Week 43

Ladies and gentlemen,

The week counter on my emails is pretty close to the percentage of my mission that I've completed. So at 44% I guess I'm almost half done. That's weird.

This week we had zone conference and mission president interviews. At zone conference we got new nametags. Our mission president decided that having our nametags written in Japanese was counter-productive so he got us all English ones.

We also had a really good after-baptism lesson with our recent convert, Brother Takuto. Brother Konno, a super cool member in the ward, joined with us on it, and we had a really good restoration discussion. This same recent convert has also talked to a friend of his at college and they will be coming together to a fireside this week. We're pretty excited to see how much interest his friend has in learning about the gospel.

Have a great week and share the gospel with a friend!

Lots of love,
Elder Mitchell

For P-day, we went on some island somewhere and one of the sisters took a lot of pictures. I might get them eventually. I took one. For some reason I couldn't really get the running pose right. I guess I haven't had enough practice running. We also went to a little Ramen shop. It was okay. Nothing worth writing home about... lol

 (Ben's picture was in response to this one his sisters sent him 

from Seaside, Oregon, a few weeks ago.)

Week 42

Hello world,

It has been a little while since the world has had a confirmation of my existence. In fact, I think it may have been three weeks. I'm sorry about that. Fortunately, not a whole lot has happened over the last three weeks, so there's not a whole lot that I need to write. :)

I am now in Izumi which is an area in Sendai. I think that Sendai might be comparable in size to Seattle. I'm not exactly sure though. Anyway, there are several times more people here than there were in Misawa, Miyako, or Hirosaki. So that's good I suppose. The pace of life is quite a lot faster here.

I also have a new companion. He's half Japanese, but speaks it natively. His English is really good, but obviously not his first language. He's a really funny guy and a really hard worker. He's actually a really old missionary and will be dying after next transfer. So the middle of December I think.

Something of note: the apartment that I currrently reside in has a three-part mirror so the two sides fold out. So this means that I can look in the mirror and see myself from three different angles! I really appreciate it. Maybe a little too much. :)

I love you all,
Elder Mitchell

The pictures:

Hot dogs that were given to us by a member.

All of the really cheap juice that I bought last week. We ran out on 

Sunday so it's been a juice drought for the last two days.

I'm not generally a soccer (or football) fan, but the inside 

of a track should be green. This is a screenshot 

from google maps of a track near where I live.

And the mirror that brings me joy. . .

Week 41

Some highlights of the week,

There was a soup party sort of thing with the ward on some island. It was pretty dang good soup. :)
On the way back from the soup there was a Ferrari dealer. And a couple businesses down was Triumph motorcycles. And next door to that was Porsche. That was fun. Also I saw a Ferrari on the road the other day.
I've only been here a couple weeks and I've already made an appearance at five or six different restaurants.
There is a store of peanut butter in this apartment.
I have a brand new bike right now.
General conference.
I'm over halfway on my next piano song.

There were some pretty seriously good talks this conference. Like maybe more than I ever remember hearing at one time. That could be because I was paying closer attention, but I'm going to stick with the former option I think. :) If I had to choose one idea that was my favorite from the whole conference it would be from the eclipse talk. He said something along the lines of "Even good things, if you hold them too close to your eyes can block out the light of the Gospel". Also Aunt Katie sent me some really good pictures this week which are impossible to not smile at. And I took some pictures in the last couple weeks too.

I love you the most,
Elder Mitchell

 Pictures from Aunt Katie that were impossible not to smile at. . .

 The cinnamon rolls from a member which conveniently appear 

to be inside my stomach due to the reflection in the microwave.

 A bandaid from my blood test.

 A ramen shop.

Week 40

Greetings family,

I see that you found a picture of me on Facebook. That's pretty fun. I got to this area and was asked to perform the baptism and I was like 'Huh. The first that my family will hear about this will probably be the mission newsroom'. I guess I was right. How smart I am. :)

I was asked by some interested parties for some details on how the baptism went, and I can't say that I have very many details besides that the water wasn't quite as warm as it was when we finished filling up the font (In fact it was quite a lot less warm). Brother Takuto is a bro, and we went to get curry afterwards. Also, a member gave us about $30 because he said that he wanted to go eat with us but was busy. That was pretty cool. :) Brother Takuto is the guy that just got baptized on Saturday. He met with missionaries for the first time in January. 

Also of note is the fact that this area has a ward, rather than a branch. I'm in Sendai right now (which is a city-unlike the other places I've been living lately) so there are actually people here. Which is very nice. I think I'll come to like the change. :)

I love you all 5000000,
Elder Mitchell

Questions:  What is your new apartment like? Do you feel like you are living in down town Seattle? What is the area like as far as talking to people? How is the new ward?

Answers: The new apartment has a very strange setup and is a little small. It's on the first floor though which is great because that means that we don't have any downstairs neighbors.  I feel like I haven't spent very much quality time in downtown Seattle, but probably something like that yeah. There are a lot of people. And some of them talk. The new ward is super nice.

The pictures/caption below were taken from the Japan Sendai Mission Newsroom on Facebook.
9月30日、仙台ステーク泉ワードで大学生がバプテスマを受けました。今まで教えてきたのは、マーシャル長老、クロスビー長老、ペイン長老、メイソン長老、ミッチェル長老です。
A college student was baptized at Izumi Ward on September 30th. He has been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ by Elder Marshall, Elder Myers, Elder Crosby, Elder Payne, Elder Mason and Elder Mitchell.   #sendaimissionbaptism

Week 39

Greetings,

This week we received our transfer calls and I'm going to Izumi!!!! It's one of the areas in Sendai, so that will definitely be quite a change from what I've been working with up until now. Supposedly, I'll actually have people to talk to when I walk the streets. That will be fun. I'll also have a native Japanese-speaking companion, so hopefully I'll be able to get a better grip on this language.

I'm sort of at a loss for what to do with my new Facebook privileges. If anyone has any suggestions for a missionary on how to use Facebook in order to invite people to come unto Christ, I would be glad to hear them at bdmitchell@myldsmail.net or on Facebook messenger. :)

Have a great week,
Elder Mitchell