Everything has its opposite, Part 2

In part one of my little series I discussed how everything has its opposite. So our first week here we were going strong with people to associate with, tons of things to do and many little adventures. It was great, it was fun, but as we all know things always have an opposite.

Saturday morning was the first day we had our car. We were so excited and so we decided to venture off on our own, into the city of Misawa. We first tried to find our church. To no avail, we could not find it. Bummer.  So we eventually gave up and went on to task #2, finding the beach. We drove in the general direction of the beach and we came very close to it, but then some big thick bushes and trees got in our way.  Luckily, Dave found a remote path. We took it in an off-roading sort of manner, (Shhh don't tell, we don't know if it was legal, but we saw no signs saying otherwise)  Alas, we made it back to a normal road and found the docks. It was covered in a wet slushy mush from the rain, so we took a picture from a little bit of a distance.

Beautiful Pacific Ocean. Can't wait to swim in you.

Here is the crew getting muddy at the beach.

 

We then went to find a microwave. This was no easy task. We decided to pass on the Japanese ones, only because we wanted to know which buttons to push. Buying things that require you pushing buttons is a no go unless you can read their writing.

 

Also, on a side note, communicating with sales people is no easy task either. Especially when you know about 5 words all together. It does make for great stories though.

 

 

We did find the DIASOs which is there $1 store. We found a few fun things and a fun treat.  The kids loved the chocolate poxys.

 

After getting lost a few more times we returned home to cook our crab. He was delicious.

We ate him down to the bone. Kids seemed to like it.

 

 

Another very adventuresome day. We did eat McDonalds for lunch so the kids could see it isn't all different here in Japan.

 

 

Sunday we found a wonderful family that let us follow them to the church. We had actually passed the church 3 or 4 times in our driving excursion the day before, just didn't know it.

 

Church was wonderful and we actually have quite a large ward, probably around 30-40 families.

The church pews aren't really pews though. I don't know why but they have chairs instead. At least my kids can't crowd each others spaces. The chairs are zip tied together so someone would have to take a whole row if they wanted to borrow a chair.   (this made me laugh)

 

The ward family was amazing and we got invited to dinner on Tuesday. I love it that we are being welcomed so openly. It was a wonderful day.

 

 

I know what you are thinking..... Where is the opposition? Everything seems amazing. Don't worry, we just aren't there yet. I really do have a point that I will make soon.

 

Monday and Tuesday was spent getting the kids into school and picking up supplies for them. we also did some tedious shopping, laundry and cleaning up after birds.  Yes, I said birds, crows to be exact. They are large in stature here and they seem to get into everything. The smell of the crab was very strong and I didn't want the garbage can to stink, so I bundled the bag on top of it waiting for pick up day. Bad choice, the crows got into the bag and dragged the crabs body all over my yard. That was fun, cleaning up crab carcus,  I guess I won't do that again.

 

On Tuesday we went on found our first great deal in Japan. The kids needed white sole shoes for gym. On base you can buy them but they are about $40 each. Off base we found a place and bought all 4 for about $40. Yay, for starting to figure out where to buy things.

 

We also got to have a wonderful dinner with a family from our ward. Our twins are the same age as their daughter and Landon has a friend too. Just a little older but still within the same age. Yay. The kids hit it off instantly and everything was amazing. We are excited to get to know them better.

 

Now, the opposition slips in. My kids were off to school, even Courtney switched to a full day of kindergarten. My husband was off to work, I had non of our belongings, no car to go anywhere and I was stuck. Stuck at a home that doesn't feel very homey (yet).  No friends, at least non I feel like I know well enough to call up. Then  when I was able to talk to my family, it made me home sick.

 

I went from excitement and busy to doing nothing. Just being lonely and sad. It was hard and no fun.  And then, to top it all off, the weekend came where we could play but instead everyone got sick.  Courtney got sick, then the twins, and Dave. Everyone was sick, achy, coughing, and feverish for the weekend, my birthday weekend.

 

Luckily, Dave planned ahead and we celebrated my birthday. He wanted more than anything for it to be special and it was great fun. We had cake and presents. He even bought the candles that you can't blow out and wrote 32 with them. He is so thoughtful.

 

I got a new crock pot and gravy boats. It was fun to take a few min out of being sick and enjoy.

 

It was fun and I felt very loved.

