Last week at the MTC!

Last Email from the MTC!!!! I get to leave Monday, and then I probably won't the chance to email again till Monday the week after. This is also probably the only email I will have time to write, so if you don't get one this week expect one in a week and a couple of days. I've been packing a lot lately and getting ready to go. I'm blessed that I'm such a light packer. Most of the study materials that I got here I'll be able to take because I have so much room. A lot of people have to leave behind really good books because they can't afford the extra weight.

This week has been really cool. We had L. Tom Perry come and talk to us at a devotional. He talked about the relationships that you should strive for in your companionships. It was a really good talk and made me excited to meet my new companion. I hope no mater who I get that I will always be able to build a good relationship. Also I finished the Book of Mormon this week. I started around my second week here. It was awesome. I was a little worried what it would be like to go two years without reading a normal book. But as I read the Book of Mormon this time I connected with it like never before. It was great I always felt in the past that it was hard to read certain parts, this time however my attention was caught the entire time. 

This week we saw a lot of people for the last time, It was a little sad. I am really going to miss both of my senseis. They are way awesome. I think it's amazing that they took this as their job. Both of them not only taught us so much but cared for us in a way like no other. I could always feel their love every day. I wish I could bring a small version of them so much, just for little pick me ups. The good news is if I have Facebook in the field it will be easy to keep in touch.

Anyway that's all the time I have, I still need to clean some things.

Love you all,

Elder Davies

We got our travel plans!

This week over all has been a really good week, but it doesn't feel like I've done a lot. On Tuesday we sang in choir "Like 10,000 Legions Marching" it's in the Hymn book but it's not sung very often. The MTC has its own arrangement and it was probably the best song that we've sung so far. We also found out that Tuesday we'll have Elder L. Tom Perry come talk at the MTC, I think it'll be a really good talk.

Wednesday we hosted the new missionaries coming in. It was a lot of fun, I got to meet a lot of new people and watch a lot of moms cry. It's probably a good thing my parents didn't drop me off, I can't imagine how my Mum would have been. Before I left my Mum was writing my name on everything I owned. I found my name in my tie this week, literally inside of it, it was on the backside and was a little smudged so it took me a little to work it out. I'll be honest, it freaked me out a bit. So, it was probably good she had to stay in Germany, though I do love her tons and it was nice to have a bit of her.

Yesterday we got our travel plans! They are such a boost to moral. Most of us are getting a little tired of the MTC. But we leave the 18th of November at 4:30 a.m. and land the 19th of November at 4:55 p.m., the perfect time to be able to go get a good Japanese dinner. So this is our last full week and then we get to head out! Today we had a really good TRC. TRC is time that we get to teach church members in Japanese. Both Elder Quilter and I really excelled at the language and then the church member we were teaching was the sweetest lady ever. She was originally from Tokyo but now lives in Salt Lake. We only were able to talk but by the time we were done we were best friends and was kinda hard to leave.

Well that’s all that really went on this week. We’re planning to really work hard this last week and prepare ourselves as best we can for Japan.

Elder Davies  

This is the SYL troll that one of our shimai drew. SYL or Speak Your Language is a system that encourages you to practice and always to speak in your language when possible. One of the senseis described that he would imagine a troll prodding him to do it. Also include is the vegetable versions of our district our senseis included. I'm the leek and my companion is the corn 

Sick this week

2 November 2013

This week has been a week of sickness. Everyone has been getting sick and then when you get better, someone passes it back to you. We had a few days with half our district missing. I ended up going to the clinic and was just sent out to go buy some drugs. It was weird going off the MTC it was my first time leaving in about 7 weeks. I was sick at the beginning of the week, got better, and then last night caught it again. So lately I've just been pondering the question of how the body can store so much snot in a place so small as your nose.

The language is coming along awesome we mostly study how to teach in Japanese, so it's not super useful for real world talk. However I'm lucky and have studied Japanese for 6 years, I feel as though I can say most things now. Like "can I go to residence in order to take some medicine." except I still need to get better at thinking Japanese because I ended up saying "Can I take medicine in order to go to residence." Close enough though, right? They really encourage us to SYL (speak your language) here and that's probably the best thing to help improve the language.

Halloween was interesting. The MTC really didn't do anything besides offer caramel apples at dinner and lunch. But everyone from Utah (and thats a lot) got huge packages from family with cookies, and other assorments of goodies. I dressed up as my companion, so we switched name tags, ties, and watches. I also did my hair, which is weird because I can't remember the last time I put a comb through my hair.

On Wednesday we had a Skype lesson with people from Japan. We had a sister and her little girl, who was three. She was probably the cutest thing I've seen for awhile. She would keep popping up on screen to show us her toys. And then at the end when we were saying good bye she let out a "Bye bye missionaries do your best in Japan!" It was about the cutest thing ever. But it was really cool at the same time because when we practice here at the MTC we do lessons with our teachers or volunteers and it never came to mind that in real life we might have children in our lesson. And it completely changes the way you talk and present things because you want the child to understand too.

Well we have 16 days left at the MTC so you'll only get two more of these letters and then they will be filled with adventures in Japan. Hope everyone is having a nice week!

Love,

Elder Davies