Death by food

Hey what up family!

Kinda suprised to actually get a letter today from you. Half expected to come to nothing.  Yay for being wrong.  Anyway.  This week was busy. (Yes I know I always say that ).  We had two splits this week, one in Nagamachi with a missionary by the name of "E" choro and another with "S" choro who is in the same apartment as me.  They were good.  "E" choro...... that was an adventure.  Also spent some time with President as his joint talking to a nearby assisted living place to see if we could use their gym for activities, carol there, or do serve there.  Ha. Its terrifying to be with the man.  Walks in like he owns the place but it all worked out. Wouldn't let us carol but the other two seem to be success.  Then "S" choros split was fun just because we biked to the top of the mountain. My last two areas really haven't had mountains but this one does. Whoof! You get outside of the city and its terrifying.  Its like going back in time....to Yokote.  It was funny because "S" choro has been in small areas too so when we arrived we just looked at each other and realized how comfortable we are in such an area. Ended up not even being able to meet the person we wanted to but oh well.  

After that there was a lot of preparation for the Christmas party this last saturday.  We got given a lot of things to do not only for missionary work but also just to help the ward so that kinda killed a lot of our time.  It turned out way good I think though and there were a lot of non-members that members had brought.  So that kept us busy but we like that kind of busy.  Then last night we got invited to Sister "F"'s house. Now a little backround on this woman. She is the cook for President and Sister "R". I think she is a professional cook. She is also a translator, therefore her english is probably better than mine.   Anyway. This woman is known throughout the mission for trying to kill missionaries with food each transfer.  I have been terrified since I came here and lo and behold it happened last night.  Ha. Just to show you how it happens you walk in. There is no room for your own plate because the table is covered so much and then there is three bottles of pepto bismol on a nearby table.  I don't even know where she got this pepto bismol beacuse it is not sold in Japan.  She also had a turkey. I haven't had turkey in a year an a half. Japanese people have never eaten it in their life. I had to show them how. They tried to eat the legs like chicken. Ha. Which brings me to my next part. Father......you didn't teach me how to carve a turkey......this became a problem because nobody knew how so they look at the americans and everyone just whimped out so I had to. Not that I'm prideful but I did a fine job but still. Probably would have been better if I had a little training. But yeah we all about died. There was pizza too with about a pound of cheese on each slice. Which I'm sure your probably thinking. "Elder Carter (It feels weird to even call myself my first name) would love that" I haven't eaten cheese in forever and even when I do its in very small quanitities because if the product comes from a cow its way expensive here.  Anyway. I could go on and on about this meal but yeah.  Then today we are going to go caroling and then go to the Honbu Family Home Evening.  Then tomorrow just a normal day of missionary work. Fun Christmas right? I thought so.  

Anyway, sounds like you will have an interesting Christmas too with no children.  Glad to hear Atreyu had a merry Christmas and that he is a grateful little human.  There will be no Christmas cake for us. You have to order those like 3 months in advance. 

Anyway. Always only report on the strange things and never the actual missionary events. Sorry. Come up with lots of questions tomorrow and I will try to answer. Still not really anything on my list of things to talk about.  Anyway. Talk to you (For real) tomorrow. 

Japanese Funeral

Hello family! 

How are  you all this week? Hope everyone is good.  Another busy week.  Things will eventually settle down I'm assuming but only time will tell. The big event of the week was of course Zone conference.  It basically took up all our extra time to get ready for it.  And we asked some of the sisters to do a musical number but they were way too shy and wouldn't do it so we had to throw together a hand bell arrangement (They love hand bells in Japan for some reason) so that was crazy.  

Oh and to add to it we got a call from our Stake President Monday night saying that if we had time to come to the church the next day.  We didn't have any appointments and we will do basically anything for the Stake President so we go and what is it.....a funeral..... Kinda.  So I don't know if I have already said this but I think its illegal to bury someone in Japan. Everyone is cremated so we walk in, we know its a funeral at this point but it took me off guard when the stake president walked in and put this big fancy white box on the table. I think, "Whats in the box.....oh wait" Yeah. Then it occured to me why he asked us to come..... Other than us there was the stake president, his wife, his daughter, the passed away man's sister and their two friends. We didn't even fill up the first row of seats. Way drepressing.  But now I can say I have been to a japanese funeral.  Anyway. 

Then Crazy preparations for zone conference. Have I said this is the biggest zone?  I could feel it as we set up chair and places for people to stand. But yeah. We barely made it in time. Oh then the mic broke.  So Everett choro (AP) and I are trying to get it to work and "S" choro has other stuff he wants to do so finally he walks up to us, looks at "E" Choro, gets on his knees, folds his arms, and says, "Lets do this" Ha. Half were inspired by his faith and half just laughed.  In the end we just told everyone to yell but nevertheless it was a good experience.  We did our sudden role play like always which was funny because this time, half just to mess with the sister because she couldn't speak japanese, we included the couple missionaries names in the possibitlities.  And yep, they got picked.  They did well though.  

Then we had our training which went long but was good.  I think.  Then lunch was straight crazy with the stake relief society taking care of business with the most amazing meal ever and then gift exchange which is always fun.  This year everything had to be red.  Then testimony meeting which was fun because before it we tried to surprise President but singing him a song but I think he already knew.  Oh well. It was cool.  Then we had the normal testimony meeting which I conducted which I about puked doing.  But the saddest part was at the beginning I said those going home before next zone conference should give their testimonies first and I start to sit down and I see "S" choro get up..... I about lost it. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess I knew this day would come sometime.  But he is awesome. Never really realized it back in the day. Then from there people always go long so I made little 3x5 cards that the first one said "Within 3 minutes please", Next, "You have 30 more seconds" and the last "That was a good testimony.....now go sit down" Ok so those aren't so funny in English but "S" choro just busted up at the japanese because it was way horrific and way like.....Sit your butt down. I made my father proud.  President also high fived me for it because he doesn't like people taking up lots of time.  

From there splits with "S" choro who was my kohai in the MTC which was fun.  Then Friday night Stake Missionary Coordination Meeting. Talk about more stress. Basically in our makeshift high council room with all the high councilors either sitting around the table or conference called (Skyped) in and then the two punk missionaries at the end telling all these high councilors and stake preisdent what to do.  Ha. Then getting asked a lot of questions that I don't know the answer to but in awe of the actual respect these people are showing us.   Then I look at the clock and its. 8:57 and we just look at the stake president, slightly bow and then run as fast as we can to make it back to the apartment in 3 minutes! Ha. I run way too much.  Anyway.  That was my week. Love you. Bye bye

7.3 Earthquake

Ok so no time this week because the next people come to email in a few minutes.  Wow this week was busy.  

