Halfway There, Livin' on a Prayer

Whooaaaa we're halfway there, WhoooAAAA livin on a prayer!!! (I realize that song is not in the hymnbook, and thus I should not be singing it, but I just thought it was so applicable and I couldn't resist.) It's officially our halfway point of the MTC! So weird. But really exciting at the same time. Our Daisenpai got their travel plans today! They're leaving at like 2 in the morning not this Monday but next. That's gonna be us before we know it! So let's think, exciting things of this week: My Doryo had a really bad headache all last week so we finally went to the doctor on Tuesday. He diagnosed her with a sinus infection and prescribed some meds that we had to go pick up from the BYU health center. I gotta say, it was so weird actually leaving the MTC grounds. We walked to the edge and the gate was just open. For some reason I thought that was super weird haha. I think I was expecting a guard or something at least. Sometimes we forget that we're here on our own free will. It feels a bit prison like at times. But it was fun to change up the schedule for a little bit and have a change of scenery, even if it was only across the street :) The Nihongo is really starting to come together. Sometimes as a district, we go on eigo danjika (English Fasting) which basically means we speak only Nihongo for whatever amount of time we decide. It's always surprising to me how much Nihongo I can actually speak when I want to. And also how much I can understand! I'm not saying I'm fluent by any stretch yet, demo (but) Nihongo wa kantan desu yo! (Japanese is simple!) At least, that's what we keep saying to ourselves. In Nihongo, they say everything SUPER politely. And you can't really say anything directly. It's the weirdest thing. There's a polite conjugation for pretty much everything and then there's honorific too. Basically, you can never really say anything directly. Instead of saying "Do you want to come to church?" you have to say "Do you think you want to come to church?" And the conjugation for the "must" verb literally translates to "if you don't do this, it will not become" which only implies that someone must do something. You can't tell someone they must pray. You have to tell them if they don't pray, it will not become. Also, it's really rude to say the word for "you". You have to use people's names all the time. I'm convinced that when I go to Japan I'm just going to be offending people right and left because I'll use the wrong conjugations or forget to give people their titles. Demo, Daijobu! (basically means, but that's ok! We say it after we do anything wrong or have any complaints. "I've eaten this same meal three times this week. Demo Daijobu!" "We gave our investigator the wrong scripture, AGAIN. Demo, Daijobu!" It's basically our version of "all is well") Our Kyudosha (Investigators) are progressing quite nicely. Even though our "lessons" are the most stressful part of the MTC no keiken (experience) it's certainly where we learn the most. Kino (yesterday) Cook Sensei was all "Ok guys, you're getting new investigators for next week, lets meet them!" At which time we usually watch a video about our "investigator" saying how old they are what they like, etc. But this time, he turns on the computer screen and up pops pictures of all of us. Yep, that's right. We're the new investigators. We now get to teach each other. Guru guru pa! (basically means, mind blown) Sounds a little scary, but I think it'll be a really good experience to start thinking more from an investigator's point of view, as well as seeing how other missionaries teach. I'll have to let you know how it goes. It's strange the way that my mind works these days. I get hymns stuck in my head all the time. Everything we ever do relates back to the gospel. The other day, I was playing four square when I realized it is the PERFECT comparison to the pride cycle. Think about it. You start our all humble in D square, and then you get to C and still feel good, then you get to B and start only focusing on getting the person in A square out, and then when you finally get to A square you get prideful and stop working hard which leads you to miss some easy shot because you think you're all that! Then you end up in D square again, and thus the pride cycle begins again! Pretty good anaolgy eh? I sure thought so. My roommates think I should use it in a lesson sometime. I'm not entirely sure that the Nihonjin would understand the comparison. Do they have 4 square in Nihon? Anyway, that's the life we live here. Trivia question for you: Who was the first prophet to enter the MTC? Think about it, and I'll tell you at the bottom of the page :) One of my favorite parts about the MTC has been the choir. The first day we were here we decided as a district to do choir every week. It's so insane going to the Marriot center on Tuesdays and being a part of this MASSIVE choir. We sing beautiful music and sometimes its the most spiritual part of my Tuesday. Besides that, the choir director is abslolutely hilarious. Tuesdays are probably my favorite day because of choir, and because of the Tuesday night devotionals which are always simply spectacular, but mostly because we have a district devotional afterwards with just us 14 missionaries. We all talk about what we learned, felt, or thought and just grow closer as a district. Life is great. This gospel is great, and Nihongo is great! Sounds like things are going well back home! Love you all! Ai Shitte masu! Wells Shimai

