ALRIGHTY!

Alrighty!

So this whole conference thing tomorrow with the mission presidents...so they took over 1M, which is the building I can send pictures on. Goodness gracious the things I gotta put up with...

Alrighty so no pictures! That's alright cause I didn't really have any good ones this week. Less of a visual week. EXCEPT all the birds! There are the cutest little birds here who just chirp away and drink from the tiny little puddles and they're just the cutest things ever. They have become my best friends. Also, I've discovered a tree that makes ANGEL wings. Of course I've been under Oak trees before...but I've never realized that they are angel wings! Go pick up some angel wings. They will make you so happy. I used to put them on my nose, but I haven't done that in a while. 

My companion gets embarassed of me really easily, so I try to give her a break every now and again. Speaking of embarassing, sooooo Coles Shimai and I were on a little walk while we were doing companionship study, and there was the house!!! So I look really quick across the street....lo and behold ERYN crawls out the window and starts cleaning the window or something. Naturally I tried to get her attention, so I did a little cat call (highly innapropriate...) and she doesn't look....so I get closer and do it louder with more meaning. No looks. So then we start walking and we look behind us, and there's a man. A man who looked like he had some authority...just staring at us, wondering why I'm bothering the poor lady in the window. FUN! Anyways...HELLO ERYN!!! I SAW YOU!!!

Brother Angus. Never have I ever told anyone about Brother Angus. He's this huge guy (really tall, and he has the looks of a giant so that makes him seem even taller) and he's the guy in charge of the security for all the devotionals and stuff. He's my best friend but he doesn't know it. I got to work with him the other week and I felt so awesome. So official. Like I was on serious business. Reminds me of the days where my dream was to be an assasin. We'll have to see. Point is, look out for Angus---anyone who comes to the mtc. He's a firecracker. I'll try to get a stalker photo before I leave. Should be exciting.

Heard of a movie that's good---'Pioneers of Africa'? Watch it. Cause I can't. And I heard it's good.

Soooo something that is so funny. As missionaries we get all sorts of pamphlets to hand out right? Word of Wisdom, Chastity, Gospel of Jesus Christ, etc. So naturally these pamphlets have pictures right? Otherwise they would be dry. Soooo. Scouting through all the free boxes, my district and I have come to realize that each language has DIFFERENT pictures. They're always in the same pose, but they are different pictures. I'll try to send home a german, italian, and english one sometime. It's pretty funny.

So. The MTC has made me pretty competative with sports. I know it's supposed to do the opposite, but I've been way into Volleyball since my district started playing together. We play with no rules, so it's awesome, and I'm still not good, but it's SO much fun. Anyways. Best part of my week...when I hear these words coming out of my mouth "Are you serious??? Try harder!". I've hit a new plain. Gone to places i've never gone before. It was quite entertaining. I don't expect this to make sense to anyone else, but it was a hilarious moment. (Note: the person I was yelling at understood that my intentions were joking. No missionary was hurt emotionally in this outburst of mine)

So. I don't know if i've told everyone this already. BUT. Every Sunday there are no talks assigned, your branch president simply picks people from the congregation to give a talk in japanese. NO I have not done this yet, but you all know that day will be full of uncontrollable laughter. Anyways, I heard a genius idea. So lots of people try to go up there and be all impressive with their Japanese and what not, so this one missionary put together a talk (you always write a talk on the topic each sunday just in case you get called) and he just looked up a whole bunch of random words in the dictionary. And he gave that talk. From what I hear it was pretty funny. The only problem is, is that Butler kaicho (pres butler) knows japanese, and one of the councilors do not. So if your speaking japanese that is at all understandable, you'll hear him translating it. So it's super funny when he is sitting there...not translating....and you know the poor person giving a talk has no idea what they're doing haha. Church is fun.

Best new japanese word: sugoi. It means terrible, awful, ghastly, beautiful, and wonderful. And It's used in both ways. Sooooo anytime anyone asks you some question you really don't want to answer. Just say 'su-goy". It'll come in handy.

OH! Thank you Henry for the bubbles!!! They made me so happy!

Note: before I forget. The broadcast thing is tomorrow! I'M SO EXCITED!!!! Anyways, I'm in the choir along with pretty much the whole mtc. But I''ll be wearing a purple shirt and I'll have the most expressive face out there. Look for me ;) Oh, and my doryo is wearing like green or something.

Here's what I've been waiting to share ALL WEEK!!!!!!! Personal study has been the BEST this week. Here it goes.

Peace.

"We all long for peace. Peace is not just safety or lack of war, violence, conflict, and contention. Peace comes from knowing that the Savior knows who we are and knows that we have faith in Him, love Him, and keep His commandments, even and especially amid life's devestating trials and tragedies" --Elder Quentin L. Cook

John 16:33

Matt 9:37-38

John 14:27

D&C 6:34-37

Phil 4:7,13

D&C 6:20

Look them ALL UP!

Also, D&C section 6 is a jackpot! How come I haven't realized that till now?? Read it!

Also, remember to

"Lift up your hearts in praise to God.

Let your rejoicings never cease.

