Week 6- Hope

Aloha minasan,

Today went by fast and before I knew it, pday was already over. That's a pretty good summary for this week. Super busy and fast paced. And by the time I sat down to reflect it was already over. 

Something that I find super interesting is that without the bad things in life we can never enjoy the good things. If we didn't have an opposite to everything in life then the end goal would amount to nothing. Not only is that true for the gospel but it is for our life as a whole. Heavenly Father put us here on this earth to experience trials and tribulations so that we are able to grow and overcome them to eventually be there with him again. Recently a lot of trials and tribulations have occurred for me, my friends, and loved ones all around me. When things in your life go south it feels as though everything that you have worked for in your life comes crashing down. During my spring semester at BYU it certainly felt that way. And for some of the loved ones reading this email, you may feel that way too. It's natural to ask "why" or question if Heavenly Father really loves you and cares for you. When we are faced with hardships it makes it easy for us to stray away from what we know is true and it makes it hard for us to have hope.  But through these trials and tribulations if we preserve and have faith Heavenly Father will not leave us stranded. During the spring semester at BYU I had lost hope. I nearly regretted my decision to go on a mission. It felt like once I had made that decision everything that I had worked so hard for came crashing down. However, through the promptings of the spirit I picked up my scriptures and read 1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." That scripture saved me. It gave me hope that things would get better and that I was making the right choice. It allowed me to have faith in Heavenly Father and it was all thanks to a prompting for the Holy ghost. During my personal study this week I came across a scripture verse that I wanted to share with all of you. Romans 15:13 "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." For those of you facing any trials or tribulations in your life right now please do not lose hope. Heavenly Father knows you, and he loves you. If you remain faithful in him and the Holy Ghost, they will bring that hope to your life again. Remember that I love you as well. You are never alone in life. I also urge and invite you to check up on those you love and hold dear to your heart. In such a fast paced world sometimes we need to take the time to remember all those we care and love. And provide them with the support they may need. If you ever feel hopeless or in need of support and love, please by all means message me on facebook messenger, or email me. I would love to hear from all of you!

Highlights of the week:

-Moving dorms

-REC ROOM

-MTC minigames

-Japanese Temple Sesh ayo?

So me and my companion finally got moved to the newer dorms where the rest of our district is. It sucked to say bye to our roommates (shoutout Elder Humphreys and Elder Harding). But also the friends that were in that building too. I will say it is nice to be in newer dorms that are not as noisy. Definitely an upgrade for sure. It's also nice to be with the district and the rest of my branch. These are the people I'll be talking to the most for the next month so I better be good friends with them LOL.

WE FOUND THE REC ROOM.

After being at the MTC for literally 5 weeks my district FINALLY found the rec room. It has ping pong tables, foosball, and most importantly chess. Basically if me and my district aren't at class or eating, we're at the gym or the rec room. Just so everyone knows I'm currently 10-0 in MTC chess. Not to flex or anything. Everyone was kinda surprised that I was good at chess. Little did they know I was obsessed with it during my time at BYU. So currently undefeated not that it matters or anything.

MTC mini games go crazy. I'm always looking for fun things to do when I'm bored and I feel like my district reciprocates that.

It started when one of our teachers did a teacher check in. Basically the teacher takes a companionship to do a little check-in. Except this teacher always takes 15 minutes to do it and they're always at the end of class. Anyways me and my district started a game with expo pens. Just throw them to each other and if you drop it or throw it badly, you're out. Such a simple game but add fakes or another marker and it gets pretty crazy. My district has also started taking the broken/cracked ping pong balls and playing phone ping pong. Which is basically just us playing ping pong on a normal table with tissue boxes as the net and our phones as paddles. Both seem pretty unfun but when you're in the MTC it's the little things that bring joy.

Japanese temple sesh. Basically without getting too much into it me and my district did an endowment sesh that was in 100% Japanese. It was such an amazing experience and although it was a bit hard to understand everything I could definitely feel the spirit. It also helped me realize how far I've actually come in terms of listening and Japanese. 100% do not regret that experience at all!

Japanese word of the week: 

しゅくだい/Homework

Yeah thats right Jones せんせい I did not forgetabour you. So our lovely teacher in typical college student fashion crammed five weeks worth of CS work for BYU independent study in one week. I hope it worked out well for him because he owes us some volleyball sessions. せんせいのしゅくだいはいいわけじゃない。Sensei's homework is not an excuse.

じゃみなさん！愛してます！

Shoots!

エリスちょうろう

TheRisingSon