January 9th

konnichiwa!

surprise!! P-day is now on Thursday! We got new schedules for the new year. we just started them this week and it's so much better. meals are at much more normal times, gym time is right before meals instead of right after and our study times are in a logical order. our personal, companionship, and language study hours are now back to back. class time is also more structured. 

Service time with Maloy Shimai! We get to wear goggles when we use dangerous chemicals ;)

the temple opened back up on monday and we were able to go this morning! today has been such a happy day! it was so good to be able to attend the temple again... it's been awhile and I've missed it!

Sunday temple walk with Sister Maloy and Sister Foutz

Our New Year's was super exciting.... We went to bed at 10:30 as usual... and toasted with sparkling apple cider in styrofoam cups. We could hear some fireworks (hanabi) outside as we fell asleep. YAY! But... we had an awesome devotional to start off the new year and talk about goal setting. Repentance allows us to change from the person we were and become someone new! As we repent we will want to do good continually and find the best uses of our time here on earth. We have opportunities each day to become more Christ-like. We can leave behind whoever we were last year and become someone new. Sometimes when we make new year resolutions we think we have to be perfect and NEVER mess up. Often when we mess up first... on January 2nd... we give up. We shouldn't despair when we fall back into our old ways. We should just get up and try again... If you're better for a day... you're better. Just try one step forward at a time. It doesn't matter how close you are from the end goal... it matters what direction you are headed in. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is NOW! How exciting is that... we can change! We can be the person we want to be! 

This last Sunday was Fast Sunday. It was such an awesome day! I felt comfort as I fasted with purpose and enjoyed the Sabbath day. Our schedule on Fast Sundays is a little different. Instead of having relief society, we go to a Mission Conference as an entire MTC and hear from the MTC President and other speakers. It was such a good meeting. Our sacrament meeting was a testimony meeting, of course. I got to lead the music, which was cool and scary cause I'm not even that good at reading the words in Japanese! But it is so amazing that even though I don't understand all the words I'm singing, I can still feel the same Spirit and the truth of those hymns. I have never shared my testimony in a Sacrament Meeting, but I knew that this was a perfect time to face my fears and share my testimony with my Branch... which is actually super tiny (just 24 companionships) because my district is still the newest group of missionaries! I was able to share my testimony in Japanese!! It was scary, but I realized that I really did know how to communicate a lot of the feelings of my heart in Japanese! As always, we got to walk to the temple and just enjoy being on the grounds.

Japanese is coming a long. The learning pace isn't too hard to keep up with... we are just expected to do a lot of studying on our own! We get to "mogi" (role-play) a lot. Last night Sister Maloy and I practiced teaching another companionship in our district. We had a teacher there to observe and help us. It is really cool how if you take the mogi seriously, you can really feel the Spirit and the truth of the message you are sharing. It's the same with the lessons we teach to progressing investigators. They are actually just our teachers, but we pray for them and care about them and seek to discover their needs and be a friend to them. The last lesson we had with Toshi San did not go very well at all. We weren't able to relate to him, understand his needs, or share with him anything that he could relate to or feel. It was really frustrating and I was really upset afterwards. I felt so sad that we had an opportunity to help Toshi feel the Spirit, but we messed up and left him confused and without much of a desire to understand anything more about his relationship with God. After the lesson, our teacher (who pretends to be Toshi) could tell that I was really upset. He was able to talk to me about how I felt and help encourage me: We haven't been taught all the skills we need to be effective missionaries and I am doing all that I can. I am diligent in my studying and an example of diligence to my district. He made me promise that I would eat ice cream at dinner. Haha.. that wasn't too hard! That night I just really wanted a hug from a friend. I felt a little alone. The same teacher took us up to the top floor of one of our buildings and had us look out at the mountains. They are huge and beautiful and it's so amazing that God created them for us. Those mountains are way bigger than the problems we face and God will help us overcome anything! It was also crazy to look out the window and see lots of Provo and all of the BYU campus. It was weird to see the past couple years right in front of me and have a flood of memories- the experiences that helped me learn and grow and make the decision to be a missionary and share the joy of the gospel with those who need the comfort and peace that it brings. Looking out at the mountains and the campus was exactly what I needed.

Heart-attacking Sister Sorenson's bed while she was in the shower (:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

That night we went to the devotional. We heard from the Presiding Bishop of the church, Bishop Stevenson. He served his mission in Japan and was also a mission president there later. The message that stood out was that sharing our testimony invites the Spirit to our lessons. Our testimonies are more powerful and mean more than any truth that we teach. Inviting the Spirit is so much more important than our investigators understanding the doctrine. They can just feel that it's true. Often, people won't be able to understand what we are saying, but they will see our happiness and feel warm and peaceful and want to know more and find out for themselves. It is no coincidence that the speakers at our devotionals lately have connections to Japan. It is no coincidence that I have been called to serve in Japan at this time. There is work to be done in Japan and I am willing to be the Lord's servant and assist him in this work. The people of Japan are wonderful. They are ready to hear this glad message and I am so excited to be a friend to so many Nihonjin (Japanese people) that I meet!

TRC has been going well. The volunteers are so nice to us, even when we aren't very good at speaking the language. I feel like a little child... speaking in such simple sentences, but as my companion and I share our testimonies, I can feel the Spirit so strongly and the volunteers can, too! Lots of the people we meet with are native Japanese and they talk SO fast and it's hard to understand what they are saying, but I can feel the power of their testimonies and experiences, too! They usually write us a review about how the lesson went and how they were inspired because of the meeting. and sometimes they write in Japanese... which gives us a good challenge for language study!

Weird faces with Sister Foutz and Elder Tipene

There is so much to tell y'all, but not lots of time!! Thanks for writing me and keeping in touch. LOVE YOU. 

Sister REEVES