First Week In Japan! Miyakonojo

Okay to start off, I cannot figure out this keyboard, its killing me. the punctuation is all in different areas. Anyway oh my goodness! Im in Japan!! So traveling here was a little crazy. Our flight to colorado was 2 hours late which meant we missed our flight to tokyo and had to spend the night in colorado. It was pretty stressful but thankfully we were able to get it figured out for the 25 people we had in our group and we all made it! Finally! We flew out to Tokyo the next afternoon and I was told to help jet lag not to sleep the entire plane ride and just to sleep when I got there. So that is what I did, I didnt sleep at all the entire flight (two flights one to tokyo and one to fukuoka) and then we finally got there and I was so excited to sleep! And then President Egan told us that since we missed an entire day that we had to do training until about 1-2 in the morning!! I was soooooo tired! So we ended up staying up until about 230 am and then we got up at 530 the next morning to go to our area! My first area is Miyakonojo! (Ill talk more about that in a second) anyway so it was a 4 hour bus ride, and thankfully there was another elder that was being transferred to my district also so he helped me out a lot. I sat next to this sweet Japanese lady the whole ride and I tried to have a couple conversations with her that ended up being like: `Nihon is very pretty.` then she would say something and I would just say `i:m sorry my japanese is very bad i don`t understand` haha and then I would try again. It was really sad haha but I tried! Then I finally got the Miyakonojo and met my new companion! Her name is Sister Mills and she is super cute. This is her first time training and she is really excited to train. She has been so great and so helpful. Also very encouraging of my japanese which is just horrible haha. I don`t understand anything! Japanese people speak so fast! That first day we went to get my bike and we did a lot of planning. We met someone named Kimura at the bike store and he was the sweetest! He saw that we were American and so he tried to speak english to us (He didnt speak english at all haha) but he tried so hard! I was so grateful. People in America just expect everyone to speak English in america but everywhere else everyone tries to help you out! Especially Japanese people. Everyone comes up to me when they find out that I dont know any Japanese and will say any words they know in English and then try to help me with my Japanese. I love them! So that night we got my bike and then we did some planning which took a while.. and I didn`t go to bed until 10:30 so if you want to count that up, I only slept about 3 hours in 50 hours. (I wrote in my journal that night `I am so tired right now I think I might die.`)  So this area is very country side. Not a lot of people outside so we have to house (door contacting) to find anyone. Right now we only have a couple of investigators. One is Kodama San! He is like super legit. He used to be in the Yakuza!! (Japanese Mafia) haha so he is pretty hardcore. but he is also like 65 years old so he`s just super funny. Japanese people.. man they are so interesting. They keep to themselves and are very quiet. When you talk to them they don`t say anything unless you ask them a question and then they just say oh i don`t know haha you really have to pry to get them to talk. I`ve only met a couple that were super genki (like.. outgoing?) and even then they weren`t like americans are. I just feel like these people need to be loved SO much. I want to love them so badly but I dont know how to say anything to them! So I literally just smile at them. When my companion is talking I just smile like so big at them and hope that they can feel how much I want to love them haha. It sounds cheesy but it`s the only thing I can do right now! Yesterday it rained like crazy!! We were out housing and we got soaked. It was actually so much fun haha. Japanese people think we are crazy Americans. I absolutely love it. OH! So I said we went housing yesterday and we knocked on so many doors and nobody was interested and then we knocked on a door and this cute adorable little girl answered and we asked if her parents were home and her grandma came out. Her grandma talked to us for like 45 minutes about so many things! I didnt get most of it but they were talking about dancing and how we dont drink alcohol and just a ton of different things it was super funny! and APPARENTLY her son is serving a mission (!!!!!!) in Kobe! But she isn`t a member and doesnt really know anything about our church (WHAT!!!) It was crazy and so she told us that she wasn`t super interested in the church but that she loved us and so she would come to eikaiwa class! woohoo! So I hope she will come. Anyway, so something I thought a lot about yesterday and today that I want to share really quick. I had a moment yesterday where I was thinking about everything that happened that day and i felt so overwhelmed and just didnt know if I could do it. This was after church and before we went housing. I was so overwhelmed but then when we went housing, it starting raining so hard on us and I just had an even better feeling of peace and happiness. It was so amazing. It just helped me remember that we gain blessings after the trial of our faith. No matter what hard thing we are going through as long as we push through it and keep going we will see those blessings that God has in store for us. He will bless us! We just have to keep fighting to get them!! Okay I should go but I love you all!!! I`ll try to figure out how to send pictures :)

