Week Two.

Ohayo gozaimasu mina san!

This week was a good one! First off, THANKS to everyone that sent DearElders and sent me letters! You have no idea how happy that makes a missionary. Getting mail is the best feeling ever.

Okay I want to start by making a shout out to all my sistas out there preparing to serve. Please please buy modest clothes! They really stress modesty here at the MTC. Buy clothes that will best fit your mission too. I have all modest skirts, but since I'm going to a biking mission I wish I would have bought all really long skirts. Plus if you are wearing skirts 24/7 pretty much it is nice to have long long pleated skirts so you can sit criss cross applesauce when you are studying and such. It is just much more comfortable! You don't need to have the most attractive clothes either. No one cares here ha ha. I have learned that anything with a nametag on it looks good anyways.

Throughout this week I wrote a list of the things I wanted to write about so I'll just go through my list as I type! Sorry if this letter is really scatterbrained and disjointed! (Ha ha that sounds like the last lesson I taught...)

So remember how I've been teaching Shuma-san? Well one night as me and Orr Shimai were planning our lesson we felt impressed to talk about baptism and invite him to be baptized! We kinda thought he'd say no though so we planned a back up plan for when he did. But lo and behold he ACCEPTED! We panicked and didn't know what to say so we said, "well, how about next week!" But that is kind of impossible because he hasn't been to church at all or read the book of mormon really and we still needed to teach him a lot of stuff. So our next lesson we apologized and set his baptismal date back til August something. He was really sad he couldn't get baptized right away :( The next day in class we learned we wouldn't be teaching Shuma-san anymore because he went back to Japan or something. Later that night Orr Shimai and I walked into our classroom and guess who we saw?? SHUMA-SAN! But actually it was Willard Sensei! Ha ha my first investigator is now my teacher! It was really surprising! I love Willard Sensei. His Nihongo mannerisms are super funny.

Right now we also have Oshima Sensei teaching us. He is a Nihonjin. He is subbing for Kosaka Sensei. I also love Oshima so so much!

Now we are teaching two investigators- Harada-san and Iwata-san. I have met Harada san (we call him Shuma 2.0 because it is Willard Sensei again.) But I will meet Iwata san tomorrow! I think that teaching is probably the hardest thing to do here. It is scary!

About my language progress, I have pretty much mastered praying and bearing testimony now. I say simple prayers and bare a simple testimony, but hey! I can do it! I am getting a lot better at sentence structure and grammar. I can make sentences pretty good now but it takes awhile for me to say it out loud. I have to write it down first. Nihongo is hard because it is litteraly backwards from English... In english youd say, ´¨ I know the church is true.´¨ in Nihongo youd say ´¨the church true is I know.´¨ It is hard to train my brain to think backwards. I set goals to bare my testimony to a certain amount of people throughout the day and when I do usually the people are like, WOW HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE! And when I tell them two weeks they are always super impressed. So that makes me feel good :) Compliments are a wonderful thing here. Once at choir practice this one sister told me I look like the girl from Safe Haven. That'd made me happy because my hair is starting to get annoying. I still haven't really figured out how to do it.

Here are some more cool things about the MTC! In the residence halls there are these things called "Narnia Holes." If you look really closely you can find all these secret spots in the room where people have hid stuff. Orr Shimai and I found a few narnia holes last night but there was nothing in them. The chorotachi in our district though said they have found TONS of stuff in their rooms. Um, before relief society every Sunday all the shimaitachi at the MTC stand up and sing "As Sisters in Zion" but with different lyrics. It's all about missionary work and I cry basically every time. I always cry when we sing "We'll bring the World His Truth". It's just so good! Sometimes during class we will read the Morumon Sho together as a district and then talk about what we learned. The spirit is always so strong when we do that and everyone always has really good insights. We've only read through 1 Ne. 2 so far and I feel like it is already a completely different book than what I've always read! It's cool how the words never change but the meaning of the words change every time you read the Book of Mormon based on situations in your life. Everything I read these days just screams "MISSIONARY WORK!!"

