At the Provo Temple with the District Gang !

The MTC teaches you many valuable life lessons and skills; including, but not limited to, shuffling cards. I've never been able to shuffle cards and I finally figured it out as I was shuffling my Katakana flashcards. BOO YEAH. 

I won't bore you with too many stories this week. Wednesday was Wednesday. Nothing special. P-Day ends at 6:00pm and then we had class with Hansen Kyoudai. That's about it. Thursday was Thursday. We taught a lesson to Moeka San and it went great! We have also taken to playing a very competitive game of foursquare during our exercise time. We usually end up playing volleyball though because we all get too into four square haha.

The Chourou tachi have decided that Nephi must have been "exceedingly yoked" since he's always reminding us how he was "large in stature". And now that's all we hear. "Exceedingly yoked" or it sometimes evolves into "exceedingly dope" when they're talking about a scripture or something. 

So story time, Moeka San isn't really Moeka San. Her real name is Gappmayer Shimai and she's our other sensei *insert giggle*. She is AMAZING. Seriously. I love her. She told us that her past districts have told her that she's intimidating but I don't think she is. She is super honest and way funny. The Chourou tachi will say something and she'll just be like "No, you're not helping." or "That's stupid." Again, she's great. She also served in Tokyo South so two thumbs up for Gappmayer Shimai. So since she's no longer Moeka San we don't have an investigator right? Wrong. She just picks different people she taught on her mission and acts like them and we teach them. So now she's Kimura San. And Hansen Kyoudai has become Iida San. We're now going to be teaching every day, switching off between teaching both of them. CRAZY but it will be so helpful for us. 

Since we couldn't really celebrate the Fourth of July, we had a "special" devotional on the 2nd. The speaker (I can't remember his name right now and I left my other journal back at my room:/) spoke about the restoration and how everything had to be perfect for it to happen. That includes America being a free country and having freedom of religion. It was basically a history lecture focused on the restoration. You can bet your cute little bum I loved it. After they let us stay up late to watch the fireworks from Stadium of Fire and while it was lovely, it wasn't Kaysville's Fourth of July and I was much too tired the next day. 

Two people in our zone have gone home in the last week and it makes me so sad. I hope they know how much we all love them and I hope they can figure out whatever it is they need to. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to go home early and I just want them to be happy. 

Fast Sundays are kind of awful but kinda great. I think it was the first Fast Sunday that I wasn't hungry all day long. When you fast with a real intent and purpose, it's SO much easier to fast. I wasn't dying of hunger until we were in line for dinner and EVERYONE KEPT BUTTING IN LINE. Oh, I was peeved. So peeved. Their hunger is not more important than mine so they should have to get in the back of the line just like I did. But oh well, Jesus said love everyone and that is what I must do so I just stayed quiet and let them go. (I mean it's their salvation, not mine..)

GUESS WHAT. So yesterday we had our first lesson with Kimura San and afterwards Gappmayer Shimai pulled me aside and was like "Your Nihongo! You're getting so good! You opened your mouth and started talking and I was like 'Who is this girl?'!" I AM LEARNING!!!! Which makes me so happy because I feel like I am trying so hard and constantly trying to learn more and get better so it's nice to hear that it's working and paying off. 

Last night as we were getting in bed, Carpenter Shimai was like "Fishburn Shimai, I just want you to know that you're a great example and you're always so happy and I enjoy that. Ai shite imasu". It was so perfectly nice at the exactly right moment for me. It's the little things that really matter. 

Scriptures!! So we're reading the Morumon Sho together as a branch in 60 days (so basically while we're in the MTC) and so I thought I'd send some of my favorites for y'all to read and ponder or just read and nod your head. So. 2 Nephi 16:8, 2 Nephi 25:29, and 2 Nephi 26:23-24.

Well. I love Jesus. I love this gospel. And I kinda like y'all. (that last one was a lie)

Ai shite imasu!!!

--Fishburn Shimai