This Monday we had the regular day and then a birthday party for all the missionaries that have had birthdays in the last 6 months in Kamisugi which was funny because one of the sisters doesn't eat chocolate and those cakes were pure chocolate. Then the next day we spent basically the day prepping for all the zone leaders coming to Sendai for zone leader council and President recieved revelation on a change he wanted to do 5 hours before it began so that was fun to make the changes for that night.  Then we went to zone leader councils activity.  The activity was gonig around to less actives and such and just spreading christmas cheer and we got to drive around with Kaicho(President)  in his car and wow did I gain respect for the Nagamachi missionaries. Those are some of the longest and steepest hills I have ever seen in my life and they go up them everyday on their bikes.  

Then the next day actual zone leader council which is just pure information spat at your face. Then Eikaiwa that night. Trying to throw a bunch of stuff together for the next day which is zone training meeting where we have to teach our zone everything we learned the previous day and do training and yes I'm tired just writing about that.  Then a rest from that for the rest of the day.  

Then Friday we did a little streeting and then got a call from president asking if he can do weekly planning with us and of course you can't say no.  So we did that with him.    Anyway, he even biked from the hombu to our apartment which is pretty impressive. 

Anyway he leaves and and about 30 minutes later the phone is on the desk and it goes off but the picture is not the normal envelope saying email its a guy running which the second it occurred what it was the ground started to shake.  As you know it was a pretty good one.  Then we read the email and it said it was a big earthquake but we just continued with the sound of car alarms and the apartmenty fire alarm going off.  Then we get a mail from the assistants saying that Tagajo *area in our zone* has a tsunami warning.  This causes confusion because ishonomaki *different area* is closer to the coast but yeah. So we try to call and it won't connect, phones are dead.....well that stressful.  Finally get half way through and it says that the number can't be reached because of a disaster.  From there we had to get a hold of everyone in the zone to make sure they were safe but the phones don't work so we have to use this ghetto version of texting that only works every once in awhile but at this same time we suit up and start biking to all the members houses we can to make sure they are ok.  Ha.  it was an interesting night.  Anyway. yeah.  That was the most exciting thing of the week.  This week we have zone conference so that is stressing us out right now because there is no time to plan for it.  We will see how that goes.  Anwyay. No time. Love you all. Talk to you later. 

Busy, busy, busy

Hey everyone. 

A ridciulously busy week here in Sendai.  I feel like I have run around with my head cut off for a week and I have also been exhausted so Ohori choro has kinda had to just pull me around.  Not even sure what to say about this week.  It was good I guess.  

I feel like I'm kinda cursed with investigators.  Weren't able to meet any this week which was depressing. So yeah....not a whole lot to say about that. 

I went around to all the district meetings in the zone this week which took a whole day basically but it was fun to see other people around the mission.  Kinda terrifying to be at the Nagamachi district meeting and asking the assistants to do stuff for the zone.....aka....asking Shinno choro my father to do things.  It was fun to catch up with him a little over the last few random times we have had a minute or two to just chat.  Also there are a ton of people that come to Eikaiwa(English class) which was scary.  I actually have to teach these people english. Although they freaked on me when I gave them homework.  Ha. Whoops. ;-)  Oh well they will live.  

Lets see, what else.  Had splits with the APs this week but my split kinda became....well interesting because...ok quick japanese lesson.  So in order to get your license in Japan if you are Japanese you have to go through driving school which is pretty long I think and way expensive and your license itself is also way expensive and all this jazz so most Japanese elders don't have a license and the church sure isn't going to pay for one and all this schooling.  So our assitants *(The only one that have cars) normally have one foreigner and one japanese elder.  The foreigner just has to prove that he has a foreign license, pay like 50 dollars and pass the practical test.  So the American is the driver for the companionship.  Well.........good old "E" choro failed his first time last week which is too be expected because they are way strict here.  But he planned on taking it again on Wednesday and he was surely going to pass that time...... Well let me explain the phone call I got on Wednesday.

Shinno-"So.......splits are going to change tomorrow?"

Me-"Why?"

Shinno-"We may have had an accident at the driving center"

Me-"Accident?"

Shinno-"Yes....."

Me-"Everett choro hit something! Wow that stinks"

Shinno-(Didn't really understand I think)-"We need to come back tomorrow but we have appointments in Nagamachi and yeah....accident"

Me-".....are you guys ok? Like why does he have to go back? What did you break?"

Phone gets taken from Shinno choro and "E" choro picks it up in an aggitated voice

Everett-"Hey Elder Carter I ran a stop sign in my drivers test and we need to come back for a retake"

-Me trying to hold back laughter-

Me-"Ok...." 

Yes did it need that much explanation no, but it was the highlight of my week so we spent the majority of the day in Izumi and the testing center but he passed!  It was fun though because everyone in our waiting room (Not only Americas DMV is slow but japans too) were foreigners so I got to talk to a lot of different type of people.  Then normal splits from there. Kinda funny to do splits with someone in my area that had 2 weeks previous just finished working 6 months in that area.... Yeah I was the one that didn't know the area at all.  It was all very fun.  From there what else happened.

Oh FHE was way fun at the mission home.  American food, watched a christmas church movie, all that jazz.  

Also this weekend we had a sports activity which was way fun.  Bigger areas have so many activities its ridiculous.  

Not sure if I said this last week but I finished the Book of Mormon in Japanese.......yeah be impressed. 

Random fact about this zone. We have two district leaders.....ones name is Elder Sanders.......one is Elder Saunders........in Japanese they are pronounced the same........ I have already wanted to beat my head into the wall numerous times over this......

First week in Kamisugi as Zone Leader

Hello family.  So its been a ridiculously busy week over the last week but whatever.  Taken some getting used to to understand everything that is going on.  It reminds me of the general conference talk by Elder Uchtdorf.  All my branches have been like the old Piper Cub and now i'm in the Blue Angels jet.  Its way cool but terrifying.  I'm sure I will get used to it.  But yes there are 6 missionaries in this ward alone so that is pretty crazy if you ask me.  

