Christine wanted to show us all the Senkyoshi walking up to the temple:
All of the sisters. From left to right; Budge, Walker, Long, Grosland, Dobson, Hansen, Black, Buhler, Eddy, Champenois, and Stankosky-shimai.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
PICTURE TIME! Weeks 8-11
All of the sisters. From left to right; Budge, Walker, Long, Grosland, Dobson, Hansen, Black, Buhler, Eddy, Champenois, and Stankosky-shimai.
August 21, 2012
Mina-san!
Ohaiyo Gozaimasu! This is it! It’s my last week here at the MTC! By this time next week I’ll be in Japan!
How crazy is that?! It still doesn’t quite seem real, you know? I’ve been telling people I’m going to
Japan since February… Now it’s actually happening!
I’ll be honest, this week was rather rough. I think it sort of hit everyone that we’re not going to see most
of these people again. I’ve made a lot of really good friends here in the MTC and it’s going to be so hard
to say goodbye to them. (Some of them it won’t be so hard to say goodbye to. ;D) I’m excited to go to
Japan, but I’m really nervous. Like really. I’ve really been struggling this week with speaking and saying
the things I want to say. I feel like when someone speaks at me in Japanese I can understand it pretty
well, but I can’t respond for the life of me. It kinda makes the whole prospect of going to Japan pretty
daunting. :P
But that’s part of the fun right?
I really don’t have a lot to talk about this week, but that’s alright.
Flight Plans:
This week we got our Flight Plans! It was so exciting! Everyone got to Lunch on Friday kinda late for
some reason, but we were ALL done eating within about 10 minutes. (Keep in mind there’s roughly
40 sempai who ate all their food in about 10 minutes. :P) Then we all jumped up and headed over to
the mail room singing (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell) “Nihon ni ikimasu! Nihon ni ikimasu! Ookii
hikouki de Nihon ni ikimasu!” Which translates to: “We’re going to Japan! We’re going to Japan! In a
big airplane we’re going to Japan!”
Luckily right after we got our flight plans we had gym so we were able to burn off some of that extra
energy from the excitement. xD It was so fun. I’m so excited.
Oh, and for anyone who really wants to know, I’ll be leaving the MTC at 5am and go to LA first and then
take a flight from LA to Tokyo. I should be in Japan by about 4:30pm on the 28 th. (I’m required to
remind you all that you’re not allowed to come see me off. Don’t do it! :P)
Tower Challenge:
-sigh- I honestly can’t believe I’m writing about this. Don’t judge me, kay!? xD
So, life as a missionary is honestly really really boring most of the time. At least here in the MTC. We
tend to find some of the most RIDICULOUS ways of entertaining ourselves. Like talking in strange
accents… trying to slip spoons in each other’s pockets without them noticing… tossing a tennis ball at
the wall directly above someone’s head and seeing how close you can get to hitting them… x) Yeah.
We’re bored. :P
One of these really stupid traditions of the MTC we do out of sheer boredom is called the “Tower
Challenge.” Every morning, the cafeteria has these towers of cereal for people to go and eat. They’re
huge. Each tower holds roughly 4 or 5 bags of cereal. The Tower Challenge is for a group of people,
during a meal other than breakfast, to try to empty an entire tower of cereal. One of the districts in
our zone did it. They had 10 people in their district and they were able to finish the tower. One choro
actually ate 11 bowls of cereal. Between everyone involved they ate 63 bowls of cereal. :P
Well, naturally our district didn’t want to get shown up…
We have the smallest district in the zone. Up until yesterday we had 7 people in our district. (Yesterday
Fukino-choro’s older brother joined our district! Super cool!) We decided that we, the smallest district,
would attempt a tower challenge.
We completed the tower challenge. X) I honestly can’t decide if I’m proud of this fact or not. :P One
choro from another district decided he’d help us out since there were only 7 of us. So between 8
people, we had roughly 54 bowls of Life cereal. The most bowls eaten out of us was 7 or 8.
We need to get out of here. xD
(I can just hear you all asking, “Christine! Did you actually participate in that!?” Unfortunately I have to
answer yes… yes I did… I ate 4 bowls of cereal. My doryo ate 6. Blech.)
MTC Wrap-up:
Well, my MTC experience is finally over. Part of me is really sad about that and the other part of
me is thrilled beyond all reason. The MTC has been an amazing experience. Those of you who are
preparing to go on missions right now, look forward to the MTC. It really is awesome. You will never
feel the spirit as strongly as you will here. I’ve learned so much and I feel like I’ve grown. (Not in height,
unfortunately.)
When I think back on my MTC experience I think of 3 major moments. My first week here we had an
amazing devotional on Joseph Smith. It was SO powerful. During that devotional it hit me like a ton of
bricks that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I’ve been told that since I was little and believed it, but I
feel like that was when I really could say I know Joseph Smith is a prophet.
The second moment I think of is another devotional quickly after. The speaker said “Christ is always
right behind you. His hand is extended out next to you. All you have to do is take it.” Even though this
wasn’t the point, it hit me that Christ and Heavenly Father have a body of flesh and blood. Meaning, I
literally could reach out and touch them. And when Christ comes I will be able to touch Him and know
that He’s the Christ. My testimony of the Plan of Salvation grew immensely!
Then the last experience I think of is Taylor-san and the power of the atonement and forgiveness.
Heavenly Father loves us and will forgive us for our mistakes.
Now here’s the crazy part of this whole thing. While I was thinking about all of this I realized something.
Everything I learned here followed the same pattern as the lessons in Preach My Gospel. Lesson 1: The
Restoration. Lesson 2: The Plan of Salvation. Lesson 3: The Doctrine of Christ. I have literally been
God’s kyudosha throughout my time here in the MTC. I’ve been learning exactly what it is I’m about to
go out and teach to the people of Japan.
Mina-san, the church is true. Heavenly Father is real and He loves each of us. He knows what He’s doing
and we have to trust Him. I know He answers prayers. I know the Book of Mormon is true. Joseph
Smith was a prophet. Christ came to Earth and suffered for all our sins and if we will repent and use the
Atonement we will one day be able to return to our Heavenly Father and live with Him for eternity. Use
the Atonement as often as you can. Use it every day. If we’re not using the Atonement, doesn’t that
make Christ’s sacrifice in vain? He suffered more than we can imagine. Don’t let it be in vain.
The MTC has been amazing. I can’t wait to get out to Japan and spread the gospel to them. Mina-san, Ai
shite imasu. Honto ni honto ni ai shite imasu. You all are amazing. Thank you for all of the support and
please keep me in your prayers. These next few weeks are going to be rough and I’ll need all the help I
can get. Thank you guys for everything. You’re amazing.
Love,
Christine
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
August 14, 2012
MINA-SAN!
Ohaiyo Gozaimasu! Week 9 is over and done!! AHH! How crazy is that?! Wanna know something
crazier? I GET MY FLIGHT PLANS THIS WEEK! Crazy, ne?! I’m so excited. In case you couldn’t tell. ;)
So, first off I want to thank everyone who’s been consistently writing me. You have NO idea how much
it means to me.
You really don’t. I love hearing from you all and knowing how you’re doing! Thank
you so much! Demo, I need to warn all of you who consistently write me. As I’m getting so close to
leaving, my time to be able to respond to your letters is getting smaller and smaller… Basically I just
wanted to warn you guys that I’m probably not going to be able to respond to your letters this week or
next. ;) Just know I still love you and I’m thinking about you. :P I just have a TON to do.
This week was relatively hum-drum. We had a few eventful moments (Like meeting the Nihon-jin),
demo overall nothing extremely exciting happened… Like really. This week just flew by. I’ve only got 2
things to talk about!
Kyudosha Update:
Kimli-san and Caleb-san: I have really sad news on this one. We actually lost Kimli-san and Caleb-san.
We’re not going to be able to teach them anymore. Both Long-shimai and I were really upset about it,
demo it was out of our hands. I wish I could give you more details on that, but I’m not allowed to. –sigh-
Bottom line is we’re not teaching them anymore…
Harukawa-kyodai: AH! I love Harukawa-kyodai. He’s so awesome. He’s the one who’s been struggling
lately with Chie no Kotoba (Word of Wisdom). He doesn’t see what’s wrong with drinking a little sake
if it doesn’t get him drunk. This week we had a breakthrough with him. We talked with him about
the shinden (temple) this week. He’s always been really interested in the shinden, demo it never felt
like the right time to talk about it until this week. Long-shimai has these little cards with pictures of
a ton of the shinden in the US. We decided to let him look at those while we talked about what the
shinden is exactly. He said he’d seen them before and thought they looked really cool. Then I found a
picture in one of our pamphlets that showed the Celestial Room in the Salt Lake Temple. I showed it
to him. We talked about how the shinden is literally God’s house and that God visits the temple. We
asked him if this was a place he’d like to go someday. He said yes. So we extended our commitment!
“Will you prepare yourself to someday enter the temple?” He looked down for a minute. Then looked
at us and said “In order to go to the temple, I have to be baptized right?” We nodded. “But in order to
be baptized… I have to stop drinking sake… completely.” We nodded again. He sat for a minute again.
Then finally nodded and said “I’ll do my best.” I’m proud to report that since that lesson he hasn’t had
any sake.
Muroi-kyodai: I don’t actually have a ton to report about Muroi-kyodai this week. We taught him
Junketsu no Rippo (Law of Chastity… Woohoo… xD) demo he’s going to BYU already so he already is
following it… Soooo… that was easy. ;) We just had to make sure he understood it exactly. He’s also
doing well with Chie no Kotoba. He’s really progressing to his baptismal date. We’re really excited for
him.
He hasn’t told his family yet about his baptismal date… He said “it just didn’t seem like the right
time.” I don’t blame him for being scared to tell his Dad. His dad really isn’t going to be happy, demo I
think Muroi-san knows he’s doing the right thing. He’s still going to go through with it.
This Weeks Spiritual Thought:
I’ve noticed something seems to happen every week that I can write some spiritual thought on.
Here’s this week’s!
Every Sunday, all the shimai in our zone go together to watch Music and the Spoken Word. If anyone
doesn’t know what that is, it’s this broadcast that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir does every Sunday
where they sing like 5 or 6 songs. It’s really relaxing. I generally don’t like Motab, demo it’s nice to just
sit there for about 30 minutes and just relax, you know?
Well, this week they sang “Consider the Lillies”. While they were singing, they showed a bunch of
pictures to go along with the song. In this case, they showed a little girl growing up. They showed her
dad holding her as a baby in his arms, then as a toddler, then a little older and a little older. The very
last thing they showed was this girl about 18ish and you could tell she was moving out of the house. She
hugged her dad and mouthed the words “I love you, daddy.”
At first, obviously, I was thinking about my family. It was hard for me to leave and I remember doing
that exact same thing with my Dad the day I entered the MTC. Then I started thinking… If that’s how I
felt here on Earth leaving my Dad for a short time, can you imagine what it must have felt like to leave
Heavenly Father? I can imagine each of us going up to Him the day we left, hugging Him and saying “I
love you, Daddy.”
I know Heavenly Father loves each of you. I know it. You are a child of your Heavenly Father. He
knows each of us individually and He LOVES you. He wants you to return back to Him. I know that
that’s true. I know He’s aware of each and every one of us. If you have any doubt of that, why are you
sitting here reading my email?! ;) PRAY! If you don’t believe me, ask HIM. You have this marvelous gift
of prayer. You are actually able to communicate with God! If you have any doubt that He loves you, why
don’t you just ask Him?
I know He loves you. I know He’ll tell or show you somehow that He loves
you.
Thank you everyone for all of your support and prayers. I seriously wouldn’t make it through this
without you guys. They asked this week what our anchors were. What those things are that keep us
going through the really rough days here in the Mission Field. I think you guys are all my anchor. You
guys keep me grounded in my beliefs and because of your support I feel like I can do this. Thank you so
much.
Just remember, as much as I love you, Heavenly Father loves you more!!
Ai shite imasu mina-san! Honto ni ai shite imasu.
Christine Grosland-shimai
Ohaiyo Gozaimasu! Week 9 is over and done!! AHH! How crazy is that?! Wanna know something
crazier? I GET MY FLIGHT PLANS THIS WEEK! Crazy, ne?! I’m so excited. In case you couldn’t tell. ;)
So, first off I want to thank everyone who’s been consistently writing me. You have NO idea how much
it means to me.
You really don’t. I love hearing from you all and knowing how you’re doing! Thank
you so much! Demo, I need to warn all of you who consistently write me. As I’m getting so close to
leaving, my time to be able to respond to your letters is getting smaller and smaller… Basically I just
wanted to warn you guys that I’m probably not going to be able to respond to your letters this week or
next. ;) Just know I still love you and I’m thinking about you. :P I just have a TON to do.
This week was relatively hum-drum. We had a few eventful moments (Like meeting the Nihon-jin),
demo overall nothing extremely exciting happened… Like really. This week just flew by. I’ve only got 2
things to talk about!
Kyudosha Update:
Kimli-san and Caleb-san: I have really sad news on this one. We actually lost Kimli-san and Caleb-san.
We’re not going to be able to teach them anymore. Both Long-shimai and I were really upset about it,
demo it was out of our hands. I wish I could give you more details on that, but I’m not allowed to. –sigh-
Bottom line is we’re not teaching them anymore…
Harukawa-kyodai: AH! I love Harukawa-kyodai. He’s so awesome. He’s the one who’s been struggling
lately with Chie no Kotoba (Word of Wisdom). He doesn’t see what’s wrong with drinking a little sake
if it doesn’t get him drunk. This week we had a breakthrough with him. We talked with him about
the shinden (temple) this week. He’s always been really interested in the shinden, demo it never felt
like the right time to talk about it until this week. Long-shimai has these little cards with pictures of
a ton of the shinden in the US. We decided to let him look at those while we talked about what the
shinden is exactly. He said he’d seen them before and thought they looked really cool. Then I found a
picture in one of our pamphlets that showed the Celestial Room in the Salt Lake Temple. I showed it
to him. We talked about how the shinden is literally God’s house and that God visits the temple. We
asked him if this was a place he’d like to go someday. He said yes. So we extended our commitment!
“Will you prepare yourself to someday enter the temple?” He looked down for a minute. Then looked
at us and said “In order to go to the temple, I have to be baptized right?” We nodded. “But in order to
be baptized… I have to stop drinking sake… completely.” We nodded again. He sat for a minute again.
Then finally nodded and said “I’ll do my best.” I’m proud to report that since that lesson he hasn’t had
any sake.
Muroi-kyodai: I don’t actually have a ton to report about Muroi-kyodai this week. We taught him
Junketsu no Rippo (Law of Chastity… Woohoo… xD) demo he’s going to BYU already so he already is
following it… Soooo… that was easy. ;) We just had to make sure he understood it exactly. He’s also
doing well with Chie no Kotoba. He’s really progressing to his baptismal date. We’re really excited for
him.
He hasn’t told his family yet about his baptismal date… He said “it just didn’t seem like the right
time.” I don’t blame him for being scared to tell his Dad. His dad really isn’t going to be happy, demo I
think Muroi-san knows he’s doing the right thing. He’s still going to go through with it.
This Weeks Spiritual Thought:
I’ve noticed something seems to happen every week that I can write some spiritual thought on.
Here’s this week’s!
Every Sunday, all the shimai in our zone go together to watch Music and the Spoken Word. If anyone
doesn’t know what that is, it’s this broadcast that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir does every Sunday
where they sing like 5 or 6 songs. It’s really relaxing. I generally don’t like Motab, demo it’s nice to just
sit there for about 30 minutes and just relax, you know?
Well, this week they sang “Consider the Lillies”. While they were singing, they showed a bunch of
pictures to go along with the song. In this case, they showed a little girl growing up. They showed her
dad holding her as a baby in his arms, then as a toddler, then a little older and a little older. The very
last thing they showed was this girl about 18ish and you could tell she was moving out of the house. She
hugged her dad and mouthed the words “I love you, daddy.”
At first, obviously, I was thinking about my family. It was hard for me to leave and I remember doing
that exact same thing with my Dad the day I entered the MTC. Then I started thinking… If that’s how I
felt here on Earth leaving my Dad for a short time, can you imagine what it must have felt like to leave
Heavenly Father? I can imagine each of us going up to Him the day we left, hugging Him and saying “I
love you, Daddy.”
I know Heavenly Father loves each of you. I know it. You are a child of your Heavenly Father. He
knows each of us individually and He LOVES you. He wants you to return back to Him. I know that
that’s true. I know He’s aware of each and every one of us. If you have any doubt of that, why are you
sitting here reading my email?! ;) PRAY! If you don’t believe me, ask HIM. You have this marvelous gift
of prayer. You are actually able to communicate with God! If you have any doubt that He loves you, why
don’t you just ask Him?
I know He loves you. I know He’ll tell or show you somehow that He loves
you.
Thank you everyone for all of your support and prayers. I seriously wouldn’t make it through this
without you guys. They asked this week what our anchors were. What those things are that keep us
going through the really rough days here in the Mission Field. I think you guys are all my anchor. You
guys keep me grounded in my beliefs and because of your support I feel like I can do this. Thank you so
much.
Just remember, as much as I love you, Heavenly Father loves you more!!
Ai shite imasu mina-san! Honto ni ai shite imasu.
Christine Grosland-shimai
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Aug 7, 2012
MINA-SAN!
Konnichiwa! Okay technically it’s still Ohaiyo Goziamasu, demo I’ve put that on the top of EVERY email
so far. That’s boring. Way to not be original. KONNICHIWA! ;) Ahhhh! I miss you guys! I’ve only got a
few things to talk about this week, but they’re fairly long again. Bear with me. xP
Bee Sting:
This one’s pretty straight forward. I got stung by something. I thought it was a bee, but it can’t have
been. It didn’t hurt enough and it ITCHED like crazy after. This happened on like… I think it was
Wednesday… I don’t remember for sure. I was standing outside talking with one of my friends from
Junior High who I had NO idea was serving a mission when my arm started hurting really bad! I looked
down just in time to see something really big and black flying away. I still have a little bit of a bump
from where it stung me, demo at least it doesn’t hurt anymore. :P
Nihon-jin:
GUESS WHAT!! The Nihon-jin are here!!! I haven’t actually met them yet… They’re living in a different
building until tomorrow.
I don’t know if I’ve explained that whole Nihon-jin thing to everyone on here or not, so quick
explanation. Nihon-jin literally translates to “Japanese People”. Every month a group of Nihon-jin comes
in. They’re Nihon-jin senkyoshi called to serve in Japan. Right now the MTC in Japan is closed so they
come to the Provo MTC for 3 weeks to study the Fundamentals of teaching and such. Then after 3
weeks, they leave with the group of Sempai. You know what that means? 3 WEEKS!!!! AHH!! :-D
The Nihon-jin are always SO sweet. I love them so much! They don’t speak a lick of English either which
means it’s REALLY good practice for when we’ll actually get out there. I’m really looking forward to
actually meeting them!
Kay, Spiritual time! ;)
Army of Helaman:
At the Sunday devotional this week we sang for our closing hymn “Army of Helaman”. It was SO
powerful. I can’t even tell you. Here at the MTC they change the words a little bit though. “And we
are NOW the Lord’s missionaries to bring the world his truth.” Imagine 2,500 missionaries singing
those words. I’ve never been able to really picture the Army of Helaman until that moment. I glanced
around at all the other missionaries and realized that right now we are the Army of Helaman. Literally
over 2,000 stripling warriors. Missionary work is fantastic. Anyone out there who is reading this and
debating whether or not to serve a mission, just do it! There’s nothing like it. I can’t even describe it
here.
Kyudosha update!!
Time to update you on my kyudosha! So right now we’ve got 4 kyudosha. Kimli, Caleb, Harukawa, and
Muroi.
Kimli and Caleb: Honestly there’s not much to tell you about Kimli and Caleb right now. We haven’t had
a chance to meet with them for about a week or so. We’ll meet with them again tomorrow. They’re
both really sweet. They both have ridiculously strong amounts of faith. It’s crazy. Kimli actually already
has a baptismal date as of the last time we met with him. He’s the only kyudosha we have who actually
asked us if he could be baptized.
Caleb already believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He thinks
the church is true, he just has a lot of questions about it. They’re both so awesome.
Harukawa-kyodai: We’ve actually been struggling a bit this week with Harukawa-kyodai. He has a
drinking problem. In Japan they have an alcoholic beverage called Sake. Harukawa-kyodai has always
been so easy to each. Like really. We’d say “This is how it is. Do you believe that?” He’d say “Yes!!”
We’d say “Great! Will you do this?” He’d say “Definitely!” We’d follow up next time and he’d be
like “That was awesome! I think it’s true!” Then we hit Chie no Kotoba (Word of Wisdom). He won’t
stop drinking Sake. He says he doesn’t understand what’s so bad about just drinking a little bit of
Sake. He understands a lot is bad for him. Getting drunk is bad. Demo, he doesn’t see a problem with
drinking just a little if it doesn’t get him drunk. We’re trying to help him see what the problem is, but
he’s struggling with getting hit. Keep him in your prayers.
Muroi-kyodai: This is the one I’ve been looking forward to telling you about this whole time! We’ve
been struggling a lot with Muroi for the last little while too. Muroi believed the church was true. He
wanted to be baptized, but he wouldn’t because of his Dad. His Dad is a strict, strict Buddhist who wants
nothing to do with the LDS Church. When Muroi decided he wanted to go to BYU Hawaii his dad flipped.
He knew that if he agreed to be baptized his dad would literally disown him. Well, on Friday we met
with him. We followed up on commitments and again he said “I really do want to be baptized, but I
don’t want to make my Dad angry.” I realized that in all the times we’ve met with him, we’ve never once
asked him why his family doesn’t like the church. So we asked.
A few years back, Muroi and his parents were in Japan in the subway about to get on a train. Closeby,
there was a train full of “Christians”. Whether they were Catholic or LDS or something I don’t know.
Someone had planted a bomb on that train which detonated killing everyone on board. Muroi and
his parents all saw this happen. After, his Dad blamed all of their deaths on Christ. If they were such
great Christians why did he let them die? Muroi said that he felt the same way for a long time. Then
he decided he’d got to BYU Hawaii with a friend of his. I don’t know how he did it or even completely
why he did. His Dad was furious and Muroi has ALWAYS been extremely obedient when it comes to his
parents. This was the first time he’d ever done something completely against his parents will. Yet he
went to BYU Hawaii. There he learned about Christ. He came to realize that he didn’t think Christ was
that bad of a person. Then he met with us and learned even more about Christ. He came to really love
Christ. So now he felt like he had this choice. Do I choose family or the church?
This changed EVERYTHING about Muroi-san. All of those lessons we’ve taught and why we taught them
kinda sunk in. Long-shimai and I both testified many times that God loves him. God loves his family,
even if they don’t believe in him. We promised him that if he would simply do what God has asked him
to do, his family would be blessed. Whether now or in the future, his family will receive the blessings
of what he’s done. We shared personal experiences with him on the matter. Long-shimai has family
who is a lot like Muroi’s dad. She talked about how going on a mission has softened their hearts. Finally
it just felt right. I extended the baptismal commitment. “Muroi-kyodai? Iesu Kirisuto no mohan o
shitagatte itadakemasu ka? Baputesuma o ukette itadakemasu ka?” (Will you follow the example of
Jesus Christ. Will you be baptized?)
One of the things Preach My Gospel teaches is don’t be afraid of silence. We sat in complete silence
with Muroi-san for 5 minutes. Finally. He looked at us with tears in his eyes and said “Yes.”
I’m so happy for Muroi-san! I know he’ll be blessed and so will his family. I’m so grateful I’ve gotten the
opportunity to work with him and to bring him closer to Christ. It’s been such an amazing experience
with him so far. I’m sad to think we’ve only got a few more lessons with him before we leave. :/ It’s
going to be hard.
I love this gospel guys. I know it’s true. I love the simplicity of it. I know that the gospel has been
restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that this is the one true church of Jesus Christ and
I know it’s only through him that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven. I love you all! I hope
you’re doing well.
Thank you for all your support and your prayers. I can really feel the effects of it.
Keep praying for my kyudosha. They need all the support they can get too.
Ai shite imasu mina-san!
Christine
Konnichiwa! Okay technically it’s still Ohaiyo Goziamasu, demo I’ve put that on the top of EVERY email
so far. That’s boring. Way to not be original. KONNICHIWA! ;) Ahhhh! I miss you guys! I’ve only got a
few things to talk about this week, but they’re fairly long again. Bear with me. xP
Bee Sting:
This one’s pretty straight forward. I got stung by something. I thought it was a bee, but it can’t have
been. It didn’t hurt enough and it ITCHED like crazy after. This happened on like… I think it was
Wednesday… I don’t remember for sure. I was standing outside talking with one of my friends from
Junior High who I had NO idea was serving a mission when my arm started hurting really bad! I looked
down just in time to see something really big and black flying away. I still have a little bit of a bump
from where it stung me, demo at least it doesn’t hurt anymore. :P
Nihon-jin:
GUESS WHAT!! The Nihon-jin are here!!! I haven’t actually met them yet… They’re living in a different
building until tomorrow.
I don’t know if I’ve explained that whole Nihon-jin thing to everyone on here or not, so quick
explanation. Nihon-jin literally translates to “Japanese People”. Every month a group of Nihon-jin comes
in. They’re Nihon-jin senkyoshi called to serve in Japan. Right now the MTC in Japan is closed so they
come to the Provo MTC for 3 weeks to study the Fundamentals of teaching and such. Then after 3
weeks, they leave with the group of Sempai. You know what that means? 3 WEEKS!!!! AHH!! :-D
The Nihon-jin are always SO sweet. I love them so much! They don’t speak a lick of English either which
means it’s REALLY good practice for when we’ll actually get out there. I’m really looking forward to
actually meeting them!
Kay, Spiritual time! ;)
Army of Helaman:
At the Sunday devotional this week we sang for our closing hymn “Army of Helaman”. It was SO
powerful. I can’t even tell you. Here at the MTC they change the words a little bit though. “And we
are NOW the Lord’s missionaries to bring the world his truth.” Imagine 2,500 missionaries singing
those words. I’ve never been able to really picture the Army of Helaman until that moment. I glanced
around at all the other missionaries and realized that right now we are the Army of Helaman. Literally
over 2,000 stripling warriors. Missionary work is fantastic. Anyone out there who is reading this and
debating whether or not to serve a mission, just do it! There’s nothing like it. I can’t even describe it
here.
Kyudosha update!!
Time to update you on my kyudosha! So right now we’ve got 4 kyudosha. Kimli, Caleb, Harukawa, and
Muroi.
Kimli and Caleb: Honestly there’s not much to tell you about Kimli and Caleb right now. We haven’t had
a chance to meet with them for about a week or so. We’ll meet with them again tomorrow. They’re
both really sweet. They both have ridiculously strong amounts of faith. It’s crazy. Kimli actually already
has a baptismal date as of the last time we met with him. He’s the only kyudosha we have who actually
asked us if he could be baptized.
Caleb already believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He thinks
the church is true, he just has a lot of questions about it. They’re both so awesome.
Harukawa-kyodai: We’ve actually been struggling a bit this week with Harukawa-kyodai. He has a
drinking problem. In Japan they have an alcoholic beverage called Sake. Harukawa-kyodai has always
been so easy to each. Like really. We’d say “This is how it is. Do you believe that?” He’d say “Yes!!”
We’d say “Great! Will you do this?” He’d say “Definitely!” We’d follow up next time and he’d be
like “That was awesome! I think it’s true!” Then we hit Chie no Kotoba (Word of Wisdom). He won’t
stop drinking Sake. He says he doesn’t understand what’s so bad about just drinking a little bit of
Sake. He understands a lot is bad for him. Getting drunk is bad. Demo, he doesn’t see a problem with
drinking just a little if it doesn’t get him drunk. We’re trying to help him see what the problem is, but
he’s struggling with getting hit. Keep him in your prayers.
Muroi-kyodai: This is the one I’ve been looking forward to telling you about this whole time! We’ve
been struggling a lot with Muroi for the last little while too. Muroi believed the church was true. He
wanted to be baptized, but he wouldn’t because of his Dad. His Dad is a strict, strict Buddhist who wants
nothing to do with the LDS Church. When Muroi decided he wanted to go to BYU Hawaii his dad flipped.
He knew that if he agreed to be baptized his dad would literally disown him. Well, on Friday we met
with him. We followed up on commitments and again he said “I really do want to be baptized, but I
don’t want to make my Dad angry.” I realized that in all the times we’ve met with him, we’ve never once
asked him why his family doesn’t like the church. So we asked.
A few years back, Muroi and his parents were in Japan in the subway about to get on a train. Closeby,
there was a train full of “Christians”. Whether they were Catholic or LDS or something I don’t know.
Someone had planted a bomb on that train which detonated killing everyone on board. Muroi and
his parents all saw this happen. After, his Dad blamed all of their deaths on Christ. If they were such
great Christians why did he let them die? Muroi said that he felt the same way for a long time. Then
he decided he’d got to BYU Hawaii with a friend of his. I don’t know how he did it or even completely
why he did. His Dad was furious and Muroi has ALWAYS been extremely obedient when it comes to his
parents. This was the first time he’d ever done something completely against his parents will. Yet he
went to BYU Hawaii. There he learned about Christ. He came to realize that he didn’t think Christ was
that bad of a person. Then he met with us and learned even more about Christ. He came to really love
Christ. So now he felt like he had this choice. Do I choose family or the church?
This changed EVERYTHING about Muroi-san. All of those lessons we’ve taught and why we taught them
kinda sunk in. Long-shimai and I both testified many times that God loves him. God loves his family,
even if they don’t believe in him. We promised him that if he would simply do what God has asked him
to do, his family would be blessed. Whether now or in the future, his family will receive the blessings
of what he’s done. We shared personal experiences with him on the matter. Long-shimai has family
who is a lot like Muroi’s dad. She talked about how going on a mission has softened their hearts. Finally
it just felt right. I extended the baptismal commitment. “Muroi-kyodai? Iesu Kirisuto no mohan o
shitagatte itadakemasu ka? Baputesuma o ukette itadakemasu ka?” (Will you follow the example of
Jesus Christ. Will you be baptized?)
One of the things Preach My Gospel teaches is don’t be afraid of silence. We sat in complete silence
with Muroi-san for 5 minutes. Finally. He looked at us with tears in his eyes and said “Yes.”
I’m so happy for Muroi-san! I know he’ll be blessed and so will his family. I’m so grateful I’ve gotten the
opportunity to work with him and to bring him closer to Christ. It’s been such an amazing experience
with him so far. I’m sad to think we’ve only got a few more lessons with him before we leave. :/ It’s
going to be hard.
I love this gospel guys. I know it’s true. I love the simplicity of it. I know that the gospel has been
restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that this is the one true church of Jesus Christ and
I know it’s only through him that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven. I love you all! I hope
you’re doing well.
Thank you for all your support and your prayers. I can really feel the effects of it.
Keep praying for my kyudosha. They need all the support they can get too.
Ai shite imasu mina-san!
Christine
July 31, 2012
Mina-san Ohaiyo Gozaimasu!!
It’s P-Day!! Again! :P Actually it’s kinda weird… It feels like it was just barely P-day… That being said, it
was a rather eventful week. Here we go!
AIRBORNE
So I started out this week by getting sick. Fun, ne? It wasn’t anything too bad. Just a cold. Demo, my
throat was killing me and I couldn’t breathe through my nose pretty much at all. Apparently I made the
rest of my district pretty worried about me. I honestly can say I had no idea. After we got out of class
and everything one day, our new District Leader (Carter-choro) told me that he had something for me
and we needed to follow them. So Long-shimai and I followed him. He came back out with something
called “Airborne” or something? I’m not really sure. But he made me promise I’d “drink it” (it was a
tablet…) and try to get better. Turns out this tablet thing is supposed to be put into hot water and then
it fizzes and melts and that’s what you’re supposed to drink. It’s gross. Really, really gross. We wanted
to make a video of me trying to drink it because it was ridiculous. xD It worked though! I woke up the
next morning feeling perfectly fine aside from a slightly achy throat. The church is true. ;)
KOHAI
Woo! The Kohai are here! I realized I might not have explained the whole Sempai Kohai thing very well.
