Kyoto Japan 9 Jan 2011

Week 27

Mission Log

Another good week here.  Thanks to me, the country still hasn`t been taken over by zombies.  That`s awesome that the Seahawks are doing so well right now.  Maybe this year they can finally take the Superbowl championship that rightfully belonged to them so long ago.  Let me know if they win. 

You don`t know what a Navajo Taco is?  Yes, it`s named after the Indian tribe.  It`s kind of like a taco, but instead of a normal tortilla you make a pretty thick tortilla that`s almost like a pita.  You cook that up then put whatever you want on top of it (refried beans, salsa, lettuce, tomato, ground beef, chocolate covered strawberries, cheese, etc.)  It`s pretty good. 

We do have a heater in our apartment, but we don`t leave it on all night.  So, it gets pretty cold in the mornings.  Also, when the heater is on, only the study, bedroom, and kitchen get warm.  The bathroom and entryway are still freezing cold.  It`s snowing right now here.  I sleep on two futons (like a mattress but only two inches thick and not as solid and structured) and I use three blankets. 

I have to know, when people say the year, do they say "two thousand eleven" or do they say "twenty eleven"?  I feel so cut off from the rest of the world.  For the entire 2011 year, I`m going to be cut off from the normal world.  I`m guessing that they say "two thousand eleven".  It sounds more right to me, but I`m not sure.  when we talk about 2012 we say "twenty twelve."  English is so weird.  I`m going to be so bad at English by the time I get back.  I won`t even be able to talk.  I`ll fail all my English classes. 

I finally feel like I`m starting to make a little progress on learning this language.  All you have to do to get by in Japan is do everything the exact opposite of how you would do it in America.  Every time I try to lock or unlock a door, I get mixed up because you turn the key backwards to how you would in America.  The sentences are all in backwards order.  In an emergency you call

1-1-9.  Everything`s so crazy.

Mom or Dad:  Can you please send some pictures of our house, yard, and family.  Everyone always asks to see pictures of my family, and people here would freak out if they saw how big our house and yard are.  Everyone lives in tiny houses here and has no back or front yard.  Our house would totally blow their minds.  Also, if you have a good banana bread recipe you could send that too.  I have some bananas that turned brown and gross. 

That`s all for this week.  Try to make sure that the United States stays cool until I get back. 

Each city has their own manhole cover design.  It often has what the city is famus for.

  



This means "stop"

-Elder Isaac D. Swift



Kyoto 2 Jan 2010 (3 Jan in Japan)

Week 26

Mission Log

Happy New Year! They do celebrate New Years here, at the same time that we celebrate it in the US (other than 16 or so hours difference). New Year is the biggest holiday of the year in Japan. There are a lot of shrines and temples in Kyoto (the city I`m in), so on Jan.1st my area was way packed full of people. It was hard to walk around in some parts of the town just because there were so many people there. There were a lot of foreigners too. It was cool.

On Christmas, after I got done talking on the phone, we went to the church building in the area neighboring ours and spent the day there with some other missionaries and a couple members of their ward. Never in my life did I think I`d be able to say that I ate Navajo Tacos, in Japan, on Christmas. It was a lot of fun. After eating we played some games (all in Japanese). One of the games involved picking animals and making animal noises. I usually don`t particularly like that kind of game, but I had fun that time because of everyone there (except the Japanese people) I had the best Japanese animal vocabulary. I knew all the animals that were mentioned. It made me feel good. While we were playing the game, it snowed a little bit. We were pretty excited about that. It was super light and none of it stuck to the ground, but it was still cool. It still counts as a white Christmas, right?

On New Year`s Eve, it snowed all day. It was great. My companion didn't like it though. While we were riding our bikes, he slipped and fell. I thought the snow was fun though. It was the first real snowfall of the season. Christmas was too light to count. The next day all we had was a bunch of slush and the day after that everything was gone completely. It was fun while it lasted. On New Year`s morning I could see my breath, inside my apartment. It was so cold.

We had a big conference for half the mission on New Year`s Day. We all got together and played sports and stuff. It was a lot of fun. Can you imagine sixty twenty year old guys playing a big game of dodgeball? It was a lot of fun. They also let us watch a movie. We watched Kung Fu Panda. It was good. We watched it in Japanese with English subtitles.

Today, we went down to Osaka for the day. We went up a big tower that they have in Osaka. It was like the Space Needle except only half as tall, doesn't rotate, doesn't have a restaurant, we had to wait for an hour and fifteen minutes before going up, it has taller buildings nearby, and it doesn't look cool. It was still pretty fun though. We could see all of Osaka, I think. In every direction tall buildings and city stretched on as far as I could see. It was crazy. Osaka is like twenty times the size of Seattle.

