Fwd: Week 3 Picture: All of Us With Willard Sensei, the Previous Master of 27B

I MADE A MISTAKE HERE IS THE ACTUAL PICTURE OH MY GOODNESS I'M SO BAD AT THIS

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Week 3 Picture: All of Us With Willard Sensei, the Previous Master of 27B

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Sister Teagan Clark

OCT 07 JPN-TOKS

2007 N. 900 E. Unit 46 

Provo, UT 84602

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Week 3 Pictures

THE DISTRICT (all of us, surprisingly enough)

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Sister Teagan Clark

OCT 07 JPN-TOKS

2007 N. 900 E. Unit 46 

Provo, UT 84602

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Week 3 Pictures

1) It really really looked like I had a luscious mustache, okay? I was dying of laughter. 

2) My neighbors, Elder Lundberg and Elder Berube. Sometimes (ok, all the time) I feel like Elder Lundberg is my long lost brother. 

--

Sister Teagan Clark

OCT 07 JPN-TOKS

2007 N. 900 E. Unit 46 

Provo, UT 84602

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Fwd: Week 2: And So The Student Becomes The Sensei

1) Sister Jones and I

2) The Magnificent Elder Berube 

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Sister Teagan Clark

OCT 07 JPN-TOKS

2007 N. 900 E. Unit 46 

Provo, UT 84602

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Week 3: Soon to Be Sanpai

I hope everything on my blog has started to work itself out. I wouldn't want everyone to be left out of the loop and I especially hope that my beautiful pictures have started actually posting. 

I can hardly believe that I'm already here at the end of week 3! The sisters who have been here the longest (who we call the di-sanpai) left for Nihon (Japan) this morning. Crazy to think that they are on a plane right now! Also crazy to think that I may never see them again. They were all such sweethearts. Not that they've changed all of the sudden...

Nothing is quite as funny as mixing up the language. Some of my favorite moments this week include:

Willard Sensei calling Lopez-Ruano Shimai a "violent kau" ("kau" is pronounced "cow" and means face and I knew that but still laughed hysterically because everyone else looked so confused) and me telling Horne Sensei that his "tie was testimony" (I meant to say red instead of testimony because he told me I had red glassed. The word for red is "aka" and the word for testimony is "akashii"). Williard Sensei and Hugo Sensei are transferring this week and yesterday was their last days of teaching, which is very sad. It's weird how close you can feel with someone after only 3 weeks. 

Tomorrow we should be getting new kohai (lowest level) and we are going to because SANPAI *dun dun* which means were are suppose to act like we know what we are doing... No problem, right?

More protesters at the temple this Sunday. It's still bizarre. Elder Berube is feeling much better. I mention that because he told me that a friend of his found my blog. So.... Hello Elder Berube's friend :3. 

It's absolutely insane to think that one day I'm going to not be in the MTC but in Japan and that I will actually have to be speaking Nihongo... That's absolutely terrifying. 

I'd love it if you wrote me! Or e-mailed me! OR ANYTHING. *cough* Don't forget that dearElder.come is a thing. 

I hope this post was plenty entertaining, haha. 

Cheers!

--

Sister Teagan Clark

OCT 07 JPN-TOKS

2007 N. 900 E. Unit 46 

Provo, UT 84602

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Fwd: Week 2: More Pictures

2) The Protester shouting in Latin at the temple

3) The Shimaitachi!

--

Sister Teagan Clark

OCT 07 JPN-TOKS

2007 N. 900 E. Unit 46 

Provo, UT 84602

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Fwd: Week 2: Pictures

1) Our District (minus a companionship)

2) Jones Shimai and I at the temple

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Sister Teagan Clark

OCT 07 JPN-TOKS

2007 N. 900 E. Unit 46 

Provo, UT 84602

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Week 2

Sent from my iPad.

Sent from my iPadHello Everyone!

I can hardly believe it's already P-Day again. Not that I'm complaining.... After all, I absolutely love it here. My fellow sisters and I work out pretty hardly every gym time (we usually run, do a circuit, and then I've started teaching them karate by request) and so every day I'm sore. Today it's my legs, haha, and we live on the top floor. 

