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!