Friday, January 17, 2014

Tokyo, here I come!

16 January 2014 MTC Provo Utah USA – Last letter from USA

Hello everyone!

This week has been really great. 
It is so exciting getting ready to leave the MTC. Friday we received our travel plans and it made leaving and going to Japan ever so real. My district is all on the same plane too! Everyone got their Visas!! We are super grateful for that. We leave at4:30 Monday morning!! 
So last Thursday we had a really great lesson with our investigator Tominaga San. We taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and why we need it in our life. Not only can we access it for healing and forgiveness but also for strength.  It was such an amazing lesson and the spirit was so strong while we were teaching. At the end of our lesson Tominaga San finally really committed to stop drinking. I think he realized that he really could do it! 

All our lessons have been really good lately. Dopp Shimai have finally found a way we love teaching and the spirit is usually present when we teach. I also am not afraid to speak and that makes lessons much better too. 
Last night we got a chance to Skype at TRC again. I can't remember the lady's name..but she was a real spitfire! She was a Nihonjin (ed. Japanese) that lived in Mexico!! I had to try really hard not to snicker through our whole lesson... So for starters her camera connection wouldn’t work. But I'm not really sure she was aware that we couldn't see her. So the entire lesson we spoke to a black screen. So she starts by asking us our names and we tell her and then she continues to question each of us individually.

Half of the time I had no idea what she was asking. But she thought it was really cool Kristoffer is serving a mission in Tahiti. She was really nice and would repeat things for me. And we had a decent "get to know you" conversation. Then it Was Sister Dopp's turn! The longer this Sister spoke to Sister Dopp the slower she spoke, and it was the funniest thing EVER! Out of the two of us Sister Dopp is NOT the one who needs to be spoken slowly too. So this continues, I keep trying not to laugh..Finally she asks us what we have prepared to teach her.

We share this quick message about the atonement. She gives us these great answers to our questions and then...nothing. We had run out of things to say. So she asks if we can share our testimonies. Dopp Shimai goes first. And all through it she gets corrected and told the correct way to say things. Then it is my turn...I was pretty nervous. I didn’t want to be corrected that much!

Well, I started in Nihongo and everything came out perfectly! And quickly too! Usually, I piece together sentences slowly but this time it came out smoothly and quickly and before I knew it I had finished! I was so shocked I was done! And that there had been no corrections either!

After that I told her I was excited to share the gospel and used Waku waku which she told me wasn't the correct term for the sentence and shared the correct one. After that she asked (and i thought it was to both of us) if we had attended seminary. WE said yes. She then asked if we'd slept through it. hahahaha Afterwards Dopp Shimai said that was directed to her and gave me a full translation of that segment of the conversation.. I almost peed my pants from laughing. I always feel like Dopp Shimai does better out of the two of us when speaking/ teaching in Nihongo. Guess our Skype Sister didn't feel that way! 

During one of our lessons this week we practiced "train approaches." Or how to start speaking to someone on a train. Our sensei for the day gave us an example and then asked for a volunteer. No one volunteered so I said I would if we did one in Eigo (ed. English) first.

So Dopp Shimai and I go up and we just sit there. I had no idea what to say! And then...he starts speaking to us in Japanese!!! I was a little annoyed and stayed silent. Dopp Shimai had to do the entire thing.

Afterwards our Sensai said ok what went wrong? And I said "You said it would be in English!" And he starts apologizing cuz he forgot. No big deal. I get a second try to redeem myself - in English. One of the other Shimai in our district became my new companion. So we are sitting and still don't really know what to say but are trying to chat about church stuff to maybe catch his attention. OF COURSE that didn't work. So I smile (or rather smirk) at my companion and say "Smith Shimai...do you remember which station is our stop?" and of course she didn't know...so I asked our sensei who was pretending to be the passenger "excuse me..could you tell me which stop is..." The class burst in the laughter. I think they saw that as a very Sister Molinari thing to do. It was great. And a conversation was started. It didn't go beautifully, but at least we spoke that time!

Don't worry! I won't do that in real life unless I genuinely don't know where I am going. Which will probably going to happen a lot at first. 
Elder Bednar came again on Tuesday. He just continued to answer questions from Christmas. He did tell us something that I am going to extend to all of you. He said ask your family and friends to be praying for you to have the gift of tongues. So, friends and family...please keep me in your prayers so I might be able to speak well and learn Japanese quickly!

Sorry this is kind of a boring letter. And I need to run! Next one will be much more exciting hopefully...It'll be from Japan so it has to be right? I love you all! Thank you for all your support and letters. I got a big pile of letters yesterday and it made my day!
Love,


Sister Molinari