So lately in my study I've been studying Jesus Christ and I've been trying to develop Christlike attributes. This last week I started reading about patience and I have been reading about the Sons of Mosiah. After their conversion they really wanted to go teach the Lamanites the truth so they begged and begged their dad (King Mosiah) for days asking if they could go preach. Finally King Mosiah went to the Lord in prayer and asked if he should let them go and the Lord said yes but that they need to remember to have patience. So anyways, they went and suffered MANY tribulations while teaching. They got to the point where they were like, "if we could just get SOME people to believe our message then we will be happy." Well, they stuck out all the tribulations and trials and by the end of all their teaching they ended up with thousands and thousands of converts to the church! All because of their patience and diligence! I want to be like that. But! I know i can't develop patience without a trial. So after my studying I prayed for a trial so I could develop patience and sure enough God answers prayers! That same day I started getting really frustrated with the language. I just wish I could say what I want to say to my investigators but I can't because I don't have the words for it. I'm grateful for this opportunity I have to learn about patience. I know it will help me be more christlike!

When I'm not studying a christlike attribute I often times will read in Luke about Jesus Christ. He is such a great guy you guys! I read about how Christ told his disciples to go out and teach people and heal them. So they did and when they returned they were telling Jesus about all they did and Jesus wanted to go somewhere private where he could just talk to his apostles alone. Well other people heard they were leaving so they followed and the natural man would say, "oh hey, can you hold on for a sec? I kinda need to have a conversation with my apostles right now..." but Christ put the people FIRST and taught them and healed them! Then later the apostles said, "Christ, we're in the desert. Can we please talk now?" and Christ said, "no! Feed my people!" and that's when the story of the fish and bread miracle comes in. But even after he taught them and healed them, he STILL continued to serve them and fed them! What a great example! I want to be like that! We should ALL strive to be like that.

Well I have like 8 minutes left but just know that I love all of you so much. I am happy here at the MTC and I really try to let every day sink into the deepest parts of my soul. I have the same calling as an apostle of the Lord. NEVER give up an opportunity to be apostalic.

Iesu Kirisuto ga ikiru da to shitte imasu. Iesu Kirisuto ga watashitachi no Sukuinushi da to akashi shimasu. Morumon Sho ga shinjitsu da to shitte imasu. Josefu Sumisu ga Morumon Sho o honyaku suru to shitte imasu. Kono kyokai wa shinjitsu desu. Watashi wa kono fukuin o aishteimasu! Iesu Kirisuto no mina ni yotte akashi shimasu, Amen.

I love you all! Thanks for all of the support!

Love, Sister Robertson

Oh wait! Apparently I have a little more time than I thought I did!

I wanted to tell you about all the peole in my district!

So Neilson Choro and Watanabe Choro are the "class clowns" They can be irreverent mostly all the time but sometimes they say good things in class :) Class wouldn't be the same without them though. They are hilarious.

Anderson Choro and Thompson Choro are so great! Anderson Choro is from Houston, TX but has lived in Utah for the passed little while. He was the starting quarterback at his high school so at first glance he seems like a jock and stuff but he is honestly the sweetest person ever. You can tell he wants to be here. He was probably a lady killer back home too ha he's a looker! His doryo Thompson Choro is a sweetie too. He knows a little about japanese so he helps me when I am struggling with the alphabets. Oh hey! I know hiragana now and i can read hymns!

Dawson Choro and Bickle Choro are quite the pair. Dawson Choro is a little... strange. He is quiet and shy and is nerdy I guess? He likes computers. But I'm getting to know him more and he is HILARIOUS. I love that guy! His doryo Bickle Choro is so nice. He's been sick lately but is getting better. He likes rubix cubes and ballroom dancing! Then there is Jones Choro and Poulter Choro. Those two were best friends in premortal life I think and this mission has brought them together once again! I sit by them in class and they are two very good boys. Jones Choro is the District Leader and he does a really really good job. Poulter Choro is so funny and we are always joking in class because we sit right next to each other and the room is small so we always accidently bump each other and that is NOT ALLOWED ha ha. King Shimai and Mataoa Shimai are the other shimaitachi in our district. I love King Shimai! She is so sweet and and happy and optimistic always. Mataoa Shimai is from Tahiti and doesn't speak english! She speaks french so I admire King Shimai for her patience what that. I'm sure it is so muzukashii (hard) for Mataoa Shimai to be here because she can't communicate in Nihongo and she can't communicate in English! She is a sweetheart though.

