week 7

Konichiwa!!

Into my 7th and a half week here at the MTC! day 46 i believe..!!! Thats flippin nuts! I cant believe i have been in the MTC for that long! It feels like Ive been here for years! but at the same time i still feel like a newbie! This was another great week at the best place ever! My distrcit was a little weird this week.. I think everyone realized that we are going to JAPAN in two weeks and also realized that we still do not kow japanese.. problematic. Everyone was a lot more focused this week which was really nice and needed! We've been here for so long that we have finished our main grammar book and everyone is kinda like what now?? Dont worry we still have millions of other books to study from because Japanese is the hardest language ever. Spanish missionaries are like fluent by the time they leave in 6 weeks and ive been here for almost eight and i can share my testimony. Its awesome!.. hahahah! But seriously im obsessed with this language! I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to learn it!

I always have a hard time remembering what goes on during the week..

So we usually have TRC (where we teach lessons to people who are not workers at the MTC, just volunteers) on saturdays. Well, tuesday night comes around and we are all studying the language like usual when this guy comes in and asks us if we are ready to do our TRC skype lesson.. First of all, a skype lesson means we are skyping with real japanese people from japan (sooooooooooooo scary), we were not prepared what so ever, and were given five minutes to get prepared. I lost it. I really dont know why... but I flipped out. I started bawling my eyes out! I was so nervous to teach this people in Japan when i had no idea what i was going to say! We sit at our computer and im still crying! I said the biggest prayer and more like a plea that i would be able to speak and then we started. Oohama San was her name. I quickly realized that i had nothing to worry about! She was the absolute cutest lady ever! She was in her late 40s and had pigtail braids with ribbons! She was so happy and so smiley and kept complimenting us on our japanese! She was the sweetest lady ever! We were just getting to know each other for the majority of the time and it was so fun! My sensei had to remind us that we were supposed to share a message with her but i just had too much fun talking with her and learning about her and japan! She got me so excited to go! I love the japanese people more than anything! they are the nicest poeple and I seriously cannot wait to get out there! Such a fun experience!

This week our lesson with our investigators went both super good and super bad...

Bad one first.. We are running out of things to teach Komeda.. So we decided to do a lesson on Commandments. Our plan was to talk about the Word of wisdom. Do lessons ever go according to plan? no. they dont. Instead we ended up talking about the law of chastity.. Super awesome.. I really dont even know how it happened. Shes a 60 year old widow.. i dont thing she has a problem with it. But we hadnt really studied this section yet therefore we could not understand her and we had no idea what to say! She asked us how we kept clean thought and i finally managed to say that i sing a hymn. My companion was confused however and thought she asked what are bad thoughts. My companion starts talking about killing her neighbor... Komeda and I were so confused! hahah! I could not stop laughing for the remainder of the lesson! It was quite interesting.. i wish someone could record us while we talk because we say the wrong things all the time! Like how floating carrots appeared to joseph smith and how we were feeling buddhist instead of feeling sick.. Too many words sound like each other in japanese.. its awesome!

One of our lessons with Shohei San was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I was really hoping that this would be a good lesson and hoping that i would be able to explain something that is so dear to my heart. We have talked about it a little before but he didnt understand how the atonement could be applied to his life. So this week I really wanted to help him understand the importance of the atonement. I had a hard time knowing what to say at first and my companion did most of the talking. But I started to talk about my savior suffering for me and for him in the garden. As the words were coming out of my mouth, i couldnt help but cry again! Im such a baby! But its because i felt the spirit testifiying to Shohei and myself that this was true! It was such a sweet thing to expereinece! I looked at Shohei and he was tearing up as well! I knew that through my words, the spirit told him that the savior really does love him so much. A love so great that we will never understand. He suffered for us because of that love he has for us. It was incredible! Its so fun to teach these "investigators" because they are actually our teachers. I had him read matthew 11: 28-30 that talks about the savior. He says my yoke is easy and my burden is light. At the same time we both said we loved this scripture! and i again started crying of course.. I testified to Shohei that I know the Savior loves us. He wants to help us. He already suffered for us and wants us to come unto him so he can help us. Shohei sat there and cried with me and said he knew what i was teaching was true! ahhhhhh!!!! Best lesson and day of my life! Afterwards my teacher really thanked me for the lesson. He said it was exactly what he needed. But it wasnt that helped him. It was the savior. And it was through the spirit. I was just so happy that God has trusted my enought to allow to be a tool in his hand and to preach this amazing gospel to his children! I love my calling!

So ya things are great! I couldnt be more happy! I love this gospel! I love this church! I love my companion! she has become my best friend and im so grateful for her! Miss everyone back at home! hope everyone is having a good summer!

 

Ai shitte imasu!

Christensen Shimai