So, on Wednesday, after my family dropped me off, I was guided through some lines in which I received my nametags (in Japanese!) and other stuff, and then we dropped my luggage off at my room, and then I was taken to the classroom for my first period of instruction. Somewhere during that time my host and I walked past a pair of Japanese-speaking elders and one of them noticed my Japanese nametag and was like, "Wait, are you my new kohai? Yes, you ARE my new kohai!" and then he proceeded to give me a hug. All the missionaries who were already there would say "Welcome to the MTC!" whenever they saw me. (I learned pretty quick that all the brand-new missionaries were distinguished by a red sticker on their newly-issued nametags.)
In the classroom (and I had not been here for more than an hour, mind you), the teacher started speaking almost exclusively Japanese, and kept at it for most of the lesson. I understood maybe two-thirds to three-quarters of what he was saying. After that was a meeting with the 600+ new missionaries that had come in that day and the MTC presidency, and then dinner. They have a huge cafeteria with as much food as we want. They feed us well here. :3
Once we got back to our rooms, all the senpai and daisenpai (elders who had been here for three or six weeks already) came around to give hugs and snacks to all the new kohai. There's a lot of love here at the MTC. It's amazing.
My companion's name is Elder Soto, and he's been called as district leader for these first three weeks.
On Thursday we learned that the next day (Friday) we would be teaching our first lesson to an investigator IN JAPANESE. I had so many mixed feelings about that; I mean, there has to be a good reason for it, right? But it hardly seems fair! We've only had three days to learn the language! XD
Well... on Friday morning, Elder Soto and I went in to teach Oyama-san. We'd been given lots of books to help us learn the language (most of which have nickames: the missionary-specific books are Ninja and Miyagi-san, the Japanese-English dictionaries are Katana and Squirtle, our grammar book is Pikachu because it's yellow, etc.), and we had to take some of them in with us. She was patient with us and helped us find words in the dictionary if we didn't know them. We taught her that God is our Heavenly Father and that He loves all of us, that families are central to His plans and that His gospel blesses families (she was especially happy to hear that), and we taught her to pray. She felt the Spirit there and she was happy!
As we were walking back to our classroom, I squeed. I was so happy.
^___________________^
I've only got a couple minutes left. My P-day is on Saturday, and I only have an hour at most for email. (We get to go to the temple every Saturday! The Provo temple is beautiful :3) If I haven't answered your email at the time of this posting, it might've got caught by a filter; have one of my parents get your address to me and I'll write to you if I can. Also, if you get your mailing address to me I'll try best I can to send you a physical letter (I should have more time for that).
I love you all! And the Savior loves you too!
~Elder Taylor
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