The Crowded "Empty Sea"

We got new Senkyoshi (missionaries) this week! That means we are officially Senpai. It's weird not being the newbies anymore. Now instead of asking all the questions, we're the ones that have to answer them. I remember when we first got here it seemed like the missionaries above us knew SO much. Now that I'm there though, I realize we don't really know anything at all haha. This week flew by. Two of our sensei's were out of town on vacation, which meant that two of our "investigators" were also gone, so we only taught two lessons. We usually teach 5 in a week. But it was a good week to only have two lesson because I'm pretty sure all the Shimaitachi (Sisters) are getting sick. Watashi no Doryo (my companion) has a stuffy nose, sore throat, and other symptoms of what sounds like a sinus infection. She's been coughing for the past few days. Yesterday I started developing a sore throat as well, and the other two sisters in our district aren't feeling super great either, so we've just been suffering together. Luckily, today is Junbi no hi (Preparation day) so we can all relax a little and hopefully take a nap. Since not too much has happened I'll write a little about the MTC life in general. The MTC is super crowded right now as I'm sure most people have heard. At meal times, they've started serving food outside from carts as well as in the cafeteria to spread out the crowd a little. Tuesday night devotionals are at the marriot center over on the BYU campus. I need to get a picture of everyone walking over there because there is seriously just a never ending line of missionaries as far as the eye can see leading from the MTC to the Marriot center every time we walk over there. The laundry room is a mad house during our laundry time, so we've decided that its worth it to get up at 5:30 on P-days to do our laundry before everyone gets there. It's a little sad when P-day is the day of the week that we wake up the earliest. On Saturdays we do the Training Resource Center, which is basically just teaching random volunteers in Japanese. Funniest moment of the week happened last Saturday during that time. So tsumi, in Japanese, means sin. And Shumi, in Japanese means hobbies. We walk into a room with a random stranger and start trying to get to know him. We ask his name, where he's from, and then I ask him "Tsumi wa nan desu ka?" He gives me a strange look and it didn't register to me yet why my sentence sounded weird. "Tsumi?" He asks. My companion and I look at each other for a second before it clicks for her and she yells "SHUMI! IIE, IIE! SHUMI WA NAN DESU KA!" (Hobbies! No, no! What are your hobbies!) I slowly begin to realize that I just asked this random stranger what his sins are. We certainly had a good laugh about that one. Let's just hope I never make that mistake in Japan. The Nihongo is coming more and more every day. Sometimes during language study I try to translate the Morumon Sho (Book of Mormon, in case you didn't figure that one out) from Nihongo to English. I basically write down the writings from characters to the roman alphabet onto my paper, and then I pick out the words that I know and write those down in English, and then I look up the other words that I don't know until I have gotten the gist of what the writings are trying to tell me. It usually takes me like 20-25 minutes to do one verse. Sounds discouraging, I know, but sometimes it feels like a treasure hunt so I don't mind too much :) I see people I know quite often whether it be from Riverton, Herriman, or from Utah State. Its always fun to see familiar faces. It's also somewhat awkward when you see a boy you know and you're now allowed to really touch them so you run up to them all excited and then when you get to them you just have to stop and give them a handshake. It's a bit anticlimactic. Well, that's about all I have time for. The MTC is really a great experience whether it be the good days or the bad. I'm learning so much and I'm so happy to be supported by so many great friends and family. Thanks everyone who's been keeping me in their prayers! See you in about 17 months! Ai Shitte Masu Minasan!

