Saturday, November 30, 2013

"Whenever you get discouraged look up and say it is going to be a great day!"

Happy Thanksgiving!!! :)
I hope all of you had a wonderful day!! I know my Thanksgiving was one I will never forget!! It was so wonderful, but we will get to that is a min... First the Day to day update. 
Monday: All the Sisters our Branch had FHE together!! :) It was so wonderful. We ate treats and read "You are special." Such a GOOD book! I will send pictures. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people.
Tuesday: Happy Birthday mom!! :) So this week we started teaching each other. We all had to create and become an Kyudosha (investigator) and then each of us as companions were assigned someone to teach. My comp and I are being taught by the trio of elders in our branch and then we are teaching the Other shimaitachi. :) It is so cool! You learn so much about teaching simply so that they will be able to understand. It is SO great. I love it and I learn so much from the chorotachi and Shimaitachi in my district. We are like one big family. They for sure have become some of my best friends. Devotional that night was good. :) A member of the Seventy came. I don't remember everything he said but whenever a they come they bring such a spirit with them. I love it so much!!
Wednesday: My journal was written like the scripture that day. I wish I could copy and paste it to show you. We were all so excited for thanksgiving we went a little crazy. :) Being in the MTC for a month will do that to you. Good thing I only have ONE MONTH LEFT!! YAY!!! :) HALF WAY!! Anyway Wednesday was a good day. We really studied hard and I really felt the blessings from it. I love the Japanese language. Did you know that?? haha :) But really I feel so blessed that the lord trusts me enough to learn it and to learn it well and to teach his children. I mission is the best calling in the world. I am so excited to go to Japan. Our Sensei(s) this week have been talking a ton about their missions and Japan and it just makes me so excited to go!! They people there are SO ready to hear the gospel!! And Some of them are SO prepared!! :) And the culture and food sound so amazing!! :) 
Thursday: THANKSGIVING!! :)
It was such a good day and I have so much to tell you so hopefully I will touch on all of it. So first Elder Russell M. Nelson came and spoke!! IT WAS SO GOOD. He talked about the importance of becoming best friends with the Ward mission leader and Family History consultant in whatever ward you serve in. (I thought of you mom) Those two people are the keys to helping you reach out to gods children. People really have a desire to know where they come from and who they are and especially the family history consultant can help with that. After his talk we had time to write letters and read and study for a bit. Then we ate a pretty descent Thanksgiving Lunch. For the MTC it was good! They even had bacon in the green beans... haha :) Lunch we packed sack dinners and then had more time to write and study. Dinner then was eaten in our classrooms....haha It was okay. I will send pictures. But the funniest thing happened.... So the trio of elders thought it would be funny to stick a fake rat in my bag. And so during Dinner I reached into my bag to grab out my camera and I felt something nasty. I pulled out my hand and looked and saw this nasty rat in my bag. I looked at my comp and was like "ew what is that?" Funniest moment of my whole life.... She screamed at the top of her lungs and ran out of the room. I was on the ground laughing so hard. I was dying!!! haha Because of the scream all the people on our floor came to see what happened. It was the funniest moment. Totally made the whole day that much better!! I was legit scared when she screamed though...haha :) It was so funny though. (There are pictures of "Remmy" the rat below. He has scared a lot of people these past few days...haha) It was so great to just have time to take a break from studying Nihongo. :) haha After we had a really cool Humanitarian devotional. The Helping Hands Program in the Church is AMAZING!! If you haven't heard about it go look it up. We watched a video about the church helping in New york after the Huge storms there. It was amazing. Just by looking at how much the church does world wide concerning service and giving donations.... There is no way the the Lords Hand is NOT in this work. The truthfulness of the gospel is manifest in EVERYTHING that the church does. It is subarashi! :) (wonderful) We were then privalegde to participate in a HUGE service project. We filled 360,000 Soup bags/meals to be given to children in Utah who don't have food at home on the weekends. :) IT WAS SO FUN!!!! I LOVE DOING THAT TYPE OF STUFF!! we did is assembly line style and I was the one who sealed all the bags. IT was the best job. My group filled 9 boxes of 96 soup bags. And each soup bag contains 3 servings. :) or something like that. I don't know all the facts but it was so cool!! :) We then got to watch "Ephraim rescue" Which is a great movie :) Then we went to bed. It was great! 
Friday: Nothing exciting.... haha :) Just learned lots of Nihongo and read the scriptures. Oh but they turned the Christmas lights on!!! :) It is magical here at night!! :) I love the MTC and all I am learning here. 
Read the Book of Mormon everyday!! It really does bless lives. :) I am really learning to be humble. I am learning so many of my weaknesses everyday but then as I learn more about the gospel and the atonement I am filled with hope to know that it is okay to be weak. The lord promises that he will make weak things strong as we turn to him. Turn to the lord in all that you do. Don't forget to look up and be happy! :) "Whenever you get discouraged look up and say it is going to be a great day!" Brother Willis told me that. He is in our Branch Presidency. He also is President Hinckley's Nephew!! :) He looks a lot like him and he is Such a good and sweet man! I have learned a lot from him. But the most important thing is to look up! :) Everyday! Look at the sky and feel the love that Heavenly Father has for you and all of his children. He has blessed us so much. Oh and if you get the chance read the talk by President Monson About Gratitude. It is form the 2010 october conference I think. SO GOOD!!! It has become one of my all time favorites :)
I love you all and pray for you everyday! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the pictures :)
Love, Ashby Shimai

アシベ姉妹 Ps This is what my name tag is going to look like in Japan!! SO COOL HUH?!?! :)
A-Shi-be Shi-mai :)

No comments:

Post a Comment