First P-day

July 23, 2013

Hey Family!

So Elder Anderson (the one we took pictures by across from the MTC) actually is in my district!  4 of our Elders are going to Sendai and 4 are going to Sapporo, but all of the sisters are Sendai.

So far I’ve seen a bunch of my friends and it’s always great to see them and have a quick conversation, however, because we’re all at different points of our training and we’re all going different places, it’s almost as if we haven’t seen them in years and we are just catching up.  It’s kinda weird but it hopefully makes sense.

My P-day is Tuesdays, so each P-day will mark another week of me being out here.  It’s funny, I feel like I’ve been here for like a month but it’s barely even a week!

Mom, I’m so glad you’re out of the boot!  That’s great news!  I’m sure the swelling will go down and that your toe will heal correctly.  It just needs time.  The problem is giving it time is no fun….

It’s amazing how close our district has already gotten.  It’s like we’ve been friends forever.

I still haven’t seen Stephen Walker sadly but hopefully I will soon!  The food here is all right but it doesn’t do a whole lot for your system….

The average day at the MTC for me goes like this:

6:15 Wake up to get in the showers first

7:00 District meeting for 15 minutes before breakfast.

7:45 Breakfast ends, go get ready for gym at 8:15 or class

9:35 Personal study time (gospel study)

10:50 TALL (computer assisted language study)

11:50 Lunch

12:35 Language

1:50 Classroom instruction (either teaching or Japanese)

4:50 Dinner

5:35 Classroom instruction (either teaching or Japanese)

8:35 Additional study time

9:00 Daily planning session (get ready for next day, study topics, etc.)

9:30 Back to our room to get ready for bed and for the next day

10:15 Quiet time

10:30 Lights out and do it again the next day!

It doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to just think so I definitely miss that, but I can see how doing that would be very bad for some missionaries.

As for learning the language, my Japanese teacher is Japanese so I’m thinking that’s helped a ton!  He is leaving to visit his family in Japan for 2 weeks though so it’s kinda a bummer.  However, he told us that our sub is also Japanese so I’m still lucky there!  It turns out we are supposed to learn Hiragana and Katakana on our own so I should have studied that more at home!

We’ve taught our investigator 3 times already and it’s only in Japanese, which is killing me!  I feel like if I had to do it in English I’d do fine but in Japanese it is so hard!  But I love a challenge so this is good for me!  I’ve already learned a bunch so I’ll be fine until I have to actually learn Japanese in Japan!  ; )

Sunday was amazing!  We had priesthood meeting, District meeting (Sunday School), Sacrament meeting, a ton of study time, Missionary choir (that was amazing), a devotional where Jolene Allphin spoke (she was one of the historical advisors for 17 Miracles and Ephraim’s Rescue), then we watched an amazing talk by Elder Bednar called the Character of Christ which he gave at the MTC on Christmas a few years back.  I would highly recommend trying to find it!  So I’m going to email so I’ll leave the rest for that, but here’s an actual letter!

Thank everyone who’s sent letters!  One missionary joked that letters are like drugs here because you really want to get mail and you feel awesome when you do.

Lastly, I miss all of you.  Mom, Dad, Katherine (even though you’re not home), Daniel, Spencer, Peter, and Cali.  I really hope you’re all doing fine, and if you ever really miss me, remember I’m always there in your heart!

The Church is true, and I love you!

Stephen