- Friday, December 12, 2014

MTC - Thanksgiving and Sayounara

This week has been a little crazy! We're all getting ready for departure! First things first, on Friday we got our travel plans!!! I depart 8:30AM, Dec 1 from the airport, direct flight to Narita, connector flight to Osaka, and then arrive 8:30PM Dec 2 Japan time! Super psyched! (I'll probably be able to call you around 5-7 AM ish in the airport, so BE READY. :))
It's crazy, holding those flight plans made everything feel so real. I've started packing my things, but I don't actually have too much that I don't use to pack. It turns out I brought way less clothes than all of the other sisters though, because they had a bunch they were able to put away, even before laundry day (That's what's holding me back, since I literally only have a week's worth of clothes) It turns out that stopping by Mikarose on the way to the MTC was a blessing in disguise, because otherwise I would NOT HAVE HAD a clean skirt to wear some days. (For example, today.)
We finally got Taylor Kyoudai to tell us things about his life, so that's an actual accomplishment. Serious effort was exerted on our part, and now we know like 2 things about him and his girlfriend. I feel proud of this.
I spent all weekend memorizing the first vision, and now I have it down pat! It's a nice thing to have memorized, the spirit can really speak through you when you share it.
Monday was the last day we saw Panganiban! (All the teachers are spotty in attendance this week because of Thanksgiving) Super sad, but it was the best last lesson we could have had. He gave us a bunch of advice for our mission (and really our life) and then he handed out letters that he had written specifically for each of us. The whole district didn't want to leave - we were 40 minutes late to dinner because we couldn't bear to say goodbye.
We did something a little new this week - we took all of our MTC experience and they let us have two 40 minute coaching sessions with some newer missionaries. I was pretty nervous at first - I don't feel that experienced myself, but I feel like we were really able to connect and help those Sisters learn more about how to plan for their investigators. Our second coaching session was a little harder - we were helping with companion study, but we got two elders on splits because both of their doryo's were sick. So they had very different problems and needs that we were trying to help with and address at the same time. I hope we were able to help them at all.
Tuesday Devo was...
Wait for it...
DALLIN H. OAKS!
Our first apostle! He gave an amazing talk, and I learned a lot about how to improve myself from it.
And then Wednesday was crazy! We got to class, but Thanksgiving weekend is throwing everything off, and for one block our teachers didn't show up at all! We like awkwardly walked into one of the other district's rooms and asked if they knew anything about it. Of course they (Brother Hanson, really) didn't, and he was frantically trying to figure things out. It was kind of funny really. He was checking a whole bunch of rooms, and we weren't sure if we were coaching, but we couldn't even find the classroom of the people we were supposed to be coaching, so half of the district just wanted to head to the room that we did coaching in before, but really we had no idea. But they found a teacher for us after a while, and it was a really good lesson, so all's well that ends well.
AND THEN TODAY IS THANKSGIVING.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
We had to wake up early to get our laundry done in time, but it's been so worth it.
ELDER BEDNAR CAME.
We couldn't even believe our luck. Almost every other taped devo we watch is Bednar. I swear he is the apostle that speaks the most (and gives the most amazing advice) about missionary work. I mean, just look at last general conference. And we got to see him in person!
It was way amazing - Instead of giving a talk, him and his wife passed out cell phones, and let us text questions to him for him and his wife to answer. I TEXTED A QUESTION TO AN APOSTLE. Best feeling ever. He didn't directly respond to my question, but I found an answer through the spirit, which is what matters. He gave us some incredible insight on Agency and the prophet Joseph Smith. He actually brought a copy of the manuscript of the Book of Mormon and showed it to us! Basically, it was just the best. I wish it could have been like 5 hours longer.
Then we had Thanksgiving lunch. Pretty standard - turkey, mashed potatoes, ect. I didn't actually get any pie, but whatever.
Then we have a service project later (for a food-bank or something), a thanksgiving program, and we're watching Meet the Mormons. Pretty great day!
Williamson Shimai
 
Also, after spying on my Doryo, I have a few things to add to this week that I remember.
Saturday, we went on a FIELD TRIP! Really, we just had a lot of energy so Crandall Kyodai had us walk around the MTC a bit, while he like pointed at trees and had us say them in Japanese.
We had our last TRC! We talked to this older Japanese lady (Shimada Shimai I think), and she shared some super great spiritual thoughts with us.
In a lesson with Mubou (They're way too fun) we decided to sing a hymn with him, and while we were humming him the tune he started beatboxing to it. Yeeeah. Awesome!
And then Taylor Kyoudai walked in randomly to watch and Mubou looked at us wide-eyed like "Who is this person and why is he in my house?" It was so funny.

Me and my doryo!
With Elder Neilsen
Pictures of us and Panganiban
Us and our investigator Mubau-san

My District
 

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