Ohayo gozimasu Kazoku to tomodachi,
Wow, it has already been a week. Time is really starting to fly here. I have now reached past my halfway point. Wahoo. But it isn’t so bad here at the MTC. The thing that I hate the most is the food. It is 19 year old boy food and they some type of burgers and fries every single day and the rest of the food is your basic cafeteria food. I usually stick with their fruit (which is amazing) or a wrap/PB&J. And with that I have lost 5 lbs and I haven’t gained any weight. Yay for me! I can’t wait to get to Japan to get some real food and to be moving around more. It will be fun. The things that I love the most about the MTC are the wonderful meetings: Sunday firesides, Tuesday devotionals and relief society. Relief society is the best here. We always have a wonderful speaker and a musical performance. This last Sunday the speaker that we had was Cheryl Esplin the second counsellor in the Primary Presidency. She gave an amazing talk. And a lot of the talks that the speaker gives are pretty amazing.
Oh I did want to mention that in two weeks it will be Christmas here. Why you may ask? Because it is the mission president conference and a ton of apostles come to train. So that Tuesday night devotional, the 26 I believe, will start at 4:30 instead of 7 and it should be sweet!!! Also what is cool is that my mission president that will be starting at the beginning of July will be here and all of us Tokyo missionaries will be able to meet him. I am super excited.
Thank you so much for all of the love and support that I have had this week with so many letters. I received some that I didn’t think I would get and it was a wonderful surprise. Thank you so much. It is wonderful to know that I have such a wonderful support group back home. I will try to write and send letters to everyone today.
Shout out to Britney and her awesome engagement. That is so exciting. Tell her I love her and that I am so happy for her. Also tell Aubri that I met one her friends from camp here. She lives on the same floor as me. Her camp name is ponytail but for the life of me I can’t remember her real name. Haha It was fun talking about Brighton with her.
I am really excited for tomorrow because we get new Kohai (new missionaries). With this new batch we will get 36 new missionaries and 8 of them will be sisters. 3 of those sisters will be going to Tokyo with me. I am pretty excited and I will be busy this week because I will be showing them around a lot and having meetings with them. Everyone is pretty excited. We are now the senpai. Hahaha
It is amazing what I have learned here and the ways the Lord speaks to me. This last weekend alone I have learned that I need to be a much better missionary and that the Lord expects a lot more. For one I have been looking inward a lot more then I should be doing. He wants me to look outward more and think about others and serve them. Yes I know DUH!! But sometimes while you are in here it is easy to get caught up in what you are feeling. ‘O I am terrible at Japanese, my Japanese has improved, or I want to do this I want that.’ As David A Bednar put it in a talk I watched on Sunday night, it is like you are a cookie monster “I WANT COOKIE NOW!!” I am not saying that I am this huge selfish person but I do need to improve and I am so grateful to be the coordinating sister and the opportunity it gives me to do this and work on this skill. That is just one thing to mention that I have learned but there is many, many more. I have grown so much as a person and as a missionary. I am starting to have this new confidence in myself and yes some days are a little harder than others but I am starting to see my progression as a missionary with the language, as a teacher, and as a tool for the spirit. I think back to my first week here and think about how much I have grown. I pray that I will be able to touch people’s lives and make a difference. This Gospel brings so much happiness and peace and I want to share it with the Japanese. I want them to know their Savior, Jesus Christ. I want them to receive blessings and know of the wonderful plan that God has created for us. I am so excited to get to Japan and I know that the next 5 weeks will go by fast.
The Lord lives!! I know it!! And because of Him I know that when I fall short or don’t have enough strength to continue one He will be with me. Read the Book of Mormon. If you are not right now I urge you to and really ponder what is written. The stories can come alive and you can feel God’s love through them. Don’t waste such a precious gift from our beloved Heavenly Father. Read!!
I love you all and I miss you but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I will try to send home my memory card this week so you can see all of the fun pictures. J
Love from all my heart and soul,
Sister Dolan
