Natalie's Letter

Hello Family and Friends!

It's crazy to think that I am over half way done with the MTC! The time has gone by so fast yet so slow. (I feel like this is how i start all my emails...opps, but it's true) This week like every other week has been an up and down one. But this one I think has been the hardest one so far. I'll start from the beginning. On Saturday we taught in Japanese for the first time and let me tell you I was definately blessed with the gift of tongues. I could understand pretty much everything or was able to put ideas together and while two days before I could even put a sentence together, that day i was able to completely talk. The gift of tongues is real and I got a little taste of it. So i know that I am going to be okay. However, after feeling great the the Lord helped me, I felt like I then hit a wall. I really felt like I had so much more to learn yet didn't know how to keep progressing. I was now able to teacha  simple lesson in Japanese but how in the world was I going to communicate and listen to what the people were saying. It was a very depressing week because here I was feeling like I had this big wall in front of me and i didn't know how to get around it. I am still feeling like this currently and it's a little frustrating cause i want to keep progressing but really don't know how. Advice would be nice.

We got a new group of 24 missionaries going to Japan. It is so nice to have them here caue it was getting a little lonely. Included are two sisters. They are great. One is super excited about everything and it's almost too much, the other one is very calm yet super cool. We'll be good friends. Last night they had a get to know you meeting and in it they all gave a little introduction and told why they were on a mission and their testimonies and their strength was unbelieveable. They boost me up and remind me to have to same conviction that they have. The world is is good hands with missionaries like these boys. They are strong and all know why they are here and have such a testimony is the work and the gospel and doing what the Lord wants. I came out from that meeting knowing that the world is being changed because of elders like them. On a personal note and struggle, In that group of 24, probably 75% had some time to Japan and had taken Japanese before. One it makes me really wonder why I missed the band wagon and very far behind yet at the same time makes me think about how much greater my calling a missionary to Japan is. The Lord called me, a 21 year old girl with no ties to Japan, no language experience and here i am starting from ground one. It makes me feel like I have a special work to do in Japan that no one else can do. same goes for Riley. Makes me wonder what the significance of that was. I feel like I need to work extra hard to become good at this language and at knowing the gospel better. The hardest thing here at the MTC is not to compare yourself with others. It's hard when you see half your class understanding what the teacher is saying and you have no idea what he just said. It's hard when you are contacting people and your companion just goes off and you can't even formulate a sentence. It's so frustrating. But last night in our meeting the zone leaders (who had both taken Japanese and my companion, whose half Japanese were telling the newbies that took Japanes before to keep learnign more adn more and to keep progressing, they then let me say somethign about learnign the language and i spoke more to those like 4 people who didn't know japanese before that you can not compare yourself becaue that is just letting satan right on in. I was so preaching to myself. I think that is what i struggle most with. Not comparing. Pray for me to know that I am doing my best and that I am making progress in the language.

Not gonna lie, the mission is hard and it pushes and stretches you in ways you can't understand. It's good beacuse it means that the Lord knows you are ready to become better and that you are ready to grow but it hearts. But everyday I always go to bed thinking how this was the best thing ever and that I am going to come back a better person than when I left and if I don't help anyone else on my mission I know I will have at least helped myself is one way or another.

I love you all and pray for you everyday. Do the work that you can do whereever you are and the Lord will bless you. I love this gospel and the work that I am called to do. Trust in Him and he will direct your paths in all things!

Much love

Shimai 

Riley's Letter

  Greetings,

This is, like all the others have gone by pretty fast. Last saturday we taught at the trc all in japanese. it went really well. although i probably only understood like 20% of what they responded back to our questions, it still went really well. i was able to formulate sentences and my comp and i were able to get a nice flow despite it being all in japanese. the spirit was way strong which was the best part. it was cool to bear testimony and make promises all in japanese. so that went a lot better then i expected it to go. the language is coming slowly but surely. i am super excited to continue to learn the language and then to get to japan. i am way excited. so next tuesday for the mtc wide devtional in which a general authority speaks, i am saying the opening prayer and natalie is saying the closing prayer, so that is way exciting, that would be way sweet if it was one of the twelve. so we are excited for that. class is way fun, still love my district, we have a blast. some of the guys in it are hilarious and i have gotten to know the other guys in our zone really well. we all get a long way good. quin, what was with the ashcroft person that you knew or soemthing? he is in my zone and i know him pretty well. he is hilarious. the food still wrecks the system way bad and gym time is still awesome. we got new japanese missionaries last wednesday so that is cool to be the senior missionaries. we only have like four and half weeks which is so crazy. yesterday we checked off all the grammar we have done and all the ones that we still will cover in class and it was crazy becasue we are like 3/4 of the way done with the grammar that is on the MTC cirriculum. the mtc and learning a language is crazy because one moment you can be pretty stoked with your progress and the next realize how far you have left and then be discouraged. but its easy for me becasue i figure if i just relax and work hard it will come and worrying about does nothing. so although it is way humbling i am doing fine. natalie on the other hand....well....she's..natalie. haha just kidding. she is doing way good and its sweet to have her around cuz she gets a boatload of packages all the time from random people and i get to eat the food in it so its all good. but this week i got two packages from sister cranney and katie cranney so i have a fresh supply of goodies thanks to them, so that was way nice of them. and i got a letter from grandma jo so that was way cool. she is definitely one of the number one providers of food and packages so that is really nice of her. i write them back everytime i get something from her. i also write the garners too. mail is good. mail is super fun to get from you guys which i like and i know that you dont email me so i dont waste my time reading emails instead of writing them but if you guys have any specific questions you wanna ask you can email those to me becasue some email days i have so much to tell you guys and am crunched for time and then other days (like today) i cant really remember/dont know what to tell you guys, so if you have any questions that you want me to answer you can email them to me. and yes, cobb, i slapped elder collinsworth's the other day when i saw him. he is way cool, i'll try and hook you up. thanks for looking for sweatshirts. as far as stuff i need, i dont really know. my brain hurts like all the time here so thinking while emailing or thinking on p-days in general is a real task so i probably need stuff but cant remember right now so it must not be anything too improtant. i would ask for my flips but i dont know how much use i would get out of them, they are just my comfort item. but i am doing way good. the whole mtc experience is really humbling at times becasue your flaws are a lot more prevalent here becasue you are trying to be so good. but its a really good experience. oh funny story: the other day me, natalie and our companions were in the mail room checking mail and of course she got two packages and i got none (the mail room people put package slips in our district mail box but they dont specify which stevenson has a package, so i always let natalie take care of it because it usually for). anyways as we were walking out of the crowded mail room i reached for one of the packages in natalies arms and she wasnt letting go and i wasnt really thinkning and i starting pulling harder to the point where some how her head was by my elbow and when i decided to let go it looked like/ i kinda did elbow her in the head, so it was this huge scene in the mailroom and since my brain was fried i didnt pay any attention to it and kept walking and so did natalie but our comps who were behind us said that everyone in the mailroom just froze with huge eyes becasue from their point of view this random elder just clocked this random sister in the head. so our compaions were like, "its ok, they are brother and sister, dont worry, they are siblings". natalie and i didnt comprehend the situation until after we got outside and then we realized how funny that must of looked. we laughed about for the whole day. im surprised that hasnt happended more often. but i just thought i'd tell you about that funny incident. im a writing the twins a letter in whcih im filling them in on all the funny, immature stuff that happens here. life is goodd. quin, i talked to jordan, the tall roomate who works here for a while the other day. he is way cool and funny. i dont see jackson at much though. i love you guys. the days are long, the weeks are short. its all good. thanks for everything. love to hear from y'all.

Love

Elder Stevenson