Izumi church

Elder Taylor had to go home because of a broken foot and so this is the last picture we took with him, at the Izumi churchhouse. it was raining that day.

Ichinoseki church

Ichinoseki church house...we stayed the nighthere.

Fukushima church

Fukushima church. Went to the bishops house afterwards, it was pretty good.

Ishinomaki Christmas

Here is my comp as Santa Clause. In Ishinomaki

Iwaki church

Here is the Iwaki churchhouse. And some members with us.

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Misawa

Check it out. It's the Misawa branch. They have an English and a Japanese branch here.

Miyako church

Us at the Miyako church

Fatoma shimai

Here is Fatoma-shimai's baptism. She is one in Miyako. Apparently she took 2 years to get baptized.

Sister Sasaki

this is the baptism in Morioka that Ohira choro baptised. Sasaki shimai.

Iwaki family

Family in Iwaki. Way chill. This little girl on the left is way stoked on Christ. Tell's her Paps off all the time. He's not a member and smokes and doesn't like Jesus, but she always puts him in his place!

Roses

Ok, check this one out....that's right. My famous rose set-up. Look how happy she is! If she was sick, she definatly isn't now! Awesome, right!

This week.

So this week and last week and the week before that was all crazy weeks! 2 weeks ago we had Specialized Training and then Last week we had Zone Conference and this week is transfers! So we have been busy for a long time! So don't really remember all that I've said or what not...I probably haven't said anything for a while...my bad. But last week we had Zone Conference in Aomori on Tuesday, Morioka on Wednesday, Sendai on Thursday, and Niigata on Friday. So on Monday the 5th we had the medical doctors come to the mission for Zone Conference, and Ohira choro and I were the Caddy's. So we went to the Shinkansen on Monday to pick them up and then for every night that week we went to the hotel they were staying at and dropped off their stuff, then went to the elders apartment that were living in the area. So Aomori on the 6th. It was snowing like crazy there. We set up the Conference and it was a pretty good one. The medical doctors talked about their thing, and then President did a training on Finding, and then Ohira choro and I were pretty much just the people that set everything up and made it go smooth. I also translated at every one of the Zone Conferences for over 5 hours a piece. Both in English for the Japanese speakers, and in Japanese for the English speakers. Crazy stuff, but at the conference, everyone got to open their letter from home, and read a letter from their family for Christmas. I have to say that if I were to rank the spiritality of the different Zone Conferences I would have to say that Morioka was definately the best one. Everyone was so united! It was awesome. That's one thing that I bet you can't get in any big mission. Our mission really feels like a family. Everyone was testfying that they were here with their family this Christmas season, and that the Sendai Mission is their family. So awesome! The Zone Conferences were a blast! We also did a gift exchange and there were tons of way funny gifts. The requirements were that it had to be white and it had to be under 200yen, so some people got a foam block, a fly swatter, a toilet brush, but the best one was a picture of Elder Dowdy, one of the missionaries, dressed up in a white tie, white shirt, white pants, white background, white bandana, with a HUGE smile and a thumbs up, with a white picture frame that said "Let's see a White Christmas!", it's probably a "you had to be there" thing, but it was way funny non-the-less. Anyways then on the 10th we came back to Sendai to do a Baptism Interview for the Nagamachi Elders, and they are going to see a baptism on Saturday. Way cool, right? But that night we went to the Ishinomaki Christmas Event and it was amazing! That branch is usually only like 20 people that go to church, but at the Christmas Event they had 54 people there in attendance. It was way cool. The branch president's son, brought like 6 of his friends and one of the members that is a teacher, brought 5 of her workmates. And I couldn't believe how good Ishinomaki's Event was. Ridiculous! So we spent the night in Ishinomaki, and they only had one blanket and a dinky electric heater...I froze that night. Woke up at about 4 am and it was freezing. Ishinomaki's apartment in empty right now because there are no missionaries in Ishinomaki because it is still in the process of recovering from the Tsunami, but the next morning was the Primary program and it was really good. The 5 primary kids bore their testimony and sang songs and it was way inspiring. So on Sunday night we had a new couple come into the mission. Yamanita Couple and they will be going to a place called Miyako. Since there is still no missionaries there because of the Tsunami, they are going to go their and start things up again. The next day we visited the Abukawa Family and gave Rina-chan a present because she was feeling sick and such. We are also trying to get them back to church too, so it was a good visit. She was super happy that we gave her that present. I'll put a picture up here of it. On the 13th was the last of the service for this month. We went to Minami Sanriku...way devistated by the Tsunami, and we got to work in front of the hospital that was there (destroyed), and we picked up junk. But during the service we talked to a bunch of people that were from Tokyo and they all spoke perfect English and it was really good. Before we left we sang a Christmas song to the Volunteer Center and it was pretty good. Everyone that was there gathered around us and watched us...awesome. So for the last 3 days I've been in Yokote, helping the Elders there get started on their work. They just opened up a new area and so they don't have much to work with, but we went there and helped them out for the last few days. I also got to participate in the District meeting there, and I learned tons! It was on Finding. So me and Elder Christensen dendo'd around a little bit and we went searching for this guy called the Cho-nai-kai-cho. So apparently he is an elected position that is pretty much suppose to take care of the neighborhood, in the process we talked to a lot of people and eventually found him, he said he would come to church on Sunday! Woo! Then we also went to the Huge hospital in Yokote and talked to the front desk guy about sharing our message of hope with the families of those that are sick and need help. Then we went to a bunch of Conveniant stores and asked them to put English Class fliers in their windows, also the laundermat. then we came home and planned out transfers for next week. Who is going where and what time their bus is and how much it costs and things like that. But then going back to last week, I had tons to do last week too. We went to Iwaki church on the 4th and it was crazy awesome! The members there are awesome! I love them. My goal, when I go to a new place on Sunday, is to memorize everybodies name, and Ohira choro and I do a fairly good job with it. Ishinomaki members and the Fukushima members, the Iwaki members, everyone yo. Lately, in the car...since we drive the same streets all the time...Tohoku Expressway, we have started to memorize the cities that we past through. All the way from Sendai to Aomori, so we have been trying to memorize everything recently, so hopefully my mental capacity goes up, or at least something good comes from driving all the time. So I think I'm going to put some pics up now, but that's all I've got today. Love ya!