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| MTC companions in front of Provo Temple |
This week has been full of many
many changes. Our trio is no longer since Sister F left for the field. She's serving
in Oakland California and was so excited to leave. Because of
scheduling/mission transfers, we aren't flying to Japan until Monday (April
1st). Sister S and I were a little bummed that we have to wait a few extra days
but I'm okay with it. We're flying from SLC to Seatac (!!) to Narita to
Sapporo. I'll try and buy a phone card so I can call you guys. It will probably
be either around 11 when we're at slc or 1-2ish when we get
to seatac. So be home so I can talk you! (They encourage us to buy phone
cards so I'm assuming it's allowed.) It's going to be a long trip but I'm
grateful that my current companion will be with me. Because our schedule ended,
we changed districts, so now we're in the Japanese district. To be completely
honest, it was hard joining a class that has been together for 2 months but, I
guess that's what the mission is all about :) Dealing with change, new people,
moving every time you get comfortable. We said good-bye to our old district as
they left for the field and said good-bye to our incredible teachers. Brother
Palmer, one of my teachers, said something incredible the other day. He's also
a perfectionist and told me about his experiences beating himself up his entire
mission because he wasn't perfect enough. Lessons weren't perfect, contacting
wasn't perfect, etc. He told me that he wasted so much time on himself,
worrying about perfection; the time he spent thinking of himself, could have
been spent thinking about others. He also mentioned that striving for constant
perfection weakens faith, because you're not relying fully on Heavenly
Father and the Spirit to make up for what you can't do. I remind myself of that
every day because, frankly, striving for perfection is exhausting.
We read a great talk the other
day by Elder Holland. It's about the Atonement and missionary work and
it's from the Ensign in 2001. It changed my perspective on missionary
work and I highly recommend reading it, be it for ward missionary work or
full-time. I feel like every day my perspective on the gospel changes (don't
worry, in a good way). I keep learning more and more and I love it. I never
thought I would love learning about the gospel all day every day but I really
do. Being here in the MTC has really put me in a time warp though haha. I
don't even think about what's going on outside (other than family). I
heard "normal" music blasting from a car the other day; it was
bizarre haha.
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| Sugihara Shimai and Smith Shimai goin' to Hokkaido! |
We've only been in the Japanese
district for a day but it was pretty humbling. We were feeling really good
about teaching investigators from our first district but that kind of crumbled
when we got to our new class haha. My gospel Japanese is still very
simple/non existant but it is what it is. I just need to keep moving forward
and learning :)
Every day when I'm getting
ready for the day, I look in the mirror and see how I look. I jokingly
asked if I'm going to look this tired for the next 18 months and after thinking
about it for a few seconds, I realized that yes, yes I will haha. But I'm
grateful for it. I'm grateful for the chance to learn, teach, and invite people
to come unto Christ. It's a humbling opportunity, hard but definitely good. I'm
working hard and saying the sincerest prayers I've ever said in my life. I love
this gospel and know it's the true church of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your
prayers. Love you!!
Love,
Sugihara Shimai
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