Week 1 in the Field:

Let's restart the week count shall we? Holy smokes,  do I have SO much to write. I thought an extra 30 minutes of email time in the field would be enough but it might not be!! haha ......There's a lot more to write when you don't do basically the same thing every week.

 

I am IN JAPAN. Toto, we are definitely NOT in Kansas anymore. :)

 

Some things unique to Japan: 1-Characters everywhere. Ugh... I miss the American alphabet :( ....especially when it comes to reading nutrition labels. I have no clue what I am eating most of the time haha.

2- Stickiness. Why in the world did I have to arrive in Japan in August???? The moment we walk out of the door I am wet and sticky and even once we get home cuz it takes at least 20 minutes to cool our apartment off. Ya the heat has gotten old real quick.

3- Crowded. Ok, this is probably just unique to Japanese cities. But most of the streets are tiny and our apartment is pretty tiny as well. And the train station is pretty crazy. People everywhere. Scratch that. Asians everywhere haha. Seeing an American/ Non Asian is rare.

 

Anywho... let me update you on the course of events.

 

Monday Morning. We escaped the MTC; woo hoo!! But wait... only to lug our 140 lbs of luggage onto the TRAX in 90 degree weather and then switch trains and then all through the airport. One of my bags was 51 #,  but they let it go. WOO! I got to take my hair product with me (thank heavens :). .... Anywho, we all called home and then caught our first plane. About an hour long flight to LA. I sat next to another sister and a Nice Phillipino lady (very "fabulous" long hair and wedge heels and manicured nails) she was super nice!! and we talked to her for a long time. The sister next to me mustered up the courage to give her a Book of Mormon. I admired her courage. I only piped into the conversation sometimes because I was on the outside.

 

We then transferred planes (only had about 20 minutes) so grabbed a quick sandwich (and got lots of strange looks haha) .... Said goodbye to normal American food :( ......:( Talked to some people for a minute or two and then on the plane we went. I sat next to two missionaries this time. I was on the end again. There was a lot of sleeping. Some talking. Some studying. But Mostly watching the plane slowly move from America to Japan on the screens in front of us. :( I didn't get a window seat so I didn't really get to see us fly in. So it was actually fairly anticlimatic ha.  

 

Bam. It became Tuesday Night (thanks to the time change). And we found ourselves in Japan. We then stepped off the plane and .....drumroll. Wetness. It feels like I'm at the aquatic center all the time ha. We caught a bus, went through customs, and then were met by the President, his wife and the AP's. EVERYONE was tired and looked pretty sweaty and exhausted haha. All 34 of us plus those greeting us. We were quite the sight. We jumped on a bus (and filled out lots of forms) and ate some sushi. Mmh.. that was interesting. Then the girls got to stay in the mission home. The girls in my district were the first inside so we got to stay in the "GAuthority" room...Me and Sister Day got to sleep in the bed. And apparently Elder Nelson visited not too long ago so.....if you connect the dots ;) We slept in a holy bed. All of us were talking and organizing and showering for a long time so we didn't get much sleep.

 

Wednesday. Training. All day. By about 4 o clock we were all feeling the jet lag. And that night we got to play a game with the English class students. That was pretty funny. Ha Japanese people are just really funny. Anywho, I saw a Japanese girl walking around and decided to talk to her. I asked her if she wanted to practice her English and so we talked for a bit. I then noticed she was actually a sister missionary.. Sister Nakamura. The next day she became my COMPANION. haha.....So yep. My area is the "number one" area on the map I left at home. Called Nakano area in the Tokyo Stake so I live like 5 minutes away from the mission home and the office. Which has been really fun and both of those are right next to the church.

 

I just realized how much time I have left so I really have to hurry......

 

Anywho. Sister Barret is in area number 2 (which is the most "city" area). So I will get to see her at some zone meetings. But my area: SO....its pretty "city". But not like skyscraper city. And my ward has quite a few people that speak English! That is super nice. But...

