It's hard, but worth it!

The week before last was my hardest yet.  There is no way you can have a perfect nine weeks of training when you're learning Japanese and it's million alphabets.  It can be rough.  But Lewis Shimai (Sister Lewis) and I blow off steam by laughing.  So there was lots of that.  I think we freaked our district (group of 6 Sisters and 6 Elders all going to Japan at the same time) out a little bit, but we had hit a brick wall hard multiple times.  It is so frustrating not being able to express yourself!  But we put on our "big girl missionary skirts" and sucked it up and boy have I had the best week yet!  I'll fill you in...

I was sitting in the choir at the top of the Marriott Center during the television broadcast, so you couldn't see me when they took all the video shots.  I was however on TV at 1 hour and 53 minutes and 19 seconds.  (we watched that part of the broadcast again).  There is no way to actually spot me because of the 4,000 of missionaries in the choir, but I was in there!  :)  The broadcast was so cool!  The highlight of my MTC experience!  To listen to all those messages was incredible plus every single member of the twelve that was there at one point in time and turned around and waved or gave us the thumbs up signal.  Loved it!  It made me so excited to leave for Japan!  I'll be there in about two weeks.  I cannot contain my excitement.  I dream about it!  Right before a new batch of missionaries leaves for Japan, the native Japanese missionaries meet us here at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo.  Anytime I can speak with a native Japanese missionary I go for it.  I'm sure Lewis Shimai is rolling her eyes every time I conveniently "bump" into them.  But who can blame me?  They are so cute!  And they speak like angels.  I am determined to master this language so I can speak like they do!   After two weeks of their own training they fly out with us.  I believe the Nihongin (native Japanese) get here Tuesday!  I am so excited!  I'm going to try to not to embarrass myself this time.   

I checked my other emails and Kaitlyn Nally is serving in Colville WA!  Marcus sent me a beautiful picture of Tahiti!  So jealous!  

Lewis Shimai's brother works at the MTC.  He teaches the English missionaries and the other day we ran into him.  I feel like I know her entire family, so it was fun to meet him.  As companions we are basically the exact same.  Yes Mom, we both had the exact same skirt.

One of the mom's of someone in our district sent us a care package and one of the treats was fortune cookies.  I opened mine up on a tough day and guess what it said... "Water not only can keep a ship afloat but also can sink it."  WHAT ON EARTH DOES THAT MEAN?  I got a good laugh at how bad my luck was and then figured I better stick to the fortunes on the inside of Dove chocolate wrappers. 

So after our singing in the broadcast Lewis Shimai and I gracefully bowed out of choir. I am horrible at singing and I'm OK with that.  Well at the next choir practice (that we did not attend)  our district decided that we should sing in sacrament meeting as a group!  So I started practicing my lip syncing again, but i think it might be more obvious when there is only 12 of us and not thousands like at the broadcast. 

Oh, Shayla White!  Guess what :)  I played soccer for the first time in ages and you would be so proud!  We had an all girls zone soccer game and my team lost by a lot but it was so fun!  I can't really play (which I'm sure you know) but boy did I keep the positive trash talk in high supply!  :)  So much fun and a great way to start out our morning!

We have so many incredible people come speak at the MTC.  That has been one of the greatest blessings.  Because we are here for so long we get the opportunity to hear from tons of wonderful, spiritual speakers.  This week was Sister Janice Kapp Perry.  She's written tons of songs for the church, including some of my favorites in the primary hymn book.  I loved it!  So much fun to listen to! 

So as I said last week was very hard.  And every week we write our Branch President and give him a summary of our week.  Lewis Shimai and I both must have mentioned that we were struggling so that Sunday he called us both in to talk to him.  Well, I'm not negative and I just had a string of bad days and by the time he talked with us we were back to normal.  I don't know what we said in the interview but Butler Kiacho (President spelled horribly wrong)  said it was the best interview he had been in as a District President.  He said our enthusiasm was contagious.  I'm pretty sure that we were just exhausted and willing to laugh at anything at that point, but none the less it was nice to chat!

