July 4, 2010

Dear Family,

Well darn, I actually don’t think I have a lot to say this week and I don’t have a lot I can reply to. I assume more letters are being written right now because I came a little early this week and Hooton’s tend to wait until the last minute to do stuff.

After emailing last week we went and did some shopping. I wrote Kaden a letter that he better

appreciate because it took me two hours. I was then excited to go take a nap then I heard Elder

Wilson’s watch beep from the Futon room and I realized it was 6:00. It was okay though because

we then went to ward sports night. It was way fun. The two Japanese Elders from Numazu came

and there ended up being like 16 people there. The biggest down side though was that it was not

air conditioned. It was incredibly hot. My hands and feet started to get wrinkly (like when you are swimming too long) because I couldn’t find anything dry to wipe my hands on. I even carry around a towel with me and that got too wet as well. Another drawback was that this member who married an American (who was also there) brought her little sister and her friend. I played semi-organized volleyball for the first time in my life I think. It wasn’t really fair because it was in Japan. When I jumped my face went above the net. Luckily I only got spiked in the face once. (It went onto the other side though score one Tyler’s nose). I slept well that night (after I rung out my skin like a sham wow). I think my descriptive writing is getting better. Sister Clemens would be proud of me.

Last P-day Elder Wilson got his haircut and a dude was paying for his haircut and I said suteki na..(I realized I didn’t know the word for haircut) so essentially I said, “that’s a good looking” I think he understood what I was trying to say. He spoke a little bit of English to me and then we started talking about sports and he said that he is a kick boxer. I told him that my friend getting his haircut was into MMA. He gave me his card and we met him later that week. He showed us a boxing gym in Fuji. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet some younger people there and talk to them. We have enough old people investigators right now we need young priesthood holders. The dude doesn’t have a lot of potential. He just couldn’t comprehend not drinking alcohol. Literally he couldn’t. He kept saying, “not even a little?” He was fun to talk to though.

We also went into a big cultural center last week to try to find people. They always have concerts

and stuff. We went into an art gallery and we were just walking around and a guy came up to us and started trying to speak English with us. We talked to him about some of the paintings. He said that he studied the Bible in Japanese and English and he loves to study stuff in both languages. We continued to walk around. He asked us how each pictures made us feel (most of them were of Mt. Fuji and the area around it). We then go to a nude painting and we tried to just hurry along but he asked us what we thought. It was quite awkward. We just made statements like. It’s a woman...she’s naked. Anyway, we went back yesterday (Sunday) and found him again (he was the artist of some of the paintings so he was there all the time) and we gave him a Book of Mormon in English and Japanese. He was super excited and asked if we had meetings. We gave him our flier and he even wrote down the day and time of our sacrament meeting (it’s the last hour here). So that was a good experience. It’s fun finding the people that are prepared.

So the biggest event of the last week was “Meet the Baird Family” taikai (conference). It was pretty scary because we heard a lot of stuff before hand because we were the last conference to be held so stuff leaked in from other parts of the mission. Things are totally different but luckily it comes from the Prophet and not from President Baird. Less people are upset that way. So we only have zone conference once a quarter and we have interviews once a quarter. Also, all leadership positions will have 4 day training sessions every other month for the next little while and they implement a new curriculum. It’s way intense. They made new “District videos.” They are videos of real lessons with real investigators. We had seen some from before (I had to watch them before I went into the MTC) but this time they are to show bad examples and stuff. We only watched one at the conference but it was really painful. One investigator thought he couldn’t go on dates for a long time.

President Baird is (as every missionary will describe him) an intense person. He yells....a lot. He

is passionate to say the least. I’m okay with it. I can handle stuff like that. He had me stand up

and read a bunch of stuff. He was yelling and crying at one point. He kept asking me questions. It

was interesting. I started to become good friends with him after the conference. He was a Human Resources Consultant (I think). So I was lucky to have him take interest in my father’s job prior to my mission. I told him that dad was an instructional designer. I shared some of my thoughts on the new training that will be happening in the mission and quoted some statistics that dad said all the time. He put his hand on my shoulder and whispered to me (also like he was crying) “your father is a brilliant man. He can teach you how to be an extraordinary missionary. Listen to every word that he tells you.” I said, “I’ve recently realized that. I only wish that I could have known that through my teenage years.” I like the man a lot. I think we will get along well. I don’t have any problems with his authority. He will be a lot different but I think he will be really good for the mission.

I’ll respond to people’s letters now. They were all great. I miss my mother a lot. I’m glad to hear her personality come through her emails. I’m glad that she can be enduring work and stuff well. Monica and Quincy’s letters are always funny. I think Quincy makes his letters extra formal for me so that maybe my English doesn’t go to crap as fast (it’s pretty badly written but I think I can speak it all right). Dad, your’s was good as well. I’m learning to just take your advice.

Dad’s story about celebrating his release was funny. Seems like same old Dad. President Griffin and the Bishop sound like the same old people, witty in their own ways. I should write one of them a letter or something huh? Tell them sorry about that.

Jacob your tennis camp will be great. You’ll make tons of friends. Trust your older brother and strive for the same goals as him. First talk with everyone. Don’t be scared to open your mouth. Second move your mouth when you talk and enunciate. Third, don’t look at girls and focus on the reason you are where you are (I think that was some pretty solid advice).

I bought brownies last week even though I didn’t get dad’s note. It was like $5 at a shop in Shizuoka. They are Betty Crocker. I couldn’t pass it up. I’m also quite rich here (for the time being) so I might as well use my money for what I have it for...food.

My companion, Elder Wilson is the same transfer as my trainer, Elder Insch. They will go home in February, so he is essentially just a year older than me on the mission. He also went in a little bit after his birthday so we are the same age as well. He did a lot of MMA. He is from Oregon. He wants to be a Navy SEAL when he gets back.

Debate camp sounds fun. It’s really sad that I don’t get to go. It was way fun with Quincy last time. It sounds like some people were probably upset because the president of Japan stepped down not too long ago for the base here in Japan. Thanks for telling me the topic

Love, Tyler