Love,

White Shimai

 EW. These bugs make this crazy sound. But thank you little bug for dying on our steps so i could take a picture of how disgusting you are!

 Okay, this was so gross. I thought that brown stuff was going to be like sweet and the balls were going to be like jello.. but nooo. The brown stuff was like.. I dont even know, tart? almost like sand. and the balls were like those small squishy bouncy balls that are made of rubber. Thats what it tasted like anyway. Apparently a lot of people eat this haha

Right before I tried it.

 This is my bed. you think it would be uncomfortable but after working all day and biking all day it is seriously the most exciting thing all day to get into bed. 

 This is our kitchen table haha

Okay I`m sorry for how bad I look. This picture is a lot of things in 1: first, this is right after I got home from housing all day in the rain, second this is how I eat at the table, third I am using chopsticks (not even japanese chopsticks.. korean chopsticks cuz theyre pretty legit) and the last thing- that bottle on the table is what everyone drinks here. Its super good actually. Its like water and lemonade combined but it doesn`t taste like watered down lemonade haha. 

 pictures from before we left the MTC. I love this people!!

The morning in the Hombu (mission home in Fukuoka) this was at like 6 am haha super tired!

Last Week In The MTC!

Hey Everyone!

Okay, so this will probably be a super short letter. I've been up since 5:30 this morning just to get things done! So I still have so much to do :) I didn't realize how crazy busy this last week would be in the MTC. Haha I feel like I haven't spoken Japanese in forever, and in a few days I'll be immersed in it! I'm freaking out a little bit. I feel like I don't know anything! I know I always only talk about the devotionals here.. but this week I HAVE to talk about them. We had Sheri Dew... AND the newly appointed President Russell M. Nelson come speak to us! It was seriously the best last Tuesday night devotional ever! I'm going to write straight out of my journal some of the things that I felt. "When Russell M Nelson walked into the room, we were in the middle of singing prelude music. The song that we happened to be singing at that moment was 'Our Savior's Love' and as he walked into the room, we all stood up and sang this song to him. I immediately had this overwhelming feeling of how much God loves His apostles and how much His apostles sacrifice for Him." I later talked to a couple of the sisters and they said they felt the exact same thing. I felt so grateful to be in the same room with him! Even if there were 2,500 other missionaries in the same room haha. President Nelson's talk focused on missionary work obviously, but he compared us to the stripling warriors (also an obvious statement haha) but then he said something that I had never thought about the strippling warriors. He said something around this (according to my journal.. or maybe it's just what I got from what he had said...) "As we go through life we will be wounded in battle, just as the Strippling Warriors were. In Alma 57 vs 25 it says that "there was not one soul of them who did perish.." Which is amazing considering the numbers they were fighting but then it says ".. yea and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds...Because of their exceeding faith in what they had been taught to believe- that there was a just God and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power." We will all be wounded so many times." (ending my journal entry) We aren't here on earth to be stagnant, to have a perfect life with no scars. We are meant to have battle wounds and to show them proudly! God will and has preserved us! I just loved that so much! And then something really quickly from Sheri Dew. She talked about personal revelation. She touched on how we should always be asking questions. Never not ask questions. We grow the most spiritually when we "spiritually wrestle with the Lord" She said asking questions leads to knowledge, greater faith, peace and often.. they lead to answers. And then she talked about how we personally receive revelation from the Lord. She talked about a sister who had been talking about how she just didn't feel like she understood how the Lord talked to her. and Sheri Dew told her "Have you ever asked the Lord to teach you?" The Lord can teach us how He will give us revelation. We just have to ask. Most of the things that we worry about or stress about with the gospel, we just have to ask the Lord! He will tell you. 

