Konnichiwa Kazoku!
My desk is the one in the corner. No really. :)
Watashi wa genki
desu! My title says, "Mom has questions? I have answers." Yeah. Pretty
clever if I do say so myself. Okay. Here are my answers.
Tomorrow
we get our travel plans. I am way super excited. Here at the MTC,
people get really into it and make it a big deal and like they all get
together as a district and then look at their plans together. Yeah not
happening. I'm pretty sure as soon as I get mine I'm looking at it
regardless if everyone else has. That is my future we are talking about!
Yeah, so anyway. Once we see the yellow papers in the mailbox, we will
have our travel plans. I'm just excited to see which part of my mission I
get sent to but I won't know that until I get there.. bummer. Oh well,
patience patience patience :)
The purple skirt
you sent me is...unique. I wore it once. I'm not sure how to wear a
color like that, so hopefully I'll be able to figure it out. Thank you
for looking for other colors though! If you never get them it's fine.
I'm sure if I get desperate I can find something in Japan.
So for breakfast, they do have hot meals,
but we have gym in the morning and so we don't have time to get showered
and ready and get to breakfast on time. To be in the cafeteria you have
to be dressed up, so we usually just get a sack breakfast. I always get
the same thing. Frosted Flakes and a bottle of Fat Free milk. Yep.
Super exciting. Actually, on St. Patrick's day I got Marshmallow Mateys
because... yeah they were the closest thing to Lucky Charms.
The
Nihonjin missionaries are going to a lot of different places. We
actually just got new Nihonjin yesterday and they are sweeter than even
the last group! I'm just so so excited to go to Japan. Honestly, I only
use like 10% of my day speaking Japanese. It's really hard to
speak here because not everyone is learning Japanese. It is fun to speak
with the Nihonjin though. And all of our lessons we plan and speak in
Japanese. We actually got to do Skype TRC last night and we asked this
man to share an experience, and he talked for like 10 minutes straight
and after we were done, Lowe Shimai and I looked at each other and were
like, "I only understood like 1% of what he said...." Bahahahahahahaha.
What a great adventure :)
So
yesterday, I wasn't sure what to study, and I had been studying
language for so long that I needed a break for a bit. So I was flipping
through the chapters of Preach my Gospel and I decided to work on an attribute of Christ. Of course, I picked patience because that isn't my
strongest suit. I was feeling kind of impatient and decided that would
be a good place to start. I read all of the scriptures and I felt peace
and more ready and willing to be patient. And then later that day I
received a letter from Sister Niederhauser and she had a quote about
patience that she shared with me, and it just really felt like that is
what the Lord wanted me to learn that day was how to be patient and how
to work on that. Having Christ-like attributes are against our nature.
We want to be selfish and inward, and I pray every day for extra help to
cultivate those attributes within myself. I actually think everyone
should read that chapter in Preach My Gospel, no matter if you are on a
mission or not. I think it is important to daily become more like
Christ and to look to be as He was.
I did get the prop kit and was a little confused, but, I'll try it out later today and see how it is :) I really want
a coloring book for General Conference. I actually think being away
from Conference with you is harder than missing Christmas!! I'm just so
excited for it and I hope you all pay attention and listen and think of a
question in the next few weeks that you can think about as you watch
Conference. I think Spongebob or Sesame Street or Arthur or something
like that would be dandy :) If you can. Also, maybe a box of crayons?
Lauren
and Jake, thank you so much for helping with my mission. You don't
understand how much I appreciate you giving up your money for me to
serve this mission. Every day I am more and more grateful for the flat
rate the church has set up. If I were to live in Japan on my own terms
it would be much more expensive than they are having me to pay. Thank
you. Thank you Mom and Dad for helping me so much. I know the Lord has a
hand in the finances regarding missionaries.
Well
I finally did choir this last week. It was fun, but I'm just not a
choral person. I'd rather do the dishes and sing along to a song than be
told when to breathe and when not to. However, it was fun. I'm glad I
experienced it at least once. I'm pretty sure everyone wants to go again
this next week though and I guess that's alrighty.
Oh,
so last Thursday we were just sitting there in our residence, and I
finally got myself to move and started to water-proof my shoes. And then
after that I wanted to just wash my hair. So, being the clever fox that
I am. I decided to try out my rain boots! Bahahahah. As soon as I had
the idea it just got more and more brilliant! So I put them on, and just
tried them out. It was pretty great. I was pretty proud of myself. Then
of course I had to take a picture, so I was in the shower with my
camera, fully clothed and everything, laughing and everyone was
confused, but I wasn't. I thought it was brilliant.
We
are coming down to the very last days here! I can't believe it! It
really is so crazy to me how fast everything has gone. Yet, how
sluggishly slow. It's like the hourglass that Slughorn has on his desk.
You can tangibly feel the slow and dull moments and you can also feel
the fast fun and enjoyable moments, and together they make up one big
hourglass that, even though it's slow, it goes by. I woke up about two
days ago and said, "Okay, two days and I can email my family." And looka
here. I'm writing!
I feel really bad when I get on to email. This is the story of my life here at the MTC:
The
night previous to P-Day I anxiously lie awake in my bed, unable to
control my excitement over the idea of emailing and sending pictures. I
quickly calculate my week, going over every small detail I'd like to
address, and I finally, restlessly fall asleep. To my displeasure the
next day, I wake up and find that I can't think of anything in
particular to write about, so I hope you liked my email anyways, because
it was full of nonsense :)
I
love you all and pray for you always! I hope you're all doing well.
Mom, hang in there. I love you!
Ai shite imasu!
Raines Shimai
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