Sis White in Fukuoka Japan: 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)