I got a super thoughtful package from Kara this week!  Thanks Kara :)  I'll attach pictures and a snail mail thank you is headed your way!

Yummy Apple Pie!  Thanks Kara!

We had a couple great lessons this week!  Wantabe San is progressing well and so is Nagashimada San.  I'll have to tell you quickly about Nagashimada San.  She is twenty four and has a two year old daughter.  She's been married for a couple years and she is so kind.  We taught her about baptism (this is our millionth lesson with her)  and she agreed to be baptised!  I wasn't expecting that, so I think my genuine shock was evident.  I was so happy for her!  The second best part was I had just learned the phrase for "May I give you a hug?"  and boy did I go in for the kill!  She was going to get a hug whether she wanted one or not!  It was a wonderful happy day!

Flag duty!

Oh we got to put up flags again this week!  I've been working out with the sisters in our district and wow!  I am sore!  We have a Sister Lane in our district and she is probably the cutest thing to walk the planet.  She reminds me of Aunt Sara.  Anyway, she has ab workouts like you've never seen before!  I have a hard time breathing because I'm so sore, but i love it! 

In honor of Canada Day!

Another sister in our district, Nigh Shimai is from Canada (PS. Canada day is on Monday so we all had to take a picture with the Canadian flag too).  The mission presidents finally left so we've been able to return to our normal schedule.  They are only here for four days.  I don't know how they do it!  There is so much to learn!  They are the couples that are in charge of all of us missionaries in each of the 508 missions around the world!  Roughly 200 missionaries in each mission.  No pressure! 

Well this week has been wonderful!  Not easy but doable :)  I LOVE being a missionary!  Thanks for your prayers and your love.  Teaching others about God really allows you to evaluate everything you know, learn more and learn so much from the people you teach.  I love teaching people how to pray because in between my mangled Japanese sentences is the spirit.  Heavenly Father is there and He is listening.  Prayer is the greatest blessing to me!  Especially this last week!  This work begins on your knees and I've spent a lot of time praying.  I love you family and friends!  I hope you have a wonderful week!  

I love you!
Ai Shite Imasu! 

Hawkins Shimai

MTC end of week 6

Are those chopsticks she is holding?

I got to see Kaitlyn Nally (blue and white striped shirt).  My good friend from Freshman Year at BYU.  Kaitlyn is serving in the Spokane Washington Mission.

Last week I sent you a picture of Lewis Shimai (Sister Lewis) and my matching outfits... bad idea.  We will never do that again!  Completely embarrassing.  I couldn't make myself stand next to her in line at the cafeteria because we got so many comments.  Everyone liked it, but it reminded me of Easter Sundays, Mom, when you would dress all five of us girls in matching dresses. (Note from Editor-Britt, aka "mom"- For the record....only 4 matching dresses, because Hannah wasn't born yet, and that practice was stopped when McKenna was 6 or 7 : ) ) That was a traumatic childhood experience and I think I might not have gotten over it.  Well, at least it provided a good picture of the day. :)

Whenever I can I study outside.  Our classroom is the size of a shoebox, because there are so many of us here!  This place is crawling with people, so any available space is used up.  Whenever we're outside we overhear the funniest conversations.  There's an "overheard at BYU" Facebook page and i think an "overheard at the MTC (Missionary Training Center)" page would be hilarious.  I have never heard so many Bible references in my life dropped into a "normal" conversation, ha ha.  I love missionaries!

Michelle, Shayla, Kaitlyn and I have a "sisterhood of the traveling scarf" that we've been sending around.  I love it!  Everyone of us is either serving a mission (Honduras, Spokane, or Japan) or is about to (yay for Cali :)  So it's fun to send it around to everyone and get their letters.  Kaitlyn passed it off to me while she was briefly in the MTC.  She is already gone!  And Shayla, I just mailed it to you so it should be there soon!  Sadly the scarf didn't bring me as much luck as I'd hoped.  I mixed up my words (surprise!) and accidentally said that through the Book of Mormon we can feel the Bible (instead of the spirit).  Best part was I said it to a native Japanese speaker who is a professor at UVU (Utah Valley University).  I think she lost all hope in my ability to speak the language at that point!  

