Am I Nihongen?

Konnichiwa!

This week has been so crazy, I don't even think I can remember it all for you guys.

I guess I'll start with my district. We've been together for 3 weeks now and we have gotten so close. We tell stories all the time and the Elders like to tell a lot of jokes, especially Paskett Choro. Stratford Sensei (one of our teachers) had Paskett Choro teach us one of the verb forms this week while Stratford Sensei pretended to be a student and it was so funny. They both played their roles so perfectly. Paskett Choro had us repeat things over and over and he would pretend to not see Stratford Sensei's raised hand. We were all dying laughing. Stratford Sensei is one of my favorite teachers because he tells us stories about his mission all the time. Sadly, he is leaving the MTC next week, so I'll have to take advantage of the last few classes I have with him.

Another thing is that today my zone is going to grow tremendously. A zone is made of districts, each of which has about 10 missionaries all serving in the same area. My district has 8 missionaries going to Tokyo and 2 going to Sendai. Today, 700 missionaries are coming in and 28 of those missionaries are joining my zone. That's 3 whole districts! There are 8 sisters and 20 elders coming in, mostly from America, but 1 is from Australia and 2 from Brazil. We are so excited for them! We finally get to be Senpai! Four of the sisters are moving into Hill Shimai and I's room so this week we've been moving and cleaning. I was taking up 3 closets and I had to move everything into 1, but it all works! I can't wait to meet them!

Speaking of Senpai, our Senpai (the district that was 6 weeks older than us) left for the mission field on Monday morning. It was both sad and happy to see them go. We will miss them, but at the same time, they are finally starting the real work and that is so exciting.

In addition to the 700 new missionaries coming today, 171 new mission presidents are coming for the New Mission President Seminar. This also means that almost all of the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency of the church will be here. They've been turning the cafeteria into a stage area all week (which made meals a little chaotic) and starting today, the main building with the cafeteria and administrative areas is blocked off to missionaries. With all of that happening, I'm sure today will be quite crazy, but it's all good. It'll be so cool to have all those mission presidents and the leaders of our church all together in the same area that I am. While we aren't allowed to approach any of the Apostles or the Prophet, we can wave and smile, and I am sure that we will be able to feel their Spirit.

With all the new missionaries coming in, Barton Shimai (one of our Sister Training Leaders) is trying to get Atkinson Shimai to stop scaring the rest of us. Atkinson Shimai has a tendency to hide and try to scare the rest of us. This week, she hid behind my room door while I was taking a shower. I came back into the room and was just about to ask my companion what food she was eating when Atkinson Shimai scared me so badly that I screamed loud enough for people in the bathroom to hear. Erickson Shimai came in and asked if we were all okay! I'm amazed I didn't fall down or drop anything or have a heart attack. One of these days I'll get her back, as for now I am safe because Atkinson Shimai promised not to scare anyone when the Kohai (the new missionaries) get here.

Japanese is getting a lot better. I am constantly surprising myself with how much I know. This week we were getting a little bored while studying so some of us in the district started playing friendly, competitive Hiragana and Katakana games (Hiragana and Katakana are 2 of the Japanese alphabets). We played matching games and had competitions to see who could write the character fastest and it was so much fun. I can now read the majority of the hymns in Japanese so I think that means the studying is working. My companion and I are also trying to teach our lessons by preparing the sentences we want to say in English and creating a word bank of Japanese words we don't know, but want to use. In the lessons we then create the sentences on the spot instead of reading from a script. It makes it a lot easier to go off script and we are able to feel the Spirit more. It's helped my speaking improve so much too.

Now to explain my title. Since I arrived at the MTC, I have had 3 teachers who served in Japan ask me if I am Nihongen (Japanese). Then yesterday Budge Sensei told us how he always had half-Asian companions so the Japanese would talk to them not him, and one of those half-Asian companions was Thai. Therefore, I am scared that the Japanese people will either think I am Japanese, and expect me to speak really good Japanese, or automatically talk to me just because I look part Asian. I guess that just means I need to work harder over the next few weeks. Good news though (I guess it's not quite good), when I tell them that I'm not Japanese they try to guess something else like Chinese and I get to be like "Nope, I'm Thai" and they always think that's so cool.

If you made it past all that, I want to share two little spiritual thoughts.

Sister Black in her natural habitat, teaching the rest of the district.

First, my companion and I were really struggling with what to teach one of our investigators and so we decided that we just wanted her to feel the Spirit so we wanted to show a video. We ended up showing her my favorite video "Because of Him." Please watch it! The message is great, but the music makes it perfect. It makes me feel the Spirit every time I watch it because it explains the Atonement so well and it really makes me feel the Savior's love for each of us. As I watched our investigator watch the video, I felt so much love for her and a desire for her to learn more and accept the gospel. I've watched this video every day this week and it has brought me so much joy. I love the simplicity of the message, but at the same time it is so powerful.

Second, our speaker yesterday was Elder Neilson of the Quorum of the Seventy and he said something that hit me so hard: "Your success [as a missionary] isn't just measured in the 18 or 24 months you serve. It extends past that." He was talking to us about what success for a missionary is. Success isn't baptisms, it is the commitment to invite others to Christ. Hopefully I will be able to send you a video of me saying the Missionary Purpose in Japanese and English, however here it is in writing: My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The focus is on the invitation to others. I hope that throughout my mission I will be able to invite and help others to receive the gospel. Even if they aren't converted by me, they will have seeds planted that may help them later on in life. There is so much that can happen outside of the short 18 months I will be serving.

I just want to leave you all with one last quote that I heard this week: "You don't have to be perfect. You just have to be perfect in trying." We all make mistakes, but if we are constantly trying, we will be rewarded. I don't have to speak perfect Japanese, but if I try every day to learn more I will improve. I don't have to baptize a million people, but I can still try and invite others to Christ.

This has been a really fun and spiritual week and I can't wait for 6 more weeks here. Talk to you all in a week when I've gotten to know 28 new missionaries!

Arigatou gozaimasu!

Sister Black

We decorated our Kohai's door just like our doors were decorated. 

I folded that Salt Lake Temple using the Mormon Origami book we got from Deseret Book. 

Doesn't it look real? It only took me 3 tries this morning :)