I'm so sorry if this is all over the place! I hope the stories made sense. The next time I will be e-mailing will be from somewhere in Japan!! 

Love,

White Shimai

One More Week!

Hey Everyone :) 

This week nothing all that exciting happened.. but we had a lot of just amazing devotionals. My notebook is just filled with pages from each devotional and I just love it. I'll share some of my favorite things. Sunday's devotional was by Stephen Allen. I think he work here at the MTC, but we've heard him speak before (being here almost 8 weeks we get repeat speakers haha) Anyway, he is very energetic and a lot of fun to listen to! One of my favorite things he said was while he was quoting Alma 26:28 where it talks about being patient in our afflictions. He said "When your heart aches, it stretches and makes room for greater things." I absolutely loved that. As missionaries even just in the MTC we are stretched and pushed sometimes far beyond what we think we can do. But somehow we end up being able to do those hard frustrating things that we didn't think we could do. It's the same in day to day lives. We have to stretch ourselves, because if we don't we will miss out on amazing things. Push ourselves to do something that we don't think we can do. There will be heart aches a long the way, and frustrations, especially with yourself and with others. But if we keep going and doing our best we will be filled with such great experiences. Another thing Brother Allen said that I thought is something that everyone should be reminded is that Satan KNOWS us. He knows us personally.. just like Jesus Christ. And just like Jesus Christ he knows our weaknesses. He knows how to push our buttons and dangle your weaknesses and insecurities in front of you. Don't let him do it! This may sound so silly as a 24 year old to say but sometimes when I am feeling insecure or annoyed at myself I will out loud tell Satan to just go away. Recognizing that it is Satan helps so much. One thing I have learned especially while I have been here that joy overrules sadness. If I go a day where I am so frustrated all morning, and I don't feel adequate and I can't do anything right, and then have one hour of happiness and a tender mercy from Heavenly Father saying "you can do this" then that frustrating morning doesn't even matter because in that moment I realize that I'm not doing this for myself, or (and especially) on my own. The joy of that one moment makes that morning of frustration worth it. Trials and frustrations and feeling inadequate, and those times where you have no idea what you're doing in life. Those things are in our lives for a reason. It's so that when we do realize the blessings we have, they will be so much more noticeable in our lives. I just love that I know that. I feel so blessed constantly to know that no matter what, after any trial I will be blessed if I just can hold on and make it through it. (Ketsui ga arimasu ;) I have a commitement for you! Read Alma 26 and think about how it can apply to your life, right now. Brother Allen said that it was Ammon's homecoming talk :) 

Another thing that I have started doing this week is starting in the very beginning of the Bible (old and new testament) and the Book of Mormon at the same time. I'm reading them next to each other and it is just amazing. Reading 3 different books (a long with all my study books ..I have a language book that is like 700 pages that I want to try to read a couple times that is all about grammer. ehh) felt like it would be a little bit of a chore, but it has been the biggest spiritual blessing. It's just true. All of it. Seeing the similarities and the insights I gain from all three of them. It is so amazing and I am so excited to continue to do it. I am so grateful for scriptures! I have totally become a scripture snob and if I have any spare time I am reading one or the other.. or the other. Sometimes I'll spend too much time in one and then I have to get myself to read the other, and then I end up spending too much time in that one haha, and its a vicious circle. its a rough life ;) It's just the best. Being a missionary is the best. What other time can I just completely dive into the gospel of Jesus Christ all day every day?! 

