We're In Japan!- Week 1

Merry Christmas!  We are safely in Japan and to our city- Tsuruoka, Japan.  It is a sweet, little city with a nice, little branch.  We arrived at the mission home on Wednesday morning and stayed there a couple of days getting oriented and registered, etc.  Then we left on Friday morning and drove the four hours or so to here, Tsuruoka, where we have been assigned to labor.  We have a brand new apartment to live in.  It is small, but very nice, with all of the latest Japanese-style conveniences.  The kitchen has a small, three-layer fridge (typical of Japan.)  The small fridge on top, a vegetable keeper bin in the middle, and the freezer on the bottom.  There is a two-burner gas stove (like a camp stove), a sink and two cabinets.  The church provides a microwave/toaster oven and rice cooker as well, but they are actually in the living room/dining room.  We have a table with four chairs and a huge bed.  Those are our accommodations, but we are shopping for a couch and bedside tables today.  There are two rooms in the apartment that by American standards are a waste of space, but important to Japanese culture.  One is the genkon.  It is a long narrow hall with a closet just as you come in the front door where you change from shoes to slippers.  There is also what they call a sun room in front of the living room.  There is a sliding glass door between it and the living room.  It is equipped with hooks to hang bars and ventilation fans.  It’s sole purpose is to hang and dry clothes.

We got here on Friday, greeted by the four elders assigned here and Brother Hamada, who had ridden the bus down here from Sendai to help us.  He is a volunteer at the mission office and has worked tirelessly getting this apartment ready for us.  Everything in Japan takes a long time with much “red tape.”  He worked through a lot of that for us.  He is a good, kind man.  The elders had shopped for us and had our place stocked with essential groceries/ supplies.  They are fine young men.  We will enjoy working with them.  We are having them over for Christmas dinner on Friday.  I’m hoping I can figure out how to cook something with these accommodations between now and then!! 

We went to our first branch function on Saturday evening- the branch Christmas party.  The small church was packed with about 50 people.  They have been awaiting our arrival and we were honored.  The chapel/cultural hall was decorated beautifully with Christmas trees and banners and stars.  They first showed the 1^st presidency Christmas devotional- translated, of course, then had several musical numbers- including us!  They had all of the missionaries sing “Angels We Have Heard on High” and we joined in extemporaneously.  These missionaries sing well as one of them was in BYU men’s chorus.  Then the elders and a couple of the young men in the ward did “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”  It was a very cute song/skit.  What we didn’t know then was that many of the people there were not members of our church or are less active.  They had invited many and many responded.  After the program and card-making, a large table was set out with potluck Japanese foods.  The table was loaded with everything from sushi to fruits to puddings and cakes.  With chopsticks they take what they want, loading their plates.  The Japanese people are small, but they can eat!!!  By the end of the evening, all the food was gone, including the lettuce and lemon garnishes.  We enjoyed visiting with people, and I was pleasantly surprised that many of them spoke pretty good English.  I ended up at the piano with two sisters, singing Christmas carols.  It was a fun evening.

Sunday morning church was much more sparsely attended.  There were about 20 people there.  They asked Ken and I to each speak for about 5 minutes.   I did the first part in Japanese, then Elder Hamilton translated my testimony for me.  I said in Japanese: I am Sister Hinton.  I am a missionary from America.  We have three daughters in our family.  I am a grandma.  I have a book here that has pictures of my family.  After, please look at it.  I have ten and a half grandchildren.   I then said, now I will speak in English.  Then I said, Yakata des, neh?  Which means I did good, didn’t I?  They all laughed.  Then I had the elder translate my testimony.  I told them that when Elder Hinton and I were young and newly married, we had a dream.  Our dream was to come to Japan on a mission.  But then we had children and got busy and forgot about our dream.  When we applied to go on our mission, we thought we would go somewhere in America.  But Heavenly Father didn’t forget our dream.  He called us to Tsuruoka, Japan.  We are humbly grateful to be here and to serve here.  We love you already. (Yes, I was crying at this point)

I then told them that I wanted them to know that the reason I came half way around the world was because I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I then bore simple testimony of God’s love for us, the atonement, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and current prophets.  I then closed in Japanese with a phrase that means let’s be friends I humbly request and in the name of Jesus Christ.  My goal is to bear my testimony in Japanese.  I have a lot of work to do!  But I was grateful to be able to say what I did in Japanese.

Ken did his whole talk in Japanese.  He did great.  We both were emotional, but they’ll just have to get used to that.  I don’t know what he was saying, but he got some laughs.  I can tell people really like him.  He had them eating out of his hand.

We do already love these good people.  I am learning to bow and say arigoto gozaimasu a lot.  We still have a lot of shopping/ setting up to do and have a busy week ahead.  We will drive back to Sendai in the morning to attend Christmas Taikai with our zone.  I don’t know what that is, but it sounds like fun!  We will start teaching English classes on Wednesday and Thursday. So while you are reading the Christmas story with your families on Christmas eve, we will be teaching people how to speak English who know very little of Jesus Christ or his birth.  Here are some pictures of our first week in Japan:

We left in a blizzard in Salt Lake City.  De-icing took a long time. 

Lots of time to study Japanese on the long, long flights.

We didn't make our connection from Tokyo to Sendai, so had to spend the night in this hotel.  It worked out well as we were so exhausted.

Sendai is where the big tsunami hit four years ago.  The airport was under water.  There is a large display about it at the airport with graphic pictures.

The airport was decorated beautifully for Christmas

At the mission home with President Smith.  Sister Smith was in Utah to attend the marriage of their youngest daughter.  When President Smith saw Ken, he recognized him.  He was a "greenie" missionary in the Fukuoka mission and Ken was his zone leader.

After a training meeting at the mission home, President Smith and his brother, Emery and Pam Smith who are here to serve as the office couple in the mission and us all went out for Kotsudon at a local café.  It was delicious.

Katsudon

That evening, we attended Eikaiwa (English class) at a local church.  It was fun.  I think I will enjoy teaching English here.

Brother Yamada was just sustained as a member of the mission presidency.  He is a good, good man.  He has worked tirelessly to get our apartment set up for us.  Love, love this good man!

Elder Smith, one of the APs is teaching us how to use our phone.  Everything is a little different in Japan.

The other AP, Elder Wadsworth, is teaching us how to use the GPS and getting it programmed for us.  These are two fine young men.

On Friday morning, we loaded the car to the brim and headed for Tsuruoka.  Elder Smith drove us.  This is taken from my little corner of the back seat.

I took this picture just as we arrived at our new apartment.

We were greeted by the four Tsuruoka elders and Brother Yamada who took the bus from Sendai that morning so that he could help us get everything and our furnishings in our apartment.  Left to Right: Elder Deleon from Houston, Texas, Elder Hansen from Queens Creek, Arizona, Elder Hamilton from Mesa, Arizona, Ken, and Elder Weatherred from North Carolina, and Elder Smith.

On Saturday evening, we attended the branch Christmas party.  We were welcomed at our first branch function.  The elders and a couple of the young men in the branch did a cute skit of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."  It was funny.

Sister Takahashi is the heart and soul of this little branch.  She got married this week and moved to Sendai.  I am sad we will not get to know her better.  I will post more about her later.

The Christmas party ended with Sister Hirayama and Sister Sato and I singing carols at the piano.  I already love these two wonderful sisters.

They both have beautiful voices. 

Kristen had a package waiting for us at the mission home.  When we opened it, there were Christmas decorations and a little Christmas tree and homemade ornaments.

Window Clings for our apartment.

Thank you Kristen for making our little apartment feel like home!