 

Thursday. More training; then at noon we all were told our companions and areas. It was crazy. We all took a picture and then off we went. Since I was already in my area we just walked to our apartment. It was kind of weird. The first day is a blur. I think she just introduced me to a few things. The jet lag hits me pretty hard sometimes. And between Japanese, the heat, and the Jet lag,  sometimes I get really dizzy and have to sit down for a minute haha. Other than that I have been doing well health wise :)

 

Friday. We had a lunch appointment with a brand new investigator. Her name is "Lily san" (names are kind of weird here ha) and she is actually Chinese but can speak Japanese. Her apartment was really nice and cool. So that I liked. But I bet you can guess what kind of food we ate. Asian. And I bet you can guess how much I understood. Not very much. haha Plus. Something about being a missionary makes people want to give you like 5 pounds of food to eat every time you come over. If you ever have missionaries over please tell them they can stop eating when they're full!! They'll appreciate it , I promise :) ....ha anywho, I did my best to eat it. There were dumplings; those aren't too bad. But the other stuff was...well anyways. I was glad when she started cleaning up ha. She is kind of older- maybe 40's. Her husband passed away and now she has a boyfriend in Australia and is moving there so we don't have much time to teach her. We shared some favorites scriptures from the BoM (I shared Alma 26:12), then we taught her how to pray, gave her a Restoration pamphlet, and asked her to read and pray everyday. We asked her to give a closing prayer and she didn't even close her eyes or fold her arms haha. It's kind of amazing how many people don't even know how/ haven't prayed. We're lucky to know how to. 

 

Apparently there is a holiday this week. I can't pronounce it or remember what it's called. But everyone is going places or has to work so we probably won't meet with most of our investigators.

 

Saturday. We visited a less active. Named Rochelle. I loved it! We took the train for the first time. Kind of a crazy experience. So a little background on Rochelle.... her mom "Baby Shimai" is in our ward.  They are both Phillipino. Which is SO fun. They speak English and Japanese. Woo! And feed us yummy food like creme puffs and pasta. So I am not opposed to visiting her. Plus I actually get to teach. We talked about God's love and I testified about the miracle we experienced in our family. I actually don't think I have told you this. But one night when I was a sophomore in high school, I was really worn out from the divorce, and my long  busy days. I was exhausted; and I broke down. I asked Heavenly Father for strength cuz I didn't think I could do it any more and that somehow He would help my family. I heard "It will be ok." But I didn't understand how it could since I was the only very active one. Then you all got remarried :) I told her I know God loves everyone and all He asks is for us to be obedient. And then when we keep on enduring and obeying,  He blesses us and we see miracles happen in our life. She married a nonmember Japanese man so I think that might be why it is hard for her to come to church. But Baby Shimai is active and had a lot of "mission fire" so she is helping us!

 

Sunday. CHURCH :) I love Sundays. But that day the Jet Lag hit me hardest ( I may or may not have nodded off in relief society ha woops.....) Anywho. It was a fun experience. and Everyone is really nice. I just hope I can feel better next time!

 

Some additional:

 

- I will try and send pics, I didn't really take too many ( I feel really unattractive here, always sweating and frizzy hair.... but I will try and make myself. Really coveting Danielle's naturally straight hair right now ha).

 

- My Comp. Japanese, doesn't speak much English. That's been a challenge but we get by. Sister Nakamura. There is an "I'm a Mormon" video about her mom actually. Go to mormon.org and type in Nakamura. She has two sisters. She had cancer when she was younger and is the youngest girl. She looks like Mulan haha.

 

- Bro. and Sister Harris. My new grandparents. Sister Harris reminds me tons of Gram Linda. SO sweet!! They are from Utah and are the Mission secretary/ financial adviser. We get to stop in every day at the office and see them and hang out with them a bit on P Day. LOVE them! I will try to get a pic.

 

- Baby Shimai. She is Grammy Monna to a T, but the Phillipino version. haha.... Short hair, olive skin, and white straight teeth. And same mannerisms too. It's trippy. haha her Phillipino accent is so cute. I will also try to get a pic with her. So it's fun to have some fill-in grandmas here :) So grandma. Get some of that mission fire and get the family to meet with the missionaries ;)

 

Love you all!! Don't have tons of time left. But hopefully I filled you in enough.

 

Pray for all the missionaries and their investigators please.