The best way to describe it is that the Kohai are like Sophomores while the Sempai are like Seniors. X)
That’s all. Anyway, the kohai are pretty dang awesome. There are only 4 shimai, demo the 4 of them
are fantastic. We’ve got Eddy-shimai, Buehler-shimai, Budge-shimai, and Walker-shimai. None of them
are going to Tokyo, demo Budge-shimai’s Dad is my mission president out in Tokyo. Pretty cool, ne?
They’re all really sweet and it’s been fun getting to know them this week.
Kay… now getting depressing… :P
TAYLOR-SAN
This was honestly my favorite part of the week. One of the reasons we come here to the MTC is to learn
how exactly to go about teaching someone we’ve never met about the gospel. One of the ways they
do that is by having the teacher do demonstrations while the class evaluates. On Saturdays we have
something called Weekly Planning Session and during Weekly Planning Session the sensei picks one of us
to play the kyudosha for that week’s Demonstrate Teaching. The person who plays the kyudosha has to
make up a profile for that kyudosha and all kinds of stuff. It’s really fun.
Well, this week it was my turn to be kyudosha and Bradley-sensei was going to work with Lee-choro
to teach me. Here’s a little background for my kyudosha. Her name was Taylor-san. She has several
siblings who are LDS and active, but she doesn’t like the church herself. She used to be a member, but
she stopped going a few years ago because she didn’t like it. Her oldest brother made her promise that
she’d meet with the missionaries though, so here she is. That’s all the senkyoshi knew before they met
with her.
(I know this is kinda weird, but I’m switching to Taylor’s perspective… :P)
So once the senkyoshi got there, I’ll be honest, I was pretty rude. I let them in, but I think that was the
only nice thing I did. :P They asked me about my thoughts on God and the church and I let them have it.
I told them I didn’t believe there was a God and I don’t go to their church because it’s not true so why
waste my time. They were like “So, why did you decide to meet with the senkyoshi then?” I told them
that I’d promised my brother and that was the only reason. I’m telling you. I wasn’t nice. :P
Both of them got this look on their face like “Oh great.” (It was pretty hard to stay in character. xD) They
told me that they wanted to teach me about the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and shared the 4 th Article of
Faith and a couple of scriptures – all having to do with the first 4 principles of the gospel. (This is when
I got my evil idea.) I must’ve looked really deep in thought, because Bradley-sensei looked at me and
asked “Taylor-san, could I just ask what you’re thinking about right now?”
I said, “Oh it’s nothing… It’s just… You Mormons sure talk a lot about Christ for not being Christian.”
(LOL! Their faces were classic. I wish I had a picture of that moment. xD) They went on to explain that
they are Christians and made some analogy about asking a doctor for car advice and how information
tends to get mixed up when you don’t go to the right source. (OH! Somewhere in here they talked
about how families are important and how I can be with my family for eternity through the gospel… I
don’t know exactly where that fell into the conversation, but it did and it was fairly important…) Then
they went on to read another scripture. I think it was… Alma? The part where it says “Cry to me in your
fields, in your closets, etc. etc. etc.” Hopefully you know what I’m talking about. :P Bradley-sensei asked
what stood out to me. I looked over the whole thing and just picked a random sentence that I thought
was cool. It said something about mercy. Bradley-sensei asked me why I liked that.
“I don’t know… I’ve made mistakes. I mean I grew up in the church. I know what’s good and bad
according to you guys… I guess… It’d just be nice to know that if this was true, there’d still be hope you
know?”
Then they testified that the scripture was true. That what I just said was true. There is hope for people
who’ve made mistakes and I can experience that for myself. Then he said “We said at the beginning
we’d like you to say the closing prayer. Are you willing to do that right now? You can say whatever you
want. Heavenly Father just wants to hear from you.” I told them I would. Here’s how it went:
“Dear Heavenly Father. We’re thankful for this day. We’re thankful for our many blessings… -really
really long pause- God? If you’re there… I’m sorry… I’ve messed up. I’m sorry. In the name of Jesus
Christ Amen.”
As soon as I said Amen, the spirit flooded into that room. Everyone felt it. Bradley-sensei was crying and
he wasn’t the only one. We ended the mogi (demonstration) right there. It was such a cool feeling.
(Back to Christine)
I know that what “Taylor” learned was true. God really does care about all of us and he’s not just going
to abandon us because we’ve made mistakes in the past. The Atonement is a very real and powerful
thing. It’s something that we should be taking advantage of every single day of our lives. If anyone
who’s reading this rather long story (Sorry. :P) feel s like they’ve messed up royally and there’s no hope
for them, do what Taylor did. Just pray and say “sorry”. That’s all it takes. I PROMISE you, you will feel
for yourself how much God loves you. He loves YOU!
I love you all! I hope you guys are all doing well. I miss you all so much, but every day I’m being
reminded that I need to be here. This is where I need to be and there’s a work that God needs me to do.
Anyone who’s trying to decide if they want to go on a mission or not, DO IT. It will be one of the most
difficult things you’ll ever do, but it will also be the most worthwhile thing you will ever do.
Ai shite imasu, Mina-san!
It’s P-Day!! Again! :P Actually it’s kinda weird… It feels like it was just barely P-day… That being said, it
was a rather eventful week. Here we go!
AIRBORNE
So I started out this week by getting sick. Fun, ne? It wasn’t anything too bad. Just a cold. Demo, my
throat was killing me and I couldn’t breathe through my nose pretty much at all. Apparently I made the
rest of my district pretty worried about me. I honestly can say I had no idea. After we got out of class
and everything one day, our new District Leader (Carter-choro) told me that he had something for me
and we needed to follow them. So Long-shimai and I followed him. He came back out with something
called “Airborne” or something? I’m not really sure. But he made me promise I’d “drink it” (it was a
tablet…) and try to get better. Turns out this tablet thing is supposed to be put into hot water and then
it fizzes and melts and that’s what you’re supposed to drink. It’s gross. Really, really gross. We wanted
to make a video of me trying to drink it because it was ridiculous. xD It worked though! I woke up the
next morning feeling perfectly fine aside from a slightly achy throat. The church is true. ;)
KOHAI
Woo! The Kohai are here! I realized I might not have explained the whole Sempai Kohai thing very well.