 

Our sickness lasted 4 days and it was hard to see them all so sick. I felt blessed that I didn't have to participate in the sickness, but it was defiantly hard to be cooped up on the weekend too.

 

My actually birthday came and went, nothing special, and again I started to sink down into sorrow and sadness and loneliness. Satin is tricky when it comes to helping us doubt ourselves and to help us feel like are alone.  

 

It seems like sometimes it rains a lot in our lives. Things don't go as planned, but the good news is  that when there is rain, shortly after the sun comes out shines and creates a rainbow. My birthday night, when I was feeling down, I received some sunlight. , right before bed I received a phone call from a sibling. It was a wonderful conversation and all that loneliness dissipated. The next day my phone rang and rang. Some people who I hadn't talked to in a long time, people who I love and miss dearly called me. My facebook was blown up with love and kind words. I felt loved and cared for. All the loneliness left and I again was reassured that we were supposed to be here and serving the Lord here in Japan.

 

"Just because you are far away does not mean I have forgotten you."

 

No matter where you are today, whether you are in the rain, feeling alone or lost, feeling like no one cares or understands, or whether you are just starting to see the sunlight, where you have hope for a better day, or whether you are in the rainbow, enjoying the beauty. No matter where you are right now, know that the rain comes the sun will come and so will the rainbow.

 

Everything has its opposite, and it shall be for our good.

 

 

 

Everything has its opposite: Part 1

"For it must needs be that there be opposition in all things." 2nephi 2:11

Opposition is not a fault in the plan that God has for us. Rather, it is an important part of this life to strengthen us and our desire to make right choices. We have been given agency so we can choose for ourselves to be obedient or disobedient to the commandments that God has given us.

If opposition is to strengthen us then I must be getting very strong with this move.

First I want to share with you our great adventures and the fun we have been having here. The kids were very excited about the snow when we first got here. So they had tons of fun playing and enjoying it. They made snow angels, snowball fights, went sledding. It has been tons of fun for them.

 mid air snow!

 Courtney likes to throw it too!

Trampling and laying in it.

                                                        Just a little snow here in Japan!

Mel's our Angel!

                                                    We got lots of angels around here.

                                                              The littlest Angel

They have had a great time with the snow and playing hard in it. Out of the 2 weeks we have been here it has snowed all but 4 or 5 days of it. Yet, it doesn't get very cold. It hits below freezing so that it can snow but then by the afternoons it warms up and is ends up being mid to upper 30's. It melts it off the walkways and roads.

Along with playing the first week a ton in the snow. We picked out a house. It is a 4 plex it is a 4 bedroom and it will be perfect for our family, As long as our bed fits in the master bedroom :) 

               Our beautiful backyard. Just enough for the kids to play and run around.

Here is a picture of our Front door. We got an updated unit with AC and everything.

 

 

So we picked out our house and checked into the base, a lot of it was busy work. Dave's Co-worker Ssgt Tatum took us to a wonderful restraunt called Cheese Roll. YUM! Here are a few pictures from our first Japanese meal. The sitting area was tiny. This first picture is about 1/2 of the total eating area in the room.

 

 

The chairs were little and the stools were like kid size. But it was way fun. Yes, Landon is pretending to be asleep. The nut.

 The cheese rolls were a hit. Marissa loved them.

Melanie gives her approval.

Courtney is on board.

 Landon got shrimp (his favorite food) He was happy.

Dave was mighty satisfied. We ate Soba noodles (with a spicy kick) Delish. Just look how excited Dave is to eat it.

 

We also ate a delicious bowl of Ramen. No not American Ramen. This is so much better tasting.

These are the cheese rolls. They remind me of mozzarella sticks, but instead of being breaded they are cheese in a wonton wrapper. fried up in deliciousness.  You can dip them in sauces or just enjoy them plain. It was fun to try and really good.

 

 

The next day we took our Drivers test. Which was really a very long class learning the street signs and laws. We then took a written test that was open book, open neighbor. Then got a little card that says we can drive in Japan. Then the real test came. I don't have a picture because It was my first time, but we both drove on the left side of the road.

 

My heart was pounding the whole time. It was easy except it wasn't. If you pay attention and just flip everything you have learned in the united states then your just fine. Left turn can turn on red, Right turn, has to yield to oncoming traffic, etc. The hardest thing to get used to is the turn signal. They have switched it sides and so every time you go with your gut you end up turning on your windshield wipers.  They call it the new-be hello wave!

