Week 35

Hey,

I don't have much time so here's whats going (gone) down.  I have been transferred to a place called Kofu.  It covers the entire Yamanashi ken (prefecture).  My companion is named Elder Kuroki (black tree).  We are again in a 4 man and one of the other elders is from my doki.  It's been raining like the devil here.  xD

 

We go to Sendai mission on Thursday night, then we are giving service as part of the relief effort all of Friday.  I'm so excited but it's going to be a long bus ride.  I'll let you know how it all went next week.

 

Oh and I got the Easter package.  Thank  you very much <3

Love you.  I'll write more in the letter I'll write later today.

 

byyyeeee

 

Elder Keith

Week34

 So Mom, to answer your questions,  do we have solid investigators right now?  Well that depends on your definition of solid.  We have Kazushi who is still reluctant to talk about baptism.  We have Mai, who wants to be baptized but her parents are against it right now.  Then we have someone named Ishii-san (san meaning Mr or Mrs) who will probably be baptized at the end of June gurai(around).  Am I doing as much member work as I would like?  Well I would like to work with them more but we have plans to do so, so I'm happy.   Yep still streeting and housing lots.  And yes it is rare for me to speak in English nowadays.  Well with my companion at least.  Doesn't mean I'm good at Japanese but, I do try xD. 

And Dad, I do not know if I am to be transferred yet or not.  We usually get transfer calls last Saturday but because all the missionaries are coming back and they transfer on a different day, we get calls tomorrow morning and then the actual transfer will be on Friday.  I'm pretty likely to transfer too.  This will be finishing my 3rd in Tama and with the sudden influx of missionaries...  Can't say.  Yes Sachiko means happy child.  The Kanji is 幸子 The first one meaning happiness and the second one meaning child.  That's right Thiago comes back soon.  Is there anyway for me to get his mailing address.  I really want to write him.  And for personal study (I actually start 45mins-1hr early because I like my scriptures xD) I read a chapter or 2 from the BOM and then a bunch of pages from the Bible (my goal is to finish it all by years end), I'm in Psalms right now.  Then after that I read from Jesus the Christ, and then either the conference edition of the Liahona, or my journal from the MTC.  It's way weird/cool to see how much I've changed even since the MTC.   

So last quick thing to share that will shock you.  I think that this past week is the first time in my entire life that I've enjoyed doing dishes.  I did them multiple times this week.  Elder Furugen always cooks and so I've taken it upon myself to do as much service for him as I can.  This didn't come unprompted though.  In Nagoya, in the 4 man, I was able to get out of doing the dishes at all (we had no gloves, and my eczema is very sensitive to soap) but that kinda put me into a sense of complacency.  Then one day something I did bothered Elder Furugen (with good reason) and he told me so.  So since then I have resolved to do as much service for him as possible and it's really gone a long way towards helping us grow stronger as a companionship.  I've decided that, that is going to be how I try and treat all my companions from here on out.  I mean I was nice to all my previous companions but Elder Furugen is the first one who I've wanted to go out of my way to serve.  But yeah this week I enjoyed doing the dishes and didn't need to be asked xD.  Well once you pick yourselves up off the floor just know that I love you and wish you well.  Til next week

愛しているよ

Elder Keith

キース長老

PS Dad do you speak Japanese better than me?  if i write in Kanji will you understand it.

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Week 34

Howdy Do!

 

I am doing well.  Rain is taihen!  It makes my feet wet.  Every day.  Well we had 2 sunny days this week but it's not so much been balmy as it has been rainy.  Well at least Adam was able to have fun while his, albeit short, rugby career lasted.  Yeah no more rugby for a while. He's gotta still be there when I get back.  So today I had the chance to go to the Tokyo Temple!  It was way awesome!!  I was able to put both Adam and Grandma's names on the prayer roll.  It was so cool to be able to go back to the Tokyo Temple.  Life is treating me well aside from the rain.  Just for right now unsure as to whether I will be in Tama much longer because unless I'm mistaken we have just about all the rest of the Tokyo missionaries returning.  All the areas in the zone except for Tama and the Shimai (sisters) apartments are turning into 4 man.  So it should be way fun.  I just hope that I stay.  For one more transfer and then I wouldn't mind going to a different area. Good luck with the seminary.

