Week 100+??

こんにちは

 

STAGE IS GETTING MARRIED!!!!! Holy smokes haha.  Well who am I to talk, I'm not looking on being married too quick.  xD  Typically Japanese people don't get married until like they're 25 at least.  It's not uncommon to find unmarried 30 year olds.  Even within the church.  (-_-;)  Not that I'm thinking about marrying a Japanese person, but being around them for so long I can see the benefits of not rushing the whole marriage thing.  But I have had countless other Elders tell me that since I'm going to BYU, I will be married within 3 months.  But my goal is to go to BYU and stay unmarried for as long as possible.  xD  Bahahahaha.  But seriously I heard the divorce rate in Utah was like 50%.  I'm kinda yadda to divorce. 

So Grandma is in a nursing home.  That's good that she'll be getting 24hr care. =D  We've still got a date to have lunch when I come home.  So Auntie Diane is moving to PEI.  That's good that she'll be with her grandkids.

So Ben's still set on moving out to BC huh?  Hm wonder when I'll see him next huh?  Is his place doing up and well?  It's still pretty rare for me to hear from Ben xD. 

Oh and about BYU... I checked the email that you sent and it said that we would receive an answer at the latest, 4 weeks after the application deadline.  The deadline is october.  So we might not know about me going to BYU til after I've been home for a couple weeks.  But oh well. 

Wait! April got married too!  Ara!!! (That's japanese btw)  That must mean that Adam is home from his mission (her boyfriends name was adam) unless she married someone else... xD 

Are things settling down with my companion?  nnnnnnn kinda?  yeah I guess.  not really. sorta...  I'm working on him xD.

Is he wearing missionary clothes when studying.  Not really.  xD 

Yeah I love my ward.  It's absolutely awesome.  I've just made such good friends with everyone.  It's gonna be really hard to leave.

Oh and I'm thinking about something that I want to do with you guys.  And I don't know if it's your idea of a vacation or whatever or not but I was planning on taking at least one day and doing some dendo (missionary work--> streeting, passing out chirashis, housing)  Just so that you are aware ;)

So yeah that's my plan.

And life has kinda entered the surreal phase for me again.  I have some friends, some of my doki going home tomorrow.  And everything's changing just as I enter my final 6 weeks on my mission.  It's so weird to think that it's coming to a close.  I think that 16 transfers was just right for me too.  I mean extending would have been terrific.  But from the looks of it, President Budge is keeping people together longer than 2 transfers and if I were to do another one with Elder Pronk (save something changes) I would not have the most happy time I think.  But I think that by the end I will be ready.  Not ready to leave Japan and the Japanese people mind you, I don't know if I will ever be ready for that.  So yeah. 

Well thats me for this week. Thanks for everything!!!! =D

Love you!!!

 

Elder Keith

キース長老

 

Week 99

Konnichiwaaaaaaaaaaaa,

 

Sounds like life kinda slowed way down and then picked up again.  But that's just the way things are now isn't it?

So important things first...  I don't actually have my passport... nor my passport number...  You're probably going to have to get in touch with Sister Galbraith about that.  She's the one who takes care of everyone's passport...  (^_^;)  That's why when you asked me about my name on my passport the first time, I couldn't give you a definite answer (^_^;)  heh heh heh, *typical Elder Keith sheepish grin*

It gets really cool at night where you are?  Awww lucky.  It gets cool at night where we are too...  *if we use the AC*... I haven't actually slept under my blankets for a couple weeks now because it's way too hot, even wth the air conditioning.

So things are coming.  My companion was told by the mission president that he does indeed have to wear missionary clothes when studying... xD  He's not overly happy with that.  Nor with the whole 100% obedience thing.  Like not that he's breaking rules left and right, but he told me he doesn't agree with the whole, being 100% obedient thing.  So I'm trying to help him be obedient anyways.

Yeah you are definitely going to be amazed at the change in me I think.  Not that it's unexpected, but just that it's so different.  Like I look back on my life beforehand, now I wasn't a bad kid of course, but I was a kid.  And like you said, now I'm not a kid anymore.  I still enjoy doing kids stuff, but the maturity I see in me (especially in stark contrast to my new companion) makes me realize how far I've come.

Thanks for your testimony.  On my mission I've really come to see what a joy it is to be an eternal family and what that really means.

So now a couple questions that I ask members all the time, but I never thought to ask before my mission.

Mom- How did you end up meeting the missionaries and ultimately, what made you decide to want to be baptized?

Dad- What generation are you?  Was it Grandma and Grandpa Keith who first converted, or does it go farther back? And how did you come to know that the church is true?