Today I ate some Takoyaki. It`s balls of batter with a piece of octopus in the middle fried and topped with mayonnaise a black sauce and fish flakes. It was pretty good. On Saturday I ate a fried sparrow. They cooked it just the way it is. It still looked like a sparrow and everything. It wasn't that good. It still had all of the bones in it. You were just supposed to chew and swallow the bones along with the meat. I was worried that the bones would cut up my throat or something. I was OK though.

We found one new investigator this week. Everyone`s in a big hurry around New Year`s and nobody wants to talk to us, but we found one person who said he wants to hear about our message. His name is Ishida. We`re meeting again on Tuesday. There is one person who has come to church every week for the last six months. He loves all the teachings of the church and everything. He loves all the members. He said that he doesn't want to get baptized though because he doesn't believe in God. His name is Yuta. We also have an investigator named Hirano that is progressing really well, and liking everything about the church.

In Japan there is only one ward in each church building. I thought that was weird.

Japanese is still really hard for me. I still have trouble understanding people all the time. I have to really concentrate to understand what people are saying to me. Everyone understands what I say just fine though.

That`s all I have for this week. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year`s Day.

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

KYOTO 19 Dec 2010

Week 25

Mission Log

25 really is a lot of weeks. It`s already a fourth of one hundred. Essentially, I`m a fourth of the way done with my mission already. That`s crazy. It still seems like I`m a brand new missionary, but I`m old now. I`m not a new missionary anymore. I`m just a normal missionary.

Today is my half birthday. I`m now nineteen and a half years old.

The phone call is on Christmas morning for me. Therefore, it would be Christmas Eve for you. I can talk for an hour, or a little longer because I have a big family. I`m only allowed to speak in Japanese, though. So, I hope you`ve been studying. Christmas is going to be Preparation Day. I will, therefore, not have my normal Preparation Day on the 27th. I probably won`t email next week. Sorry. I`m looking forward to the phone call in a few days.

On Wednesday we have a Ward Christmas party. I get to be Jesus Christ in the Christmas pageant. Not the baby Jesus in the manger, though. I`m Christ when he calms the stormy sea and when he is crucified. I think it will be a fun Christmas party.

I ate a Big Mac the other day. It was so good. I kind of miss American foods like that. The Big Mac is so American and so opposite of all Japanese foods. It has bread, meat, and cheese. Those are the three things that Americans eat way more of than Japanese people. I don`t know if they have this in America or not, but here they have sweets buffets. I don`t remember ever seeing one in the US. I ate at one once. It`s an all you can eat place with chocolate fountains and cakes and ice cream and stuff like that. Most of them have some regular food too and you can pay the higher price to eat regular food and sweets or you can pay the lower price to eat only sweets. They`re kind of common here. It really surprised me because Japanese people don`t eat very much sweets. It`s too expensive to eat at often, only once in a while.

We did some caroling in the street one night. There were eight missionaries there. A lot of people stopped and listened. A group of like ten people ran up and joined us. They were all about twenty and they sang Christmas songs with us. The songs were in English. After we sang a little bit, we talked to the people. We were broken up into little groups. So, I had to talk to two Japanese people I didn't know, with no one there to help me. It turned out alright though. One girl said that she'd studied English for nine years, but she still couldn't speak it. She didn't even want to introduce herself in English. She would only speak in Japanese.

They can`t pronounce most of the English missionaries` names, but we don`t use Japanese names. We use our normal names, but sometimes we change it a little to make is easier to pronounce for them. They call my suifuto choro. The second u is really short though, so it`s like suifto choro. You have to change it a little so you can write it with the Japanese alphabet. Choro means Elder in Japanese. The Japanese people all use their normal names. None of them have English names like the Chinese people I've met do.

Caleb's new schedule sounds pretty hard. I hope he can handle it. I did get the package you sent. I did get a package from the ward. I did get the Christmas card. I might have gotten the missionary newsletter a long time ago. I don`t remember. Thank you. I really appreciate it. It`s very nice.

Calendars already have some holidays printed on them. Here a lot of calendars don`t have Christmas on them, but they all have the Emperor`s Birthday on them. It`s December 23rd. I thought that was pretty funny.

I`m out of things to say now. I`m looking forward to the phone call. I probably won`t email next week. I love you all. Bye.

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

JAPAN 12 Dec 2010

Week 24

Mission Log

Things are going well here, and it has been a very good 24 weeks.

