First transfer, I'm staying put

A little proselyting

Something is funny!

Pondering in the field?

Hi Family,

Random facts: They mix the salt and pepper together in one shaker. How lazy is that///?

Another random dendo thing, so we will ask people if we can meet on a certain day again and they tell us, *well thats my day off* First time I heard this I thought *perfect* although apparently they don:t do anything but sleep on days off!
We have run into this strange religion a few times. Not sure the name but basically it is made of two things. (1)In order to be saved all you have to say is this phrase which is super hard to say so to be funny Shinno choro always asks them why I (Carter Choro) can:t be saved because I:m american and can:t pronounce it. (2) And then to die with a smile on your face. Super weird. We don:t really fight with them but after so much rejection and slammed doors its kinda nice to just discuss religion. Ha.

Restaurants here along with being super expensive are also strange in that a lot of them have you cook your own food. There is just this big grill in the middle of the table and you cook your food on it that they bring to you, very interesting.

Today we found out about transfers! Of course Shinno Choro and I are staying but Cannon Choro is leaving (can:t remember where) and Fukata Choro is training and becoming DL. Crazy. So we will be getting a new bean in our apartment! I feel like he is already going to be better than me. Lucky boy is also going to be walking into a baptism like 2 weeks after he comes (Cannon Choro isn:t so thrilled about that either). To be honest Cannon Choro is not happy at all with this transfer. He really wanted to stay in Aizu to tie some lose ends up (this baptism and his baptism from a month ago already went LA (less active) so he wan:ts to work with her) and he really wanted to be a trainer. It shall be super interesting to see which one of my kohai (greenies from the MTC) it is. Exciting! This also means I am the *language expert* for my apartment. Sigh. No way I:m ready for that. Also means I will be running Eikaiwa (English class) from now on. Stressful!

Ok onto things that actually kinda matter. This week have been kinda a weirdish one. We had service on Tuesday so that was fun. Then wednesday we were suppose to meet R san again (or endosan can:t remember which name I told you last time, same person (kinda annoying that they go both by first name and last name here) ). But he spoked (didn:t show) so that was concerning. We also had had a member lined up to help us teach so we felt bad about that too. Then on sunday we set another appointment with him and he spoked that too. We really don:t know whats wrong. When we call he sounds super excited to me. As I expressed last time he seemed so prepared. Sigh!!!!.

Ssan didn:t come to church but that may be because we couldn:t meet with him this week because his wife answered the door and was quite opposed to us talking with him (if she even knew). Y is interesting. We had like 3 lessons with her this week and we are pretty sure she has a learning disability therefore she forgets a lot so that has slowed down her teaching alot but she is still keeping commitments. Made it through page 5 of the Book of Mormon she came to FHE friday and dinner after. Came to church yesterday. She is doing quite well. We also set a baptism date with her (really weak date but still a date). So right now possibly our best investigator. Finally the couple that we taught last sunday we taught again yesterday. We taught the restoration. Last time we had left a book of mormon and strangely the man read the title page and the woman didn:t read it but read our pamphlet again. We hadn:t committed them to either so we were good with both these answers. Then she starts asking about the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and who Joseph Smith is. Ha. I had to bite my lip to help from laughing at how wonderfully she just set us up for a lesson. The man didn:t actually have a problem with the first vision strangely because he thinks a lot of people have visions. She had a little problem but still was accepting. There is a lot I could say about them. Our biggest obstacle with her (H san) is this man who we don:t know if he is her husband or dad. Ha. Well I guess I will have more info next week. So lets see. Today we are having a sports activity because our whole branch is basically over the age of 30 or younger than 15 so getting investigators fellowshippers is difficult so we are bringing them all together in a common liked thing of sports, should be fun. Hope it is well attended. Well out of time.

Love you all. Hope all is well at home. Send my love to little abs and A. Talk to you again next week.

A Teaching Pool...Finally!

My Fellow Americans!

