Finally some time!

K, so today I was almost not going to have a P-day today, but thankfully I got to have one!!! Woo! Cause we were going to have some office meeting that Takaki needed to be at but I guess it got canceled....btw for anyone who cares, I'm using Dvorak again!!! It's been so long so I'm a little rusty but it's amazing to be able to type right again!!! Tonikaku...so I'm going to try to put some pictures up here and see if they work. I haven't had time to take any pictures of Japan besides the Honbu but I'll put some of the MTC. Umm...yeah, so this week pray worked out for me amazingly! So we were Housing or doing something...Dendoing, and we needed to get one more New Investigator for the week to get a Standard of Excellence, and we had 3 former investigators papers. Since former investigators are the easiest people to become new investigators we decided to go and find them. Our quest began and (btw, the hills here are ridiculous...mixed with the humidity...really ridiculous) So we searched and we went to the first house and no one answered the door. Traveled across town a little ways to the 2nd house and tried them. Nothing. Then I was like k, we need to pray or something cause I've never gotten a Standard of Excellence before and we were only 1 person away from it. (Standard of Excellence = 20 lessons in the week and 3 New Investigators). So we prayed and I prayed that either this last person would become a New Investigator or God would send someone in our path that would become a New Investigator. We ended the prayer and nothing super special happened. Just like an ordinary prayer. We went to the 3rd house and alas no one was there! But we didn't loose hope! We decided to start heading home and while we were heading home we would try to look for a bunch of apartments so that we could house them. We went a little ways and finally found one. Parked our bikes and knocked on the first door of this little 8 house apartment. The 1st door we knocked on, answered the door, we told them who we were and asked his interests and stuff. He said he wanted to be and English teacher...so using that as a little advantage I talked to him in English and asked if we could come back and he accepted! Woo...miracle! So we got our New Investigator and all was well in Bethlahem. We got Standard of Excellence this week so I felt good! New Investigator is when you give a lesson, commitment, pray, and set another appointment, so we did it and it was grand! Anyways, good times. I'm going to attempt to answer my mother's questions now so...take whatever information you want to out of is, umm and the camera doesn't work in this computer so I'm going to have to get something so that you can all see pictures...Anyways, Love you all!

Okasan,

Ashimine Choro came from Provo so he is not going to be on the Liahona list. He is japanese, but he was living in Provo when he was 18 and 19. While Takaki choro works, I study Kanji and Tango ect. Occationally, like today, I help with office work and put in dates and names into the computer so it's good fun. No, no one cooks for me. We have nothing in the fridge except for Natto and Tofu and occationally we will have Tenkasu that I snack on, but it's so busy that we don't really have time to buy food. I've been gaishoku-ing (out to eat) for a few days. We went to Sushi ya san, and they had this really crazy machine that brought the ordered sushi to you...crazy! And we went to Ramen & Gyoza eating and we went to Okonomiyaki store. And then I guess I lied, but we have rice in our apartment all the time, so we eat that. I made some stew/rice stuff the other day and one of the other elders made something good one time, I can't remember, but if we had more stuff to cook with then maybe we could eat better, but we don't have much food, so we try and scrap up what we can. But Restaurant's are great! Yes, I bought my bicycle. I got it for $100 so I didn't have to use the credit card. But today I think I am going to finally go and get my Jisho (dictionary), so I'm going to have to use my credit card for that. Hashimoto-kun hasn't gotten a good answer from his dad. No he is not our investigator, he is the AP's, but he really hasn't had a chance to really talk to his dad. His dad doesn't exactly say no, but he just says to wait, so probably he just doesn't want to talk about it now. We have like 5 Investigators or so, one of them has a date and could be kinjin (golden investigator). Sounds like you are having a ton of good times! Accapella Stock sounds fun! Good luck with teaching! Tell Cody and Kami good luck with South! I want to see a picture of the new school, can you email me a pic? No I don't remember the shaved ice thing that Bro Fuller is talking about, but maybe someday I'll see it! Ohh no, is Lia alright!? That doesn't sound good at all! Hopefully she is doing better! Good luck with your singing in RS. Tell Kami to get over it! And Yes, my P-day is Monday. Or Maybe I should just say my P-time is monday....haha, anyways Love ya!

Sorry, There is just no time to write...haha

This is what I just went to my Parents...so yeah take all the info out of this that you want...haha!

