Week One in Japan- September 23, 2013

I'm in Japan! This is real! There is so much going on right now, my
thoughts are all over the place. I guess first of all I'm doing well,
I haven't crashed on my bike or anything yet. My companion is a great
missionary, we don't know each other super well, but we're making
progress. I don't have any idea what anyone is saying ever, it's so
crazy.


The people, especially the ward members are really kind and sweet. They are
so, so patient with me. I met everyone at the baptism the
elders had at church right after. I went up during sacrament and
talked for a minute, mostly told them I was brand new so they would
understand I wasn't going to understand much of anything they say and
share my testimony. It was a reallly good thing for me, but pretty
scary. :)  We have a cool progressing investigator who is almost done
with the lessons and might be getting bapitized soon, I'm excited to
get to know her better. We also have visited a recent convert a few
times, Sho Shimai, she's really awesome.


Japan in general is just so different than America though, I know that
sounds silly, but it is so true. I need a little bit more time to
adjust, but I know that I'm going to love it. I do miss my MTC
district though, it is so weird not seeing them everyday all day
anymore, but I am confident that they're well. and I know I will be
good too! I've gotten to know my Savior more in this last week than I
have in my entire life, he is the only one who knows how I feel and it
he is the ultimate comfort to me! Missions are pretty cool. Love you
all, be safe and don't forget to write me.


Love,
Megan

Arriving Miss. Safe Arrival. (Letter from mission president)

19 September 2013

 
                                                             Johnson, Blake Eugene| Johnson, Carrie Memmott


                                                             
                                                             1213 N. Firefly Dr.
                                                             Spanish Fork, UT 84660
                                                             USA



 I am happy to inform you that Sister Johnson arrived safely in Sapporo, Japan and is beginning her work as a representative of Jesus Christ in sharing the message of the restored gospel to the people living in Japan.  I was pleased to welcome her to the best mission in the world.

After interviewing Sister Johnson and getting to know her a little better, she has been assigned a great training missionary companion. Sister Johnson will be well trained and cared for and will learn the daily blessings associated with proselyting here on the island of Hokkaido.

You can expect to hear from her weekly.  This is one of our mission rules.  The mail service in Japan is very dependable.  You may write to her or send packages to the Mission Office and they will be forwarded to her.  Please use this address:  Japan Sapporo Mission,  Kita 2 Jo Nishi 24, Chome 1-25 Chuo-Ku, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido,  064-0822, JAPAN.  If you have any questions now or in the future, please contact me directly at eevans@ldschurch.org or on my cell phone at 011-8190-2876-1861.

Our interaction over the next months with Sister Johnson will be frequent and rewarding for both of us.  I look forward to serving with her and seeing her develop into a disciple of Christ as she spreads glad tidings among the wonderful people of Japan.

May the Lord bless you and your family for the service of your missionary.

 

Very truly yours,

President Eric C. Evans

Japan Sapporo Mission

Week Eight, MTC 9/10/13

Hello again,

 

I spent too long looking at all the pictures and emails so I'm short on time. Rib Fest 2013 looked amazing though, miss you all! Can't wait until I get to be there again. :) Thank you for all the letters and the packages as well, you're all so good to me.

Everything is pretty good here, just on the final countdown. This time next week I'll be in Japan! We're going to fly to Seattle and then Osaka! My entire district is not flying together, and we're all pretty sad about it. It's okay though, they're going to be great in Sendai. We're going to get up to see them off about an hour before we go, there will probably be tears involved, and you know I'm not a big cryer. For us Sapporo Senkyoshi we're going to have a 5 hour layover in Osaka, not sure how I feel about that, ha. Miller Shimai is my travel companion which is awesome.. although, if we get lost we'll just be super lost, ha ha. It'll be an adventure. :) Hopefully I can find a cinnabon before we leave the US. I'm so excited to be able to call home too, good stuff. Sophie better be up to talk to me, but don't let her hang up before my time is up, ha.

