Hello all of my favorite people!
First, can I just express how weird it is how fast time passed this last week? It was really weird. All of us Sisters were talking the other night and we all feel like we just had P-day yesterday! So if I can't think of much to say in my letter today, it's because time passed so quickly that I'm not even sure what happened. All of the missionaries who have been here longer say that it gets even faster at week 6, which will just be insane. And then it's supposed to feel even faster than that in the field... So I'll probably be home to talk to all of you in person in about seven seconds. Don't be surprised.
Let's see, what did happen this week? Oh, we started out Saturday with something really cool! We had our first ever visit to the TRC (which I think stands for Training Resource Center) and I have to admit that I was totally nervous for it, but it turned out to be wonderful! What happens is they have volunteers, just students from BYU or other members, come and be themselves and then we teach them a simple lesson. Can I just say how nice it is to teach members? It was so nice to have them understand that we were learning a language and such. They were super helpful, instead of just giving us blank stares like we sometimes get from our teachers when they're pretending to be Japanese investigators... We got to teach a Sister who served her mission in Finland and is really good at Japanese and she was really nice, and it was fun just to be able to have a friendly conversation in Japanese. I think we all went in pretty scared but came out really excited. I'm glad I get to go back tomorrow!
Here's a happy note I keep meaning to write about -- I've been able to see two of my old roommates since coming here! One was total luck. I ran into Kira Roerig, one of my roommates from Sophomore year just by chance in the dressing room of the temple and it was so happy! Especially since I hadn't actually seen her since before she went on her mission to Spain like three years ago. And then last week one of my roommates from Junior year, Nataly Arce, entered the MTC because she's going to the Dominican Republic for her mission! She already knows Spanish though so she'll only be here for three weeks, but it was so wonderful to see her. Yay friends!
Now for the story that goes along with the title of this post. I know you've all been waiting for it!
Once upon a time, my companion really needed a humidifier because the dry Utah air was being mean to her body. So we trekked to the MTC health clinic only to discover that if you want a humidifier you have to be placed on a waiting list. So we waited for days and days and days until finally, one cold day, we recieved a notice slip in our mailbox saying that the time for my companion to suffer no longer had finally arrived! Or so we had thought... We went and picked up to humidifier, and great was our joy. At least until that night, when it tried to kill us at two in the morning with noise. But we unplugged it and thought all was well, until the next night when it got even worse! And so it continued until any time it made one little sound I wanted to smash it. Wanting to kill things is probably not a trait missionaries should have. Just saying. So we took it back to the health center, where they said they would throw it away so it could never torment missionaries again and we were given a gentle giant humidifier to take it's place. And ever since, there had been peace in the bedroom and everyone could sleep so they lived happily ever after.
Ok, so that may seem like a silly story but sleep is a big deal. We get so little of it that if you're constantly waking up through the night there is pretty much no way you are going to survive. So being able to make the humidifier function right seemed like a huge victory! Every time I see the functional humidifer I feel a deep joy in my heart. Because we totally won. Take that noisy humidifier!
Before I close I feel like I should share a spiritual quote or two since we do spiritual things all day, and I've been learning a lot so I figure you might like to learn too! This week our Tuesday devotional speaker was Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the 70, and he had a great talk about missionary work and the like. Here are a couple of gems that I liked: "Perhaps his (God's) plan might not involve removing that hardship, but he will surely help you if you earnestly ask him" Successful missionaries (and anybody, really) refuse to let circumstances get them down... They choose to be positive... They think of how they will act, not react."
And ok, maybe you can have one funny quote too. Todd Sensei on not speaking in a monotone voice: "The Japanese may like robots, but they don't like missionary robots" Good advice to remember.
Sidenote, I apologize for if my English and storytelling is becoming worse. Sometimes by the time we reach p-day our brains have started to turn to mush from all the information that's been crammed in it the rest of the week... Plus it's stressful to try and type so much so fast!
I love you all, and thanks so so so much to everyone who has sent me mail! It makes me so happy! I'll reply as soon as I can. Hopefully I'll have time to get a batch of letters out today! Yay snail mail!
Me in my coat practicing for Sapporo.
Our new years eve celebration in our room! At…10pm. There were some girls who counted down to ten with horns and it was pretty funny. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been asleep for midnight that I can remember. Northrop Shimai had the cool glasses and some mango martinelli’s that I’ve never had before.
My district except Northrop Shimai and I who were on the hill goofing off.
Loving all the fun things you are doing and learning. Thanks for sharing.
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