Week 2: Well Adjusted
The MTC is better than people make it out to be.
My companion, Elder Lee is very cool. He grew up in Provo so his house is 2 minutes away. We work 16-18 hours everyday with lesson planning, physical exercising, Japanese study, devotionals, breakfast, meals, choir, lesson teaching, meetings, and etc.
The first week was kind of tough. We just went straight to work. The 3rd day here was the first time we had to teach an investigator in Japanese. Let's just say, it didn't go so well. We prepared super hard trying to condense the godhead. Elder Lee had taken 5 years of Japanese in school, but at his school, they don't do so well with speaking, but enforce writing more. Anyway, we had to do a 15-20 minute lesson. Ours lasted 30 minutes because of silence. There was like 10 minutes of dead silence. This investigator didn't speak to us so it was dead silent. Unfortunately I forgot how to say some words in Japanese too. It seemed awful. Well, my district failed too. At least, we had an amazing time with the spirit. We were reading through the Book of Mormon and came to the portion in 1 Nephi 2 — when Laman and Lemuel are murmuring about their hardship and leaving their belongings behind. I think it was revelation, but both Elder Lee and I spoke about how Laman and Lemuel are kind of in our situation. We are in a new environment, leaving our past lives behind and the stress has made us, as missionaries, murmur a bit (not so much me, but I felt what others were feeling) and I related how I've been praying for everyone in my district since I got the calling of District Leader. At the point, almost everyone was crying, and we got up and hugged each other (we can't hug sisters, so we handshake or sometimes hand hug). It's amazing how God humbles us and brings our spirits back up. I'm blessed with an amazing district and I love all of them! We are very open and loving towards each other.
BTW, it is surprising to know how many people in my district have Japanese in their background. Out of the 11 in the district, 3 of us are 1/2 japanese(Elder Thoreson, Elder Tani, and I), 1 of us is a 1/4 Japanese (Sister Buckmister), 1 has had 5 years of japanese (Elder Lee), 1 has 2 years (Elder Critchfield), and the other 4 have had no Japanese background but are already really good at Japanese (Elder Dombrowski, Sister Saunders, Sister Gallarde, and Sister Macspac) —oh, I memorized everyone's name by the 3rd day.
BTW, I almost had a heart attack a couple days ago because I got a mail and some letters and emails that all say I leave August 7th! But really, I leave September 18th!!! I asked the Japanese instructors to find out, and all of them are errors, apparently. Whew!
My Japanese has gotten better. I can teach a full lesson in Japanese now. I struggle with reading and writing, but both have gotten faster. I don't feel as much stress here as I thought there would be. I saw Sister Free. I don't remember her quite well. I think I remember Brother Free more, to think about it. They're really nice. すごくおおさわぎでした(we are so excited to see each other). Elder Tani is Hawaiian, and he's been giving all of us stuff. He gave us all really nice ties, lava lava, and leis. I've gotten so close to him. A lot of us are going to Fukuoka — Elder Lee, Elder Tani, Elder Critchfield, Elder Thoreson in my district, and it seems like anytime I talk to the だいせんぱい の しまいたち (the most senior sisters), they say “Fukuoka!.” We've started a boot camp that we call Tani ちょうろう(Elder) Boot camp. I don't really do all of the workouts with them. It's not that I don't want to do the Boot camp, but his workouts are football player intended. I do the stuff I know with them, and if there's a workout that they haven't done, I do that while they rest but mostly I'm with them. We try uniting our district a ton. We got things we all do during each day of the week: Sunday, we are together almost all day and bond during district meeting (which I run); Monday, is 日本 (Japan) day so we wear whatever is Japanese (I got this really sweet Fukuoka mission tie pin). We also gather before lunch and do a discussion on any scripture we thought was nice or that we'd like to share; Tuesday, is devotional day. We listen to a devotional and also go to sing in choir together; Wednesday, is preparation day and gym day (the big gym is closed for renovations right now so we haven't been there yet); Thursday, we do しりとり(Japanese word game) to strengthen our language and vocabulary. The loser gets a ばつゲーム (punishment) (to get used to the culture and to have fun); Friday is Aloha Friday. We wear anything that is Hawaiian. Elder Tani has us all covered; Saturday, we do exercise at the field playing volleyball.
