Kristen's testimony through music: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

First companion, Eddy Shimai

First letter from MTC

Konnichiwa Kazoku!!

     I. LOVE. The. MTC.!! I love it! First of all, I LOVE my companion! Eddy shimai is wonderful! She is just as excited about this whole experience as I am, so we just walk down the sidewalks and smile. She laughs at the same things I laugh at and she eats the same food I eat. Also, she is extremely skilled and she sewed a quilt with pictures of her family in it. It is amazing. And she sewed the dress she wore yesterday. We both wore our polka dot dresses and EVERYBODY loved how we matched and they loved our dresses!!

There are only 4 sisters in our room, and I got the top bunk, so I've been sleeping well! It's crazy to think that I've only been here for 2 whole days. It seems like weeks! And the amount of information I've gained is definitely more than 2 days' worth under any other circumstances.

     The Japanese classes are CRAZY! After my host showed me my room on the first day, she dropped me right off into my language classroom. My sensei, Taylor Sensei (Cassi, it's Ben Taylor from violin camp!!!) started talking to me in Japanese right away and since then I haven't heard him say a word of English. All the learning we do is with our sensei speaking Japanese. It has definitely been overwhelming and very very humbling, but at the same time, I've never been more excited about anything.  I LOVE IT! I can only pick out a few words here and there, but through those words I can somewhat gather what the sensei is saying, and it usually is good information. I think. Probably what gets me so excited when I'm in that classroom is just the challenge of the whole thing. I'm sitting there listening to someone talk away in another language and thinking this is totally impossible, and then I remember that with the Lord, dekimasu! (I can do it!) We say dekimasu all the time. And shinko (faith.)

     One of the greatest moments of the MTC is when Eddy shimai and I said our first inori (prayer.) We had been studying the words and the phrases in a prayer for about an hour, and at the end of our language study, we decided to close off with the prayer in Japanese. We both said one for practice, and when we finished, we just looked up at each other and smiled and I could tell that she felt just as amazing as I did. Believe it or not, the Spirit is the same in all languages!

     Eddy shimai and I taught our first investigator yesterday! We prepared a lesson about how God loves his children and we can pray to Him and communicate our needs. Well, I considered the lesson to be pretty decent, given the fact that it was all in Japanese. However, it was a close disaster when we went in for the real thing. We had NO IDEA what our investigator was saying to us!!! We would just nod and smile and move on to the next point of our lesson. We finally got to the point where we had to ask if we could speak in English because we did not know what he wanted us to do. The good news is, other than the language, the main thing we have learned here is that we have authority to preach the gospel and we are called to speak the language we are learning, so DEKIMASU!! And as long as we have the Spirit with us and let our investigator know we love him and God loves him, it will all be good.

     For some reason, the Japanese language sounds hirarious to me. A lot of times when the sensei mutters Japanese under his breath, I can not stop myself from laughing. And last night when Eddy shimai and I were saying our companionship prayer, it was late and we were tired and I accidentally started laughing when I was praying for the gift of tongues (because it's igen no tomamono--you really need the gift of tongues to be able to say that fast). Eddy shimai and I could not stop laughing for the longest time. It's a beautiful language sometimes, and sometimes it's a funny sounding language.

     I have run into a gazillion people I know here. Eddy shimai decided she would mutter "popular" in Japanese everytime I ran into somebody else I knew. However, we could only find "popular soft drink" in the Japanese dictionary, so she says that everytime I see somebody. Haha. I'd give you the list of everybody, but it's way too long. The people I have run into the most though are Elder Bodily, Elder Cook, and Elder Mather. Exciting!

    I'm already tired of the food here. Uncle Carlos thank you thank you thank you for the sugar cookies! Not only are sugar cookies my favorite type of cookie, but they have saved our lives when we are starving at night. We eat dinner at 4:00 and by 9:00 I need food again!!

     I seem to have a problem with my pen. I drop it all the time, and I write on myself with it all the time! The first day, I got pen ALL over my new shirt!! :( Don't ask me how. It's sad though.

     I like my district a lot! It's big...we really squish into our classroom. There are 8 sisters and I love them all very much. We all seem to be sort of the same type of person, so we get along well. And one of the girls was in all my nursing classes and she applied for the nursing program. Also she was in Cassi's ward. If I remembered her name I would include it. There are 6 elders, 5 of them graduated within the last month. Also, 5 of them have girlfriends. One of them took 4 years of Japanese in high school and he looks just like Tyler Murphy from the side. Speaking of Tyler Murphy, my Sister Training Leader lived in his mission and had him over to her house all the time! And she thinks we're facebook friends because she wanted to facebook stalk me when she found out Tyler had a girl friend. However, I forgot her name as well. Something about trying to remember Japanese words all day makes me forget all the other words. Like names.

    We're going to the temple today and I'm super duper excited!

     LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Love,

Crofts shimai

p.s. to explain the photo with the blow drying: apparently wearing lots of socks and then blow drying my shoes helps them stretch out a bit and fit better. I tried it last night so we'll see how it works out today :)

 

Dearest Momma,

 I love you mucho. I think of a gazillion things a day that would be nice to have here that I forgot to bring, but I'll be fine without them. The main thing that I would like is more pictures! Of you guys!!! And maybe some hair ribbons because I pull my hair back all the time. :) Okay thanks!! Love you!!!!

MTC Drop Off!!!