Okay one more devotional story and then I'll be done. I promise. on Tuesday night for our devotional we had someone named L. Lionel Kendrick (usually are speakers are former mission presidents) speak to us. And the coolest thing happened. So our Elders were sitting up in the very top of the balcony, and they could see that Brother Kendrick was using a teleprompter so that he could give his talk without looking down (like they do in General conference) Anyway, at the very end of his talk, he gave us all a priesthood blessing, every missionary in the MTC (I don't know how that works but it was super legit) and he blessed us with the following: That we will be willingly obedient and teachable, we will be receptive to the spirit, we will have joy and success in our missions, that we will have an added measure of the spirit of discernment and that we will have the special ability to dispel darkness including doubt, discouragement and depression. The spirit was so strong in the room. And the reason why I told you about the teleprompter was because the churotachi said that as he gave that blessing, they noticed on the teleprompter that he was supposed to just close and end his talk, but instead he went off script and felt prompted to give this blessing to all of the missionaries. 

Being in the MTC is one of the most amazing things that I have ever been able to do in my life. The spirit here is constant. Everyone loves each other so much, even when we may not really like each other (haha clique) I get to go to Japan in 11 days and I will miss being here so much. My district have become my family, and I will miss them so much when we are split up (but thankfully we are all going to the same mission so I will still see them!) We get our flight plans tomorrow so it's actually happening! I'm so so excited for Japan. I am nervous because I know that there will be heartaches and trials that I can't begin to understand, but I know it is going to be the best thing, and that I will be so grateful the rest of my life. It's already become the best thing of my life. I was talking to a sister in my district and she said that if she had to go home right now, she wouldn't ever want to be the same. The gospel of Jesus Christ changes people. It has changed me. We just have to allow ourselves to be changed. This is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has restored his true gospel on the earth with his true priesthood power and ordinances. If you are struggling to find reasons to go on, or if you are struggling to have faith, or humility, or charity, if you are struggling with anything. Give it to the Lord. He knows. He loves you. He wants you to be so happy!

I love you all!! If there is anything I can ever do for any of you please let me know!!

Love,

White Shimai

18 days left in the MTC

Hey everyone!

This week was so amazing. Yesterday was my birthday, and I'm not going to lie, I wasn't expecting much out of an MTC birthday but I think it was the best birthday I have ever had! When you don't expect much and you get a lot, it really makes it a million times better! I'll recap it really quickly, but just know my writing will not do it justice. It was seriously amazing!! My district are all so selfless and they all went out of their way to try and make me have a good day. I first walked into my classroom at 8:30 in the morning and saw that the whole classroom was decked out in streamers and balloons (i'll send pictures!) and some of the churotachi were hiding inside the classroom to surprise me. Some of the other sisters gave up their gym time to go decorate the classroom. It was so sweet! Then right after we got to host new missionaries coming into the MTC! It was so much fun seeing the missionaries and their families say goodbye! I was able to take pictures for so many of them and I was so happy to be able to be apart of it. There were so many little sisters crying as their older brothers left and it just made me love families so much. Families are such a blessing and I'm so grateful for mine!! Then later that night after our regular class we got to do Skype TRC where we taught church members in JAPAN. So we were teaching legit Japanese members and it was such a cool experience. The brother we got was so kind and so encouraging of our broken Japanese. Most of these people didn't speak English at all and they were still able to understand what we were trying to say! It was so amazing. My companion and I came back from TRC a little later than the rest of my class and I saw on my desk were actual presents! My district bought cute gifts from the bookstore like extra flash cards and cute pens for me. My companion also asked her mom to send her some earrings that she could give to me. As missionaries in the MTC we don't have a ton of resources for birthday gifts, but they all went out of their way to give me such amazing gifts. Every one meant so much to me. One of the best ones that made me cry was a drawing Sister Elena Smith did for me. I had told my district previously that Peter and Jesus walking on the water was one of my favorite scripture stories, and I had bought a picture book at the bookstore that didn't have a picture of it in it! So she drew it for me, and she is so talented. I feel so unbelievable blessed to be around these elders and sisters. Not only is their ability to love so great, but their testimonies and strength lifts me up every day. It's impossible to be sad around them. Not only the things that my district did for me but all the dear elders and packages I got also were so wonderful! I made the record of dear elders and packages 1 person got in one day in our district ;) so thank you for helping me with that! I love you all so much!

