We're emailing a little earlier today, changing up the good old P-day schedule for a change. Actually it's mainly because Sister Adams and I have a hair cutting apt. when we normally email! YAY for a haircut!
Okay wow let me tell you about this week!
We got our new kohai on Tuesday/ Wednesday (Tuesday for the new international missionaries). These included one solo sister! She's from New Zealand, has a sweet accent and is super nice. Since she's the solo sister and we were a trio...our trio is no more :( . Sister Lynch was assigned to be Sister Tehei's new companion. It's interesting, definitely different only being in a twosome. Thankfully because I absolutely love Sister Lynch, and she has had 6 more weeks of Japanese study than sister Tahei, she's still with us for class and MDT (missionary directed time), so things haven't changed too much...we've just added another sister to our companionship!
With the new kohai coming in, it meant I was doing a lot of new things as the coordinating sister. I, along with the zone leaders and the music coordinator, gave orientation, tour of the campus and a myriad of other things. I had to miss class for it (which even since I was young I've hated missing class...remember the time I gave up going to the McDonald's river boat and Arch with Grandma, just so I could go to school...? yeah I was a weird kid!) so it kind of threw me off, but it was fun and definitely worth it!
Also, guess what I got to do!!!!! Yes I went off campus! Sister Lynch had to go to the doctor (don't worry she's totally fine) and we didn't just go to the BYU health center, we went to an actual doctor's office in Provo, so we got to take a shuttle! I know it's pathetic but when you've been in the same exact places for 7 weeks straight the smallest things are exciting...for example riding in an elevator, dialing a phone, riding in a car, and of course driving right through my beloved old home of the BYU campus. Best thing ever!
Last Tuesday night we also had another apostle come to speak to us...3 apostles right in a row...how lucky! This time is was M. Russell Ballard! I love hearing the apostles speak! There is nothing like hearing the actual voice, being in the same room as an apostle of God!
Interesting experience: The other day I was talking and then all of a sudden I realized, I just carried on a whole conversation in Japanese without really having to think too hard about it. and it hit me...that crazy language with all the unintelligible characters... I can read them. I can actually speak Japanese! Am I fluent? Not even close. Will I be completely lost when I get to Japan? Definitely. But will I be able to speak what I need to to be able to fulfill my purpose as a missionary? For sure!!!
Sorry I'm not always clear when I use Japanese words so if ever I don't define anything let me know. Nihongin is the word for the Japanese people. and Kanji is one of the character sets they have. Kanji is the most complicating about 86,00 characters over time. 1000 of which are in the Book of Mormon. They have it set up so we should learn one a day, but really don't stress it too much because there is hiragana (the main character set which includes only 46 characters and some variations of those 46) next to every kanji character in the Book of Mormon. Kanji was adopted from the chinese years and years ago.
I love you all!!!!
Sister Erin Benne
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