March, 22 2011 -letter

Mom & Dad,
It was good to be able to talk to you yesterday. I’m glad I decided to call. I wasn’t going to at first but it was good to hear how things had gone. President Harris who told me about it all was super considerate. (Mariah is talking here about Amy Shumway dying. Eve)
This morning some Japanese missionaries arrived – they’ll only be here for 3 weeks but it’s cool to hear the language from native speakers. I don’t understand a word.
At breakfast I found out that my mission president in Tokyo has been sent home. . .Who knows what that means.
I hope all goes well this week with Aunt Amy’s funeral. I’m glad to know everyone will bne there to say goodbye to her. That should be a really good meeting.
I’m learning so much here. Dad thanks for all your letters and words of encouragement. I feel bad that I can’t respond to them as much as I would like to but know that I love all of the info you send. Congrats to BYU for such a good season! And I hope the trailer gets un-stuck eventually. There’s a soprt of peace that accompanies all your stories about the crazy happenings at home. Peace in knowing that life there is going on as usual☺. And also, thanks for all the thoughts and quotes you put in the post script – they are great. What you said about becoming like a child again is true – in the MTC you sort of start all over & begin learning from scratch.
Mom, thanks so so much for sending Grandma’s talk/book $ all the emails. I’ve thought a lot about what Uncle Greg said in his email to Cam about how you & Dad know how to ‘live after the manner of happiness’. . .that’s so true. And, most of all, thanks for that wonderful card you send. I read it over & over & smile.
FYI: I’m going to try to send along a bunch of thank you cards that I have written but don’t have addresses for. Could you pass them on to their recipients for me? Sorry to add one more thing to your list.
Also – Dear Elders arrive as a sheet of paper that has been folded up & held with a little sticker. The sentences & paragraphs look fine ~ much better than they do when you paste all the text onto their website. They aren’t hard to read at all. (Dad asked).
I wish I could write so much more but we don’t have time.
I ♥ U!
Love,
Waite Shimai
P.S. Could you print off one of our most recent family pictures (that Sis. Swenson took) & send it. I forgot to do that.P.S. Sister Derricott heard about Papa Jay’s jerky from an Elder who know about Clifton. She says to tell you she loves jerky. . .☺