McKenna with the "traveling scarf":)

We received a "small" batch of new comers this week.  Lewis Shimai and I "hosted".  It was so much fun, but it was crazy busy!  There were about 1,000 newbies and as hosts you get their luggage and welcome the family then you take the new missionary to their residence and classroom.  It was so fun taking a break and getting to know some of those new missionaries.  I remember how nervous i was, but it took- I don't know- about 20 minutes for me to warm up and then I fell in love with the MTC!  It is phenomenal!  Hopefully my enthusiasm rubbed off on some of my host"ees".  In the middle of all that craziness, I ran into Kara Liston's friend Lindsay G. and our cousin Kourtnee!  They both are doing great.  They are such fun girls.

Sister Lewis and McKenna as Hosts...greeting the new missionaries!

Oh Mom!  Could you send me a picture of our family?  When I teach about eternal families I would love to be able to show a picture of our own family.  This Sunday (June 23rd) is the Leadership training that will be broadcast on the internet.  Look for me in the choir!  I will be the one who is mouthing the words :)  Lewis Shimai and I have been practicing our "singing faces".  We really want to get on camera and neither of us can actually sing.  How did we get into the choir?  No idea.  But it makes for great fun.  

Singing faces :)

Our district (12 of us....3 sets of Sister Missionaries and 3 sets of Elder Missionaries) is really close.  I've made lifelong friends with everyone in there.  We're so close that we share everything.  Including germs!  I am OCD about washing my hands, but it didn't save me from succumbing to sickness.  I now have my own personal Kleenex box and trash can.  I'm chugging vitamin c left and right.  

My District

So we had a substitute teacher this week and we loved him!  Hugo Sensi (Teacher Hugo) was great.  That also meant we got a new investigator which was exciting!  I have continued to have problems with Japanese words that are very similar to other words.  I wanted to share a story with Hugo Sensi.  Shouldn't be too complicated right?  Wrong.  Instead of saying.. "I want to share an experience with you", I said.."May I share a marriage with you?"  He gave me this look that said "I don't understand what you're saying, so I continued to say it four more times.  Then I must have corrected myself, because he agreed and we went on.  Lewis Shimai and I were talking about it a couple hours later and I realized that I didn't say "keiken", I said "keikon".  Oops!  Well, I bet it isn't everyday someone proposes marriage at the MTC.  I am having a difficult time with all the in's and out's of the language and the longer I am in the MTC the more demanding the language skills are becoming.  I will continue working hard and studying knowing that it may take quite some time to "click" for me.  It is just plain hard! 

So mom I had the opportunity to talk to missionaries that have served in Fukuoka and here is what they said...

They have deodorant, but it's not strong.  So they recommend bringing an 18 month supply.  Apparently the Japanese don't stink.  Fukuoka is known for their noodles and their spiders.  I just learned in Japan they have MASSIVE spiders.   I mean larger than your hand.  And I'm 98% sure they were not joking.  I hadn't even thought of spiders.  Plus, you basically sleep on the floor!  If the language doesn't kill me the flesh eating spiders will (I don't know if they eat flesh, but I'm imagining the worst).  I just pictured Ron from the second movie in Harry Potter series running for his life from a giant talking spider.  I hope I don't have to experience that first hand.  So naturally I ask.."How do you kill a spider that big?"  Because there is not room enough for myself, my companion and a massive spider that's for sure.  Well, it turns out you don't kill spiders that big.  Direct quote right here... "You chase them away".  What?  Crazy!

Well now that I've been in the MTC for almost 6 weeks I feel like I know the ins and outs of this place.  Our favorite study place at night is in the laundry room.  It's warm, quiet and smells like mountain breeze.  Oh and remember how much I liked cleaning bathrooms as part of our service assignment?  Well we were just reassigned to building 1M.  It's where the front desk and all the administration offices are.  We got to put up all the flags that are around the MTC!  Coolest thing ever!  It almost ties shooting an antibacterial water gun :)  Don't worry, we put the Japanese flag front and center (right after the USA flag of course).  I forgot my camera, so I couldn't take a picture but I befriended the maintenance workers in 1M and might have bribed them.  So next week we may get the same job.  My fingers are crossed.  

