May 2, 2011

Dear Family,
This week was a good week. We have a whopping total of 0 investigators (as of last night our only one dropped). That’s a little rough but I still have a really good feeling about this area and I think a lot will start to happen. It’s kind of difficult being with 4 people and the ward has had some bad experiences with missionaries that didn’t know how to create good relationships. So that’s our main objective for now. If we can get the members onboard with our ideas then it will be really easy to get Yokkaichi to be a thriving area.

We spent most of the week visiting members and less active members. One funny woman was Naito Shimai. We rode an hour to her house in the mountains and it was up and down, up and down the whole way. We hit 46 km/hr at one point. It was fun going up the hills though. You feel an accomplishment when you can glide down and you get to see all of the work you put into go up the hill. Also, it is making my legs a lot bigger which I’m happy about. So we get to her house and we were fasting but she was like “Oh you can just have some of this food.” “I won’t tell anyone.” “How about some skittles?” I want to know where the heck she found skittles. It was way funny and then she told us that she drinks tea and coffee because she realized that they are healthy for her. She was a little crazy but her and her non-member husband were really nice and they gave us a bunch of food to take home. They were really fun to meet with.

While she was making food for us to take home she left us in her living room with these giant windows that overlooked their nice garden. The husband came in and turned on a baseball game and told us to watch it and then left to work in the garden. So since I hate baseball and didn’t consider it too much of a sin to watch I decided it was okay. Elder Flint being from Australia has never played it and wanted me to explain it to him. I saw it as a good opportunity to build our relationship so I explained baseball and all of the facts that I’ve overheard from the years and years of endlessly watching and listening to Jacob ramble. It was a pretty fun experience and it helped put both of us in a better mood because it had been a hard day.

I hear if you get a full set of the original Pokémon starter sets which I think we have at home and they are in good condition you can sell them for $400 dollars on ebay. Jacob and Jason should look into that. It would be a sweet way to save for your mission or to buy Tyler a PS3 when he gets home.

I’m doing pretty well this week. The weather is helping me sleep a lot more. I’ve slept incredibly well this past week. I didn’t know I could sleep that well. The only thing is that when it starts to get hotter I’ll always feel drained during the day. Heat + Curry = Slow. It’s nice though.

I have one last favor for mom and dad and the bank account that is supporting me on my mission. I need short sleeve shirts now. I am dying. I thought I had 4 or 5 good ones but for some reason they got ruined when I stored them. I even took care of them but I don’t know if I’ll be able to find any here. It’s expensive and I don’t know if I can find some that fit me. Also, I need maybe 4 or 5 things of deodorant and 4 or 5 things of toothpaste and one more toothbrush and I swear I’ll be set for the rest of my mission. I’d be really happy if this was my last package. I think that’s all I will need.

So I think I’m the new Zone Leader here in Nagoya 2. There is training for District Leaders and Zone Leaders starting tomorrow and my name got added to the list at the last second. Everyone thinks it’s because they sent back a bunch of Tokyo missionaries today so right now we only have 1 Zone Leader and I think I’ll be getting a call sometime today or tomorrow. So that’s cool I guess. I like not having any responsibilities though.
Love, Tyler