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

Birthday Jello

With Elder Chipman Pondering...something He is getting pretty good at crouching Elder Carter wearing his wedding tie on Mandy's wedding day Hey newly added to family: Wow you know to make a man trunky in an email! Jeez. My life doesn:t really seem that exciting now that I have read about your last week. Although I knew when all of it was happening. Sitting on the train back from Yuzawa (yes I know don:t know where that is) trying to figure out the times in America it occurred to me that you were probably just waking up to get things underway. Pretty crazy thought. Although I handled it pretty good then. Reading those emails was worse though. Anyway I:ll get my stuff out of the way. So investigators. There are a lot of them here but most of them are eternal investigators for one reason or another. Either they don:t have the desire to go that last little push or they have something/someone holding them back so that is annoying. If all went according to plan yesterday (your time) Takahashi san got baptized but of course there is no way to find out. Actually I will be seeing the APs soon so I will probably just beat it out of them then. Other than that we have two good investigators. A mother and daughter. The daughter has a lot more interest then the mother I think or maybe is just vocal. The mother follows commitments so i:m not too worried about her, maybe she is just super quiet. We did two lessons this week and they are doing pretty good. Baptism date is 7/15 so gotta move fast. (I may have told you all this stuff before) Their names are the "K"s. Nice little mother and daughter. Thats basically it for the investigators. So have I ever expressed how high of quality my bike is? Well the thing that holds the gears on snapped in half this week so thats probably going to be super expensive and will take a month to fix. This same problem I have seen 4 other times among missionaries bikes. GT......why are you the devils bike company? So I found a bike in the storage shed of the church and the branch president told me to use it so its what I:m using now. Hard to describe. I will have to send you a piture sometime of this high quality product. So I had my first district meeting. That was stressful and a lot of it was cleaning up where the last district leader kinda forgot to, like making goals for June even though we are already halfway through. Oh well. Also it went 15 minutes over and....well yeah. Room for improvement! Wasn:t a complete failure though. A lot of really good missionaries in this district. Birthday was pretty normal. Some awesome used to be LAs but now super strong active members gave me this birthday jello (who knows) which was super nice. Other than that baked my own cake, used the stuff Lyssa sent, and had a little 10 minute party that night. Miyaki choro didn:t really know what was going on. Oh well. Nothing really different about the day. Miyaki choro took me out to dinner. That was nice of him. So onto the real news. Mandy is a married woman! Wow. Sounds like the wedding went off without a hitch....except the heat thing. Thats great though. Definitely send more pictures when you get them. I feel jipped still. Ha. As I kinda said above the day off didn:t really bother me that bad. Wore the tie and then just went off to work. Ok what is it with this Rochester mission. People marrying Zone leader and assistants. Are we sure they were focusing on their purpose in that mission ;-) Oh well. Yes you need to send that video. I will just sing I am a child of god super loud over the lovy music! I want to see it. Also good job dad. Yard looked awesome. Although you should also include a picture of your water feature thingy cause I still haven:t seen it and it intrigues me. I don:t know what else to say about that woman going off and getting married. Lots of feelings, no words. Never how I imagined the whole mandy getting married situation to go with me across the world but nothing we could do about it. Sigh. Well kinda a wimpy letter this week. Don:t know what else to say. Love you. Talk to you next week.

