Week 2

Dear Family,

Surpirse!! My P-day is going to be on Fridays for the next few weeks because I am in the new district now. So you get a letter today, even though it’s only been 3 days since I last wrote J So let me explain, sorry my last letter was not very informative, because I didn’t know that much about what was happening, but I can fill you in better now hopefully. After testing my Japanese they decided that I was good enough to move to the International Advanced Language District with missionaries that arrived just this past Wednesday. The district has people from all over the world that are fluent in their mission language, and are at the MTC for three weeks for lessons in Preach My Gospel in English. English is a second language for most of the people in the group, but they are all pretty fluent. My new district has six people, 4 Elders and my companion and I. My new companion is Sister Olongayo, and she is from the Philippines. Her English is very good, and we have been able to get along very well, she is really sweet, and very dedicated to the work. I love her a lot, and feel very blessed that I was able to get two great companions in a row! It was very sad to leave my old district – they seriously have become like my MTC family over the past week, so I was sad to leave them, and a little apprehensive about joining a new district. But my new district is also great, its very different and I do miss my old one, but the new one is great too, and I was blessed to have the other Japanese elder, Elder Fukino put into my new district so I will have a chance to practice Japanese with him over the next few weeks. There is no official Language Study time worked into the schedule, so we just have to do it whenever there is additional study time and speak it to each other as much as we can inbetween classes and things, but it has worked out well. Oh, there are also two Japanese elders, nihonjin elders in our building that we like to talk to every now and again as well – they know about you Dad, and one of them Elder Ishikawa really wants to meet you after his mission. I told him that you would be happy to, so be looking for him in about two years J he is serving in New York. Well, my time is about up, but that’s the update here at the MTC! I don’t have as much time to study Japanese, but I am picking up on Tagalog, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Portuguese, Swiss German, Samoan, Cebuano, Spanish, Tongan, and then English too!

Paalam! (Tagalog for good-bye J )

Lots of love,

Budge Shimai J