On Tuesday morning, at about 6:50am we got a phone call announcing whether or not we were going to transfer. Elder Hashimoto stayed in Nishinomiya. I got transfer out of Nishinomiya. I transferred to Fushimi, which is the cool part of Kyoto. Tokyo is the capital of Japan now, but anciently the capital was Kyoto. So, Kyoto has all kinds of cool castles, and Japanese temples, and crazy stuff like that. It`s awesome here. I get to be here for Christmas and Shogatsu (New Year`s, it very big in Japan and everyone goes to Buddhist temples and stuff) for sure. And, if I stay here for a little while, I`ll get to be here for the cherry blossoms too. It`s a very cool place. It`s much colder here than in Nishinomiya. Kyoto is one of the coldest parts of the mission. Some say it`s the coldest. But, it hardly snows at all. It rains often. I don`t understand how it rains when it`s really cold, but it does.

My new companion is named Elder Maesawa. He is Japanese, but his English is really good. I wish my Japanese was as good as his English. He is tiny. I`m a bit taller than the average Japanese person and he`s a little shorter than the average Japanese person. I`m probably a foot taller than him. When I got here, he kept saying "dekai!!!", which means huge. I never thought of myself as a very big person, but the longer I`m here, the more I`m starting to believe that I am a giant. Elder Maesawa is very energetic. He`s always making jokes and playing around, but he still works hard and he`s a good missionary.

The funniest thing happened. On the day that I transferred, we took a train to go to a meeting location. The train was super packed. Everyone was pressed up against everyone else. They were all squished together super tight, but there was like a five inch space around me. The Japanese people were all trying hard not to get to close to me. It was so funny and weird.

We had a baptism here in Fushimi. His name is really Zhang Hao Yun, but he doesn't go by that. He`s Chinese. He always goes by his Japanese name, Cho, or when he meets English speaking people he uses his English name Lawrence. I think it`s weird to use a different name in other languages, but all the Chinese people I've met do it. He`s a very fun guy. He`s a good addition to the ward, but he`s going back to his home in China in a few weeks.

The mission is great. I've seen many miracles. I see the Lord`s hand helping me all the time now. I don`t know if he`s helping me more because I`m a missionary, or if I`m just noticing it more now. It`s probably a combination of both. It`s incredible. He always provides me with just what I need right when I need it. It`s not always when I want it, but everything I need is taken care off. It really feels like He`s watching me and taking care of me. It`s a wonderful feeling.

That`s all I have to say for this week. I`ll write again next week. Bye.

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

Japan 5 Dec. 2010 Nishinomiya

Week 23

Mission Log



Sister Yamamoto at her baptism

The baptismal service was great. There were like thirty people there. That`s as many as come to church on most Sundays. Sister Yamamoto was referred to us by a church member who lives up in Sendai. The member from Sendai flew down here to see the baptismal service. It was great. I didn't do the confirmation on Sunday. A member of the bishopric did it instead. His name is Brother Suzuki. There are a lot of people named Suzuki here. It`s a very very common name. Brother Suzuki served a mission in Sendai. He just got home from his mission a few months ago. When he was on his mission, he baptized Sister Yamamoto`s friend from Sendai. It was such a crazy coincidence. Sister Yamamoto`s husband didn't come to see here baptism though. I thought that was kind of sad.

My companion went to leadership training in Kobe on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So, I went and worked in Kitarokko. Kitarokko is in the middle of the mountains. It is all hills. It`s very difficult on a bike. And, it`s freezing cold. It was a fun three days.

Tomorrow morning we will get the phone call telling us if we`re transferring or not. It`s exciting and nerve racking. I think that I`m going to transfer and my companion, Elder Hashimoto, is going to stay here. I don`t think I`ll transfer very far though. I don`t think I`ll leave the Kansai area. I think I`ll go to Osaka or very close to it. That`s my prediction. Next week I`ll let you know what happened. I really hope I get to go somewhere that isn't full of rice fields. My companion thinks I`m going to the island of Shikoku. There are practically no people there.

When Japanese people are being polite, they speak in a high pitched nasally voice. Especially the women. I think it`s really funny. We were talking with a member, she was talking perfectly normally. Then, she got a phone call and she answered it and spoke and her super nasally voice. I was way surprised. When she hung up she went right back to speaking normally. It`s funny when you walk through the mall and all the workers talk to you in a super high pitched nasally voice. They`re hard to understand because they use super polite honorific Japanese. It`s wishing minute right now.

Tomorrow is December 7th. I`m unsure if I should pretend that it`s a super big deal in America and everyone just cries and acts sad all day or not. It could cause problems.

Everyone is ready for Christmas here. In Church we sang only Christmas songs. All the lessons had to do with Christmas. Everywhere, all you can hear is Christmas music. There are decorations everywhere. Everyone loves Christmas.

I`m out of time now. I have to get going. I`ll write again next week. Bye.

