JITENSHAW

Hello Kazoku! 

I am in Japan!!!!!

I can not even begin to explain how exciting everything in Japan is to me.      Right when I got out of the airport on Wednesday afternoon I was so excited about every little thing, like the fact that all the signs are in Japanese characters and the cars are really short and they drive on the left side of the road etc! We all got on a bus to go from Osaka to Kobe where the mission home is. I was beyond excited, so of course there was no way I could sleep despite the intense jet lag. It was about an hour ride, and there were buildings the whole entire way. TONS of buildings smashed in like sardines and they just kept going on and on and they have the most unique architecture (in fact there is a building for something to do with puppies and it is shaped like a dog.) So that is the first thing that just blows my mind about where we are...there are SO MANY buildings!!! 

I LOVE President and Sister Zinke. They are super kind and happy and I love their views about missionary work. We talked about how there are about 30 million people in this mission, and about 200 missionaries, which means each one of us is responsible to share the gospel with roughly 110,000 people. (I think that is the math...) Anyway, there is NO way we could possibly do that, but President Zinke talked about how we are here to help gather Christs sheep, and His sheep are the elect, and God will lead them to us or lead us to them. In fact, he said that because God is already preparing the elect, there is a specific number in each area of people who are ready to listen to and accept the gospel. And he said God will give us the exact number. Well they have been doing this for longer than a year now. Our number in our area is 44. Anyway, I know President Zinke is so inspired and he is definitely leading us in the right direction. 

     On Friday morning, we all met our trainers! President Zinke presented them in a pretty intense way. He would call our name and we would go up one side of the chapel, then he would call our trainers name and they would go up the other side and we would meet in the middle. He did it one at a time and there were 33 of us, so the suspense was there. Anyway, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my companion! Her name is Sister Dobson. She has been in Japan now for a year, so she really knows what she is doing. She is super duper happy and loves the work and she is very patient with me. Right now we are serving in  Mikunigaoka, which is in Osaka! Ha okay funny story: We had to ride a bus from the mission home to the train station, and so about 12 shimai hopped onto the bus and we had all of our carry on bags so it was quite the crowd. The bus was pretty packed, but it kept stopping at every bus stop any way and people kept coming on. After about 4 stops, I thought there was no room to breathe. Well, i think there were 10 more stops after that until we got to the train station, and at every single stop, more and more people got on the bus!! Welcome to Japan! 

Saturday we got right to work! We did our study at the church in the morning. (The church is an old fire station and we study there in case somebody shows up and we can give them a tour.) Then after lunch we went off to go visit one of the investigators. I do not know her name, so I will call here Ka chan. Ka chan is a 13 year old who the previous missionaries met with a couple times quite a while ago and then were never able to get ahold of her again. She is about a 40 minute bike ride away, and we set out to go meet with her. Well, let me explain this whole biking thing. We are riding down a little sidewalk with a gazillion people walking and biking on it and with a gazillion cars driving next to the sidewalk and I am an unexperienced bike rider. Oh and riding in a skirt! I am pretty sure I flashed millions of people on our way to Ka chans apartment. It gets scary when there is a person coming at you on one side and a big bus on the road on the other side and your skirt flies up and then you see a pole right in front of you!! Haha I KNOW if this was not the Lords work, I would be dead right now. 

     Finally,　thanks to lots of help from the Lord, we made it to Ka chans apartment. Well, she was not home. We decided to go housing while we were in that area. We went to some houses that looked like families might live in them because Dobson shimai really wants to teach a family. In Japan, they have cameras and microphones next to their mailbox, so you just ring the door bell type thing there, and they talk to you through the microphone, so we do not actually go to the door unless they let us in. So we push the button, wait for somebody to say Konnichi wa, then introduce ourselves and ask if we can share a message. For the most part, people did not even answer. When they did answer, every single one said sorry I am good. (Usually they said they are Buddhist, so they are not interested.) In between houses, I would practice the introduction. Finally Dobson shimai said it was my turn to do it. Ahh I was somewhat terrified. I hesitantly pushed the button, and nobody answered. Phew! Haha then we just switched off from there and they usually answered for Dobson shimai and every time it was my turn they did not answer! It was sort of a relief. Until the very end. We were about to go back to the apartment when we saw a yellow apartment complex. Dobson shimai has a theory that yellow apartments are spiritual hotspots because she has gotten a lot of investigators from yellow apartments. So we went to it! I pushed the button, and somebody answered! Ahh so I had to do the speaking and of course I messed up a ton, but he still said wait a minute, and he came down and opened the door! It was the first one (and only one) who actually came to the door! Apparently he lived in LA for a few years and he went to temple square and stuff. Well nothing came of it really but I was happy that I finally got to see somebodys face. We invited him to English class. 