Lets see, quite the week! Holy cow, where to start. I don:t know. Probably get the random stuff out of the way. Atreyu is such a big little guy now! And so much hair!!!!! And Walking!? I:m going to recognize him! Although everyone I show his picture to says they think it is me as a baby.

Next random thing. So we always talked about how everyone is going to be humble because of the earthquake and this subject came up this week at FHE. Its actually been the opposite. Of course as its expected there are the few that blame God for doing it and that isn:t a surprise. But the members were destroyed. Its quite sad. You look at records before and after the earthquake and half branches went LA (less active) and have been contacted after the earthquake and just don:t want to come back. A lot of hearts have been hardened. Especially Sendai it seems. From what I hear a lot of the missionary work there is trying to make sure the branch doesn:t crumble under its own weight and trying to get everyone to come back and go to normal. Only the super strong survive. I feel bad. A lot of our work has been trying to get LAs to come back and we have had a little successish but super hard. Anyway, thats my rant.

So onto to this week. These letters are probably going to get more mission like now that I have a teaching pool. This week was quite awesome with lessons. Maybe because I had never really taught lessons before this. First Satosan. Hes an older man that lives alone in this apartment we found our first week here. We finally got time we could meet with him this week. He didn:t want us to come into his house but we taught maybe 30 minutes at his door which was interesting and I was super confused the whole time of course because the Japanese of course and every time I say something Shinno choro has to soften it because basically MTC japanese is blunt. Ha. Anyway, he was good. He committed himself to come to church and read our pamphlet but he wouldn:t take a Book of Mormon. Still not bad. Then Yoshimisan. She is the kinda airhead that we got passed from Cannonchorotachi. We taught her the plan of salvation this week and she is a usual Japanese person so she doesn:t really make her feelings known, always says she is ok and understands, but never really does. Anyway so Saturday night after District meeting (oh yeah we had District (as in multiple branch meetings this weekend(it bugs me that there are mission district and church district and they are different area and people))) we wanted to invite her to the general district meeting the next day which is in Koriyama. Super long shot because its hard enough to get someone to come to church when its in Aizu let alone get in a random members car for a hour and a half drive. Ha. So we call her and she says yes? What? Ok so we expect her to spoke (not show up) anyway we follow up on our commitment to read Alma 40 and pray and what? She did it? (You must understand this is the first commitment in like 4 months of being taught she has actually done). So we are kinda jubilant. It was also nice to rub in Cannon Choro:s face because he was sure she wouldn:t do it. Then we go to pick her up the next day and she was there! Cannon choro:s jaw about hit the floor. Ha. I think she was a little weirded out by church but she had some school friends there so that was a cool surprise. Also after we had a meeting with President Rasmussen for new converts and investigators. That probably scared her a little but might of helped her to hear these recent converts testimonies and conversion stories. So strangely she is doing really good. Baptism date will be set this week hopefully. Oh yeah and as we drove back from Koriyama we taught her in the back of the car about the Gospel of Christ and had Nugent Kyodai do his awesome testimony while he drove (a little scary I will admit but we are alive). And at the end we asked her if she knew this was true if she would get baptized and she said yes. Now she just needs to put in the work to know its true.

Random comment. My image of a mission was teaching in comfy living rooms not in the front of doors or in the back of cramped cars. Interesting

Ok rewind. Friday night we only had like 2 hours that we could end up proselyte for a number of reasons so we head out of the apartment and I hear this thunk and look down and the pedal of my bike broke in half. Really! I was a little angry so we walk back to the apartment because we don:t know what to do. So since we can:t visit people we open up the old investigator section of the area book and start calling. Of course a lot of people gave us the same excuse as was written for the reason they stopped taking the lessons. Then we get to this one that kept hanging up on the missionaries 3 years ago. Long shot. So we call him. He seems happy to hear from us. We ask if we can meet next week, he says sure, then he said something more beautiful, *I:m free now actually if that works* the sentence wasn:t even finished and we were already running out the door. Ha. So we met him at the church and hes a pretty sweet guy. Super tall especially for a Nihonjin and super open. The question that we just ask because we feel the need to that we always get a no to or something else bad is do you believe in God. Surprised us by saying of course he did. Seemed super open. Another lesson this week. Excited for him. Although he came to the first part of FHE and when I was sharing my *Good thing* from the week it was him of course that we had met him so I get done with this spill and then Shinno choro adds, *Well his name is Endo san not Enjisan....* I called the wrong name the whole time. Doh!

