Transfers take a lot of work

Ok so how did this week go. Pretty good week. Way busy week with all these people coming and going with transfers. We kinda of take the babysitter role and dealing with the mission at times like this is kinda hard because they have this whole, "Only absolutely need to know information about transfers will be told to people" which kinda messes with us because people come to us for answers and we don't know and the assistants aren't perfect so trying to tell them where we are having problems is a pain and all this jazz. I have never called the assistants so much in my life. We even had 3 of them for most of the week. The one new one and they kept Shinno choro on board until he left. Finally Wednesday night when everything fell apart I'd had enough, I have never used the phrase "As a zone leader do...." and there is a grammar in Japanese of doing something without permission I used that more than I have ever in my life. Speaking of S choro you want to hear the funniest thing ever. So we have the mission home cook in our ward so S choro went home Friday morning and Sunday morning this sister comes running up to me. "Elder Carter guess what!?" "What!?" S choro is getting married on March 20th!" Ha. I lost it. I knew he had a woman and that she had been making wedding plans. But yeah. Less than a month after his mission he will be married. Even better is that is only the second fastest in the history of our mission. Last year apparently there was a sister that got married in 2 weeks. He has the record for a Japanese missionary though. Other than that lets see what we did this week. We met with O-san twice this week which was good. He is still a little ways from baptism but hopefully we can keep working with him. We were able to go to a baptism in the adjoigning ward with him so that was good for him. We also had a sports activity on Saturday which I'm still sore from. Ha. Way out of shape but it was fun. Nice to see you were able to take up my slack with Lyssas birthday. I'm not sure how I feel about you having her take these mind tests but oh well. Other than that not a whole lot exciting. This week we have the second counselor of the presiding bishopric come so we have two meetings with him. One with the member and one for the missionaries so those are always fun. I think that basically covers it. Have a magical week. Love you all.

Earthquake safety training

Hello peeps. Lets see what kind of random information I can tell you this week. To be honest not a whole lot exciting happened this week. No real big meetings, no crazy big miracles, etc. Just plugging along. So as I already told you. No transfer for me or for my companion. The zone has a good amount of transfers going on which is hilarious to see the form they give us. Two page packed excel sheet of where people are going when and why. Ha. You thought my christmas light map was cryptic you should see these things. Anyway. We got fed twice this week which was good I guess. Its been awhile it feels like since we have been fed. We also had interviews this week with president which are always terrifying and a half but I think I passed and that he wont beat me too hard. He told me a little about the future transfers and how many people are going to be coming in. Its pretty impressive. Lots and lots of shimai. About double and the difference is mainly made up of american sisters. I got your package. Still haven't finished eating all the crap I got on Christmas so I think its going to be impossible to eat all this food ever. Just a random thing maybe father will like because hes into this city stuff. So in the recent earthquake trying to check everyones safety was a pain in the rear. The phones wouldn't connect so they found a new way. So in Japan if you called 171 you can leave a message for someone using their phone number and then they can call into this number and hear the message. This message thing apparently doesn't go down in disasters and from pay phones (Yes there are pay phones here) it is sure to work (Land line) So we wanted to test it. Kinda funny because we were all sitting there and get a email from the assistants. "Earthquake!!!!!" Ha. Took about an hour to confirm everyones "Safety" but it worked out. Pretty interesting. Did splits with H choro Saturday. That was fun. Don't work with other americans as much so I tried to use that to our advantage of being able to get people to pity us. So we went to the library and tried to get them to take our book of mormon for the library. They didn't take it because it is a religion book. They have Book of Mormons in the other libraries in the area. They all report to the same people. I talked to President about you guys and the grandchild that you hype up and leave to his parents. Ha. He just nodded and said, "Its the best" Ha. Anyway. Maybe next week we will have something more exciting. Until then....

