Sunday, March 30, 2014

Transfer 5.2 Pictures

Some poor pictures of Sakura trees XD maybe I will have some better
ones next week!! ☆*:.。. o(≧▽≦)o .。.:*☆

Transfer 5.2 Pictures

Banana in tree incident (´・_・`)
Also, hilarious Japanglish.

Transfer 5.2 Pictures

Super cool stuff on Mt. Takao!! Japan is so cool!! (Sorry if this posts twice)

Transfer 5.2 Pictures

Super cool stuff on Mt. Takao!! Japan is so cool!!

Transfer 5.2: NATURE

It feels like it has been about 5 years since last p-day. Absolutely craziness.

We didn't even get a transfer call this week. We show up to the
station to go to Mt. Takao and Elder Thurman was like "so what is
happening with you two?" And we were like "what?" "Didn't you get
transfer calls?" "No, that is suppose to happen tomorrow." "Oh... No,
everyone else got called today." "WHAT YOU ARE KIDDING ME" Yeah,
apparently the APs just forgot to call us and President Wada ended up
telling us himself when we saw him at Mt. Takao.

Sister Harper and I are still staying together in Fuchu! Still a
British Party!! Woot woot!! I am really going to be sounding English
after this transfer, I think. I hope. (^ω^)

So yeah, we climbed the Mountain. It was a bit painful. But we made it
in the end!! I casually threw a banana peel over my shoulder while
talking to President and Sister Wada (because we were in the
mountains!) and I kind of casually ended up throwing it straight into
a tree. (。-_-。) Talk about embarrassing. Sister Wada was really
worried about it and so she started throwing rocks to try and get it
down so that it wouldn't be in people's pictures and she kept missing
so then the Elders joined in to try and finally someone threw a giant
rock and knocked it down (mostly). Nothing quite like making a fool of
yourself in front of your mission president. That is one sure way to
get him to trust you.

We have done a lot of finding activities. Aka we had no lessons this
week. We had Eikaiwa on Wednesday... We got to act out Frozen! That
was a lot of fun. I was the older sister and sister Harper was the
younger sister and Elder Thurman was the snowman/nice guy and elder
Bates was the evil prince dude. Party.

We went to sports night on Thursday, where I was unsuccessfully
ordered about by a zone leader. (AKA Clark Shimai is not ordered about
by no man *snaps in z formation*)

Friday we had an interesting experience. Elder Thurman has transferred
to Kanagawa and now an Elder Coggins is our district leader. He is
pretty awesome. He is a convert from Alabama, shorter than me, blond,
blue eyes. In the words of Brother Kurokawa, "he is very attractive to
Japanese girls."

So we were all handing out flyers on Friday at the station, when I
happen to stop this large group of about 11 jr. High school girls. I
start talking with them and they were very nice, all being like "oh my
goodness, you are so adorable! You aren't wearing contacts, that is
your real eye color? Wow, you are so cute!! Your Japanese is so good,
good job cute American girl!" And then sister Harper came over and
they were like "oh, she is super cute too! England, wow, how cool!"
BUT THEN Elder Bates thought it would be a good idea to come over with
Elder Coggins....

... It wasn't the best idea. As soon as they saw Elder Coggins, they
started screaming and literally fangirling all over the place and
squealing like he was one of the Beatles or something. It was
HILARIOUS. I was dying of laughter. I swear, one girl looked like she
was going to faint. They started trying to touch his hair and it was
so funny, I couldn't stop laughing. The Elders eventually left and the
girls all gave us a hug before they left, it was adorable. Brother
Kurokawa also said "I can see Eikaiwa attendance going up in the
future with Elder Coggins being here." What a crack up.

On Saturday, we went and viewed the blooming Sakura flowers. So
beautiful!! This week has been filled with beautiful nature. I am so
exciting for this next week of beautiful Sakura season, it only lasts
for about a week and this may be my only chance ever to see it. I love
spring!!

I hope that everyone has had a good week. Keep strong in the faith and
never pass by an opportunity to serve one of your brothers or sisters.
I love you all so very much.

*・゜゜・*:.。..。.:*・'(*゜▽゜*)'・*:.。. .。.:*・゜゜・*

Sister Teagan Clark
クラーク姉妹

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Transfer 5.1 Comic!

Sometimes I doodle at night.
(Dendou means missionary work. 行きましょう means let's go! Ignore the fact
that I left out a き by mistake)

Transfer 5.1 Pictures

SPRING IS HERE!!

Transfer 5.1: Anticipation

It may come to no surprise that I have not too much to report this week.

Happy Transfer 5 everyone! I will not yet know the fate of myself nor
my companion until......tomorrow. Yeah. Transfer calls. You never know
what is going to happen. The anticipation is literally the worst.
Transfer call study is the most difficult study of the transfer. You
just pretend to read while secretly staring at the phone, WAITING.
That's a true story.

