September 2, 2013

Hello everyone!
We have zone pday today so I'm on the computer early and just sending a little email because we don't really have time to email. Maybe later I'll send more. This week was good. We had the BBQ and it was way fun! The ward here is small so its easy to get close to everyone. The Oizumi ward came too. They are all Brazilian or from South America so the food was awesome and the company was loud and great :) haha I loved it. I also saw my first passed out drunk guy this week. He was in the train station. I never thought I'd see one but I did! ha All the missionaries in South America are always sending home pictures of passed out drunk guys. haha Now I'm in the club. well.. that's really about it, but I will try and get on later and send pictures. Love you all!!! Have a good week!

Eating my first raw fish sushi in Japan

Eating a delicious crepe

Me and my companion in our kimonos!

Pictures from the Barbeque

August 26, 2013

Another week down in Kumagaya... Its hot. and we haven't found a new investigator yet. This week will be the week. I can feel it. ah! we're gonna do it. Anyways, last week we went shopping for pday and I got some awesome new clothes and a kimono :) I'm stoked. It was so fun. We went with a member and she speaks fluent English and she is so funny. She kinda reminds me of Kim Snelson. So, since nothing is going on here I'll just tell you a little about Japan. So, everyone rides bikes. Seriously it's crazy. There are just too many people and not enough room for everyone to have cars. They ride bikes and the train. Outside of grocery shops they have big bike parking lots and no car parking lots sometimes. Sometimes you see a mom with a bike car seat on the front and back of her bike along with a baby strapped to her. My last companion said that her mom had a bike car seat on the front and back and a baby strapped to the front and back of her. haha Four kids on the bike with her. It's crazy but it's totally normal here. There's this weird trend right now where the grandmas are dying their hair purple. Seriously! I don't know how it started and why they love it, they just dye it purple. haha It's so funny. Whenever I say "hi" to people they're super surprised and its hilarious. I love it. When you eat somewhere you have to eat everything on your plate. We went to an all you can eat place and you have to eat everything you put on your plate. It's hard. ha You might already know this but you have to take off your shoes in the front little entry (the genkan) every time you go in someone's house. Everyone has these intercoms with cameras so we hardly see people when we go housing. We have to be super good to get them to come to the door. Sometimes we eat on the floor in peoples houses. um... that's about all I got right now. I think I'm getting used to everything because I used to have a long list of things that are different when I first got here. Now I cant think of anything else. ha But things are slowly moving along. Please keep praying for us to find investigators! Love you all! Miss you lots!

Love, Amy

August 19, 2013

Hello everyone!

Welp, this week was slow. We're doing a lot of finding because we have no investigators here.. its kinda tough, but we're working through it. We have a few potential investigators so we need to get things rolling with them. Also not being able to communicate with my comp has been a little stressful, but this week I decided just to have fun even though not having any one to work with is not so fun. ha So yeah things are getting better. I have good hope and faith about this week! I want to find a new investigator! So please pray that we can find one! Thanks. Okay, so in two weeks we will be having a ward summer BBQ and its totally Japanese traditional summer festival. Yesterday we had a meeting about it after church and the first counsilor in the bishopric said that he wanted everyone to wear yucattas (summer Kimonos) so then he looked at me and asked if I had one. I said no and so today for Pday we are going shopping with a ward member to get me one!! I am so excited! I wanted one so bad. So I get to wear that to the BBQ. It'll be awesome. I love my ward, so many people speak fluent English too. It's awesome. There's this one family I love so much! The mom is hilarious and she is fluent in English so I have someone to laugh with. ha We had dinner at their house this week and I loved it. But yeah, that's about all we did this week.... finding, eating at members, eikaiwa (English class), and church.... so pretty exciting. ha Pray we find investigators!! Okay love you all!

Until next week,
Amy

August 12, 2013

Hello!

 

This week I left Urawa.. it was so sad saying bye to everyone. I love them so much! At my last Eikaiwa (English class) everyone brought treats and made a big goodbye card. I love Urawa so much. I'm convinced I'll get called back there someday. So... Kumagaya is.... great... ha. Me and my companion are completely white washing this place. There are zero investigators and only a few potential investigators. Plus my companion speaks zero English..ha. It has been a long 4 days. But I'm happy I was trained by Kuwahara Shimai. She is a really strong missionary so being here and having it be so slow has given me a lot of motivation so find people! I'm determined to flip this place around! Plus things are just so much better when you're teaching lessons rather than knocking on doors all day. Also, this place really is the hottest place in Japan. It's insane! Like it has gotta be hotter than Arizona. Plus the humidity. I burnt pretty good my first day here. I always wear sunscreen now. Yeah, the heat is crazy. The ward is good though! Its really small. Only 40ish people were at church yesterday. My last ward had 100 something people. It was pretty big but I thought it was normal. Apparently, it's huge for Japan. They usually have more like 50 people. So yeah, that's pretty much all we did this week. Oh, I did teach Eikaiwa in Kumagaya and it was hilarious. These two older men were being such creepers. ha One was trying to dance with me because it was his birthday. That was rough to get around, haha and another one kept telling me movie stars I looked like and then said I looked like "Maria" Mother Mary, haha so funny. Anyway... that's about it. not much to tell about Kumagaya than that.. Hopefully this week we'll get things moving! I miss and love you all! Have a good week!

