Week 3!!

With the choratachi (elders)

District Sisters and Sister Training Leaders

 

With Sister Smithson!!

Provo MTC - January 29, 2015 

Provo MTC - January 29, 2015

Konnichiwa Kazoku!! 

Thank you everyone for your emails and DearElders!  FYI, we missionaries love DearElders! So, last P-Day we went to the temple and had an amazing time! I am so glad we get to go every week! So, and update on the sister from Australia, she has been re-assigned to the Sydney Australia Mission. She isn't too excited about that because she didn't want to serve in her home country, but I know she will be great there. I love her so much, she has been such a great example to me of enduring through trials. 

So, I forgot to tell you all, but our second Friday here we got our iPad Minis! It's pretty cool. I hardly use it, but its nice to show videos during lessons. Also, 4 people in my district, including myself were interviewed for the pre-MTC website and they videoed us and asked us questions about it and if it impacted us and wanted us to give advice to people and they are going to show it to people who will use the website. It was pretty scary and they asked me to bare my testimony in Japanese and I totally messed up but oh well, it was still fun.

On Saturday while Coughanour Shimai and I were planning our lesson for Tsuboyama San, I felt like we should share the "Because of Him" video, so we did. The spirit was so strong during that lesson and when Jack Shimai (Tsuboyama) taught our class she told me that she actually showed that video to the real Tsuboyama! It was such a neat experience! I am so glad I listened to the promptings of the spirit.

Fast sunday was awesome! 24 hours goes by really fast at the MTC. It was the last day with our Senpai becasue they left for Japan on Monday morning. I'm going to miss them all. The mission conference on Sunday was great! The presidency talked about obedience and having faith. TRC appointments were fun, but my doryo and I realized that we haven't improved much in a week so we are really trying our hardest to do better. We were discussing this all as a class and then Olsen Kyoudai shared Alma 26 and said "If you feel like this is frustrating and you feel like turning back, congratulations. You are just like Ammon. But the one thing Ammon didn't do was hesitate when he had promptings of the spirit." I love our sensei. They always know how to help us.

Later that day our lesson with Oosuka went really well and the spirit was definitely there. 

My doryo and I have decided to only write a little bit of words down for our lessons so we can learn better. 

The Tuesday devotional was really good and the speaker was Elder Schwitser of the 70. He spoke on keeping the commandments and how the steps are 1- What commandment do you want to focus on, 2- Why do we have that commandment, you need to 3- Want to follow it and then you need to have that commandment be 4- Within you or you need to Become that commandment. It was so neat and a good way to help us become more like the Savior. Afterwards we had a district devotional with President Butler and we had a really good discussion. For some reason I was just feeling really down and I was going to ask president to give me a blessing, but at the end of the discussion he bore his testimony to us and that is exactly what I needed to hear.  I am so blessed to be in this district. It is so amazing and I am strengthened everyday.

So on Monday I found Holly Hele and she is going to Fukuoka JAPAN!!! I was so excited!!!!! I almost screamed when she told me! And then yesterday my district was asked to host new missionaries and I prayed that I would be able to host Brittani. First, I hosted an international missionary from Korea and she was super nice. Then, I hosted a girl going to Thailand and I had a lot of fun with her. Then I was about to host another girl and I look at the next car and Brittani was running up to me!!! My prayers were answered!!! I was so grateful to see familiar faces and be able to show Brittani around. After hosting was done I felt so sick. I could barely stand and we still had 6 hours of class left. I just prayed to make it through the day. The first 3 hours were rough and we taught Tsuboyama and it didn't go well at all. My doryo (companion) got really frustrated and it was rough. We were both frustrated with ourselves but then had fun at dinner. Then Olsen Kyoudai taught us and we learned so much! He taught really well and we were understanding everything. It was definitely a good ending to a rough part of the day. We are so sore today because we have been working on core during gym time and then we were carrying around suitcases yesterday, it was rough especially with how week I am :-). 

Well, thank you for everything you all do for me! I sent a letter to you on Monday, so you'll probably get it today. I love you all so much! I am so grateful for my mission and how much my testimony is growing. One of the elders in my zone said something interesting. He said how he always wanted to go to Japan and felt like he would and he said "I don't know if I was sent to Japan because Heavenly Father knew I always wanted to go or because I was for ordained to go there and I somehow found out about it." I just thought that was a neat way to look at it. I love you all! Thank you for all your prayers and love!

Aishitemasu!

Lacey Shimai