While we were hosting this older brother (Elder Morgan) who is in charge of the hosting at the MTC told us a couple stories of Elders and sisters being dropped off. There was one that stuck out to me so much and I want to share it with you! He said that he was working at the front gate at the time and this rusty old old old truck puttered up to the window. He saw that it was a father and an Elder eager to be dropped off. He got past the front gate and to the curb and immediately this old rusty truck completely died. The elder was sent off with the hosting missionary to begin his mission and the father stayed back with the dead truck. Elder Morgan asked him what he wanted to do with the truck and the father told him that he would get someone to come tow the truck, but he didn't care because he had bought the truck for $600 just to drive his son from Ephraim to the MTC. This family was so poor and without means that they didn't own a car, and they had the faith of buying this truck that didn't work very well and without really knowing if it would even make it to Provo just so that the father could see his son off on his mission. It was a miracle that it made it to the MTC and to have it die the moment he pulled up to the curb of the MTC is just amazing. I'm so grateful to be able to be around those miracles every day and to hear so many other experiences from others! God truly looks out for his servants. 

Scripture of the day is Alma 37:34. I loooooove this scripture. "Teach them to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls" We should always be looking to do good works. We are put on the earth to uplift others, to serve and love one another. To humble ourselves to the Lord and put him first. My friend Madeline Vance sent me a poem yesterday that was written from a father to a daughter and one of my favorite lines is "Put the Savior first and your companion second. Do that, and you'll never be forgot nor left behind by either one" And I know that could be applied to anyone of your lives! Put the Savior first and your friends, your family, anyone you come in contact second, and you will see so many blessings! 

ｵﾜ ﾋﾄ Shimai

These are the sisters that decorated the entire room in streamers and balloons!

The drawing of Peter and Jesus walking on water that Sister Elena Smith drew for me!Absolutely beautiful!

My little gifts. I love them! The jornal had little notes from everyone saying the sweetest things. These missionaries are the best of the best, I am so lucky!

Week 5 in the MTC

Konichiwa! Do Deskuka?! Watashi wa genki desu :) 

My Japanese skills are just so amazing, I know. 

I also finally figured out how to send out e-mails to everyone on my contact list (so sorry if this is the first e-mail your getting from me... technologically challenged. The rest of my e-mails should be on my blog.)

So you know how last week I said that nothing really exciting was happening anymore and everyday was just becoming very.. unexciting? Well, last p-day, right after I e-mailed, we had a MAJOR thing happen in our district. We had to have an emergency companion transfer. Which, in the MTC is actually very unusual. Apparently in one of the other districts in our zone (there are 3 districts in our zone) had a companionship... that was not doing so well. Things started getting really bad that it was affecting their whole zone and they weren't able to learn, so Sister Willson and Sister Cary had to be split up so one of the girls could come to our district and Sister Cary had to go to the other district. It was actually very dramatic. Things are doing really well now though! We love Sister Smith who came into our district, she is the sweetest. 

Other than the district change, things really are very quiet here in the MTC. Lots of construction, just like it is in the summer in Utah (only inside the MTC). We are learning so much, each week I look back and feel like I haven't learned a lot, but then I compare my lessons from before to now and it is just a HUGE difference. We used to take language notes into our lessons translating sentences from English to Japanese, but this week we decided that we weren't going to take any notes whatsoever into our lessons and it is unbelievable the difference it has made. In our lessons and in our Nihango. I feel so comfortable doing lessons, and although we still don't understand everything they are saying, I'm amazed at what I can understand through body language and what I receive from the Spirit. I'm so grateful to be stretched so much! It's definitely hard, but I am learning things so much faster and so much more than I would if I wasn't being pushed and stretched. I have one sensei (teacher) here who I swear has seen every side of me. I have cried and gotten so frustrated at him, and he is possibly the sweetest person I have ever met. He pushes me more than he probably thinks he does, but it is so amazing what it helps me accomplish. 

Another thing that I noticed a lot this week, was how much I just absolutely LOVE the scriptures. I'm obsessed. If I had time I would read them for hours. I'm almost done with the Book of Mormon since I've been here, which is definitely the fastest I've ever read the Book of Mormon haha. 

