Week 25

Hello world,

I suppose some of you may have assumed that I was dead after going two
straight weeks without receiving any communication from me. Or perhaps
that I no longer loved you. But fortunately I am still alive and I
still love you all.

So first I guess it would be appropriate to explain the rather long
vacation that I took from emailing. As a missionary in Japan I've had
a Samsung Galaxy tablet that, until about two and a half weeks ago, I
emailed from every week. I loved that tablet. But it seems to have
died slightly. On the day of it's passing I had been using it as I
normally did, had set it down for a moment to do something else, and
came back to a non-functional tablet. I tried several different
troubleshooting methods, but to no avail. It was not saved. I believe
that it's currently somewhere in the US on it's way to a Samsung plant
where they will rip it apart and diagnose the reason for it's death.
But until then I have an Apple iPad that was lent to me by the
mission. I'm not really enjoying the learning curve after having
already figured out how to use the Samsung, but I'll probably survive.

So I don't recall exactly what I talked about in last update, but I
guess there are a few things that I can talk about. One of the members
in my current branch is an Indonesian lady that apparently has more
money than she knows what to do with. And she loves the missionaries.
So she has taken us out to eat probably 6-8 times in the four weeks
that I've been here so far. And she takes us to some pretty nice
restaurants too. It's a bit of a luxury. :)

Also worth mentioning is the fact that last transfer was only three
weeks because of the upcoming change in mission president's that I
believe happens at the beginning of July. So that makes my current
transfer nine weeks and it means that I'll be killing Elder Reber. For
those of you who are not familiar with the ins and outs of missionary
life, that just means that my companion will have completed his two
years of service and will be returning to America. There actually
won't be anyone dying... probably. :)

That may be all that I have to say this week, so I guess I'll leave
you all there. I love you all and hope that you all have a great week.

Keep up the good work,
Elder Mitchell

A couple of pictures:

One that I got of my comp at our house the day that I got the loaner I-pad.

 One of me on the way back from a service project in front of a rather

fabulous parking spot marker. The kanji after his name is basically

just an honorific "Mr". But we decided that the owner of that parking

spot must just be a young single male who skips leg day and replaces

it with chest day. We're rather interested to find out what kind of

car he drives.

 And now a couple that I took just now. You'd think that I'd have more

pictures after three weeks of now sending any, but my old tablet also

served as my camera, and not having it meant that I didn't take any

pictures.

The pink circles are pointing out how chubby my cheeks have

gotten since being in Japan. I've actually lost some weight since the

MTC, but I guess all of the rice is starting to catch up to me. :(

A tidbit from the family letter that gives a glimpse into life in Japan. . .

So I don't have a whole lot of interesting things to say at the
moment. I guess I don't really remember what you know. I remember that
a while ago the shower ran out of gas while I was in it and it went
from a little over 40 degrees Celsius to what I can only guess was
about 40 degrees Fahrenheit in about 12 seconds. 

When asked if the water heater had it's own gas tank. . . It does indeed have its own tank and we have to fill it up from some other tanks that we have. We just siphon it out of those little five gallon gas tanks. I think it's kerosene that it runs on. I actually haven't had to fill it up yet.