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