 

Dad since when do you have perfect Japanese?  And kanji at that.  I had to look it up because I didn't know a bunch of them.  As for how they measure rooms, I don't have the foggiest.  We do have a room called the tatami room with tatami mats but all the rest of our rooms have hardwood.  And since room sizes don't concern me beyond "do i have enough room" I don't know.  Yes power is either 120V or 240V.  And it is either 50 or 60Hz.  Heh heh.   Pest issues.  Right now?  No but I hear that some apartments do get roaches.  Well I wish you luck with the fox and the business.

 

Besides that things are for the most part the same around here.  so yeah that's how things are for me in Toyko right now.  Thanks for everything.  Love you.

 

Elder Keith

キース長老

Week 33

 I am so glad that I chose to come on a mission .  It gave me the turn-around that I needed.  My life was sloping towards the lazy side heh heh.  And now if I sit and do nothing for more than like 10-15mins I feel like a wanpaku (rebel) missionary.  I have no doubt there will be blessings.

I'm excited to see how much everyone has changed when I come back.  That's right Thomas is 14 this year!  O_O  He's going to his first dance!!  And Adam will be 16.. he'll go on his first date...  and Ben... is already 18...  AHHHHHHH

Mom... I'm turning 20 in like a month!!!!! .... ... ... ...  I'm so old... ... ...

wow.  and you're................... still as young as ever ;D  

All that aside yeah I think I have settled back into Tama quite nicely.  I spoke in Sacrament meeting for like 3-4 minutes, without notes and all in Japanese!  =D  I just have to hope that I slip past tranfers on the 22nd. 

 

So that's life in Japan.  Sure do love and miss you. 

 

Elder Keith

キース長老

Week 32 They took me out of Tokyo but they could never really take Tokyo out of me.

Ok where to start... So first off, Yes I am back in Tokyo.  Back in Tama to be exact.  And I have the same companion that I did when I left, Elder Furugen.  It's way awesome.  When I got the call I accidentally yelled for joy into the phone.  But I'm still 5 comps in 4 transfers.  And with the regular transfers only 3 weeks away and the fact this will be finishing my 3rd transfer in Tama, I'm not sure whether or not I will survive it.  But I am soo happy to be back.  I will try my best to describe what it was like coming back to the mission home.  It was like coming home.  It felt so right and the happiness that I felt was really unlike anything that I've experienced before.  There were a lot from my doki  too which made coming back all the better.  The Nagoya experience was good and I really applied myself there.  I made many friends in the area that I was very sad to leave.  But the feeling of coming home (to Tokyo) was completely overwhelming.  It's kinda like they took me out of Tokyo but they could never really take Tokyo out of me.  And I think that's a statement that may hold true for the rest of my life.  So now I get to pick up where I left off with investigators and members except that this time there is going to be a lot more member work being done by me and my companion.  When we got to out apartment there was a bunch of food on the table and a note basically saying welcome back.  The only bad thing was, that the power was cut for a while and our freezer had some veggies in it... and now... it has more than a few spots that are a nice shade of blue and the rankness that it smelled when it was opened...  heh heh...  aw man.  So coming back from Nagoya I actually got to take the shinkansen!  That's what the bullet train is called here in Japan.  It was like an airplane on the ground it was soo fast.

Yeah the weather is quite nice here too although it has been really rainy recently.  Major taihen, especially because my shoes have holes in the bottom...  Which is maybe one thing I want for my birthday.  A pair of shoes that are like 10.5-11 and slip on.  No laces please. I really hate to ask like that but I don't think they carry my size in abundance here in Japan.  So thanks a tonnes.  Can't wait to talk to you all.  Love you lots!  You're in my prayers.

Elder Keith