But... it's a lot of fun and I love all the amazing people I am getting to know here in the MTC!
Every Thursday
we get to do service in the mornings. My assignment is with Sister
Maloy and our other roommates, Sister Sorensen and Sister Foutz. We
clean the bathrooms on our floor for about an hour, sweeping, mopping,
cleaning the sinks and toilets, showers, all that fun stuff! and
sometimes we get to vacuum the halls and clean the water fountains. It's
a good break from studying!! yay...
This last Saturday was our first time at the TRC.
Volunteers from the area who speak Japanese come to the MTC and we have
the opportunity to get to know them and leave them with a quick message.
Last week was so fun! Most companionships just got to meet with one
person for 20 minutes, but Maloy Shimai and I got to teach two lessons!
It's a lot different from meeting with our progressing investigators
because the volunteers are members of the church and we teach them as
themselves. Just leaving them with a message and a commitment that will
help them to come closer to Christ and strengthen their faith. The time
flew by so fast as we got to know them and with 5 minutes left... we
were like "Oh yeah... families are really important to God. The home is
the best place to teach and learn the gospel. Have you prayed about the
Book of Mormon?" We first met with Megumi and Paru... they are both
college students. Meg is from Japan and Paul is from Peru. They were so
nice and understanding about the fact that we barely know any Japanese.
The volunteers have an opportunity to leave a review about how the
meeting went. I will attach pictures of their notes to us! We also met
with a man named Jushi Kyodai. He is from Japan, but he now lives in
Orem with his wife and he is a professor at BYU and UVU. He teaches a
calligraphy class. He told us to take his class when we get home and he
will give us an A. He was so nice... but he sort of laughed at how bad
we were at speaking the language. I asked him what he expected from us, the
missionaries... he said that he expects missionaries to help others to
feel the Spirit and to invite them to be baptized. He said he was
learning about the gospel from missionaries for over a year in Japan
before any missionary ever taught him about baptism. He called himself
an "eternal investigator". The Japanese word for investigator means
"seeker of truth". He was seeking truth for so long without knowing what
else he could do to follow Christ. Christ was the perfect example. Even
he was baptized... to fulfill all righteousness. Baptism is a wonderful
opportunity to witness our faith and to show God that we desire to
follow his commandments. Jushi Kyodai taught us to not fear when we
share the gospel and to invite everyone to follow Christ and his example
and be baptized. It was so cool to meet with him. He asked if he could
take a picture of us afterwards so that he could show some new
missionaries headed to Tokyo South to his wife and friends. We get to go
to TRC again tonight and help our volunteers to understand how they can
receive answers to their prayers.
Our teachers have instituted a new "punishment"? for
when we are late to class. If we show up late, the door is closed and
we have to treat it as a door approach. We knock on the door and our
sensei or someone in our district opens the door and speaks to us in
Japanese. We have to introduce ourselves as missionaries and tell them
that we have a message for them about Jesus Christ and ask if we can
meet with them... It is really funny. And good practice. Especially
because in Japan, they will usually speak to you through the door and
not actually open it to invite you in.
Our lessons with kyudosha are getting so much
better. We have 2-3 progressing investigators at a time. Right now we
are teaching Yuki san and Toshi san. I am getting more comfortable with a
lot of grammar and I can better communicate my thoughts and the ideas
that I want to share. They always ask really good questions about Jesus
Christ... most of them don't even really have a strong faith in God or
know who Jesus is at all. And they wonder why there are so many
different Christian churches. It's sometimes hard to explain these
concepts in Japanese, but it's more important for them to feel the
Spirit than to understand everything about Christ's gospel. As I am
becoming more confident in speaking Japanese... I bring in fewer notes
and helps for my lessons and just struggle through it with what I know!
At the MTC we use the concept, "SYL" (speak your language), to keep us
motivated to just try to say everything we can in Japanese before we use
English. It's really hard because it takes so much longer to find the
words to say the same ideas that come so naturally in English... but
doing this helps our Nihongo became more natural.
I love that most of our time is spent studying the
doctrine of Christ. As we seek to obtain the word of God and study the
language of his Spirit first... we can then be blessed in our study of
the Japanese language. The Spirit of the Lord is the universal language.
People in Japan may not understand what we say or completely understand
the message of the gospel and the atoning sacrifice of the Savior, but
they will feel something different and special when they are with us and
will want to invite us back. Our confidence and strength should be in
the Lord because this is His work and His gospel and these are His
children that we will meet in Japan.
I am so excited to go to Japan and get to know the
people and the culture and the language. But with such a long time in
the MTC... it feels like that part of my mission will never come!! even
though it's coming so quickly!! It's crazy that 2 months of the mission
is spent in training, but it's such a great opportunity to learn and
grow and be prepared to share the word of God and share the glad message
that we have a Savior. He loves us and wants to bless us. Through him,
we can repent and be able to live with our Father in Heaven again.
I love y'all. Have a happy week!!
Ai shite imasu,
Reeves Shimai
p.s. seirei ni yotte heian o kanjiru koto ga dekiru to shitte imasu.
(I know that through the Spirit, we can feel peace.)
(I know that through the Spirit, we can feel peace.)
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