My New Area

Hey peeps! Hows it going? In a new world of Yokote (pretty easy to pronounce Yo (as in Yoh ho yoh ho a piarate life for me) Ko (as in corn (horrible example)) te (as in temperature). I feel like there should be a lot to say but there really isn't. Finished off things in Furukawa. Was able to meet with Takahashi san 1 last time and she had been keeping the Word of Wisdom so that is awesome! She said she has just been too busy to even worry about it. Strange way for a blessing to come but the Lord works in mysterious ways so as long as she doesn't relapse and Tithing didn't kill her then she should be set for this comming Saturday. Kinda bummed I won't see it but maybe that will just be how this whole mission experience goes. All the missionaries always talk about members and investigators seeing them off at the train station and people crying and telling you not to go. I got the opposite. "Wow, you have been for a long time, its about time you got out" "Ha ha. If you are in Yokote in the winter that will stink" "Oh ok." Etc. What is this crap? Nobody loves me? Oh well. So what to say about Yokote. It was just opened again last December by a missionary named Choro Dick that just went home and trained Miyaki choro. I don't know if I love this man or not though. He took care of business. This place has like 15 actual investigators going on right now but he also seemed a little reckless with how he would go about working. Miyaki choro doesn't know a lot of the rules it seems. Oh well. Gotta just run with it. There really are a ton of miracles going on here though. For some reason (no one has been able to tell me why (probably Dick choro had somethign to do with it)) This mother and 3 children decided to come back to church after a long time separated and what does the youngest 14 boy say he wants to do now? Be a missionary but he doesn't know how so he wants us to teach him......what? Ha. I thought Dick choro was joking when he told me this. They are a super strong family. If no one would have told me I would have never guessed they were inactive before. Also they have a mother daughter investigators. Thats a little crazy too. Never even seen a family investigate together here in Japan but they have a baptism date for next month. Its hard to explain this place. There is not one but tons of investigators. Miyaki choro is just concerned because apparently recently they finished knocking every door in Yokote......I think its an exageration but still probably close. The branch president is crazy with missionary work but also with weird little things. Like he got mad because when I broke the bread for sacrament I smushed it too much apparently....... He would die if he saw our wards bread. He also got mad because the investigators took the sacrament which I'm quite sure is ok just has no meaning. Yeah there are no words for the people here. Met a LA(less active) yesterday that doesn't use electricity, won't walk under power lines, and is planning to bike to Tokyo a third time to pick up some books about baking bread. We taught him the plan of salvation and we asked him what his purpose in life is and he just responded with "I really just want to make bread" "....but why were you born here do you think?" "So I:m going to make the bread.....}" Its ridiculous. I love it though. District leader is a lot more work than I thought. Still haven't taught a district meeting but I have spent more time on the phone than I have in the whole mission. I hate using the phone. Also only one of member of my district speaks English at all so that is an adventure. Sigh. I guess I will just get used to it in time. I just love calling the sisters at night because president doesn't want us talking to them a lot (for obvious reasons) but we have to call them every night to make sure they are safe. "Moshi moshi Carter choro desu" (this is elder carter) "-------shimai desu. Minna imasu." (Sister -------. Everyone is in the apartment (but super shortened)) "OK maa ne" (ok later.) Its like 5 seconds total. Birthday shall be fun....I think. A lot of food but yes mother. Don"t send any more physical things. Packing was ridiculously hard and I"m not sure why.....well ok so partly is that all my space bags have burst at this point already but still. Well thats an update on my life now. Mandy:s getting married. That still weird. Although I do love telling people that she is marrying her old zone leader, you get a lot of good reactions from missionaries with that one ;-) I:m sure it will be awesome and wonderful. Good luck. Just don't go insane before then. Talk to you later.