But yeah we went through all the normal stuff.  Got all packed up. It snowed some more in Yokote so that was an adventure.  Went through various things there.  I think there might at least have been one person that misses me threre.  Our eternal investigator came to the bus stop to send me off which was nice.  Came to Sendai we joined there Eikaiwa  (there are actually people there.  Then on the ride back to the mission home Ohori choro filled me in on some of the stuff we had to do that night and off we went.  I was that night  calling our district leaders which one is my kohai in the MTC who couldn't believe that I would be the zone leader. Oh well.  Anyway.  From there its all been kinda a blur. 

The people here have a lot of missionary fire which is awesome.  Especially the Ward mission leader.  He has more fire then President Rasmussen ...... maybe. I still don't even know a lot of things that are going on.  Elder Ohori kinda just goes off and does his thing sometimes.  Oh well.  I will have more information though as the time goes by.  Every month president has a FHE at his home so that is tonight and we are going with an investigator so that should be fun. Never have had a chance to go but this time we can.  Yay.

Way funny that you are reading Lay choros blog.  He was the AP when I came in.......therefore he could get all those pictures.  Even if you are an AP you don't even see all the Churches.  So yes that would be a nice idea but yeah.  Also one of you mentioned a mission christmas party......we don't have those in Japane.  The only time the mission has gathered in probably years is when Elder Oaks came and that cost the church a couple thousand dollars easy to get us all there.  Sounds like Thanksgiving and black friday were basically a success which is good to hear.  What else is there to say about my life.  Not a whole lot.  Today I had to fight the governement because Yokote messed up the paperwork of me leaving so that and me writing another error on the paperwork made it so they kinda freaked out and worried I was trying to hide something from them.  Oh well.  I'm not in jail so thats good.  

Anyway until next week. 

Transfer to Kamisugi!

So hello family for the last time from Yokote!

But more about that later.

 

I guess there isn't a whole lot to say about this week.  We tried to meet investigators like always but......well it didn't happen this week.  No LAs even which is too bad although Brother E (might have talked about him before) finally made it back from biking to Tokyo and back.  We were honestly a little concerend he had died on the way. Hes in his 60s.  But weren't able to do a lesson with him though. That was too bad.  Really hoping I would be able to meet more people this week considering I figured I would transfer and all.  Nevertheless this is the way it worked out. I think I might have talked about trying to teach the "K" family before. We pushed forward with that idea and invited them and....drum roll.  Squat happened.  Said that all the kids were too busy right now and so they didn't want to do it.  Little depressing.  Kinda hoping that would have worked out.  Nevertheless.  We also called up "T"-san our referral from tsuroka and he said he was going to come to church so we were way exicted about that but he didn't end up coming.  Ha. Tis my life.  I hope I don't curse Sendai too.  Also yesterday it snowed for the first time and I remembered how painful it was. Not because it was cold but biking and having little floating pieces of ice thrown into yoru eyes it terrible.  Ha.  Oh well. Sendai doesn't get as much snow. So....yeah. Anyway. Thats kinda it for the work this week.

 

Exciting that you were able to go to the movie Lincoln in all its 2 and a half hours of goodness.  Twilight...bleh. ;-) Sounds like it will be a fun thanksgiving too.  Fun fun stuff. We finished our thanksgiving feast this week in the Yokote apartment.  It took like 2 weeks but we got through all the food.  Ah man, I want to take part in this Steven teasing too!!!!! You must tease in behalf of me.

 

So yes transfers.  Always a fun time for the mission.  We just sat and stared at the phone for most of the morning.  I tried to take a video of the call again but it didn't record it again. Stupid camera.  Oh well.  So yes I will be transfered to an area called Kamisugi.  Basically downtown Sendai.  From possibly the smallest area in the mission to the biggest. Awesome.  We have a thing we call here call the *Inaka Noroi* (Countryside Curse) which basically means if you were *born* in a not well populated place you will always not be in a not populated place and I was definitely living up to the curse but apparnetly I have broken it.  But the plot thickens.  One. My new companion is "O" choro so again a japanese elder which I'm happy about. I like having japanese comps, helps my japanese. Especially him.......he speaks WAY fast!.  2. You probably don't remember this(or I didn:t tell you) he was a elder in my district when I first came here so I've done splits with him.  He is known in this mission as the obedient to over exactness missionary.   So it will be interesting to see if he has been broken or is the same straight crazy man he has always been.  (He plans to the minute (Ex. So we will knock on the first door and if they answer it will take 3 minutes but if they don:t maybe a minute)) Should be fun.  And the final exciting part. When I say exciting and mean terrifying. Going to be zone leader there of the biggest zone in this mission.  AH!!!!!! With President on my doorstep.  Terrifying! Very little stays the same in this transfer.  With change also come excitement.  I:m excited to see what all becomes of this.  Possibly a challenging companion , etc.  I:m sure I will miss my Yokote some.  Its been a lesson filled 6 months that went by very quickly.  Always remember the people here. Fun we had. Lessons learned. Etc.  Same with all of the mission I think.  Nevertheless.  All sorts of fun stuff. Only time will tell what actually becomes of it all. 

 

So thats it for today. Ship out Wednesday evening so still a little time.  Then by next week I will be in an area with a ward..............like people come an everything.......and stakes.................college students.........people willing to change...... Shall be fun.

 

Love you all.

Zone training

Another week.  This week's key indicators were a little better but not what I had hoped for.  We had the "K"i family and the "T" referral that we wanted to teach and neither of those have moved forward at all so that was way depressing.  Oh well.  We live.  To be honest nothing really happened fun this week.  

We had zone training which is always an adventure of waking up way early, going to Morioka, having a meeting, then coming back.  6 plus hours of trains and then we went straight to a lesson so we didn't really even eat that day until 9:30.  Oh well. All part of the fun right!? 

There was a lot of housing this week.  Not a whole lot of success seen from that though.  We started eating the thanksgiving that you sent. Thanks for that again. Also made some of the cake for members but still.  You send too much food it goes to members and I'm prety sure it about kills them with sweetness. Welcome to America!!!  I brought the candy corn to zone meeting and our japanese zone leader ate some, got this sick look on his face and said, "Sato dake da yo" (Its only sugar!) I chuckled. Its true.  This may be my last full week in Yokote but yeah. Got made a mark with this last week!  Anyway. Today is a little short but time is short today so love you all. Bye.

 

The Lord chastens those that he loves

Hey family! Hows it going? Hope halloween was fun and all that.  Here we dressed up and acted like missionaries all day.  Pretty crazy stuff. Well again a slower week here but hopefully it will pick up soon.  We have had some good things happen this week and it also was destroyed with comings and going to meetings and this week also have coming and going to meetings but still we will live.  