This morning we went to the temple really early and we were just walking out of the dressing rooms when this little old lady sees that there are a whole bunch of sister missionaries and runs over to us and starts telling us all these cute little stories. Oh my gosh, it was so cute. I was watching her and I noticed that she still had a curler in her hair from getting ready! Finally a sister who was working asked her if she could move it outside because she had us all surrounding her and we were blocking everyone going in and out of the dressing room. She was the cutest little old lady ever. 

Also, I've noticed that in a lot of my letters and in my journal writings I have been dating everything June ... I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that it's July and that I'm turning 24 NEXT WEEK. That just seems crazy to me. I think since I'm around a whole bunch of 18 and 19 year olds I've started to act younger haha. 

Anyway, I just love it here. There are days where I am so frustrated with the language, or my companion, or how immature the chorotachi (elders) are, but honestly at the end of the day, every single day I am so grateful to be here. 

Thank you for your support! I love you all!!

Aishiteimasu!

Sis White

Week 4

I don't even know how long I've been gone already haha. The weeks are starting to blend together. Every day I swear goes by so fast. I tried to send a video, but it won't let me send because the file because it was too big :( but I will send pictures!

LUREL HAD HER BABY!! She wrote me a dear elder July 7th saying that she had woken up that morning having contractions and I didn't get the dear elder until 5 pm. Then I got on e-mails this morning at 6:40 am and read Jamie's e-mail first and I just started bawling in the middle of the computer room haha. I was so happy and excited. All of the sisters in my district knew I was waiting to hear if she had him or not and they all started hugging me and looked at the pictures with me. It was such a fun experience. Thanks for e-mailing me and letting me know :) How is Lurel doing? Mom said that baby had shallow breathing at first but is doing well now? Keep me updated!! Dear Elder me!! It's seriously the best getting updates through dear elder. I love you all!!!

Okay so this week was pretty normal! Since I've been at the MTC a lot of exciting random things have been happening and now it's finally just becoming the normal MTC stay. We do get to watch Boyd K. Packer's funeral tomorrow. They are broadcasting it in one of the buildings here, so we get to skip class to go to it! It'll be a really cool thing to watch. Also on Sunday we had a devotional and Jenny Oaks Baker and her whole family came and did a little "FHE" with us. It was super cute. She is Dallin H Oaks daughter, and she shared a lot of cool experiences with us about her dad. Anyway, she's a very talented violinist and her and her kids performed some songs which was really awesome. 

Chris and Jamie! Your town home!!! I love it so much! I am so happy that everything is working out for it! What day can you move into it? I wish I could be there to help you move! Jamie, you're going to love it, it looks beautiful from the pictures Chris sent me. 

Fourth of July was fun! We just had our regular class schedule, but we sang a lot of patriotic songs. The sister from Australia loved it and we taught her a lot of the songs. We also got to stay up late that night and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks! We stayed up until around 11 and I was dying I was so tired. But it was fun to just get to hang out. 

I've had so many amazing experiences this week. It is just unbelievable the spirit that is here. You can't NOT love everyone around you. I just love being here so much. But I really can't wait to get to Japan. We got some e-mails from some of the missionaries that just went and I am so jealous. They already love it there so much and I know I will too.

The language is going well! Japanese is such a fun language. It's one of those things that slow and steady wins the race. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can before I get to the field. We are constantly being reminded that speaking the language is having faith in the Lord. Moroni 7:33 says that "If ye have faith in me ye will have power to do whatsoever is expedient in me." and I know that applies to anything that the Lord wants us to do. If it is good, the Lord will provide a way, we just have to have faith in Him!! We had our mission conference on Sunday, and President Burgess of the MTC told the story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter asking Jesus if he could come walk on the water to him. Pres. Burgess said, that as missionaries, we have left the boat. We have already asked the Savior to allow us to come unto him, but as Peter doubted, we can also doubt and start to sink. If Peter had just focused on the Savior and didn't allow the outside forces to distract him, he would have been fine. We, like Peter, will be fine as long as we focus our eyes only on the Savior and don't let the outside world distract us. It's also such a blessing to know that when we do allow the outside forces to distract us, the Savior will save us if we call out to him. 