Ok last story. So we made an appointment with this guy last week that wanted to talk religion with us, not the perfect investigator because that meas he is set in his ways and possibly wants to argue and all that but he seemed decent and we just want appointments with anyone so we said we would come back. Anyway, we didn:t want to use my bike last night because it kinda is a bit broken (today I didn:t care and probably will just ride it in its broken state from now on because it is just too useful) so we walked the 4 or so miles up this mountain to meet him and the whole time I:m thinking he is going to spoke but he doesn:t and we sit down. Chat for awhile. Then his daughter or something sits down (we aren:t sure of her relationship but she could be his daughter). Anyway, as expected he is stuck in his ways but she tells us that she read our pamphlet a bunch of times, and she is, *Just searching for truth* I swear there are not better words a missionary can hear then that. So we are hopeful for her, not so much for him but he is our vehicle to her so we shall use him.


Anyway, gone way to long, its fun, its hard, etc. Love you all. Peace out.

Elder Carter

Splits with a gaijin (non-Japanese Elder)

So much love! Like 20 minutes of reading emails and writing answers. Now 20 minutes later I am starting this. So this really is going to be a smattering of ideas.

All music is allowed here as long as we claim we can feel the spirit. So we have a lot of music at the apartment. Super weird stuff too. Acapella. Southern music all about missionary work (strangely my favorite now) etc.

Every church here has a pingpong table so before every Eikaiwa (english class) and FHE we play with members and with investigators sometimes. Random but fun.

Also I may have mentioned this before but they use onomonopia (the formation of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to) in adult conversation here. Super cool. So like when people say they are busy we sometimes says, mata pingpong mo yoroshii desu ka (May we ping pong (ring your doorbell) again?) Or if they don:t have a doorbell, Shinno choro tells me to "dondon" (knock on the door). You randomly hear these words. Super funny. Someday I will learn them.

Also another interesting japanese thing here. They don:t really have the color code (Dad is a red, I:m white, etc) but they do it off blood type. Randomly the first week Shinno choro guessed close to my blood type and they do it all the time with each other! They are really good too! I have rarely seem people miss.

Another interesting thing. All the missionaries in Sendai are kinda older on average. Like Cannon choro I think went when he was 20, all the nihonjin (native Japanese) are over 20, Shinno choro is 23 right now and he is still near the beginning of his mission. I don:t understand why but its interesting.

Ok so my electronic dictionary has a micro sd slot and I got an idea this week. Whenever you send your next real letter (not needed now so don:t worry about it) throw in an sd card with pictures of the family, temples, pictures I could use during lessons (baptism what that looks like, Christ being baptized, etc) that would be super cool!. Something I didn:t think about is how often I would be sharing these family pictures and all of mine are of pretty much my farewell which is super awkward to share because I don:t even have a whole family picture. I have to flip though 4 different pictures to introduce the family so maybe throwing in a real one of those would be cool too, as well as the digital (Lyssa is welcome to throw in her own additions also ;-) )

Another thing, Dachshunds are everywhere! Really the most common dog I see here (there are not a whole lot of dogs though). The other day I saw a blind little dauchshund which was basically the saddest thing ever.