あいしています。(I love you)
Elder Wilson
My companion, Elder Lee is very cool. He grew up in Provo so his house is 2 minutes away. We work 16-18 hours everyday with lesson planning, physical exercising, Japanese study, devotionals, breakfast, meals, choir, lesson teaching, meetings, and etc.
The first week was kind of tough. We just went straight to work. The 3rd day here was the first time we had to teach an investigator in Japanese. Let's just say, it didn't go so well. We prepared super hard trying to condense the godhead. Elder Lee had taken 5 years of Japanese in school, but at his school, they don't do so well with speaking, but enforce writing more. Anyway, we had to do a 15-20 minute lesson. Ours lasted 30 minutes because of silence. There was like 10 minutes of dead silence. This investigator didn't speak to us so it was dead silent. Unfortunately I forgot how to say some words in Japanese too. It seemed awful. Well, my district failed too. At least, we had an amazing time with the spirit. We were reading through the Book of Mormon and came to the portion in 1 Nephi 2 — when Laman and Lemuel are murmuring about their hardship and leaving their belongings behind. I think it was revelation, but both Elder Lee and I spoke about how Laman and Lemuel are kind of in our situation. We are in a new environment, leaving our past lives behind and the stress has made us, as missionaries, murmur a bit (not so much me, but I felt what others were feeling) and I related how I've been praying for everyone in my district since I got the calling of District Leader. At the point, almost everyone was crying, and we got up and hugged each other (we can't hug sisters, so we handshake or sometimes hand hug). It's amazing how God humbles us and brings our spirits back up. I'm blessed with an amazing district and I love all of them! We are very open and loving towards each other.
BTW, it is surprising to know how many people in my district have Japanese in their background. Out of the 11 in the district, 3 of us are 1/2 japanese(Elder Thoreson, Elder Tani, and I), 1 of us is a 1/4 Japanese (Sister Buckmister), 1 has had 5 years of japanese (Elder Lee), 1 has 2 years (Elder Critchfield), and the other 4 have had no Japanese background but are already really good at Japanese (Elder Dombrowski, Sister Saunders, Sister Gallarde, and Sister Macspac) —oh, I memorized everyone's name by the 3rd day.
BTW, I almost had a heart attack a couple days ago because I got a mail and some letters and emails that all say I leave August 7th! But really, I leave September 18th!!! I asked the Japanese instructors to find out, and all of them are errors, apparently. Whew!
My Japanese has gotten better. I can teach a full lesson in Japanese now. I struggle with reading and writing, but both have gotten faster. I don't feel as much stress here as I thought there would be. I saw Sister Free. I don't remember her quite well. I think I remember Brother Free more, to think about it. They're really nice. すごくおおさわぎでした(we are so excited to see each other). Elder Tani is Hawaiian, and he's been giving all of us stuff. He gave us all really nice ties, lava lava, and leis. I've gotten so close to him. A lot of us are going to Fukuoka — Elder Lee, Elder Tani, Elder Critchfield, Elder Thoreson in my district, and it seems like anytime I talk to the だいせんぱい の しまいたち (the most senior sisters), they say “Fukuoka!.” We've started a boot camp that we call Tani ちょうろう(Elder) Boot camp. I don't really do all of the workouts with them. It's not that I don't want to do the Boot camp, but his workouts are football player intended. I do the stuff I know with them, and if there's a workout that they haven't done, I do that while they rest but mostly I'm with them. We try uniting our district a ton. We got things we all do during each day of the week: Sunday, we are together almost all day and bond during district meeting (which I run); Monday, is 日本 (Japan) day so we wear whatever is Japanese (I got this really sweet Fukuoka mission tie pin). We also gather before lunch and do a discussion on any scripture we thought was nice or that we'd like to share; Tuesday, is devotional day. We listen to a devotional and also go to sing in choir together; Wednesday, is preparation day and gym day (the big gym is closed for renovations right now so we haven't been there yet); Thursday, we do しりとり(Japanese word game) to strengthen our language and vocabulary. The loser gets a ばつゲーム (punishment) (to get used to the culture and to have fun); Friday is Aloha Friday. We wear anything that is Hawaiian. Elder Tani has us all covered; Saturday, we do exercise at the field playing volleyball.
あいしています。(I love you)
Elder Wilson
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| My District!!! |
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| With Elder Lee |
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