Elder Chab's Adventures from the Tokyo South Mission: WEEK 7 DESU!

水曜日 10-26-16

Jones 長老, Cuff 長老 and I did laundry at the regular time. The rest of the zone got up at 4:40 AM to do laundry and then went to the temple after. That's way too early for me. After laundry, we had a shoe shining party. Then we went to the temple after lunch. We also had our first skype TRC today! It was so cool! We taught about missionary work. Before we went back to our residence, Chau 姉妹 came to our class and gave us our katakana name tags! It's so exciting! However, our zone can't wear them until we leave the MTC; no one else but the Japanese missionaries can read them.

木曜日 10-27-16

I played frisbee with the kouhai instead of volleyball. It was a nice change of pace. For the night class, McCarty 兄弟 taught with Strauss 兄弟. He is pretty funny and his 日本語 is amazing. We learned more grammar and the phrase "chisai densha dekita" or "the little train that could". I also customized my swooshy swoosh (the thing that holds your MTC card).

金曜日 10-28-16

We finished the red bunpo book today. Then we played volleyball indoors and I got a crazy spike on Cuff 長老. Westoff 長老 hit the ball so hard that it went super high, hit the ceiling, knocked a panel out of place and caused it to fall to the ground and break. It was insane! We also introduced ourselves to the Nihonjin and kouhai that we got on 水曜日. Towards the end of the night, we went outside and it was raining. On top of that, the staff had just finished setting up the Christmas lights. So there were Christmas lights everywhere! It was an amazing sight. We took pictures and I'm glad we did because we won't be here when Christmas comes around and they don't turn on the lights again.

土曜日10-29-16

Relaxing day today. Strauss 兄弟 taught us about adjectives. He also gave Cuff 長老 and I some コーチング (coaching). He asked us to make a goal; we decided that whenever we are feeling down or out of it, we will serve others instead of worrying about ourselves. I encourage all of you to do the same, it really helps!Towards the end of PCL, Cuff 長老 and I helped Savage 姉妹 and McGuire 姉妹 with their 日本語 and got to know them a bit more.

日曜日 10-30-16

Another great Sunday. I got to know the kouhai more. 西宮長老(Elder Nishimiya) and I even went on splits for bit because our doryos had to go to a branch meeting. We took pictures with our new nametags at the temple. Cuff 長老 and I taught during district meeting about repentance. Richard Holzapfel spoke about Characters of Christ and we also watched Elder Bednar's "Characters of Christ" again.

月曜日 10-31-16

We had another eigo danjiki today! We taught Yamazaki-san about the importance of testimony and Ota-san about the life of Christ. Pretty crazy moment during Ota-san's lesson. We shared John 8 with him; its about the woman who commits adultery and Jesus does not condemn her. I tried to explain it in 日本語. I didn't know another word for girl or woman other than "kanojo". I wanted to say "This scripture is about Jesus and a woman that sinned". Instead, I ended up saying "This scripture is about Jesus and his girlfriend that sinned". Ota-san just started laughing like crazy. He told us that "kanojo" does mean "girl" but it implies "girlfriend". He helped correct the sentence after. Oh, and it was Halloween! Jones 長老 wore Bulbasaur sunglasses, Sadler 長老 was the Christmas card guy, Davis 長老 an accountant, and I was a samurai!

火曜日 11-1-16

We taught Aoi-san about the pre Earth life. Class ended early cause we had to setup the gym early. The speaker requested that we have choir practice at 4PM and dinner at 5PM instead of the other way around. Elder Nelson from the Quorum of the Twelve came to speak to us! He spoke about trusting in the Lord, preparing future generations, and how the gospel's teachings have never changed. We sung "Praise to the Man" for choir. It was an amazing arrangement. Although I had heard the lyrics before, I felt different as we sung. I grew to appreciate the prophet Joseph Smith even more. Cuff 長老's mom also sent homemade rolls, seaweed, Gushers, and raw honey from White Clover Blossoms. We put the honey on the rolls and it was sooooooo good! A great way to end the day!

Through out my stay here, I've had days where I just don't feel like I'm good enough to serve. I'm not the only one who has those days either. But I've learned that as long as we try our best, the Lord will make us the rest. Elder Nelson's talk reassured that. I trust in the Lord that he can make us not only better missionaries but better people as well. We get our flight plans on Friday...I really don't understand how fast the weeks went by. I am so grateful for my time here at the MTC. I definitely learned a lot. It was weird not being home for Halloween but I'll have to get used to that cause I have many more holidays that I won't be home for. Also, it would be nice to hear from you personally! My email is wanchai.chab@myldsmail.net

I hope all of you have a great week! 愛しています！

ーチャブ長老