The MTC is especially crazy right now.  All of the Mission Presidents (There are over 400 missions throughout the world.....173 have new Presidents beginning in July to start their 3 year mission as leaders of their assigned areas.  They spend a few weeks in training here at the MTC.) are coming in today so this place has been a mad house.  They took all the chalkboards out of 1M and replaced them with flat screen monitors.  The apostles are here and no one is allowed to go into 1M except for doing laundry downstairs. 

Other exciting news.  I got my haircut.  Just trimmed a couple inches.  It made me realize that i don't know how to say "to trim" in Japanese. Don't fret, I now know how to say "trim" so I'm ready for my next haircut in Japan.  I think.  That could be an interesting future picture.  I love it here!  It is the best opportunity I've ever had.  It is by far the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I love it.  Life is great! 

Hope you have a great week!

Hawkins Shimai

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

McKenna's email sent Saturday, June 15th:

Sorry!  I tried to rotate the picture, but I can't figure it out! (Britt)

Dad!  I love you!  Happy early Father's Day! :)  So sad that I can't be a part of our annual Father's day "breakfast in bed" ritual.  I don't know what the girls will do without my incredible ability to burn toast and ruin eggs.  Girls, good luck.  You'll need it.  I'll be there in spirit!

I am so happy!  Lewis Shimai (Sister Lewis) and I are doing great.  So glad we're such good friends.  We bonded over the swagger wagon youtube commerical/video.  That's the first thing I'm going to look up post-mission.  Hilarious. I don't think my rendition for our district (group of 8-12 missionaries) was completely accurate, but everyone got a good laugh. Lewis Shimai and I have a reputation in our district as the companionship that has the most fun :)  But don't worry Mom and Dad, we also work the hardest!  I spend every spare second learning! We eat meals fast and go sit outside and make up the most complicated Japanese sentences we can muster.  I think I'm getting better!  Well, granted I could only get better, since I came in knowing one word.  I'm being positive!  The MTC (Missionary Training Center) is incredible!  I've decided that there is no way you could put thousands of 18, 19, 20 & 21 year olds in charge of anything and expect the church not to collapse (let alone continue forward)  if Heavenly Father didn't play a large part in this work.  It's so neat to be a part of this, especially right now.  Just the logistics of the MTC are crazy!  We had to our devotional for the first time in the BYU basketball arena (the Marriott Center) because we can't fit 1/3 of the MTC population in our original auditorium.  We filled a lot of the Marriott Center.  It's so COOL!  We had a great devotional the other day too.  It was entitled "Expect Miracles".  It was given by Sister Anne Clegg.  She's on the General Relief Society board.  Wow, does that women have presence!  She was wonderful.  She just pointed out all the blessings we have.  How on earth do you learn the three alphabets of Japanese in 9 weeks?  You don't :)  You have help.  It's so true.  I feel like the people around me are angels.  Really though.  I learn so much from the trials people have gone through in their lives.  It's inspirational!

I wish you could see the Main MTC campus~ it is beautiful!  Remember how awed I was at how clean Disneyland is for the amount of people that walk through there?  Well same thing with the MTC, only more so!   There are flowers everywhere!  It's almost not real.  BYU is a beautiful campus, but wow the MTC is something else.  Although, Lewis Shimai and I did have to have a DTR (define the relationship) because there are so many bees here... which isn't a big deal, right?  Right, unless your companion is deathly allergic to bees!  Come on Lewis Shimai.  Ha ha, I love her.  Don't fret, I have now been educated in the ways of using an epi-pen.  Since I shared that story with our district they've nicknamed me Dr. Hawkins.  Has a nice ring to it, right? :)