     Saturday night was wonderful. We were in our apartment finishing up weekly planning. We had hoped to have a lesson with an investigator Saturday night, but every time we had asked her what time she was available, she did not respond. We were hoping that sometime after her work was finished we could be at the train station and just meet up with her. Well, Saturday night she texted us and said she still wanted a lesson! We were really excited, and then she called us and said she would be to the train station in 4 minutes! We had to HURRY!! We quickly grabbed our bags and threw on rain coats and ran down to the bike garage and it was pouring pouring rain super hard but we just biked as quickly as possible to the train station! We got there just when she did. We walked with her to our church building, gave her a tour, and then sat with her in the chapel and taught our lesson there. Because our church is an old fire station, it really is not pretty at all. In fact, the rooms just look like normal blank rooms to me, but during the tour Ta san seemed so fascinated about each room. The feeling in the chapel was super peaceful. We began our lesson by singing I am a Child of God, and after we finished singing, she just stared at the words in the hymn book. Then we began our lesson about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and we our His children. My contribution to the lesson: I shared a 30 second overview of the lesson and a short testimony , and the rest of the time I smiled. Anyway, Dobson shimai did a fantastic job teaching and I do not know how Ta san felt, but I definitely felt the Spirit in there. We then taught her about prayer and I asked her if she would pray to feel Gods love. She looked somewhat shocked because she had never really prayed before, but we explained to her how, and then after quite a bit of hesitation, she prayed!! After the prayer, we all sat there in silence for a long time. The feeling at that moment put everything I ever felt at the MTC to shame. We are meeting with Ta san again this week! 

     The ward members here are the happiest people I have ever met. We got to church about 30 minutes early, and EVERY SINGLE member came up to me and introduced themselves. (I did not know what anybody said. All I can do is say I am Crofts shimai and I am from Idaho and this is my first week in Japan, so I said that to everybody.) Anyway, I wish you could see how happy they are. During testimony meeting, they are EXCITED to share their testimonies rather than apologetic. and I did not understand what they said, but I know from their smiles that they have very strong testimonies of the gospel. I played the piano in relief society and oh if you could have seen how happy the music conductor was! She has the hugest smile and she just dances as she leads! It is so cute!!! 

     After church, we decided to go out and try to find another family who was previously contacted by the missionaries but has not been available recently. Dobson shimai did not know where they lived, but we put the address in the GPS and started on our way anyway. Ha we got SOO lost!!! Dobson shimai kept apologizing because we had to turn around so many times. But to be honest I did not mind at all. For one thing, the road here are so crazy, I do not know how anyone could not get lost. They have apartments and roads and intersections and lights going every which way...it is the most hectic thing in the world! But for the most part people here know how to navigate it all, which I am super impressed with. Also I did not mind the fact that we were lost because then I could pay a little attention to the sights around me. Wow Japan is the COOLEST!!! I can not really describe it to you. Sorry. Haha but there are so many interesting details in the sidewalks and the apartments and the houses and the buildings. You would all love it! One thing I have noticed is that there are vending machines on almost every corner. Which means there are a lot of vending machines! And they talk to you (after getting a drink it will say Arigato go zaimashita!) It is funny though because you will never see anybody drinking or eating on the sidewalks. That is just something they do not do in Japan. Another reason I was fine with the fact that we got lost is because we stopped and asked a lady for directions, and she was SO SO KIND! She had three little kids running around her and she was trying to weed her garden, but she got up and decided to walk with us to the apartment we were looking for. She was happy and kind and she said we could go back and visit her, so YESS we are going to!! We finally found the apartment and the family ended up not being home. But we ran into another lady and she was actually pretty excited when she found out we were Christians because she is Christian too. She was talking about how it is really rare to find Christians in Japan, but every once in a while you will run into a Catholic or a Protestant. And then she got kind of embarrassed and she lowered her voice and said oh and one of my friends is a mormon! She laughed a little bit and we both got super excited and we said Oh we are mormon too!!!! Then she laughed and we continued on talking. Haha we gave her a book of mormon and invited her to english class as well. 