 

This last week has been pretty good. I now know how to read Katakana pretty well, thanks to the help of one of the Choro, Temanaha Moo. It's nice to not have to worry about that anymore. Now I just need to learn Kanji, ha! The language is going good though, I mean, I can't say much besides a simple testimony. I mostly understand what my teachers say to us now, listening is a lot easier than actually speaking! I know this language will come, and my progress should pick up in speed once I'm actually in Japan. Our lessons with our investigators are going well too, I've felt comfortable in them lately, with the language as well as the doctrine. A few of our lessons have been really blessed with the spirit. :) 

 

Howden Shimai left at 3am on Monday, she only had five hours of notice! We got her all packed up and she's in Kobe now. She was so excited to finally leave the MTC, and I'm sure she's doing great. With her leaving we're now back to a trio, it honestly feels like we never really switched in the first place. On a scary note, Miller Shimai choked on some candy and we had to ride an ambulance down to the ER. It was pretty awful, but everything is fine now. She's a tough little cookie! I'm going to probably have someone chew all of her food for her now, ha. Oh, speaking of food, I'm so excited to not eat at here anymore. It's just too much!

 

We did see that rainstorm, it was awesome! The outside stairway was like a waterfall! Someone came on the intercom and told all the missionaries to go back in, it was kind of sad but funny. Watashitachi wa kodomotachi desu. (We are all children) :)

Later today I'm going to the temple again today, last time for 16 months. I really hope you've taken the chance to go recently. The temple is my favorite place, you all need to try and go this week if you haven't for awhile. My time is up! As always thanks for the love and support, I know you'll all keep me in your prayers during this upcoming week. I can't believe my time has come! Sometimes I don't think there is anyway that I could even be ready for it, so I guess I'll just jump in, ha ha. Oh yes, I'm not sure when my Pday is going to be, so my next email could come at any time. That's all I've got, hopefully I wasn't jumping around too much. I start not making sense when I think about what's about go down shortly.

 

Japan, we're almost on our way...

 

Love you all,

 

Megan

Pictures Again

 With her former companion Miller Shimai

District Games

Aaaand another temple shot :)

Week Seven, MTC 9/03/13

Hey Family,

How is everyone? I'm doing great here, as usual, but getting nervous to leave! Only two weeks left.. We all got our katakana name tags this week, I'll write what mine looks like in the one I send home, it's pretty cool. We also get our travel plans this week. Things are getting pretty official. I'm getting so excited to leave, but sometimes it seems like I've just been called to serve here, ha. The first morning I wake up in Japan I will probably not believe I'm actually there. 

We got our new teachers this week, they're really great. I miss our old ones a lot, but the sting isn't so bad since the new ones, Hugo Sensei and Oshima Sensei, are wonderful. We don't have very much time to get them progressing, but it's okay. Our lessons with them are going so much better than before too. We've gotten a lot better at teaching, but there is still a lot of work to do. I feel for my first trainer in Japan. It's also been a whole week of just being two with Soderquist Shimai, and it's been good. I miss Miller Shimai, but her new companion, Howden Shimai, is just lovely. She's super funny and witty and always has great comments in class. She's a great addition to our district. She's going to Kobe though, so we won't see her after she leaves, which might actually be this week, we'll see. We might become three again if she leaves before us. 

Our Nihonjin that leave with us also came, I haven't met any of the sisters yet, but a couple of the choro came to our class last night and they're going to Sapporo too. They were both really sweet, meeting missionaries from Japan makes me so excited to go! Tonight we're going to all meet each other and try to use our Japanese skills to communicate. 

I'm running out of time quick, so I'll wrap this up so I can respond to the others I got. Sorry for the short one, I'm honestly having a hard time remembering what was this week and what was the ones before. Thanks to everyone for the love and prayers. I just love being a missionary, and I can't wait to get to Japan. I hope you all have a happy and safe week. Sophie looks so dang cute without her tooth! I'm sure she's getting plenty of love, so I won't insist that you hug her for me, but it would never be a bad idea to do it anyway. Love you all, see you soon. 

Love,

Megan

PS, first picture is of Miller Shimai and I, then we have one with just Howden Shimai, a spontaneous district shot and the last one is just the Sapporo missionaries that were at the temple that day. I sure love these people.  

More Pictures

We've got some temple-y shots:

With one of the legit Japanese sisters: