06/26/2014 Klein Shimai's 4th MTC Week!

Konnichiwa!

I have a bunch of random stuff to say so ill just get started! Our zone got a kohai (new district) this past week as well as 3 nihonjin so weve been helping them adjust to mtc life. teaching the kohai grammar and vocab really helps us learn as well- its great!

On sunday we were walking back from relief society and saw 3 black audis and some other cars parked on the sidewalk. we knew something was up because of all the general authorites that are here for the mission president conference. we kept looking through the window and saw Elder Hales being escorted into one of the cars! he is so precious! apparently we had just missed President Monson and Pres. Eyring get into the audis! darn it! they are like celebrities here we just love them sooo much. Sunday's devotional was Janice Kapp Perry. She used to be in motab and she wrote as sisters in zion, a childs prayer, and a ton of others songs. she talked about the spirit that music can bring into our lessons! it was really cool- she is hilarious!

so our investigator Narita- we finally got him to recognize the spirit in one of our lessons, which has been a goal for a long time. we taught him about the different ways he can feel the spirit because he said he didnt really know how. then we asked him how he felt and he said "good". then we told him that "good" feeling WAS the spirit! we asked him, "Right now, do you think you feel the spirit?" and he said YES. it was so amazing and i could definitely feel the spirit. it was an answer to many of my prayers. we challenged him to ponder for a few minutes after he prayed at night to really listen for his Heavenly Father to speak to Him, since pray is two- way communication!

On Tuesday we practiced teaching less actives. Our teachers pretended to be less active people that they actually taught on their own missions in fukuoka! the less actives are still in fukuoka so my goal is to go and find them once i get to Nihon! we taught about prayer and asked Oshima San to share an experience about prayer that he had. he told us about when he prayed to know whether or not he should get baptized it was so cool. then he asked us to share an experience weve had about prayer and i told him how God constantly answers my prayers by giving me the igen no tamamono (gift of tongues). The spirit was SO strong and i began to cry as i thought about how much the Lord has strengthened me. He has blessed me so much and there is no way i could learn nihongo this fast without Him there by my side. 

Tuesday night's devotional was Elder Christofferson! He spoke about the worth of souls and about how important it is to love our investigators and the people we teach. he said the worth of a soul is a person's capacity to become like God. i thought that definition was really cool. He also said, "If you teach by the Spirit, people will not be able to disbelieve the truthfulness of your witness." how cool is that?! whether or not they accept what we say, they wont be able to deny that it is true! guess who else was at the devotional? Elders Bednar, Oaks, Ballard, Anderson, and Nelson. The spirit was so strong and it felt like we were having our own mini general conference! it was so awesome. only at the mtc can you see 9 apostles in the span of 4 weeks. i love it here!

everything else is pretty much the same here- the language is coming along and we're finally able to teach without looking at notes! weve been relying more on the spirit and worrying less about what we are going to say. even if what we say comes out totally wrong, the investigator is able to feel the spirit better that way than if we were staring at notes the whole time. I love this work and this gospel. it is true! i wouldn't trade my mission for anything. one of my friends wrote me and said something along the lines of "your worst day in the mission field is still better than any day you could have not on your mission." that helped me so much. im so lucky to be here! i cant believe im halfway done with the mtc. it really does feel like i just got here 2 weeks ago. I know this is where im supposed to be. Love and miss you all! take care!

Ai shite imasu!

Klein Shimai

3 sets of 06/26/2014 Pics

06/26/2014 Pics

All the food we have!

Elder Hales (one of the Apostles) arriving.

All the sisters from our district with Kaneko Shimai, a nihonjin that's here for 2 weeks from Fukuoka

2 elders from our zone that already left for Nihon!

06/26/2014 Pics

Map of where everyone in our zone is going

Chapman Shimai and me with district leaders of the new kohai that just came in

6/19/2014 Klein Shimai's 3rd Week in MTC

Hello!

Time is flying by so quickly here! Ahh! I have a bunch of random stuff to say so I guess I'll get started. This weekend and early next week is the mission president training seminar- which means the main building here at the MTC is basically on lockdown because the first presidency and 12 apostles will be here!!!!! We're told that security will be super intense and to be on our best behavior.We will  have a special sacrament meeting on sunday with the whole mtc and the elders in my district were asked to pass the sacrament to the first presidency! theyre so nervous that theyre going to drop it on their laps haha. We also have a special devotional on tuesday that will be 2 hours. We're probably going to hear from multiple apostles and maybe even the prophet. Im so excited!

Chapman Shimai and i taught our district meeting on sunday- it went really well. Im so grateful i was called to be a sunday school teacher up at byu because it has definitely helped and improved my teaching skills. 

Sheri Dew was our devotional speaker on sunday. She is amazing and so smart! She talked about the power of God and grace and how we do not have to do our missions on our own. She encouraged us to pray to God to help us recognize how we each receive our own  personal revelation- since it's different for everyone.

So our district has the privilege of getting the missionaries from japan. so they come, stay for 2 weeks learning how to teach, and them return to japan to serve their missions. they are so adorable and i love them all so much! i cant look at them without smiling! ill try to send a pic of me with the shimai tachi.

