Close Encounters

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

こんにちは! 元気ですか? This past week was kind of insane as the MTC experienced a 500+ missionary influx, as well as 164 mission presidents in training. And along with the mission presidents came some people very high up in the church... (see below for details).

Spiritual Stuff:

During the devotional on Sunday (see below to find out who spoke), the speaker started talking about 2 Nephi 31 and I almost laughed. I may have mentioned this in an earlier email, but I've been going back to that chapter again and again over the past few weeks. Almost every verse is highlighted/underlined in multiple colors. I can't even begin to talk about the whole chapter because there's just so much, but I only just realized on Sunday that I've been going to the chapter that talks about the Doctrine of Christ, which is specifically listed in our missionary purpose. Go read it for yourself, but I'll just say that I think the reason I've been so drawn to it is because I subconsciously recognized its importance to my purpose at this point in my life. It was a pretty cool experience, realizing that.

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

Our district has just recently realized how lucky the Japanese groups are with our weekly service. Every district has some form of service, which could be anything from hosting new missionaries to cleaning toilets. All we have to do is take down Sunday devotional and set up Tuesday devotional, which is actually really fun once you know what you're doing. Also, there are perks like what happened to my friend/先輩. We were taking down the stage (it's in the gym so they have to bring one in), and she discovered that the speaker had left his cup behind... We convinced her to take it because she's from Australia and when else would she have to chance to steal Elder Holland's cup lol. We were all dying. Oh yeah, and not only was Elder Holland here for the past couple days, but so were the Quorum of the 12 and the First Presidency, even if at the devotional President Eyring and President Nelson weren't there. Which means there were several sightings, close encounters, and actual encounters. We saw Elder Uchtdorf twice, President Nelson once, and Elder Christofferson came and talked to some of our 後輩 (underclassmen, sort of), so we went over and joined them. He ended up taking a picture with two of the 姉妹たち from the Philippines, they were so excited. Also, that same friend/先輩 who took Elder Holland's cup (and her companion) got to see President Nelson and be only a couple feet away from him, which was amazing for her. The 日本人長老たち (Japanese elders) got to shake hands with several of them, and Elder Stevenson spoke to them in Japanese. Plus more sightings and encounters. And speaking of sightings and encounteres, I've run into a bunch more people I know here, some whose classrooms are near mine, some who live on the same floor, and some who I just see now and then. It's been pretty fun. The other night at dinner, we were sitting with the 日本人長老たち and one of them suddenly started saying, "暑い, 暑い!" (hot, hot!) while holding his mouth and drinking water. Turns out one of the 日本人姉妹たち (Japanese sisters) who went to BYU-HI had told him that hot sauce was good on salad. We all felt really bad for him but at the same time we were all dying laughing. He made some of the other 日本人長老たち try it and then they were all in pain lol. Also, the food the last few days has been unprecedentedly good. Apparently they were catering the mission presidents and so just decided to cater for everyone else instead. For example, we got Aloha Plate, Subway, Taco Bell, and Chick-fil-a, along with other meals that were just so much better than what we've been having. Almost forgot about this, but because everyone knew that apostles were coming, basically everyone at the MTC tried to join the choir. They ended up having to turn people away because we literally filled the bleachers. It ended up being a choir of 1000 people who sang at the Sunday devotional. Apparently, though, it's not the biggest they've every had. Class has been getting better and better as those who started off with zero experience have worked their way up to sort of understanding what's going on. We just laugh way too much, especially when people make mistakes or pronounce something wrong. Oh, and those who mess up laugh too, we're not laughing AT them lol, we're laughing WITH them. Random funny story: the same night that one 日本人長老 ate the salad with hot sauce, another 日本人長老 asked Olson if her hair was real. Meaning, he wanted to know if her curls were real. All of the 日本人長老たち were super surprised when they found out that both of us have natural curls.

About the Pictures:

• Olson姉妹 and I with the new 日本人姉妹たち (Japanese sisters), one of whom (Sato姉妹) is really good friends with Ikeda姉妹, our Japanese companion who left last week.
• My district plus the new 日本人 district and 2 of our leaders.
• Spontaneous picture when we noticed the Japan flag was up. It's pretty bad, but whatever.
• Yet another picture of the Provo Temple! Today was the last day we can go in because they're closing it for cleaning, but we'll probably do more temple walks.
• The day they catered Chick-fil-a, which happens to be Olson姉妹's absolute favorite.

じゃあまたね! 愛してます!

Sister Snarr