On our way to the temple the other day we stopped by a car randomly in the parking lot.  It turns out the father and son were from Japan.  We all practiced our Japanese.  So much fun!  I could tell he was slowing it down for me, but I picked things up!  It was so fun!  Love it!  I understood more than I thought I would.  Don't worry I don't have a naive perception of my Japanese.  I love talking to the nihongin (native Japanese)!  They are so kind!  You say anything and they're impressed.  Plus, I don't think they expect a lot out of a blonde.  So I like the surprise factor :)

Japanese is such a pretty language, but you have to be so careful when you speak it!  All the words are SO similar!  And so many words have two polar opposite meanings.  Like segoi... it means awesome, great, cool and also bad or annoying.  Is that confusing?  I think so!  The running joke we have is that everything is implied in your sentences.  You usually leave out a lot of stuff and then it's "implied".  So when our sensi asks me something and I accidentally don't answer perfectly I just tell him it's implied.   At least they give me a sympathy laugh :)  Oh another example:  Kowii is scary and Kawii is cute.  Come on!  We all know I butcher my English words, well it is no different with my Japanese words!  It makes for interesting conversations though.  Plus, I end up smiling all the time so as to "imply" that what I'm attempting to say is kind.  Love it.

Our Japanese is improving.  When you ask a question in Japanese you end it with a "ka".  The first few lessons I would turn to Lewis Shimai and say "oh no I heard a "Ka",  but now we're able to answer almost anything.  We're improving!   

Our RA Rachel's wedding announcement!

Lewis Shimai and I got our first wedding invitation while in the MTC!  An exciting day!  Rachel our RA at BYU is getting married!  It was so thoughtful of her to send a wedding announcement to us.  I forget that real life happens outside of these walls.

I got my first taste of Japan this week!  One of the wives of our branch presidency brought by seaweed for us.  Wow! Interesting!  Mom, be proud.  I ate it all with a smile.  It tasted like I opened my mouth in the ocean and swallowed everything whole.  My first few emails from Japan will be interesting let me tell you!  

Angie, Madison and Shea! Thank you so much for the darling package!  It was so cute and very thoughtful!  It made my week!  I loved it!  A snail mail letter is headed their way!

Yes mom, Natalie Merrill is here!  I saw her and almost tackled her to the ground with a huge hug.  She is loving it here from what I can tell.  Her companion seems really nice too.  She is thriving!  Of course she is incredible so I expected nothing less. 

Random side note....At the MTC we SYL.  We "speak your language"...we speak Japanese alot!  We've had to resort to translating lots into japanese to keep our humor rolling. However, the Japanese don't have "smack talk"  everything is literal.  My new favorite phrase from Lewis Shimai is "sister please"~  shimai kudasi.  Love it.  No one says it with as much feeling as Lewis Shimai does.  Oh, keep in mind that Lewis Shimai is from Detroit. :)

I reached one of my goals!  From day one, I've wanted to share a personal experience with our investigators in Japanese.  Well, I did it!  And it made sense!  It was so neat!  I loved it!  I was finally able to express myself and language didn't get in the way!  I am so grateful!  I never thought it would happen.

Are they studying or lifting weights? :)

McKenna's caption on this picture read:  "Matching your companion...bad idea! Enough said."  I am curious to find out if they really happen to have the same outfit or if it was borrowed from someone for the picture! (Britt)

I am just so happy!  There is so much joy in doing this.  I love it!   There is so much happiness in sharing something you love so much with your brothers and sisters where ever they might be.  There is no way nearly 100,000 missionaries can teach the gospel at 18 and 19 without Divine help.  And I mean a lot of help!  There is a really cool Mormon Message video about fathers and I love it when it pops on at the gym.  See if you can find it mom.  It's way cool.  It's called "I am a father".  It's not really "churchy" either.  "Out of all of His titles and accomplishments He only asks us to call Him Father."

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/topics/marriage-and-family?lang=eng#2013-01-1020-fathers-day

If there is anything out of this experience that I've gained is that God is real.  He knows us by name.  He knows us individually.  And oh how He loves us!  He is not a distant God.  I love the scripture in Acts 17:27  I love you family!  Have a great week!  I love it here!  I am so happy and sharing the gospel has never been so joyous!  Have a great week!