Our first investigator was Hayashi-san and we all felt like he was so mysterious because he would only ever speak Japanese (though once I accidentally said 'please' in one of our lessons and he laughed and said "please desu ne!" and I thought 'Thanks Hayashi-San for your loving supporting....") But we saw him outside of class one day in the cafeteria and we were all incredibly weirded out by it. The rest of our district left and he actually came and sat by Sister Jones and I. We were smiling and laughing so much most because we were so awkwarded out by this situation. His real name is Horne Sensei and I found out yesterday that we went to the same high school... and that I dated a good friend of his.......... Yeah, Feist Shimai likes to poke fun at me as I blush, haha. He is also going to be our teacher starting on the 28th SO YEAH. (Feist Shimai and Lopez-Ruano Shimai are also feeling rather awkward about this because a) they accidentally told him that his was God's beloved son, AKA THE SAVIOR OF ALL MANKIND and b) they told him that they loved him... a lot.)

The only other really interesting thing I think about talking about is on Sunday, most everyone walks to the temple and takes pictures (pictures to come ;D) and hangs out as a district but fun fact: sometimes people protest as we walk. Was not expecting that to be honest. So we're walking to the temple and there is a man standing on the sidewalk with a really really really really really big cross shouting at us and telling us how "because we don't honor the cross that we aren't going to be helping anyone" and that " we're all going to hell" so that was fun and by fun, I mean uncomfortable. I took a picture for proof..... oops. It's insane how quickly the spirit can leave. 

I was pretty grumpy for a couple of days, I will admit. Mostly because I was feeling awfully chubby. But it's amazing how quickly prayers are answered. Yesterday, I had not a single frustrating moment. Like: WHAZZAMO GOOD MOOD! I know that that came from the Lord. 

ALSO: Last Tuesday Richard G. Scott came and spoke to us! It was amazing. It was broadcasted to all the MTC's in the world, but I dunno if it's available else where. If it is, look for me in the choir! We were pretty rockin. 

My companion is incredibly musically talented and I'm always like *talentenvy* BUT because she is so wonderful, she is accompanying a mutual friend of ours, Hannah Benge, when she performs a musical number for new missionaries coming in tomorrow! I'm super excited!!

So, please, don't be afraid to write me!

Forever yours,

Sister Clark

Week 1: Extra Pictures (that wouldn't send)

Just a few more because, ya know, size limits and such. (there will be another)

 

3) My companion and I (and Elder Lundberg.....)

4) Classy (yet sterotypical) name tag picture

 

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Week 1: MTC Jitters

Well look at this! Here I am, finally in the actually MTC, having a companion and stuff and eating MTC food and speaking Japanese and EVERYTHING!

 

Wednesday was the day I came in, as you are probably aware. That honestly feels like it was about 3 weeks ago. Days here are so slow going. We often forget if we just ate dinner or lunch.  I live on the fourth floor of my building, so me and my fellow Shimaitachi (that means sister is Japanese) have to climb a lot of stairs to get to our bedroom. The bedrooms are more built for 4 people... and there are 6 of us, haha, so we've had to do some minor adjusting. So far, it's really worked out great. One of those mini-MTC miracles, I suppose. There are a lot of those that happen! My companion is Jones Shimai and she really is a sweetheart. I'm very happy with our companionship. The other sisters in our room are Collison Shimai and Southworth Shimai and Feist Shimai and Lopez-Ruano Shimai (who I knew before entering the MTC). Feist and Lopez-Ruano are in our district and are both also going to the Tokyo South mission.

 

In fact, everyone in our district is going to the Tokyo South mission. There are 12 of us in total. 4 Shimai and 8 Chōrō (that's elder in Japanese, btw). I'll be quite honest, we're probably the funniest district around. We're a bunch of clowns. It's a miracle that we get any work done. (Another MTC miracle!) I'll just run off their names, so you can know: Rockwood, Cluff, Berube, Lundberg, Wright, Ford, Hansen, and Nebeker. It's really strange how close and how much like a family you can be in only 6 days. It was bizarre seeing them in regular p-day clothes today.

 

Our teacher is Willard Sensei and he is quite honestly an excellent teacher. He was just married 6 months ago, after knowing his wife for 3 months and she's been pregnant for 3 months... Willard Sensei is hilarious, but also very spiritual and let's us figure out most of the stuff on our own (with teh help of the spirit) which is frustrating but longer lasting then just trying to just teach us Japanese.

