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!