So because I figure you people will be interested we are getting lost of autumn leaves here. Pretty cool. We drove through the mountains to district meeting and it is quite colorful.   So in the 11th week of the 12 week training program for new missionaries it says. "New missionary takes the lead in all finding and teaching" which in our mission (unofficially) has become what we call "senpai week." (Senior companion week).  So guess what this week is? Yay!  This morning during compaion study I tried to change the order of things and he just looked at me with a straight face and said, "Who's the senpai (senior comp)?" "You are."  "Thats right,"  Ha.  

 

Also something exciting happened that night too.  We got a call from a missionary (we all have the same phone number except for the last 2 digits) and so I pick it up.  And its the Tsuroka Elders and they had a referral that was suppose to be coming to church.  Well, we had district conference so we weren't going to have church in Yokote so that was a bummer.   But we still got their information and then the next morning I got a call from the friend that had referred him and said he was going to take his friend to Morioka for district conference the next day! Yay! Way cool. Didn't end up coming because someone in his family was sick but still. We have high hopes for him this week because he sounds like he has a whole lot of interest. 

 

We also had interviews with President which were supposed to happen the end of this week but since we were there and to save time he did them then so I had no time to prepare but I lived through it.  I could also hear everything said in Elder "H" interview. Funniest part of that was he asked how it was going recently and he said lessons were rough and President "R" responds with "The Lord chastens those that he loves"  and the smart alek son of mine responds with "Then we must be really loved."  It made me giggle. Also at district conference I got to meet "S" kyodai from Aizu.  Not sure how much I talked about him back in Aizu but he was my favorite. He is way aweomse and the hardest worker ever in the church and therefore is now part of the mission presidency.  So I get to see him lots now! Yay!

 

So hopefully we will have lots to report next week.  Next transfer is coming up way fast. I feel like my time in Yokote is very very short. Kinda ready to transfer but still don't want to leave these leads that we have.  Mah. Whatever works. 

 

When we visit LAs and stuff that scripture you wrote father is always the one that I share. We don't have all the answers and there is a lot of heart-ache and horribleness and roughness in the world but if we can remember just the simple fact that God is our Father and does love us then we have a very important step in the right direction and sometimes thats all we can rely on.  Mah. Has never gotten anyone to come back to church but I think even active members need to remember that too. 

 

Love you all. Hope all is well with you peeps. Talk to you later. 

Change of age of missionaries

So how's everyone?  Another even slower week this week (soon they can't get any slower so yeah).  A lot of housing and stuff. A lot of rain too.  Wow I'm sick of rain.  I'm about ready for the snow just because it is a lot easier to deal with than rain.  We live though.  Anyway.  I don't know if I thanked you guys for your unneeded package that you sent but thanks.  Didn't meet a single investigator this week so that was  bad.  Had 1 LA lesson and 1 with the "K's" so yeah.  Had one of our investigators suck a ton of our time so that was cool but didn't even get a chance to do a lesson.  This next weekend we have district conference so that should be fun.  Get to hang out with President R a ilttle bit more.  Um. Not a whole lot to report on with this week.  Really nothing at all exciting happend. 

 

Elder Grow's meeting was interesting.  He went an hour and a half over but he's a seventy so he can do that.  It was funny when he was over by an hour he looked over to President R and asked "You probably are stressing that we need to go right now aren't you?" "No.....I can drive really fast."  Funny man.  but it was fun to see half the mission all together. Don't have many opportunities to see all these missionaries.  Also got to see Shinno choro as the assistant. It has been like 6 months since I saw him.  He was way busy so didn't get to talk much (although he broke his thumb so he had a cast on it which was funny).  But a lot of interesting things talked about with Elder Grow.  Wanting to focus on LAs more than we have before and he took all our planning techniques and threw them in the trash so that was slightly concerning.  Interesting to hear some of his knowledge about the behind the scnes stuff at headquarters which leads me to my main event. Check out these stats

 

After the Saturday conference the #1 trending tweet on Twitter was the change of age for missionaries.

 

MTC time is being cut by a 1/3 across the board

 

The freshman class of BYU is going to be non-existent (ok so thats not official but probably will see an effect there)

 

Normally each week 500-700 applicants for missionary service come in.

The week after conference 4,000 applicants came in 2,000 elders, 2,000 sisters

He only had the data from the first 3 days of the next week but in the first 3 days there were 3,600 applicatants, 1500 elders 2000 sisters

 

Needless to say......wow.

 

Sounds like they are still deciding how much each missions allotted missionaries will increase so that will be interesting and the mission presidents are to put these extra missionaries in "centers of strength" and to use them more fully for rescuing less actives.

 

So thats what I have. 

 

Always no time.  Love you all. Sayonara.

Fall is coming

Hey family, what up?  Hope all is well as the fall rolls in over there too.  Its starting to get a little chilly here but I'm still holding out with the short sleeves everyday.  

  I realize you people get annoyed with short letters but as mandy realized there is not a whole lot to report.  The few investigators we teach the less stories.  Looks like "S" san even is going to fall by the wayside (our self referral).  Way depressing but he just seems to be choosing not to investigate. He respects us a ridiculous amount but still.  I had a 10 minute conversation with him on the phone just about why I stay here even though people don't listen.  As the little Utah mormons that we are I guess I never thought how outright stupid we must look to "normal" people.  He didn't seem to get it but just ended with, "Well you are a better man than me."  Anyway.  

"R" is sick so can't meet with her.  We techinically found a new investigator on splits this week but we will see if she lasts. Splits was really fun.  I actually like having Japanese companions and he has been through a lot of the experience I have of training in a tiny area and all that, so it was good to talk to someone that understands and see his ideas of how to get over certain road blocks. 

 We also had a "special district meeting" for the sisters in the district. It was stressful because we couldn:t let them know that we were focusing on their problems but we had to address all these things.  "M"-choro (who I did the splits with and is the zone leader) was talking with me the day before and I told him he should just teach it. He responded with, "If I talk they are all going to cry because it is so beautiful"   Well part way through the meeting we were talking about continuing work even though sometimes we don't see success so I asked him to share his experience in his small area and sure enough by the end there was not a dry sisters eye in the room.  He is crazy good.  Anway.  That was the most exciting this that happened this week. 

