GLORY

Travel Plans!

Dearest, Darlingest Kazoku,

I have been writing for half an hour now, and then my email decided to delete itself. So sorry if this is a sad letter home this week. 

SHOUT OUT to grandma and grandpa crofts! You've gotta know that I love packages! And I'm sure you do know by now that those brownies are my favorite! Thank you so so much!

One more week down here at the MTC: 

Sunday: I played my violin for the musical number! I was pretty nervous about it because I hadn't practiced very much and the pianist had just barely seen the music for the first time and the violin I was using was not very good and I didn't want to distract from the Spirit in the room. However, after the meeting, I had many people come up to me (some in tears) thanking me for playing. The Lord must have done what He always seems to do--I do the little bit I can do and then He steps in and makes it great. I was glad the Lord could work through me to touch people's hearts.

Monday: Eddy shimai completely lost her voice! (as in she would open her mouth and not a single sound would come out!) Naturally, we had two lessons scheduled to teach on Monday. Our first lesson was with Watabe san. I didn't realize how painful it would be to try to teach the entire lesson on my own. I now know why companions are so important. She did contribute however by pointing at the scripture we were planning on sharing. And I'm sure her presence just brought the Spirit into the room. (That reminds me, the speaker for Relief Society on Sunday was Rosemary Wixom. I love when she speaks...she has a smile on her face the whole time! Her talk was simply wonderful...probably the best talk/devotional I've heard since being here. One thing that she said is that we don't need to say anything to preach the gospel. She told those who are trying to learn a language to not worry because the most important teaching will come from our eyes anyway.) However, after about ten minutes, I decided to just bear my testimony and end our lesson with Watabe san. We rescheduled the other lesson we had for Wednesday. :) 

Tuesday: There was a lot of hype and excitement for the devotional on Tuesday. Rumors were going around that it was going to be something great. (Actually at choir practice on Sunday the director did say it was going to be a big deal, so we knew the rumors were true.) Anyway, when they opened the gates for us to walk over to the Marriott center, a bunch of people broke into a sprint! The security people weren't very happy. Turns out it was the very first live satellite broadcast of an MTC devotional and the speaker was Richard G. Scott. He gave a wonderful devotional about the power of prayer. It really was super wonderful. He made an apostolic promise/blessing TWICE in the devotional specifically to those learning a language, that as we faithfully and diligently serve the Lord, we WILL receive the gift of tongues. Throughout the devotional, he included many many more promises that can come from faithfulness and obedience, and a few more specifically to those learning a language. At the end of the devotional, we were all sitting waiting for Richard G Scott to get up and leave. Well he was just sitting there for a while, so we were all sitting silently for a while. Finally he got up, so we all stood up and then we were just standing silently watching him walk out. (He sort of shuffles like Grandpa, so we were standing for a while.) Right before he left the gym, he turned around and yelled, "Be good!!" Oh I loved it. 

Wednesday: We had our first skype call! It was with a 31 year old man living by himself in an apartment in Tokyo. He has no money, but he loves to play the cello and he wants to go to BYU eventually to get a degree in music. We talked to him for a long time about the food and stuff in Japan. Then we decided to teach him about prayer. In the middle of our message, Eddy shimai was searching for a specific scripture, and randomly I decided to ask him if he watches T.V. He said he loves watching old American shows so he can practice his English, shows such as Bewitched and I Love Lucy and Dick van Dyke. Ahh I got so excited when he said that! I told him that our family LOVES those shows. I was trying to describe our favorite episode of Dick van Dyke (the one where he stays awake for 100 hours). Even though my Nihongo is very broken, he knew exactly what episode I was talking about and in English he described in detail the entire episode! I was laughing and he was laughing (and my sensei just happened to listen into our conversation at that time...I don't think he was laughing). Anyway, I was happy we had that in common and I was super happy that I could relive some memories from our family.

Thursday: I auditioned for a musical number with Elder Gale. Here's a crazy story: We had a couple accompanists in mind, but all of them fell through, so on Wednesday we met together to practice and we still didn't have an accompanist. We heard somebody playing the piano in the room next to us, so we went and asked her if she would be willing to play for us. She was an AMAZING pianist!! Seriously, amazing. And she's going to Japan on her mission, so that's even more amazing. We played super well for our audition. We made it into the "yes pile" but we weren't selected to play for anything. I'm okay with that though...at least I finally tried! And I got to give Sister Nally (The MTC president's wife/the relief society president) a hug. That just made my day!

Friday: WE GOT OUR TRAVEL PLANS!!! WAHOO!! This was the talk of the week. We were all waiting outside the mailroom after lunch and when our district leader came out with the travel plans everybody started cheering. I'll be honest--I didn't know what all the excitement was for at first. However, after I had my travel plans in my hand, I got insanely excited. I'm leaving AMERICA in 10 days!!! Haha some of us were so excited that we just had to skip gym time so we could take pictures with our travel plans. Most people at the MTC didn't understand why were so excited, but most people at the MTC don't understand what it's like to be here for 9 weeks. 

Saturday: That's today. We get to go to the temple!!!! I'm probably 1000 times more excited for this than my travel plans. So that's a lot of excitement. 

Everybody: The church is true!! If you don't believe me, ask God. He'll answer!

Love,

Crofts shimai

Apple: I get to call home from the airport on the day I leave, which is Aug 27.  Most likely, the best chance for me to call will be at the Salt Lake City airport. We leave the MTC at 4:30 am and leave the airport at 8:30 am so it may be in between that time. Would you like me to call your phone? The only other chance I would have to call would be in Seattle sometime between 9:30 to 11:30. If that is when I call, should I still call your phone? (I'm asking you because you're usually the one who answers his phone) I love you super duper much!!

Strawberry: Thank you thank you thank you for all your dear elders! Yes I straighten my hair. Quite a bit actually because I usually shower after gym which gives me about 10-15 minutes for blow drying my hair and styling it and doing my make up etc. I'm getting my hair trimmed on Tuesday. Scary!! I've been sharing clothes with the other sisters in my district. They have super duper clothes, but they think my clothes are super duper cute. I guess it's just one of those things where the grass is greener on the other side. I sometimes get a little bit nervous for Japan, but that is mainly when I think about the food. For the most part, I am insanely excited! I have no idea what to expect, so it's like embarking on an unknown adventure. I love it!

Grapes: Have fun with the last few days of summer. 

Peach Jam: Peach I saw you a lot yesterday! Jana, how are you??

Bacon: I love you.

Sar Pear: I got your letter!! Ahh it was so stinkin cute! I love how half the letter is talking about how cute the stationary is. Haha. It really is cute. You can still tell me about boys (and girls) through email! I would love to hear about what's going on in your life! When does school start? Are you doing XC or not? What classes are you taking? Who is your boyfriend now? You can send me pictures of your new clothes. I love you bunches! (Oh p.s. make sure when I come home from my mission we watch Barbie Princess and the Pauper together and then sleep together and then wake up and go running and have a shake and then get ready and wear cute clothes that aren't missionary skirts and then go Christmas shopping together.) Okay bye!

Watermelon: How's summer been? Do you know how to water ski? Would you rather have your whole entire body sun burned or have your whole entire body covered with snot? 

Banana: I wub you. Do you still copy from the scriptures? Do you like the new house?

Blackberry (Car Car): Thanks again for the updates! Thanks to you, I haven't gone a day without getting a dear elder!

Everybody else: Y'all are the best. Love you!!!