Konnichiwa!Good news! My Japanese is getting a lot better. I can now form simple phrases off the top of my head. Slightly less good news? We are starting to look at Japanese grammar which is really hard. In English, we construct our sentences Subject, Verb, Object but in Japanese it goes Subject, Object, Verb. So instead of "I am a missionary" it becomes "I missionary am." You can imagine how complicated longer sentences get. It sounds a little Yoda-like. It's all good though, because we practice all the time.
This week was honestly just full of good news, so it was a great week!
On P-Day (our personal day on Wednesday), my district was able to go to the temple and it was so amazing. It was the first time I felt calm all week. The MTC is stressful because you are constantly learning, preparing lessons, getting ready for the next activity, and you always try to be on time. The temple was so calm because we had tons of time to enjoy the peace it brings and I was able to feel the Spirit help to calm me down from the hectic week.
The next day we had Companion Exchanges. For those of you who don't know, missionaries have a companion that they are with 24/7, mine is Hill Shimai. On a companion exchange, you switch companions for a day. Usually companion exchanges only happen in the field, not in the MTC, but the MTC likes to use my district as Guinea pigs, so we tried out having companion exchanges. My new companion for the day was Jones Shimai, one of our Senpai (she's in the older district). The companion exchange caused me a lot of stress initially because I would be teaching both of Jones Shimai's investigators and she knows Japanese a lot better than me since she's been at the MTC 6 more weeks than me. However, when we actually did the exchanges, it was the best. It was really nice to see how someone with more experience than me prepares for lessons and teaches. It gave Hill Shimai and I a lot of good ideas on how to improve our own lessons. Overall, it was a great learning experience, and I hope that other districts get to try it out too.
As I mentioned before, my district is the MTC's Guinea pig. My mission is an iPad mission, so when we get to Japan we each get an iPad that we can use to help teach lessons. Well, apparently the MTC is trying out something new-ish where they give us iPads to use in the MTC. I'm so excited because this week we got our iPads!!! At first it was kind of weird to use an electronic device again, but it's so much fun. The Church has so many great resources for us on the iPads and I am super excited to start teaching with it.
Along with new iPads we have a new teacher. Remember Kuwahara-San who was our investigator that we were teaching? Well, she's actually Lewis Shimai and she is our new teacher. She is so sweet and helps us a lot with both the spiritual side of missionary work and the Japanese. Because she is now our teacher and not our investigator, we have 2 new investigators. We will start teaching them later this week, so I'll let you know how that goes.
The last good thing is also kind of bad. Because our Senpai leave in a week, they were all released from their assignments and my district was given assignments. On June 22nd, we are supposed to be getting 2 new districts, so we were all given roles to help lead them and make the MTC run smoothly. Hill Shimai and I are the music coordinators, which is perfect for me, but Hill Shimai thinks it's hilarious since she thinks she has no musical talent whatsoever. I beg to differ, since she sits next to me in choir and she can sing really well. Anyways, I wasn't too surprised by the calling since I played the piano last Sunday. So don't worry mom! I'm still using my piano skills here! I have yet to have a calling that does not involve the piano.
Now for my final thoughts. On Sunday, Brother Lusvardi (Director of Public Programs for the Missionary Department) talked to us. One thing that really stood out to me from his talk was that he said "the best time to recover from a bad time is right after." I have definitely felt this in my life here at the MTC. The first few days were rough, but I tried to make an immediate course correction and as a restful, this week has been much more successful. I adjusted my mindset to be more positive and focused on my own growth and within the past 7 days I have seen my language abilities skyrocket. It's amazing to me that I've only been here 2 weeks, and yet I know so much Japanese already. When I came in, I had the mindset that I would be fluent in Japanese right away. I forgot that it took me 6 years of Spanish to become decently good at that. 2 weeks in, and I'm already amazed.
I read once that some officials from the U.S. Government once came to the MTC to try and figure out how missionaries learn languages so fast. They tried to implement the same practices with their people, but the results weren't the same. Why? Because as missionaries we understand how important the Spirit is and we rely wholly on the Spirit to help us in everything we do.
Thank you so much for all of you emails! They really brighten my day. Also, now that I have an iPad, feel free to email me whenever you want. I can read emails whenever I have extra time throughout the week, but I can only respond on my P-day. I would love to hear from all of you!
Thanks!
Sister Black
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