June 8: "Hola Familia!

 

oops. Wrong language. :) It's really Konichiwa Kazoku. Allright well here we go......let's see if I can capture the first three days of the MTC in my alloted time:

 

Day number one. Curbside dropoff went pretty well I feel, Mom kept it together (way to go mom!) Plus they're super good at keeping you distracted. From there we were led to our residence halls and dropped off our suitcase and then the rest of the day we were BUSY (soon to find out that every day for the next nine weeks-at the MTC would be busssay). Some of the things I remember from that first day are that we met our sensai (teacher)- who apparently has forgotten how to speak all traces of English but can definitely still tell what we say, so in other words he's faking and we have to learn Japanese from a teacher that speaks only JAPANESE. It'll be good for us in the end though, very frustrating at times though. Also we had a workshop with fake investigators. Very cool. There was a large group of newbies that sat in on three different investigators (Lawanda, Doug, and George) all from different places and at different stages of their life. And one person would raise their hand and either ask or answer a question as if they were teaching a missionary lesson. Loved it.. Made everyone realize missionary work isn't necessarily about knowledge but is definitely about people.  

 

That Night, we met all the other members of our "district" (totaling 6 girls and 6 boys). Like them. Alot. They all have really good attitudes about learning Japanese and not one of us has cried yet!! So....success. We unpacked (as fast as possible) and went to bed nice and early. PS 10:30 now feels like the latest possible time to go to bed since we have to wake up at 6. at 6! Because our district gets the earliest assigned breakfast time at 6:45. And there's just no way I could look presentable in 10ish minutes (I'm barely alive by then!!)

 

Day two- (Thursday) A blur. All I really remember is more painstaking hours with "Gregory Sensai" attempting to make any sense of the jabber coming out of his mouth and fervently jotting down anything we learned.

 

Ohh...I forgot to mention the MTC cafeteria. Definitely not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, many delicious meal choices and when you're only downtime is meals it makes everything taste better anyways!!

 

Day Three- (Friday) Oh man. This was the day that we taught our first Japanese investigator. On day three. Knowing not much more than how to day hello, thank you , and good bye. Thank heavens for the books they gave us so we could at least spout out random Japanese phrases at him but....very akward. What can you do when someone asks you something and you have NO clue what they said and NO ability to answer them. Oh well we're told that's the worst lesson and things only get up from there. But, we'll see. We have to "teach" (more like stare) at him again tonight and I don't think we've really improved much.

 

Day Four- (Today) (Saturday) (P Day). Ahh... everyone waits for P day. But the first one is kind of stressful. You're given more liberty as to how your schedule goes but haven't been here long enough to know the ins and outs of when to do what. But... we survived. And now know how to do our laundry, when the bookstore opens, and how to get to the temple. Man are you guys right when you say that when those lights go out your eyelids get REAL heavy. The 1-3 in the afternoon drag is always really hard to push through, let alone when you're in a nice comfy chair in the dark. Oops. Hopefully I'll get used to it.

 

More details: My companion's name is Sister Ivory (we're taught to call her Ivory Shimai - pronunced Sheemayee). Love her. She's super duper nice and want's to work hard. She is always ready ahead of time (also very good for me). She has a positive attitude and a good sense of humor, is super polite and easy to get along with, and is super easy going at the same time. We're both just figuring it out together. It's good to have someone there all the time since I am without my 3 Amigas. Also the girls in my room are Sister Moss: super good at volleyball, really kind, like her. Sister Christensen: from California, brought more clothes than me (woo hoo!), super duper cute, really smiley, and always has a good attitude. Like her. (their companions). Sister Snow: from Utah, really organized and put together, good at getting conversations going, like her. Sister Day: from Georgia, brought more medication than me (mom's a doctor...woo hoo!), really sweet, kind of quiet, but also has a good attitude. Like her. They're all super cute....I like my roomies alot!!!

Hope everything's good in good ol' Idaho,

 

Sister Haderlie.

 

PS (I have run into some people I know. that's always fun. Met Sister Barret! ....and everyone is super kind and upbeat. Makes it fun to be here!!)