Week Two!

Ohayo everyone!

Week 2 at the MTC is complete!!! I've been learning so much. It's been super awesome. We got a new sensei! His name is Richardson Kyoudai (Brother Richardson) and he's like the coolest person. Imagine a really intense reporter from the 1950s except super spiritual and that's him. I swear like 80% of what he says at any given moment in time is general conference levels of testimony. We've all learned so much from him, Raines Shimai, and Hoggan Shimai. 

On Friday we all got to attend Elder Hales' funeral service (through broadcast) and it was a super cool experience. I loved getting to know who Elder Hales was as a person rather than just a general authority. I could tell that all the twelve apostles are really close friends and it was super cool to see that dynamic.

Also, the entire Japanese zone at the MTC is obsessed with volleyball so we play every single time we have exercise time. Sand volleyball is the best because the chourou are all way too intense in gym volleyball. Anyway, on Saturday we played sand volleyball, and it was the actual best thing. Totemo sugoi! The sand was cold, but it was super fun anyway. At one point, Nelson Shimai received the ball with her foot and miraculously kicked it over the net and scored a point for her team. Stewart Chourou and Roemer Chourou have been waxing poetic about it all week.

Teaching investigators has been both awesome and difficult. I've been fairly able to understand the Japanese when it's spoken (sorta), but responding effectively has been a real struggle. I had a miniature panic attack the other day when teaching Ishikawa-san and she got confused and thought Jesus was a zombie but it's fine. It's daijoubu. We're moving forward and pressing on with our lessons, but it's taking a bit to adjust to teaching people who have zero Christian background whatsover. Demo (but) that's how real life Nihonjin (Japanese people) are so it's important. We're becoming very familiar with condensing things into simple terms, and it's a lot more difficult than expected. Nevertheless, we persist, and I'm looking forward to learning more about the language and how to teach more effectively.​​

Have some more fun pictures of my district!!

Ai shitemasu!

Sherwood Shimai