Japan 3 Oct3 2010

Week 14

Mission Log

We went to COSTCO right after I e-mailed home last week. It was just like the COSTCOs back at home. They had all the same American foods and everything on the foods was writen in English. It was pretty great. It felt like being back in America. Then, when we walked out of the store, it was pouring down rain. It felt even more like being back at home. I had used a black marker to color over all the logos on my backpack, and when the backpack got all wet the marker ran off and got all over my white shirt. That was a bit of a bummer.

The next day, my backpack had dried off, and, without even thinking about it, I just put it on and left the apartment. The marker got all over another one of my shirts. I was worried that I had ruined two of my white shirts, but when I washed them, the marks all came right out.

We have our own washing machine in our apartment but not a dryer. Nobody has dryers hardly. Everyone just hangs their clothes on a clothes line. Also, nobody has ovens. Everyone here have crazy high-tech microwaves. Our microwave has an "oven" button on it. It`s really cool. If you just hit the start button, it picked out a time for you, and it`s pretty good. If you just hit start on the washing machine, it`ll weigh your clothes and work accordingly.

Tuesday morning, I got out a paperback Book of Mormon. I spent my personal study time writing out my testimony in Japanese. I then wrote that on the inside cover of the Book of Mormon along with my name and phone number. Then, I went through and marked some of my favorite scriptures. Then, I prayed and asked God to either let me know who I was meant to give that Book of Mormon to, or let them know me. Later that day, we were sitting on some steps and talking to a guy we just met. During the conversation, someone just walks up to us out of nowhere and says, "Hey, I know you. You`re Mormons." It was really surprising because no one here has ever heard of the church before. Then he`s like, "Can I have your book." It was a miracle. God definitely answers prayers. My Japanese isn`t very good so I can`t speak well, and it`s very difficult for me to understand what people say. Therefor, at times, I feel a little useless, but this shows that there are things everyone can do. I put in a little effort in the morning and did all that I could. God saw that I was putting in my best effort and he helped with the rest. It was great. We found four new investigators that day. I now always carry a Book of Mormon with my testimony, name, phone number, and marked scriptures, and I now write little descriptions under all of the pictures that it has at the beginning.

They next day we met a member of the mahikari. You can just feel evil coming from them. They have devil powers.

The next day, we had our weekly planning meeting. It ended up taking way too long.

Friday, I ate octopus. The word for octopus in Japanese is tako (taco). It could easily get confused. The octopus was really hard and chewy. I didn`t really like it that much. It was a good experience though. Then, from the restaurant, I left with Elder Nakamura. We went on companion exchanges. I basically just swapped places with another Elder for twenty-four hours. I rode back to their place which is in the middle of nowhere. It took forever. By the time I got there, it was basically time for bed. The Elder I switched with (Elder Moffet) has a nice air mattress. It was pretty comfortable.

I then spent the next day with Elder Nakamura. He is Japanese and he didn`t speak any English the whole time. I`m still learning Japanese. So, it was very difficult to communicate. Kitarokko (the area I was in for the day) is in the middle of nowhere. There are pretty much zero people. The area is huge is space and has no big buildings. It`s incredibly hilly. It took forever to get to anywhere. I had to ride that other Elder`s bike, and it was just awful. My bike is brand new and very nice. His bike is falling apart. He`s known throughout the mission for being very clumsy and such (Elder Moffet). He`s gotten in wrecks on his bike about one bazajillion times. It was so junky. We had a good time anyway. That night, when I rode my bike home, it felt so good. I love my bike. It`s all white, and it`s really nice. Also, I found out that they don`t let you go through the drive-through at McDonald`s if you`re on a bike. I thought they would since it`s Japan and everyone rides bikes.