The Life of a Kohai

We've almost been here three weeks! We get new Japanese missionaries every 3 weeks, which means that we'll be getting new Kohai this Wednesday! When you first come, you're a Kohai, after three weeks, you're a Sempai, and then your final three weeks you become Daisempai. Our Daisempai are leaving on Monday morning which is so weird! I still feel like we just barely got here, but at the same time I feels like my life before the MTC was ages ago. I'm a little sad to be promoted though. Being the babies was fun because everyone tries to be nice to you and doesn't expect you to know anything yet :) This week was really good. We got two new "investigators" to teach. It has now become obvious that our first investigator was really easy on us, because these new investigators speak much more quickly, and ask much harder questions. Like "What can I expect when I pray?" and "God appeared to Joseph Smith, will he appear to me too?" and "I'm already happy, why should I do what you say?" These questions are hard enough to answer in English, now just try and figure out an explanation in Japanese! That is, if you can even figure out what they are asking in the first place. We usually have to say "moichido kudasai (once again please)" about 3 or 4 times before we even understand the question. The "investigators" now are actually our teachers. So every once in a while they come in to class and tell us funny things that we said wrong. Like heian, is peace and haien is pneumonia. Two of the sisters in our district told one of the investigators that if they prayed and read the book of mormon, they would recieve pneumonia. And one of the Choro (Elders) in my district was asking his investigator about his work, and the investigator told him that he got fired from work. Apparently Merrill Choro didn't understand the word fired, and assumed he meant retired, and said "Oh that's wonderful!" Another one that has happened more than once, because of the weird sentence structure here is us telling our investigators that they love us. Instead of telling them that we love them. We just leave the room trying to say "We love you, Takehiro-San!", but instead say "Takehiro-San loves us!" We have some pretty funny moments learning a new language. There was one lesson this week that we taught that has really made me realize why I'm here. It was our second lesson with Toshii, and our first lesson was really discouraging because Toshii just kept falling asleep and acting really uninterested. We went into the second lesson with low expectations, but also with a desire to do better than before. We taught Toshi about the restoration and had him read the first vision in the Nihongo PGP. After he read it, he just paused for a minute and stared at the words that he had read. Then he looked up at us with a smile and said "That's awesome." And in my mind I just thought, oh my goodness, it really is. We continued the lesson with testifying of the truthfulness of this gospel and how we can know for ourselves whether or not it is true. Toshi asked us why we were missionaries, and we both just tried to explain with terrible grammar and simple words, that this gospel brings us happiness, and we want other people to have what we have. And he just said "Wow. Ii Senkyoshi desu." (You're good missionaries) We had Toshi say the closing prayer and it was the most simple, yet beautiful prayer I had ever heard. At some point during that lesson, I think the reality of what I'm doing really set in. This wasn't Cook Sensei anymore. This was Toshi. And this was the first time he had EVER prayed to God. My Doryo and I came out of the lesson with smiles on our faces and tears on our cheeks. Times like that make me remember exactly why I'm here. And times like that make me realize that it doesn't really matter what clothes I wear, or how many letters I'm getting, or how hard it is to learn Japanese. Because I believe that what I am doing, is what God wants me to be doing. And that's all that matters in the end. As it says in the second word of the missionary purpose, we are to bring OTHERS unto Christ. It's not about us at all. Of course, not every lesson is at all like that. And the next day when we taught him, we were going to commit him to come to church and we experienced disappointment in learning that he works every Sunday. But roadblocks like that are just preparing us for the real thing when we reach it in 6 more weeks. Even though our investigators aren't real, they teach us that we need to pray for them, and figure out their needs and focus on them completely during our studies. I think it helps us be a lot better prepared during our lessons. I've heard a lot of people say how much they don't like the MTC, but I have yet to experience that thought. In fact, I'm concerned to go out into the field because I'm just not convinced that I could like it out there as much as I love it here. All of the people in my district are my best friends and all of the sisters that I'm so fortunate to be acquainted with make every day so fun. We sometimes talk about how God must have given us wonderful people to work with because He gave us such an immensely hard language to learn. I think my favorite time of the day is when the four of us sisters that sleep in my room come to the residence hall at night and have an hour before bed. We laugh SO much during those 45 minutes before quiet time. Whether it be about funny moments in our lessons, during class, fun times back home, or dreams about marrying the Sensei, we end up on the floor laughing almost every single night. I feel like these girls are my best friends, and we've known each other since birth, even though its only been a couple of weeks. Hope everyone back home is doing well! I love hearing from anyone so keep me updated and keep me in your prayers because I'm going to need it with this Language! Ai Shitte Masu! Ja Mata!

