WEEK 2 AND STILL KICKIN IT

The nihonjin that have been helping Shae learn Japanese.

Heyyyoooo!

It's been 2 weeks. WHAT. Literally the MTC is like a time warp. I never know what day it is... like ever hahaha. The days feel like years but the weeks pass in like 30 seconds. It's craaaaaazzzzyyyy!

This week was amazing. I feel like I have the hang of things now which is super nice. We got 2 new teachers this week and WOW they are the best. I seriously lucked out so hard core here. #shukufuku (that means #blessings in case you were wondering... get it trending kids;) My teachers are so inspiring and so understanding. I just love them. They focus a lot now on teaching by the spirit. I've noticed that the language comes easiest when I am not trying to focus on it. I am not the one teaching anyways, it's the spirit. The gift of tongues is SO cool. I loveeeee Japanese. It's hard, but now I can read 1 of the 3 alphabets so that's good! 

Japanese fun fact of the day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Japanese directly translate to morning rice, afternoon rice, and evening rice. YA I KNOW. Wow I love Asia.

On Sunday for our 24th of July extravaganza we got Nashville Tribute Band as our devotional. It was sooooo fun! Me and my comp are in the choir so we got to sing with them.. Soooo now we're basically famous... along with the other 1400 missionaries in the choir, but hey it counts;)

OKAY. I forgot to put this in my email last week and wrote it down so I wouldn't forget to send this lovely information out to the world. MY BUNK BED IS COVERED WITH BOOGERS. Yep. You heard it here folks. Covered. (sorry if you all threw up in your mouths but I mean hey, at least you don't have to stare at it every night..... LOL) I am on the bottom bunk and so when I go to lay my head down at night I get a great view of all the lovely boogers on the bottom of the top bunk as well as on the wall. It's quite the view....... Memories right? HAHA. I found it and immediately made everyone come and see. It's now the joke of our residence hall... Yikes.

These two are already best friends.

My companion is still amazing and my district is getting closer and closer as the days pass. I have decided that I am probably never going to come home.... Sorry Mom. I just love being a missionary way too much! 

I love you all! My pdays are Wednesdays but I can read emails anytime! They also give us like .23 seconds to email so I promise if I can't respond one week I will respond the next. Thank you for the love and the prayers!! 

Our teacher taught us how to say "I'm out" this week... It directly translates to I'm outside.. But hey it counts for something hahah! Soooo.... till next week... Watashi wa soto desu! I'm out!

xoxox

Modersitzki Skimai

Just learning Japanese.

Their MTC district

I thought these sort of sayings were illegal in the MTC. Hahaha!

One more map picture, because these girls are too cute!

Shae with her new friend Sister Womack. It's never boring with Sister Mod around. :) 

Sister Mod and Sister Villanueva. 

"Riding" their first missionary bikes on P-Day. Oh brother. Haha!

KONNICHIWAAAAAA

Shae and her darling companion, Rilee Villanueva.

WelllllllI I'M ALIVE and just like that my first week is over! I LOVE THE MTC. Seriously this place is amazing. I have seen so many friends from BYU and Lone Peak and it's so fun!  Right after I got here I got put straight into my class and our teacher refused to speak any English. Like OKAY HI I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING. She still refuses to speak English but I mean hey, the language has got to come some way or another right? 

My companion. Holy I love her. We have been bffs from the start. Her name is Rilee Villanueva and she is the funniest person alive. We get along so well which has been a huge blessing. Everyone always laughs when we talk to them because we both have the hardest last names and we got put together. It's fantastic. We also are exact opposites of each other. I'm tall and blonde, and she's short and has dark hair. We complete each other lol <3 To give you a little sneak peak at the life with my companion, the other day when we were in a lesson she was responding saying yes, which in Japanese is "Hai". Buttttt instead of speaking in Japanese, she resorted to Spanish said "Si" instead. WE DIED. So so so funny. Also she put tater tots in her pocket on Sunday and pulled them out during class to offer them to one of the elders. So ya. We get along ;)

I love love love my district and zone. We're just one little family. Everyone has been so nice and helpful and I just love them. We have so much fun together. We play volleyball together during exercise time and lets just say I have been forced to pretend that I am good at volleyball because everyone just expects it with how tall I am hahahaha ;) I haven't even gotten to Japan and already random people will stop me to ask how tall I am. It cracks me up. 

The language is hard but its coming. I feel myself improving little by little each day and it makes me so excited! My second day here, me and my companion were saying a prayer in Japanese and we blessed the Bible in our prayer. Bye @ us hahahah. Learning a new language is fun because there are MANY opportunities to laugh at yourself;) There are 3 girls in my hall who are here from Japan and they are adorable. They are so so sweet and are always so happy to talk. The other day they taught me to count in nihongo (japanese) and every time I would say something right they would freak out and clap and get so excited for me. LIKE HOW CUTE IS THAT. Sometimes when the language gets hard, I just think about them and the love I have for them and it makes it all worth it. :)

I love the devotionals here. On Sunday we went to the devotional and watched Elder David A. Bednar's talk "Characters of Christ". It was an amazing talk. As it ended ELDER BEDNAR JUST CASUALLY WALKS THROUGH THE DOOR. WHAT. Like good evening. I was star struck. We got to do a question and answer session with him and wowza it was so cool. 

Thank you for all your letters and emails. They mean a lot. I have a tablet so I am allowed to read them whenever I get them, so please keep sending! I love being a missionary and already don't want this to end. THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE.

aishitemasu <33

xoxox

Modersitzki Skimai

This is Maddi Hazen. Shae's roommate from freshman year.

Shae's friend Britton Bettridge from home. 

We all adore Shae's friend Bekah Lee! So glad they saw each other. 

Shae with Tatum Hafen. These two are friends from high school.

Shae was soooo excited to have a name tag! She's a real missionary!