 

Sister Haderlie

 

PS ( Our most progressed investigator was sick on Sunday so I haven't met her yet but her name is Ou san and we are trying to set a baptismal date with her and will let you know more about her next time...love ya!)    

soooo....I know it says posted by Chloe Haderlie @ the bottom of the posts, but it's really me, her mom; & I don't know how to change it!! I really don't even know why that last post scrolls. (the others didn't). ://

July 27th: "Konichiwa...........can you say I am a veteran of the MTC ha cuz it wouldn't be lie. We know where the least crowded bathrooms are, what food's where in the cafeteria, what order to do what on P day, where nearly Everything is. I could run this place ;) haha just kidding. But you know what's even crazier than me being a veteran here at the good ol' Provo MTC? that I am soon going to once again become a baby in the TOKYO JAPAN mission field. What?? I'm going to Japan....for 8 months I've been told I'm going to Japan and now it's actually going to happen. So.....on that note-   1). WE GOT TRAVEL PLANS. People actually leave the MTC. People actually fly on airplanes. People actually teach real investigators (in a foreign language!) ha so "kokoba" (crazy). We receieved them yesterday (friday) afternoon. That was an exciting moment.   2) I would like to tell you a little about one of the hardest days I had at the MTC that I failed to mention earlier.....so someone around here at the MTC (probably the same person who invented calculus or created Japanese) started this trend of "english fasts" AKA an "ego danjiki" ....and my district decided to give it a go......So, Ivory and I decided- let's do a regular fast too and get twice the blessings. hahaha. We were so naive ;) talk about a long rough day and the best dinner I've ever had. ha I think Ivory Shimai and I saw another side of one another that day (and we were total cheaters!) ha how are you supposed to plan a lesson in a foreign language when neither of us speak it very well?? So even though we cheated it was still a rough day. on That note.....   3) I'm sure glad Sister Ivory is my companion. ha she has the funniest comments sometimes, and everyone will go silent and then we all just bust up ha cuz it was something kind of random or that we don't expect from her, it's quite cute. It's been really fun being Sister Training Leaders together too. She just is a really good example to me of being patient with others (me) when she has to forego something she wants to do to adjust to my weakneses. She also is just really sweet to everyone around her. Not to mention....she's an alto :) ha and we sing a LOT. here so.....in other words, my companion rocks, she's super patient, and we like singing hymns.   4) Another thing I'd like to mention that I haven't before. On sunday we have these things called District Meetings and on Tuesday we have District Devotional reviews. These are some of THE best highlights of the week. On sunday, a companionship is given a topic and they all teach us. It's always super fun to see the "missionary teacher" side of everyone and they are always very uplifting and motivating. Then on Tuesdays, after the devotional, everyone meets in their districts and discusses what they liked/ learned from the devotional. It's always an eye opening experience and I love how I get to see a different side of the people that I spend so much time with. Whenever I find myself focusing more on the "potential for bad" side of people rather than the "potential for good" side of people I always remind myself, "each person has much more depth than you know.... expect the good and let them surprise you." Those times in the week is one of the times when I start to see that depth- a  glimpse of all the experiences that person has had to make them who they are today. Everyone's had rough days. Everyone's had tough experiences. Everyone has weakneses. Everyone has wishes and dreams. I think we are all much more similar than we think we are when you get down to it. Every person has worth. And I am really trying to learn just how much and how to never forget that. Those meetings help to remind me :) to not be quick to judge.   5) Ok so next thing, this past thursday (a few days ago) we had a "departure meeting!" ......it was SUPER duper cool. The speaker was someone who's involved in foreign MTC's and who served his mission in Japan. His topic was expectations. He showed us this picture of a runner.....and then told us that it captured the moment that this pro runner (i dont remember his name :/ .....curse this Horkley Gneiting brain of mine haha) ran the mile in under 4 minutes. Something that doctors had speculated was impossible and would literally stop one's heart. And he did it. And then 6 WEEKS later someone beat his time, and it's been getting faster and faster since. So his question was, how should we look at our challenges/ goals? what kind of expectations should we have for ourselves? and his point was.... if we look at things with a "can do" attitude the tasks do not actually become easier but we naturally work harder. he then went on to talk about how we all had preconcieved notions about Japan in a missionary sense (for example that the people are not receptive or that we will not baptize many) ... and that we needed to GET RID of them. No one knows but God what your mission is going to be like. So how do we come to know what expectations to have? he gave us 4 very good steps to take. In order to know what expectations we should have we need to know what kind of expectations God has for us. This is how we're supposed to do it. 1, pray. Pray sincerely and ask specifically for him to show what his particular expecation for me personally is (what he would have me do, say, etc). 2, study the scriptures. with Japan in mind (specifically Jacob 5). 3, learn more about the atonement and how it applies to everyone in a very real, everyday way 4, use priesthood leaders! especially those who are entitled to revelation for us (mission president, bishop, stake president) and give them opportunities to "turn their keys" ask what would you have me do?  ......And he ended with quotes from Heber J. Grant (who was sent in 1901) to open the "key" in Japan. They were INCREDIBLE quotes. One of them said that Japan would be one of the most successful missions ever opened and that the people would be receptive to our message. Someone who accompanied Heber J. Grant when he said the prayer (to open the mission) said that he could literally feel angels accompanying them. Later, Heber J. Grant told one of his children (as a prophet) that that was the best prayer he ever offered. Heavenly Father is really increasing the missionaries to Japan (there are LOTS here).....and I am SO priviledged to be called there. I am going to let go of all of my preconcieved notions and I can't wait to be part of the best mission in the world. It was super inspiring and made me not care if I don't know the language very well. I'm going and I'm going to do my best!   6) G- night hugs. As sister training leaders, one of our responsibilities to go check in on every girl EVERY night. Does anyone else know how long it takes me to do stuff? We are given one hour each night to be able to shower, get ready for bed, (prepare what I'm going to wear for the next day), to write in our journals and say personal and companionship prayers. "holy hannah." How am I supposed to do that?? ha at least that's what I thought. I LOVE giving all of the sisters good night hugs. and I really LOVE all of the sisters. They are all so incredible. When you have a calling where you are to look over/ love others Heavenly Father really blesses you with a view of how HE looks at them if you want it. I prayed for it and I definitely got it. Today is our last day being Sister Training Leaders (and last night of giving good night hugs)... I am going to miss it!!!!   7) " Jodan Deshita" ha number one was a joke mom. ha you think that's all I'm going to tell you about my travel plans!??....so....not this monday but the next (August 5th) we check out of the MTC at 1 pm :) woo hoo!!!! then we fly out of salt lake, have a one hour layover in Los Angeles, and then fly all the way to Tokyo!!... we get in Tokyo on their Tuesday at 11 pm. And we fly in to THE sweetest airport right off the coast and we are going to fly in AT NIGHT......so we get to see the city at night. I'm stoked it couldn't get any better. We don't have to wake up in the middle of the night, and we get a great view at night. It's super duper awesome. I'm stoked. With the time difference I'm not really sure how long our big flight actually is....but I copied my travel itinerary and am going to send it home so that you have all the details. And I will let you know for sure next saturday when I will be calling home :) (most likely on Monday).     Well that's it for this week. Love you all so very much!! One more email before you'll be recieving one from Japan :)   Sister Haderlie/ Haderlie Shimai   PS:  ahh. I forgot to tell you!!!!   I have seen: ....... Kailey Bird, Jamie Fifield, Piper Stocking, and Graham Rasmussen this week..... ha crazy how you still run into the people you know even tho there's a million missionaries here."