Next Mondaywe have the meeting with the 70 so I'm not entire sure when I will email but everyone should just email me at the same time, probably will end up being tuesday that I email.  Oh and this week I got a letter from "K.C"  in the ward.  Ha. took me off guard.  Didn't expect I would be attracting these primary girls. ;-)  Say happy birthday to little Atreyu for me. Love you all.

General Conference

Hey family.

 

How was your week this week?  This week was again way WAY slow.  I just dont get it! Can't get out of this rut but not all is bad. Conference is always way enjoyable so we enjoyed that greatly over the last 2 days.  Overwhelmed with gospel knowledge though.  Nevertheless we loved it.  We were slightly disappointed with Elder Holland.  He is always good for a good yelling about there is no time left.  Oh well. We love that talk. 

 We had an investigator come to church this week for the first time so that was interesting for her for her first time to be general conference.  And  it got even more exciting when between sessions we were just walking around talking to members and she comes up to us with a member that she had known clear back from investigating 10 years ago and he comes up to us and asks how often we meet with her.  The  answer, well actually she doesn't have any interest in the gospel and doesn't want you to visit her.  "Why?"   Well she has never really wanted to listen for various reasons, eh?   She's a japanese old woman, she can't say no to you.   Apparently she did once and the missionaries back then cried.  Sigh.  So that was fun.  I love Japanese people but they need to get a little bolder.  Sigh.  So that was an adventure.  

Other than that it was just a lot of knocking doors and such this week.  We start the new eikaiwa this week so that shall be fun.  Other than that lets see.  There are really no exciting stories when you spend your whole week knocking doors and finding no one.  In two weeks we have a meeting with Elder Grow from the 70 so that will be fun.  It will also be on a Monday so we will have to email a different day.  Not a whole lot other than that. 

Random request, not sure if I will be able to do it but could you send me the recipe for pumpkin pie?  I want to try to make it, maybe for eikaiwa or something.  Knowing from last year they don't really have pumpkin pie here.  Since I have a few more minutes and no more content to write about I will say random things.  So in the movie "Finding Faith in Christ" in English there is a part where they are on the sea and wake up Christ and he says "Peace, be still"  Well its a lot more....interesting in Japanese.  He says the equivalent to "shut up and be quiet."  The first time I saw that it made me laugh. Especially since he whispers it.  Well that the only random thing I have.  Love you all talk to you next week. 

 

Elder Carter

Becoming a More Creative Planner

Hello peeps,

 

Another roughish week to be honest. Lots of random annoyances and everything.   But its forcing me to be a more creative planner for how to use time because all our investigators and people we are teaching are falling left and right (all for health reasons strangely enough).   Its an adventure.  We worked really hard to find new investigators this week, but in the end no one. 

Have one good chance though that took a Book of Mormon and gave us his business card and this ridiculously delicious apple juice that he grows the apples for.  He is just way busy because of it being harvest time.  Its funny to watch them harvest. Its not white like wheat it is gold which is kinda cool and when I say the scripture now to people I say "The field is gold, all ready to harvest".  I always had an image of a man out there will a sickle, which we have seen a little of, but welcome to our day.  Out comes the harvester which is a fascinating machine but takes like 10 minutes to harvest the whole field.  Fun stuff.  

Didn't really meet with any investigators this week.  Just the ones we can just show up to and that mainly like missionaries.  We have an appointment to meet with "R" tomorrow so hopefully that all comes through. 

Anyway, random stories.  So jealous you went to a football game. They don't have football here as you may imagine.  I'm glad you enjoyed the Jesus the Christ story. Didn't find it that humorous myself but oh well, glad I could bring joy to others. They are playing The Beatles here at the library right now.....TORTURE!!!! I miss my Beatles. 

 

Anyway. Hope all is well with you people. Enjoy conference without me! Way jealous you get to watch a week before me.  But oh well.  Bye bye.

Some weeks are rough

Well here we are at another week and boy was it a brutal week when we looked at it in the end.  Total of 3 lessons when normally its closer to ten. No one progresses, no one at church, no new investigators, etc. Ouch.  Little embarrassing to report our results last night. Oh well though. Just need to keep working hard.  Anyway.  

But yes this week EVERYTHING fell through. We were lucky to even get the three lessons in.  We had one day where our whole day's plans and backup plans all failed in 45 minutes. Partly we could have just planned better but still thats was disheartening especially for Hunt choro.  He absolutely despises tracting.  But oh well. Make him do it anyway and he's a good sport about it.  

Also part of the problem was also being out of town for part of the week for zone conference. (Leave the day before to go to kitakami, all day zone conference, come home the next day).  But zone conference is always good.  Its kinda like general conference to me.  Get revved up a little and then can go out with a hunger to share the gospel.  Although that day also was an adventure and a half.  But at all zone conference we have a "sudden role play" where people get called up to role play in front of the zone.  And as you may have already guessed, "H" choro and I were called up.   This three weeks under his belt and he's taking care of business. I was pretty proud of him.  We also had a little more of a plan than last time but yeah he trusted that when I would look to him I had him set up to say what he needed to say. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.  But it was kinda fun.  

Learned lots of stuff and then after all the trainers got together and the trainees got together for separate meetings to talk about the training.   My whole district is training right now, Its actually kinda funny.  The average "age" of our zone right now is a transfer and a half. WAY YOUNG!!!!  Anyway.  Other than that it was a lot of knocking doors this week.  Watched that Elder Holland movie twice this week.  I have been able to add another phrase to my phrases   "I don:t want to practice this lesson" "Feed my sheep!"  But it works, he  just laughs and then does it.  

Also president "R" and Sister "R" came to our branch on Sunday. Thats about terrifying and a half.  But the members loved him and he loves the members and, well, he's just president so it was fun.  Had a "linger longer" type thing after so yep lots of fun.  Anyway. I think that does it for this week. Always just a bunch of random stuff.  Love you. Hope all is well with you guys.

Teaching in ENGLISH!

So here we are at another week of emails.  Yay! Just a note before I
forget, so with this first week in the month thing we are going to try
and email the day before so adjust your emails accordingly because
there is no reason to read emails if there are none.

Anyway, second full week of trainer missionary work.  Oh the joys. Its
not all bad. I probably complain too much but that whole feeling of
the mission flying by? Kind feels like the brakes were put on for
these two weeks.  One of the member came up to me yesterday and just
laughed and said, "You look tired" "Yeah, I'm a little tired" "Why?"
"Just missionary work, sometimes happens"   Yay for constant state of tiredness.  