Ai,

Hawkins Shimai

Loving the Work!

Thank you for writing...I love getting mail!

Letter sent from McKenna on Saturday, June 8, 2013~

Another P-day (Preparation Day)!  P-days are by far the most stressful, because there is so much i want to do but so little time!  I got the nicest letter from Allison Rose!  It was so cute!  I'm in the process of writing back.  It has a Disney princess picture, stickers and a super cute envelope.  It was a district favorite. Everyone passed it around :)  She is so cute! 

I'm really working hard on learning Japanese, so I can learn how to read the Bible and Book of Mormon with my investigators.  The hardest part about that is there are no spaces in their sentences.  How do you tell where one word begins and another one ends?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Our Japanese is improving!  Lewis Shimai (Sister Lewis) and I are now able to quote bits and pieces of YouTube videos :)  We try to speak Japanese whenever we can.  Our Sensi (teacher) kept calling our class "psycho".  We all thought that it was really weird.  Finally one of us asked why he was doing that.  Apparently psycho means "the best" in Japanese.  Random.  I feel like it's a backhanded compliment :)  So Dad... you know how you hate "fillers", like umms, uhhhs, and ahhhs?  Well Japanese has their own fillers and I'm getting them down so I can bug you in two languages :)  In Japanese they're "jaaa" "annoo" and "so desu ne."  Apparently "so desu ne" is a magical phrase that can mean whatever you want it to, like "yes" "no" "maybe" "pass the napkin", etc.  Honestly, no one can give me a straight answer as to what this phrase means.  

Guess what!  I wore my BYU Intramural Championship t-shirt and I was the envy of every BYU student here.  That is my favorite article of clothing.  I love it!  Who knew dodge ball was my sport? :)

  

The temple was great last Saturday.  We met a family from Ecuador on our way out.  They have a daughter that lives in Wenatchee.  She's new and just got there a couple of months ago.  Small world. The church is worldwide and it's a great experience to see the many different cultures that are all linked together by the gospel.  Oh, I finally got to use my Spanish!  I spoke to the husband a little bit!  I even threw in a "Si se puedu!"  I'm practically fluent :)

We got stood up by an investigator... at the MTC!   I hope this isn't a sign for things to come.  Instead of teaching Wantabe San we taught church members who speak Japanese.  It was a cool experience.  So while we were teaching the members, we had a couple of funny moments.  We didn't realize that we would be teaching members so we didn't tailor a lesson for their specific needs.  We were a little nervous starting out and my companion Lewis Shimai (Sister Lewis) accidentally said "I like your body" instead of "I like cameras"  Karada and Kamara are pretty similar words.  Well, that member had a pretty good laugh and I must have said "gomenasi" (I'm sorry) a couple dozen times.  There are many funny moments when it comes to speaking and teaching in a foreign language. 

So our lessons are hilarious.  Super spiritual, but also very funny.  Lewis Shimai and I have created hand signals to alert each other to distress.  Coughing is code for "I have no idea what our investigator is saying...help me!"  and putting your hand on the edge of the desk is code for "I have finished my thought, now it's your time to take over."  Pretty effective actually.  We're teaching an investigator, Nagashimada San. She is so kind, but pretty shy.  We taught her how to pray and then we came back for our next lesson and we hit a brick wall with her.  She wasn't very talkative and she wasn't keeping her commitment to pray everyday.  I was so frustrated with myself because I wanted to help, but I couldn't figure out how to.  And then when I would figure out what I wanted to say, I couldn't translate it.  So Lewis Shimai and I worked all week long to get ready for our next lesson with her.  We learned a bunch of new vocab and sentence structure.  Then, when it came time for the lesson, we scratched everything and I just talked with her.  We asked her why she wanted to meet with us, how her family was doing, why she wanted to learn about Christ, etc.  I cannot tell you how much love I had for that women.  I wanted to mow her lawn, wash her dishes, read the Book of Mormon with her, anything!  Anything at all to help her.  None of us left with dry eyes.  I think she realized that all we wanted to do was help her.  Our lesson after that was like she was an entirely new person.  She opened up about her relationship issues with her husband and we testified how much God loves us and how through the atonement we can find peace.  It was so powerful.  I am so grateful that we really took the time to get to know her.

