HELLO MY DEAR FAMILY (and friends too)!

 

Ahh!  It is so great to be able to write to you all!  I hope you are loving the family reunion and each others' company. 

 

OK, the MTC is really wonderful.  That deep peace and calm has been with me most--if not all the time--even though there is so much new material to learn, people to meet, language to SPEAK and TEACH in.  I love it, I really do.  Sometimes in class I feel a little lost, but practice, practice, practice, faith, prayer, and the Lord's strength are incredible.  I am so grateful.  Thank you for your prayers, teaching, love, and faith.  I know that they are SO effective in my life. 

 

I am really learning a lot about faith and how to exercise faith here.  It takes a lot of work to learn Japanese and practice it and remember how to say everything.  I am so glad that I have a background in the language--it makes the words not quite so foriegn and the grammar understandable.  Sometimes its just a matter of recalling it.  The first class we went to the teachers spoke only in Japanese to us.  I was able to respond sometimes, but not very quickly or all that intelligibly.  In time though!  :)  We've been taught how to pray in Japanese and I've loved thinking hard about what to say; its helped me really focus in my prayers. 

 

Anyhow, like someone I talked to lately, to me the weeks feel like days and the days feel like weeks.  And it hasn't been a whole week yet!  I've done a lot though--a lot that is so demanding and so deeply satisfying.  Sister Jones (my companion and I) taught our first lesson to an investigator last night and we are preparing to teach another one tonight.  He was incredibly patient and understanding with us and I am so grateful for that.  I came out of there rejoicing--teaching people about the gospel is so cool!  Kind of hard, but really, really good.  I am so glad that I get to do it full time!

 

I've seen Calvin and Levi (though we didn't make it to the class that he taught on Wednesday, much to my chagrin.  I thought that the missionaries went to them every week rather than just the first one.  Haha.  Ignorance is such a source of humor sometimes), a few friends and acquaintences from BYU, Logan Epperson (his class is in the same building as mine!), and lots of great, smiling, friendly, unfamiliar faces.  I love it.  No Aaron yet, and if I'm not mistaken, I think he leaves soon, yes?  Anyhow, its been lovely.  There's a spirit of relying on the Lord in all that we do and earnestly desiring to do what He wants us to.  AWESOME--or as you say in Japanese, subarashi! 

 

My district is so funny and mostly interested in working hard to serve with 4 sisters (including me) and 9 elders (there's one threesome).  :)  They're a tad young and may have a bit of growing up to do, but I think that can be said for all of us, so its all good.  Many of them have studied a bit of Japanese, but I think we all feel equally challenged when it comes time to learning the language.  I'm not sure I have time to give a little sketch of everyone in the district, but if you want me to I'll try to do that next week.  For now, I'll tell you about the three other sisters in my class (our district has 2 classes for the same level and I have yet to really get to know the other beginning sisters).  They are all international missionaries--meaning that they have SWEET accents and a good understanding of the MTC since they've been here since Monday.  Mondano shimai is 20, from the Philippenes, very sweet, and very open.  Amituanai shimai is 19, from Australia, pleasantly expressive, owns the fact that she is brown (in her own words), and at times a little rambunctious.  Jones shimai is also from Australia and has a goal to teach me to speak with an Austrialian accent by the time we leave.  :)  Nice, right?  She is 21, was studying law and arts at the university in Sydney, is incredibly eager to be a good missionary and to work hard.  I love her.  We are so different, but I think that we work really well together and will learn a lot from each other in our time here. 

 

Want to read a sort of funny story?  Like I said, Jones shimai and I taught our first lesson in nihongo to Harukawa san (an investigator) last night.  At one point we told him that he would feel God's love as he prayed and he aksed what he would feel like.  We hadn't prepared for such a question and so I said something like "Ah...happy...and....uh...cool.  Cool."  Just imagine someone looking intently at you trying to understand what you are saying and then cringing inside.  It wasn't that bad though; I think he understood what I was trying to say. 

 

Mmm, life is good.  I've been thinking a lot about joy and suffering and the relationship between the two since doing some language study on the computer with those ideas and also reading a letter from a professor (so kind of him!) in which he included some literature from a poet named Khalil Gibran about joy and suffering.  Can I share some lines with you? 

 

"Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with tears.

How else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain...

Some of you say that "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."

But I say unto you, they are inseperable. 

Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember tahat the other is asleep upon your bed..."    

 

Beautiful isn't it!  It reminds me of what a friend of mine said in her testimony once ( as a quote from someone I cannot recall)  "Sorrow carves a cavern in our souls that will one day be a receptacle for joy. 

 

I am so grateful for the Savior's sorrow that allows us to have full joy.  His Atonement is incredible.  I hope that you each feel it in your lives--strengthening, building, and enabling you to grow and do everything--especially that which is hard. 

 

Thank you so much to Sister Bennion!  I was seriously stunned to see a letter to me from Las Vegas so soon after entering the MTC!  While I have yet to explore the whole packets fully, I've so loved the thoughts and drawings from her and her Primary class; they were like a ray of sunshine.  Thanks to each of them!  Sadie-- I loved your drawing!  :)  I hope I can do good on my mission too.  ;)   

 

The computers refuse to let our cameras upload any photos (I think its secretly part of new missionary initiation) so I can't send any just yet, but will try to do so next week.  Until next Satruday! 

 

All my love,

Williams shimai