My Nihongo is getting better and better and it feels so good! I've memorized Moroni 10:5 and the challenge to be baptized in japanese. I've used them both in lessons and it was awesome! I'm working on the first vision right now. it's like twice as long in japanese than it is in english! We've really been trying to teach our investigators without looking at our notes because it enables to teach with the Spirit a lot easier. You focus more on the investigator and less on how you are going to say something. The spirit will definitely give you in the very hour what ye shall say!

TRC on Monday was great. (Thats the FHE thing we have each week with members). We taught a Japanese girl who served her mission in tokyo. she said we reminded her of her favorite companion- she was american and her japanese wasnt the best but she said ppl would rather listen to the american with broken japanese than to her, whose japanese was perfect. that made us feel so much better! haha she also said that the spirit was so strong whenever her companion attempted to bear her testimony. Im so excited to go to Japan!

Our devotional on Tuesday was Elder Ballard! He talked about not letting the noise of the world distract us when we leave for the mission field. he talked a lot about ignoring news reports that we hear and how we should be faithful to God, not to public opinion. i thought it was interesting. My favorite line that he said was this,"The prophets and the apostles of the church cannot and will not lead you astray." That is so true! They are called of God and I could definitely feel that when Elder Ballard walked into the room. 

Not much else has changed, our investigators are still slowly progressing, one still struggles with faith. We don't give up though!

I'm so glad I decided to serve a mission. My relationship with my Savior and Heavenly Father have been strengthened so much. This is the true church and it's the same exact church that Christ set up when He was on the earth. I love this gospel and I love you all! Have a great week!

Ai shite imasu!

Klein Shimai

06/19/2014 Pics

Cameron, a friend from BYU - not allowed to have physical contact with boys/men - notice the awkward hands.  haha

For Marshall!

My District

My Zone

Me and the Nihonjin!  Aren't they cute?

In case you are wondering what the Missionary Training Center (MTC) is like for Addy...

Missionary Training Centers Help Hasten the Work of Salvation

Throughout the world, 15 missionary training centers provide training for more than 85,000 missionaries from 143 countries. Collectively the missionaries learn 55 languages from 1,600 instructors, then serve up to two years in 405 missions across more than 150 nations.

With the growth in the number of missionaries since age requirements were changed in October 2012, the MTCs are accommodating a greater number of missionaries than ever before. With at least one MTC in every hemisphere, the sun never sets on training.

Missionaries generally arrive at an MTC with a foundation of religious knowledge gained from instruction at home and in the Church. The centers provide additional training that includes how to teach in the manner that Jesus Christ taught and how to invite people to follow Him. Missionaries practice teaching situations, receive language training where applicable, listen to weekly devotional addresses from Church leaders and MTC staff, and participate in service opportunities.

The largest MTC is located in Provo, Utah, USA. It provides training for thousands of missionaries in 55 languages. The second-largest MTC is found in Mexico City, Mexico. In June 2013 it was relocated from a smaller building to a 90-acre campus that previously housed a private Church high school, Benemerito de las Americas. The former location could accommodate around 125 missionaries at a time; the new location can accommodate more than 1,000.

Additional MTCs are located in Buenos Aires, Argentina; São Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Bogotá, Colombia; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Preston, England; Accra, Ghana; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Auckland, New Zealand; Lima, Peru; Manila, Philippines; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Madrid, Spain.

06/12/2014 Klein Shimai's 2nd week in MTC!

Konnichiwa!!

I can't believe I'm already done with my second week here. I'm definitely already seeing how quickly time flies by while your on your mission. This week was amazing! So, Narita San, our investigator has been progressing well. He prayed about the Book of Mormon! Except big problem- when he was describing the feeling he got afterwards, we literally couldn't understand a word of what he said. Soo it could've gone well or he could've felt nothing.I have no idea which one... We're definitely going to discuss it again at the beginning of our next lesson haha. Also, we get to class on Monday, and guess who walks in to teach us? Narita San. He is one of our teachers now! It is so weird to teach our teacher. He just takes off his name tag and tie when we teach him.

We got a second investigator this week, Mai San. She is also one of our teachers! She doesn't know much about God or what we do as missionaries so we taught her about our purpose and about who God is. We taught her about pray and how to pray. We taught her the steps of prayer and then I prayed as an example. After, we challenged her to try and she said YES! She offered a wonderful prayer and the Spirit was so strong. She said she would pray again last night! 

In personal study in 2 Nephi, in the Isaiah chapters, I came across the line, "And His arms are outstretched still". that just really hit me. God is ALWAYS there for us, no matter what  we have been through. We shared this with Narita in one of our lessons, and he really liked it. I thanked Heavenly Father for guiding me to that verse during personal study. 

Sunday was such a great day. We got to watch The Testament. It was such a treat- everyone freaked out during the scene where they kiss- kind of annoying haha. So each week, everyone from our district has to prepare a sacrament talk, in Nihongo of course, and then we randomly get picked! i didn't get picked this week- but Chapman Shimai and I got picked to teach our district meeting on sunday. It's on repentance and I'm really excited. We're allowed to teach in English! It's gonna feel really weird to speak in English!

