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

Japan 14 Nov 2010

Week 20

Mission Log

Things are going well here. The only American food I miss is McChickens. They have a McPork, and a big chicken patty thing you can buy. I usually get both and combine them into a big McChickenPork. It`s pretty good. The also have a fondue burger at McDonalds. It`s a chicken burger, but the chicken patty is dipped in cheese. It`s really good. Members never invite the missionaries over for dinner like they do back at home. We have two baskets at the church, though, and people put food in them for us sometimes. They put a lot of what they think Americans eat (lots of flour, sugar, popcorn, and hot chocolate usually). Now that I have a Japanese companion, we get Japanese foods too.

It`s starting to get cold here. If you decide to send anything here, I could really use warm gloves, a cool scarf, and a beanie.

I haven`t seen or heard of any upcoming holidays other than Christmas. Some places already have Christmas stuff up. That`s weird. Christmas is super far away. I`m excited to see what Christmas is like here.

I had to speak in church yesterday. I was really nervous. Somebody special was visiting our ward, but I didn't understand who they were. My topic was preparing for the second coming. When he gave me the topic, I told him, "I don`t even know how to say second coming in Japanese." But, I worked really hard, and I think that I gave a pretty good talk. I talked about the parable with the three servants that get different amounts of talents from their master in St. Matthew 25. I also told a story the Pres. Hinckley shared in stake conference a little while back. It was about Native Americans, and the boy having to spend the night in the woods in order to become a man. I love that story. Then I read some of the words to the hymn "The Day Dawn is Breaking". People said that it was really good. One of the visitors that was with the special guy said that he was way shocked at how good my Japanese was. I had a list of a few difficult vocabulary words up at the podium with me. Those were my only notes. All the rest was from my head. I`m really relieved now that it`s over.

There is someone sitting at a nearby computer that is sipping their drink really loudly. Aahh! All Japanese people eat and drink really noisily here. They loudly slurp up everything. It`s just how they eat. People here don`t think it`s rude or annoying or anything. My companion only eats two different meals. He has what he thinks are all these different meals, but to me they just seem like slight variations of the exact same meal. He either has rice with chopped meat, onions, and peppers on top, or he has noodles with chopped meat, onions, and peppers on top. That`s all he eats. He only ever uses two utensils, and they`re both chopsticks. He doesn't even use a spatula or whisk or anything. They have an extra long pair of chopsticks that they use for cooking. This morning he had a piece of toast with butter on it and he got the butter out and spread the butter with chopsticks. He looked like he was having a tough time with it, but he didn't get a knife or anything. He just kept trying with his chopsticks. I have influence on what he eats a little bit. He like COSTCO muffins now. And, he has toast now and then. He still hasn't eaten any cereal or sandwiches though. It`s probably because cereal would be difficult to eat with chopsticks.

They sing all the hymns so slowly and unenthusiastically in church. And, it seems really quiet because there are only 35 people instead of the 200 people at home.

I`m glad everything is going well back at home. I`ll write to you next week.

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

8 Nov 2010

Week 19

Mission Log



Nishinomiya Apartment



Nishimomiya

Nineteen is a lot of weeks. Can you believe I've been gone for that long? It doesn't feel like that long.

I don`t think they do daylight savings time here. I don`t remember doing it at all.

The last couple of days have been really nice weather. We went and contacted people in parks and stuff. We also went and saw the ocean. It`s crazy to think that it`s the same ocean that I went to so many times when I was back at home. I looked across the water and realized that all my family and friends were just on the other side of that water. It was really weird.

I won`t be able to participate in any facial hair growing competitions this year or next year, but the next winter, I will come home and just destroy everyone with my awesome super-manly Brigham Young style beard.

When we went to COSTCO, Elder Hashimoto was really anxious to leave the whole time because there were so many people there. He grew up in a little countryside area of Hokkaido and he`s been in small countryside areas his whole mission. Nishinomiya is freaking him out. I don`t think he likes the big city.

Japanese people put a ton of onions on their food. And, the onions are in huge chunks. We had spaghetti one night. I had the spaghetti on the plate. Then, there was a layer of the sauce. Then, Elder Hashimoto put a huge layer of onions covering the whole thing on top of that. I told him that I didn't want quite so many onions on mine. He thought it was weird but he scooped most of my onions onto his plate. Now he tells everyone that I hate vegetables.