Transfer to Yokote

Hey family! So where are we this week? Not a whole lot different but oh well. Lets give the updates. A little less all day knocking doors and actually taught some people and we were able to follow up on some of the work we have done in the the last little while so a little goodness but still so so. "T"san is doing good, I think. We taught her the Word of Wisdom on Wednesday. We couldn't get a joint(member) for the lesson so it was just us standing at her door teaching which is never the best way of doing it but oh well. So the Japanese people always have a problem with tea normally so I'm prepared for that one. But we give her the pamplet and she reads the first paragraph that says what you can't partake of and she hits coffee. I felt like I was in America. That was her problem. (Note for Mandy: It really was like Jynx:s reaction on the district (Yes I apply most of my life to the district)). She actually had no problem with tea, said she doesn't even like it anyway. Which is straight crazy but yes she has quite a problem with coffee. Drinks a lot every day. I think we taught pretty well and she understood but it's still hard. She seemed to understand that she would have to go to heaven for the help, she just kept saying, "I am going to have to pray a lot. Oh man this is going to be rough. I'll do my best. Oh man. Sigh." I really thinks she is trying but the problem comes in that she would have to be keeping it from last Saturday to be baptized on the 16th but we haven't been able to get a hold of her since then. Sigh. Didn't come to church either. Anyway. The branch is going full speed with the preparations for the baptism. They pulled out the font after church yesterday and it was this big blow up pool. Kinda cool kinda super weird. Ha. We were talking to the branch president and he was telling us all the places they have done baptisms. He was baptized in the missionaries bath, there have been some in the river, Izumi has a real font, this blow up one, and even a Onsen (Hot spring (super expensive to get in and actually are like vacation spots, we aren:t allowed there as missionaries)). Japan is weird. Other than that not a whole lot new with investigators. Just the usual. "H"san was so-so, and I don't think we were able to meet with anyone else last week. Although we had 4 or 5 LAs(less actives) come to church randomly. We hadn't talked to any of them in the last week. Got Mandy's wedding announcement. That was a little crazy to see. Chipman choro decided that we are going to the reception though. I guess we would kinda have to since it says to RSVP if you can't go and we can't tell them we aren't going to, so we have to go. Perfect logic right? Anyway they looked like a cute little couple. Sidenote+ Japanese wedding announcment pictures are the best. They are SUPER awkward looking all the time. Maybe because this country thinks kissing is like up there with Chastity but they are the best when you see them posted in the churches. Ok now for the part everyone wants to hear about. Transfers. They call of all calls came. I'm to be shipped off to Yokote in Akita ken. Not only that but I am going to be the District leader there. Talk about about peeing your pants. So that means I'll be over 2 or 4 elders in Kitakami and 4 sisters in Akita city. My companion is Elder Miyaki so again to the Japanese companions. He is on his third transfer this next transfer so he is pretty new little guy. Shall be a nice stretching experience. Kinda bummed to be missing Takahashi san's baptism but maybe this is just how the mission will go for me. Oh well, as long as she gets baptized. Thats all I really know. Oh Yokote is even more countryside than here. I have heard there are 10 active members there......wow. Thats all I can say about that. Scary and a half. Life changes again on Thursday when we start all over again. Shall be fun though, I'm excited. So I think that is it. Hope all is well with the final preparations. Love you all. Talk to you later.

Rice Fields

Rice Fields

Knocking Doors

Another week. First full week of Chipman choro missionary work. So let us begin. Another slower week. We have been really focusing on trying to find new people so that has turned into a few 8 hour days knocking doors. Also a contributing factor was service. It was nice to be able to go do service again although it sounds like things with these organized groupings of services might be dying off because from what I heard the church has been fighting hard to get us into these services. Not sure why its so hard but I have heard they might just give up. Same old service as always. Picking up garbage. Nice to get together with all the other missionaries though. Always interesting to see how far you have come seeing all the "beans" being trained. I have heard it a lot but I'm starting to see it. This mission humbles people and shows you how prideful you are. Anyway. Heard from our member who referred H. san. H. san has continued to come to Eiakai so apparently after this few week break she called Sister Murata and said "Elder Carters Japanese is good enough now for me to start listening again....." What the what? I have improved that much?. Especially in that short time. Oh well whatever works. T. san. Where would we be without her. So on last Sunday one of our members apparently walked up to her and said, "So are you going to get baptized?" and she said "Yes" "Well in that case we should talk more about the church" "Ok" So she set an appointment with her without us there......thats weird. Anyway apparently T. san really liked it. Ha. Oh well. Then we had a lesson the next day and beat the subject of Baptism again. I'll be honest I almost feel like we talk about it too much. Set a new date for 6/16 so hopefully we can get everything in line for that. It was kinda funny at church though. In our pre-church meeting someone said she might not get baptized on that date and our branch president who jointed the last lesson just basically said, "No. She is getting baptized on that date yo." And then we had a person from the stake presidency there and he said something along the same lines and the member that visted her herself came over and said he was wrong and that she would be baptized. She really wants too. Just two more commandments and we are there. Companionship is going good. He's really sad about leaving Misawa with the air force base but soon we will persuade him into liking Furukawa. Ok so you didn't tell me about the triplets call to every part of Mexico. Thats way funny. The rice fields are pretty cool here. We have taken a lot of pictures with them. Yay for Rumple eventually coming out....maybe. Funny that that is the thing you talked about today father. We have talked a lot about asking questions in teaching lately. Well love you all. Talk to you next week.