I have so little time. So that is starting to be a little stressful. But hopefully thing are starting to pick up again. I am excited that Jake Brown is going to be here. It will be great to see a face that I recognize and know. I hope that he is in my branch because yesterday we had three branches leave so it is pretty small now which stresses me out because that means I am more likely to be called on to say a prayer or speak in Sacrament meeting and I am no way ready for that!!! Teaching our investigator is getting better too. I am just having such a hard time because I don't understand a whole lot of stuff and  I have a really hard time forming  a sentence. Everything in Japanese is backwards from English so that is super frustrating. But Heavenly Father is watching out for me and has sent me some of the best teachers in the whole wide world! Powell Sensei and Heaton Sensei are like true disciples I am so grateful for them. They really are helping me out a ton. I am doing my best not to get too overwhelmed but you know me.. I think the hardest thing I have had to realize while  being here is that I can't do it all on my own I really have to rely on the Lord and that has been such a hard lesson for me to learn. the mtc has been such a humbling place. I have also found that being at the mtc has really tested my testimony. In many ways you would think that being here would only make it grow but that is not the case I have really had to look deep into the gospel and really look at  my testimony. I know that with out a doubt this church is THE true church. I have a hard time saying my testimony in English now haha because I am trying to think like in Japanese and its just throwing everything off, here is a sentence that I believe. It is in Japanese

Iesu Kirirsuto no agani ni kansha shimasu. haha blahh its all good though. I am very excited to go to the Temple today! That always helps with everything. It makes me happy there, which is a really good thing. So yeah!  

 

The gluten free food here is really good.. surprise haha I probably have gained a few pounds I hope not.. I have been lifting weights so that always good and doing a little cardio. I play four square like a champ so its a great feelings know that I am working out a little. It is a good stress reliever. But yeah the food isnt too bad so I am enjoying that. Like it could be so much  worse!

 

On sunday night we had a really great devotional. Have you seen the movie 17 miracles or Ephraim's rescue? well the guy who made both of the movies came and talked with us so that was really awesome those two movies look AMAZING! I want to see them when I get home! You guys should check them out!! Its funny the simple things I am finding joy in now. Like when we watched the Testament I was loving it! any excuse to watch tv or a movie right?! 

 

My companion is so kind hearted I am very lucky that I have her. She has taught me so much! I am so grateful for her!

 

So yesterday while teaching my investigator, she said a word and we didn't know what it was so we were looking it up in the dictionary. But I have no idea who to look things up in it because its all in hiragana and I can't read that yet. well the word we looked up the definition and it said smeared yellow... haha well I was like what the heck that can't  be right. She told us that when she prays and reads the scriptures she feels, "smeared yellow" haha we were just so confused so we asked her to look up the word for us and like literally right across the page from it was the correct word and that was hope so now I know and I will never make that mistake ever again!! 

Things are good here but its going by so fast! I  can't really believe that i am on the start of week four!!! The church is so true and I love this gospel so much. I also have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and know it is the word of God!!

Talk to you all later!! Write me 

XOXO Brown Shimai.

                                                     we have this picture at home!!

 me and the nihonjin (japanese missionaries)

Second Week of the MTC

This week has been soooooooo much better. I am actually used to my whole new schedule. I still don't have any idea what people are saying when they are speaking Japanese but its getting better. I now can pray in Japanese and I can even say a few things about my testimony so that is actually really exciting. I am also starting to learn Hiragana So I know about 20 of those characters I only need to learn 26 more.. but that is just one alphabet there are about 3 others but I am not going to learn those they said to just focus on the one I am learning now. So it is coming, slowly but surely. I am so grateful for my sensei he is amazing and really is such a great help. It is crazy to think that he is only like 22 and already has such a great knowledge of Japanese and can be such a great teacher. I really feel the spirit in class. We do all these things called mogis, (skits) and its crazy how much you can learn and feel the spirit in a pretend investigator. The other day we got out investigator to pray that was amazing. She was so hesitant at first, in fact the first thing she told us is that she doesn't want to be baptized but she said a prayer and it was so amazing, So I am really hoping that she will change her mind about it. ( she isn't a real investigator she is pretend) Even with that fact the spirit is really there and its awesome. But I am a disaster in the lessons because we are trying not to write a script haha so like I have no idea how to form sentences or anything the only real sentence I have memorized is God loves you! haha so i mean i guess i could just say that over and over again but i don't really think that would be the best thing. It's funny because there are like huge awkward pauses when nothing is being said and we are all just staring at each other.  But it is crazy being able to see the huge change from  just the 3rd day of being here and teaching her compared to our 6th lesson with her.  

I am going to do my best to look for Elise!!! I better see her or I am going to be mad I told her where I am living and what class room I am in.  Oh Mitch was a cute critter, gotta love that kid :) and I really am excited for Jake to come. I know that we aren't like really close but it will be great hopefully he is in my zone! Because next Monday a bunch of people from my zone are leaving so hopefully he can be in my zone then we would see each other a ton. He is going to love it here. At first he might hate it and want to come home and cry all the time in the shower but after the first week it gets better. It is still hard as ever but its getting better so that makes me happy!! Make sure to tell me when Amy gets her call I hope it is to TOKYO!!

 

 

I don't know how Kate is doing it. Her mission seems so hard and such a stresser and I thought the first week here was hard haha I am very grateful for where I am going and the trials I am having compared to Kates. But that is such an amazing experience. Kate is going to be the best missionary and I am so happy for her, this will bless her life so much! You should always send me her emails  I  just love her so much!! 

 

 

Thank you so much for the packages I really love getting them and I really love getting mail. It helps me out a ton. It makes me realize that yanno E you can do this. People think that it would make me home sick, but it doesn't, it makes the days better when you have been tested so hard and been thrown heaps of Japanese and the gospel in my brain. It is relaxing getting letters and packages. I loved the HiChews ahh those are my favorite and those cookies are delicious!! I love a good ginger snap! Next time you go you need to try some of their peanut butter they have like all these really good flavors haha try one and pick your favorite and send it to me with a spoon and I will eat it!  SO I really miss del taco....  but you don't need to send that to me because I don't know how that will work out. Maybe send me like a coke.

 

 

That letter from Tim Brown was so kind! I really appreciated it, as weird as this might sound everything he said I know exactly what he is meaning. The first week really tested me and took me to my wits end. My hand was clear up here!! Past my head and as high as I could reach :) haha  but it was good. I am very thankful for that. The two other girls in my room are pretty cool. One is a HUGE BYU fan so that makes it hard she talks like they are the greatest thing in the whole world.. It gets pretty annoying. She is also from Texas and that's just a whole nother story. Some people take way too much pride in themselves and where they are from, the best part is she has only lived there for like 2 years.. so can you really consider yourself from Texas??  But the other one is so sweet and is from Wyoming and went to Utah State I really like her. We have a couple of inside jokes together so its great! Me and my companion are doing so much better and are getting a long better. We just have complete opposite personalities but in a way I think is a good thing. but it would be cool if Alisa was my companion, that would be the bomb.

 

I Love you so much and the things that I have learned this week are:

 

1- faith, don't let your faith that you already have disappear. At times I think we tend to do that. We need something and need the Lord so deeply I think we forget about the faith we already have right now. WE must always keep our faith we have and let that faith grow and develop into more faith. You know, you can never have too much faith!!. 

 

2- It is the Lords will not mine. I am His servant and I am doing His work. He will answer all of my prayers but He will do it on His time and not on mine!

 

 XOXO Brown Shimai