June 15th - one more week in the MTC!

Konnichiwa, or Ohaiyo, or Konbanwa,

Depends when you are reading this.

 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I'd love to say thank you for your support and letters. (You'd think we'd get sick of saying this... but we missionaries really won't) Let's see if i'll be able to recall the weekly events here at the MTC. On Tuesday we had the first ever devotional at the mariot center in Provo. All the missionaries got to get some breath of freedom and hike the long way of about 3 minutes to the center. I got to get there early because I get to participate in the chior~ No big deal really, I'm pretty sure the whole MTC is in this chior. We got to hear from Elder Arnold of the 70. His talk really inspired everyone, I think. He spoke alot about using our gifts as missionaries to not, take away who we are, but to raise up and do what we can to spread the gospel, and invite other to come unto Christ. He also spoke about how the light of Christ can change anyone who choose to believe. He brought up 3 different kinds of metals. One that wasn't cleaned, one that was just a plain old sheet, and a clear glass dagger. It really was beautiful. Even though you may see people as the first two, you must change your expectations to what God wants them to be. See everyone as Children of God, and everyone who needs Christ.

 

  There are some pretty exciting events coming up soon, so I'll try to have some organization to this letter. I think there are about 1500 missionaries singing. HOWEVER on sunday's devotional (on the 23rd) It will be different. There Is going to be a world wide broadcast missionary... conference... thing, and I'll be singing in that. The first Presidency and 8 of the 12 will be there. YA! I'm super excited. I've never been in a choir, or got to sing for the General Authorites. After the devotional on Tuesday Elder Arnold came into our classroom to shake everyone's hands. Honestly when he first came into our room I thought he was just one of the branch counselors from different branches... it wasn't until I looked up at his face as he shook my hand as I realized who it was. He talked to us for about 2 minutes about what we learned during our talk and left. That was so amazing!

 

Oshima Sensei left us T-T... He had to go teach the Nihonjin missionaries upstairs on short notice. It was sad at first, but then It just meant that we got to meet a new teacher. Now we have Holister sensei. He's pretty cool, I don't know much about him yet. I hope Bailey Choro won't be too harsh on him. Oshima sensei comes down every once in a while to say hi.

 

I'm sorry this E-mail might be a bit short. I'm starting to run out of time. I leave to Japan in about 9 days. I guess that's pretty big news. XD So I hope I can get some letters out before I leave. Though, things might get tough. Wish me luck!

 

Ai shite imasu!

-Money Shimai

 

Oh~ Also I've attached a fail of Oshima sensei and his tie. It has blue pickachus on them. He seemed pretty excited about it. Also I want everyone to appreciate Thayne Choro. He's an elder from our district who brings a smile to everyone's faces. Here is one of his very famous "Thayne Faces" Thayne Choro is the one on the far left. haha, Man I love everyone. ANYWHO~ Until next week!

June 1, 2013

Konnichiwa Minasan~

Remember that time when I explained that time was moving at the speed of light here? welp, the fact that I'm writing ANOTHER E-mail just proved that fact. First of all I'd like to say: THANK YOU~ why? well one because everyone I know has been a blessing in my life, and that the letters really help my days out alot. Because "Dear Elder" connected all of the letters I got from everyone, I ended up with 7 at a time. Our district leader used this opportunity to play a prank on everyone, and place each of my letters on their desks... so it looked like everyone had mail T-T then they all went to my desk and just set it on my notebooks while I was sitting there. No worries, they were ok, cuz they all got mail at dinner.

On Saturday our teacher, Allen Sensei, left to go to China for an internship. That was hard. I'll post some pictures of us once I get to a computer that has card reading abilities. Once he left though I was reminded of that song. Can't remember the number, but I think it's called "each life that touches ours for good." Im so grateful I had such a wonderful teacher.

On Sunday we got the opportunity to go to a Devotional. (Oh no! I'm so bad with names...) We got to listen to one of the video programmers for the church. When he got up however he said that he decided to not talk about what he prepared to talk about, because he knew that we were going to see Sister Monson's funeral service. He spoke to us about how death was a part of God's plan for us. That it's ok to be sad, but to know that God has not left your side, but stands by you in your toughest times, wanting you to be strong. He then said a touching story, about a missionary and his father. How even once they died, they did missionary work in Heaven. I believe this is true, God's work doesn't end. Life doesn't truly end, we just "graduated" from this life, and will continue to do God's work in Heaven. I think every missionary needed that at that time. We then sang "come come, ye saints" with a recording of the tabernacle choir on youtube. I wish I could remember everything without my notes. I left them at home. (the dorms)

We got a new Sensei on Wednesday~ His name is Oshima Sensei. Is he Japanese? Yep! Could I understand him when he was talking to us? ... well... I guess I could pick out some stuff. He is such a great teacher, and I can't wait to learn more. Having a Japanese teacher really does help with the SYL'ing. Aaah! it makes me want to leave to Japan even sooner! (but then I remember I don't know Japanese) :'D .... good times.
Oh! Also, all the dai senpai are leaving, so that means we'll be the oldest japanese group in the MTC. D: kind of a scary thought. 

I wish I could recall all that has happened... but I'm not sure if he want to hear about every little thing that is happening XD so I'll just say that I'm happy another week has passed, but I'm also sad. I'm also sad that these dryers shrink your laundry. (I am in the Laundry room at the moment.) It's those little trials and snags that kind of make life awesome though. What if life was easy and we didn't get to experience all of this? pretty boring huh? I think so. Just know that I love each and everyone reading this, and that I pray for you. Believe me, I do. I think I pray everyday all day never ending. Half of it is in Japanese, but it all means the same thing. I know that God's work has been hastened with this new news. I wish I could have seen the MTC without all these missionaries to see the difference. It's wonderful. Everytime I open my scriptures I learn something new. It's always an answer to my prayer. Be careful though, because once you look at the scriptures it might change it's meaning the second time you look at it. God answers our prayers in so many different ways. 

 

Morumon sho wa shinjitsu da to shite imasu. Morumon sho ni naka wa, Kamisama no kotoba da to shite imasu. Josefu sumisu wa shinjitsu no yogensha desu. Josefu sumisu wa morumon sho o honyaku shimashita. Ginsei no yogensha ga Iru to shite imasu. Kono Jinsei wa muzukashi, demo, Kamisama no tasukete, kono jinsei wa mokuteki ga aru to shinjite imasu. Iesu kirisuto no aganai ni kansha shite imasu. Sono Aganai wa watashitachi o tasukeru koto ga dekiru to shinjite imasu. Kono fukuin wa shinjitsu desu. Kamisama wa watashitachi o ai shite imasu. Watashi wa mina san o ai shite imasu.

Till Next week Everyone~

-Money Shimai