 

I'll post later more about driving and their Roads here. It is pretty interesting.

 

Following getting our license we bought a car so we could get around in Japan. The Lemon lot (which is a used car sells area for private military sellers) had no vans in it. So we went off base to a local used car dealer and bought our vehicle. It seats all of us, but it is not a van and not a mini van. It is a smaller mini van or a large car. I will post a picture later. Right now it is covered in snow. It is really nice though.

 

We then had to attend a briefing about the base and the surrounding area. So Dave and I dropped the kids at Dave's co-workers (they were saints in all of this.) which was amazing for the kids because they went sledding and bowling without us. The meeting was an all day event, but we learned lots.

Even the meeting was exciting.

 

Thursday we moved into our house and got some groceries. We also got some loaner furniture delivered and unpacked our suit cases for the last time :)

 

Friday was a great fun adventure day. We got to attend a cultural city tour where we rode on a bus and they took us to 2 nearby cities so we could figure out the area and feel more confident in going out on our own.

One of the first things we did was vending machines. The Japanese love vending machines and they are everywhere. Even on a road in the middle of nowhere.

This was one we tried. It was white grape juice. The only thing with it was it had chunks of grape in it. A little odd, but Landon was a huge fan.

Next stop was a wonderful lady helping us learn a few key words and phrases in Japanese so we could survive. She also taught us about different surrounding areas and what they had to offer.

 

We then we went to a local mini mall. Where we ate lunch and had an enjoyable time figuring out how to order food. We got some yummy chicken and soba noodles and a green melon drink.

We didn't have a ton of time to look around but defiantly a place we will return to go see.

 

Off to a new city of Hachinohe

We visited a shrine. Learned a little about there religious beliefs and saw many fish, got a fortune. Another place we wanted to spend more time. We only got about 5 min here to explore. We will have to return to explore a little more.

 

At the shrine they taught us all how to wash and be cleansed before you enter the grounds. Here is Marissa Participating.

 

 

Last stop was the Fish market. We are right near the Ocean and Hachinohe has a huge fish market. They have tons of samplings you can taste. We tried dried squid, soy cucumbers, green apple cake (thingy) We didn't try everything, but we had a great time and started venturing out a bit. Landon was very adventuresome, he tried everything we tried. Some of the girls needed a little coaxing.

Squid with eyes and all. And the whitish yellow stuff are the fish guts. ewe gross.

Landon held a live crab. It was a hairy crab and we decided to buy him for a dinner. Landon was very proud of himself. Non of the girls wanted to hold it.

Then there was this man. He was amazing. He has a little shop and he cooks a delicious treat for everyone. I don't remember the name of them, but basically it is a pancake with custard in it. Yummy. They were so good. We even bought some to take home with us.

 

Overall it was a great day. It was a fun adventure. 

 

This week were also suffering with jet-lag. At about 5pm We were all exhausted. That is about midnight in the states. We were running hard and playing hard. We woke up most days about 3am and couldn't sleep anymore.

 

We had so much fun, but work was also involved a lot in this first week. The kids were bored at times and so were Dave and I. We worked hard and played hard. That first 5 days was tons of fun. Many little adventures, but we feel very blessed to be here and experience all the wonderful things Japan has to offer.  

 

 

The modern Pioneers

The pioneers in Early history left there homes, most of there possession some of there family members and traveled many miles. They had to rely on those who were with them and mostly rely on their faith and the Lord.  Recently our family has had to do some of the same things as the pioneers.

We left our home, we left our friends, we left our extended family behind and we traveled far to reach Japan.  Luckily, we have a few differences then those wonderful pioneers. We have been blessed to have technology to keep us in contact with our families and friends. We were blessed to fly on an airplane over to Japan instead of walking pulling our belongings behind us. We have had to rely a lot on our faith in the Lords plan in coming to Japan.

I wanted to give you a little bit of our Journey in getting here. First, was the sad part. We had to say goodbye to our families and our dear friends. This was the hardest part for us. If we could take all our family and friends with us, it would of been easy to go to Japan.  For some strange reason they all didn't want to pack up there lives and come with us. Oh well, In heaven we can all live near each other and be extremely happy.

Goodbye Jackie!