     Before coming into Japan, I had a different idea of what missionary work would be like. I knew it would be hard, but I always figured that because we have the strength of the Lord with us, that would make it easy. Well, it is a little bit different than that. It is definitely hard, and we definitely have the help of the Lord with us, but we still have to give everything we have to give and work as hard as we can and sacrifice all that we have to sacrifice, and THEN the Lord will step in and make up the difference. Keeping this thought in mind is what makes doing all of the difficult things easy. And so so worth it! I love going out and knowing that what I am doing is the Lords work and I have the opportunity to teach others about their Savior! I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK! The church is SO true!

I love you all! Sorry I only included about 1/16 of what I would like to talk about....one day maybe I will have time to tell you all about it. I love you!!! :)

Crofts shimai

Imagine these two blondies in Japan!

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!!!

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!!!

Beautiful Moments

Heeeeiiann Kazoku! Genki desu ka?

The Lake Powell trip sounds like it was fun! Don't worry, I played sand volleyball and it was fun too. Happy Birthday again Pops!! You know I love you bunches!

This week was a week full of blessings. I feel like EVERYTHING about the MTC and about me and the missionary work was better this week. The following are a few examples of how:

PI Lessons: Remember how I said Eddy shimai and I came up with a new plan/new way of doing missionary work? Well it has made all the difference in the world. Our goal was to have everything we do during the day be something to help us better teach the investigators. We used our time SO MUCH more effectively this week! And I thought we were using it effectively before, but the improvement was great. Because of this, we were a lot more prepared for our lessons. We have BURNED through the PMG over and over. We taught Watabe san on Monday. He has always been a golden investigator, praying, reading the Morumon Sho, repenting, etc. So we decided to share Mosiah 4:11-12 with him and just encourage him to continue moving forward in faith. He loved the scripture. We taught Shibata san on Tuesday. This was the one that I could tell was really different as a result of our studying and focus. We have been trying over and over to get Shibata to repent, and he just never understood why he needed to. Well finally on Tuesday, when the topic came up, because we had done so much studying, we were able to simply explain the importance of repenting again, and then each of us had a scripture come to mind to share with him and with both of those scriptures, he really understood it. He finally accepted the commitment to repent! The Lord was definitely helping us. Our lesson with Asage san on Wednesday was amazing. He is our new investigator so we had just briefly explained a few things to him in our first lesson last week and asked him to pray. Well this week we asked him how prayer was and he said he was really scared to do it at first but then as he prayed he felt something different and he liked it. We explained that he was feeling God's love. He didn't know what God's love was, and  I'm not sure how, but eventually we were talking about Jesus Christ and the atonement and we shared Alma 7:12 with him. Oh I am so excited to tell you about this part! He asked us who it is talking about when it says Christ will take upon Him the weaknesses of the people. Well we didn't know the word for weakness in Japanese, so we didn't know how to answer that question for the longest time. Finally, after a lot of charades, we figured out that he was asking about whose weaknesses the scripture talks about. I just said one thing: everybody. He looked up really quickly and his jaw dropped and he just stared. Oh I wish you could have felt that! Asage san was so shocked that Christ suffered for EVERYBODY, but at the same time, I felt like he believed it. Finally, after much silence, he asked why. We then shared John 3:16 and I could tell Asage san understood God's love. More importantly, it helped me understand better God's love. He really loves A LOT.

NIHONGO: The Lord is also blessing me with Japanese. We played a game a few days ago where our sensei would say a sentence in English and then we would race to write it down in Nihongo. I was finished first almost every time! I'm not saying this at all to brag or compare myself with others, but just to say that the Lord is blessing me so much! When new grammar concepts are explained, I feel like I understand them almost right away every time and all the little grammar rules are starting to come together. Whew I am so glad I am learning this language with the Lord's help, because I know without him, those little rules would be HARD to put together. However, I still make plenty of Nihongo mistakes. Eddy shimai and I have been reading the Nihongo Morumon Sho together at nights. We'll have the Eigo Book of Mormon out and read one verse at a time from English and then Nihongo. One night, we were so confused because I read the verse in English, and she started reading the verse in Nihongo, and she noticed that it had Laman, Lemuel, Sam, etc in it and the English verse didn't. Because I think I know more than I do and I think I'm super good at Nihongo, I went on to explain that they had to include the names of Nephi's family in the Nihongo Book of Mormon but not in the English Book of Mormon because they don't treat pronouns the same way. It was going on for a while like that and finally we realized that we were on chapter 3 in the English B.oM. and chapter 2 in the Nihongo B. oM. Haha so much for thinking I knew what I was talking about. \

