Learning Japanese

Martha is doing awesome. I can't even imagine how hard it is to learn Japanese but she seems like she is doing great so far.

Hi family!

Thank you so much for all of your emails!  They all just brighten my day.  I'm sorry to hear you didn't get to go boating on Monday, but maybe it was for the best...you can't have that much fun without me.  Just kidding.  Life is getting much better at the MTC.  Japanese is still hard, but sometimes I surprise myself by how much I've already learned in the past two weeks.  This past week was good, but overwhelming.  Our "investigator" turned into our second teacher.  I wasn't a fan.  I thought I would never see him again; my Japanese was so horrible when I taught him.  Then he became my teacher.  No fooling him on how little Japanese I know.  Also he is very intense and doesn't beat around the bush.  Our other teacher is so sweet and patient so it was quiet the adjustment.  However, I think he is good for our district because he pushes us and lays down the law.  Sometime we need that...especially with all of the youngins we have. Like I said before, my doryo (comp) took 2.5 years of college Japanese so she knows a good amount.  Sometimes it is stressful but most of the time it is nice because she helps me leanr the language.  When we learn something new in class, I don't like to learn that subject but I like to connect the dots of every little thing we have learned to try and create new sentences.  99% of the time I am wrong, but then my doryo helps me them and teaches me the correct way, so it is really nice. But I'm finally getting used to having a companion so it's all good.  However, it sometimes seems crazy that we have only been here for two weeks.  It seems as though it's been much longer.  But we are on week 3 of 10.  It seems so far away, but then our teacher said we would be teaching real investigators in Japanese in 8 weeks and we all had a little heart attack.

 

This past Sunday was really nice.  We had devotional and Ellder Stephen B. Allen (Managing Director of the Missionary Department) came to speak.  It was awesome.  He had a whole lesson planned, but threw it all out the window when he arrived and just taught by the Spirit.  It was awesome because he talked about the sturggles of life in the MTC: the time schedule, the companionship, and the langauge among many other things.  I love it because when he talked about leanrning a language, he referenced Japanese.  Out of all of the difficult languages he chose that one to mention.  It sounds stupid, but I honestly think it was an answer to prayers because the whole district has been feeling down about language.  We were all so excited to hear it and we felt as though Heavenly Father was speaking directly to us. 

 

Last night took an unexpected twist though.  My doryo had sharp pains in her side, so we were at the hospital all night last night and got home at 5 this morning.  They found nothing, so hopefully everything remains okay. I'm exhausted though. It was a struggle even to stay up past 10:30 ;ast night.  Luckily it is p-day though, so they are allowing us to take a nap.  \

 

Also I loved getting the pictures of Brooklyn and the video of Addie!  They are both just too adorable!  And I can't believe Addie is swimming without floaties!  She's only 3!  I feel like most kids don't do that for quite sometime.  But I guess that's what happens when you have two swimmers as parents. Also good luck with moving out this next week and congrats on graduating med school Scott! Way to go!  And then Nathan and Mom are off to Germany.  Just make sure to send me some chocolate and gummy bears; that's all I ask.  Please?  It was so good to hear from all of you.  I'll try and write you all letters sometime this week- sorry I would email each of you back but I have limited time on the computer.  Also mom, I'll try and attach the German photos here, but if that doesn't work then I'll just send you home my memory card, as long as you promise to send it back so I can continue taking pictures.  Anyway, thanks again for all of your emails!  Ai shite imasu yo!

 

Ellsworth Shimai

 

Ps.  I have now learned how to read characters, so now I can read the Book of Mormon in Japanese.  Am i very slow at it? Yes.  Can I understand anything? No.  But it's a start!

With all her books

With her companion