Saturday we had what was called Imonikai. Basically a party at the church. It was fun. One of Cannon chorotachi (if I add *tachi* to the end of something that means *and company* ex. Cannon chorotachi is Cannon choro and his companion) , super convenient so I will probably use that in the future (you love my japanese just keep telling yourself that)). None of our invitees showed but a LA (less active) did and we were able to teach him after and he came to church yesterday so crossing our fingers with him! Then we just ate and played Uso (aka lie (aka B.S.)). I won of course. ;-)

We had splits and I was able to go dendo (proselyting) with the district leaders companion who is a gaijin (not native Japanese) with only 4 transfers under his belt so that was actually super helpful to see how he studies, talk about having nihonjin(native) companions, how he deals with not understanding stuff. Also when I was with our district leader we taught a short lesson to one of Cannon Chorotachi:s old investigators about family and the Book of Mormon.

Oh our district got destroyed and we became our own district this week with the new senior couple as part of us as the Aizuwakamatsu district . So with the senior couple it will be a district of 6 people most of which live in our apartment. Kind of awkward. Cannon choro is our district leader.

We had a mogi (roleplay) with one of our American church members the other day because Shinno choro wanted to know how I felt. (not really an exact replica of a roleplay because he knows a ton of english but the thought was super nice). So we did that and it was nice to speak English but the best was at the end when we invite him to read the Book of Mormon and Brother Nugent just broke down and told us about how 40 years ago hearing that same commitment and then sharing his conversion story. Sometimes its easy for me to get lazy and think that I just have to get through this time (as Sister Carter put it in a letter to me near the beginning of my MTC experience "At a point you stop serving time and start serving a mission" (still kinda feel like i:m serving time to be honest)). But its experiences like this that give you what we call dendo fire (basically the energy to go proselyte). My mission has definitely taught me to look for those tender mercies that are all around us.

Lets see, our blind investigator fell through. We taught one of Cannon chorotachi:s investigators while they were off in splits in Sanjo which I totally failed at. So depressing. We have a couple in our ward that joined with us (which is required more than i expected, because we can:t teach single women and families are just really hard to teach). They are Americans. He knows Japanese fluent, went to the Sendai mission and Aizu was his first area. His wife knows basically no Japanese so he translates for her all the time so its nice to have them around because I can listen to him. ;-) Anyway yeah that crashed and burned.

Also I taught my first Eikaiwa (English class) which wasn:t as much of a failure but still hard. We went and visited this older lady who just wanted company and not to talk about religion but we snuck in some stuff although that was really weird. So I don:t understand a whole lot of what is being said and then she offers me coffee, tea, and alcohol (I swear she knows the word of wisdom). So then Shinno choro answers for me and I think he is talking about the word of wisdom as would be expected then I hear "seiteki na kankei" which means sexual relations.........apparently he felt the need to share the law of chastity so that was our first lesson with her was the law of chastity. We also gave her a Book of Mormon so hopefully she reads that. Although when we left Shinno choro just tells me, "How does it feel to break your first rule?" "What?" "There was no one else in the house with us and she is a single woman" "I thought she said her son was there" " No: Sigh. Ha. Oh well.

Finally we taught a college student we met on the street two weeks ago. We have this super weird introduction to the church dvd that we use sometimes. We showed that and tried to get his religious background. Something we have run into a lot is people here seem to think all christian churches are actually one church so he is talking about big stained glass windows and giving money during church and we are trying to explain that that is a different church. Also a fun lesson because he is vietnamese and knows quite a bit of Japanese and a good amount of English so through this lesson we are switching back and forth. Basically he has prayed before and didn:t feel anything so he stopped. Hopefully we can teach him this week and get a real lesson in and teach about prayer. He was also interested in life after death. He almost feels like a golden investigator but also gives that vibe of I don:t really want to do anything about figuring this sutff out. So I:ll be honest, no idea where he is going but hopefully into a font!

Anyway, that should cover it for today. Taken too much time already. Love you all. Thanks for the emails. Love little A for me. Pat little Abs head. Etc. The work is going pretty good here. Hopefully by the end of this transfer it won:t feel like we are whitewashing still. Just have to put in the work.

"Things Elder Carter Didn't Expect"

Hello again from the land of the rising sun.

Ok ready for some random assortment of things? Good because I can:t make these cohesive.

