Shiawase

Konnichi wa Kazoku!!

Thank you for all the fabulous dear elders! I am super duper excited to tell you all about this week! I feel like each new day as a missionary is the next best day of my life! So I will just start with last Saturday and talk about each day of this week.

Doyobi...I loved P'day! Our leaders were preparing us for a stressful day, but it was actually very pleasant. We woke up at 5 to do our laundry because our leaders said it would be better. Well actually we did laundry at 7 30 this week and that was better. Anyway, then we wrote and then slept and then got ready and went to the temple! I LOVED the temple! It really is a different experience going as a missionary, and it was definitely a good way to boost me up for this week.

Nichiyobi...Sunday was even better than Saturday! It was nice to not have any classroom instruction, so I could put all my worries about language aside and focus on more spiritual things. We had relief society together with all of the sisters and Sheri Dew spoke. It was an incredible talk! My favorite part was when she talked about how we can be armed with the power of God. In the temple we learn about what this power is and how we can have it in our lives. It was an encouraging talk and it got me even more excited about my calling as a missionary. Sacrament meeting in Japanese was quite the experience! I was actually very impressed with how much I understood after having only 3 days of language classes. I could understand a lot of what the conductor said and I recognized many words in the Sacrament prayers. I knew almost everything one of the speakers said. Then when the next speaker got up, she started speaking fast Japanese, and I was totally lost. I kind of zoned out because trying to focus on what she was saying was difficult. My branch president got up to speak after her and I just assumed I wouldn´´t be able to understand anything he said so I remained zoned out, but then after a while I realized he was actually speaking English. It was a relief! I am excited to see how much more Japanese I will be able to understand this week.

Gestuyobi..Monday was a happy day! Eddy Shimai and I taught our third lesson to Yoshida san, and it was amazing. Not necessarily the lesson, because we still did not really know what Yoshida san was saying at all, but the feeling was amazing. We walked out of the lesson and we both knew that the room had been overflowing with the Spirit. I´´ve heard a lot of missionary stories, so I was aware that the Spirit would be present as we taught, but I did not realize it felt THAT amazing! I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!

Kayobi...Y´´all wont believe what happened on Tuesday. I was in a photo shoot! I got into my classroom and there was a note on my desk saying that I had been selected for a photo shoot and so I should meet in the front lobby at 4 with three different outfits! I had no clue what to expect, but I loved what it was. Another sister, Hermana Allred, and I went off campus to another church building. First, we each got a makeover! A lady did our hair and make up for us, and then a clothing lady came in and helped us put together two complimenting outfits. Then, we went into a room with a table and two chairs and computers, and we had to act like we were using technology to do missionary work. A photographer was just snapping away as we pointed at the computer screen and then looked at each other and smiled and yada yada. Haha it was SO HILARIOUS! We wanted it to be as real as possible, so we made up investigator´´s names and actually came up with lessons to teach them. The directors would tell us things like ´¨okay be less animated now. youre moving your eyebrows too much.´¨ and then ´¨look at each other more with a smaller smile´´ . It was hard not to crack up the whole time. Especially because our investigators´´ names were Konnichiwa, Ola,  and Pepite. So yeah the photo shoot was a blast! Also Tuesday was great because our district played sand volleyball in the morning, we got a new investigator and he is not Asian so it was a lot easier to understand his Japanese, and the devotional was incredible. He talked about what it means to be a real missionary, and how we are part of Gods army and all things will work together for good if we obey and have faith! I love being here at the MTC because I think of times when I had super great powerful wonderful spiritual experiences before I came here...it was probably every 3 months. Now it´´s probably every 3 hours.

Suiyobi...Wednesday was an even better day than the previous! Nothing crazy happened like a photo shoot or anything. I think the reason it was better than the rest is because it was also harder than the rest. The more we learn, the more I realize I have a LOT MORE to learn and there are so many things I feel like I should be doing, but there just isn´´t enough time in the day. Any extra time I have that I would spend helping myself learn the language, I use to help my companion with what she doesn´´t understand. So it was getting frustrated, but, God knows what I'm feeling, and he sent peace my way. Taylor sensei was teaching and he seemed to say the perfect thing about how the atonement applies to EVERYTHING, not just sin, but also frustrations. (I'm not sure exactly if that's what he said, it was all in Japanese. But that's what I got out of it.) Also something hilarious happened on Suiyobi. Eddy shimai and I had to go to a stress workshop. This is the funny part: there was a guy there who had just had surgery so he was BIG TIME drugged up and so out of it. We were going around the table introducing our names and where we are serving and when we got to him, he introduced his name and said he was going to Disneyland. The instructor said that would be neat if he could go to Disneyland, but it's sad that he can't. Well he seemed shocked that he couldn't go to Disneyland and very upset! VERY upset! For the rest of the workshop he just sat there with his mouth open. Haha I could not stop giggling! Nobody else seemed to notice him. When we started doing breathing exercises, I just could not contain myself. And for the rest of the day I was very giggly.

