Hello from the MTC. Today is my first "preparation" day
so I have some time to e-mail! These computers literally have nothing on
them and so much is blocked so... I have a couple pictures but I am not
sure how to send them to you... or even upload them to the computer.
Just know that my outfits are cutely frumpy. Haha. I miss you all, but I
am enjoying my time here so far.
Updates:
I arrived with 143 other missionaries (an
unusually small group). We all met with the mission president and sang
"Called to Serve" and it was awesome. There won't be any missionaries
coming or going on Christmas, so just language missionaries came on the
11th. You hear different languages being spoken EVERYWHERE.
When we first arrived, we went to our classroom. There are 12
senkyoshi (missionaries) in my district. 8 chorotachi (elders) and 4
shimaitachi (sisters). They are all so great and we have a lot of fun
learning together. A few have taken Japanese before so they are really
atama ii desu (intelligent). All of them seem to like pokemon and anime
and stuff... Haha. I have that to learn, too, I guess. Our sensei
(teacher), Brother Ekins, only speaks to us in Nihongo (Japanese). It's
crazy, but really tanoshii (fun). We are learning a lot really quickly.
We can pray, bear testimony, ask for commitments and promise blessings.
I have learned how to read and write in hiragana. Really helpful for
reading scriptures or anything really... and singing hymns!
We taught our first lesson last night to our kyudosha
(investigator), Yanagihara Shin san. He is an MTC employee, but very
good at acting. It was hard to communicate with him because watashi wa
nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu, demo mada jozu ja arimasen. (I understand
a little Japanese, but I'm not very good yet.) Demo, he is nice and
smiles. We taught him that God is our Heavenly Father and we are his
children. Jesus is his son and he loves us. We taught him that we can
speak to God through prayer and gave him a pamphlet on prayer. He didn't
accept the commitment to begin praying to God every day, but he wants
to be our tomodachi (friend) and agreed to let us visit again, of
course... We have SO much to learn, but it will be great to learn for 9
weeks here in the MTC.
My doryo (companion) is Maloy Shimai, from Missouri. She lived in
Japan for four years as a child so she has a pretty good background for
learning Japanese. That will be a good help for me! For the first 4 1/2
weeks, she is the senior companion and in charge of making sure we have
companionship inventory and pray daily as companions. We are pretty
different from each other. When she pointed that out, I said, "Opposites
attract!" She responded with, "No. Opposites are thrown together by the
Lord." Haha but it's great that the Lord knows what relationships will
benefit us and benefit his work because we are all different and have
different personalities and talents to offer.
The MTC is also a wonderful time to study the scriptures and be
spiritually uplifted. Our branch president taught us that if we are able
to feel the Spirit here, then we have been forgiven and we are
sanctified. I have felt the Spirit strongly and know that I am supposed
to be here and God has work for me to do. In our branch we always say to
each other: shinpai shinaide (don't worry) and aishite imasu (i love
you). It's great being a missionary!
Well... Aishite imasu.
Ribusu Shimai (Sister Reeves)
I just have to say, isn't she the cutest!?!!! I'm so proud of her, she knows that this is where she should be and what she should be doing!
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