Week 13

Hello world,

Pday has come again. I'm sure that you've all been dying to hear from me.

This week was pretty okay. We had quite a bit of traveling. We went to Sendai on Tuesday for the second orientation meeting which meant about a four and a half hour bus ride each way. So we actually had to wake up about an hour early, and because the bus coming back was a couple minutes slow we got back after 9:30 which is the latest we're supposed to be out if we have a lesson (We're not actually awful disobedient missionaries... or at least we weren't at that point. The zone leaders told us it was okay :)). So that was interesting. Then Wednesday we went to Aomori for interviews and that was about a 45 minute train ride. Then again on Thursday we went back to Aomori for zone conference.

Funny story about the long bus ride on Tuesday: it was really hot. Outside it was within a couple degrees of freezing, but we still got ice cream at both rest stops. It was bad. We were basically sweating out of every pore. I'm not sure how all of the Japanese people handled it. A lot of them still had jackets on. I'm not exactly an expert on temperatures and things of that nature, but it had to be between 85 and 1,000,000 Fahrenheit. Probably closer to 1,000,000.

This week we were taken out to eat by a sister in the branch who's husband isn't a member. He was a really nice guy, but he doesn't seem that interested in the church right now. I'm sure it was good for him to talk with us though. We just shared a short scripture and testified about it. Maybe he'll eventually decide that he wants to take the lessons. That would be pretty cool.

We also went to Mr. Donuts after interviews on Wednesday which was pretty fun. There will be a picture of that attached. I also took a picture of my bike that I get to use for this area. And the last one is an Elder from my home stake in WA. He's been out for about a year and a half already, but we're in the same zone right now. The picture is from zone conference.

I love you all,
Elder Mitchell

 Mine is the bike closest to the camera.

 Elder Mitchell and Elder Steven Matthews from Lake Sawyer Ward in our Stake in WA.

 The donuts were pretty okay.

English Class topic board: We do a few English classes. There's the regular one and kids one that both happen on Wednesday nights. Then we have an advanced one on Saturdays. We usually have a 'warm up' where we just have questions on the board and go around the room and answer them in English. Then there's maybe a pronunciation activity or something like that. And then sometimes a game like telephone. Then we fill up the rest of the time with whatever people want to take from the topic board or anything else they want to talk about. Then at the end we have spiritual thought. It's open to whoever wants to come, but at advanced we currently have two regulars and a new guy, at the regular one there are usually about six, and there are usually two or three kids that come to that one. 

A picture of the fancy toilets they have here.