July 20th,

Konichiwa,

 

Watashi wa Haderi Shimai desu. Idaho Falls kara kimashita. hachi sai toki ni watashi wa baputesuma o ukemashita. So shitte utau koto dai suki desu yo. Tokyo no dendobu ni ikimasu. Watashi no Kazoku o ai shitte masu. Iesu Kirisuto ga mina san no Sukuinushi da to shitte imasu. Iesu Kirisuto no aganai ni yotte mina san o tsumi no yurushi o ukeru koto ga dekimasu. Kamisama ga mina san o ai suru to shitte imasu.

 

Hello!

 

I am Sister Haderlie. I came from Idaho Falls. When I was eight years old I was baptized. I really like to sing! I will go to the Tokyo Mission ( my mission). I love my family. I know that Jesus Christ is everyone's Savior. I know that through Jesus Christ's atonement everyone can receive a remission of their sins. I know that God loves everyone.

 

How is everyone doing??!?? I'm just kicking in the MTC for another week or two with my shimaitachi and "the elders." haha.....And then I'm off to Tokyo in under three weeks. UNDER THREE WEEKS people. Is this real life??? Ha I am soooo not ready. Japanese people speak with rapid tongues. Ha in other words, I'm half positive they literally just mouth half of the syllables- it's like a guessing game. But before you know it....I'm going to be full on Japanese speaking. Well, this week was a pretty busssssy week so I better get started on the updates.

