This is most of our district, with most of the Nihonjin. One. Week. LEFT.
"Mazu, Anzen ga arimasen!
Kesshite!" First of all, you are never safe! NEVER!
And THAT is how I started my talk on Sunday.
So as you can probably infer from last
Sunday's entry, I was DEAD SURE I was safe. They called Donnelly Shimai
last week; they sure weren't going to call me. Dead wrong. I wrote
my talk out of sheer obedience alone, never expecting to get called for a
second. So I wrote it, and it wasn't bad, but I also didn't worry too
much about any grammar issues, and I didn't rewrite my talk so I could actually
read it. Because, you know, I was CONFIDENT I wasn't going to get called
on. Until about 2 seconds before they announced the names, and I had an
epiphany. "Aww, man. It's me."
"Our first talk will be given by Sister
Harris, followed by..." Dang it. So I did they only thing I
could do. I gave my talk. I read it straight from the paper, hands
shaking as I tried not to stumble through my poor handwriting. Not
humiliating, but not as well as I would have liked to have done either. I
think God taught me a couple of lessons from this humbling experience.
First: obedience. It's easy to see a
rule and say, "That doesn't apply to me. It doesn't matter if I
don't do it." To repeat, I was absolutely certain I wasn't going to
give a talk. God, however, knew otherwise. Isaiah 55:8-9.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." We were all
asked to prepare a talk, and, due to obedience to something I didn't see a need
for and to prepare for something I didn't see coming, I was able to make it
through."
Second: Preparation. This one kind of
goes along with the first one. We never know what things God may call us
to do. We need to prepare wholeheartedly to be ready. One of the
MTC presidents was in our sacrament meeting last week and said, "This is
the day for which you have been raised up." What a pity it would be
to not be ready when God had a golden opportunity knock on the door. I
kind of prepared, but not with everything I had. As a result, I didn't do
the best I could have and quite possibly embarrassed myself in front of the
Nihonjin senkyoushi who arrived last week. What could have been a
strengthening and exciting experience was instead turned into a scary and
mediocre one.
Moving on. ELDER RICHARD G. SCOTT gave
our devotional last Tuesday! It was AWESOME! And Scheffler Shimai
and I (diligently not going to choir) actually had really good seats! He
talked about the different means in which we get answer to prayer, and why so
often it seems our prayers go unanswered. There were many answers to this,
but one of my favorite was that God requires faith on our part, faith to act on
answers and truth we have already received and to move forward, confident that
God will not let us go astray. If you're not getting an answer, that may
be an answer in itself for the moment.
Powell Sensei, one of our teachers, finished
his last final on Wednesday. Because we're hilarious, we bought him a
card and all signed it: a sympathy card. "With deepest
sympathies. Sometimes, trials are so difficult, that only God knows how
we feel." Or something like that. Then I wrote
underneath" such is the experience of finals. Congratulations on
making it through!" We're really funny. Also, Powell Sensei
told me that I was learning Japanese quickly, honto ni, he said, which was good
to hear because I have been feeling a little discouraged about the language,
seeing as I now leave in ONE WEEK.
Speaking of which, we got our TRAVEL
PLANS! We leave on Tuesday,
reporting to the Travel Office at 4:30 am for our 8:30 flight to Seattle, and then on to the OSAKA airport! I
CAN'T WAIT TO GET TO JAPAN! I'm also terrified, because I can't speak to
or understand anyone, but still! The Lord will provide! I also got
a package from my wonderful Peterson cousins and Aunt Holly and Uncle
David! I LOVED getting it, reading all their letters, using the cute
notebook they sent, using the lotion, and handing out the Jesus stickers.
I'm kind of the sticker dealer of my district.
We did a companion swap for a little while
this week, just for TRC, and Sister Scheffler is PSYCHIC! She correctly
predicted all of Powell Sensei's swaps for the shimaitachi and 2 of the swaps
for the chorotachi. The Shimai reasoning: "Sister Donnelly and
Sister Harris, because you both like to talk, and you'll have to fight to speak
over eachother. Sister Tenney and Sister Broadhead, because then they'll
both HAVE to talk. And Me and Sister Colter, because she doesn't like to
talk, but knows how to say a lot of things, and I LOVE to talk but don't know
how to say things!" Right. On. The Money. Teaching with
Donnelly Shimai was a wonderful experience. She is strong in most of the
areas I need the most help in. She's really good at making natural
transitions between points and ideas, and at asking good question sto be able
to discern peoples' needs. Even just in planning the lesson, she was
really good at asking questions to get my input without it feeling forced or
anything. I would LOVE to develop both of these abilities, and am working
on applying what I observed. Sister Donnelly's going to be an AMAZING
missionary. Plus, we do our hundred challenge on MONDAY, the day before we leave. Let's see how
many we can do! Right now, our final set after the workout is 78.
And Sasaki-san is learning to feel God's love,
Kimura san is learning to recognize the spirit, and Suzuki Kyoudai has a
testimony and is going to be baptized! I can't wait until we're actually
teaching real investigators!
I am seriously SO EXCITED TO GO TO
JAPAN! I don't know a whole lot, but I know that I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. Without the Spirit, I cannot succeed,
but with the Spirit, I cannot fail! There are Japanese brothers and
sisters who are kept from the truth only because they know not where to find
it, and I intend to be an instrument in the hand of the Lord in bringing it to
them. I couldn't be happier, and I couldn't be doing anything better with
my life right now. I LOVE this gospel and know that it is true with my
whole soul!
I won't be able to email again before I leave,
so for the last time in America,
The church is true.
The Book is blue.
Tell you friends!
Ga dai suki desu!
-Sister Whitney
I LOVED the photo book! I've been
showing it to EVERYONE, and Sister Mack (the branch president's wife) came in
to say goodnight to us, and ended up looking at the whole thing. She
almost got choked up a little bit and said, "You...have such a GREAT family."
My response? "I know I do." :) It is now my most prized
posession. :)
I LOVE YOU MOST!
In front of our temple
with all of our Shimai, and our Nihonjin Murakami and Komai Shimai!
This is what the MTC laundry room looks like at 4:00 A.M.
Taking lovely, ironic pictures on our last p-day at the MTC. We will miss these washers. Or not.
Anyways...We were
the only ones crazy enough to be here at 4.
Scarves!!
Behold the new nametag! The JAPANESE nametag! And THAT is
what Harisu Shimai looks like in
Japanese. :) It was a
good moment when we walked into class to find these bad boys on our
desks.
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