Last Week in the MTC!!!

Elan here. The photo shows Em's open closet door, where she has hung the Christmas tree we sent with the "ornaments" from so many of her friends and family. The following is an excerpt from the email we received today; it's the last one Sister McMahan will send from the MTC.

Emily writes:
Flight Plans---Delta Airlines--Flight 1173 SLC (8:25am) to LAX (9:30am) Dec. 22

Japan Airlines--Flight 61
LAX (11:50am) Dec. 22 to Tokyo Narita, Japan (NRT) (4:40pm) Dec. 23


First of all, THANK YOU for the gifts in the mail. I absolutely love the pictures Claire sent as well as the bear. It's just what I needed. Everything here gets a bit dreary since it's not very colorful. I'm thrilled to read something inspirational out of that book every day! By the way, the shirts are beautiful and they fit! It's nice to have something new to wear!

Tues. Dec. 9
We went to the temple as a district for the 2:40 session. Tex. Sensei came. I love to sit in the Celestial Room. It's so peaceful. I love it because all day you're studying and thinking and playing around and then at the Temple you can let all your thoughts go and remember who you are serving. Before the temple our district went to lunch at the Temple cafeteria. It was heavenly to eat REAL veggies and rice that was cooked well. I got my hair thinned out. It's super nice! At the end of the day, around 9:30 there's always an announcement over the intercom that summons missionaries to the front desk. Today it was a bit different. The intercom voice asked some missionaries to return wheelchairs. At one point the voice said "Sister So and So, if you're able, we'd like the wheelchair back..." It was SUPER funny and especially funny because our district was in the middle of a prayer when the announcement came on. It was a long announcement in the first place and then they repeated it. Needless to say we just decided to start the prayer over.

Wed. Dec. 10
Apparently the monthly rent for Japan apartments is $10, 000. It's one of the most expensive places in the mission field. Sis. Shaha and I went to a teaching evaluation with Sis. Lew. We worked on sharing scriptures. The scriptures use ancient Japanese sometimes. Japanese is tricky since, when written in Kanji or Hiragana, there are no spaces between the characters.
As a district we went on a tango sanpo (vocabulary walk). The sun was out for once and it felt great. One of the missionaries in our kohai had mentioned how pale I was and I thought of that comment while I was in the sun :) Back in the day, I didn't look forward to Tango Sanpos because I found it hard to retain information. Now I amaze myself at how memorizing things in Japanese is easier since I'm more familiar with how things work.

Yesterday I was blowing my nose and I wadded up the tissue in preparation for tossing it in the trash, a couple feet from my chair. When I squeezed it, a bubble inside popped and it squeaked. It was loud enough for Sis. Shaha, sitting next to me, to hear. A moment later we were both laughing hysterically during class. It felt good to laugh that hard!

We switched seats for the 3rd time as a district. Sis. Shaha and I now have our backs to the window. The downer is that there's a vent and it blows cold air right on top of us... very cold, dry air. So, we wear our coats during the class. The elders, when they sat there, tended to like it because of the air.

Thus. Dec. 11
TRC went swimmingly. Sis. Shaha recited the first vision in Japanese. I'm still working on the end of it. Our TRC scenario was that we had to plan our day with the members. As part of our "schedule" we'd written down to visit a recent convert who was in the hospital. Then, the "member" (on of the two who'd come to the TRC that day and were talking with us) asked what we were going to do in the hospital. I thought quickly how it was the holiday season and then said..."sing!"

We'll I'd better send this. I made a big effort to write a lot in my journal this week. Sometimes at the end of the day there's so much to do. I'll write a letter and send it.

PS- I fell RIGHT on my tailbone going to the temple today!! Ah!

Sister McMahan