Anyway! I will try to send pictures really quick and then e-mail a little later today probably around 2ish. 

Love you!!!

White Shimai

We're all wearing our Japan mission t-shirts!

Sister Anderson and I! When we were singing patriotic songs in class on July 4th, our teacher Bingham Kyodai (brother) put his had over his heart and sang toward me (because I looked like the american flag haha)

If you'll notice, the only one holding the American flag.. is the Australian :) We love her!

This is when we were watching the fireworks! 

Week 3!

Hi family!!

This week was a little crazy but also so much fun! So right after I e-mailed last week all the sisters got called down to an "emergency health meeting" and we were all really really confused. So we went down and apparently the building that they JUST moved us into had bats. The rumor is, is that a girl woke up with a bat next to her head. So they immediately moved out 600 plus sisters out of the building and moved us back into our old building. It was a little hectic. I felt really bad for the people in charge. Not a lot of sisters were very happy, but hey! You never know what is going to happen when we actually get on the field, so I didn't mind it at all. I know they just wanted to make sure we were safe haha. That same day we also got to meet some mission presidents! They had all the mission presidents take a district and do some role play/teaching. We got the Nagano's who are going to the Tokyo mission!! Oh my goodness, I loved them. They are both from Japan but they know English perfectly. They were the sweetest people ever and I loved them both so quickly! President Nagano was really funny, and quoted dumb and dumber to us at one point in the lesson. It was so great! He wanted us to role play with our companions teaching one of the lessons, and then at the end he chose one companionship to demonstrate. annnd of course it was our companionship. haha So one of us pretended to be the investigator and one of us was the missionary. So I ended up being the missionary and I taught the lesson to my companion in front of my whole district and a mission president! (but it was in English so not as bad as it could have been haha) It was a little nerve wracking but after I was done President Nagano told me that if I was going English speaking that he would send me into the field that day haha. It was really sweet. Then! on Friday we got to meet OUR mission president!! President Egan and his wife were also at the seminar. They just got into the field and took over as the new mission president on Monday! It's so exciting that we were the first ones to meet him! He is so amazing. We all love him so much. All of us that are going to Fukuoka (19 of us) got to go do like a little get to know you thing with him. I wish I could go into more detail but I'm running out of time! It was just amazing and I know that it's going to be perfect. 

So we watched the Testaments on Sunday night after our devotional and it was possibly the best thing ever. I've seen it before, but watching it as a missionary it's basically an comedy/ chick flick movie to us now! I can feel myself getting weird after writing that sentence. But we laughed so much during it, but also the very end when Christ comes to the Americas, was just so powerful. I'm probably going to watch that multiple times while I'm here haha. I loved it. 

The language is going well! It's kind of a roller coaster of emotions with the language haha. Some days I'll do so well and think that I'll learn this language in no time, and then other days I can't remember anything. But I really love it! I'm so so so excited to get to Japan. Our Sempei left to Japan on Monday, and I just got so anxious to go. 

Okay, I am running out of time for right now, we're splitting up our e-mail time into 2 parts, so I can write again a little later. 

Love You!! aishiteimasu!

White Shimai

So I completely forgot to tell you all this story. My second day here I went to an early morning workout class and the girl next to me looked like crazy familiar, and so I went up to her after and asked if she was a Daley.. and yep! This is Aaron's daughter, Julianna. She is going to Korea! So we are actually in the same building for class so I see her all the time. I think our districts have the same schedule so we see each other at least 5 times a day haha. It was exciting to meet one of my cousins while I'm here! 

The MTC built this HUGE set in the cafeteria for the Quorum of the 12 and the First Presidency to do the Mission President Seminar. This was only a little bit of it before they completely kicked all the missionaries out of the cafeteria for the whole weekend.

I finally learned all the hiragana and can write them from memory. This was my first time doing all of them. It was also after a very long day of studying, haha I was super tired.