Love, Amy

 

 

August 5, 2013

We got our transfer calls this morning.....

I'm leaving Urawa! I'm so sad...!! I thought for sure I would stay. But good news. I am getting another Japanese companion! That's kinda a miracle these days so I'm super happy! I'll get really good at Japanese! I'm excited. Also she doesn't speak English... I'm gonna need your prayers! But she is super sweet I've heard, so it should be good. I'm going to Kumagaya. It's apparently the hottest place in Japan. All of Japan. At least everyone keeps telling me that. I've spent all day packing and calling my friends and I'm going to try and meet everyone in the next two days before I leave. Its so sad! I love them all so much! But this week was awesome! We went to the Temple (I heard there is a new endowment movie..? is that true and how long will it take to translate into Japanese?) I went on splits twice and on Saturday was a huge Japanese festival. There were SO many people. About 100,000 in one area for fireworks and the festival. Tons of venders with random Japanese food, like straight fish on a stick. Maybe they plopped it on the grill for a minute and then they put it on a stick.... 0_0. But all the girls were in kimonos and it was so fun!! We watched the fireworks they were awesome. We went with our investigator M and saved our spot for fireworks at 6:30am that day. ha so fun! I loved it. Well I'm sad to leave but next transfer will be good. I'm excited. We are opening the area so I'm a little nervous for that. Lots of finding.. hopefully the Elders there have some girl investigators they can hand over. Pray for my Japanese so we can communicate!! (we as in me and my new companion.) Okay, I'm out. Thanks for reading! Love you all!! Praying for you all! I'll write next week! LOVE YOU!

 Peace out from J-town

A. Davis

 

From the festival

Kuwahara Shimai always calls me "day service" because when you say it like a Japanese person it
sounds kinda like Davis. So, this sign says "Day Service". We laughed for awhile when we saw it today.

During our mogi lesson (practice lesson) before our investigator got to the church.
Super random picture but whatever.

 

July 29, 2013

Today was temple pday! So every 6 weeks we go to the temple on Tuesdays and we don't get to email until we get home from the temple on Tuesdays which is Monday night for you or maybe Monday morning..? I don't know. But we went to the temple today and it was awesome! Sorry I didn't really have time to write much today but this week we had some cool miracles. On Saturday we went to this English speaking society (a bunch of old Japanese people who are obsessed with English) party and it was so fun! They invite foreigners to practice English and right when we walked in we were talking to this girl who read my badge and she goes "ah! I want to go to your church!!" she had been looking for a Christian church in Japan for a year. (she lived in New Zealand and went to church there) so she came with us and her mom the next day! I was so excited! She's 24 and I became best friends with her so fast at that party. Also, everyone at that party loved me! ha I felt like a celebrity because people were taking pictures with me and wanted to talk to me it was awesome. haha. Also young Japanese people are obsessed with white girls and American culture! It helps a lot. haha Okay love you! Out of time! sorry! hopefully next week I'll have more time!

Love you all!

 

 

It is Japanese festival season here! So awesome.

This was in Shibuya this morning after the temple.
Temple p-days are the best cause we see the whole mission!

Lunch! ピーザ食べ穂代

  Here are some pictures from last week.

This is H. She is the cutest sweetest girl.
Alex- I told her you were coming to Japan and then you guys can get married.

The N family. They took us to Costco. I love them so much!!
(there are two more girls in the back. ages 17,15,13)

Costco trip. They had quite a large section dedicated to fish... haha



 

July 22, 2013

Hello everyone! This week was good! I feel like im finally starting to understand the language! I mean mostly I don't.. But in lessons and when we talk about church topics I can pick up a lot! I still can't really speak but its coming. So right now the majority of our investigators have some pretty weird beliefs about God. My companion said its really rare that this many people all believe these things in Japan. Usually they don't really have religious background or its totally different, that God is a new concept to them. So its kinda weird.. ha yeah I dont even know.. But some are progressing! We have a few baptismal dates and hopefully our investigators will be ready. Pray for them! Our investigators names are Yumi, Kaka, Miyu, Takeda, Livia, Kuroda, Midori and then we have tons of potential investigators. Its fun doing missionary work! I live in Japan and I just make friends with people all day and teach the gospel which would make anyone happy. Its fun! Even though its super hard sometimes, its worth it. I feel like I finally know what I'm doing so its gotten a little easier. I don't have any really cool stories this week so that about sums it up... I'm going to Costco today so I guess that's pretty exciting. I really am super excited though. haha. Okay thats all. Love you all!!! Thanks for your prayers and support!! Have a good week! LOVE YOU!

 

Love, Amy/ デイベス姉妹

 

Dad,

 

I'm so jealous of your New York trip! And that you got to go to Justin Timberlake's new restaurant! I love him. I found a place here that has really good Italian pizza. its not quite the same but its pretty good and one of my favorite things in Japan. The Italian food here is so Japanesey! Something fishy about it.. I'm also jealous you're going to California! Next summer we can house swap with them when I'm home :) Don't plan it without me! thanks for the update! love you!