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

Nishinomiya Japan 25 Nov 2010

Week 22

Mission Log

I`m writing my email three days early this week. On Monday my companion is going to training in Kobe and I`m going to work in a neighboring area called Kitarokko with another missionary. So, we have our preparation day today (Friday) instead of on Monday. I just wrote an email like four days ago. So, I don`t really have a lot to say.

I taught my English class everything there is to know about Thanksgiving. I taught them the history, the food, football, sleeping, gratitude, everything there is to Thanksgiving. Other than that, I didn't do anything for Thanksgiving. Lot`s of people here have never eaten Turkey before. My companion said he`s tried it once in his life. That seems weird to me. One student in my English class asked if we raise the Thanksgiving turkeys ourselves in America. People just have the weirdest ideas about America. Their mind can`t comprehend that anything in America is similar to how it is in Japan. They think we`re all gangster cowboy surfers.

Apparently, there is a really famous samurai that is buried in Nishinomiya. His name is Takeda Shingen. I was looking at some maps of the area, and up in the mountains it said, "Tomb of Takeda Shingen." I showed my companion and he freaked out. He`s like, "Oh! Now way! I want to go there!" I had never heard of him, but the fact that his tomb shows up on the map indicates that he`s somebody of importance. My companion says he`s very famous. You should look up some info about him for me and send it in the next email.

We have a baptism tomorrow. Her name is Sister Yamamoto. My companion will be the one baptizing her, and on Sunday I will confirm her a member of the church. She`s very excited but a little nervous. I am too.

Melon is one of the most common flavors of pop (soda) here. It`s green and it`s delicious. The place I`m emailing in now has free drinks. They don`t have root beer, Sprite, or Coke, but they have two or three brands of melon flavored pop (soda). They have an interesting pop (soda) called Calpis. It`s "a milk based soft drink." It`s really weird, but it`s good. I like it. They have melon Calpis here too. It`s a very popular drink.

They might be just holding any packages for me at the mission home until I go up there for interviews. The next interviews are going to be in mid to late December. After that, I won`t have interviews again until like April. I've been getting letters and stuff just fine. It seems to take about ten days for them to get here though.

I hope everything is going well there. I hope everyone is listening to only Christmas music. I`ll write again next week.

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

21 Nov 2010 Japan

Week 21

Mission Log

On Monday, in my English class, I taught them all about the system of measurement that we use in the United States. I taught them about pound, inches, feet, gallons, etc. (I forgot to teach about the Fahrenheit and Celsius difference). Everyone thought that our system of measurement was totally ridiculous. They kept saying "It`s so hard!" As we were going through it, I was kind of agreeing with them. It was seeming pretty absurd to me, and I`ve used it my whole life. Then, the next day, my companion and I made cookies to give to someone. He had never made cookies before in his life. He bought a package of flour with a recipe on it though. We had to buy basically all of the ingredients though. Japanese people just never use flour, sugar, baking powder and that kind of stuff. When we started making it, I realized how ridiculous their measurements are. All of them were weights. We had to weigh every ingredient on a scale. My companion said that`s normal, and everyone has a scale in their kitchen. It was so annoying. The recipe said "Egg - 20g". I said to him, "Let`s just put one egg in," but he was sure that we needed to weight the egg. Recipes here use grams, liters, milliliters, and cc. Our recipes with cups teaspoons and tablespoons are way easier. It`s wishing minute right now. I also dropped an egg on the ground and looked like a complete idiot. The cookies turned out weird. It was a strange recipe. Maybe I`ll buy some chocolate chips at COSTCO and make cookies with the recipe on there.

Yesterday was the primary program in church. (For any readers that my not be familiar with the church, primary is the children that are 3or 4 to 11 years old.) There were only three children in the primary here. It was so tiny, but it was still totally adorable. They sang the same songs that the primary back at home sings. Each child had a lot of speaking parts though. It was the whole sacrament meeting with only three kids. One kid was so small, he had to climb onto a step so he was tall enough to speak at the podium. And, he spoke a bunch of times. He had to climb up every time. It was cute. Their podiums are really short too. When I spoke last week, I felt like a giant.

Yesterday, when we went into the city, there were Christmas decorations everywhere. It was insane. They all came up really suddenly on the same day. And, there were a ton of them. It`s evident that Christmas is very big here. The area around the main train station was decked out with lights and such. People don`t know what the star means, but the decorations always have a big star in them. People don`t even know what Christmas really is.

That is everything that happened in this week. Next Monday I will write all of the things that happen next week. Until then, you`ll be left in a cloud of mystery about what I`m up to. Goodbye for now.

-Elder Isaac D. Swift