Mom! I have a blister problem! You might want to send me a lot more bandaids and some mole skin please? They might have some at the bookstore... I'll have to check. Also, please send my headphones too :) You can use them to watch Mormon Messages in the gym while you are exercising.

About my temple recommend, I never found it! So i had to get an interview today to get a new one. Later today since the temple is closed we get to CLEAN THE INSIDE OF THE TEMPLE! Isn't that so exciting?!?!?! It's a good thing I got a recommend! I am excited for that experience!

I haven't received any packages but I haven't received the mail yet today so maybe I got it today and I just don't know it yet!

Thanks again for all the support and prayers!
Have a SUBARASHII day! (WONDERFUL)

Love love love, Robertson Shimai

Week One.

Konnichiwa mina san!

 

It was the best thing in the world to see my inbox full of emails from friends and family! All of the other senkyoshi (missionaries) in my district get letters all the time, every day. I was beginning to think that everyone forgot about me because I only got one from Grandma Flash! (Thanks grandma!!!) There is this thing called Dear Elder where you can write an email to a missionary and then it gets printed off that same day and delivered to me. My address is on my facebook so, WRITE ME! It is a really nice thing to get letters at the end of the day because usually our days here are hard.

 

So this is how my first week has been!

Day 1: I arrived at the MTC and was SO HAPPY. When I got dropped off at the curb I was immediately taken through a maze of people and booths collecting my items and keys and books and everyone was just so nice! Once I got my bags to my room I went to my classroom and met my district and my sensei (teacher). Kosaka Sensei was spouting out all sorts of Japanese and I immediately got overwhelmed and freaked out because I couldn't understand ANYTHING. The rest of the day was busy busy busy. I think I only had time at the end of the night to write like 1 sentence in my journal. But for the most part, my first day was good.

My second day was not good at all. It was so busy and confusing and difficult. There is always so much to do in the MTC and never enough time to do it. I was really having a hard time figuring out how to accomplish everything. We had a mini zone conference thing Thursday night and the Pres of our zone (Pres Mack) and his councilors all challenged us to do all of these things by Sunday. I agreed to complete the challenges but it gets kinda hard when you have to do like 8 things with NO time to do it. So I went to sleep not feeling very happy that day.

The 3rd day was all right but also very difficult. I had to teach my first lesson in complete Japanese. My doryo (companion) is Orr Shimai (Sister Orr). She is the best! She has a very strong personality and she did theatre which is cool because I like that kind of stuff. She also is way into healthy eating so that is SUBARASHII! (WONDERFUL!) She is from Hawaii and she is 19 years old. She has experience in Japanese so that is nice because she helps me a lot with my Nihongo (Japanese). But sometimes it also is frustrating because when we teach lessons, her and our investigator can talk forevs about stuff and I just sit there in silence with no idea what is going on. I am getting better at speaking though, and with understanding the language. My investigators name is Shuma-san and I LOVE HIM. He is the sweetest guy ever! You might think that he is a Nihonjin (japanese person) but really he is super white. He is very kind and very interested in what we have to teach him. He really wants to be a good person, so Orr Shimai and I are really trying to help him understand how to do that. Our first lesson with Shuma-san was TERRIBLE. I just sat there with wide eyes as my companion and him talked about who knows what. Every once in awhile Shuma-san would ask me a question or Orr Shimai would ask my a question and I would just give them a blank stare. I had no idea what they said or how to reply.

My fourth day here was really great though. We taught Shuma-san again and it went a lot better. I actually taught some of the lesson too! We taught him about the nature of God and how he is our Heavenly Father and that he is perfect and that we can be like him. I understood better but was still kinda lost. I can recognize nouns but I struggle with the verbs and particles. I HATE PARTICLES! I cannot figure them out! But the cool thing about our second lesson was that we could all feel the spirit. We also taught Shuma-san how to pray and asked him to pray during the lesson. In his prayer he said something like, God I don't know you, but I want to know you. Please help me know the truth. It was amazing! We challenged him to pray to know if God loves him and we also challenged him to read a scripture from Morumon Sho (the Book of Mormon). It was a good day!