Goodbye friends and our dog Teddy.

Goodbye Darcie!

 

The next leg of our journey was driving 4 hours to LA. We arrived there late morning and couldn't check into our hotel yet. So ate some lunch and then got checked in. We dragged tons of suitcases to our room, which was a small challenge, but everyone was up for it. It took a little help from mom and dad to get over the big bumps but alas we made it to our room and only lost one set of children in the elevator.  After we got our stuff into our room it was time to put our truck into storage for the next few years. We drove to the location and checked it in. After we were finished with that, we had time to breath, it felt surreal that we were now home-less and car-less. It defiantly made us appreciate the blessings we have in this life. It also helped us to see that people are more important than our things. We chose to walk the 5 miles back to the hotel for some good exercise and because we had all afternoon to kill in a hotel room. It was a long walk, but we enjoyed talking and laughing together. After our walk we went back to our hotel ordered some dinner and got baths which were very needed after our day. We relaxed and enjoyed each others company ready to begin the new chapter of our lives.

 

 relaxing in Hotel. Los Angeles, CA

 

The next morning we took a shuttle to the airport and checked in. We arrived at the gate an hour before boarding and we were glad we did. There was a mix up in setting up our flights and we didn't have seats on the plane to get us up to Seattle.  They told us we were first on the waiting list and would get us on if they could. The problem was we were flying out of LA with the Rose bowl just ending and it was also the last weekend for people to get home from the holidays. As we sat and waiting to see if we could get on we started (I mean, I started) thinking about every possible outcome and what we could do to make our next flight. I thought about sending part of us on the first flight, or maybe we should send non of us. I also thought it would probably be busy the whole weekend due to the circumstances and getting all 6 of us on the same flight would be difficult.    Yay, the board now showed that  3 of us could get on the flight. So at this point we made plans to rondevu in Seattle and figure out where and when we would meet back up. We had no cell phones and no way of contacting each other on the other side. 

Then a small miracle happened. 5 min before boarding a nice couple could see we were a little distraught and talking over our options. They realized we were all trying to get on the flight. We explained to them the circumstances and not 2 min later a few people went up and offered to be bumped so we could all travel together. What a miracle and a blessing it was. A little tender mercy and it made us so grateful that someone saw a need and was willing to sacrifice for others. Thank you, so much to those people who were willing to take a later flight so we could all fly together and make our flight to Japan. 

 Courtneys First flight

We didn't get seats together, but we had a great time.

 

We arrived in Seattle, the flight was great. This day was defiantly the most difficult part of our trip. When we arrived in Seattle we had a piece of luggage missing and it was one of the important ones with Dave's stuff in it. We sat for about an extra hour trying to figure it all out. We were hungry and tired. The kids did great and were very patient with it all. We did find the luggage it came a few hours later on a later flight to Seattle, but all the little bumps got worked out along the way.

 

 

Look at that crew with our luggage. So patient and happy.

we got to our hotel and got 2 hours of sleep before we woke everyone up in the middle of the night for our next part of our journey.

We had to check in early for our flight we found a lovely playroom for the children to chill at and play at for a few hours. They had tons of fun making a relay course out of the area.

Still more waiting. Melanie passed some time doing her dolls hair.

Landon was still all smiles even though exhaustion was setting in. What good sports the kids were. Never complained, just went with it.

You could tell they were tired and wanted a nice warm bed. Airport chairs would have to do for our comfort for a little while longer.

Yes, Dave and I were there too!

 

We finally got on our flight. For the first few hours we all slept. Then we got some breakfast. We watched movies, the kids played on the tablets Santa brought them (good job Santa, it worked like a charm) We also took another nap on the plane, ate more food and enjoyed the view. The flight was wonderful. The only issue we had was Courtney had to go to the restroom on the decent and couldn't get out until we landed. Luckly, she made it. Another little blessing.

Northern Japan from the Air. Covered in Snow. Looking cold. Coastline and all.

 Plane ride was fun, but we were glad to see land.

When we arrived we were greeted by most of the chapel staff. What a wonderful welcome. They helped with bags and transportation. What a wonderful welcome.

We know that just like the pioneers we are sometimes asked to do hard things in this life. We are excited to see what Japan has to offer and see what blessing this will bring us but also what we can bring to Japan. Welcome to Japan! We are ready to Enjoy the next part of our journey here!