Alma O. Taylor

Receiving the Alma O. Taylor pin

Zone leader council

Hey family. Again a day with no time but we will do our best to get the information out. So yeah you people have to go and spoil my surprise with the Alma O. Taylor pin. (Editors note: This pin is awarded when an Elder or Sister reads the Book of Mormon in their non-native language) And you have more information about that man then I do so I'm kinda excited to read his life story later. All we really know about him was he was a cool missionary in Japan and yeah. .....that he has a pin? So yeah. That was a surprise. And just for the record the Japanese elder in the pictures with me read the Book of Mormon in English so thats why he got the pin. Just saying. Ha. Which is actually super cool for them because they are able to read the actual words that Joseph Smith wrote. So that was cool. Then we had as you also already know riding the subway for an hour and a half. Just riding it back and forth was kinda fun. I like the subway and we did splits with the other zone leaders for it and who was my comp? C choro! ha. Its was fun to work together again. Didn't have a whole lot of success but it was educational. So yeah. What else. From there zone leader council which is stressful but I'm growing to actually really like. I like to be in the guts of stuff and its really cool. Really have that feeling that you are part of something huge as you sit around a table with 12 young kids and a 60s/70s year old man and discuss the salvation of a good couple million people. No big deal. ;-) Funny thing is no one ever fights. Everything is based on opinion yet no real disagreements, disagreements but no hurt feelings or feeling like people aren't listening to you. Cool stuff. Then from there zone training meeting which went well I think. We even had the recent convert come and share his testimony with everyone to keep everyones sprits high. Was pretty funny. We tried to end but he said he wanted to say one more thing. So of course we say he can. And he starts telling us to cheer up because what we are sharing is the best. Be happy, God will help you. Ha. The man is basically still wet from the font and he teaches the thing we need to remember. Humbling but awesome. From there we did our usual weekly stuff. Then yesterday we were able to teach the person that S choro and I found spiritually housing and we have another appointment this week. That was a month and a half without a new investigator. Sigh. Good. Anyway. All good stuff. What else. Had the sister missionaries over? They ask for referrals? They help you fulfill your missionary responsibilities? If not they failed! Hahahahahahaha. Yes I'm evil and the missionaries will probably never want me to invite them over because I will grill them. But yeah. Austria and Idaho......thats interesting. People think its funny that I have no recollection of missionaries. Sometimes the bishop would have them stand up at church. I saw them serving hot chocolate at the institute at USU. I think we invited them over when dad was bishop. Thats about it. This week was not transfers next week is because this transfer is longer. But yeah. O choro is probably gone. Scary to have to run this place after him. Hope all is well with you peeps. Thanks for working out the schooling. I still would like to at least stay somewhat in the loop. Have a wonder week.

A Blast from the Past

Hello everyone. Hows it all going. Hope your week was magical. I hope the super bowl continued after power outages and all that other worldly stuff. Lets see. They are not "mission slides" they are "mission pictures".......not the ice age. ;-) Lets see what we did this week. Again two splits which were funnish. I don't really like to do splits in my own area because it just adds to the pressure. Anyway. Did a split with Nagamachi district leaders companion which was good. We went to the stake president and asked for referrals and we got two which was awesome. Kinda suprised. But we went to this guys house and he invited us in and all that. It was cool. Weren't able to teach him anything but were able to set an appointment for this week to teach. Cool stuff. There's been a lot of focus in this mission with how to find. We go weeks upon weeks not finding anyone. 16 some odd million people and we cant find anyone. Little embarassing. Oh well. Then on Thursday we had another splits with...................................drum roll............................S choro!!!!! I have been looking forward to this split for months. Ha. It was way fun. Way blast from the past. He goes home in like 3 weeks and so this was our last chance to hang out. Of course that wasnt' the reason we did splits but it was way fun. Sometimes I forget how enjoyable it all can be. We went out to eat ramen (If you don't remember S choro is the king of ramen) which S choro ended up puking back out. Ha. Then went around visiting members and such. But the strangest and most fun was biked to an area. Said we would only talk to 5 people and then did "spirital housing" where you hold your hands up in the area and seek for inspiration? Blasphemy? Not quite, but yeah. We actually did find someone that seemed to have interest. Way cool. It was fun just to sit back and talk. I miss that guy. Really is like a father to me. Just want to make him proud. Kinda feel like I have failed him but yeah. Was able to hear that H choro is doing awesome so that made me happy. Then the next day we had a training from the assistants which was good. Then just kept moving forward. not a whole lot else to report. This week is zone leader council week again. Seems to come faster and faster each time. Anyway, love you all, talk to you later.

Lots of splits

Hey family! Hows it going. Anyway. This week was way busy but actually not a whole lot to talk about. Started off with Splits with "I" choro in Nagamachi who goes home next transfer and is an amazing missionary. So we start planning and he tells me that we will be teaching "S"-san........I'm suppose to be interviewing him..... Well we couldn't back out of the lesson so that meant I was going to get disqualified to do the interview (Simply put if you taught the investigator you can't interview them) So we hit the strange situation where the district leader, both zone leaders, and the assistants had all taught this investigator. Thankfully it was in Sendai so we had an extra district leader close by to pull on but all went well with that. Oh and they are painting the Nagamachi apartment so the smell was ridiculous so we didn't know what to do because we didn't want to sleep there so we called Sister R and she told us that we could sleep in the mission home office downstairs so we were way excited. We grabbed our futons and ran down their and set them up where? Not the walkway, or in front of the computers, or any of that. Had to find the best, most interesting place. Of course we chose the middle of Presidents office. Ha. However apparently he got wind that we were sleeping in the mission office so, although he and sister R were 7 hours away he told us how we could get into their house and sleep in a real bed. Oh my goodness, their house is like a hotel upstairs. I had never been up there. It was like sleeping in the temple. Wake up and the first thing I see is the lifesize painting of Jesus looking down at me. Scary! But yeah. Then worked in Izumi on Wednesday with N choro who was in the MTC at the same time as me. And then worked with S choro in Kamisugi on Saturday. Way crazy right! Oh and then on Sunday our self-referral from way back came to church! Yay! He could only stay for sacrament meeting but after church yesterday there was this special YSA sacrament meeting program and since he is 21 we thought we would invite him for the fun of it. And he came!!! Way cool. Although for priesthood meeting they had a mock priesthood executive meeting, yeah try to explain that to a person that has been to a church meeting for a total of 2 hours up until then. Sigh. And we also learned he lives in the ward over so we need to pass him to the missionaries that work in that ward but oh well. Well thats it for the day. Talk to you next week.