 

1) Last Sunday. - the older groups had their LAST Sunday and we officially became part of the "dai senpai" or oldest group here. What?? I still feel like the baby here, and yet (besides the Tahitians) we have officially been in the MTC longer than any of the other missionaries here (besides other Asian speaking missionaries, we're on the same level) but isn't that crazy?? Well it was kind of sad to see them go, some of them became our good friends. Oh and that was the day we did the musical number! SO much fun... (and I LOVE the song a Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief) plus the arrangement was really cool. Ha we had accapella parts at the beginning and we were both a bit nervous so I think we raised the pitch and when the piano came in.... it was a pit rough. Ha but the last few verses made up for it ( I hope). ha Anyways.... it was a good experience!

 

2) Ok so.... basically all the "new" stuff to tell you about has to do with being an STL. SO this past Monday Ivory Shimai and I are just going about our business getting our dinner, and all the sudden this lady on the loud speaker gets on and says "Will Sis. Haderlie and Sis. Ivory please come to the front desk immediately?" ha. Our whole district looks at us with this look that basically said... What did you guys do?? ha. Anyways I start thinking, "I'm going home." They caught me humming "secular" songs on occasion or not being quiet at quiet time all the time or they heard me question some of their rules, I'm done for ;) ha no, not really. (That was just a bit of a spiel on this lockdown they call the MTC).... I think we both thought we did something wrong checking all the sisters from the older group out (which we had to stay up until 11:30 to do and help one room of sisters clean their room because they put off packing until the last minute, all the while Ivory had a bad cold.) Let's just say we were quite grumpy the next morning. Anywho we get to the front desk and there is a brand new missionary from Australia waiting for us :) woohoo! Our international missionary had come (or so we thought.....we were only supposed to have one and we ended up having three international sisters!!)..... But this one was named Sis. Jones- she was super cute and funny. She says stuff like "rubbish" and such and she thought the mountains were so cool. Anywho, the next evening we got to meet the other two and take them to the Tuesday Devotional with us. (Sister Mandano from the Philippines and Sister Amituanai from Australia as well). Sis. Mondano is this super adorable, quite proper tiny tan skinned Filipino. And Sister Ami has quiiiite the personality ha I love her. She reminds me of Sadie a bit. She's Samoan and is hilarious, she totally just speaks her mind and has the greatest sense of humor. But it was so fun! Getting to talk with them and answer all their questions and take care of them.

 

3) New missionary Wednesday. Ok So our branch has 6 districts. 2 Oldest Groups, 2 Middle Groups, and 2 greenie groups. We just got our 2 new greenie groups this past Wednesday... one of 12 people (4 girls) and one of 13 people (4 girls) ha so a little different from our district. Anyways us and the ZL's got to go introduce ourselves to one group and give them the "schedule lowdown" and then switch and give the other group a tour. It made us feel important. Ha and they were such a language ego boost- to the newbies the oldest groups are all knowledgeable when it comes to Japanese. Ha.... definitely not good for whatever humility I have ;) (Oh... and almost all of the Elders from the new groups are fresh out of high school..... it's interesting ha)

 

4) Branch Meeting. So the first Thursday you're here you always meet the Branch Presidency (similar to a bishopric) ... well they all get called out one by one for interviews towards the last half of the meeting  and during that time the ZLs and the STLs do some training. That was really fun! They all paid attention really well... I was impressed. And they all introduced themselves at the beginning and bore quick testimony (it was so cute). I loved it. It was a nice break from the routine and it's nice to feel knowledgeable and capable for a change ;) anywho....I'll try and take a pic with them and send it.

 

5) Also had a few good lessons this week!! Sister Ivory and I are trying to use notes/ books less and speak from our brains/hearts more- it was difficult. But by our last lesson, we'd improved alot!

 

6) The Devos were both superrr good this week. This past Sunday in Relief Society this lady came that anchors for a Utah news station on religion and she told us a bunch of stories from her experiences of going to all of these crazy and/or remote places and interviewing members plus she told us her conversion story ( she and her family were converted in Ohio; Dad, I forget where; but pretty cool!) she was way awesome.... then that same night Bro Heaton spoke to us (he's in charge of all the MTCs) and he pulled newer member missionaries from the audience and asked them to relay their conversion stories. His talk was all about how the Lord is preparing those you teach. They are having experiences that are already bringing them closer to them so that when you teach it may be more impactful/ they will truly recognize us as servants of the Lord because they will be looking for us. Also.... I know every missionary says this:) but with the whole member push maybe try to get involved in missionary work any way you can & read the BoM together. anywho.... just some thoughts! Oh and Tuesday was Gordon B. Hinckley's son, so that was also cool.