Though tribulations rage abroad,

Christ says, "In me ye shall have peace"

 (Hymn #122)

Read Elder Cook's talk 'Personal Peace'. It'll help out a lot. This whole week I chose other topics to study during personal time, but everything I read was ALWAYS connected back to peace. I don't know if the Lord is preparing me for something, or if it's meant to be shared. But read these scriptures, write down your thoughts in a journal. I PROMISE it'll make you happier if you do! Really study each scripture, go beyond the surface, and figure out what it means for you personally. Those scriptures are alive and true...they're not just adivce for the people they were given to first. Remember that! The Book of Mormon is a powerful tool that helps explain the doctrines of the Bible so much simpler and deeper. Read both!! And WRITE down your thoughts. I can't express how important journal keeping is. DO IT! Write down the good AND the bad. Write down everything. It'll bless you more than you realize at the start.

Another quote that I loved from this week:

"My promise to you who pray and serve the Lord cannot

 be that you will have every blessing you may wish for

 yourself and for your family. But I can promise you

 that the Savior will draw close to you and bless you 

and your family with what is best"

-- Elder Eyring, "Come Unto Me"

God gives you everything you need. Don't worry about it, just learn everything you can from the things that happen. And be happy! Heavenly Father never gives you anything to be sad. Be happy at all times, through all things, and you will be blessed!

OH! Look up the HomeFront videos the Church put out in like the 70s or 80s or something. I promise you, you will laugh. OH! One AMAZINGLY simple quote:

"Never compare yourself to others. It'll either tear you down, or build your pride". SO TRUE. Just don't do it. be happy with who you and and be satisfied with the progress your making personally.

Alrighty. Super exciting. I'll share this. So we get to do service once a week right? So we went from cleaning showers (which was actually so so amazing) to being assigned to 1M, which is like the main building. What do we do in 1M you may ask? Well. The first week, we were assigned Eliza Doolittle duty. At least that's what I felt like. We were scrubbing walls. YES, the walls need to be scrubbed. Anyways, it was so so so much fun, and I kept thinking "all I want is a room somewhere...far away from the cold night air....da da da dum....one ginormous chair oh wooooooodn't it be lovely?" anyways.... don't know if I know the real like lyrics all that well, but I'm pretty good at substituting reality with my own thoughts haha. It was awesome. We had lots of fun. THEN, this last thursday....they let us put up the flags!!! We got to pick which countries were represented it was SO COOL! I felt so official. And THEN, we folded rags. And the guy gave us permission to rip up the rags and through them away if they had holes. Goodness knows that I went all Hulk-ness on those rags. Who knew I had so much strength. Now, I have a technique for ripping rags...that I'm sure I could transfer to shirts, towls, sheets, or really any type on linen. It was pretty amazing. Then, the guy liked us so much he gave us each our own set of keys and let us strut around the building. I can't explain how much joy that service assignment brought me. Oh! Ps I made sure that Fiji (william), Mexico (Nathan), and the Dominican Republic (Nate), were represented. Yoooouuuur welcome.

One of the best parts of the week.

Here it goes.

I hope you're all ready.

Soo. There is this shimai from england here going to Japan on her mission. There are also a group of real Japanese people. (I know, super duper cool right?). Anyways, so all the nijonjin (japanese) people found out that she's from england, and they apparently came up to her and begged her to saw Harry Potter spells. (half of them don't speak english at all, and the ones that do speak, speak very little...which makes this so much better). So she finall agreed, and started spouting off spells from Harry Potter, and get this, they would react according to the spell. So when she said 'Avada Cadavra' (no idea how to spell it) all the nihonjin fell to the gound dead. SOOOO funny. If only you could have seen it. I didn't see it, but just hearing this sister recollect it was SOOOOO FUNNY. They think she's a celebrity. They pretend to flip their hair the way she flips her hair, and when she shook their hand they were DYING with excitment. Almost identical to when we (Kimber, Emma Allen, Rebecca Lonas) were at the He Is We concert and the singer touched Kimber's hand. Similar reaction. For those of you who can't make this comparison because you weren't there, by all means....make one of the three of them reinact it.

Which reminds me. I almost forgot! This is the funniest part of my week. It was just Tuesday. But I was starting to loose it a bit. And we went to a devotional at the marriote center. So there are TONS of people. So naturally singing was cool because there are so many people. Then. The best thing of my life happened. They announced we would be singing 'Put your shoulder to the Wheel'. If you don't know all the words pull them up RIGHT now on your computer. Before I continue, you must all realize one thing. When Kate Bokovoy (one of my very very best friends) was getting potty trained, he sweet parents used to sing this song to her to well...help her out. I've never ever EVER forgotten that. So. just imagine. This WHOLE stadium of people singing 'Put Your Shoulder To The Wheel'. I was dying. Crying so hard. It was SO FUNNY. Anyways, I told my companion why I was laughing, and now she says the song is ruined for her hahahahaha. So I hope the song isn't ruined for any of you, but I hope it brings a great big smile to your face when you hear it next! :)

Guess I'm out of time. Well....Have a great week everyone! I love you all so much!! ps. I don't have time to tell this story, but doing laundry at the temple is SO MUCH FUN! If you ever have a chance, go do it. And ask them what the sock turn-a-lator is. I'm curious to know if it's exclusive to Provo. They got all kinds of cool gadgets. And I learned how to fold socks in a way that revolutionized my laundry folding. needless to say I'm pretty stoked.

Anyways, Good bye for reals. I love you all. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who wrote me letters/ dear elders! They are the best!!!! Oh! And I got Chopsticks this week! It was so sweet!!!

Love forever and ever--

Sister Lane/Lane Shimai/ Heather! I still don't know what I should call myself....