July 13th:

Man oh man. What am I doing with my life? I've spent 6 weeks of summer when I would've normally been boating, going on dates, eating smores at campfires, kicking it with my besties, going to the fireworks and I've spent nearly a month and a half waking up at 6:30, wearing a dress, learning Japanese like a crazy person, fighting for washers in the MTC dungeon, and teaching people that are already members  the gospel lessons in Japanese. But you know what???

 

It really hasn't been all that bad. In fact, I am pretty bummed at the prospect of leaving in just 3 more short weeks. I'm going to miss having funny conversations with all the sister in my district, having the occasional rubber band flicked my way, and playing Japanese grammar games (ok.... maybe not that one;). But really, probably one of the most rewarding "summers" of my life thus far! I just can feel the Lord filling my days with strength and happiness to adequately be one of His missionaries. It's a really sweet (yes and challenging) experience. and I'm not even in Japan yet!!

 

Well a quick update on this week's happenings:

 

1) We got another new investigator this week- so we have three now. It's another companionship in our district! ha One companionship will be the missionaries while the others are an "investigator"/ "member" and then we switch. It's quite interesting seeing as how we do it in all Japanese and all of us have quite limited speaking ability. haha..... let's just say it's a bit slow. But Sister Ivory and I are paired up with Elder Cottle and Elder Von (Vottle for short) and they're pretty cool guys... so it's actually been a pretty fun experience.

 

2) Ok. So a little more description about daily life here at the Provo MTC. We have time for this thing called "TALL" which is short for technologically assisted language learning. Basically just a software program that is designed to help us learn Japanese (and make sure our teachers are actually telling us the right things ;). Anywho we have that basically every day for about an hour. I think TALL actually stands for Time. at which. lids. get long and droopy. As in.... I feel like the sandman casts a spell on me every time. My eyelids literally feel like they weigh 20 lbs sometimes. Let's just say the sandman may have won that battle one or two ...ish times. Ha but really, it is super helpful.... just wish it wouldn't make me so tired!

 

3). S.T.L's...... what does that stand for??>>>>>> "Sister Training Leaders." I've been trying to avoid getting so busy that my days are like a whirlwind. So much for that. Sister Ivory and I are the new STLs which means that for 3 weeks we are in charge of all the girls in our branch. We do weekly interviews, nightly check ins, attend a bunch of meetings on Sundays, and will orient all the new Sister missionaries coming in this next week. Whoo. Ha As you might be able to tell I haven't really had the best attitude about it. I always tell people .... the week before I opened my call I said " I just don't want to learn an Asian language very much." Called to: Tokyo Japan. I thought in my brain " I just don't want to be an STL very bad... too much extra responsibility." Next week: Hello STLs. Lessons learned- 1: I should stop saying things I don't want to have happen. 2: I should probably be more Christlike so Heavenly Father doesn't have to always give me what I don't want to teach me lessons. 3: Thoughts also count. Monitor those things too, cuz they aren't safe either. There you go... advice from a greenie missionary. It's got to be golden right? Anywho..... There may have been some tears shed from both Sister Ivory and I this week. I think we are both just really frustrated that our time to review Japanese is even less now and we feel we're falling behind. And the Elders seem to pick up on everything so quick and now we don't even have the time to work extra hard (like we normally do) to be able to catch up to them. I know "I'll be blessed for doing what the Lord asks of me." I know that. And I try to tell myself that.... but it's just difficult to feel that positive all the time. I'm working on it. But in all reality, I am excited to get to know all the sisters better. That will be fun.

 

4) However. I am SUPER grateful for my companion. The first couple weeks with companions seem to be a bit awkward because you're still trying to figure each other out. But after that companionships are the best! I have a bathroom buddy, a meal buddy, someone to always talk to. Someone to always laugh with. I love Sister Ivory. She's great. We're the best of buds and I feel like we get along really well. And bless her soul for always putting up with me. She's the quickest at everything and I'm the slowest. She's told me I've taught her patience. haha. Well I guess I'm good for something then right? Anywho. Just wanted to give a quick shout out to my companion because she's the best and it's been great to have her.... especially this past week, cuz it was extra busy!

 

5) The weeks are picking up speed. NO! slow down. I'm just starting to get used to the schedule. We're becoming MTC pros...we know what language aspects are best to review/ practice and when. I just can tell I am going to be really sad when the time for us to leave comes (and scared out of my mind!). I though coming in that those leaving were pretty well prepared. We're not. Ha I can barely speak a lick of Japanese by myself.....and a real investigator????? Ha I'm probably going to single handedly mess up my first 20 lessons. It's scary. But I suppose kind of exhilarating too? Kind of like a roller coaster :) isn't my positivity refreshing? ha. I'm just banking on having a fluentish companion. That would be helpful. Oh another thing. Psh.... I thought it was going to get easier and easier to get out of bed in the mornings. EHH wrong. I hate alarm clocks. Haha, and my comp is the first one to jump out of bed. Even right now I might fall asleep. Time to kick up the thyroid med dosage mom ;)

 

6) Ok. One last thing. This last weeks Sunday devo was the bomb..... There was this couple. The wife had a degree in psychology and just recently retired from being a Church History professor at BYU. (Whoo. Girl power!). Her husband spoke to us first. Man he was a jokester. For example: he talked about arriving in England for his mission and he says- " I could just tell everybody was thinking man, he must have been an all star, and top of his class, and boy... does he look good in that navy blue suit." He was a crack up. He basically just talked to us about how he was actually a pretty shy, awkward kid but the Lord qualified him to be a superb missionary. The lady was hilarious too. I just bet that they have the funniest conversations. But she told us this story about how when she was a freshman in college, her and her girlfriend went to go have a "wild weekend" in SLC "something to remember ya know?"... and after they got there, they found out that President David O. Mckay lived in the same hotel that they were staying in. So they decided to go find where he lived and pay him a visit. they knocked on nearly every hotel door... keeping an accurate liste of who they had visited. A maid finally tipped them off and they decided to disguise themselves as girls scouts. Well they knock on the door. Her friend runs away. haha. The prophet opens the door. and there she is. She said he saw right through her.... every bad thing she'd ever done flashed through her mind. Then she waved her friend back and the prophet invited them in for a quick visit. As they were leaving he put his hands on her shoulders, looked her in the eyes, and told her to "be happy." She decided from that moment on that if she were to ever again be in the presence of a man so great she wanted to feel worthy to be there. So she changed her life. And she studied. hard. and she decided that "being happy" was a really simple thing. It was making and keeping covenants. That's it... just make and keep covenants and then we qualify for the blessings that the Lord so badly wants to give us. Super fun devo. Loved it. Oh and she mentioned that "She was the Lord's Favorite." and that "If you haven't discovered that you are the Lord's favorite... you better go find that out." I liked that.

 

Any who. Out of time. Thanks for the packages and dear elders Mom. And thanks for the letters everyone!

 

Love you All. "The Lord's Favorite"

Sister Haderlie.