I love the MTC!

In Japanese grammar, the verb always comes last in the sentence. So to practice, our district tries to speak as much Japanese as possible and also we try to use Japanese grammar even when we don't know the vocab. We walk around saying things like "I, to the bathroom, need to go" and "This food delicious is!" We pretty much sound like Yoda.

 

Nihongo (Japanese) is coming along! Slowly, but surely. On a daily basis, it feels like we're not making hardly any progess, but then if we look back to how much Nihongo we knew 10 days ago compared to now, its crazy how much we've learned. And we sing all of our hymns in Nihongo now, which are written with their characters. We sing pretty slow, but we can actually read all the symbols! We don't have any idea what we're singing, but that's beside the point :)

 

A typical day at the MTC goes like this for me:

 

Wake up and get ready to be at breakfast by 6:45.

 

Eat some eternal life for breakfast. (Someone literally put the word eteral on the Life cereal dispenser, so I eat eternal life for breakfast. Welcome to MTC humor.)

 

Personal study for an hour, where I try my hardest to stay awake.

 

Classroom for 3 hours, which at first was kind of like a game of charades where Cook Sensei would talk to us in Nihongo, and we just nod our heads at the words we know, and then if theres a word we don't know, we just give him the confused look and he'll act it out, or point to something, or just tell us to look it up in our ninja (the book that tells us how to say everything we ever need!) There's 14 of us in my district crammed into a tiny room that was built to fit maybe 8 desks tops.  If we were dogs, it would literally be illegal to stick us all in there. But we love each other a lot and have a lot of fun so it works out pretty well :)

 

Hirugohan (Lunch)

 

Gym Time. We usually play volleyball. Let me rephrase that. My companion plays volleyball and kicks all the girls AND the boys trash, while I wave my arms around trying to make contact witth the ball and pray for a miracle that it will go somewhere useful. We don't keep score, so at least no one can get mad at me for making us lose :) If I start to get bored of that, I sometimes go over and play four square with the other unathletic senkyoshi (missionaries).  Sorry mom, I obviously don't take after you and your athletic skills.

 

Teach a lesson in Japanese. This is also a lot like a game of charades. We say sentences with terrible grammar and when our investigator doens't understand, we'll do things like say "kamisama" (God) and point upwards to indicate God, then say "ai" which means love, and put our hands over our hearts to indicate love, then say "Yuki" which is our investigator, and point to him. Haha its somewhat ridiculous, but also definitely where we learn the most. As a companionship, our last lesson went the best by far. We tried not to "script" the whole lesson, and instead focused on vocabulary that we needed to teach with, and then went from there. Even though our sentences and our grammar were the worst it had ever been, we were both trying SO hard to get our message across and helping each other more than we had before that I think that's when the spirit was really the one teaching.

 

Then we have things like language study, TALL (which is where we play language games on the computer to learn Japanese), dinner, planning time, and bed.

 

All of these things can be switched around depending on the day.

 

On the fourth of July we had a specialy occasion where they let us stay up late to watch the stadium of fire fireworks. That was a fun change of pace. We were all standing at the edge of the MTC looking over through the trees and someone started singing the Star Spangled Banner and everyone joined in by the end. God bless America!

 

Well, I'm running out of time. If anyone ever feels a need to email, write or dearelder me feel free! We check the mail twice a day so when you don't get mail for like 5 days in a row it gets a little depressing. But thanks to everyone who has supported and written me about home! I love my mission and I love you all!