Well of course, as is typical of Elder Keith, I've got loads more to say, but my time today is short.  This has been a pretty busy week.  So I'll close here. Thanks for everything.  I love you both so much!

 

Elder Keith

キース長老

Week 98

 

こんにちは！

 

The drought is over!!!  Yahooo.  xD  That makes me happy.  It's kinda funny because I didn't really know to what extent it had an effect on life or anything.

And yes your email finds me well.  I don't know about hail or hardy, but I can't complain about my health.  At the moment anyways.  Well I guess I do sweat like a beast, even just walking to the store 6 minutes away, my shirt becomes soaked and I become stinky!  xD

It's amazing the things that you can find out when you're on your mission.  Things that your mother would tan your hide for doing!  xD  Like mixing bleach with a whitener (I think it's a whitener anyways) to get out those tough stains (I'm pretty sure it says don't mix, but it works REALLY well!), and there's also doing your own dental work with a thumb tack (those hard to reach places are pretty hard to reach but it does get the job done), and then seeing how many days you last while all your socks are in the wash (I've been reusing for about 3 days now. Just haven't had time) and then the one that's exclusive to Japanese missions, Eating Eggs Raw!  I eat raw eggs about probably 4 out of the 7 days of the week.  At least.  And with the ok on eating raw eggs also comes the ok on eating raw cookie dough!!  Woohooo!!!

So this past week we had my last all-mission conference.  It was way awesome.  We received a bunch of good trainings.  But then at the end all of the missionaries who are returning in August or October got to get up and bear their final testimonies.  I managed to make mine all the way through without crying.  But at the end it was pretty hard, my voice was just a shaking and my eyes were glistening.  It's weird to think that my mission is coming to a close.  I don't feel near ready to be ending.  We were talking (the 4 of us in our apartment) about how weird we're going to be when we go back.  Bowing and using weird exclamations/verbal confirmations.  Gonna be weird I tell you.  Nor will I be able to speak adequate English.  Being around people who speak Japanese and English, I can throw a Japanese word in that is easier than the English one, or use a word in Japanese that doesn't really have an English translation.  *shudder*  Yepp I'm gonna be weird.

This past transfer, we've been giving out Book of Mormons like mad!  Like we probably had 20 or so when we started the transfer and now we're down to 4! 

Yeah, we didn't have anything super duper awesome happen this week unfortunately.  xD  But there's just some days that you get like that huh?  Oh well. 

皆さんを本当に愛しています。いつも私のことをサポートしてくださって私を励ましてくださっていることに心から感謝しています。

また、分かち合っているメッセージが神様はご自分の子供の皆さんを本当に愛しておられることを知っています。

私たちと話したくて私たちを祝福することを望んでおられます。

この証をすべてイエスキリストのみ名によって分かち合います。

 

愛しています！

 

 Elder Keith

キース長老

Week 97

Hey,

 

So the tickets are booked are they then huh?  (>_<)  heh heh.

So we're not gonna stay at the temple then... hm ok.  That's ok.  An apartment sounds better anyways haha.

But we will be going to the temple, it's way awesome.

So yeah I've got an idea of a couple things that I'm thinking of doing, but to be honest we may have to do the planning of what to do when you get here because I don't want to think about it xD.  Like I wouldn't mind but I want to stay focused.

That being said, I will probably have some stuff already planned xD.

Yeah I remember Elder Campbell.  A swell ol chap he was.  xD  The thing that originally puzzled me was how you got in touch with his mom... xD

The missionary work is progressing, but slowly.  We've got one solid investigator right now.  He's 19 and we read the Book of Mormon with him every week and he comes to church when he can.  He's a way good kid and super awesome but he wants to wait until he's 20 to be baptized.  His birthday is in July... (-_-;)   And besides that we're just working on finding new investigators.  And at the same time I need to help my companion adjust to mission life.  *or more so adjust him to mission life (-_-;)*  but xD  heh heh heh yeah...

And thanks for all the help and everything with the application and stuff for BYU.  So now all that's left to do is wait huh?

Yepp life was occaisionally changed by an individual.

One of those individuals name was Jesus Christ. (^_^)

 

This friday we have an all mission conference...

This friday I'll be bearing my testimony...

NUFF SAID!  xD  Haha

 

So I'm emailing today because we decided to go to the zoo as a zone and it was closed yesterday so we went today.

 

Thanks for everything.  It means a lot to me.  =D

 

Love you

 

Elder Keith

 

PS: to everyone who hasn't written me in the past little while.  Just because I'm coming home soon doesn't mean it's ok to not write me xD.  $B