We had a really long lesson earlier this morning. So, I don`t have very much time to email today. I`ll write a lot more next week.

Elder Swift

31 Oct 2010

Week 18

Mission Log

I`m staying in Nishinomiya (the city I was in) but Elder Hart (my companion) got transferred out. He went to Fukuchiyama (a countryside rural area). I`m glad that I got to stay here. I think some really good things are going to be happening in Nishinomiya. Also, I really don`t want to go to a rural area.
I have a new companion now. His name is Hashimoto. As you probably guessed upon reading his name, he is Japanese. He doesn't know any English at all. It`s going to be really good practice for me and my Japanese will improve a ton this transfer, but it`s going to be really difficult. It`s already difficult. Sometimes, when he`s talking to me, I just nod and pretend I know what he`s saying. He`s extremely different from Elder Hart. It`s really weird being with him. I`m in the same place I was in last time, but I`m doing different things. He eats rice for every single meal. I figured that Japanese people ate rice for most of their dinners and lunches, but he eats it for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It`s so strange. He said he`s never made a sandwich before. I suggested to him that we bring sandwiches with us one day. He laughed and said, "I've eaten a sandwich before, but I've never made a sandwich before." I was pretty surprised. We eat a lot of curry now. Everyone loves curry. It`s not bad.

It got really cold. Everyday I wear long sleeves, a sweater, and my suit coat. And, it`s probably going to get much colder still. It`s rained quite a bit recently. Yesterday, I got completely soaked from head to toe.

We had a Halloween party on Saturday night. I wore a black suit, black tie, black trench coat, and sunglasses and had a toy gun. I was from The Matrix. People loved it. My companion didn't wear a costume. I carved a cool face into a pumpkin. It was a Japanese pumpkin though. They`re different. They are smaller and they`re green. It`s not as cool as the big orange American pumpkins.

On Thursday I`m moving into the Nishinomiya apartment. Then, it will be just me and Elder Hashimoto. I`m going to miss living with three other Elders. It`s a lot of fun. I`m also going to miss being able to speak English. When we teach English speaking people, I`ll be on my own now. Also, at English class I`ll be on my own.

It`s funny to see all of the English words that they have put into their language. Right now, I`m in an intanetto kafee (Internet Cafe).

I`m going to COSTCO now. My companion has never been to a COSTCO before. He`s very excited. I`m excited to see how he reacts. When Japanese people go to COSTCO for the first time, they just go crazy. They've never seen anything like it. All Japanese food is sold in little individual packs. I got a big bag of pancake mix one time, but when I opened it up, it was just a bunch on little one serving size bags of pancake mix. It`s so weird. COSTCO is completely opposite of everything they know. Plus, tons of stuff is written in English. It`s great.

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

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

Nishinomiya Japan 25 Oct 2010

Week 17

Mission Log

Tomorrow we get a phone call telling us whether or not we are going to transfer. I`m a bit nervous. It`s crazy that my first transfer period is already over. Every six weeks is called a transfer. At the end of the six week period some people will get moved around. I find out where I`m going on Tuesday and I move there on Thursday. I hope I get to keep working in Nishinomiya. If I do, I`ll get to move into an apartment in Nishinomiya. Right now we`re living in an apartment in Amagasaki (the neighboring area). The Nishinomiya apartment has an oven in it. That`s really uncommon. Nobody in Japan has an oven. Nishinomiya and the mission home (headquarters) are the only places with ovens. Everyone in Japan just uses their microwave for everything. The microwave has an "oven" button on it. That switches it to oven mode, and you can cook things in it like a normal oven, sort of. It`s still pretty small though. I never have to set a time on the microwave. I just hit "start" and it selects the amount of time for me. It`s so cool. Everyone has a rice cooker too. It`s because they eat rice for every meal. They don`t eat brown rice very often, though. Just white rice. And, they don`t eat it plain. They make all kinds of different dishes, but they basically all have rice in them. I really like rice now. I wasn`t a big fan of it before, but now it`s good. I especially like omu rice and taco rice. Taco rice is basically a taco without a tortilla, on rice. Sometimes it has tortilla chips.

