Week Three

Konichiwa!

I finally understand what everyone means when they say the days go by slow at the MTC but the weeks go by fast. It's the weirdest thing, but it feels like yesterday that I was sending the last letter. I've survived 3 weeks! Things are picking up!

Sunday was wonderful. They treat us really well here in the MTC. We got to watch "Music of the Spoken Word" which was about Veteran's Day. It made me wonder how many more times I would hear the national anthem for the next year and a half. Then we heard from a woman in the primary general presidency for Relief Society. Sacrament was great, and I understood about 40% of the Nihongo! Molen S. and I received our first calling! We are the music  coordinators in our district. It just means we pick the song for sacrament. Should be fun! We watched a talk given by Elder Uchtdorf called "A Missionary's Call," and it was amazing! It made me all pumped to be a missionary. 

Monday we taught our second investigator, John, and it went pretty well, except for the fact that we gave him the wrong scripture to read in the Japanese Morumon sho (Book of Mormon). His whole family are members of the church, but he has a little bit of an issue with it. We went back to teach him on Thursday, and extended the baptismal question  to him. He accepted! It was the best day ever!! Hopefully we get many more opportunities to ask someone that. We also learned the first names of everyone in our district. Turns out their first name isn't Elder! Imagine that!

Tuesday was AMAZING! I got to write all of you letters, which it sounds like you enjoyed. Anyways, Molen S. and I decided to sing in the choir for the devotional, which is super fun, except this time we decided to be altos! It's was really cool. Guess who the speaker was for the devotional? Elder L. Tom Perry!!!! He's the cutest old man, and he gave a great talk on importance of a companionship. It was so great!

Wednesday was fine. Not much happened except the new missionaries came in. This Wednesday we get new senkyoshi (missionaries) in our district! We won't be the babies anymore! Wednesday's are actually kind of tough for some weird reason, so I'm glad it's over. 

Thursday was when we extended baptism to John. It was a really cool experience! I had the idea to read Alma 32 to him since he struggled with faith, so that seemed to really help him! It was the best lesson we've had so far. When we left, Molen S. and I looked at each other with the biggest smiles and started jumping around. It was great! 

Friday we got a new sensei! Her name is Clark Shimai, and she served in Nagoya. There is hope for us to learn Nihongo. Which, by the way, is still super difficult. We learn a ton everyday, so it gets really difficult. When I can actually say a full sentence or two in Nihongo, I'm always so proud of myself! I've definitely felt the gift of tongues while here. We taught our third investigator, Sato-san, for the second time. He's a tough cookie! He won't sing or pray with us. Hopefully he will come closer to Christ. I had a cool experience the other day where I was doing personal study, not thinking about our investigator at all, and then the thought came to me that I should share D&C 121:7-8 with Sato-san since he's had a rough life. It was so cool! I received revelation! 

Overall, being a missionary is wonderful. We've starting having a little bit of tension in our district, but that's to be expected if you spend everyday with each other. By the way, Kyodai means brother. So our sensei is Gregory Kyodai. I'm still trying to learn the language, but that's going to take a while. I'm excited to see what happens this next week! Expect pictures from me in a little bit. I love you all, and I'll talk to you next Saturday! I can't wait to get your DearElders!

 

-Dansie Shimai