Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Week 52

Hello World,

It has been a long time since I have composed one of these weekly messages. For now, it sufficeth me to say that much has transpired and that you will be privileged to hear about some of it if continue reading this email. Hopefully there is still a chance that I will be forgiven for my lack of writing and that I haven't caused anyone to take too much offense. I still love you all dearly.

The first thing on my mind right now is Christmas. With Christmas came the special opportunity to Skype my family for about 40 minutes. I say Skype, but that's only because it sounds better than saying 'video call'. We actually used Google Hangouts because I prefer it to Skype. So there. Anyway, we had a great discussion and really enjoyed hearing one another's voices for the first time since Mother's Day. At the end some of had eyes that became what some of my younger cousins might call 'juicy'. Others might have observed that we were suffering from allergies.

I got several presents from people in America. A lot more than I was expecting. I'm really grateful to everyone that did send me stuff. I felt the love as I opened everything up and read notes from people.

I ran twice this week. Elder Hall came to Iwaki for splits and has a similar best mile time to what I had. So we ran together both mornings that he was here.

On the subject of Iwaki, I guess that you all probably haven't heard yet (since I haven't yet told you) that that is my new place of residence. I transferred here about two weeks ago from the Mission Office. So now I'm an eighth transfer missionary and I've been in six different areas. Maybe I'll stay here for a while. Maybe not. But I do quite like Iwaki based on what I've seen so far. We have really nice branch members and this is the warmest area in the mission. It's affectionately referred to as 'Hawaii' by missionaries who are familiar with the weather or have had the opportunity to serve in this branch. It's not actually warm. But I haven't seen snow since I've been here, so I guess an accurate description of the weather would be 'a little bit less cold than everywhere else in the mission'.

My new companion is Elder Warner. He's from somewhere in Utah. He's been in Japan about six months longer than me and is half Japanese. His Grandpa lives in this mission and Elder Warner got the opportunity to meet him a couple times. Pretty cool.

Something interesting that I've noticed recently is the fact that a lot of the missionaries in this mission are the oldest child in their respective families. I don't have real stats or anything like that, but I would say that probably 75% of the missionaries here are oldest children. The only reason I can think of to explain this phenomenon is that oldest children are way too prideful and they get sent to Japan to help them out with their pride issues. If you have another explanation that you'd like to share, please do so. I would enjoy hearing it.

I've thought quite a bit about my effectiveness as a missionary lately and ways that I can be more effective. A very obvious way is a drastic improvement in my Japanese speaking ability. But another thing that I've come to realize the importance of recently is talking about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Earth. As far as I know, our church is the only one that claims to have the complete gospel of Jesus Christ on the Earth. And that started with the appearance of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith. So my invitation to all of you is learn a little bit more about the restoration. Maybe read Joseph Smith History or have a discussion with your local missionaries. Missionaries are great resources, even if they are just some punk kids from Utah. They're punk kids with a purpose and a message that changes lives.

I love you all and hope you had a Merry Christmas. It's a very special opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

My next email will be in 2018,
Elder Mitchell

The pictures are of: 
 The temperature here in Hawaii.
 The bag of oranges that we received from the members.
Some noodles that I was very proud of. 



Week 51

I was thinking about what to send you in your Christmas package today and I went to a few different stores and I've decided that there isn't a whole lot of Japanese stuff in Japan. I couldn't find what I was looking for at all. I might have to just tell mom what I was looking for so that she can order it for you all on the internet because the one that I found was 1. Not terribly Japanesey 2. about twice as expensive as I wanted to pay for it and 3. Huge so that my package shipping costs would probably have tripled or quadrupled. So I gave up. Sorry. I'll just send the other little things that I have already. And maybe some other of my stuff that doesn't really fit conveniently in my bags.

Question:  What were you planning to get us? 
That is a good question. I was thinking about getting a shogi board but it seems like it might be a pretty involved sort of game. There were a couple versions that were fairly small and cheap, but those only had the kanji written on them and not the move options. I figured that I didn't even want to figure out those kanji and their respective move capabilities so you all probably didn't want to either. But the ones that did have the move options on them were way big. So I'm sort of at a loss. Ordering it on the internet wouldn't quite be the same and I don't actually know how to play shogi.
I'm also sorry that I haven't sent anything already. Last transfer was a little bit hard to do anything on Pday because some other missionaries were pretty intent on doing things like shopping at malls, eating at super-fancy restaurants, and laying in their futons.

But I did get the 12 Days of Christmas that you sent me!! I've already eaten some of the granola and fig bars. And we had Day 2 for lunch the other day. :) I actually didn't get the package until probably Friday or Saturday, whichever the 16th was, so I got to open the first three days at the same time. My most recent one this morning was the hot cocoa. Yesterday was the taco seasoning. And I didn't even look at the customs declaration. I taped over it. Someone should be proud of me. :) I've also gotten packages from Grandma and from the Mellor's. I'm feeling the love. :)

I am currently in the warmest area in the mission. It is known by some as "Hawaii". It's not terribly warm. Being in our mission makes it still colder than all of the areas in Tokyo, Tokyo South, Kobe, Nagoya, and Fukuoka missions. But that's okay. It supposedly doesn't really snow here.

I love you the most and I think that the latest plan is to call at around 11am my time which I think would be 6pm your time. That would be the 26th for me and the 25th for you. I'll probably use google hangouts again. I think Skype is a little questionable.

Ben


 The tape over the customs declaration. 
Cooking the noodles you sent me for lunch.