MUSIC: Last Sunday the devotional was a musical fireside with Jenny Oaks Baker! Ahh I have a new respect for her and a new respect for music. I just LOVED it. It really made me want to play the violin again! Well..Good news mina san! I'm playing my violin in sacrament meeting tomorrow! Somehow the music coordinators in my branch found out that I would be willing to play and they asked me to on Wednesday. And here's the better news: I went to reserve the violin on Thursday and there was another violinist there who was about to audition to play in a devotional. I asked him what he was playing and then he asked what I was going to play on Sunday and I said I didn't know. Then he pulled out a huge pile of music! And guess what! The piece of music on top was the arrangement I play of "If you could Hie to Kolob." So that's the one I'm doing! Oh and here's the EVEN better news: He continued to go through his pile and I noticed he had a violin duet of Lord I would Follow THee. I told him that was one of my favorite hymns and I would love to play it. I was just saying that to say it, not implying anything, but one of the ladies who is in charge of music heard me say it and told me that I needed to set up a time to practice it with that Elder. So we are practicing it on Tuesday and hopefully auditioning for something on Thursday and hopefully playing for something after that. Exciting huh?!

DAISENPAI: My district is officially daisenpai. You know what that means? It means the group of Japanese missionaries ahead of us left on Monday and the group of new missionaries came in on Wednesday and we are the next group to leave to Japan! You know what that really means? It means I get my travel plans on Friday. And it means in a couple weeks I'll be able to call you. And it means in less than 3 weeks I'll be practically on the other side of the world! Yep that's right. We hosted on Wednesday so we could welcome in all the new Nihongo speakers as they walked by. SO MANY new missionaries are going to Kobe! Anyway, I couldn't actually host because I got hit with the cold this week and I completely lost my voice. I was planning on just standing on the sidewalk and waving, but then they made a new rule that we can't wave because it's dangerous for the traffic. So then I just stood there and bowed and every once in a while I would throw out a dying-frog-sounding "Konnichi wa!" Haha even though I couldn't speak it was still fun. Speaking of not speaking, I still did choir on Tuesday because I love choir, even though I had no voice. I could actually sing though if I sang an octave lower. So I did. And even though nobody else heard me, I thought it was hilarious and I was laughing pretty hard. (I know, I said I was maturing and not laughing as much, but I was laughing at that.) Oh speaking of laughing! I've got another story! So one of my roommates was also sick and because she was so congested she started moaning in her sleep. It was like a metronome of moans that went on and on and on. The first night it happened, I just did my best to ignore it and sleep through it. Then the next night she started doing it again! She started off slow, but then the moans started getting louder and louder and more and more frequent. Finally I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep, so I decided to just join in and harmonize. Of course the second I started to harmonize, I started to laugh. I was trying to hold in my laughter because it was really late and I knew everybody would want to sleep. But the more I tried to hold in my laughter, the more I laughed. Then I heard someone else start to laugh, so that made me laugh harder. Then three of us were laughing, and I was about to die I was laughing so hard. Finally, the sister who had been moaning sat up and said "What is so funny? I've been awake this whole time and I never heard anything funny!" We had to explain to her that she in fact had not been awake.

BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS:  My testimony continues to grow stronger and stronger everyday. On Sunday we watched the Joseph Smith movie (in Nihongo) and on Monday morning I read Joseph Smith History and my testimony of the Restoration grew so much stronger. I KNOW Joseph Smith was called of God and that the restoration was part of God's marvelous work.

I am also grateful for our wonderful senseis who help us understand our true purpose as missionaries. On Monday Eddy shimai and I were mogiing. Eddy shimai was playing the role of the missionary and she had a hard time coming up with what to say. One of the senseis came up to her and told her to think about what Christ would teach if He were there. He then went on to talk about how we really are LITERALLY doing what Christ would do if He were on the Earth. I had heard that before, but it had a much bigger impact on me on Monday. I am grateful for the calling to serve the Lord and help others come unto Christ. Miracles happen every day!

