This week has been awesome! We have had TONS of fun, and
we're all doing really well. We're all finally healthy and feeling good and
that's great. :) This week has been a lot more of the same, which isn't a bad
thing. :) We learn lots about our purpose as missionaries, ways we can
effectively teach, and how to rely on the Spirit. As well as some Japanese
thrown in here and there. ;) That's the coolest thing about the language
learning, we don't hardly ever have formal instruction about it, we just use
it. And it sticks. It's really quite a miracle. In fact half this week we ran
out of time doing ecclesiastical study so we just axed language study during
class time, it's nuts! The gift of tongues is a very real thing, that I know. I
think sometimes about what I'm saying in english throughout the day and I
realize that I can say a LOT of that in Japanese, just not as fast as in
english yet. :P I really cannot wait to show you guys all my mad skillz. ;) I'm
not that great, but it's coming, which is amazing to me. Everyone in my
district as well is doing well with the Nihongo (Japanese...in Japanese ;)) The
goal is to use our mission language as much as possible throughout the day, in
and out of class. It's called SYL, speak your language. And as a district we're
able to help each other do that as much as possible. It's hard, but like with
anything practice makes it much better.
I'm glad to hear that everyone has been doing
great. :) Except poor Christa who broke her finger!! :( BUAHAHA! I couldn't
help but laugh at her sitting in the ER bed giving me a mild duck face and
waving her wrapped arm, Lol! She's the best. :) I hope she heals quickly. I'm
sure she will though, she's a youngin! Have you guys gut any plans for the rest
of this summer aside from trek? Been doing any riding at all? That's what I
want to do so badly! I was walking back from the temple 2 weeks about and
walked past a beautiful Yamaha R1, I died a little. ;) It says
specifically in the handbook that I can't ride motorcycles so...shucks. :)
I hope everyone is having a ton of fun, and that you're all enjoying your free
time, except Dad of course. ;) Muahaha!
I loved the pictures of the kittens.
Brando and I were like.... O_O :D :') THEY"RE SO CUTE! And now we're
saying we need a branch mascot, some kittens or a dog or something. That'd be
great. ;) I wanna snuggle with them so badly! They're so fluffy! I particularly
like the orange one, it seems legit. I love how one is dark and striped, one is
orange and striped, and then the third is like a fusion of the other two, it's
a funky looking kitten! But uber cute non the less. :) I'm glad you guys
enjoyed my pictures, I've got a bunch more that I'll send out right before I
leave the MTC. I've captured more pricelss moments. :) Gotta love that. We've
become so close, all of us are brothers at this point, and it's amazing.
Thank you so much for the package by the way.
Had a ton of stuff that I needed. Thank you so much! I love the goodies as
well, we're always in need of snackage at night before bed. And the Shout stuff
Momma, took that blue stain RIGHT OUT of my shirt, SO EASILY. It was deserving
of a mighty Yoshi, and so we gave it one. :P Yoshi is now accompanied with a
finger snap. Not a regular snap, but a cool flip the hand snap. I'm sure Dad
knows what I'm talking about. It's basically an unspoken rule that as a
missionary you have to be able to do that, it's just a requirement. :P It's
fun. I'll be sure to let you guys know what else I need in the next week or so
too if I can think of anything. Thank you so much! The blanket Grandma gave me
is fine, I just would like one. :P I'm just using a thin sheet at night as a
blanket.
Mom, I haven't been in contact with Nathan or
Adam. I've heard nothing from Nathan, and I got one
quick email from Adam about a week after I got here saying he's sorry for
not writing. I wrote him back but he hasn't responded. I realize he's busy, but
I'd love to hear from him nonetheless. :) I don't get his weekly emails either.
So if you guys could forward those to me that'd be awesome! I wanna hear all
about his wondrous exploits and adventures in Chile!
