Hey everyone! I can't believe it's only been a week since I last emailed you! It feels like an eternity.
First
of all, thanks so much to everyone who sent letters. There's nothing
quite like letters to brighten a missionary's day! For those who don't
know how it works, my District Leader checks the mail twice a day. Once
after lunch and once after dinner. If you send a letter through dear
elder, I get it that same day if it is before those times. I can read
the letters whenever I want, but I can only respond back on p-days which
is Tuesdays for me.
So supposedly it's "Christmas" this week in the MTC.
They have the new mission president training and all the general
authorities and apostles are supposed to be here. I haven't seen any
yet...but I'm sure they here. We all were expecting one of them to
speak at our fireside Sunday night. So everyone lined up SUPER early to
get into the gym. Alas, there were no apostles. They did have a district
president here at the MTC and his wife speak. They were really good,
but not quite what we were expecting.
After the fireside they showed a talk that Elder Bednar gave a few
years ago. It was AMAZING! He talked about putting off the natural man.
And instead of being selfish and turn inward and focus on ourselves,
when need to be as the Savior and focus on others. It was definitely a
good reprimand and something I could definitely work on.
There are only 2 things about the MTC that are hard. 1.
The food. It's about all I can do to eat so I'm not starving for class.
But whenever I eat it always makes my stomach make weird noises...I'm
excited for the fresh food in Japan. Even sushi sounds good right
now! Today, after we went to the temple my companion and I had breakfast
in the cafeteria at the temple. It was SOOOO good! Real eggs and
hashbrowns. I was in heaven!
The second thing that is hard about the MTC is we aren't allowed to
listen to music. They only music I hear is before firesides when there
is a musical number. It can be hard and times and sometimes the
other Shimai in my hall burst out into song, mostly Disney. I think we
all are going through music withdrawls.
The Japanese continues to come. I now know both of the
alphabets and can read the hymns and the scriptures! It takes me about 5
minutes to read a verse of scripture, and I don't have a clue as to
what I am saying, but it is coming.
My doryo and I taught our first lesson without any
notes or materials! I was scared out of my mind. But the Lord was
generous, and blessed us. I was actually able to say more than I thought
I could. I love teaching the gospel, and as excited as I am about
teaching it in Japanese, sometimes it's frustrating. Because I just want
to effectively communicate how awesome this gospel truly is! But I
can't do in Japanese. Luckily the only people we are teaching are our
teachers. So it's not quite as much pressure.
When I go to bed, instead of falling asleep immediately
like I used to, I lay away as Japanese phrases run through my head. The
frustrating part is that 75% of the time I don't even know what they
mean! I guess it's a good sign, hopefully it means I'm actually starting
to learn the language. Hopefully I'll be able to understand it someday.
On Sunday for Relief Society we had a woman named
eyrine Madsen come and talk to us. She served her mission in Hong Kong a
LONG time ago, (even before you Mom and Dad!). She was so great and
cheerful. One day I want to be like her. But she talked about expecting
the unexpected on our missions. They probably won't go as we have
planed, but trust in the Lord becuase He is in control.
Yesterday during class we had an unexpected surprise.
We had Elder David Evans come in and talk to us. Elder Evans used to be a
mission president in Japan, then was an area President there, and is
currently serving as the head of the missionary department. We were the
only district that got to talk to him because he wanted to keep it
small. And our female Sensi, Evans Shimai is his daughter in law. So we
have connections.
He talked about a lot of stuff, but surprisngly enough, the thing
he talked about the most was about marriage. It all threw us off for a
second. Why would he be talking about marriage to a bunch of
missionaries who are in the MTC. We still have a LONG time until we
should starting thinking about that. But he said something interesting.
He said, "Marriage is a blessing to be sought after. Not an obligation
to be avoided." I'm sure that will be a good thing to tuck away when
that time does come. But by the looks of my 25 year old single Sensi, it
looked like kind of a slap in the face. I'm sure it was for all of us.
But I think it was directed towards him. Poor guy.
Well things are still great with my companion! We get a
long and have lots of fun. We are almost constantly laughing. And have
become unified as we refer to us as a companionship as one person. I am
having so much fun with her. I think it would be really hard to continue
to stay positive if I didn't have her. Luckily I do.
The Japanese missionaries got here yesterday. I'm
excited to meet them, but a little intimidated at the same time. My
Japanese is very limited, so I'm scared to talk to them. But everyone
says they are super nice and are understanding. I know that my Japanese
will improve if I talk to them. I just need to be brave and do it.
Much love.
-Dobson Shimai
No comments:
Post a Comment