Week 2 and the MTC has yet to kill me (9-17-2015)

I'm not gonna lie, it's probably come pretty close to killing me. We went to the temple early this morning and after ate breakfast in the cafeteria. It was heaven. REAL FOOD. I was ready to die right then and there; my omelet and bacon was sooooo good. I also ironed a shirt this week- probably for the first time in my life. It was a fairly satisfying experience. This morning I walked out the door and tried to read the sign (in hiragana) on my door and I can finally read it! Such good stuff.

Friday: We got our second teacher today. Our "investigator" Rikako-san! Her real name is M.S. She's really sweet. My doryo [companion] didn't feel well, so while she slept, I studied in my bed. Probably not the most productive day but my doryo felt way better after that nap. We have 2 new investigators: J and M (both played by our sensei). During personal study time, both my and my doryo decided on the same lesson plan (separately). Gotta love the Spirit. 

Missionaries in District going to Fukuoka

Saturday in the MTC does NOT feel like a real Saturday. All that really happened was class in the morning, then class in the after noon, and studying all the other times. Which is pretty much what happens every other day so nothing special.

Sunday was rough. And SOOOOO long. I had to prepare a 3 minute talk in Japanese (mine was maybe a minute and a half). Then some missionaries were randomly selected to talk. thank heavens it wasn't me this time. This makes sacrament meeting really stressful. I'm thinking I won't have to talk until my sempai [leader or mentor] leave (the 8 weekers). I went to choir today and loved it. The choir director is amazing. He tells all sorts of church history stories that relate to missionary work and the songs we sing. Anywho, Sunday was so busy that by the end I was fairly ready to go home. I was exhausted and discouraged because it had been a rough week language wise. I pretty much told God in my prayer that I needed a good reason to keep trying with my Japanese because I was trying so hard and getting nothing out of it. This leads to my Monday of Miracles.

Miracle Monday: I got a letter from D. that directly answered my demands to God the previous night. There were several good reasons to keep trying in that letter. God clearly knew what I needed to hear. So the day started off on a good note. I was ready to give Japanese my all. I started AND finished learning Katakana that day. In the matter of 4 hours. It took me over a week to learn hiragana and I managed katakana in one day. There is no way the spirit wasn't involved. I think it was God showing me what could happen if I had faith in Him. Then in my lesson later, I went off script several times and said things in Japanese that I didn't know I knew how to say. The gift of tongues is real. And I am ever so grateful for it. On a funnier note we had TRC (teaching a member) and she asked something and we thought she asked "is it time for you guys to switch and teach your 2nd person now?" and we said yes. So she stood up and left. Like for good. She was still needed for another hour or so and we had told her that it was ok for HER to leave. Our sensei couldn't stop laughing at us. We were a volunteer short for the rest of the night because we told her to go home. Gotta love Japanese.

Random Elders who are friends

Tuesday: Our Devotional speaker was your head honcho mama!! Rosemary Wixom. [Dana is in charge of the Primary  - Children 18 months to 11 at church for the 8 church congregations in our area] She was an amazing speaker. She talked about God and Christ and their amazing love for us. I sang in the choir. During the devotional I kept thinking of one of the reasons I'm on a mission: to give thanks to God for all my blessings. But I realized in that meeting that now that I'm serving Him, I get even more blessings. I am so in debt to God and He doesn't mind. He just wants me to love Him and follow His son. How amazing. We sang "Armies of Helaman" for the closing song and it made me cry. One of the lines was changed to "and we are NOW the Lords missionaries to bring the world His truth". What an amazing reminder of my purpose for being out here.

Emma's District

Wednesday: 

I started to read the Japanese BoM [Book of Mormon]. I have no idea what it's saying and it takes me 5 minutes to read one verse but it helps with my reading a lot. I had a


random prompting to do it and that it would help me learn Japanese and I'm not questioning God. I'll just do as He says. He knows what's up. Today we taught our second new investigator: J. He was rough. He was uninterested and seemed bored the whole time we taught. He even cut us off and told us to leave. It was not our best lesson Japanese wise either. We were pretty frustrated after but both received the thought to teach about prayer. He wants to know if God is real but won't listen to us. So we'll tell him to pray about it. At the end of the lesson I tried to ask "when may we visit again?" and I accidentally said "May we release you from jail?" So funny. Perks of learning a language; you never run out of funny stories. I feel like my life is a funny story at the moment. Another shimai in my district accidentally told and investigator that God is Jesus's older sister. Another started a prayer with "we are God". It definitely keeps us laughing. 

Sister Training Leaders

Sorry for the long emails; I just know my dad wants to know everything. . . . . Love all of you♥

Bearman Shimai