are tough. All you ever thing about is your family and where you would be right now if you weren't in the MTC. But then I kind of looked at the quote,
"forget yourself and go to work" differently. You need to forget about
yourself. Where Not gonna lie, those first 3 days kind of dragged, but from
the 4th day on I've actually started to love this place. It has such a different spirit. Everyone is so happy all the time. You'd think with all the pressure we're under that we'd be all grumpy and stressed, but really all the missionaries just have fun and work hard. It's awesome!
The language is going good! Well . . . as good as only being here a week
can get you. I feel like I've learned so much already. Japanese is such a
dynamic language. It's awesome! I think I like it more than Spanish actually.
But at the same time, there are times where me and my companion Doi Shimai are teaching an investigator and we can only say like the simplest sentences concerning the gospel. And I just think, "Ah! If I could only speak English I can I could say so much more! I could actually say what I truly feel about this gospel." But I honestly don't doubt that I can learn Japanese. I know I can do it. I didn't expect the language to become immediately, so I'm just being patient. It's a weird feeling. I feel like I've become so much braver since I've come here. Like I don't get nervous when I'm about to teach an investigator in Japanese where as before, even the thought made me anxious. It's amazing. I actually love going to class! My Sensei Brother Anderson is so great. My district is farther than others were their first week. He's really understanding (we don't necessarily understand him because he ONLY speaks Japanese) and you can tell he truly does love us and wants us to be the best missionaries we can be. He names our books. We have a ton of books, so he names them like "Miagisan" like Mr. Miagi from the Karate Kid. And he names our books after pokemon. Like our little yellow dictionary is Pikachu and our orange book is Charmander, but you pronounce it Chamanda so it's fun.
My district is freaking amazing! I love them! There are 4 sisters and 4 brothers. There's me and Doi Shimai, Earling Shimai, and Thompson Shimai, then the elders are Trajano Choro, Valente Choro, Nelson Choro and Shimeil choro. We are such a great district! We've become so tight! Even other districts have noticed how well we get along. My companion Sister Doi is great! I'm so blessed to have a good companion right off the bat. She's half Tongan! Poly pride ;D and she's 1/4th Japanese, but doesn't know a thing of Japanese. She's a crier, clumsy and freakin' hilarious. She's really great though I love her. Earling and Thompson are so hilarious. We share a room and it's just like Girls Camp; Just a bunch of girls goof around all the time. The Choro's are hillarious. 3 of them are from Brazil and one is from Idaho. We make fun of their accents on
a daily basis. It's great >:) We made a rule, because on your mission you are to refer to others as "Shimai/sister or Choro/Elder", but it is so easy to call each other guys. So we made a rule that everytime you call someone "guys", you have to do 5 push-ups during gym. I've had probably 30 push ups. Earling Shimai maybe like 20. The boys maybe average 25 push ups a day. Ha Doi Shimai, oh bless her soul, she has maybe done like 80 push ups in the last 3 days. Haha!
But I really am starting to love this place. I love this gospel and I know I can learn this language. One thing that was said in our Tuesday night devotional was, "People might of told you that you're going to a hard mission. They said that to Ammon too. "Japan isn't known to be an easy mission. But Iknow God will help me. I already feel the blessings of being obedient in my life. I know this church is true!