I go to the mission home in Kobe all the time. They have young single adult activities there and we bring investigators to them about twice a week. But, if I transfer somewhere far away, I won`t be going there as often anymore. If you sent food the the mission home, it`ll be fine. They get everything to you very quickly. If you want to get anything to me, you should send it to the mission home.

Everyone knows what Halloween is and the stores all decorate and sell Halloween themed stuff, but nobody does trick-or-treating and people don`t really decorate their houses. The big holidays here are Christmas and New Years. On New Years everyone goes to the Buddhist temples.

I haven`t seen any corn on the cob anywhere.

English class is every Tuesday and it`s one hour long.

Most of our teaching is in Japanese.

It`s ridiculously safe here. You can leave anything anywhere and it won`t get stolen. You don`t even have to lock your bike ever. I see little kids walking around all by themselves all the time. Even in big cities or on small side streets. No one even worries that they could get kidnapped or something. Most of the people here have never touched a gun before. Everyone thinks that America is really scary because everything they know about it is from the movies. They think everyone carries guns around and people get shot or beat up all the time.

I`m glad that you put the Pumpkin Man out on the porch again. He`s so cool. When I get back, we have to have some jack-o-lantern carving competitions. I`ll totally dominate.

That`s all for this week. Japanese is coming along. Everything`s good. I hope I don`t get transferred. I hope all is well at home. Talk to you next week.

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

Japan 17 Oct 2010 Nishinomiya



Week 16

Mission Log

English Class

I`m starting to really get the hang of teaching English class. I have a lot of fun, we learn a lot of material, and the students have a lot of fun too. Elder Hart said that before I came they had one regular student and usually one other random person would just walk in. Now, we have about eight regular students that come each week. When people come they just have so much fun and learn so much that they want to come every week. One student came to our class one time, then went on vacation. She brought us back souvenirs. We only taught her once. They have a binder with a lot of lessons you can teach, but I decided that they were stupid and I make up my own lessons now. My companion mostly just sits there and watches.

We now have four investigators that we teach in English. One is from America, one is from Mexico, one is from Nepal, and one is Japanese but he lived in Hungary for seven years. I really like when we teach in English. It`s a lot easier for me.

I met Elder Aoyagi of the Seventy. He came to Kobe and we had a mission conference. There were people translating for me and the other new missionaries. His talk was amazing. That was on Wednesday. Then, on Sunday, he came to Nishinomiya Ward (my ward). I`m not really sure why he came to Nishinomiya ward, but I`m glad he did. He and his wife spoke for the whole sacrament meeting. We had brought a less-active member to church that week and he (Brother Ueda) said that he really liked Aoyagi. I think it really strengthened him. Than, Aoyagi did a fireside after church. There weren't any translators at church or the fireside. So, I didn't understand most of what was being said, but I`m sure that it was probably super awesome. My companion said it was awesome. At the mission conference, I got to see some of my friends from the MTC that I haven`t seen in like a month.

It`s still really warm here all the time. On Monday we started having to wear suits again. We don`t have to wear suits in the summer because we`d die from the heat, but now we have to start wearing them all the time. I think that it`s still really hot in a suit. It sounds like the winter here is going to be a lot like the winters back home. It will get sort of cold but not too bad. We will probably get snow a couple of times but just light stuff that is usually gone the next morning. Nothing very extreme or exciting.

President Monson said that if you memorize a scripture every day for two years, you`ll develop a photographic memory. He has the whole Book of Mormon memorized. I`m going to start memorizing a scripture every morning. By the end of my mission, I`ll almost have a photographic memory.

After church on Sunday, we were sitting in the kitchen eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when two church members came in. They were like "What is that?" They`d never had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before, or even heard of it. I was pretty surprised. I thought everyone knew PB&J. Japanese peanut butter tastes different. We had some American peanut butter from COSTCO. They tried it and they were shocked. PB&J isn't as good with Japanese peanut butter. We also had nutella and they`d never heard of that either. The all tried some. There were like five of them by this point. They all liked it. They eat rice and soup for every meal here. I`m starting to get used to it. It`s still a little weird though.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CALEB!!!

-Elder Isaac D. Swift

Eating something (above)