I love you all!!

Love,

Crofts shimai

POPS: Did you really crash the boat? Did you have fun driving the boat all day long on your birthday? Did you love the chocolate cake? DId you save a piece for me? Did you get the letter I sent you? I love you!!

MUDGE: Hey there! I still don't know if the acne medication is working. I may or may not have a clearer face. Thanks for your dear elder! Also, I wish you were here to hear me play if you could hie to kolob. I know you love that arrangement. Actually, I wish you were here mainly because I miss you.

JAS AND BECCA: Has school started yet? I'm not telling you my favorite boy names, becuase there aren't very many good ones, and I want them for myself. The sisters in my district talk about what they want to name their kids all the time. However, I'm not sure how I feel about their names: Clarence, Izak, Crew, Jude, and stuff. I forgot the rest. Did you sleep well on the house boat?

PEACH AND JANA: What is up?? I hope you had fun with Momma Wutzke in town!

TYLER: I love you.

SAUD BRAIN: HEY GIRL HEY!!! Did you get my letter?? Thanks so much for your dear elder. I might have teared up when I read it! I love you!

DANNY: Would you rather be as fat as a whale but have a super fun life, or be a normal size but have a boring life?

JOSEPH: I miss you too.

CAR CAR: Thanks for the updates!!!

JOY

Kazoku,

O TANJOUBI OMETOU GOZAIMASU CHI CHI!!!! (Happy Birthday Dad!) Ai shite imasu!!

Thank you for the package!!! It was definitely a huge highlight of my week! In fact, because this week has been much like the previous weeks, for this email, I will just mention a few of the highlights of this week. They may or may not be in any particular order.

JUU: I received your package! Thank you so much! I was so excited about it, I couldn't even wait to get to my classroom to open it. Eddy shimai and I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk so I could see what was inside! It felt like Christmas. I LOVED the pictures! As you know, I really wanted some pictures, so that was wonderful. The mint oreos were a huge hit for my district...they were gone in a wink! I think it's funny because people get packages with food all the time and nobody ever eats it but those oreos were gone!!

KYUU: One day during recess, I played four square. Because of my lack of athletic ability, I struggled hitting the ball in a normal direction. However, that turned out to be an advantage for me. I would get the ball so that it barely landed inside the square and then it would fly in some crazy direction...I got a lot of really good people out! It was a fun recess activity!

HACHI: Speaking of recess, yesterday I was running and after a while I started talking to another girl who was on the track running. I love meeting new missionaries because I feel like no matter who it is and what their life story is, they can be an inspiration to me. Well I found out that most of her family is not LDS and they don't really understand why she is here. It made me so grateful to have all of you as examples and support to me. Now i have a new running buddy :)

NANA: I got to host this week! Yes, I loved it. We stood on the curb and waved at all the cars driving by and then welcomed the new missionaries and tried to make them feel like kings and queens. I got to host two sisters going to St Louis and one going to Brazil. As I talked to them about how great the MTC is, it reminded me how great the MTC really is! Haha seriously I love it here.

ROKU: I said the prayer for choir practice. This definitely wasn't a highlight of my week, but I wanted to included it in this email so I could tell you all that it is extremely difficult to pray in English after having prayed in Japanese for over a month!

GO: We got a new investigator this week! It was different this time because we actually had to start at the very beginning--door contacting. It was actually super fun introduing ourselves at the door, and he let us in! I'm not sure if the lesson went really well...we weren't expecting to go in and teach a lesson, so I was just praying for the Spirit. He said his first prayer and committed to pray about God's love. I'm excited to be teaching new people! Unfortunately, I forgot his name.

