The Adventures of Sister Fishburn: Konnichiwa, minasan!!

Konnichiwa, minasan!!

We are now moving on to week 8. I can no longer speak English and I also cannot speak Japanese so it's becoming a problem.

In other news... My life in the MTC is very boring. I mean, you probably already realized that but yeah. It's boring. BUT. I get my flight plans on Friday so WHOOT WHOOT.

I realized that by the time I get to Japan I'll only have four months until Christmas which means four months until I get to skype y'all and four months until my six month mark. WHAAAAAAT? Crazy. So crazy. Especially since I feel like time is going to go even faster once I'm in Japan.

On Saturday my district was challenged to volleyball by another district. They were talking smack and thinking they were all big and mighty. Well. We played. And we were respectful. And we had a good run. And we won. We were victorious. District 6A are the volleyball champions.

Sunday was just a good day. Fast Sunday's are long but I quite enjoy them. Especially when we have chicken cordon bleu for dinner:) We also got to hear from Matthew Holland. He's the president of UVU and Elder Holland's son. He looks and sounds JUST like his dad. He basically did a history lesson on Joseph Smith so as you probably guessed, I loved it. After the devotional we got to watch Ephrium's Rescue. OH MY. I really like that movie hahaha and I highly suggest watching it. There are some slightly sarcastic characters in it and every time they said anything Taylor Shimai would lean over and be like "You have to be related to them". It was a good time.

President and Sister Burgess sat by our district during lunch on Monday. That was a fun time. Apparently their daughter lives in the area. What a small world! They asked me where I was from and I said "Kaysville, if you know where that is haha" and President Burgess was like "Oh, we know where it is! We drive there all the time!" So yup. Cool fact.

Spiritual thought: Prayer is amazing. I was struggling with some frustrations and such and decided that I was not going to be able to get through them alone. So I said a prayer and my heart was pounding and going all crazy and all that jazz and as soon as I said "amen" I was instantly calmed. My prayer was literally answered right as I ended it. It was great. Seriously. I know it sounds kind of lame but trust me, the power of prayer is real and I felt it in that moment.

"What did they do to Gappmayer Shimai this week?" is probably the question you've all been wondering. Well. She told us she had a secret LAST Tuesday. But then she wouldn't tell us the secret. She just kept saying "I'll tell you in a couple days" or "next week". So since we have no other way to keep ourselves entertained, we came up with our own idea of what the secret was. Logically, she was getting engaged. So we bought her a card and all of us signed it and got almost all of the senseitachi to sign it. The notes were all very heartfelt wishes of happiness and congratulations. We told her that we'd tell her our secret when she told us her secret. So yesterday we had a "himitsu party" (secret party). Her secret was that Elder Andersen was supposed to be at the devotional last night. After she told us we promptly gave her the card to which she laughed so hard at she cried. When we had one of the senseitachi sign it she was like "oh, she's gonna love this!" and she did. I think we have succeeded in becoming her favorite district. Of. All. Time.

Guess what. Gappmayer Shimai's secret was real! Elder Andersen really did come last night! And since I go to choir, and somehow ended up on the front row of the choir, I got to be front and center for the devotional. He started off by telling us that "missionary work is not complicated... Though it is not easy". SO TRUE. One thing that he said that really stuck out to me was "Don't be discouraged. Be full of courage!" I love that. Gappmayer Shimai was telling me how my first full day in Japan will be finished up by going street contacting and that terrified me. But when I heard Elder Andersen say that I was like "I can do this!" I just need to have courage to open my mouth and the Lord will help me and guide me. I can do hard things!! (Especially with the help of the Lord..)

SCRIPTURE POWER. KEEPS ME SAFE FROM SIN.

Helaman 5:45-48, Helaman 8:23, 3 Nephi 5:25-26, 3 Nephi 11:14 (basically just read that whole chapter [3 Nephi 11] because who doesn't love Jesus?)

I love this gospel. I love this church. I love my Heavenly Father. I love Jesus. And I love you.

Stay safe. Stay classy. Stay sassy.

LOVE YOU ALL TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!

(You can't beat that, mom)

--Fishburn Shimai