The fifth day was SUNDAY! Everyone here said that all the days before Sunday are the worst, but if you just make it to sunday everything gets better. They were right! It was a good day to just ponder and learn a lot of things. All the devotionals were really good and so was relief society. In relief society we learned about faith and that we should start implementing the phrase, "but if not" in our prayers. We can ask God for things, and we should ask him, but then always make sure to say, "but if not" and then continue to remain faithful. I needed to hear that lesson. It was good for me. On Sunday evening I went to choir practice and the director is HILARIOUS. Everything he says is so funny. He does a really good job getting like 900 missionaries to pay attention and learn the music. I don't know how he does it... The song we are singing is "praise to the man". the MOTAB has sung it before and we are going to sing it tonight at devotional! I'm really really excited. After choir we had a chance to watch a film. Orr Shimai and I watched one called, "The Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. Wow. I was told that it was a life changer and that is exactly right. Throughout my whole mission I am going to try really hard to learn more about the character of christ and then become that. In times of trial, the Character of Christ ALWAYS turns out rather than turns in like the natural man would. It is a really hard thing to explain with so little time so if you get the chance I would definitely recommend watching it or reading it.

Monday was a pretty good day too. We taught Shuma-san again but it didn't go that well... It's hard teaching lessons you don't know the words for! I had a hard time understanding this time too... I feel so useless just sitting there looking at my companion and Shuma-san as they talk. It is very very frustrating and disappointing for me.

And now here we are to today! P day! Believe it or not, P days are also extremely busy! I only get an hour on the computer so I am trying to type really fast. Sorry for my grammar mistakes...

Although I can't speak very much Nihongo, I can speak a little! I know how to pray and testify and yesterday we learned how to offer a commitment to an investigator. I am working on memorizing Hiragana (one of the alphabets). Once I get that down I can read hymns! I know the first like 10 symbol/letter things. I feel like in my district I am one of the slower learners, but maybe I just feel that way because my companion is a GENIUS.

My district is AMAZING. I love them all so much. In my district we have Jones Choro (he is the district leader and does such an amazing job at it), Poulter Choro, King Shimai, Mataoa Shimai, me, Orr Shimai, Bickle Choro, Dawson Choro, Thompson Choro, Anderson Choro, Neilson Choro, and Watanabe Choro. Watanabe, Neilson, Bickle, and Dawson are going to Saporo but everyone else is going to Sendai. Every has such a great personalities and we all love each other lots and lots! I will have to tell you rmore about them all later because they are playing a great role in who I am becoming.

More about Kosaka Sensei... his is a Nihonjin and he is the best! He is so funny and so kind to us. He is a great teacher. On one of the first days here he had us write in our Preach My Gospel, "I am a Representative of Jesus Christ. I am no longer Miranda Robertson." That had a big impact on me. I am here teaching as if I was Christ himself. I really do need to LOSE MYSELF. It is not about me at all. It is about Christ and others around me. I've found when I remember that, I teach better and love better too. Love is really important when you teach people. If they don't feel loved, then you might as well not waste your time teaching them.

The food here isn't that bad I don't think! You can make a salad or have cookies or ice cream sometimes! Or you can have whatever is for the main entree. Or you can have fruit! I usually can figure out a combination of things to stay healthy!

Speaking of health, I LOVE GYM! It makes my day always so much better. I usually run on the track and it is a great way for me to release stress and to renshu Nihongo. (practice Japanese). Yesterday my district all played sand volleyball with each other and it was so fun. Again, I love my district!

Well, I think that is all that has happened. Remember to send me letters throughout the week! It gets hard waiting a whole week to read an email!

Ten no Otosama ga mina san o ai suru to shite imasu. Morumon Sho ga shinjitsu da to shite imasu. Mitama ga shinjitsu o oshieru to akash shimasu. Kono kyokai ga shinjitsu da to shite imasu. Watashitachi wa Kamisama no kodomo. Iesu Kiristo no mina ni yotte akashimasu, Amen.

(I know Heavenly Father loves everyone. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I testify that the spirit teaches truth. I know this church is true. We are God's children. In the name of Jesus Christ I testify, Amen.)

Robertson Shimai