(Let's just say that if my companion transfers, that I will NOT be
emailing this early any longer.... *coughcoughdidisaythatcough*)

Sister Harper was already transferred by the couple at feeds us every
month. They were just like "yeah, so you'll be gone soon, so next time
you come, it'll be Sister Clark and someone else." And Sister Harper
was just like "waaaaait a minute, I'm not gone quite yet!" Also, the
ward has transferred Elder Thurman already. Just kicked him off the
Fuchu island. When they found out that it was transfer week, they made
him speak him sacrament meeting. Looks like it'll just be me and Elder
Bates left.

In other news.... Happy Spring Equinox. That is a holiday in Japan.
Everyone has had this weekend off.

Harper Shimai, while she was handing out flyers, was approached by a
woman, who gave her a flyer for an event... A Jehovah's Witnesses
event.... Harper Shimai said "They've reversed things on me! I've have
been proselyted instead of doing the proselytizing!" It was kind of
amusing.

We might get Facebook soon. The accursed zone leaders enjoy sending
emails with titles like "FACEBOOK" and then having the email be about
submitting stats or something. Those silly goobers.

Today we will be climbing Mt. Takao, so I am sure that next week you
will receive a plethora of wonderful stories and pictures that will
fill your heart and soul, but I afraid for today, that isn't the case.

I love Japan. Simply and truly. This is going to be a phenomenal
transfer, I can just FEEL it. Me and [insert future companions name
here] are going to see so miracles and it is going to been fantastic!

Geronimo!

Sister Teagan Clark
クラーク姉妹

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Notice...

... Not more to come. That is all for this week. Have a good one!!

Sister Teagan Clark
クラーク姉妹

Transfer 4.6 Pictures

I read Brave to some adorable Japanese children in English class! And
last week at the Ghibli museum! More to come!!

Transfer 4.6 Pictures

I read Brave to some adorable Japanese children in English class! And
last week at the Ghibli museum! More to come!!

Transfer 4.6 Pictures

Our district at Shibuya! Biggest intersection in the world!!




.... Yeah, reeeeally windy today!! XD

Transfer 4.6 Pictures

Our district at the temple! Left to right- Bates, Thurman, Harper, Clark

It was windy.

Transfer 4.6 Pictures

Sister Reeves and I at the shady Japanese restaurant. This is a weird
chicken meatloaf thing with an egg yoke on top that we ordered.

Transfer 4.6: Don't Eat the Bacon

Wow! What a week! We got two awesome new investigators is week!!

Nothing like going out for cake with someone and having them ask a
bunch of questions about the church!! Once again, Sister Clark's
missionary work revolves around cake.

This week was also Sister Harper's BIRTHDAY! YAY! We ate a billion
pieces of food. Man. I fill like I have eaten the world this transfer.
Just never stop eating. But really.

We had an exchange this week and that was a lot of fun. I got to go to
the city of Kichijoji with Sister Reeves, a first transfer missionary.
We went to a popular spot and handed out flyers. I taught her the way
of the kubarikai. It was beautiful. We were also planning on eating
there as well (at Mitaka station) when these two guys from London came
up to us and were like "hey, you speak English! Where is a good place
to eat?" So I directed them down the street to where we were planning
eating later...

...so obviously we couldn't awkwardly go to that same restaurant
afterwards! But really, that would have been the worst!

So we went on an "find a place to eat" adventure, which ended up
taking us to follow a somewhat shady guy to a somewhat super Japanese
shady restaurant. They brought us some weird bacon stuff that we
didn't order and we were like "okay?" And then ate it... And then
disappointed them by only ordering like, two mediocre dishes and then
leaving. YEAH. But the weird, subpar bacon was WAY overprice and we
didn't even order if but we had to pay for it! Ridiculous!!

It was still a pretty great adventure though.

On Sunday we taught a lesson with the Elders to this really cute
family. I basically found out what it would be like to teach with
Elder Thurman, our district leader, because Sister Harper and Elder
Bates hardly spoke. So that was an interesting experience.

Yesterday we read scriptures with our cute new investigator and helped
them make more sense to her. It was such a sweet little experience.

We might be getting Facebook soon! I hope my Mom hasn't changed it too
much... I can't even find myself when people want to add me as a
friend. Weird! I hope it all goes well!! I am so grateful to be a part
of the hastening of the work of God.

Today we went to the temple and it was so sweet and refreshing!! We
ate some delicious Indian Curry and talked to a lot of wonderful
people of the train. Everything is going so well! Thank you so much
for your many prayers and love! I love you so much!!

Sincerely,

Sister Teagan Clark
クラーク姉妹

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Transfer 4.5 Pictures

This is a picture of me now, to off set the other not too good picture
of me. Frizziness levels keep going up and up... I am afraid this is
going to be a trend of a while... The humidity of Japanese summers is
killer, so I have heard.

Transfer 4.5 Pictures

Here is us at the steak restaurant! The elders are Elder Nakayama (he
is a zone leader on splits) and Elder Bates, the bean. I don't think
that this is the best picture of me.... Oh well.

Transfer 4.5 Pictures

This is my Japanese tummy food.... Sparkling cider, potato chips and a
cucumber sandwich. Yes, I wanna be English.