Especially Snowy

Hey everyone How was everyone's week? Hope it was all good. Well truth be told not a whole lot to report on this week. We got blasted with snow like Sendai has never known. I was joking with another elder that we are sick of members and the people talking about how special the weather is at that point. "This summer is especially hot" "Especially snowy" "Especially Rainy" "Especially cold" Why can't we just have normal? Thats all we ask. Oh well. Then lets see, we weren't able to meet with any investigators this week. That was too bad. Although we were finally able to meet with a 16 year old LA that "O"-choro has been working with since August. That was cool. A lot different than the normal LA vists. Had him come to the church, showed him around, talked about his hobbies and family while eating snacks and said a pray and that was it. Oh well. Little different to work with youth. What else happened this week. Really not a whole lot. We had our stake missionary coordination meeting again which this time it was the two of us, the stake presidency, and President "R" with 50 of sister R's cinamon rolls, talking for an hour and a half at table. Stressful but it really was cool. I think it was somewhere in my missionary setting apart that it talked about working with leaders on the mission and that has definitely come true. I'm just in awe of these people and their experiences and the ridiculous things that do. Not just president but the stake presicdeny are way cool and bold and loving and all that jazz. It really was a cool experience to be able to sit down and talk with them. Sadly the conversation always is about unfortunate things. Recent converts that are now LA, baptism dates falling through, etc. But still try to throw in some joy too. And then this week I'm doing my first baptism interview which is terrifying and we'll see how that goes. He seems pretty awesome so it shouldn't be a problem but yeah. Well short today like always but there you go.

Good week

Hey peeps! What up? (I felt like pulling on my black self there for a minute). Well I'm sure you love this phrase but "No time today" but today I have a real excuse! We went to this area with a bunch of members today for 6 hours so yeah......kind over-shot the 3 hour of dendo time scheduled for P-days. Anyway. I think it was good. Got to help my dear comp keep it short though. He says, "We will just say hi" "Ok thats all we have time for." "Ok" 15 minutes later I get to be the rude one that just mid-sentence tells the member we need to leave now. Then we run to the bus in a foot of snow with our normal church shoes on. About 50 percent of that run had traction. No worries mom. Anyway. Today it snowed a lot. Just so you know. But anyway. Lets see what last week had. We met with "O"-san twice which was cool. He is really improving and we started teaching him the commandments this week. Why I don't know, but we started with the Law of Chastity. That turned more interesting than I expected. To be honest I have never had an investigator with a problem with this. Defintiely a different world we live in in Utah. He also had me proofread some essays he was sending to American Colleges to see if he could get in. They were good in all and then I get to this one which was like a poem almost but it was amazing! This man has gotten around. It was about his "Inner voice" that tells him what is right and guides him (Can you say SPIRIT!) But yeah. He toured China when he was 16 alone and slept on the streets. He saw some crazy stuff. From crazy industrialization to watching a mother sell her daughter. Then he saw a place that got destroyed by an earthquake there so he wanted to study earthquake proof building and came to Japan. Then the earthquake hit and he saw no-matter how good the building is you still need a good organization and rescue plan in place so he switched his major again and now wants to study that. Way interesting guy. Then we had zone leader council. That was fun. This time it was quite different. Basically all of it was training from president which was cool. Then the next day Zone Training Meeting which was good but we kinda failed at. Oh well. Oh and then at zone leader council President wants us to bring questions or things that should be changed. So we get there and mention that as of now in our "Other Lessons" category we have been counting member lessons but PMG only says investigator lessons. The words left "O"-choros mouth and all the zone leaders cringed because.....well it helps our results look good with those members in there. President opens up his iPad. Reads it over (PMG(In three languages...well kinda)). Looks up. Groans within himself. Then says, "We follow PMG......stop counting them." Then this man that had not even had this idea cross him mind gave a 5-10 minute training on why its not in PMG. Hammer dropped. I kinda feel like that man has a conduit with heaven. Anyway. Changed the missions work in the blink of an eye. I realize that no one probably cares but I thought it was cool and our district leaders have been griping about it. Oh well. They can dust of their skirts (as Kreigh would put it). Lets see. What else. We had what was called a Shinenkai at church (New Year Party) which the cool thing there was we made mochi which is basically pounded rice. Hard to explain. Look it up. When I send my camera card you will also see. Way cool. Anyway. I guess we will go with that for this week. Its longer this week so you should be happy. This next week less will probably happen so maybe next week we will be back to short.