Week 50

Hello Mommy,

I have not yet gotten a package from you although I did get one from Levan. I think that I'll probably just open one (present) a day since that's what it sounds like I'm supposed to do. I would believe that you had a lot of fun putting stuff in my package. And I think it's funny that Amy thought you could fit "just one more thing". I'm pretty familiar with that line of thinking. I used it plenty when I wanted to eat more than I could fit on my plate with just one level of food. :)

I'm not quite sure how I feel about transferring again. My first one-transfer area was quite the surprise because I thought that didn't really happen. But I'll be an eighth transfer missionary in my sixth area. One of our current APs who will be dying this transfer only has five areas... Hmmm.

I'm not in Iwaki yet. I'm supposed to train the new commissarian tomorrow and head to Iwaki after that. I've seen my new comp a few times and he seems like a pretty nice guy. Also Sister Lor who was in my MTC district is in Iwaki, so that will be fun.

I think the plan is for us to call on your Christmas.

I love you the most,
Ben

Hours later. . .
This is your favorite missionary speaking. I'm in the middle of a van on the way to a restaurant which is apparently twice as expensive as the one from last week. Elder Sato wanted to go out with a bang on his last pday. So we're going to some all-you-can-eat place that's apparently famous among missionaries. It makes me wonder a little bit how missionaries can justify eating out this much. I suppose eating fancy food is one of the quickest ways to feel joy as a missionary.

I bought some fancy thermal stuff today. It's a few weeks late, but it seems to be some pretty high quality stuff. I might not freeze to death now. That would be good.

I'm moving to Iwaki tomorrow. I'll probably finish packing tonight.

I was pretty impressed by Anna's gymnastics. That was pretty legit. I wouldn't mind learning how to do fancy stuff like that. Maybe Anna will teach me when I get back. :)

This restaurant is really far away.

I'm really excited to Skype in just a couple weeks. I think I told mom, but it might be good if you all made a list of things that you want to talk about. We don't need a program or anything, but just a couple things that we for sure want to talk about would be good.

For some reason I thought I had sent this already but it was still in my drafts box rather than the sent one.

I love you the most,
Ben

Week 49

Hello family,

I'm in the back of a corolla with two other elders. I think that puts about 470 pounds in the back seat. And the two in the front are probably about 400 together. There's not a whole lot of air in this car right now. It's pretty full of young men.

Now I'm waiting to get a haircut. I'll probably go for 15mm again. I quite like short hair.

We find out transfers tomorrow. Since I live with the APs I have heard a little bit about it. They don't say a whole lot, but they seem to be pretty excited about it, so there might be some crazy stuff happening. You'll probably find out on Facebook before I email you again next week.

I have some pictures from last week when we went to the zoo. Or I thought I did. I have some grossly expensive (but delicious) katsu and the bottom of our fridge before we cleaned it out.

The whole mission is going to Misawa tonight and staying on the base with American members. I'm pretty excited. I was only there for one transfer, but I haven't gone back to any of my areas since I've left them. And English class in Misawa is tonight too, and one of my favorite people will probably be there. I did watch a few of the videos (Light the World) though and if I remember right my favorite ones were 6 and 8. 6 is the pole one that you recommended to me I think. I don't remember what 8 is right now. It just sounds like the sort if number that might be one of my favorites.

I love you the most,
Ben



Sunday, December 3, 2017

Week 48

Hello World,

I had two Thanksgiving dinners this week. One very Japanese one put on by the ward here, and another mostly American one put on by the senior couple in the office with the best they could get at Costco. Both were very good.

I also had an interview with my mission president this morning. Last night I made a bit of an attempt to guess at the things that he would say and some of the ways that I might respond. I think I'll share a couple of those here.
Things I thought President would say:
Hello, how are you?
Carry on my wayward son
You are loved
Let it go
Don't stop believin'
If you need me call me

Things that I planned to say:
I just wanna run
All my friends are heathens
I've got oceanfront property
I am a Child of God

That's basically how the interview went. As you can all see, I was exposed to a rather wide variety of music before my mission. Maybe that makes me a cultured individual. Maybe not.

We went to the zoo today for district P-day this afternoon. It was pretty fun to walk around the zoo with our group of nine missionaries, eight of whom were from somewhere in America. I think that we had the most fun at the monkey exhibit. I might get the pictures that the sisters took at English class tonight and send them in next week's email. Today all you get is the selfie I'm about to take. Sorry. I really need to be better about picture taking.

Lots of love,
Elder Mitchell


Week 47

Hello World,

Some of you are already aware of this fact, but my favorite number is 47. If you didn't know you can now consider yourself informed. :)

This week I learned that Costco can be ordered online and dropped off at our mission office. All I can say about that is that it blew my mind. I can't think of very many things cooler than Costco ordered on the internet. One would be Koenigsegg's fancy pneumatic valve system, and another would be the brand-new kerosene stove that we got for our apartment this week, but that's all I've got.

This transfer is a short one. It's only five weeks. So with the recent pace of my transfer calls that means that I just have three more weeks until I get a new area. Lol hopefully I stay here for longer than that.

I'm starting to settle in as an office worker. I'm not totally caught up yet but I'm close. For some reason there was a huge flood of missionary orders, phone problems, and a couple other miscellaneous things that came in the first week I was here. And I didn't really know how to take care of any of it. But I think I've mostly learned now.

I don't think that I've really said anything about my new companions yet. Elder Ito used to do some hip-hop dancing and karate before the mission. Elder Nathan enjoys eating and is about 6'4". He is very talented at playing the piano and can supposedly play the viola very well too. I'll attach a picture of the three of us today.

Love you all,
Elder Mitchell