1. There is this huge family in our ward the Saito family. Basically the most amazing parents in the world! They invited us to FHE on Monday which was a blast. They are always giving us food and helping with lessons and everything. The sad part is though that the family has such a hard time. A lot of the kids have apostasized. Divorced (I don:t know how because she is the most amazing person I swear). I may bring them home. (sorry).

So this week was filled with a lot more of our getting out and talking to members but mostly the less actives. Let me tell you. I hate old records. I think out of 10 or so LAs (less actives) we tried to visit, only 1 of them still lived there. Our area book needs some work. Not horrible but kinda outdated. A lot of housing (knocking doors) this week too. Still though. The people are never home and then when they do get home they eat (which they aren:t thrilled when you interrupt) then go to sleep at like 8. Kinda cuts into our dendo (proselytizing) time. Also this week we had 2 appointments with actual investigators. One we found housing and the other was an investigator the Fukata and Cannon choro (Elders) were sick of so they handed to us. They both cancelled. Wonderful. Another interesting thing I learned this week. These Japanese people are horribly nice but they also really have a hard time expressing what they are thinking or really saying anything to us.

"Introduce our selves
Have you seen us before
No
We are here to share this message....
Silence
Have you ever thought about the purpose of life
Not really
Well this book contains the truth
Ok
Can we come visit again to share more
Eh.
What is holding you back
Nothing really."

Sigh. Not much of an exaggeration there. It will take some getting used to to figure out how to really talk to them. But at least they are ok with us talking with them (Except the man that told us he has been talked to by missionaries everyday for 61 years (If that was actually true the judgement bar could be a very scary place for him)). Anyway. This week we went and did service at this nonmembers house (not actually sure if she was a member but she drank coffee). It wasn:t very hard. Cleaning out this shed. She is rich though. Biggest house I have seen in Japan. Also when we went back to finish yesterday after we were done she took us out to eat at this super expensive place. Something like $40 a person. This is also where I learned that Japanese people LOVE fatty meat. There is more fat then meat on these pieces I swear. Another thing I didn:t expect to have to get used to.

Moving on. We had a couple role plays with members this week which are good and I think it will really help when we have real investigators. After our mission meeting with the ward mission leader on Saturday Shinno choro and I had a mogi (role play ) with him and then half way though he stops us and goes on for the next 40 minutes about how we need to change what we do and (without actually knowing this is what he was saying) go against PMG, our new New Missionary Program, and President Rasmussen. Ha. He had good intentions and Shinno choro got the brunt of it. Probably won:t mogi with him again though.

Another random thing. Whenever I introduce myself to members here they always say something along the lines of, *do you know Jimmy Carter* or *Are you related to Jimmy Carter?* I first thought it was a joke, nope, they are serious. Kinda hilarious. Just roll with it now. Lets see. So apparently my power as a foreigner isn:t as powerful as I thought. A lot of people don:t like americans apparently. One older lady told us she wasn:t going to have a *gaijin* (foreigner) come into her house. Or I will be introducing myself and I will say *I:m from america* then they just get thins look on their face and close the door. Ha. Oh well. If they have a problem with that they probably aren:t ready to make a whole lot of changes in their life.

Also something I didn:t understand before is how widespread buddhism is in their lives. They are *buddhist* but they don:t actually practice it. We were talking to one lady on the street yesterday and she said she was buddhist and we complemented her on being a faithful person (I find it strange that we do that but whatever, softens peoples hearts) and she tells us, *Well I:m Japanese, there is nothing I can do about it* Huh? You are talking to a fellow Japanese person who is not buddhist. You can do something about it. Sigh. Oh well. Lets see what else. Today is kinda a strange pday (again) we are taking a bus at 4:30 back to Sendai because tomorrow we are doing another service assignment like last week. Which brings me to another thing I didn:t expect (So this letter is become *Things Elder Carter Didn:t Expect About MIssions* sorry). Between travelling places, service, study time, ward activities, etc. There is a lot less proselyting in a mission than expected. Kinda interesting.

