Saturday, May 25, 2013
McKenna's letter home~posted by Britt
Our investigator is progressing well!
Kubo San plays the part of a"58 year old Japanese male" who wants to
know more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but he is
actually a recently returned Japanese missionary who works here at the Missionary
Training Center(MTC). I love working with him! Lewis Shimai (Sister
Lewis) and I taught him a lesson about resurrection the other day. We used
my glove and explained that our hand was like our spirit and the glove represented
our body and that when our bodies and spirit reunite after we die
it's called the resurrection. We had the surprise of the week when
we finished teaching “Kubo San” for the last time. He is now our
teacher! His real name is Sheehan Kyodai (Brother Sheehan). I love
him!
Sundays are awesome here! We have
devotional speakers, Relief Society with all of the shimai (sisters)
in the MTC, and we get to watch talks given by apostles when they
gave previous devotionals at the MTC. It's incredible!
Mom, the mini Preach My Gospel you forced me to
take with me has been a lifesaver! We were given so many books on our
arrival that it's nice to have a condensed version. When we have gym time
my Doryo (companion) and I go use the exercise bikes. They have several
TVs down there all playing Mormon Messages, which is fun. It's the only
time I can say I've cried while working out. J Anyway, I was watching one and guess who
popped up!? Marcus and Kelly! It was so funny! I freaked out,
showed all my companions, and laughed when the shot of Paul, Panda, and company
walking down the church hallway appeared. The best part was that the
video shows pictures of Lake Chelan, so I was able to show Lewis Shimai where I
live!
Mom, could you send me a mini Hymn book in
Japanese. I'm learning the characters and it seems to help me learn them
better. The MTC doesn't sell them and I figured it would be easier to get
from you while I'm still in the states. I am LOVING it here! It's
hilarious, exhausting, extremely difficult (Japanese is hard!), but so
rewarding! The days seem really long when you wake up at 6 and go to bed
at 10:30 so Lewis Shimai and I are really doing a great job of breaking up the
day with a little fun! Our latest embarrassing moment consisted of me
stalking the new Nihonji (Native Japanese Sisters) in the bathroom. I'll
explain... Since day one in the MTC we've known that native Japanese speakers
come with every transfer of new MTC missionaries to Japan. They come for
two weeks to learn how to share the gospel and then fly out with everyone who
is leaving. Well, Lewis Shimai and I were walking back into the classroom and
we saw a group of Nihongi Shimai (native Japanese sister missionaries) walking
into the bathroom across the hallway. I did what anyone else in their right
mind would do... I pretended to wash my
hands so I could practice my Japanese to sisters who actually know how to speak
it! It's was really funny. I got “How are you?”, “What is your
name?”, and “Which mission are you going to?” out, before I blurted out "I
love you (ai shite imas)". J I don't think I freaked out the poor
Japanese Shimai too much :). She still
waves to me in the cafeteria so I think we're on speaking terms... or we would
be if I could understand her. J It made me so excited to go to
Japan! I love the people there already!
You asked what my average day looks like at the
MTC so here it goes: We wake up at 6:00 and get ready for the day.
We're out of our room by 6:45 to eat breakfast in the cafeteria. It's
always packed! There are so many new missionaries! This Wednesday
was especially bad, with all the new arrivals. (When you arrive
here you get your nametag and a "dork" dot, a little orange
dot they stick on your tag that basically says "Help, I'm new!”), after
breakfast we have personal study for an hour. I review the lessons I'm
going to teach and try to figure out the simplest way to deliver them so I can
say it in Japanese! I've been studying the Japanese Bible and Book of
Mormon too! Every once and a while I get really adventurous and try to
read a verse in my Japanese Bible or Book of Mormon filled with Japanese
characters (no letters J), After Personal Study we go to the Classroom for three hours until
11:05. It's a time packed with grammar, new words, gospel discussions,
etc. Typically it's all in Japanese! I've gotten really good at
piecing things together and using hand signals. I'm sure it's funny to
watch. J Then we have lunch, we go to they gym, shower, and have Preach
My Gospel study. Lewis Shimai and I use this as companion study time.
After that we have “T.A.L.L.”, it stands for Technology Assisted Language
Learning. It's rough! You listen to native Japanese speakers say
words and phrases. If you thought you understood what you were saying,
your hopes are crushed at this point. The Japanese speak so fast!
Then it's dinner, classroom time for 3 more hours, an hour of language study,
half an hour to plan the next day and then you're running home, getting ready
for bed and sleeping! I kind of feel like an old woman eating dinner at 4:00
PM, but besides that our days are great!
Please give Jenny and Cindy my
condolences. I love Jim! It's so sad that he is gone
now.
So the pictures I'll attach are probably
semi-weird... Lewis Shimai and I have a picture a day goal and there are only so
many pictures you can take on the MTC campus. You quickly run out of new
ideas!
Love you all! Have a great week!
Hawkins Shimai
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| Getting ready to ride a bike everyday! |
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| My District attends the Provo temple. |
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| Things are good! :) |
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| Sister Lewis and I on the beautiful grounds of the MTC. |
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| A goal to take a picture a day is getting tricky at the MTC... I have a suggestion for the suggestion box "Our classroom is too cold, please turn up the heat ! :) |
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| T.A.L.L. (Technology Assisted Language Learning)~ The Japanese speak so fast! |
