SO EXCITED!!!!!

I AM SO EXCITED FOR JAPAN!!!! It is funny looking back through my journal this week, because I think I used the phrase "I'm so excited" at least 30 times. Really though, everything this past week has gotten me so excited!! 

     I think it began last Saturday when we finally got to go to the temple again! It was a wonderful experience. I learned and felt so much. If there is anything the temple can do, it is get someone excited about sharing the gospel. I felt Christ's love so strongly in the temple and all I desired was to share this love with everybody else! It got me SO EXCITED for Japan! As we were walking back from the temple, it was raining super hard, and of course, that got me SO EXCITED for Japan! 

     On Sunday we did our last temple walk. We took pictures as a district and I think that was when it hit that I actually will be leaving the MTC eventually. It feels like the MTC is the only life I know, and it's hard to imagine that there is actually life outside of it. But soon we'll be in the real world. And I am SO EXCITED! Lots of big things have happened while I've been at the MTC. At Relief Society on Sunday, they took a big picture of us because it's the largest Relief Society they've ever had here and it's going in the time capsule. Cool thing--Our district was sitting in the front row! Also, the speaker gave a wonderful talk about how we are called to a specific mission where people are being prepared for US. It got me SO EXCITED! For the Devotional on Sunday night we had a BYU football player/now big news caster guy come and speak. He told us to put away our notebooks and not take any notes. He just shared experiences about his mission in South Dakota and again talked about how we are called to where the Lord needs us. At the end, we sang Called to Serve. Eddy shimai and I were toward the front of the auditorium completely surrounded by Elders, and it was powerful. Of course, I was SO EXCITED about my calling! 

     The excitement continued to spike dramatically on Monday. We got our new name tags in Katakana!! I love my name...the last character looks like a smiley face. So mom thanks for marrying a Crofts. Our district has pretty much gone crazy the last week. It has been extremely difficult to focus. I guess we're all just SO EXCITED. One of our senseis can get pretty sidetracked because he answers whatever questions we'll ask him. He told us a story this week about one of the Japanese missionaries who left the MTC just 3 weeks ago. On the plane ride to Japan, she was sitting next to a teenager from Japan. They were just small talking when the teenager said she liked to read, so the missionary gave her a Book of Mormon. The girl read the Book of Mormon for HOURS, then she fell asleep, then right when she woke up she began reading again! Apparently she was just crying the whole time and eating it all up. Well, what I got out of this story is that the people in Japan are ready. There is a reason so many missionaries are being sent there, and it is because the field is whiter than white! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! 

      A lot of "lasts" were happening this week. (Kind of like the week before I left when I continually mentioned the fact that it was my last Tuesday lunch with you or my last time sitting in church with you etc.) Tuesday was our last volleyball Tuesday, and we did our best to make the most of it. It was a FUN game! Our district has gotten so close (as should happen after spending 12 hours with each other every day for nine weeks), and during volleyball we can all just be ourselves and have a bunch of fun. It was also the last Tuesday devotional and the last Tuesday devotional review and we had our last lesson with Shibata san and a lot of other lasts. Interestingly, I did not even get the least bit sad about these lasts. More than anything, they just got me SO EXCITED to go to Japan!! 

     We skyped again on Wednesday. This time was a completely different experience than the time before. We had a mother of 4, and she was the nicest, happiest person I have ever met. I found out that she has a son at BYU right now, so I asked what he was studying, and she said something about computers, so I said my brother is doing something with computers, and she asked what year he is in and I said I didn't know but probably 3 and she said that's what year her son is. She was really really excited about it all...she asked for Brandon's name and said she would tell her son to find him and they could be friends. Hahaha I thought it was so funny, especially since there are a gazillion and one people studying something with computers at BYU. But Brandon, if you have a Japanese guy tracking you down, be nice to him. We were talking to her about the food in Japan (we always ask Japanese people about the food there) and she kept on saying something about their noodururs. Finally, I told her that I didn't understand "noodururs" and she was like "oh it's an american word!" well, then I found out she was trying to say noodles. Hahaha. We then shared experiences about scripture study with each other. I can't tell you how EXCITED it got me to be able to sit and share experiences with somebody in Japan. I talked about how we have family scripture together every morning, and sometimes it was hard because we were tired and my sister and I were really busy in the mornings, but I know our family has been so blessed because of scripture study. She said that she has 2 daughters and they are both super busy and she knows exactly what I mean, but she has also seen blessings in her life from daily family scripture study. It was a very edifying experience and I got SO EXCITED to go to Japan!!