Partly the reason they put Shinno Choro and I here is because before the earthquake our zone was completely different and we are the only area left of that zone (although next transfer they are putting a senior couple in a more radiated area (Interesting yes)) so we are kinda like travelling missionaries for this old zone if people need us to go places we do.
Oh yeah I forgot to say. On Friday we went to Nigata for specialized training with my district from President Rasmussen which was all him pounding in our heads that we aren:t using the Book of Mormon enough in our proselyting.

On sunday because Fukata and Cannon choro had to go to Iwaki for a member, when one of there investigators came to church we took care of him. It was his first Church and Sacrament was good then we get to sunday school and what is the lesson on. The Second Coming. Doh! Poor guy was trying so hard to understand but was so confused. After we wanted to help him understand a little so we kinda went over it again and over the Plan of Salvation. He only had like 10 minutes so all I did in the lesson was testify at the end but it was kinda sorta terrifying to realize this was a real person really investigating the church.

So hopefully this letter doesn:t sound too negative. I am happy. It is frustrating but that is to be expected, especially as I:m trying to figure out this language. We have 3 scheduled lessons with investigators we found coming up this week and also the two that cancelled last week we will try again with so hopefully we can start getting some lessons under my belt. The work is moving forward. no matter how slowly it feels it is moving forward.

Love you all. Hope all is well with you. Talk to you next week.

30 Minutes in the Boonies

So I:m just going to build off of your email because I don:t have much time because people are waiting behind me so here we go and I:m sorry if things dont get answered or you feel jipped.

So yesterday we didn:t email because it was a holiday here and in japan. Also we are going to see how emails are going to work for the next little while because apparently the government doesn:t like people emailing on their library computers here so they found out about myldsmail.net and blocked it so we are at the college that doesn:t have that many computers and we are trying to figure it out so we will see in the future how emailing works. Hence, this is probably going to be short and not full of information. So this last week has been fun but tiring, also super weird from a normal week. We had members drive us to Koriyama to watch conference on saturday and sunday (they show it a week late here) so that was fun. They had it in english in the attic of the church (I just forgot what church was in English, thats a good sign right?) so that was awesome. One of the members for some reason watched it with me and Elder Cannon the other foreigner in my apartment. What a wonderful conference. Cool experience. Between sessions Shinno choro wanted to street contact for like 30 minutes. I thought it was a waste of time because this area is 2 hours away from where we live, missionaries dont proselyte there, and its 30 minutes and we are kinda in the boonies, whatever though. He is my trainer I must obey him. So we walk like 50 feet down the road we talk to one college student and 3 minutes later I:m sitting across from him in the church teaching an overview of the first lesson. What?! Ha. I don:t think he was actually super interested but it was fun nevertheless although I still didn:t even say much at all to him because the whole language barrier. Nevertheless we left him with the information of the branch president there and all that and that was that. I don:t know if I told you this but Shinno choro and I are white washing here, aka he is new to this area too so we have no where to start from. I feel like a politician at times. We bike an hour up this huge hill to talk to one member and say, *if you need anything call us* and knocking tons of doors and talking to everyone on the street. Kinda nuts and feels like we are just beating our heads against the wall at times. However we do have two lessons scheduled this week so that shall be fun. Oh and the people here are a little more not so nice as the sendai people. Not mean to Americas standards but they don:t have a problem yelling at us. Also they go to sleep at like 8 so that kinda ruins dendo (proselyting) time for us. Moving on. I:m not entirely sure what kinda coat I need so sending a picture or something would be cool because I:m sort of completely confused about it.

Oh, yesterday I lived through my first earthquake. Pretty cool. Actually it was super erie and we were in a role play and half way through the earthquake (because it doesn:t really phase these people) Shinno choro turns to me and says, *Wait, have you ever been in an earthquake?* Ha. Kinda funny, not very big at all but interesting.

