which is exactly what we want. The best was "what do you get when you
cross a chicken with a cement mixer?" .... "A brick layer." - then
there is a ridiculous picture of a chicken laying a brick. Haha.
My companion is way chill and the reason you haven't heard much about
her is because there aren't problems. If I was frusterated with her
then you would probably hear about it. We've had Mulan "I'll make a
man out of you" song stuck in our heads. It's hilarious, because
it's a Chinese movie, not a Japanese movie. She's also a tango
(tah-n-goh = vocabulary) master. Seriously. She has her flashcards
all the time. But that works well because I'm a bunpo (buh-n-poh =
grammar) master. So together we can speak to the Nihonjin.
Nihon (Japan) jin (people of) came last week. There are 40 of them.
That means the Japanese zone at the MTC is at 120. 40 older
americans, 40 younger americans (me!), and 40 nihonjin. 120! Most
zones are like 40. We fill up the cafeteria corner where we sit. We
pushed all the (12) Korean missionaries to "outer darkeness" or the
tables farther down the room. The Koreans instead decided to call it
"Zion". Haha. But back to the Nihonjin. There are 11 shimaitachi
(sisters). That's so many! They are really short. I knew they were
going to be short, but I mean they are REALLY short. I've also
learned the feminine way of speaking - you just have to pronounce all
your "u"s. In Japanese, you tend to drop the "u"s, like how we drop
"e"s in english. So instead of saying "ski des" (I like) you would
say "suki desu". Weird! But they are so nice. They're always
letting people go first if you bump into them, or they give presents
ALL THE TIME. They're the cutest little people I've ever seen! I was
walking with my companion down to the bathroom one day and we passed
all the Japanese classrooms, since we're all together in the same part
of a building. The American classrooms had missionaries loud, and
bouncing off walls. Then you pass the nihonjin classrooms and you
realize that they are absolutely silent. You could hear a pin drop.
It's so weird! And at the same time it's so great because I can
hardly get anything done in my classroom with these poor elders that
try so hard but can't focus for longer than 2 minutes in a row.
I have two senseitachi (teachers). One is Porter Sensei, and he's
been teaching at the MTC for about 3 years. He's way good, and so
patient with the aforementioned elders that can't focus. We probably
ask him to repeat a Japanese sentence a dozen times before we get it
and he doesn't become impatient. Then there is Hogge Sensei. He's
fresh off his mission in December and is still burning with missionary
fire, but he cannot handle a classroom of 19 year old boys. Everytime
he bares his testimony he looks at his feet. I feel like saying,
"look at us - we're the one's you're testifying to!". Then my
companion and I decided he's afraid of the shimaitachi (sisters).
Anytime we ask him a question he runs away, but anytime one of the
elders ask him a question he will answer their questions for 20
minutes or more. We mentioned that he's afraid of shimaitachi to our
other teacher in the weekly interview, and he said he was wondering
about that since that's typical for new teachers.
In other news, I'm way knowledgeable in the gospel. I mean way
knowledgeable. My companion and I were talking doctrine, and I
understand it, and can find scriptures to back up what I say. Like
the other day she said... well, now I can't remember, but I know the
answers at the time. It's way interesting. Then the Elders in my
district were talking about the state Adam and Eve were in, in the
garden, before they fell, and I told them, with scriptures to back it
up. "WABAM! Eat it." But even with all this knowledge I didn't know
I had, there are some questions I'll wonder about and have to ask in
the post-mortal spirit world. Like, did Adam and Eve know that they
needed to partake of the fruit to multiple? Or was it really a transgression?
Did they know it was part of the plan? Why did God give two conflicting
commandments in the garden? Multiply, but don't partake of this fruit.
By the way, it's really hard to teach the fall of Adam and Eve. It can get so
complicated so fast.
Thanks to all my friends out there who have written me. A letter or a
package really is the best thing in a missionary's life.
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