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