So as you probably saw from my bank account kinda got a big hit yesterday of my electronic dictionary. Your nerd son has a new computer! Actually its super frustrating to use and I:m a tad disappointed with its ease of use but oh well, I shall learn, also I hope I didn:t waste my money with the one I bought, there was actually a lot cheaper one but It worried me.

Final nonquestion thing. Japanese kids are the CUTEST!!!! Ok so little Atreyu beats them but man do they get close. I don:t know what it is about them. Man!


Love you. Hope all is well at home. I shall pray that Apple can stay on the straight and narrow without good old steve. Until next week (lets hope)

First day of service

So much for this black hole I:m suppose to fall in (just so you know for the next two years I will only be using `:` in place of apostrophes because that is how their keyboard is set up here). Anyway. Yeah so Shinno choro didn:t get a chance to email on Monday which would normally be his p-day and there was some things we had to get done here, so we got the assistants to ok us having another p-day today. Anyway! Wow this is an adventure!

So Monday night as I said we had our mogi with the member and that was interesting. He lived in Hawaii for a while so he is really good at english so when I gave him a weird look he would say it in English. Anyway. Sendai is SO big and we are in the outskirts! Holy cow. I won:t lie there are times I have never felt so alone. But I got through with that. We had my first really japanese dinner which I:m not sure what it was, other than rice I:m not sure of anything I ate so far. Not actually bad though. God has blessed my taste buds.

Um the next morning we woke early and got on a bus to go do service. It was nice seeing so many other gaijins (foreigners) until they opened their mouths and sounded like japanese people. Someday I shall be there....I hope. Anyway. It was few hour drive to who knows where somewhere near the coast. I just have to say, this country is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! You have no idea. My goodness. I love not being in the city here. Rice fields, rolling green hills, the bomb! Anyway, we got this guy that is a volunteer that helps run all the service activities (something I didn:t know, at least our activities of Helping Hands the church doesn:t plan. We just give labor to random people that others figure out). Anyway, not quite as hard hitting as some other the stories I have heard of previous service by some of the missionaries that have been hear since before the tsunami. But it was nice to pull weeds and pick up debris from what used to be this man:s house (something super cool is that they seem to always have someone there that it directly affects to kinda help run what they want to see what happens). So we finished there, went to another area did some more work right on the coast which was again beautiful but super depressing because this time we were surrounded by stacked up cars and all that jazz. That pretty much filled up the day. It was nice to be there nice to see some missionary work in action.

We got back with about an hour before we were suppose to be home so Shinno choro decided (as he should have) that we needed to do my first dendo (proselyting) so we walked out the door and started knocking doors. I have never been so close to puking in my life and all I had to do was stand there and smile (literally the words from Shinno choro:s mouth). Anyway. We stopped a few people on the street and it was amazing. All Shinno choro said was, Do you have a second? And they are so super gracious and stop and are actually super interested in what you have to say even if they aren:t interested in the gospel.

Also something we almost push more than getting peoples contact information for teaching them is inviting them to ekiawa (english class). It:s interesting how much that is being pushed. Not to say all the doors answered we good. One man wouldn:t open the door so we talked to him through the door and pushed flyers through his maildrop. Another older man open his door and he was pretty ticked, I don:t know quite what he said but he seemed to be bugged that it was so late and he couldn:t walk very good and we made him come to the door. I just wanted to say sorry and walk off but good old trainer of mine stuck with it and I literally saw this man:s heart change in a matter of two minutes of talking. By the end he was expressing his worry for us to be out late and told us not to stand so close to doors or we would get stabbed (kind of a little much I think) and when we left he wanted to make sure we got safely out of the complex. These people! I tell you. I love americans but man we are kinda huge jerks compared to these people! Anyway.

