June 1, 2010

Dear Family,

So this week was interesting. Don’t worry I’m a happy person and it would take a lot to break my sense of humor. My companion went into full blown depression and the Mission President asked him if he wanted to stay in the mission. So I spent that whole day just studying again. My companion called him back and said he wanted to become junior companion again and wanted a Japanese companion. So, since Takaoka is a Brazilian area I was the one that would be forced out.

Things started to go better and I got Elder Howells to work more over the weekend and things were going well. Yesterday (Monday) went by without a call from the President. We thought it wouldn’t happen and Elder Howells even said he felt better and it probably wasn’t needed but today while I was memorizing stuff during the time that we were suppose to be having companionship study, Elder Howells walked in on the phone and the President is the only person that is allowed to call during that time so I knew that it was going to happen.

As of Friday I will be going to Nanao. Elder Howells will actually be with an American; however I will be with a Japanese companion. Nanao is super rural and has 9 members. They are very old and impossible to understand. Also, my new companion speaks zero English unlike most Japanese missionaries in the mission. I also have to give talks quite often as you can imagine. I’m not upset about this. In fact, I’ve convinced myself that I’m quite excited. It will be good to learn Japanese better and it will be a good experience.

The previous part of this letter is what I was planning on sending today, but now things might change. We walked out of the apartment today to go write emails and I was checking the mail with my bike as Elder Howells was fooling around on his BMX bike and I heard his bike fall. I thought it was just normal because he tries to do tricks all the time so I grabbed the mail (there actually wasn’t anything there) and turned around and he was lying in the parking lot. So I went over to make sure he was still alive and he couldn’t move his ankle and he got his arm scratched up pretty bad. So we called Arisawa Kyoudai and he took us to the hospital and we spent most of our day there. It looked like he had about 3 ping pong balls (the official system of measuring ankles in Japan) jammed in his ankle.

So now there is a slim chance (since he is out for 3 weeks which is how many weeks are left in the transfer) that the transfer actually won’t happen. It would be nice because I would just do member exchanges with Arisawa Kyoudai who is fluent at Japanese and Portuguese and Tanaka Kyoudai would learn English from Elder Howells in the apartment. Arisawa Kyoudai is so cool. He used to have a awesome skyline but he was drifting it in the mountains and rolled it off a cliff (70 feet, we converted the measurement). He’s okay now. It was about a year ago. But I think that transfer still might happen so next time you get a letter from me I probably won’t know English (or Japanese still) and will weigh 35 pounds less.

In other news I ate spaghetti this week and didn’t have to change my white shirt after. Also, I went on an exchange in Toyama and we went to play basketball with a bunch of college kids (to get them to come to our classes and it worked pretty well). It was so awesome. It was nice to do something that felt American again. Everyone there loved me. They didn’t want me to play at first because I was so tall. I also learned a lot of Japanese from talking with them. I realized I’m super fat and super out of shape but that might change next week. The first two games that I played I was pretty bad and only scored like 4 points but the last two games I scored about 80% of my teams points. It was super fun and there were ouuuus and ahhhhhs coming out of the stands. We got most of the girls to commit to going to the English class in Toyama. It was good.

I might cry the day I go back to America and I can throw away trash into just one can because I’ll be so happy. Here you have to separate EVERYTHING. It’s so annoying and we got yelled at the other day for putting out our trash wrong. (Real quick have Jordan and Kaden received my emails as letters? just a question).

I went to a member’s house this week and he was like a Japanese president Bowman but with 3 gold teeth...and I didn’t understand a word he said. My companion met Jack’s daughter from “24” when he was in Canada. She lives in his city. He has also met a lot of different singers. I told him, “Oh yeah, I trespassed on Mel Gibson’s ranch with my dad.” It sounds like everyone has a lot on their plates. Monica and Quincy are working a lot. Dad has a lot to do with his conference and moving into his new office at work. Mom has incredible amounts of responsibility with work and church. Jason and Carey didn’t even have time to write me (not complaining, I understand life). I’ll be praying for everyone. Thanks for working so hard. Also, it seems like about 10 days ago all of my friends must have been super busy because I didn’t get a letter this week from anyone (not complaining I’m just saying...).

So don’t send the package to my address it Takaoka, send it to the mission home. I’m not sure if you should use the same address or not. You can just look at my call or whatever information we were given. Here is a story that might be offensive to people (maybe don’t send to grandparents). Toyama has an investigator and his name is ほりした in romaji it is horishita. It comes out to be Ho-ri-shi-ta. Hoe-ree (roll the r)-she-ta. He is hard to teach to say the least. I giggle after I say his name.

This week was good. I strove (I don’t think that’s an actual word) for 100 percent obedience and tried to work as hard as I could. I made some good progress in Portuguese. I know that this next week the Lord will put me where I need to be and I’m not too worried about it. I trust that He knows best. It might be tough but it will be good for me.

I love you all and will try to put together a more coherent email next week. I will continue to pray for you. Love you all.

Elder Hooton