Haha...I cut my hair last night...

Sorry no picture today...actually here is me doing something weird...I look so dumb...but today is pouring rain and really cold. But to Tobin and Chee Yeun: That is soooooooooooooooooo awesome!!!!!! I can't wait to see her!!!

Aja: Yes I did get your letter! Thanks so much!

Anyways...so about my adventures this week. We just about had a baptism interview. So close! So we have been talking to Ko-shimai (sister) about the gospel and stuff, she has been meeting with us for some time now and we told her that we were going to go over the Baptismal Interview Questions with her so that she wasn't totally surprised at the interview...it all went so good except for the last question. Before we went over the questions we talked to her a little bit about the Atonement. She had some worries about "what happens if I accedentely break a commandment, will God be mad at me?" and other such questions of the soul. So we went over the Atonement with her and how Jesus Christ accomplished the atonement specifically for that reason! He died so that we could return from our fallen state, only if we relyed on Him! So then we got to the 6th and last question and she had a little bit of a problem with the commitment of something along the lines of "Are you willing to always strive to follow God's commandents for the rest of your life?" and she was a little bit worried about the "what if I'm not perfect for the rest of my life!!"...so she got a little bit of uneasyness, and said she will have to discuss it with her parents. Tonight We Will Find The Results! ahhh! I'm so excited and scared out of my mind! I'm pretty sure that she will be totally fine, cause of some things she was saying before, but I hope it turns out! Then if it does, we're good with an interview and a Baptism! Anyways...yeah, as for other investigators...they are coming along quite well.

For the most part, this week we have been trying to pick up some of the old potential investigators that other missionaries have had. It's getting a tad bit difficult because everyone is going crazy about New Years! For those of you that don't know...New Years is pretty much the biggest celebration in Japan. There is literally Sake all over the place! And every one is "busy", or at least that's what they say. They also do their "Spring cleaning" before the snow comes in Japan. So everyone is so-called "busy", but we're still doing just fine. After Jan 1st it will all be over and Dendo will speed up again. (missionary work). So yeah, all is well over here in the wonderful region of Tohoku Japan. We are having a good time! And our goal of 180 baptisms is in sight! Hopefully we can get it!

And to end I wish you all a merry merry Christmas and a Wonderful Shogatsu! (New Years) Thank you for all your prayers and support and Everything! Good Luck with 2011!...I guess I'm probably going to say something before then, but yeah...you know what I mean!

Snow snow snow!

Konnichiwa! Hey everyone! Well I hope everybody is doing good! I'm doing fantastic! It's a wonderful Christmas season here in Japan! Christmas is great isn't it! I'm not exactly sure where I left off, but we are still teaching Koei and she is doing way good! She has her interview scheduled for next week, so we should be having another baptism here soon...which is exciting! Shes not Japanese and hardly speaks it, but she is totally prepared! The one thing I'm worried about is the Sabbath Day. That seems to be the hardest thing for her to keep but we haven't had a Sunday since we last taught her so she still hasn't broken it yet! We'll see how Sunday goes! Umm...all the others are doing really good. It's getting a little bit cold so they seem not to want to meet as much, but so far so good. This week was pretty crazy it was transfer week...I think. We didn't get moved at all, but my comp is now the District Leader so we got to go back to the Honbu (Home office) and I got to dendo there with the AP's. When we were there I got to see Inoue Kyodai, my 1st baptism! He's doing way good! He hasn't been able to get to church much because of work but he still meets with the missionaries there! So that was refreshing! For the most part, we have just been finding really really cool people that won't give us any contact information!!! haha...yeah, but they are way cool people! Some of the people that did give us contact info were pretty cool to.

For example...there is one guy that we knocked on his door and the second he saw us, he let us in to the house...I was kinda weirded out by it, but he told us to come in and he brought us some apples and tangerines. He told us that some old missionaries from before learned how to play the Japanese flute from his dad. He said he wouldn't convert or get baptised, but he would listen to our message. He is a pretty "hard-core"...I dunno if thats ok to say...Buddhist. He ACTUALLY knows what he's talking about when he says he is Buddhist! It's amazing! So I asked him a bunch of questions about Buddhism...haha, and of course told him our message and how he could add on to the truths that he already had from Buddhism and find the fullness! I think it ended up pretty good. Like I said...he said he wouldn't convert but we'll see!

We also found this one lady that has been studying Jehovah's Witness for 1 year now and she says she believes in the Bible and Jesus Christ. But hasn't been baptised in that church...who knows why! She's been studying it for a whole year! But anyways...we told her about the Book of Mormon and she said she'd read it...who knows what will happen. Ohhh, but one Question I have, is that I was wondering, in the US can the Jehovah's Witness females shake hands with males??? Cause here in Japan I it's against their religion...but I wasn't sure if that was true in the US?? But it's funny...she was hesitant to shake our hands...but she did anyways and it was way awkward probably for all of us...haha.

Last night we found this kid who was 19 works at McDonalds and his cousin is a Half...he was way cool! We gave him a tour of the church and talked about different stuff...he said he had interest but wouldn't give us his number! Aghhh! The cool people always don't give of their contact info!!! But it's all good. He'll come around eventually!

So yeah...December 15th was the first fall of snow! Everyone in Tsuruoka says that the snow is way bad! I'm kinda not excited...but hopefully it'll be alright...I hear the snow gets above your head here....crazy! But sorry this email was not very spiritually uplifting. We were pretty much in Sendai this week...next week maybe we'll have some "awesome" news! As aposed to good, cause everyday is good news! The gospel is good news!