The next day was Sunday. We went to church, and it was good. I still don`t understand most of what`s being said. It`s so hard. But, Brother Ueda came to church. He`s a less active member that we talked to and asked to come to church. When we rode our bikes home, it was raining again. It`s about a forty-five minute ride home from church. That`s because we actually live in Amagasaki. We don`t even live in our own area that we work in. It`s a long bike ride to get to everything. There is a church building right outside our apartment, but it`s the Amagasaki building and we go the Nishinomiya building. That night Brother Ueda had us over for dinner. His house is so tiny. It`s smaller than my bedroom. His house is only one room, and a little closet sized bathroom. We sat on the floor and he put a newspaper down as a table. But, he fed us way good food. He gave us each our own package of meat that cost about six dollars each. We then put the meat in boiling water until it turned white, then dipped it in this way good sauce, which he clearly bought just for this meal. Also, he gave us each and box of sushi (another six dollars each). Most of the sushi was very good. A lot of it is just a hunk rice with a slab of raw fish thrown on top. It was so weird eating slabs of raw fish. Then, he gave us bottled water and cup of noodles (yes, they have cup of noodles here). His place is tiny and he has no money, but he still spent a tons to feed us. It was really nice of him. We talked to him for a while and now he`s going to start coming to church again.

I haven`t watched conference yet. They play it in the Stake Centers on the following week. So, this Saturday and Sunday I will go up to Kobe and watch it. I hear I`ll even be able to watch it in English.

The biggest holidays here are Christmas and Shogatsu (New Year`s same day as ours). They don`t understand what Christmas is or why we celebrate it, but they think it`s fun and the give presents and stuff. Shogatsu is like the Shinto/Buddhist equivalent of Christmas. Everyone goes to the shrines and stuff. They do some decorating for Halloween, but not very much. The stores sell Halloween candy, but nobody goes trick-or-treating. It`s not super big here. And, nobody celebrates the 4th of July. It`s so crazy.

The church pays the rent and utilities for the apartment I live in, and they put money on a debit card I have each month so I can buy groceries and stuff. They give me plenty to live off of.

I am taller than the average guy but not by very much. I`m way taller than all the girls though. The girls here are so short. The guys are almost normal height. I don`t usually play any sports on Preperation day, but there is a day coming up sometime soon when a buch of missionaries are going to get together and play some sports. I`m excited for that. I wish we played more sports.

Signing out for the week,

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

Japan

Elder Hart

Aragasaki apartment

Week 13

Mission Log

Things are going really well here. The weather is starting to cool down. It`s not even that hot anymore. My companion is from Whakatani, New Zealand. We`re going to the stake center in Kobe to watch conference. I don`t know what days or times it is at though.

I`m basically starving all the time. We have hardly any food in our apartment other than rice and curry. There`s nothing to eat. There is one COSTCO in the mission and it`s in our area. We will go shopping there later today. It will be fun. I`m going to buy so much American food. Everything here is really expensive. The loafs of bread that you buy at the store here only have five or six slices in them. I need to buy about one million of them in order to be fed for a week. A two pound bag of cheese cost eight hundred and eighty yen. That`s a little more than nine dollars. Cereal is very expensive and they don`t have any of the good brands. It`s like they`re trying to make me eat Japanese foods.

We`re having some success. I haven`t baptized anyone yet though. When I got to Nishinomiya, there were zero progressing investigators. It`s better now. We have two people that have baptismal dates. I hope it will work out.

The weather has cooled down a lot. It isn`t even hot anymore.

Japanese is coming along pretty well. I`m getting better at understanding what other people are saying. I don`t have very much time to write this week, but next week I`ll write a bunch. I hope everyone is having fun.

-Elder Isaac Swift

JAPAN

Week 12
Mission Log

I`m finally here in Japan. It just took me forever to find the apostrophe on this Japanese keyboard. The group I was in that was going to Kobe had fourteen people in it. President McIntyre said it was the biggest group he`s ever had. We stayed in the Mission Home in Kobe for the first two days. We just did lots of training and stuff. One morning, some of us woke up early and hiked up this big hill to a park that overlooks the whole city. There are just giant buildings as far as the eye can see.

Then I got my assignment and my first companion. I got assigned to Nishinomiya. I was pretty happy about that. It`s right next to the Kobe area. I could probably see it from up on the hill. We even go back to the Kobe Mission Home sometimes for activities and stuff. And, it`s a big city area. In the whole Kobe mission, Nishinomiya is the smallest area geographically. I`m glad that I got to go to a city area and didn't have to be in the countryside. We never knock on doors here. We just talk to people on the street or on the trains.

My companion is Elder Hart. He is from New Zealand, and he is basically the exact opposite of me in every way. He lived in Japan for a few years before his mission, so his Japanese is really good. He's the district leader. Two other missionaries live in the same apartment with us. They are Elder Lee and Elder Hoffman. They're the district leaders. They're pretty cool.