     The people going to Tokyo south leave on Monday morning, so Thursday was their last class with Anderson sensei. A lot of people were pretty sad. But I was just SO EXCITED. Didn't guess that, did you? Anyway, I also finished my MTC training on missionary portal. So of course I was SO EXCITED. And I got onto mormon.org and watched more of the videos about people in Japan. You should watch some of them...they're great! I really like Moe's. Actually hers isn't my favorite but I forgot the other people's names. Watching the videos gets me SO EXCITED to be in Japan and to teach the people in Japan. We were walking through the bookstore and President and SIster Nally were on the other side of one of the shelves. We starting talking to each other ( I just mention the fact that they were on the other side of the shelf because it felt kind of like a movie scene.) Anyway, apparently they were in Japan for about a month and they just love it there. They went so they could have their children take lessons from Dr. Suzuki for three weeks!!! Can you believe it?? I was probably 100% jealous. Anyway, yesterday I got a letter during lunch from Sister Nally (who is in charge of the music here) saying that our musical number had been selected for the New Senior Missionaries devotional on Monday. Yaay! I don't know if it had anything to do with talking to her in the bookstore the day before, but I am pretty EXCITED to play the violin one last time before I leave!

     The day I thought would never come came yesterday: in-field orientation. We spent all day long going to workshops and talking about things we haven't really talked about in the MTC but are very very important in the field (such as planning and goal setting/working with members/ contacting/ etc. ) A lot of people strongly dislike in-field orientation, but I really enjoyed it. I learned things that I had never known before and my testimony of missionary work was strengthened a whole bunch. And it got me SO EXCITED to be in the field. One thing that was really interesting to me was talking about member missionary work. About 15 years ago, President Hinckley gave a talk about missionary work. He said that year there were 300,000 converts to the church, and he said he knows that number can double as we fervently pray, (oh there were two more things but I forgot them.) Anyway, last year there were 272,000  converts to the church. But we then talked about how we could definitely change that number. We did the math, and if each missionary talked to 10 new people a day, and if 5% of those people decided to learn more from the missionaries, and 5% of those people actually ended up being baptized, that would be 1/2 million new converts in a year! Well I thought that was great, but even more I was just thinking about our family. I think all of you are just incredible and could have the most incredible impact on others--you could really help with the number of converts into the church. I don't know why, but all throughout in the in-field orientation, I was just thinking about the impact that you all can have. You are wonderful. 

     Despite how excited I am to go to Japan, (which is really really EXCITED if you haven't noticed), I have completely enjoyed my experience at the MTC. I've been making a list of people I see here at the MTC who I knew before coming (as in we were friends. This doesn't count the people who come up to me and say they know me but I don't know them. And it doesn't count the people that I've talked to but am not friends with. It is pretty much just counting friends.) There were 62. That means I've been here a long time. Haha. Through all this, my testimony has grown more than I ever thought it could. I have especially learned more for myself about the power of the atonement, and the blessings and miracles that can come through the Savior. I am grateful for the Spirit that has been here at the MTC and for the sweet miracles I have experienced daily. The church is true everybody!

Love,

Crofts shimai

Popsy: I hope you're having fun camping! Thanks for your letter this week. I hope you still want me to call you. If not, I won't. But I could speak pretty cool Japanese to you if you want.

Mums: Thank you for all the little updates you have sent me! You're the best! I think for the rest of my life I'll be beyond grateful for the 2 months that we spent together before my mission. You are really the best.

Jas and Becca; Thanks for the letter Jason! It was good to hear from you. When does school start?

Peach and Jan: I hope you had the most wonderful summer of your lives. 

Tyler: Great letter this week!

Saud brain: WHAT IS UP???!! Did you know I'm leaving America this week? I hope you don't miss me or anything. 

Danny: I hear you're learning a Kabalevsky piece! Did you know I played a Kabalevsky concerto on the violin? It was so much fun! At first I thought it was a super duper weird piece. It sounded weird and it was hard. But after I practiced and practiced and then performed it and then practiced and practiced more and then performed it again and then practiced and practiced even more, I came to really love it. Like a ton! It is probably my favorite thing to play on the violin now. And I won some competitions when I played Kabalevsky, so that was cool. You'll be great--I tell everybody here about how amazing you are at the piano. I'm leaving America this week.

Jose: Sup. 

Amerika: Sayounara!!!