But one bright point is we picked up an old investigator this week
that I have been trying to teach since I have got here.  "R"! Does
that sound Japanese, no, because she is Phillipianian (Person from the
Phillipines) which if you aren't aware one of their official languages
is.....ENGLISH!!!  So yes, an English lesson and a Christian
background.  Talk about not knowing how to handle her.  Basically
handed over the lesson to "H" choro and he did good. He teaches VERY
seriously! Ha.     Its so depressing that
I can't even teach in English anymore.  I'm translating from Japanese
to English in my head.  She speaks Japanese too. Therefore halfway
through the lesson I was testifying and I broke into
Japanese.....basically at that point I gave up and finished my thought
in Japanese.  It was like going home.  Ha.  I can't speak Japanese or
English at this point.

Anyway.  Other stuff. Unfortunately "S" san and "T" san didn't
come to church this week but they are still strong.  

Ok so I am way jealous you guys are going to Wicked, just saying.

Other than that not a whole lot going on this week.  Just the normal
stuff.  Had my first experience with someone straight attacking the
church and our beliefs.  He was not a nice man at all.  Oh well.  He
gave us cake while we attacked the church so I guess it wasn:t all
bad.

Anyway, talk to you next week. Love you. Peace out.

Training

Hello my family. Sorry about the whole not emailing thing last week. Apparently the library is closed every first monday so I need to seek some approval from president to email on a different day once a month. He will probably give it.

 Anyway. Training! Wow. Lots of fun experiences already. The most random of which was when we went to the training meeting for trainers we were all foreigners so we weren:t exactly sure what bus to ride but it seemed like the right one from the train station to the mission home. So we just chillaxed in the back and talked until the driver yells at us "destination!" Ha. Whoops. Wrong bus. So we get off and run down to a connecting bus.....doesn't come for the next 2 hours.....well thats not going to work. So we call the assistants. No luck they are busy in training the new missionaries. So we all just look at each other 4 kilometers from the mission home. What should we do? Then all our eyes lock onto the taxi coming up the road, "Shoganai" (nothing we can do about it). So I road my first taxi. Wow they are expensive! Ha. Anyway. Short training meeting and then "H" choro and I are off to Yokote.

 Not a whole lot with investigators except for "S" san. He and "T" san have come to church for the last two weeks. Its way awesome. I don:t really see him as "golden investigators" but all the japanese people do. Ha. Our branch president danced around with the other person that taught the lesson with us yesterday. I don't get it. Also he speaks like an old man so its way hard to understand. So I have my hopes up for him. The rest of the investigators are just continuing in their previous state. Fun stuff. What else do we have. Not a whole lot else to report. "H" choro is pushing me to be better. Which is good.

 Yay for Atreyu being ridiculously cute. I miss that little man. He:s growing up so much without me. Also I hope you are trying to help him learn my real name and not just "nerd*" like Kris is probably teaching him. ;-)

 I haven:t received this package yet. Soon maybe. 

Take that Utes. Thats all I have to say about that. ;-)

 So this is a little random and maybe hard to find on youtube or maybe way easy. B ut when we had our trainers training we had a little extra time so president wanted to show us this video. It was made by the people of Tohoku (northern japan, my mission almost exactly) and its all in english but it had all the sisters crying. Basically it starts with a home video of the earthquake. Kinda shows the devastation from that. Then words come on the screen "But that was just the beginning" Then tsunami footage. All the devastation. Basically this part of the video rips out your heart and stomps on in. Throws up all the statisitcs of how many people lost their homes and died and all that. "All hope was lost" ......"Almost all" Then there are interviews with these little kids that talk about their english teacher who helped them be safe in the earthquake. Then she went home and when the tsunami came was never seen. "Taylor sensei wasn;t the only one that helped us" Then a ton of footage of navy ships, helicopters, food falling from the sky. All this humanitarian footage. Way awesome. Makes you proud to be a human. "Now we have a message for our friend" Then in like 15 languages and 50 people theirs just these Japanese people yelling "Thank you" "We will never forget you" etc at the camera. Way awesome. Look it up. Then download it and put it on my camera card when you get the next one and send it to me. http://www.nikkeiview.com/blog/2012/02/arigato-video-from-tohoku-region-of-japan-sends-thank-you-message-to-the-world/

 Anyway. Kinda weird email today. Love you all. Heres hoping for a better email next week.

So another week is upon us! They really do fly by in hind sight. However this week we got a lot more done than we did last week so that was good. This week we went to a Japan wide famous firework show in Omagari. Try to get some LAs there to come with us but that didn't quite work and because we had to get home by 9 we couldn't get very good seat so that kinda took most the fun away from it. But oh my goodness were the trains crazy. Go on Youtube and look up Tokyo subway system and you will see kinda what went down. One nice thing to report. "M" shimai came to church this week. Not everything is resolved but she is doing good. Yes she did have a friend in the ward, actually a family of friends. So I did splits with one of the elders in my district this week. Wow was that an adventure. And the final thing and the reason todays email is super short. Transfer calls came this morning........."M" choro is out to Nigata-ken nigata city. And as for me............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I'm going trainer. Ugh. Scares me to death. I actually had a feeling that this might happen but still. His name is Elder "H" and he is from Las Vegas. It shall be very interesting to see how all this works out. Not a whole lot of information on his but yeah. I head to Sendai tomorrow and pick him up Wednesday and then we are off to return to Yokote. I may die. But that being said it could be a lot of fun. Anyway. I guess I will just leave you with that. Love you all. Talk to you next week.

