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

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

Week 46

Week 46:
I'm now in the mission office. It's a blast. We just took a picture. It's a little blurry. Also I didn't pose very well for it. I'm actually in a trio right now but only one of my comps was in the picture because the other one was busy. So Elder Dance bravely served in his place. I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Mitchell

Excerpts from a letter to the family:
Being the commissarian is interesting. I updated the phonebook this week with a file that I was given from the previous commissarian but it had a few problems with it. And then the program that we use to update was being a little finicky too. And a few missionaries messed it up on their individual phones so I had to resend it to each of them individually. It was a little inconvenient and I still have several things to do to fix it this week. Today is P-day so I don't have to do anything today, but it will probably take several hours this week. And I'm way behind on sending out missionary orders. I'll probably survive though.

I'm currently in the back of a corolla with four other missionaries. According to my best estimate, our combined weight is about 860 pounds. It's pretty fun. I'm in the back middle. We're on our way to some mall somewhere so that a couple Elders can go shopping. You can imagine that I won't be participating. For one I don't have any money and for two I don't hate myself. I don't know why people like shopping. It's okay though. I can still be friends with people that do like shopping.

We are in Aeon mall. I am sitting on a bench waiting for one of the Elders to finish shopping . . . .

I'm about 15 pounds lighter than I was when I left the MTC. It's only half by choice. Eating in Japan is very difficult.

I have a bed. It's pretty okay.

I spend a decent amount of money on Apple juice.

I don't know if I can be friends with shoppers anymore. We've been inside this mall a really long time. And there's no Wi-Fi.

I remember why I don't go shopping.

I might actually die if we don't leave this mall within the next 30 seconds. I think I'll have to hire a fashion person to go shopping for me when I get back too. This is unbelievable. Stores are the worst.

We are out of the mall. It's 4:45. I don't want to say it was a day wasted (yes I do), but we did absolutely nothing.

Back in the apartment. Finally. It's almost 5:30. I think mom wanted to hear about my area, comp, and something else but I don't remember what. My area is good. My comp is funny.

I love you the most,
Ben

Week 45

There was a bit of a disagreement between my mother and I about what week I'm on. She thinks I'm still on week 45. :)

Anyway, this week was transfer calls and I'm transferring again. Yes, this will be my fifth area. And yes I will be a seventh transfer missionary. And yes that is a little bit strange. Usually missionaries stick around for a while in each area. But it's okay. I'll be working in the mission office so I'll get to party with the mission president and the senior couple that work there on the daily! This will be my first experience working in an office, so I guess I'll get to see whether or not it's anything like the TV show that I watched so much of with my roommates at BYU. :)

The highlight of this week was our meeting with the other American missionary couple. It was a little bit of a challenge to control the balance of the conversation because they had so much that they wanted to say, but in the end we got in a quick explanation of The Book of Mormon and a commitment to read it. They didn't go for a return appointment (I think partly because they're scared that if they meet with us again they'll want to join our church:)), but they said they'd keep our phone number. Either way, it was my last time meeting with them since I'm going to Nagamachi. But it was a really good opportunity to help them understand a little bit about how our church is different. And if they really do read The Book of Mormon with a sincere heart and real intent then they'll know it's true like I do.

We also got an announcement from the mission office saying that we should throw away the old pillows in our apartments and they'll give us new ones. That's a well past-due announcement. Some of the pillows look like they might have needed replacing 25 years ago. :)

Lots of love,
Elder Mitchell

A picture of a car held together with zip-ties. I think I can sort of picture in my mind's eye the look that he was going for, but I think he missed it. In more places than the zip-ties. Maybe if we talk to him we can convince him of the need to repent. :)