Tuesday night was our devotional. Elder Quentin L. Cook came and it was so awesome! He spoke specifically about Japan! We were on the 4th row! He talked a lot about focusing on building up the wards and stakes wherever we serve. He said to never feel inadequate because missionary work is spiritual work. You don't need to speak the language perfectly in order to serve someone! He says that sometimes just a simple prayer or testimony is all that someone needs to hear in order to be reminded of this gospel that they have already heard before this life. It was such a great talk!

On Monday night we had TRC again, which is like FHE. We teach two 20 min lessons in Japanese to members- who volunteer. We got two people that were actually from Japan and they spoke so fast it was hard to understand! We taught them about the Atonement and got to all share our testimonies. It was really neat. 

Sunday's devo was by Bro. Heaton, the admin director of the MTC. He talked about how to teach the law of chastity more effectively. He really made me think about it in a different way. He talked about how everything that has to do with life is truly sacred to the Lord- our thoughts, feelings, conversations, and behaviors. and then he said that the only times when we have the power to create life is our life on earth right now and in the celestial kingdom- that just shows how important and powerful it is! His message was really good!

Thanks everyone for the continued support and for the dear elders. They mean so much to me! My testimony has been strengthened so much since being here and I can't wait to actually get to Nihon. I love this gospel and there's no place I'd rather be right now. 

Love, 

Klein Shimai

6/12/2014 Pics

E-mail from Klein Shimai! - 06/05/2014

Konnichiwa!

Dear family & friends,

This week has been the longest week of my life! It has seriously felt like an eternity. But like everyone says, I'm sure the weeks will start flying by. So the first day was rough, especially hugging my mom and dad goodbye. But after that it has seriously been go go go ever since. Getting my nametag was awesome! I feel like a real missionary now. I'd send pics but this computer won't let me attach photos. I will try next week! After registering and doing all that I picked up all the books and then went straight to class. My teacher is from Tokyo and she didn't speak any English to us the first day. We all felt like we were already in Japan or something. It was  hard but I slowly began to pick up on what in the world she was talking about. I've heard her speak maybe 10 words in English since we've been here. It definitely helps though to be immersed in the language so quickly. 

So my companion is Chapman Shimai and she was born in Russia! She was adopted when she was nine and has lived in provo ever since. Her foster parents have 11 kids of their own and then adopted 13 kids from Russia and Ukraine! Her story is amazing. By the way, she was originally called to L'viv Ukraine also! Same with one other girl in my district. She was bummed with the change because she speaks russian fluently so learning ukrainian wouldve been a lot easier for her then learning japanese. we get along really well and I couldn't have asked for a better companion. we just connected right away. 

So we leave our rooms usually by 6:30am and then dont return till 9:30pm. We're in our classroom for like 12 hours every day! It's like our little home. Our backs are always killing us but we manage. So we started teaching our investigator, Narita, the second day!! In Japanese!!! the first lesson was seriously the hardest thing I've ever done. We had no idea what he was saying so we couldn't reply to anything he asked or said. It was basically him saying stuff and us looking in our dictionaries the whole time to figure out what he said. But earlier that day we had learned how to bear a simple testimony so I said mine at the end of the lesson and the Spirit was SO strong. I started to cry and I hope that he felt the spirit too. That was a testimony to me that the Spirit can touch anyone, no matter what language the testimony is said in. So we have a lesson with Narita everyday except sundays and p days. He didn't know what God is or anything like that. So we've taught him a lot about faith and how much God loves him.  We've also taught him about repentance, the Bible, and the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel. He always keeps the commitments that we challenge him to do each lesson, so that is really nice. He even prayed for us at the end of one of our lessons! he is slowly coming along. 

The first few days here were really hard for me. I was super hard on myself and was frustrated with the fact that my Japanese is horrible. It's so frustrating to be in a lesson and then have a question asked that you know how to answer perfectly in English but have no idea how to answer in Japanese. It's slowly getting better though and I just take one day at a time. I've spent a lot of time on my knees lately and I know that the Lord has answered my prayers. Each day I'm able to learn more and more and I'm so grateful for the gift of tongues. 

So we do a service project twice a week! At 6:15 am. It kinda stinks cause we have to wake up at like 5:45 but we always feel better after we serve. It's kinda funny cause all the service projects are like janitor jobs. We clean bathrooms, vaccuum, and dust about anything you can imagine. The MTC's janitors are basically the missionaries haha. It's really fun though because we do it as a district and make each other laugh. Did I mention that I love my district? We get along super well and have grown so close in just 8 days. We're constantly making each other smile and laugh- something that you absoluetley need to do when you're stuck in a classroom for like 10 hours a day.

 

On Sunday we get to walk to the temple and hang out there for like an hour, which is super nice. We took lots of pics but Ill have to send them next week, sorry. 

Learning Japanese is honestly the hardest thing I've ever done. But I can already feel the many blessings from being a missionary! I love this gospel with all my heart and can't wait to get to Nihon to share it with the people there. I know this church is true and that it's the only thing that can make you really, truly happy. The spirit at the MTC is so strong and I love it! Love you all and miss you! 

Love,

Klein Shimai