YON: Last Saturday, we had some extra time during class, so we practiced door contacting. First, our sensei gave us a few demonstrations of how Japanese people usually reacted when 2 Americans were standing on their doorstep. Apparently they get very shocked and usually they only open their door about 2 inches. Haha it was really funny as he was demonstrating this! Then we got to practice it and it was even funnier doing it ourselves! I loved when one of the sisters in our district opened the door and we told her who we were and she yelled back, "Haha! Senkyoushi desu!" (Mom! It's the missionaries!) The Japanese language just makes me laugh. For you that are wondering, I'm getting so much better at containing my laughter. For example, when people blow their noses in class, my natural instinct would be to laugh because I think it is a rather funny sound. Well, that has been happening a lot lately because the cold is going around our district. BUT I have learned to not laugh at it. Also, one of our favorite Japanese words is hisashiburi. (I= an "ee" sound and r= a sort of almost "d" sound. Sound it out and it's really funny.) Anyway, it means long time no see, so we went in to teach Watabe san and he said that in his prayer. I had a strong desire to laugh. BUT again, I contained myself. Yes, I am maturing.

SAN: Watabe san is a golden investigator. I don't know if he is just going easy on us and being nice or if we are actually teaching effectively, but he accepts and takes in everything we say! He is developing a relationship with Christ by reading the Book of Mormon and repenting. Each lesson, I try more and more to think about my investigator as a person. I try not to worry about the language or what I should teach next, and just focus on how the investigator is feeling. This way, I can teach by the Spirit. It is definitely something that takes practice and patience. I think our lesson with Watabe san was the best we've done so far...it felt really good walking out of that lesson. However, I still feel like I've got a LONG ways to go and I only have 3 weeks left here! Can you believe it??

Eddy shimai learned a lot as we talked to Anderson sensei yesterday during coaching. We expressed concerns that we did not feel like we have been progressing much lately, and we really wanted to know how we could improve our teaching and how we could improve our language study. We talked about how we wanted to use our language more throughout the day so at night during our scheduled language study, we could focus on something other than just reviewing what we had learned. Through talking with Anderson sensei, we came to realize that everything we are doing should be connected to our purpose as missionaries, to bring others to come unto Christ. So as we study language or as we study as a companionship or as we plan, we should be thinking about our investigators and how we can help them. It really changed my mindset when he said that instead of focusing on what I am learning and how I can improve my language and such, I should focus on my investigator, and how my investigator is improving and how I can help my investigator better. That really hit me and changed so much about the way I've been thinking and feeling. I was just somewhat discouraged that I haven't been progressing as much and learning as much as I'd like, but I learned that I need to turn my focus away from myself and toward others. Well, for the last day I have changed the way I do things as a misisonary, and so far, I have felt wonderful! I'm excited to see how next week will be different.

NI: I believe I've mentioned this once or twice before, but I LOVE SUNDAYS HERE!! It's like swimming in the deep end of a spiritual swimming pool! The relief society talk was a highlight of my week for sure. The speaker talked about obedience and faith and hope (typical missionary talk, but so so good). She finished talking about how everything we're doing and all the blessings we're getting from the Lord are so that we can help others. As missionaries, our focus is the same focus the Savior had as he was ministering--it's to help others and to let them feel of the Lord's love. Because I am doing essentially what the Savior did while he was ministering, I want to do all I can to develop Christlike attributes! Sunday night, we watched The Legacy in Japanese. I understood about 4% of it. You should be proud of my accomplishment :).

ICHI: The Tuesday night devotional was incredible. I could probably talk about everything I learned and everything I felt for hours. First off, the choir number was wonderful (Directed by the one and only Elmo Keck.) It was Elders only for a lot of it, and I can't tell you how powerful it was to hear 500 Elders singing out "How great thou art!" Then, we all joined in in unison and sang "When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home, what JOY shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration, and there proclaim, "My God, How GREAT Thou art!"" Seriously, these last 6 weeks I have learned more than ever how great the Lord really is, and it was powerful to sing this praise with 1000 other missionaries. After the choir number, the devotional was just fabulous! It was much like all the other talks we hear (be obedient and diligent and you'll be blessed and strenghtened...the good stuff.) He talked about how we are todays stripling warriors, we are today's hope of Israel, and we are the greatest generation of missionaries. He talked about how we are taking place next to the Savior, and he must be "branded on our hearts." He talked about how we should be preparing every day for that time which will be our finest hour. Which could really be any time. I loved his words at the end: "Without us, Israel doesn't have much hope. CHARGE with all your heart, might, mind and strength." It was a powerful devotional. We closed by singing "Army of Helaman." Imagine 2500 missionaries singing that song. Well I was there, and it was more incredible than you imagined. I actually felt as if thousands of angels were there filling the empty seats in the Marriott center, singing along with us. I know this is the Lord's work and I know He is with us every step of the way.