 

7) some extra: last night we all put on face masks that Day Shimai's mom had sent us and took pics....haha it was super funny!!!! I will try and send some (please excuse my pajamas compared to all of the sisters...haha) but it was a blast. Oh and I decided Day Shimai reminds me of a grown up Grace- she has quite the personality. Oh and on a random side not there are all these pictures everywhere in the MTC of missionaries in different places at different times. I LOVE them SOO much. I could get lost for days looking at all of them. Some of them are such cool shots (with kids, at baptisms, standing on street corners on boxes proclaiming the word, etc.) My goal is to make it on the MTC wall one day. Ha....

 

Well folks....... that that thats all for now!! i think :) Kind of a shorter email this week but hopefully I will be able to send some pics!  

 

Love you All very much!!!!

 

Sister Haderlie

"Go Japan! Go the Temple! Love You!!!!"

OK, so I've just been posting mostly Chloe's emails, but she writes such great ones, there's no way I could paraphrase them!!!! 

 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.

 

July 6th:

 What???? THis upcoming wednesday I will be halfway over my MTC time. Isn't that crazy (especially since we Japanese speakers have one of the longest times....ha we need it tho!). Well... who wants to hear an update about this week? Cuz I sure want to type it (ha it's quite a marathon fitting everything in in the time I have).. But here we go!

 

Sunday. Ok so Sunday's are the next best thing to BYU ice cream around here. They Rock. First of all because we get to sleep in. SLEEP IN until 6;30 (never thought I'd be saying that) haha. But it's true. We have to wake up at 6 most of the week to be ready and to breakfast on time (we have the earliest meal time....lucky me). Ha but then we have some study time/ get interviewed by Branch presidency members- and they are all way cool. So I don't mind that and my district usually ends up watching Mormon Messages- which I absolutely LOVE..... they're the best (and there may or may  not be a few tears shed- and don't exclude the elders) ha I think it's actually a really good thing that we're becoming familiar with them because they can invite the spirit really well and may be very hand to use in lessons in the most technologically oriented city in the world :) anywho. That's the best. THEN all the sisters get to go to "music and the spoken word" and since music isn't allowed here at the MTC (have I told you that yet??? NO playing music.....I think my soul is slowly dying. ha) but anyways that makes music and the spoken word even better because it's the only real music we hear all week. Then we have a BIG sister missionary relief society (and always sing Sisters in Zion which is always pretty powerful) and we always have a speaker. This last week was Sheri Dew :) she was incredible. She talked a bit about a young girl she knows who is having a major trial of faith because of popular worldly views that seem intelligent and enticing but turn away from the gospel. She touched on how IMPORTANT it is for us all to learn how to receive revelation and through that revelation to come to a divine witness of who we really are- a spirit and a body joined that has an infinite history and an infinite potential, and also how we should really dive in to the scriptures and learn the doctrine of Christ because as we learn more about who He really is and what He really did our faith will begin to become unshaken. Anywho- super good and motivating, she's awesome. Then we go back to our room (more Mormon messages haha) and then sacrament (mostly in Japanese....we can finally sing the hymns pretty well!!- all Japanese characters)......then more time :) man I love Sundays. Then devo (always good) then church movie time!! This time it was an address by Elder Holland- "for such a time as this." incredible . I was bawling--- why am I so lucky to live in a time where the gospel is destined to finally work. To finally touch hearts and change lives and consume the whole earth. and to be able to be a part of it in the convenient, comfortable, modern world. I am definitely blessed more than I deserve.

 

