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