Week 6

 It goes in order. I promise to do as soon as I get her letters from now on.

 

Week 6

 

I love you all! I want to know wedding plans Claire. Even if you don't have full plans, keep me updated. I am still leaving on Feb 11 as far as I know. We won't get detailed itinerary until a few weeks from now. I may call from the airport or I may call from the MTC, I'm not sure. The time I call depends on when we leave for the airport. Could you e-mail me/mail me a picture of the family? Many people have been asking for pictures.

Tue

Zombie apocalypse! The stomach flu hit. They think that a cafeteria worker had it and handled the food which spread like wildfire in these cramped stuffy buildings. Miller Shimai and I escaped, but Abraham Shimai didn't. At the beginning of the day we were all fine. By the end of the next day, about 1/3 of the missionaries were sick. There was an announcement made over the intercom that hugs, handshakes, high fives, even touching your own face were banned until further notice. There is sanitizer at every doorway. Hopefully we're past it, but I don't want to take any chances. We had a devotional via streaming between buildings, but the firewall in the buildings is so strict that the link couldn't be opened. So everyone had to move to another building to see it. We finally tuned in about 30 min after it started. It was by Elder Choi of the seventy. He told us to think of our companions as "the most handsome in all the land." It was a sweet devotional.

Wed

Nothing much happened. I did notice the spirit answering my questions as I wrote them in my journal. I think that is why we keep journals, not for our posterity or for record keeping but to recognize revelation when we recieve it.

Thu

Taylor sensei is leaving! Because we're getting so many new missionaries and his new school semester's schedule doesn't permit him to work mornings, we are getting a new teacher. Thankfully it is Nielsen sensei who is also very good and very funny. I taught Miller Shimai how to swing dance a little.

Fri

We had 3 beginning teachers sit in on our class. It was a little crowded. We have been challenged to memorize the first vision in Japanese. Gulp.

Sat

We had an interesting experience with a mouse. We walked out of our residence building heading for gym. I hear a squeal behind me. I turn and see a large brown blur streaking my direction. Abraham Shimai squeals and dances like a person walking on coals. The poor mouse doesn't know which way to go so it keeps getting under her feet. Sister Miller runs to the still open door to try and stop it from going inside. The mouse makes a break for it and disappears through a crack in the sidewalk. I was laughing and feeling sorry for the mouse. Abraham Shimai was laughing after a little bit too. I'm just glad I didn't find it in my bed. We had the last workshop we'll ever have. Since there are so many missionaries on their way, the workshops are canceled and there are a few other schedule changes, like no PE on Thursdays. Our workshop teacher was French and handsome to distraction. Nice way to end a streak of good workshops.

Sun

We watched the Joseph Smith movie in Japanese. The spirit was present even though we couldn't understand everything. I love that film. It has truly helped strengthen my testimony of the restoration. We found out that we're getting 8 new shimai! YAY! The music conductor was released. He has been in that calling 25 years. The reason he's leaving is because he has been called on a mission to be the director of the Independence visitor's center. We taught the lesson in District Meeting about "How to Recognize the Spirit." It went well again. Hopefully we can keep this streak up. I talked about being worthy to have the spirit and used Pres. Turner's analogy of the bucket and worthiness interviews. Miller Shimai and I have been called as co-music directors. Thankfully some of the chorotachi have stepped up and are willing to play piano and do special musical numbers.

Mon

We cleaned windows and doors and other glass that morning. The windex froze on the doors to the outside so we couldn't really clean it. I tried to vacuum the elevator but it got angry and closed the door several times on me. We had 7 total sensei's yesterday: our 2 regular, our 1 new, and 4 other observing teachers. Crazy. We had an early arriving missionary from Australia arrive yesterday. His name is Elder Happi (pronounced like Happy). He already knows a lot of Japanese and he's a quick learner. For Claire, he also likes One Piece! Our lessons went exceptionally well yesterday. We didn't have much time and we were unprepared, but the spirit was with us. I felt it very strongly in both lessons.

Tue

The temple is open again! We did an endowment session this time. The Provo temple is very beautiful and easy to get lost in. Thankfully there are lots of people around to ask where to go. I fixed one shirt whose buttons were starting to come off. We spent about 2 hours making paper dolls for the incoming shimai. And guess what! I'm giving the closing prayer in devotional tonight!

Tell you how it goes next week.

Miss you all,

Leah