This morning we got on a bus and came to Aizu for the first time. The apartment is......quaint? Definitely a missionary apartment. Then we went and applied for my 'gaijin kado' (foreigner registration). Now email. Maybe after this go to get a coat. Maybe that will come next week but don:t worry about ordering me a coat. Also we need to go get me a electronic dictionary sometime because I need all the help I can get. They already bought my bike for me so I:m not sure how the whole paying back thing works. Its kinda weird. When you transfer here they ship you stuff (two luggage and bike) to your new area so right now I:m living out of my backpack until all that stuff shows up and I didn:t really preapare for that so yeah, kinda living on the edge right now.

Anyway. I'm good. I won:t lie though. This is the hardest mental\emotional thing I have done in my life by a long shot. Not being able to understand the majority of what people are saying. Not knowing what you would say even if you knew how to say it. Not knowing anyone. Not being able to understand you companion 50-60% of the time. Unfamiliar people, food, environment, living constantly confused. Scared to death. I hope all this passes soon. Anyway, think I:m almost out of time. I:m helping teach the eikiwa tonight (have no idea what that means or how to do as with everything I have been doing since I left the MTC). Then tomorrow is our first real day of dendo (probably should learn/translate that word on the blog because I:m going to use it a lot I feel) then the weekend will be filled with general conference so not a whole lot of dendo then and I:m not sure how that is going to work either. I wake up at 6:30, go to bed at 10:30 and what I do in between I have no idea until I:m doing it. Oh and yes we are doing the 12 week infield training here, haven:t actually started but yeah we will be doing it. Um. Yep. Lots to say but that shall do. Love you. Oh and tell mandy that my companion is 23, loves americans, especially mormons, and says for his language study he would like to practice writing her letters........he:s my trainer, I have to let him do whatever he wants. ;-)

I arrived!

My goodness it hass been a long few days but oh has it been worth it. So quick run of things. As you would have expected since I am writing this email now, I did eventually make it to this place. The flights went well. Its funny to see all of the random members on my flights and in LAX that would run me down seeing my name tag and talk to me. I`ll be perfectly honest, I was kinda surprised with the flight over from LAX to Tokyo. It wasn`t that bad. I slept for a few hours but not a whole lot. Studied some (personal and language study). All that good stuff. Lets see. Landing and getting out of the airport was possibly the most terrifying thing of my life (well I thought). However I was not detained by customs or any of that and it actually almost felt like there was no security at all. After wandering Narita for about 30 minutes I finally found my bus and was off to the airport. You truly learn the bare minimum with these people of how to talk. However all went there well. Anyway. It was pretty lonely but super nice and I felt super weird being alone. Woke up the next morning went to the domestic terminal which had no english speakers it seemed. Got on this tiny plane. Finally built up the courage to talk to the person next to me on the plane (happened to be the one american) and he snorted, looked at my nametag, and then went back to his newspaper! Yep, I`m on a mission. Ha. Anyway. Landed and go to get my luggage and I see them! President Rasmussen, his wife, and the assistants to the president. I`ve never been so excited to see people in suits in my life! We took a picture there.

Talked about some of the devastation and then took about a 30 minute ride back to the Homebu (mission home). It was kinda funny. Instead of him telling me to speak japanese he was having his assistant practice his English on me. It was a pretty fun trip ending up with the assistants (1 nihonjin and 1 raised by nihonjin) convincing the president to try nato (fermented soybeans) which means I got to try them. Oh joy. It actually wasn't bad. We had dinner with all these people and my new doryo! I think you may have been sent a picture of him. He is a native. His English is good. Not perfect but very good. He is basically one of the coolest Elders I have ever met. He is always so happy and telling a joke but also is really into the work (well it seems that way at least we haven:t really done anything yet). Anyway. Some fun stuff.

Gotta keep it short because we are biking to our first appointment a mogi (roll play with a member) in a few minutes! Talk about baptism by fire! Tomorrow we do service in the morning and then head to my area. The area is named Aizuwakamatsu. Famous for ramen (noodles (also my doryo is a self proclaimed expert of ramen so that is even cooler!)) Anyway, our p-days are Mondays so probably won:t hear from me until then but yeah. I'm alive. This place is crazy but I'm super excited. Love you all and peace out.

Elder Carter