The best way to describe it is that the Kohai are like Sophomores while the Sempai are like Seniors. X)
That’s all. Anyway, the kohai are pretty dang awesome. There are only 4 shimai, demo the 4 of them
are fantastic. We’ve got Eddy-shimai, Buehler-shimai, Budge-shimai, and Walker-shimai. None of them
are going to Tokyo, demo Budge-shimai’s Dad is my mission president out in Tokyo. Pretty cool, ne?
They’re all really sweet and it’s been fun getting to know them this week.
Kay… now getting depressing… :P
TAYLOR-SAN
This was honestly my favorite part of the week. One of the reasons we come here to the MTC is to learn
how exactly to go about teaching someone we’ve never met about the gospel. One of the ways they
do that is by having the teacher do demonstrations while the class evaluates. On Saturdays we have
something called Weekly Planning Session and during Weekly Planning Session the sensei picks one of us
to play the kyudosha for that week’s Demonstrate Teaching. The person who plays the kyudosha has to
make up a profile for that kyudosha and all kinds of stuff. It’s really fun.
Well, this week it was my turn to be kyudosha and Bradley-sensei was going to work with Lee-choro
to teach me. Here’s a little background for my kyudosha. Her name was Taylor-san. She has several
siblings who are LDS and active, but she doesn’t like the church herself. She used to be a member, but
she stopped going a few years ago because she didn’t like it. Her oldest brother made her promise that
she’d meet with the missionaries though, so here she is. That’s all the senkyoshi knew before they met
with her.
(I know this is kinda weird, but I’m switching to Taylor’s perspective… :P)
So once the senkyoshi got there, I’ll be honest, I was pretty rude. I let them in, but I think that was the
only nice thing I did. :P They asked me about my thoughts on God and the church and I let them have it.
I told them I didn’t believe there was a God and I don’t go to their church because it’s not true so why
waste my time. They were like “So, why did you decide to meet with the senkyoshi then?” I told them
that I’d promised my brother and that was the only reason. I’m telling you. I wasn’t nice. :P
Both of them got this look on their face like “Oh great.” (It was pretty hard to stay in character. xD) They
told me that they wanted to teach me about the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and shared the 4 th Article of
Faith and a couple of scriptures – all having to do with the first 4 principles of the gospel. (This is when
I got my evil idea.) I must’ve looked really deep in thought, because Bradley-sensei looked at me and
asked “Taylor-san, could I just ask what you’re thinking about right now?”
I said, “Oh it’s nothing… It’s just… You Mormons sure talk a lot about Christ for not being Christian.”
(LOL! Their faces were classic. I wish I had a picture of that moment. xD) They went on to explain that
they are Christians and made some analogy about asking a doctor for car advice and how information
tends to get mixed up when you don’t go to the right source. (OH! Somewhere in here they talked
about how families are important and how I can be with my family for eternity through the gospel… I
don’t know exactly where that fell into the conversation, but it did and it was fairly important…) Then
they went on to read another scripture. I think it was… Alma? The part where it says “Cry to me in your
fields, in your closets, etc. etc. etc.” Hopefully you know what I’m talking about. :P Bradley-sensei asked
what stood out to me. I looked over the whole thing and just picked a random sentence that I thought
was cool. It said something about mercy. Bradley-sensei asked me why I liked that.
“I don’t know… I’ve made mistakes. I mean I grew up in the church. I know what’s good and bad
according to you guys… I guess… It’d just be nice to know that if this was true, there’d still be hope you
know?”
Then they testified that the scripture was true. That what I just said was true. There is hope for people
who’ve made mistakes and I can experience that for myself. Then he said “We said at the beginning
we’d like you to say the closing prayer. Are you willing to do that right now? You can say whatever you
want. Heavenly Father just wants to hear from you.” I told them I would. Here’s how it went:
“Dear Heavenly Father. We’re thankful for this day. We’re thankful for our many blessings… -really
really long pause- God? If you’re there… I’m sorry… I’ve messed up. I’m sorry. In the name of Jesus
Christ Amen.”
As soon as I said Amen, the spirit flooded into that room. Everyone felt it. Bradley-sensei was crying and
he wasn’t the only one. We ended the mogi (demonstration) right there. It was such a cool feeling.
(Back to Christine)
I know that what “Taylor” learned was true. God really does care about all of us and he’s not just going
to abandon us because we’ve made mistakes in the past. The Atonement is a very real and powerful
thing. It’s something that we should be taking advantage of every single day of our lives. If anyone
who’s reading this rather long story (Sorry. :P) feel s like they’ve messed up royally and there’s no hope
for them, do what Taylor did. Just pray and say “sorry”. That’s all it takes. I PROMISE you, you will feel
for yourself how much God loves you. He loves YOU!
I love you all! I hope you guys are all doing well. I miss you all so much, but every day I’m being
reminded that I need to be here. This is where I need to be and there’s a work that God needs me to do.
Anyone who’s trying to decide if they want to go on a mission or not, DO IT. It will be one of the most
difficult things you’ll ever do, but it will also be the most worthwhile thing you will ever do.
Ai shite imasu, Mina-san!
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