On the very first day, one of the people who spoke to the new missionaries during orientation said that this is the happiest place on earth. My instant thought was "no...that's Disneyland". As if she had read my thoughts she then said "Disneyland is second".
I thought this must be blasphemy.
It turns out she was right. Who knew? I love it here. I love the people, the atmosphere, and especially the feeling. I've realized that not a moment goes by when I don't have the Holy Ghost by my side. Every one is so loving here; every time we say good-bye to anyone, "aishiteimasu" soon follows. I really feel it too.
I used to think that the MTC was just like a factory for turning out missionaries as soon as possible to teach the memorized lessons of the textbooks we use here, but I've realized it's something else completely. Every day I learn new things about who I am and where I'm going and what I'm supposed to do, and I love every bit of it. Just to share what the MTC is really like, I'll quote Bingham sensei;
"Don't teach a lesson, teach a person."
He is truly an amazing teacher and I'm so grateful to have him as my sensei. He says amazing quotes like the above, so many I'll just collect them and share them with you in my posts. Here's another just before I move on;
"You are called to serve as a missionary of Christ. For a year and a half you get to live as Christ lived. I would give anything to serve another mission."
Like I said, he's incredible. He changes my perspective and I see things so much clearer every day.
Continuing on with our "investigator", Sister Hansen and I got to meet with him about four more times this week. Although we can't say much without first writing everything out, we prayed a lot, and every time we went to meet him, I could feel the Spirit and I knew the message we were bringing was the one he needed to hear.
After teaching a great lesson on the Atonement of Christ, Sister Hansen and I both agreed that we would ask him the very next lesson if he would consider baptism. Unfortunately, our teacher told us the next day that the lesson we just gave was the last one we would give to this "investigator". We all were so devastated by this news. This experience had really taught us to teach the person, and not the lesson. We all asked our teacher if there was any way we could see him one last time, but he said he didn't think so.
Later that day, as we returned to class, we all were so excited to meet our new teacher. We had heard he was going to start teaching us that evening, but as we came into the classroom there was our "investigator"!! It turns out he is our new teacher. Also it turns out he lived in Tokyo as well. He went to ASIJ, and I don't know his first name but his last name is Murray. It was really cool getting to know the real him, but also learning that the "investigator" he played was a real investigator of his.
It's something really cool that I love about the MTC. All of the teachers that act as "investigators" remember a real person from their own mission and become that person. It's something that they're trying to teach us to do - to see the gospel through the eyes of those we teach. I try my best to, and I've really seen the improvement. I teach people, not lessons.
Before I sign off here, I thought I would tell my dad "challenge accepted". For those of you who don't know, I am a Disney nut. I love Disney! My dad thought it was a little funny, especially with all the Disney music I buy, so he challenged me to reference Disney in every talk. While I don't think that is too appropriate at the pulpit, I think I'll try it here. So, without further ado, here is my Disney reference for last week's post;
As I was flying to Salt Lake City, I remembered the scene in Tangled where Rapunzel leaves her tower for the first time. That, was me. From "this is it! I'm finally getting out of here!" to "I don't want to leave..." to "this is the best day ever!" to "what the heck am I doing?!" to "I can't wait until I get to the MTC!" to "...I can wait." my thoughts were going crazy. Needless to say, I was "a little at war with [myself]". But I'm determined to go see the floating lanterns (or in other words, determined to "live my dream").
I also should post one reference for today, and that would be from Mulan.
I've been sick all week, I've had this awful cold that just took over me. I wasn't able to focus well in class and had to rely on my companion and district a lot to stay caught up. Now that I'm feeling much better, as I sit in class the song "I'll Make a Man Out Of You" gets stuck in my head. It's time to "get down to business", to learn this crazy Japanese language here. Not that the Lord is trying to make a man out of me, but He certainly is helping to refine me to be a better missionary. "Time is racing toward us", and I'm already onto my 3rd week here. It's crazy how the time flies so I really need to crack down on my Japanese. So far I can only introduce myself, talk about basic gospel principles, bear a simple testimony and say a simple prayer. "Let's get down to business!"
Ha Dad. I win.
Much love from your missionary,
Sister Johnson
