September 19, 2010

Dear Family,

Well I think it will be hard to email this transfer. Elder Momose, my companion, is already done and I just finished reading the letters. This week was way hard. There are a lot of barriers with opening a new area and having a Japanese companion. We’ve made due though.

Tuesday I got up and went to Nagoya with most of my zone. We were way late because of mess ups on train times and lazy missionaries. We showed up a little late for the training but luckily it hadn’t started yet. So I ate at 7:00 am that morning and didn’t get to eat until about 8:00 that night. I assumed Elder Momose and I would be going to Fukui that night but unfortunately no one told us we would be staying in Nonami that night which is about 40 minutes away from Nagoya. We were there with a missionary that I knew in the MTC who is one transfer older than me and then my old MTC companion and the missionary that he is training (it was his area). They had no idea would be going back with them to their area (neither did we). Their area got a new apartment recently so they only have two futons. So we took the blankets and laid them across the floor so all five of us had something to lay on. To say the least no one really slept that night.

The next day we had to go back to Nagoya because we had to meet Elder Brown and Sister Tsukino so we could all go to Kanazawa (about an hour past Fukui, we went through Fukui to get there). We started our trek and found out that we had to wait two hours for a train to leave the Nagoya station that would go all the way to Kanazawa. I wanted to eat at someplace cheap like McDonalds but we ended up eating at a more expensive Roman place (it doesn’t fill you up). We took the train all the way to Kanazawa. I wanted to sit next to Sister Tsukino because her Japanese is so much easier to understand and I would have plenty of time to talk with Elder Momose over the length of a transfer. I also didn’t want to use up conversation topics too quickly. I ended up sitting with Elder Brown. There are two Elder Browns and he is referred to as, “the talking Brown.” He talks a ton and talks about stuff I don’t want to talk about either. I just didn’t have any interest in Japanese cartoons.

Anyway, we finally arrived and dropped them off and then went back to Fukui where we couldn’t find the apartment. I got directions from Elder Wilson before I left and it was “take a right and you’ll see a yellow building.” He was the only person to give me directions. We eventually found it and walked into a dump. Most of the appliances were broken (intentionally I think). We also didn’t have any gas. I started to clean up. We got a notice that they tried to drop off my luggage but we weren’t there. We called them and it turns out we were just barely too late to get it that night. We had the gas guy come so we had hot water and stuff and then we did a little planning and we were getting ready to get some sleep when the Ward Mission Leader called and dropped off some rice. He then left and came back and said the Bishop was in a meeting at the church which was close so we went and met him before finally going back to the apartment and going to sleep.

We tried to do work for the next couple of days but we live in the city and no member live around us and we didn’t get Elder Momose’s bike until yesterday afternoon so we couldn’t really do a whole lot except just walking. My Japanese is terrible by the way. One night we did meet with the Ward Mission Leader and he had a really bad “why even bother”* attitude. So our first objective is to get the members more excited. Now that we finally have bikes we are starting to visit them. We were also blessed with a referral from Tokyo and Elder Momose just got off the phone with her and it sounded alright. That was a huge blessing.

Things are going alright. I wish I could write more but I feel bad making Elder Momose stay here (and pay more) when he isn’t doing anything. Also, I guess we worked too hard yesterday because he slept in today and I was getting a little angry until he got up and went into the bathroom for a while and he was throwing up. I guess I need to slow it down a little. Things are going alright though. It will get dang cold here eventually. I’ll just have to endure though. I’m going to just have to call that good for this week. I’m doing well. Just keep praying for me. I’m starting to lose my hair I’m so stressed.

Everyone have a good week. I miss English a lot. Luckily in our four man district there is someone that speaks English. He was pretty annoying though. Oh well, I should be more positive. I love you all. Don’t worry about me just pray for me. Have a good week.

Love Tyler