Ohayo kazoku to tomodachi!

Life is good at the MTC. Just living and loving the gospel! Nihongo is coming along slowly but surely. It's hard. But I'm continuing to try to learn it as best as I can.

Thank you so much for the dear elders and emails and love I receive! I love knowing what's going on in everyone's life. Dad, I love the weekend updates I get from you and mom. SO JEALOUS THAT YOU GOT TO SEE ENDER'S GAME. I'll be excited to see that when I get back. :) I'm so grateful for everyone's support! Feel free to dear elder me more though and write as often as you can. It makes P-day a little more fun when you have people you can write back to. :)

Sooooo nothing much happened this week at the MTC. I guess I can just go over what a typical day looks like...

6:30 wake up get ready

7 District devotional

7:15 breakfast

7:45-8:50 personal study

8:50-11:50 class

11:50 Lunch

12:50-1:40 Gym

2:10-3:10 Language Study

3:10-4:10 TALL (online language study program)

4:10-4:50 Additional Study

4:50 Dinner

5:35-8:35 companionships in our district rotate teaching our investigator.

8:35-9 Additional Study

9-9:30 plan for the next day

These things rotate depending on what day it is but this is what a typical day looks like. 

So as you can see there is a lot of study time. And I seriously love it. I never feel like I have enough study time, even though looking over this it seems like I have oodles of time.

Oh! Something exciting I realized that happened this week is that our first investigator, Suzukisan, stopped being our investigator and is now our sensei (teacher) instead! All of the shimaitachi in our district talk about how great he is all of the time because he seriously is pretty great. All of our sensei are probably the most beautiful creatures we've ever beheld. That's not even just the shimaitachi talking, it's the chorotachi (elders) talking as well. So now we have 2 new kyudosha (investigator) to teach this week. Yesterday my doryo and I taught one of them and I was not feeling good at all yesterday. (Don't worry mom I'm talking lots of Airborne every day. Even though it tastes REPULSIVE.) And so the Seirei was not in the words I said at all because I just felt so horrible. It was disappointing. But this whole MTC thing is a learning experience. So I'm going to do better next time.

Sorry this isn't a very exciting letter but after the first week nothing is super exciting anymore. I'll send a few pictures in another email of some things that happened. But here it is! The life of an American senkyoshi (missionary) trying to speak Japanese! Love you all and I'm so grateful the people I have in my life because you all are the greatest! Continue to love the Lord with all of your heart!

Ai Shiteru, 

Aulick Shimai

Konichiwa Kazoku!

Wow what an incredible week. I promise to do my best to answer all of your questions while at the same time telling you about my well being. Assuming that that is why you want me to email you all...

Well it is crazy busy here everyday. You literally schedule every minute of every day with meaningful study. I love it so much. I am seriously in my element here because I love to work hard and that is exactly what the Lord expects you to do. So I'm kind of doing great! I would even call it thriving. It's incredible. The Seirei (Holy Ghost) is so tangent and revelation is readily available whenever you need it. I love it here and I love being a missionary!

My doryo (companion) name is Steffen Shimai (Sister Steffen). She's from Las Vegas and her and I are very different. But I love learning to love her as Iesu Kirisuto to Ten no Otosama loves her. So I'm learning but love is there. :) My district is super rad! I love all of them. I live with 2 other Shimai so there's 4 of us total in one room. It's super tanashii (fun). There are 6 chorotachi (elders) and 4 shimaitachi (sisters) in our district. 6 of them have had previous Japanese experience. Soooooo I feel a little lost sometimes but it's really helpful to have people with Nihongo (Japanese) experience. Especially when one of them is my doryo.

So here are some answers to some questions I've been asked...

Neck pillow worked out subarashii! (wonderful) It is true what they say that if you make it through your first Sunday then everything else is fine. I guess, kind of. I never really felt like I was sinking. But I know that the only reason I feel that is because I feel peace through complete obedience while I'm here in the MTC. So peace truly comes from Christ. Love that. Tell Grandma GG that I love her and tell her happy birthday for me! Food is ok, it's edible. but I'll give you a list of things that I would like for you to send... :)

While I'm thinking about it would you email me Trevor, Megan and Heather's email address. I can't believe I never thought to get that before I left. Also would you please forward this email to them that'd be great, thanks!

So first week here was pretty much what I expected. I'm grateful for friends that were already here who were able to give me great tips and expectations of what the MTC is like. So that helped a loooottttt. My doryo and I have already taught 3 lessons to our investigator in Nihongo. That's right, no Eigo (english), and all Nihongo. The first lesson was carazy stressful but then I realized that all I can do is try my best and the Lord will take care of the rest. And he absolutely has. 2nd lesson was better but we still didn't feel like we were progressing at all. BUT THEN yesterday, he said he recognized and felt the Seirei for the first time! It was super great. Especially because there was a long pause and my doryo and I didn't really know what to say. But then all of a sudden Moroni 10:3-5 came to my mind and I asked him to read it (remember this is all in Nihongo). The Seirei was SO STRONG. And I guess I'll say that I'm grateful for seminary because without it I wouldn't have known to have him read that scripture (yeah yeah I know). So we invited him last night to pray to know if our message is shinjitsu (true). So I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow!

On Sunday you do a lot of sitting and listening and studying and sitting and listening. Sunday was probably my longest day. I was sooooo exhausted by the end but it's all good.

My favorite time of the day is GYM TIME. I miss being active so much. So being able to take a break from sitting around all day is great.

The flight was fine, it was long but fine. I was able to sleep a bit. Geez that seems like months ago but it was only like a week.

I have to wake up at 6:30 at the latest to be ready and out the door by 7. So I usually wake up somewhere around 6:10. We don't get back to our rooms until around 9:35 every night and we have to be in bed with the lights off at 10:30 with the whole day we are either studying, learning about Nigongo, eating, or teaching. Or gym time. But that's literally all I do all day. AND I LOVE IT.

Anyway I hope that was able to cover all of your questions! But I'm doing great! I love the work and I love the Lord!

Iesu Kirisuto wa kansha shimas. Seirei wa kansha shimas. Josefu Sumisu wa yogensha to shite imas. Kodo fukuin wa shinjitsu to shite imas. Kazoku wa kansha shimas. Kodo fukuin wa koko ai suru.

I love you all and stay safe and strong in the gospel!

Ai Shiteru

Aulick Shimai.