Yokote Festival

Hey peeps! Its still taking some getting used to to get used to this computer and the little amount of time I have left. My time is already almost gone because I was fighting other things for most the time but here is todays report. So this week was a festival call Obon. Basically its the one time of the year that everyone returns home and becomes Buddhist. Basically makes it impossible to find anyone to talk to. Except Yokote didn't get hit too hard but still mission wide it was a rough week. But the good thing was we were way busy with other things this week so we really didn't feel the effect. One of the things that made us busy was interviews with President! I think we all just freaked out about it too much. Waiting in that room until he comes and pulls you out to rip you apart with words. But in the end he was way nice. Laid out a few things that I should focus on, not that I wasn't doing them but that just focus on them more. Then the rest was praise and encouragement. Also told me that one of the elders in my district that he had just interviewed had said that he had been having a hard time but that through my district meeting he got over it. Score! Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall in those meetings. Also Mandy may be interested to know that my guess of which of my lessons that affected him was "Oh the Places You'll Go" Quite the hit when we read it in district meeting. We also had splits. This time I was with the zone leaders and who would it be but Fukuta choro. If you don't remember he was one of the elders in the Aizu apartment so it was fun to talk about the good old days. We both loved Aizu so kinda fun. There was also a Yokote festival. It was way cool. So they had fireworks but 1, they sent them off from like 50 feet away, and 2 they were cued to music. How cool is that! Awesome I tell you. Another funny thing is that one of the songs was "Born this way" by Lady Gaga. :-) Then the other part of the festival was people build these big boats and then compete with them by ramming them togetehr. Super dangerous. People have died in years passed. This year 1 person went to the hostpital and a couple people got hauled away by the cops apparently. Ha. Fun stuff. It was crazy to see all the people though, didn:t know there were that many people in yokote. Especially young people. "M" shimai is still up in the ari and to be honest not a whole lot new in the investigator areana. Also slightly new thing is that I have a new return date. Not July 30th but Aug. 2. Ha. Slowly getting father. Which made me think. Maybe we should slowly start working on figuring out school because its going to come fast I think and knowing my academic advisor she will be slow. First thing to figure out is if I can even do the 5 year masters. So yeah... That "Feed my Sheep" thing sounds pretty cool father. If you can find a way go ahead and send it to me. Well I love you all, hopefully I will have something more interesting to say next week.

I Can Email Again!

I:m back! Try as Japan will they can:t keep a nerd from his computers. Now I will be emailing from a slow way old PC in a run down library but hey it works and I:m happy. Miyaki choro is kinda mad I found it because it cuts into our time on p days but I have kinda decided he needs to learn that he is on a mission and needs to stop thinking about himself (maybe I just need to learn the same thing but techinically I:m following the presidents guidance, just guidance that I like to do. ) Anyway, not a whole lot of time today because I just read a ridiculous amount of emails which is awesome. Thanks for having the faith to keep sending them. You can probably stop with the real letters, they were fun while they last but yeah. Anyway what has happened in the last few weeks. A lot! Lots of random drama but mostly everything has just stopped. We were riding high leading the district and the zone for awhile (in Yokote none the less) and then everything fell apart! The last two weeks have been super weak. Not meeting with people etc etc. Also one investigator has been meeting us in secret and her boyfriend found out and freaked out so yeah that stopped her progress quick. Then the saddest of them all. Anyway, other that that our two *golden* investigators are a little sketchy. Met a ton but they love to learn but the whole repenting and changing thing is hard for them. When I say hard I mean they won:t do it. They keep going at this rate I:m just going to drop them. Sick of people that won:t change. Anyway. Those are the biggest highlights of the last two weeks. Next week will probably be a much more normal leter. So anyway, love you all. Talk to you later.

An "atta boy" from the President

Hey Family, How's it going? Another week of handwritten letters. I don't even know if you emailed this week because we didn't go the the electronics store today. I'm still working on another emailing place. Hopefully I can figure something out soon. Anyways, This week was an interesting one I guess. So on Monday morning, we went to meet our referral for our planned lesson. New experience for boh of us because you just don't get referrals here. Anyway, he shows up and what would you know, he brings his friend too! Two new investigators in one day!" What the what? Thats a good months worth of investigators. Anyway there is this things called "The Standard of Excellence". Mandy should know what I'm talking about. Anyway. It's basically this goal the mission president sets that if you achieve in a week, you get this cool letter from President and bragging rights. Anyways, One of the hardest parts is 3 investigators in a week and since we already had 2, might as well go for the kill. Still needed 19 more lessons and a new investigator. Probably my longest planning session Monday night trying to get it all planned out. Anyway we knew it would be hard with no bikes (Miyaki choros bike is broken too.) And then the fun started. Woke up the next morning and Miyaki Choro is super sick. But he says he is good, so we go out and take care of business. Got some lessons in and then called it a day. Wednesday we had a lesson in the morning and after that Mikayki choro basically looked dead so I had him get into bed. Lost all productivity that day. Next day he was like death but still got in enough lessons to still be on track and if we kicked butt for the next three days we could still make 17. Reach into my pocket Thursday night and the phone is gone. Left it in our branch Presidents car. Sigh~ No way to get a hold of anyone without that thing. Didn't have it all of Friday and finally got a hold of him on Saturday on a pay phone and got it back. And at that point we had given up. Absolutely impossible to get to it (our goal). Only made it half way to be honest. Oh well. Anyway. That was the most eventful part of the week. Dad might find interest in this: Our President letters are all online now. No more paper. Yay! It's was superior. Church did a pretty good job of putting it together too. Makes it a lot faster and so much easier to read than before. Then today got a call from the mission office; normally just the couple missionaries complaining we did the paperwork somewhere wrong. Always puts a pit in your stomach to hear "Rasmussen Kaicho Riso" at the other end of the line. What did I do wrong? runs through your head a billion times. Got through the pleasantries...at this point you always brace for impact. "So.. Elder Carter. I just saw your kekka (results from last week)" "Oh really? OK" "...way to go!" Huge sigh! "Oh...thanks." From there one of the most pleasant conversations I have ever had with that man. Basically made my month. Sometimes it feels good to hear a little praise. Especially since today marks exactly one year before I return. Just a little "well done thou good and faithful servant" except its from President Rasmussen, so it has an assumed "....but lets double it." added at the end. Anyway, I guess that's it for the day. Kinda a weird letter. Love you, Elder Carter.

No email, but two baptisms!!

