The Downhill Slide

Hello family!!!!

So I feel like there is much less to talk about in these letters the longer I am here the less I have to say.

So Monday we moved classrooms so we aren't in the scary 1-way mirror room anymore and have a real window that has right smack dab in the middle the temple. Basically a Celestial window. Also we are closer to the all the rest of the Japanese Elders and Sisters so that is more fun although we really aren't part of their ingroup so we are still the outsiders a little but whatever.

Yeah I would say that is a little bit scary with Mandy especially when I read dad's letter first and it says stuff like "the stress of our daughter", "Mandy's situation" I quickly jumped over to mother's letter to see what it was all about. I'm glad she is starting to feel better now. That had to be terrifying and a half! Not really a surprise though with Mandy, that woman works until her bones hurt and her body rebels. They have actually talked a little bit about crazy things that happen if you stress yourself out too much during your mission here. On of our substitute Sisters got tonselitis (I think thats what it was) from working too hard and she is pretty sure she made it so that doctor would never join the church because it was filled with crazy people that volunteer to work so hard their bodies freak out. Now lets just hope she can learn from this and enjoy these last few months. I know God does take care of his missonaries.

Let's see as for our investigators. So we have Morimotosan who who knows if he is still having problems with the Word of Wisdom, I'm not even sure, he won't give us a straight answer. Yesterday was our last lesson with him before his baptisimal interview which the only other person that has had him have an interview he didn't pass because he didn't understand repentence so hopefully he has an understanding of that. If not we shall keep working with him. Then our other Sensei investigator is Mayumisan who I am not sure if I have talked about before. She is the new teacher's investigator. I don't know what it is about her but we just fail miserably everytime we teach her. Our lesson yesterday we talk the Plan of Salvation and it was kind of a disaster. If she was a real investigator I'm not sure if she would have invited us back. I think Ige Shimai her self was confused with this lesson and she has been a member her whole life. Nevertheless, I guess we learn from these experiences and become better......I hope. Then our two members of our district that we teach are doing ok, there lessons are a tad different. They just seem super lazy about the gospel.

So the strange thing is with addressing like Law of Chastity, and Word of Wisdom issues the sensei are no help at all. When we ask them questions they say stuff like, "Its different for every investigator", or "Look at that in PMG" which I'm sure it is very different for every investigator but also I have a feeling there is certain approaches that work better than others. Then PMG as awesome as it is is not as tuned towards our missions as the sensei knowledge is. Its a little frustrating at times.

On monday we get 20 nihonjin (japanese people) that are here for 3 weeks and that leave with us so that will be cool.

As for this protected picture on my camera card that would be the doing of Elder Clayton and I did not know he had done that so yeah don't worry about why I would have done that.

So the MTC is moving it's mailroom and as a result I have heard that from September 9th-15th there will be no mail delivered. This seems slightly odd and I haven't been able to confirm it but may want to look into that.

So story time. So we get to play "Name that Speaker" for the devotional we had on Tuesday:
Part of the missonary oversight department or something like that
Born or lived in St. George (Not sure which but he does has a connection there)
Is part of a kind of important quorum in this church
Has no problem sternly rebuking those that listen to him.
Last name starts with "H"
Dad loves this man quite dearly
So by now maybe you guessed. Elder Jeffery R. Holland!!!!!!!!!

It was intense. We were waiting to go into the devotional (an experience every week in of itself) and the security people were making a much bigger deal about backpacks and pictures during the devotional which was wierd but we try not to get our hopes up. But then the main usher guy comes up after we are all sitting waiting for it to start and starts talking about how we should stand if a member of the 12 was to walk in the room tonight. That sealed the deal. I was on the opposite side of the door he walked in on so everyone stands and then I finally see who it was. Exciting and a half. Its was the talk of all talks. Going from expressing tons of love and how awesome we all are to sternly rebuking us that if we ever walk away from this church now that we will be answering at the judgement bar for this. It was crazy. Also an interesting note that if you get any information on my district would be very interested. He was talking about missionaries of old and about how they gave all they could including their lives for this work and how that has happend throughout ages. Then he got all choked up and then with tears in his eyes looked out at us and said, "the most recent of which just 4 hours ago" so this was on Tuesday at 7:00 pm. Therefore whatever happend happend at like 3:00 on Tuesday but we can't find any info about it. But anyway. As you would expect it was the bomb! Our little district review after the devotional I don't think there was a dry eye in the place.

Love you all. Thank you for all your love and support and awesomness.

Elder Carter
カーター　長