Well, I feel so much joy here. Thanks for your support and thanks again for the package. I love you so so much!!

Love,

Crofts shimai

Angels Walking Beside Me

Hey! Hey! Hey! It's a beautiful day! And I'm HALFWAY through my em tee shi experience! I can NOT believe how fast time goes here! It's already been a month. That's crazy to me.

 BECCA: THANK YOU for the fabulous package!! Oh my goodness it made me so happy! And the watch is adorable. The sisters in my district go on and on about how much they want to steal it from me! Haha and now "what time is it" doesn't have to be my most used Japanese phrase! So thank you again! I love hearing about the little Jason Jr. moving around in you! I am so stinkin happy for you!

This week was a week of miracles. I'll write about a few of them, and you may read them and think it is nothing special or out of the ordinary, but to me, they were definitely miracles.

     I'll begin with last Saturday. We had our second TRC experience. The first lesson we taught was just to another companionship of Elders who got here the same day we did, so they knew just as much Japanese as we did. It was pretty nice being able to go in there and teach and have us all understand the same things. Except then one of the Elders started reading a bunch of stuff that he had written down and nobody (probably him included) knew what he was saying so we just tried to move on and then he'd read something else off the paper and again, nobody knew what he was saying. Haha it was sort of a funny frustration. Our next lesson, we taught a return missionary. We decided that the best way we could invite the Spirit was by teaching and testifying about Christ, so we shared some verses in Alma 7 and asked how he felt about it and then testified. I had a sort of battle in my head because I thought I would ask him to pray to feel Christ's love, and then I thought I shouldn't ask him to do that because he is a return missionary and I'm sure his relationship with Christ is already fantastic, but then I decided to invite him anyway. When we got out of the lesson, Eddy shimai reminded me that our TRC task of the week was to invite our investigators to receive revelation through prayer. I had completely forgotten we were supposed to do that, but I did it anyway! I definitely feel that I was guided by the Spirit in the lesson. Even though it probably wouldn't have been a big deal if I didn't complete my TRC task, it was a testimony to me that the Lord knows what needs to be accomplished and He's here to help always.

     Sunday: Have I mentioned that I love Sundays at the MTC? Yep, I just love Sundays at the MTC. It's just a whole bucket full of happiness and learning. Sacrament meeting gets better every week because I can understand more and more. However, last week was a little rough. BECAUSE. The musical number was Abide with Me, the same exact arrangement Sarah played for my farewell! I tried my hardest to hold in the tears, but I did not succeed. It was probably the hardest time I've had at the MTC so far. But things got better after sacrament meeting when we went on our temple walk. There is a woman from Japan who loves to wait at the temple on Sundays and talk to the Japanese missionaries. She was SO happy to see us there and for almost an hour she was asking us questions and helping us with our Japanese as we tried to answer them and then she took about 10 pictures with us and she was just so happy and nice! Again, it got me incredibly excited about my mission call.

     Monday: Taylor sensei has been out of town all week, so we have had substitute senseis. On Monday, our sensei was from Tokyo, so he spoke REALLY really good Japanese! He was a fun sensei though because he taught us a lot and he had a lot of fun with throwing out jokes and saying funny stuff in Japanese. He was really excited about the missionary work and about all of us going to Japan and it made me more excited about learning the language. It was mine and Eddy shimai's turn to teach the progressing investigator, so we taught him (playing the role of one of Watabe san's friends.) It was a difficult lesson, but I feel like we learned a lot. He was just talking about how he believes god is in everything, like that a flower can be a god and the trees are all gods. He also said religion was really scary and he didn't want to be killed because of his religion.  It was hard to go to the very basic of what God is and what our gospel is about. The fact that he was super difficult to understand was an obstacle as well. That lesson was probably the most realistic lesson we've had so far though, because afterward, he told us that is what 80% of the Japanese people believe about religion, and our class had a long discussion about how we can reach to the hearts of the people instead of just trying to teach doctrine.