 I met Elder Anderson!  Remember when I went to the Seattle Temple and we met that cute older lady who said she had a grandson who was going to the same mission?  Well, he found me the other day at a devotional.  Small world. 

Sunday night we always watch a church video and we had the option to watch the video in Japanese in one of the buildings.  It was hilarious!  So funny.  It was an older semi-cheesy film all in Japanese.  That is... everything was in Japanese, except for the singing.  I caught bits and pieces.  It was the highlight of the day by far though.  You would hear rapid Japanese and then a child would start singing and it was in English... comical. 

Guess what, Mom and Dad!  Your daughter is going to sing for the prophet!  Well, along with 1,500 others in the MTC, but still!  It will be on the 23rd.  Maybe it will be on BYU-TV.  It will be held in the Marriot Center.  The big news in the MTC.....

 1) we got 1,000 new missionaries on Wednesday.  It was crazy.  Campus is overflowing with the new addition.  It's the most they've ever gotten on one day in MTC history.  Exciting times!  2) The fist bump has revolutionized the MTC.  Lewis Shimai and I have started the craze.  It's spreading and rapidly.  Our sensi ta chi have started it too.  

SHAYLA IS GOING ON A MISSION.  SHAYLA IS GOING ON A MISSION. SHAYLA IS GOING ON A MISSION.  Oh my goodness Shayla you're going on a mission!  I am so excited for you!  And you're going to the Mexico MTC!  It's kind of like two missions in one.  I am so excited for you!

You are so tired all the time at the MTC.  You're constantly learning, working, serving, etc.  Sometimes you're so tired you forget basic things.... like how to say a prayer.  Lewis Shimai (Sister Lewis) said the prayer for our district the other night and started the prayer by saying " in the name of Jesus Christ, amen" and then she looked up.  Oops... we were all in tears from laughing so hard.  

I have a couple more minutes so I"ll email some pictures and add some last minute thoughts. I love you guys so much!  I love being a missionary.  I love serving people!  Learning Japanese is rough, but I have a fake it till you make it policy so I just keep trying!  Confidence has never been an issue of mine... however lack of skill certainly is :)  I just keep working! 

Ai,

Hawkins Shimai

Service ...cleaning with the soap gun!

Learning a new language is hard!

Hamilton's letter and bookmark

Sister Lewis and I with Nihongin!

The sisters in my District!

When missionaries leave the MTC....they don't always have room to take everything they brought!  Look what is left behind :)

During exercise time.... :)

Sister Lewis and I

"Kazoku" means family in Japanese :)

Package from Sarah Black!  What a wonderful surprise!

I am including a picture of Lewis Shimai (Sister Lewis) and I holding our package from Sarah Black!  It was such a wonderful surprise from her!  They were the best cookies we've ever tasted.  I've gotten some creative letters at the Missionary Training Center (MTC).  I got a funny one from Michelle!  Who I believe is in the MTC in Guatemala right now!  Crazy!  But I think the winner was Hamilton, haha.  My letter came in the form of a paper boat and I also got a creative bookmark with pictures.  He's famous in our distict now that they think I'm waiting for him... So thanks alot Hamilton. 

Random thoughts from me!  Relief Society is incredible here.  All the sisters are together, plus the wives of the branch presidencies.  So it's about 1,300 of us in the big PAC.  I'm willing to bet that it's the largest Relief Society that meets in the world.  In our distict we have Nihongo Sundays.  That means we speak only Japanese.  Well, don't let me fool you I have learned a lot of Japanese so far, but not enough to have a conversation for an entire day.    My conversational Japanese is a little weak, but I can commit you to stop drinking and read a verse in the scriptures without a problem.   (P.S. the word for scriptures is pronounced "satan" ironic huh?)  Needless to say, our Sunday's are typically pretty quiet, haha.  It's more like charades than speaking which makes for lots of laughter.  But we're getting better. 