For Kyle's readers.....the library that he had been emailing from decided to ban email from their facility. His town is small, and there are not many options for emailing, so for the present, he is sending hand written letters until he finds a new place. Dear Family, Sigh. This email problem is going to kill me. I will try to solve it as soon as possible. It doesn't help that Miyaki Choro doesn't like emailing really so I have been figuring out all of this stuff by myself. Frustrating. Anyway. Wow, you have missed some good stuff. So try your best reading this letter. So what has happened over the last two weeks? A lot. So first off, the Kakisakis got baptized!! That's a story for another day (when I return). But it went well. For the most part everything was perfect and they took the plunge. Then yesterday they got confirmed. That was funny because we thought we had explained it well enough, but when they called them up front in Sacrament meeting, they kind of freaked out. After a little explanation they were fine, but it was a learning experience. It was a learning experience with all of it. Thats one thing that never stops. Also, I'm constantly being humbled. There are times when my prayers are basically, "Why?" I've decided that I just want to go back to Junior Companion. We also had transfers recently. Miyaki Choro and I didn't change, but 3 district members changed. We also received an Australian missionary. She is crazy cool. The other two were in the MTC with me. Which brings us to the next drama. When I was first put with Miyaki Choro he told me he absolutely didn't want to meet "K" shimai (Sister "K") They come from the same area and have some weird history which has caused him to despise her, but he won't tell anyone why. So, I get the call from the Zone Leaders about the changes to the district, and who is coming but K shimai. Miyaki Choro literally starts beating his pillow yelling, "No, no no! Daikairai kanojo" (No, no, no I hate her, I hate her.) Everyone in the zone knows he hates her because, well he has made it quite clear. When she tried to talk to him he ignored her, and when he has to convey information to her he does it through her companion who is right next to her. I'm sick of dealing with 16 year old girls. Sigh. So those are my rants. Other than the drama, the baptisms were awesome. Also we received a referral Saturday (which is unheard of in Japan). We met with him today and he brought a "friend." We are not sure of the relationship, but they aren't married. The lesson went great! They are true investigators who want to find the truth. We have a lesson with them again on Wednesday. So two investigators now...crazy and a half. Sorry I didn't get a chance to read your emails today so I can't really respond to those. Anyway, guess I will end here. Love you all. I'll write again next week. Sigh Elder Carter

Busy week in Yokote

Hey family! Hows it going? Hope everything is going well with you. So every week I write a list of things I want to write about and guess where that list is? At the apartment so this might be a short email. Sounds like things were still pretty busy this last week but that you are finally getting somewhat of a break that you deserve. Sounds like the reunion was really fun though. Glad to see that Atreyu is learning young the art of the flirt. That boy is really going to go places. ;-) And of course its great that Kreigh and them could all go. Doesn;t seem like those opportunities are coming around as often as before. I got the wedding video and watched it with my zone leader for splits. ;-) Ha. Even before I told the zone leader who made it he said, "Even though its basically the normal wedding video idea its really well done" So once again way to go Kreigh. But I fear his head is getting big with all this acclaim for his work so you can do better Kreigh. ;-) This week there was absolutely crazy rain. Everyone had been telling me it is the rainy season but there was like no rain. Then the heavens opened this week. Never seen so much rain in my life. Wow. Had the zone leaders sit in on my district meeting this week which to say the least was stressful. One of my zone leaders is Fukuda choro. If you don:t remember when I got into Aizu he was the other japanese person in the apartment so we are pretty tight. So anyway. Monday morning they called me and said that we were doing splits that friday ( which I knew) and that we should really have the "K"'s (mother and daughter) interview done a week early so that I needed to finish all the lessons that week. Well that was an adventure ending up with visiting every day of the week. Which our branch president was not happy about but its written in PMG as something you should do before baptism so I kinda ignored that. But anyway. They were both awesome leading up to the interviews. The daughter was the first one with the interview and Fukuda choro did that one. Came back that night and I asked him how it went. He kinda got sad and just shook his head and then Miyakichoro ruined it with, "She has had quite the past." Well that was a complete lie so I knew it was all a lie. They fessed up and then Fukuda choro went on to tell me his biggest problem with her is that she may have been too good. Ha. He was just in awe. Not just the right answers but the right reasons, feelings, etc. He was kinda left speechless. Really is the golden investigator. The mom did well too. Expressed it was difficult in her interview but that she was ready and wanted to. Great stuff. So that led into the great fun of planning this baptism. I feel like I understand the wedding planning now. They haven:t had missionaries here for years so there have been no baptisms and therefore we have to prove that all these 10 year old things still work including the "font" oh wow. I'm sending home a video of that and it is quite the adventure. Ha. But it will be good. So this week is going to be super busy. Tomorrow is splits in Kitakami. Wednesday is Leadership training in Morioka. Back to Yokote. Full of lessons. Then Sunday they get wet (baptized) So anyway. Fun stuff. Also good luck to father with his nasal surgery. I love how dad didn't even write anything about that in his letter. Mah. Everytime I get asked how the family is the answer is basically, "Good as far as I know but they wouldn't tell me if something was wrong" ;-) That basically it for today. Next week we will have the picture of the baptism so stay tuned. Love you.

She got baptized!!

Hey Family. Yay! doing this from a real computer this time. Ok so quick update from last week. Wow that seems like a long time ago. Had my first splits with an elder named OhoriChoro. Oh my goodness is he dilligent. He is still in his 3rd transfer is a trainer and schedules down to the minute (for example; at 5;12 we will arrive at this place and spend 4 minutes talking to this person). It was crazy. He is a great elder though. I learned a lot. from him. From there we had zone conference. So this is the power of President. He comes up to me. "Hey elder Carter" "Hey president" We Talk about Yokote for a little bit "So what do you think of sister "T"?" (Run through my head, there is no Sister "T" in Yokote) "....Think Furukawa elder." (There is no Sister "T" in Furukawa either......wait) "The baptism went through didn:t it!" The president just watched me dance for like the next 5 minutes. So yeah. Takahashi san got baptized. It was a good day. Yay. So then we had District Conference that next weekend which was a broadcast from Salt Lake for Japanese members. It was super weird. I didn:t even know they did that type of stuff. But it was cool. Finally we have the "K's" (the mother daughter investigators) They are what we like to call kinjins or gold people or probably in english the Golden Investigator. The daugher has read the JSH 7 times already and is on page 200 of the Book of Mormon. Loves church. Drank tea but gave it up because we told her to. Ha. Her mom is also doing great. A little worried about coffee but she is really working hard so thats awesome. They will have their baptism interview this weekend probably so if all goes well they will be baptized on the 15th. Super fast but great. Its ridiculous how prepared they are. Other than that this week was service in Miyako so it was fun to see all the missionaries that are in Iwate-ken, Akita-ken, and Aomori-ken including MeadChoro. He:s doing good. We came back. Did the regular missionary work for the next couple of days. Miyaki choro is kinda freaking out about time so yeah. Ha. This will be a little shorter of letter but things are going good. Ok so did you receive no videos? They weren:t copied to the same place as the rest of pictures so if you copied them by hand that might have been the problem. I back up all my pictures and stuff before I send them but I need to know if you have any videos or what. Other pictures missing. Some of those things you said you were missing were pictures not videos. Yep so I:m a little confused with all of that. Well anyway. I guess that will be all for today. A little short and you always hate those but oh well. Our church is in an old business so the rooms are actually just big cubicles. We email from this library like place, also where we do a lot of lessons