One Down; One Hundred Three To Go!

My first week at the MTC is over and it was packed! The very first day I got all of my stuff up to my room and then immediately went to language class,. There I was greeted by an returned missionary that was frantically speaking to me in Nihongo. It was an experience that made me immediately regret going on a mission! My sensei's name is Gauthier Kyodai (Brother Gauthier) and now I think he is awesome! That first day, however, I was not a fan. It was so stressful and I had no idea what I could do to ease the stress. Luckily I had 9 other brand new senkyoshi that were feeling the exact same way that I was. In this we all found strength. Over the past few days the burden has lightened or maybe we have all just gotten used to it:) I have noticed that as we focus on learning Japanese our English abilities suffer. Hopefully that Is only temporary though! 

With regards to the language I now know how to pray and share my testimony. I can say a lot of basic phrases and I can read and almost write hiragana. It is kind of exciting to see how quickly we progress!

My Doryo (companion) is also doing well! We get along pretty well all the time and have never really disagreed on anything. Every once in a while there is a little bit of friction between us on how to teach a lesson or what we should study or where we should go. It is difficult to be attached at the hip like this! But he and I are very similar.

Elder Siebach and Elder Christensen

My district has a lot of great people in in it! we have only one international and he is from New Zealand. His name is Elder Moa. He is Tongan and really funny. 

Our first investigator went by the name of Koyama-San. He was really a return missionary but he was acting as a 50 year-old Japanese man that didn't speak any English. It was so frustrating to teach someone that you can't really communicate with. We would ask him questions to try to gauge his understanding and not be able to interpret his response. This was a great lesson on faith and the power of the Holy Ghost because, despite the language barrier. we were actually able to have some great experiences while teaching! 

I am having an amazing time here at the MTC and loving every minute of it! I am sorry that this email is so short, I spent most of my time trying to put pictures on the computer only to find out that they don't let you do it on almost all of them! I promise I will get some out eventually!

I love you guys and I hope all is well. Grace, thank you for your dear elder! You need to send me more info though! I want to know everything! Also thank you Mom for the package. I will need that rain gear and I would love to get the family names to take to the temple! Love you lots!

love, 

Siebach Choro