It's way harder to understand people here. In the MTC everyone talks pretty simply and slowly and they have American accents. In the Kobe Osaka area people talk really really fast and they have their own unique dialect from the rest of Japan.　　It`s really hard to understand.

Japan is way cool though. Just because I'm an American, I'm basically a celebrity. People stare at me. Some people just try to talk English to me. A lot of people are pretty good at English, but some aren't very good. And, their accent is so funny when the try to talk English. A lot of the time, when I walk by, girls will say "kakkoi" which means cool. It's pretty fun here.

There are like fifty billion bicycles. Even old ladies will ride bikes around. It's really weird. Also, there are vending machines all over the place. They're just on the sidewalks of all the streets. Not just the big streets. Every street has vending machines. There are tall building everywhere. They seem like they're built around the train stations. There are a lot of train stations and everyone rides the trains. Everybody really likes English. A lot of the time, if you try to stop people on the street to talk to them, they'll just ignore you. But, If you talk in English, they'll stop and try to talk to you. It's fun. Sometimes I have to speak English in a Japanese accent for them to understand. I have to say I'm from Shiatoru instead of Seattle. Everyone knows Ichiro. People love baseball. It's really hot and humid all the time here.

The first lesson I taught here was to a man from India and his English was much better than his Japanese. So, we taught him in English. We usually teach in Japanese though.

I had to introduce myself in church and bear my testimony up at the pulpit, in Japanese. It went pretty well. There are only like forty to fifty people in church every week, but it's a ward, not a branch, and we have our own church building just for this ward. The second councilor in the bishopric is really cool. His name is Senba. He just got back from a mission in Sapporo recently. He's easier to understand. Some people are really hard to understand, and some people are a lot easier.

Talk to you next week,

-Elder Isaac D Swift

Mission President and my Companion

JAPAN

Hey. I'm allowed to send you a quick email to tell you that I got to Japan safely. Everything is great. I'm living in the mission home for a day or two. Then, I'll go to my first area. Love you.

Bye.

Elder Isaac Swift

JAPAN

Isaac is finally in Japan! His new address is

Elder Isaac Swift
Japan Kobe Mission
4-6-28 Shinohara Honmachi

MTC 7 Sept 2010

Week 10

Mission Log

This is likely to be the last time that I'm able to contact you from this facility. Once they trust me enough to sent me off of a mission in Japan, I'll be able to contact you more easily. On Friday, I received the plans for my traveling. On Monday morning, I leave the MTC at 10:00am. I might be allowed to call home from the Salt Lake City airport. I then fly to Tokyo, Japan. I arrive there at 4:35pm on Tuesday. That makes the flight more than 24 hours long! It's really just like 15 hours. The international date line makes it seem longer. I also might be able to call home from there, but probably not both times. Probably one call. I don't know when. Then, I fly to Osaka. There the mission president will meet me, take me out to dinner I hear (Kobe steak I hope), and bring me to the mission home where I will spend the night. My companions are both going to the Nagoya Mission. So, they are on different flights completely. Therefore, I need a new companion while traveling. I've been assigned Elder Jindo. He's Japanese. It may be a pretty interesting trip.

I did receive the camera card. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures when I get to Japan. The tie that everyone loves is the Donald Trump tie that's silvery white with blue boxes on it. It's pretty awesome.

They teach some forms of magic here. That is how I learned to run up walls and such.

Nathanael and Mary-Anne: Thank you for infiltrating the security here in order to help me acquire some of the necessary "tools." They are greatly appreciated and very much enjoyed. As far as I can tell, this infiltration has gone unnoticed by the guards, but I can't know for certain. I've been seeing all kinds of storms from my classroom window. I've seen more lightning since I've been here than I've seen in a long time. I like watching them on some of the really long days.

Japanese is coming along pretty well. It seems like I'm learning more this week than I did on any of the other weeks. It's the last week. So, I have to work as hard as I possibly can.

I don't really have that much to write about other than I'm excited to go to Japan. Oh, I probably won't be able to email home next week. Here in the MTC, my P-Day is on Tuesday. Out in the field it will most likely be Monday. I leave here on Monday and arrive in Japan on Tuesday. Therefore, I completely miss P-Day. So, if you don't get an email, that's why. You don't need to worry that I was killed or anything. I'll make my email extra long the next week.

Signing out,

Elder Isaac D Swift