Now for Mokuyobi! First of all, Happy Birthday Mom!!! Thursday was SUCH a fantastic day! Our district had a very spiritual experience in the classroom. We were all overwhelmed and pretty discouraged because we'd been planning lessons and trying to teach lessons and trying to learn Japanese and it really isn't easy stuff to do! But Taylor Sensei pulled up a video and it was our investigator Shibatta san! He was talking about why he continued to take lessons from the missionaries and why he wanted to be baptized. It was because he feel how sincere we were as we taught our lessons, and even though a lot of times he did not know what we were trying to say, he knew that we cared about our message and we cared about him and he wanted to have what we have. It was encouraging to know that even though the language is a HUGE barrier in teaching, the love of God is still with us. The 4th of July celebration made Mokuyobi 40 times better!! We all gathered for a devotional. The most powerful part of me was singing hymns. Imagine being in a room full of missionaries dressed in red white and blue singing Battle Hymn Republic. POWERFUL. And then we watched 17 miracles, and everybody was bawling, and I was just sitting there with a huge smile that I couldn't wipe away from my face because for the first time I could really relate that movie to me! I knew that as I sacrificed and exercised faith, miracles would happen!! And so I was very happy and then we all got to go outside and get ice cream and watch the fireworks!! YAHOO!! I LOVED it! Although I did really miss being with y'all for the holiday. It's just not the same type of celebration without my family there. Also, I miss you guys when I hear music.

Kinyobi: We ran into some sister missionaries from Japan. Well I didn't know they were from Japan because I can't tell (but they had Japanese nametags and I recognized a bit of what they were saying) but I still didn't know so I asked them if they spoke Japanese and they looked at me like I was blonde or something. Hmph. I bore my testimony to them in Japanese and they understood it! So that was good! Also, our investigator Shibatta san became our sensei and Taylor sensei is now going to be acting as our investigator. I am so excited to teach him!!

So, a few more notes:

Shelton Shimai (a sister in my district and in my room) is from American Fork and she knows the Kinders! and was friends with Tosha! and Howard Shimai (another sister in my district) was in my chemistry class at BYU and in Cassi's ward and she wants to be a nurse as well. and Young choro (an elder in my district) lived in Russia before he came here.

I don't reallly know what you would like to hear about my experience here, so just ask me questions and I'll answer them! Now here's the countdown. You don't have to send this off to everybody. i just don't have email.s

Chichi: How is the kidney treating you? Thanks for your letter. Japanese is nothing like Spanish.

Haha: How was your birfday? Did you have red white and blue pancakes? How are your braces? How is tennis? How is the family proclamation? Do you still go out to eat? I miss you. I got most of the pen out of my shirt. In fact I wore that one for my photo shoot! But I would still put a tide to go to good use. I have seen Nate at least once almost every day. The day of the photo shoot I got to eat dinner later so I saw him and we talked for about 5 minutes. He also was cleaning the stairs in my building yesterday and I talked to him for another five minutes! It's great to see him! But he is leaving on Monday. Japanese is fun.

Jas and Becca and Baby: is it a girl or a boy?

Peach and Janna: Thanks for the nice package! It was a great surprise! The electronic dictionary is SO COOL! But I don't understand any of it haha. I figure one day I'll put it to good use, but for now it's just fun to play with. I loved the fruit snacks too. We get food, but most the food in the cafeteria is nasty carbs and so I don't eat a lot and so by night I'm hungry. BUT Shelton shimai got 3 HUGE boxes FULL of food this week!! It's cray cray desu.

Tyler: I love you. Now that I'm on a mission, I realize a bit more how hard it can be. Except I'm not in Mexico with killer heat and stuff. And it's still hard. So good job for being such a hard worker and a great example to me!

Saud: I MISS YOU!!!!!!!! Thanks for sending me letters!! I love receiving mail. The best food I've eaten here is ice cream. They have it on Wednesdays and Sundays and it makes me very happy. The worst food was brocolli. It actually wasn't the grossest thing I've eaten but I was so excited for brocolli because I love brocolli and it looked good but it was all mushy and tasted like phlegm. They do have cookies every day but they never look good. However, they had rice krispey treats one day instead of cookies and they were the best rice krispey treats i've ever eaten. I saw peach twice. He also drew a picture on the board for me once. My favorite part of the day is probably when I'm in class and my sensei starts bearing his testimony in Japanese and I know what he is saying and it feels amazing!! I miss y'all way much. I didn't get much of mom's cooking because we were always going out to eat, but I miss protein shakes in the morning and paninis and quesadillas and homemade bread. My companion is probably jealous of my family because i talk about y'all a ton. Her email is megan.eddy@myldsmail.net. I use my chapstick all the time, thanks for asking. I say prayers about a gazillion and one times a day. In Japanese. It's nice. My blow dryer is great. I use it to stretch out my shoes. I have an hour to get ready because my companion wakes up at 5:50 and I have to wake up when she wakes up.

Danny poo: I miss you too!! I miss sleeping with you and hearing your giggle and seeing your smile and stuff. I would rather lose my lunch on a roller coaster. I would rather stick my bum in the air and shake it like a rattle snake when i'm threatened. I would rather cut my hair with a  weed wacker. I would never cut it. But i cut my fingernails almost every day.

Joseph: thanks for your letter. I laughed til I cried almost.

Carl: thanks for all your letters! Do you know how much I appreciate them? I just gotta know.

Okay bye family!! I love you all!!

Love,

Crofts shimai