Saturday, January 4, 2014

26 November 2013 MTC Provo, Utah USA

Konichiwa!!

How is everyone?? I am doing great! And I am loving it at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) here in Utah.
This last week has been crazy! It flew by. The first day was kind of a blur. I reported at 1:30, brought my belongings to my room (which is on a 4th floor..I get winded every time we climb up to our room) and then was brought to my classroom. There was a sensai (teacher) there who was ONLY speaking in Japanese. Of course, I had no clue what was going on. That continued until all of our district showed up. Originally there were 11 people. 4 choro or elders and 7 shimai or sisters. But, yesterday one our the Sisters was transfered out. She is basically fluent in Japanese so her arrival date to Japan was moved up! She leaves in 2 weeks now! It was sad to see her go. But I am soo excited for her to get to go to Japan so soon! 

Because she left I have 2 companions now! Dopp Shemai and Trent Shimai. I love them both. Dopp Shemai was my original companion. We get along like a dream. We both have the same sense of humor and we have a lot of things in common. Of course we have our differences too...but they are pretty minor. We spend a lot of time giggling in class over all the incorrect things I say in Japanese! She has had a few years of classes so she is pretty good. And thank goodness for that! Both of my companions are from Idaho. Dopp Shimai is 20. Trent Shimai in 19 and fresh out of high school.

So everyday we wake up at 6:30, go to breakfast, and either have gym time or personal study time. During Gym time we go play volleyball. It is super fun! Yesterday we were playing Volleyball and we were all getting pretty into it. Anyways, I dove for a ball yesterday and ended up burning a hole through my pants...and my knee! So....Mummy and Daddy...I need a new pair of work out pants please.... I sewed the hole up but the pants don't look right, or hang right anymore. 

Other fun things... For everyone who is wondering YES I've seen Elder Johnson (Blake). We have our meals at the same time. So we smile at each other from across the room. I also saw him when I arrived! He had a little goody bag and letter prepared for me too. It was pretty exciting to see him after not seeing him for over a month! I have pictures too...I'll send those out later. Sunday night we had a devotional (meeting where all the missionaries gather and we get to listen to a usually more prominent member of the church speak). Elder Johnson and I sat together..kind of. My companion sat in between us haha. Any ways-the speaker was having missionaries stand up for certain things. Anyone learning Japanese stand up, anyone who just got here stand up, anyone who is leaving this week stand up. Well, his second to last "stand up" was "anyone who is writing to a significant other stand up." Of course Elder Johnson and I stood up. I think both our faces turned a little red and us and our companions were all laughing. I NEVER thought that would happen in the MTC.

Utah gets colder by the day. And I am NOT a fan. But the MTC is fabulous. I'm learning so much and I love getting to devote 100% of my time to language and gospel study. Japanese is hard, But I know I'll get it eventually. Our language class is super crazy. Our sensai only speaks japanese to us. After our first class I was super frustrated but I've gotten better and more positive now. I can understand WAY more than I speak. And I am pretty decent at ready hirigana. So I am not too worried. Our teacher, Hugo Sensai looks like he came straight out of a classic movie from 50's or 60's. It makes paying attention super easy haha He also knows what he is talking about and does a good job incorporating gospel principles into teaching the language. I really enjoy that class. Especially when I know what is going on!

We have our first investigator. Suzuki San. She is the cutest girl I have ever seen! And she is sooo nice. Our first lesson was horrible! I had no idea what was going on. Thank goodness for Dopp shemai. She saved the day. But just barely.. Our second lesson was better. And our lesson last night was fantastic! We brought cookies for her, started with a prayer, talked about the holy ghost and how to recognize it. She had questions about "the gift of the holy ghost" so we got to explain baptism too! Then Joseph smith came up too so we explained who he was. The we sang I am a child of god in Nihongo and asked Suzuki san how she felt. When we asked if she would like to pray to close she said yes! Of course this was all done with pre-planned sentances and we had our books with us too. But we all knew what was going on and could answer the questions! I loved it. I can't wait to do that without any books. 

OK, well I must go. Please excuse the grammer and mis-spelling. I just wanted to get as much as I could written in the little time that I have.

I love you all!

Molinari Shimai