Transfer 4.5: Moments of Glory

Hello everyone! Just another week in the field. The field of Fuchu. Yeah. That works out well.

Let me see some fun events that happened this week...

We went out to a less-actives home and that is always fun! We got to see some nature! And by nature, I mean that we saw this crow eating a frog and it was pretty darn disgusting, so I am not sure why we watched it for like, 5 minutes. Your guess is as good as mine.

That same day, we met a lot of high school students. Like... A lot. One of them was the most energetic Japanese person that I have ever met. Her and her friends were like the most typical group of girls from an anime. The crazy, energetic one, the cute, feminine one, and then the shy one. The energetic girl made fun of how I said "ryo" but I was just kinda like "dude I don't think you can speak English so.... I am not gonna be offended" and then we skipped away very happily, haha.

The day we had English and more importantly KIDS English class. What up, it is so much fun. I got to be goldilocks. I knew my acting skills would come in handy one day. It was a moment of glory in the life of Sister Clark.

A moment of less glory for Sister Clark is something we do every Thursday night... It goes by the name of sports night. I am sure you can imagine how uncoordinated my volleyball skills are... Everything just always seems to go downhill when I attempt sports. It is definitely not one of my God given talents, I think.  On the other hand, my morning exercises have been going well. Now I just need to stop eating so much not good stuff. I dunno if that'll ever happen! It seems like the impossible!

On Friday, I had the first time where I felt sick on my mission! Whoooo! A mission first! I was like "wow, this is weird... I feel like I am going to throw up and I have a bad headache...this is new...." Haha, but I recovered quickly. I had some good ol tummy food, or at least the version of it that I could find in Japan. I recovered so fast that I was able to go to a DELICIOUS steak restaurant with a member that evening. Oh my goodness, it was heavenly. We are really living the good life in Fuchu, no joke.

Recently, we met someone on the train and had a good conversation with her. THEN a miracle happened. We met her again. And she was like "hey, what is up! how is it going? Do you have Facebook? Let's hang out! Let me make that lunch appointment FOR you, nice missionary people!!" Yeah, it was more than the best. We are really excited to eat with her.

We are going to a museum today and I am really excited!! I am sure that there will be plenty of pictures to show you next week. :)

Happy Birthday to my nephews Tyler and Kimball this week! My goodness, everyone is going to be so big when I get home. I can hardly believe it! Don't forget me!! Haha XD

Love you all so much!! Never forget to have faith. There is always light around the corner. I love you so very much.

Love,

Sister Teagan Clark
クラーク姉妹
(Just a reminder of my address... I didn't get any letters this week #guilttrip)
Japan Tokyo South Mission
1-7-7 Kichijoji Higashi-Cho
Musashino-Shi, Tokyo
180-0002

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Transfer 4.4 Pictures

This is a picture of us at the English class!

Also, a picture of one of those rare moments where my hair actually
curls cutely. Maybe it is a sign that the humidity is rising...

Transfer 4.4: Gratitude

I wish I could report more success.

But frankly, lately we just haven't been having any.

Despite the effort, and the prayers, and the occasional tears, we have
not yet come to see the fruits of our labors. However, I will admit
that I do not believe that we have been putting our full effort into
the work as of late. Sister Harper has been sick, so there has been a
lot of resting. Because this is a fairly new area, there is not too
much follow up or old investigators to phone once more. I have made a
new goal as of recent. It is an old goal, with an old saying, but the
devotion is renewed. Work hard, Work smart, Work inspired.

The ward is incredibly kind. We had dinner with our ward mission
leader on Tuesday and had a few laughs. His family is really cute. We
only had one lesson this week, but I have a feeling that it is not the
way we need to go as of now.

Interviews were on Thursday and this mission is incredibly blessed
with a wonderful mission president. Though the feeling of the meeting
was casual and relaxed, it really was a comfortable time to have a
chat between two friends. President Wada supports us and loves us and
he lets us know. I appreciate that immensely. Caramel popcorn
included.

On Friday, we helped out a less active with her English class and went
to dinner at the Matsumoto family's house. It was really delicious!
Sister Matsumoto and her son were very kind and showed their support
and shared their love. I really enjoyed our time with them.

The next day we went and helped out at another English house. We met
the owner through somewhat miraculous means... We walked by at the
precise moment she was waving goodbye to some students. She had been
stressing about finding some help and we offered ours. It was quite
the tender mercy for both of us.

Then Sister Harper got sick and so we have been resting and studying
and calling people a lot lately. I am antsy to get back onto the
streets to talk to people. I am trying to learn to be a better leader.

I thank you all for your prays. I seriously feel the benefits of your
prayers everyday. I have felt such joy and such pure happiness from
the gospel. I will forever be grateful to my Heavenly Father for this.

This is a talk that I really liked this week.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/repent-that-i-may-heal-you?lang=eng

Please enjoy! I love you all very much!

Sincerely,

Sister Teagan Clark
クラーク姉妹