I keep seeing people I know at the MTC!  Half of them work here or they're on their missions already.  Our newest arrival is Jared Giles.  He's hilarious.  Between the 6 or so of us here from our BYU ward it feels like a reunion.  I see what Cragun was talking about when he mentioned that the MTC food is a little unhealthy.  It's catered towards 18 year old boys.  But don't fear I've figured out the system.  There will be no MTC 15 for me! 

Oh highlight of my week:  I got a picture with the Nihongin!  I'll make sure to attach a picture of that too!  Shayla wrote me a dearelder and said that she's getting her mission call!  SOON!  I am so excited for her!  I guess it's Saturday so she's probably already got it!  I can't wait to hear where she goes!  My new favorite day of the week is Wednesday!  One- all the "newbies" come so we look for all the missionaries with orange dots on their name tags and shout happy japanese sayings at them!  I also love Wednesdays because we get a block of time to serve.  We volunteered to clean out showers.  It might sound like no fun, but I assure you that it's a blast.  The bathrooms are all tile so you get an anti-bacterial gun and foam the entire restroom.  Talk about efficient!  Then you get these awesome doodle bug cleaning tools and scrub everything.  In between the foam gun/blaster and the gloves it's an adventure. I'll have to take a picture of that next week and send it.  P.S. When I was cleaning I thought of you mom!  You need one of these guns!  You would love it. 

Overall everything is going very well.  I'm starting my third week!  Crazy.  It feels like i just had P-day yesterday.  It's scary actually.  I need all the time I can get here.  My distict is incredible.  We're all really close.  I'm really appreciative of that.  The language is hard.  Japanese is not somthing you learn overnight, but I'm working really hard.  I learn so many new words and grammar principles a day I dream about it!  No joke.  I remember Cragun talk about the number of words he was learning and I couldn't believe it.  I spend every spare second looking over my flashcards.  My flashcards go everywhere with me! 

I love my companion!  She is awesome.  I think we work the hardest, but also have the most fun in the district.  We quote movies and youtube videos all the time!  She's keeping me sane.  We practically have our own language between the two of us.  She took three years of French and I took three years of Spanish.  So between French, Spanish and Japanese we can usually figure out what the other is saying without having to resort to English.  Also, I think we've created a new sign lanugage.  Hand gestures save you when it comes to lessons in a foreign language.  

I can't believe there are over 85,000 missionaries!  I wish you could see how busy the Provo MTC is.  i'm just at one of the three branches in Provo.  It's crazy!  Eating and doing laundry is like walking into a war zone.  So many people!  I love my nametag :)  It's my new best friend.  I'm looking forward to going to Fukuoka too!  We have a district leaving on Monday so it's all becoming real very fast. 

As for the spiritual aspect of the MTC... it's incredible.  Suberashi.  (Awesome!)  I'm learning something new constantly.  I love being able to devote hours at a time looking something up in the Bible and Book ofMormon.  It's been a great experience to learn so much without being worried about a grade.  We just taught our investigator Nagashimada San and it didn't go as well as we wanted.  It's hard when you know what you want to say but you can't form the sentence in Japanese.  It can be really frustrating, but then I just have to step back and remind myself that I've come  a long way.  A LONG WAY.  Japanese isn't so foreign to me now.  I'm slowly starting to get a hang of it.  I'm making sure that I use every second here in the MTC effectively.  I eat, sleep and breathe this stuff, because I know when I get to Japan I'm expected to hit the ground running.  It's a scary thought.  I know 9 weeks will be up before I know it.  I really do like teaching our Japanese investigators here.  It's nice to get back to the basics.  How do you explain that there is a God?  Our lessons have really been simplified.  I have such a strong testimony of prayer and that Heavenly Father knows us individually.  I'm finally being able to share that with my investigators.

Well sorry I"m so scattered!  There is so much to say and so little time!  I love you so much and I hope you're doing well!  

Ai,

Hawkins Shimai