Hey, yeah we aren't all in Sendai. Me and Shaw Choro are the only ones in Sendai. Everyone else is elsewhere. We had a Zone Conference meeting and I saw him and then Shaw choro is sitting next to me right now cause he was just on splits with me so that was fun! Today was great! I think the first week was just really difficult but now everything is alright. It's great stopping people on the street and talking to them about stuff they don't want to here about! (Jesus Christ isn't that great of a subject to other people...haha!) Anyways yeah Takaki is great! He's so much fun! We get along well. No we didn't eat Natto the first day, but I've pretty much eaten Natto everyday cause that's the only thing in the fridge. Yeah Takaki choro is always in the office until 1 oclock but then after that we eat lunch and go dendo. Yeah I speak Japanese to Takaki all the time. There is no english unless I'm talking to American's. Cause I can speak japanese better then the japanese people can speak english, so it's just easier if I suffer through the Japanese. I'm going to Nagamachi ward. there is tons of members...like 111 last week or something. And then there is a kid in our ward that has been investigating the chruch for like a year and the only reason that he's not baptized is because his dad is against it. But yesterday we all fasted, including him and tonight he is asking again so hopefully his dad says yes. His name is Hashimoto-kun...he's sitting next to me too and he wanted me to talk about him...haha!

Anyways...Love ya!

So yeah The mission is so awesome! Except for I really don't get a P-day...I have like 2-3 hours total for today then it's off to work again! But today was oh so joyous! You really have to just see yourself as a gaijin and since you know that everyone thinks your weird anyway you might as well yell across the crosswalk to get their attention. But yeah our zone had 90 baptisms last year and this yeah we are trying to get 180 and so far we are at ~90 so its going great! we might be a little off target but for the most part we are ready to go! So this is definatly a Baptizing Place. Hopefully Hashimoto-kun gets the ok tonight! Anyways hopefully everyone is doing good, cause I'm ridiculously worn out. And I don't have time to write anyone back so I'm sorry for not if I don't, but when I get a breath I'll get around to it. Anyways hope all is good. The hill I have to climb is super long and steep and I come back everyday looking like I just went swimming...imagine the horror! After coming here I totally have stopped caring about what I look like, cause after one minute of being outside I'm drenched and I don't think I look that great to anyone...haha! It's great fun. I've been meeting so many people going in and out of the Honbu. It's so busy here! My kanji is coming very good too! I'm getting most of what's out on the streets. Anyways, as for investigators I think we only have 1 that we know of here and he didn't end up coming to church yesterday so we are worried about him. He said he would get baptized, but as of yet he doesn't believe in God, so thats kind of a problem, but the Members here are so strong so they've been helping him out and it's been great! Anyways I think that's all the time I've got. Maybe next transfer or so I'll be able to get to post some pictures of everything, so sorry, but there is just no time at the Honbu! Have a great end of summer vacation everyone! I actually don't even think I've taken any pictures while I've been here...haha...weird. Love you all!

Nippon

Hey, thanks so much for all the support from everybody! I appriciate it so much! umm...I've got so little time...like 10 minutes, but I just want to say that the mission is hard. Really hard. I hope I can get to a point where I'm comfortable here. It's coming, but it's slowly coming...umm. My first companion his name is Takaki choro and I'm in Yagiyama Sendai. The others went to different places but I'm right at the Honbu. I live exactly where the address is on this website. Which is pretty cool I guess. But I've been told that my first place being at the Honbu is really rare. I live with the AP's and my companion is the district leader for our district. I've also been told that my mornings are so much different then if I was at the some other place. And my Prep Days are way different too. So I guess I'm starting out at a really different place then the rest of my doki. I dunno, I can't really tell, but it's been fun. Hard, but kinda fun...haha, really I'm still trying to get used to everything and hopefully it comes really soon cause I need it to come. Anyways, I have 2 weeks to fill but I doubt I have enough time. The plane ride was great!...haha, maybe. I sat next to this Korean Lady and she only spoke tiny bit english. It was a good time. I couldn't sleep at all on the plane either, but it was nice that our whole zone was on the same plane. Anyways, I get to Japan Narita Airport and then go through without any problems. The train ride to Sendai was great fun....I slept the whole way there, but the bathrooms on the train were pretty intense. Anyways, yeah so we get there finally and the AP's and Pres Tateoka find us and take us to the Honbu! And the first two days I was with my doki (my MTC group) and then by the third day everyone was gone and the day began like regular. Also another thing that's really weird is that Takaki choro is also a new transfer to this area so we are pretty much whitewashing it. He has no idea what to do and where to start and I obviously have no idea, but it's been getting better. Church on Sunday was great! I loved it. People are great. I also want to know what part of Osaka you are from MOM. Everyone asks me, but I have no idea. Anyways...yeah! It's great fun so far and I sincerily hope it's going to get better. As for investigators, I'm totally not sure cause we have no idea who was investigating before we came...So I really think that we are going to be lost for a few weeks. Anyways, I'm probably out of time. I might have limited computer access cause the AP's and the Office Assistant (Takaki choro) need the computer so much...so I'm convinced that I'm in a really different situation then most brand new missionaries. So everybody have a great week! Maybe next week....maybe....I can say some more but maybe not.