 

Did you know that when you are speaking a langauge they have you teach in that language on the 2nd day? Talk about terrifying! I was so surprised that they had us teaching so soon. Mostly we end up teaching and saying thigns straight out of a book and most the time have no idea what we are saying nor what the investigator is saying and it's confusing and frustrating BUT! The good thing is that it can only get better. My Japanese is definitely not good. But it can only improve.

 

There is nothing like the spirit in the MTC. You look around and see all of these young men and woman who are purely serving the Lord and everyone is just so bright and filled with love. Having a companion is truly a blessing. Learning Japanese (however frustrating it can be!) is truly a blessing. I quite honestly thank the Lord for this wonderful opprotunity.

 

One thing I was surprised that I needed more of were t-shirts! I only brought 3, not counting the fact that we excercise every day and having a t-shirt for each day would be helpful. Just a thought! The everyday miracles in the MTC are amazing. Just the fact that you can have a ton of girls and boys together in the prime of their flirting and scoping out the opposite sex season and have hardly none of that going on. Sure, sure, there is flirting (that's unavoidable) but it's not normal flirting. It's restrained flirting and it's kind of hilarious. We have "handshakes of victories" instead of high fives because any contact with the opposite is inappropriate. We often forget and high five each other, haha, but we've been correcting ourselves! Also, you don't realize how much you say "dude" and "man" until you reach the MTC where you aren't suppose to call each other "dude" and "man" and "guys."

 

Book is blue, the church is true!

 

Cheers!

 

Clark Shimai

 

 Picture explainations:

1) Me and my goofy friends before getting set apart

2) My parents dropping me off

 

 

PS) I'm doing this via e-mail, so I don't know if it's going to post the pictures in that order. See you next week! (figuratively)

 

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And Thus the Stake President Drags Me Speedily Down to the MTC

               That's a long title, I know. It's a poor reference to "and thus the devil drags them speedily down to hell." That's what I get for trying to be clever, I know, I know. Currently, my emotion can be summed up as "AHHHHHHHHHH" and the cause of it is this little picture right here:

                 Looks familiar, doesn't it? It's just a tiny, itty bit, terrifying number that keeps staring me in the face. No problems. Except, you know, all of the problems. My computer has been freaking out at me lately and I can't access hardly anything. SO much for all the last minute tech things I wanted to accomplish. Luckily, I have just enough power to finish up some final things (like this blog post) and some facebook AAAAAAAAAAAAND putting my cute mission pictures up on this blog for you to view!

It was my cute friend Abbey Smiley who took and edited these for me. I decided that I really wanted missionary photos taken because I never had senior pictures taken and as an actress, it's important to have updated head shots with your resume (speaking of which, I really need to update that... cough) and I think these will work perfectly. I doubt that my appearance will change very much in 18 months. Abbey promised she would send me all the originals so I could take a look at them all. I really hope I can see them before I leave FOREVER.
                 It really does feel like I'm going to be leaving forever. It's really weird to think about how much is going to change when I come back. I mean, even after just being gone for a month or so for college a lot of things changed. Shop fronts, furniture. Lots of things. I have many nieces and nephews and I can only imagine how much they are going to grow up while I am away.
                Even MORE weird to consider is how much I am going to change and how much my friends are going to change. After all,

what are we all going to be like after going through something huge like a mission. I'll be quite surprised if anyone reads all of this. I want to get all my thoughts off my chest and I also want to include all of these pictures with interesting text. CONTINUING! If you really think about it, staying friends with the people you were friends with in high school is not the easiest thing in the world. After all, in high school you had the blessing of close proximity. We spent every single day together. Going off to college, you start to learn who your real friends are. You learn who you care enough to talk to and who cares enough to talk to you. Distance creates difficulty. Anyone who has written a missionary can attest to that. There are really just a few friends that I sincerely hope to never lose touch with. But like I said, a lot can change in just 18 months.

                There really isn't too much I'm going to be sad I'm missing when I leave. I really like a reality game show, Whodunnit, and I'm kind of sad that I'm going to be missing the conclusion of. Also, the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who. But TV and things are things that are easy to miss. Not like you can't just watch them when you get back. Or have your mom tell you what happens, tee hee.

             This is my last "pre-mission" post. I should update every p-day, so please keep a look out! This church is true. I'll be back soon!!