HOSTING. woo hoo! My first week of hosting. :) it was interesting but super fun. I can't believe it was my turn to be the HOST and not the HOSTEE. Watching people get dropped off at the curb was SO interesting. Ok I'm a people watcher anyways (haha creeper I know) but watching people on such an emotional day was fascinating. There were alot more elders than sisters getting dropped off this past week (I chalk it up to high school graduation ha) so I literally stood on the curb for an hour until a car with a girl came to my spot. But that's ok I was entertained between watching families say goodbye and talking to other hosts. It was just neat to see the variety of people that came. Different cultures, different sizes of families, different classes- it's "neat" how the gospel really is applicable to Anyone. No matter where they come from, how much many they have, or what their interests are. They just have to be willing to give their desires to God's will and God will make more of their life (and give them more truth) than they could ever make or find for themselves. It's beautiful. Anywho- me and ky tangents. I FINALLY got a baby missionary. I was so excited...ha it's nervewracking to be the one pulling a child away from their parents ha you're always nervous you're going to say the wrong thing. But her name was Sister Little :) she was a cutie going to Baltimore, Maryland and her fam was super cute too! She seemed excited to finally be here and ran into like 6 of her good friends. I wasn't worried about her. ha Then I got my Second baby- Sister Vazquez. She had a very cute (quite sad) Latino family. Grandma and all.... ha they were all so cute. She's from California heading to Texas and is the first to serve in her family. I could tell she was really nervous. I tried to reassure her that the MTC was really fun and she's get used to everything and that being a missionary is great. (ha but trying to do that while sweating like mad woman and hauling her luggage up three flights of stairs is a bit of a challenge. AND it's always embarrassing when you can't find their rooms ha. O well). But I hope she is doing ok! But hosting was a fun experience! Ill probably do it again (PS ran into Kristen Crofts and Kristen Barrett quite a few times, such cute fun girls!)

 

Fourth of July. A Holiday in the MTC?? ha basically a normal day but they tricked us a bit at the end. the Fourth was awesome! We all wore red, white, and blue (well except for Elder Cottle who insisted he doesn't get to wear his purple tie enough) ha but it was cool to see the rest of us (and the rest of the MTC) all reppin for America. Normal schedule (studying, lessons, class, and meals). But our second class was a little different. Often they "demonstrate teaching" for us. Which is where our sensai teaches one of us a lessons but this day our girl teacher (Tingy) had us do a class demonstration. Where she was herself and we needed to teach her something about the Gospel. Recently I've been praying to be able to tell when the spirit is really prompting/ guiding me (super important for a missionary). And in that lesson I felt prompted. Often. And I could definitely tell that it wasn't my own ideas but inspiration. We did it in Jap-glish ha (half and half). But I felt inspired to ask what her number on trial in life is right now and she expressed some issues with family members falling away and all had some really good things to say. Many felt the spirit strong enough to shed tears (including myself). And both teacher and students were "edified together." Sometimes I was a little hesitant to say things that I was prompted to say and then was always really glad when I did and could tell that it meant something to her personally. I love the spirit! and I have taken it for granted- really trying to watch for it. BUT>>>> we got out of class early and went to a mini patriotic devo (sang songs and listened to a speaker/ musical number for a bit). Then we got to watch a MOVIE :) another one of my favorite things I have been missing a bit. We got to watch 17 miracles. ah....SO good. But makes me CRY every time! So much. And wonder why me? why was i privileged to not have to endure SUCH back breaking/ heart breaking trials. How grateful I am to those that did. That movie also makes me realize how weak my faith can be sometime. Some people have sacrificed ALL to do what God has asked them to do and sometimes I don't do even the simplest things because "i don't want to." A quote that I liked and that stuck out to me was something like this: " The fight that ALL of us must fight between fear and faith," Choosing faith can sometimes be scary (and often risky) but in the end it is ALWAYS the safest thing to do- no matter what it is we are asked to do/ sacrifice. THEN>>>>>> we got to watch fireworks!!!!!!! ha reminded me of good ol' Idaho Falls. SO fun to live there during fourth of July. And we got Magnum ice cream bars (yum) and my district took a bunch of fun pictures) AND we didn't have to go to bed until like 11:30. It was a pretty crazy day. Living it up here at the MTC (or so i thought until I still had to wake up at 6:30 the next morning). ha Oh well. Still worth it.

 

Ok a couple more things. I'm part of a musical number for our branch- singing an arrangement of a poor, wayfaring man of grief with another elder. Pretty excited I got asked to do that. It is getting HOT here. Woo....(break out the cotton garments :) haha. AND the ponytails. The temple is now closed for cleaning. SO  it looks like my P days just got a lot longer (and less holy). Ha you win some you lose some. But I am quite looking forward to the extra time for the next few weeks. Also. My district is still the funniest in the MTC. Boys never grow up (and girls secretly don't either). Ha we have plenty of fun (prob too much) and lots of inside jokes! I love it. It's my fam away from home. Glad to be a missionary for another week and many more to come!!!!

 

Love you all.

 

Sister Haderlie.