I'm sure you guys heard, but Forrester has been
reassigned to the Kansas Witchita mission pending his visa. He's really excited
about that though because he says he gets to serve two missions now, and it's
right near where his brother served so I'm sure he'll be just fine. :) As for
Japanese missionaries, visas are not a problem. I have never heard of a delayed
visa to Japan, and the Dai Senpai that leave every three weeks are always out
of here without a hitch, so I'm sure it'll be the same for me. :) Our Dai
Senpai, those that have been here longest, leave this Monday. They're all SUPER
excited, and once they leave I'll be a Dai Senpai, meaning I'll be the most
veteran Japanese missionary at the MTC. It's kinda crazy actually. I'm having a
hard time wrapping my head around that fact. I leave in about 3 weeks, and I've
been here longer than the other Japanese missionaries, it's crazy. The Dai
Senpai are really looked up to as examples of good missionaries and good
Nihongo, so I better make sure I'm living up to that! I'm so excited to get out
of here. :) At about the 4 week mark I was like, OK! Let's go! I can survive!
But alas, I must yet wait. But that's ok, can't complain about more practice.
:) I'm really excited to be officially a Dai Senpai.
In light of that, I have some sad news. I
was released as district leader a week early. I was so bummed! I was like :(
Nooooez!! Why!!!! But then I found out why. Since the Dai Senpai are leaving,
and the Zone Leaders are always Dai Senpai, Johnson Kaicho, our branch
president, felt inspired to call Brandolino Choro and I to be the next Zone
Leaders! :D Yoshi! ;) So really this is awesome news. And I can tell you right
now that I LOVE IT! I was so happy to be able to help my district, but now I'm
able to do that for my ENTIRE Zone! :D I feel so honored that I get to serve in
this capacity, even if it is just in the MTC. We have six districts in our
zone. And this week we've been getting to know them all and been providing
service for them and making sure that they're feeling loved and right at home
here at the MTC. It was pretty funny actually how Johnson Kaicho called us. I
was walking to branch council last Sunday, and he stopped me and said,
"Elder, I need to have a word with you." All serious like. I was
thinking, "Oh crap, what did I do? Am I in trouble??" I was freaking
out. He told me to grab my companion so I got Brandolino, who's freaking out
now too, and he walks us to somewhere quiet and then tells us the news. It was
funny, and really scary. :P I cannot wait to be able to serve my Zone like I
was able to serve my district! It's a lot more work than I 've had to do thus
far, but I'm ready, willing, and able to serve. :)
Just yesterday we Brando, Strachan, and myself
had what you might call an "adventure". ;) Really it was us being
hyper and silly, but an adventure we had nonetheless!! In the Lair, that I've
mentioned earlier, there is a corner sealed off with some junk behind it. It
used to be the bookstore, but now it's empty and like in mid construction.
Anyways, there are these huge empty shelves that we were looking at. We were
tired, and thus hyper, so we decided to lay down on these shelves one above the
other. We snapped some glorious photos ;) And then hopped down. But we realized
that these shelves, weren't blocked, and they went past the barricades. So
naturally we get back on them and then slide our way past the barricade to find
a HORDE of desks. TONS of desks, all stacked on top of each other. So of
course, as is only logical, we decide to crawl under them to the other side fo
the room. All the while we're giggling and cracking jokes, and it's GREAT! We
make it across, only to find some tables and more desks. We get back under the
desks and decide to race to the other side of this corner that we hadn't been
to yet, Strachan won. ;) On the other side we found some podium like things,
that were hollow, so Strachan and I took more pictures. By now we're way far
away from our exit, so we started figuring out how to plan our escape. We saw
the shelves came all the way to where we were, so we were like hah! We'll just
crawl our way out. And we did. And it was glorious! Along the way we found a
WHOLE single starburst ;) Which we split three ways. Once we got out we were
all sore from laughing so much and we just hugged each other. It was quite the
stress relieving experience I'll have you know. :) Just thought I'd share. ;)
And also!! On Wednesday morning, I ran
into someone I thought I'd never see. CURTIS!!! :D I've been looking for him
for forever and FINALLY we found each other! He tapped me on the shoulder, I
turned around, couldn't believe who was standing in front of me, and then we
had the most epic hug that has ever been had. :) It was amazing. We talked for
a bit about the MTC and what not, and I found out he lives in the building JUST
ACROSS from mine! Who'da thunk! :D We were so happy and I cannot wait to go
hang out sometime with him when the day is over. I can't for the life of me
remember where he's going though. :P If you know tell me! ;)
Anyways, I love you all and I miss
you all dearly. :) LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
-Mike
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