Hiltbrand and my apartment...

I figured this one was a good one of Hiltbrand choro and a good one of my suitcase and closet as well as the kitchen. And there you have it! My whole apartment! I hear its the smallest one in the mission, but yeah!

As for the week! It's been a pretty good week! I'll keep it short cause we have to go pretty soon here, but we have been teaching Koei-san and she is crazy! She's a chinese girl and she goes crazy on the Book of Mormon. Other people's problem is that they don't read the Book, but she's reading it like crazy! It's awesome! I hope she doesn't get too into it, cause she's reading faster then we can teach her! But she's awesome! anyways...that's the jist of this week! Hope you like the pictures! Ohh and we taught a Singapore family who, when they prayed for us it was crazy! They were awesome! anyways...we got to go!

This was my halloween...sort of...

Check it! this totally looks green screened, but I promise it's not!

All-american....fatness

So this is my comp Elder Hiltbrand and this was a crazy fatening meal! I this I got fat from this meal! Hope you can see it! There is Mister Donuts in there too...

Pon-de-lion!!!!

Yeah so here in Japan there's a little place called Mister Donuts and this is their mascot! It takes 1000 points in order to get the Big one and then like 700 for the medium...which doesn't exsist anymore...sad, and then like 500 for the little one...and when I was at the Honbu we got the set together! I still haven't gotten one yet, but maybe I'll get the big one in a year or so!

check out the fishys...

This was all WAY cheap stuff...I loved it! If you go into one on the grocery stores after 8, the sushi is all like 80% off...everyday! So yeah, good stuff!

Me eating Ramen...haha...

This was good stuff...hope the picture works...

Sorry...short little post cause we dont have much time

Hey! What's a-pu! haha...well sorry about this week. We are getting pretty busy meeting with people! Tis crazy! Anyways so Miracles for the day and here we go. Wednesday the 24th. On wednesdays we do Eikaiwa...it's like a free English class and we teach this one guy in Eikaiwa that is really good at English and he loves coming but he is totally against the church, but this week I think we are finally getting to him! But for the miracle on Wed that's what it was...he is beginning to grow which is a way good thing!

Thursday.....umm, lets see...I don't have my journal with me today, but we got a bunch of Potentials as far as I can tell from my Planner...haha. All the lessons we had that day spoked...but we have been trying to meet with this couple that seemed really interested and they haven't been home recently...

Friday...Ohh yes! That's right...we go to Sakata about twice a month and we decided to go this week. There is a "less active" kinda that lives there...he comes to church occasionally but he made this database of all the less actives in the ward that live in Sakata and everytime we visit them or do something with them he updates it...so he is helping out like crazy! It's awesome, but I don't know why he doesn't come to church. But on Friday we had a little time to spend with him in the car and he told us his conversion story and why less actives are the way they are. (He used to be Branch Pres)...but yeah, so he has changed like crazy! But his testimony is way strong! Even though he is a Lessactive...kinda his conversion story was way good!

Saturday...So a while back we found this Chinese girl on the street and gave her a chinese book of mormon...which, by the way, we give out about like 3 a week...it's ridiculous how many gaijins are here in Tsuruoka! But we exchanged numbers with her and then we found out that we wrote the number down wrong. Well it just so happens that one of the investigators that we have is this Chinese girls (Koei) roomate! So we met Koei again and now she is an investigator! A way strong one at that! She said that in China she lives right next to one of our churchs! Chinese people are crazy! They are so pure, and totally prepared! Koei is no exeption! I love Chinese people! They are so awesome!

Sunday...our miracle today was that we got the Standard of Excellence again! if you don't know what the standard is out here in Sendai, Japan...look at one of my other posts and you can find out!

Monday...We set a baptism date with Koei! It was a way good lesson. One of the main problems with her is the language barrier...but we're teaching her, little by little. She met with us on Sunday too...crazy chinese people...ahhh I love them!

Tuesday...so we found this PI that told us that she would call us from her phone...as you may not know...when someone on the street says that they will call you from the flyer it means they are not going to call! But low-and-behold! This PI called us...so that was a pretty awesome miracle!

Wednes...so we had Eikaiwa again...and the same Saito san's heart is opening up way good! He asked us how to pray and at the end of Eikaiwa he said the closing prayer, and it was WAY good! We were way surprised! It's awesome to see people progress!

Thurs...ohh wait...thats today...haha, we met with Mizuguchi kyodai and it was a good lesson kinda...he doesn't remember ANYTHING! He has been an investigator for 30 years and he still doesn't know commandments and stuff...so we'll see if we can get him remembering, so that he can get baptized...we're thinking he might have Alzheimers...but yeah!

So yeah, hope all is well with everybody! I love you all! But yeah, we have to go now so bai-bai!

Fam: Yes I got the package! Thank you so much! Those pretzles are ridiculous! I love them! Are there other flavors? The weather here is just fine...everyone's been saying that it's going to start snowing, but so far so good. It does get pretty cold in the night's but it's not that bad. When we use computers we have to go to the Kokusai centa...so we travel like 15 minutes to use the computer. As for Keenan's letter...just send it back to the address...I've been doing that, and he gets them...so doso! And Mom, you are a tsukaresama! I hope teaching the classes don't wear you out too much! Say hi for Aja to me, and ask if there is anyone else you know that is in the classes that knows me! Say hi to them too! Umm...and what do you want for Christmas? Cause I have no idea...let me know! ummm...yeah, next week we'll send some pics! Peace!