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| Tree that smells like Cream Soda |
こにちわかぞくととまだち (Hello family and friends)
About Addi and Nick: I see Nick
way more often because I think our schedules are similar. I see him at
most meals. Addi I only see at night because I think our schedules are
opposite.She lives on the same floor as me and we sometimes have late
night chats (that aren't actually that late because lights out is at
10:30 and I've gotta be exactly obedient.) It's super fun to have them
here because everyone else seems to know everyone else (Utah kids) and
now I can finally I can get excited over seeing someone I know.
Yesterday at dinner we had a Maryland reunion because I crashed into
Nick and Addi at the same time. We had a good chat about life.
Friday:
Same old same old. Study, eat pizza, study, study, study, study, study,
and (drum roll please) study. Something fantastic might have happened
but I don't remember.
Saturday: BYU had it's
homecoming game. I could hear the whole thing while I was studying. It's
My Life came on and I definitely jammed out to it while reading the
Book of Mormon. My STL [Sister Training Leader] told me something that totally changed my
perspective on Nihongo. I had been feeling bummed out because I didn't
think I knew enough Nihongo to be leaving in 3 weeks (SO SOON). She said
something along the lines of "God rejoices over our smallest victories.
Especially the victories we don't see as victories." What a wise STL.
This means God rejoices when I learn one more Nihogo word or grammar
structure. Small things that I don't see as that much of an
accomplishment, He is partying up in heaven about. Isn't God great?
Sunday:
Huge accomplishment today- I understood 85% of the Nihongo talks given
in church!!! Granted, it was other senkyoshi [missionaries] speaking so their vocab is
also limited but it was great. Since our sempai left, I'm way more
likely to be called on to give a nihongo talk (GAH). I don't have anyone
to hide behind anymore.
Monday: WE HAVE
KOHAI!! [In Japan, the senpai-kohai system underlies nearly all relationships. Although there is no exact translation into English, senpai (先輩) means an upperclassman, senior employee or other older person with whom you have dealings. Conversely, kohai (後輩) is the junior or lower person.] We've been the newest newbies in our zone for 6 weeks (way too
long). But we got newbies! The first batch came on Monday. They were all
International. 2 Mexican sisters, 1 Taiwanese sister, 1 Australian
sister. They are the sweetest. They also make me realize how far I've
come from day one. While teaching, I accidentally called our
investigator by her real name. It was awkward because she pretended not
to know what was going on.
Tuesday: At the
devotional we sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer. I love that song and the
arrangement was amazing. Joseph Smith (it's hard to write his name in
Eigo now. I'm used to writing Josefu Sumisufor lessons) is one amazing
dude. And the story of the the first vision is phenomenal. I saw one of
my BYU friends at the devotional. She's speaking(handing?) ASL. She
taught me how to sign Japanese. You make a triangle with your thumbs and pointer fingers and then pinch your fingers together while pulling your
hands apart. If that made any sense.
Wednesday:
Was simultaneously the worst and best day of my MTC stay. One of our
Choro's went home and we only got an hours notice. My district is like
my replacement family and it was hard to say goodbye to him. We all know
it's for the best because he hasn't been eating or sleeping much these
past 6 weeks because of anxiety. There was lots of crying. We were in a
bum mood all day. That evening we had Skype lessons with actual Nihonjin
(Japanese people). We weren't looking forward to it because it was
scary and we'd had a rough day. But the Lord knew what we needed to make
our day better! He really balanced the good and the bad. Skype TRC [Teaching Resource Center] was the funnest thing ever!! Me and my companion had this really cute 50
year old woman. We didn't understand everything she said but we had so
much fun and laughed a lot. Gah, I can't even put into words how great
this experience was. We taught about the importance of the Book of
Mormon and shared our favorite scriptures from it (Ether 12:27 is mine).
Honestly, it made me feel like I could do this senkyoshi [Missionary] thing. It
didn't matter if I understood perfectly. All I had to do was try my
hardest and smile. She told our sensei that she understood our message
(even though we couldn't say everything we wanted) because the Holy
Ghost was filling in our gaps. How cool is that?!?!?! Being a sekyoshi
is great.
Also, one day this week we told our
investigator to read the wrong scripture. We asked him to read Mormon 8:2 instead of D&C 8:2. Look up those 2 scriptures and you'll see
why it's so funny.
Well, I love you all. I
hope everthing is going well. I hope it's not too cold (because I can
still wear shorts here). Eat some mint chocolate chip ice cream for me.
Pray. Read the scriptures. Remember that if I can learn Japanese through
God's grace literally anything is possible though Him.
あいしてます
Bearman しまい
P.S.
What is Maryland chicken? They were serving it at the temple cafeteria
and I feel a little disgruntled (is that the right word) because I'm
from Maryland and didn't know we had special chicken. Special crabs yes,
but chickens? [I had never heard of it either, but found it on wikipedia]
P.S.S. Do you like the cool hiragana keyboard I found?
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