11/26/2013
Konichiiwa kazoku to tomodachi!

Happy week of Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is just full to the brim with grateful thoughts and thankful hearts! I know I am! I am so blessed to be able to serve the Lord and be in the MTC during Thanksgiving! I am also seriously soo grateful for everyone's love and support. I really do feel all of your prayers as I strive to be the best senkyoshi I can be. :)

Seriously, thank you so much for the dear elders and emails and letters. They make me so shiawase (happy)! I love the weekly updates I get on every Monday from mom and dad. They are the highlight of my Dear Elder-absent weekend. :)

So this week I feel was much less eventful than last week. But here are some things that happened...

I got to host this week. Which means that I just helped all of the new missionaries who got dropped of at the curb and told them where to go and such. It was soooooo fun! I got to meet a lot of really cool people. Plus it was raining and there was hot chocolate available to us. And who doesn't love rain and hot chocolate?

Ok so my favorite progressing investigator's name is Naritasan. And I kid you not he is the bomb. Teaching him makes me remember why I love being a missionary. He took the discussions from the senkyoshis before demo (but) as soon as the senkyoshis got transferred he stopped coming to church. So my doryo and I are teaching him once again. Seeing him slowly begin to understand how the fukuin (gospel) can specifically apply to his life is an amazing thing. It makes me super excited for Nihon (Japan)! 

We will be getting a devotional from one of the general authorities on Thursday for Thanksgiving so I'm pretty stoked about that. They're keeping who it is a tight secret though, demo I promise to let you know who it is on my next P-day.

Soo you know how everyone says that you gain weight and get fat here in the MTC? Well I have promised myself that I'm not going to do that. So in order to keep that promise I made a bet with one of the chorotachi (elders) in my district. The bet is if I gain over 3 pounds of what I weighed myself on November 11 then I have to lay in snow for 20 seconds. Demo, if I don't gain that much weight then he has to take 3 laxative pills. So I am determined not to gain weight. Needless to say that gym time is my favorite. :) 

So as you all know my doryo and I have a lot of differences. And this hasn't effected our teaching but it's just made for somewhat of an awkward relationship. So something that I've tried to focus on this week and for the rest of my time here at the MTC is every day I hide a little sticky note in her things. The sticky note says one reason that I'm grateful for her for that day. This is really causing me to focus on the wonderful things about her throughout the day so I can write the sticky note that night. I've only done it for a few days but I believe I am starting to see an improvement. A general authority once said, "you don't have to like your companion, but you do have to love them." And I truly do love my doryo. It's just sometimes it's hard to like her. hahahah that tabun (probably) doesn't make any sense to you guys. Demo, I know that if you focus on the good in people then you will begin to love them as Christ and their Heavenly Father loves them. I am starting to experience that and it's a pretty cool thing. :)

The Nihongo is coming along slowly demo surely. The reason I write a lot of Nihongo words in my emails home is because I've completely committed myself to SYL (Speak Your Language). Which just means that I am speaking Nihongo in every way I can. It's helping a lot. And in every ressun ((lesson) haha I love that ressun in Nihongo sounds super similar to lesson in English. Except for the l of course. Typical Asians) I can feel the improvement with the language. The thing that is helping me at this point is diligent study and the shinko (faith) that as long as I do my very best then the Lord will take care of the rest. And lots of prayers help too. :)

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving is super happy and I hope you all are surrounded with people you love! I love all of you so much! Dad, give Nana, Pop, and Cici a big hug and kiss for me. Tell them I love them! And if you could give me Nana and Pop's address that would be splendid. 

Keep loving people and loving your lives! We've been given so much, I hope you take the time, especially this week, to appreciate all of the blessings! 

Ai shitemasu! 

Aulick Shimai