Greetings from the MTC!

Dear family,

it's me! ummm....I can't remember what I was gonna say cuz there's a little red clock counting me down. grrrrrrrr.

let's start with the food shall we?

I actually like the food here. It's really good! And surprisingly I haven't needed the enzymes! wheee! could be cuz I eat spinach at like every meal...don't tell anyone though. And I eat that wonderful ambrosia salad at EVERY meal. MMMMMMMMMMMM

k that's the food. moving on. There are 6 girls in our residence. 2 senpai (girls that have already been here 6 weeks) and 4 kohai (the new girls) I'm companions with Webb shimai (japanese for sister). She's really nice and we get along great. Even when I lose stuff...which is only HALF my fault because the MTC doesn't account for girls not having pockets and they don't let us carry our bags around. dumb? I think so. So I think I've lost about eveything including my blue card, which I mailed last week. It's probably in Sendai now if you guys haven't gotten it.

Let's see, what else? ummm.... oh yeah. recently I've lost my debit card. AUGH! so frustrating! I think this is God trying me since I'm not struggling with the Japanese like everyone else. Anyhow so mom, if you could kindly cancel that for me and send me a new one ASAP that would be WONDERFUL. thanks!

My district is awesome. We all have a lot of fun together...but study time is still a little bit rough as we're still getting used to disciplining ourselves.

Webb shimai and I went to the temple last week and it snowed on us. A lot. And the wind was blowing and I was crying about how cold it was cuz it was. My companion is just fooled by Satan's trickery and doesn't think it's cold. (She's from Layton)

I've got some pictures which brings me to my next item of business. I need new SD cards. Are those coming? I'm not out yet but I will be soon.

I would also like someone to print out my lightining picture that I took. It's on my Hard drive in my pictures>jessica>lightning I believe. No one here knows what a monsoon is. They keep getting typhoon and monsoon mixed up. And my companion is under the mistaken impression that Utah gets monsoons. Kinda like they're gonna get a huge earthquake soon right?

Anyhow also, there are some extra new years cards in my room in the folder in the top shelf of my desk. if you could cut one out and send it to me. I wanna stick it up on the wall in my residence.

speaking of residences...you ready for the excitement?

On sunday night we went to bed at 10:30 like always. At 11 the fire alarms went off. My companion and I ran into the hall and saw smoke so she ran off while I ran into the room to tell the other girls who either (miraculously) slept through it, or were taking their sweet time about things. anyhow, I was the last one out and I lost my companion...and not having my glasses I was also blind. It was really scary...but I found Adams shimai (my senpai) and grabbed her backpack. We all found everyone else in the gym so I was with my companion again thank goodness.

The gym was full of worried sisters. And sisters who decided since they were in the gym they may as well play basketball....

The tongan sisters were in a corner singing. Which was really calming and beautiful.

Long story short it ended up only being a bag of burned popcorn and we were allowed back in an hour later. But I'd like to know who can't cook popcorn to that extent. It was REALLY bad.

So let's see, what else. Well, gym time is a nice time to relax. We sit in class for like 10 hours a day...it gets really annoying and my butt is literally bruised from it.

anyhow, I usually do stretches, run a few laps, use the bikes, push ups, pull ups, and sit ups. I don't take part in the sports because mormons have this amazing ability to make everything a violent contact sport. Including 4 square. Brown choro got a split lip from it last gym period.

Oh yeah, Brown choro is our Aussie. He's hilarious. And he's always telling us we're weird and we speak wrong or spell things wrong. Everyone tries to mock his accent but they can't do it. He however, can pull off a perfect American accent. It's crazy.

Well, time is winding down. I've got about 10 minutes left. I'm surprised I got through so much. If there are typos its cuz I was typing so fast. But I can't think of much else.

Except that I haven't gotten any mail. You guys are all failures! Tell my friends that too. Except Nata....Sister Rowley. She sent me mail. But everyone else is a failure! take that!

Ok well I think it's time to wrap this up. Oh yeah. There is NO time to get ready in the morning here. No time between 6:30 and 7 to take a shower so I don't. I do it at night but there's not much time then either. luckily when I get up and my hair is bent it looks like I styled it. But taking showers in short is a pain cuz I don't have time to fix my hair. I think I'm just gonna have to deal with looking ugly for a year and a half. *shrug*

K that's all. I kinda miss home but not really too much. I love it here!

Love,
Halliday Shimai

PS send my lichee and kiwi gummies. Webb shimai is a deprived child and needs to try them. Thanks a bunch!