(My dear, beautiful, perfect...then some of the words don't make sense to me...surprising mother)
(??)
Yeah we are shipping out a week from Monday! I honestly feel like the most challenging part of the MTC is sitting in a classroom all day and being here for 9 weeks. I'm actually ok with the busy schedule and how much we study. Nathan Chōrō and I take period breaks to go "music-ing" so that probably helps. But yeah we get our travel plans on Friday and then just one more p-day after this one before I am gonzo! We hear all of these 3 weekers talking about how long they've been in the MTC and how they can't wait to finally get into the field. They literally have no idea. Our district spent an entire lunch one day sharing all of the funny times we've heard people say they've been here for a long time. Nathan Chōrō and I heard it this week from 2 elders who had been here 4 days. FOUR DAYS!! In some ways it's fun to have been here this long, because we recognize all the other 9 weekers who got here with us. It's like we have a little pack of veterans and we all think we're super-experienced missionaries because we've been here longer than anyone else currently in the MTC.
Last Wednesday we had our first Skype TRC, and it was the best! I seriously loved it so much. It gave me a much-needed boost of fiery motivation. It was with Ikeda Shimai who lives in Tokyo. She said our 日本語 (Japanese) was じょうず (skillful) like 20 times, I think it's kind of a cultural courtesy to say that to がいじん (foreigners) but it was nice haha. But we understood everything she said just fine, I was a little surprised but very grateful! We shared a message about prayer and it went really well. She was friends with one of our teachers so they were talking after and she gave us some really good feedback. Teaching her was really good because it helped me to remember why we're here and why we're learning Japanese. Teaching lessons to our teachers as "investigators" is good practice, but teaching an actual Nihonjin member was different, it was so much more "real" and I really felt genuine love for Ikeda Shimai and wanted to help her feel the spirit. So I'm looking forward to that again tonight!
I've seen so many people that I know here! Melissa Brown and Sarah Bruneel both came in last week, and Jenn's cousin Sister Jacobson came in last week too. So it's been fun to see them around, I also see Sister Mortell and Hermana Hansen all the time too. Also, Dallin Kooyman (who also went to Rocky) is going to Tokyo so he is on the same floor as me. I'll keep my eyes out for Elder McCauley this week!
We taught a really good lesson to しまだ-さん about the ちえ の ことば、(Word of Wisdom) she committed to live by it, and we were going to talk about whether or not she felt a difference the next lesson. Then she totally didn't keep her commitment! Taylor しまい (しまだ-さん) は ちんぴら です。 (Sister Taylor's a hoodlum...thank you google translate) She's not making it easy on us, it's probably good though. We are getting a lot better at asking good questions and helping them to understand everything rather than just spouting off gospel doctrine.
So Haderlie しまい is now the less-active マリッサ-さん、(Marissa-san) and we have taught her 2 lessons. The first one we mostly just got to know her and talked a little bit about prayer. It went really well, but our second lesson was rough. We were teaching the plan of salvation and it was going smoothly, and then we were teaching about resurrection. She asked if her grandparents would be resurrected even though they already died and didn't believe in Christ. We told her yes, everyone will be resurrected. Then she asked if she would be able to talk to her grandparents after the resurrection. So we said yes, and she asked where there bodies would be. We said they would be resurrected, and she asked if the graves would be empty. We said yes, but she just kept asking what would be in their graves! And we kept telling her that they would be empty! Then she started busted up laughing. She finally stopped then looked up at us and started laughing again! For like 5 minutes! Haha とても こんらん しました。 (we were very confused.) After the lesson we realized (because she told us) that she actually had asked if her grandparents had already been resurrected, and if so, if she could talk to them. And we told her yes to both of those. And told her that her grandparents' graves were currently empty. Oops. いげん の たまもの は どこ です か？！(Where is the gift of tongues now?)
Another language blunder this week--we taught Hansen Kyoudai as よしだ-さん、 it was a one-time lesson because he was subbing for one of our regular teachers. All we knew was that he used to live in Singapore and he works making Ramen in Tokyo, so when we were getting to know him I asked him how long he had been making ramen. Or, that's what I tried to ask, but I actually asked him how many bowls of ramen he had made. (I used どの ぐらい when I shouldn't have) So he thought about it really hard and just said, "probably tens of thousands." Haha but we played it off like it was on purpose, so えんてんかつだつ。(adaptability)
Papenfuss Shimai from my BYU Ward is going to the Tokyo South mission so she's on the same floor as me, and she arranges tons of piano music. She asked if I would sing a song with her on the piano that she arranged, it was a medley of Danny Boy and Homeward Bound. We decided that Danny Boy wasn't really spiritual so I changed the lyrics (but we kept the music the same), mostly switching it our for the lyrics of Lead Kindly Light. We auditioned it for a musical number last week, so hopefully we will get to perform it before I leave! It sounds super cool, we'll record a video and sent it to you if we can.
I found out for myself that exact obedience brings miracles--my room has been struggling with getting to bed on time, and I feel like 2 of the elders are just complacent about the bedtime rules. So I decided I would just make sure that I'm going to bed right at 10:30 and not worry about the other Chōrō tachi. On Monday night I went to bed on time but our lights were still on, and they woke me up when they got to bed at like 11:30, so I was kind of annoyed. But the next day for lunch we had, for the first time, penne pasta with chicken and Alfredo sauce! Literally my go-to favorite staple meal of the whole last year. So that was definitely a きせき。(miracle) I had actually written in my journal the night before that I was officially sick of the food and I felt sick from all 3 meals that day. Moral of the story--when you are exactly obedient then the Lord will give you blessings, sometimes in the form of good meals when you had lost all hope of eating real food again.
On Sunday, you will never guess who showed up!! Elder Bednar!! For the 2nd time since I've been here. We were watching a video of his "character of Christ" devo with the whole MTC (instead of the live devo) and then he and his wife just decided to show and do a Q&A session! It was super cool, I didn't get to ask him a question but I really enjoyed listening to the other questions and his answers. I really felt the love that they both have for all the missionaries. They are both such great examples of Christ-like love. Obviously a testimony can't be based off of this, but it really strengthens my testimony to see how selfless and caring the leaders of our church are.
Yes I will be praying for Taylor's families! I can't believe how close he is to coming home. I hope his last week is the best!
Sounds like camping was awesome, wish I could've tried the えびやき！ Ebi is a popular word among the chōrō tachi. Especially when we're playing volleyball, Ebi is like the substitute swear word we use hahaha. McColm Chōrō (the one who took Nihongo from uncle Matt) always says "えび は じんせい です。"(shrimp is life)
Thanks for sending the debit card, etc. and thanks for being an amazing mother!
いつも あいして います、
パスケット長老
(Love always,)
--
Elder Paskett
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