     Tuesday was a very spiritual day! In class, we did more mogi (role play). We were practicing being able to teach with the Spirit and according to the investigator's needs. As Eddy shimai and I were mogiing, it was amazing to me how much the Spirit was guiding what we were saying. It wasn't even a real lesson, we were just acting, but as we invited the Spirit to guide and testify, it did! Another testimony to me that this church is true. I learned and felt a lot during the devotional and before the devional during choir practice and after the devotional during our district testimony meeting. To sum it all up:

     Wednesday: We had another substitute sensei, Reading Sensei. He was HILARIOUS! Haha he told a story about how he bought a new bike in Japan and then one night they were late so they were hurrying back and they passed a drunk man on the sidewalk and then his companion in front of him slammed his brakes and then he crashed into his companion and he was super angry because he had broken his brand new bike. Well, you may not think that was funny, but try hearing that story in Japanese with the person acting everything out with Japanese mannerisms. It was funny. We also taught Shibata san. It was another difficult lesson! We have been trying for many lessons to explain the need for repentance, but he really doesn't understand. He thinks he hasn't done anything wrong so there's no need to repent! Well last lesson I decided to go back to the basics and see what his relationship with Christ was. I tried to help him understand that as he read the Book of Mormon and prayed, he would have a stronger desire to follow Christ. I'm not sure if it sunk in well enough or not.

     Thursday: A big shout out to everyone who sent me a DearElder on Wednesday or Thursday, because Thursday was the record in my district for somebody receiving the most dearelders: 11. Wahoo! And I got Becca's package on Thursday so it was just a real exciting day.

     Friday: The big miracle of the day on Friday was with TALL. TALL is our language computer program thing, kind of like Rosetta stone but based off of the lessons in PMG. Well, I dread going to tall. It is not the most exciting thing in the world, and in fact, a lot of times I can barely keep my eyes open. Well Eddy shimai and I were both taking our time to get to the TALL lab when I thought about how the hour that I would spend in the lab was the Lord's hour, and it was an hour that I should be using to prepare to teach others the gospel and help them come unto Christ. So I prayed for the Lord to help me be excited and to learn a lot, and it was the BEST TALL experience by far! I did some listening exercises and I feel like I understood almost everything the native speaker was saying. Then I studied grammar and it made complete sense to me! I was excited to keep going on and on, but unfortunately dinner time came. Eddy shimai got a real great package yesterday and in it was a mini Japanese hymnbook for me! I LOVE iT! I seriously took it around with me everywhere yesterday, and for each one of our studies I made Eddy shimai sing and opening and closing hymn with me.

Every night after we do planning our district does something called the hot seat, where once person has to sit in front of the room and we all ask questions. I've learned a lot about my district! There is one Elder who reminds me almost exactly of Elder Hoover, one who reminds me so much of Elder Feil it's almost creepy, and there's an elder who is so good at video games he's made $36,000 from it. Crazy!

Dad: Do you just love being so close to work?

Mom: NO BRACES!!?? I can't wait to see a picture of that! Congrats on making it to state! That is quite the accomplishment! Just know I've been here cheering you on! There's a sister in my district who thinks you would get along so well with her mom. She's spunky and fun like you and she plays tennis (4.0). I could get my haircut here...each missionary gets one free haircut! But everybody is telling me that even though I really really want bangs, I wont want them in Japan.

Jason and Becca: Thanks for the dear elders and thanks again for the great package! Everyday I think about the great parents you are going to be. Are you going to name him Afton?

Beej and Jana: Sup Croft. Hope school and work is going well! Enjoy the swimming pool!

Tyler: Sorry to hear you've been sick. I pray for you all the time! I love you!

Sarah: Thanks for the dear elder! I love reading about your life! I'm glad you enjoyed M&S. I have fond memories of all my music camps! Did you just fall in love with your music? If you're wondering, I'm on team J Pie. I guess baby linky is alright too though if that's who you decided to be with. The elders really want to see a picture of you. You should send one.

Danny: thanks for eating all the pretzel M&Ms. Would you rather live in a land where everybody spoke a different language, and they talked all the time, or in a land where everybody spoke the same language, but they could only say 5 words a day?

Joseph: How's school? Did you get the letter I sent you? Could you read it? Did you notice that I just guessed your address and I got it right? I haven't even lived on that street since 5th grade!

Carl: Thanks again for sending me all the updates and the scriptures and stuff! I very much enjoy it! In answer to the one question of yours that I actually understood, yes, I do like my sensei. But I'm not crazy in love with him like a couple of the other sisters are.

Thanks for all your support! I just love you! The church is truer than true!

Love,

Crofts shimai