9/27/10

Hey Mom and Dad,

Its good to hear from you guys again! I've decided not to send you guys airmail anymore and just stick with emails from now on because the stamp prices are ridiculous here! 120 yen for one! Well anyways everything is going well here. This past week has been pretty fun actually. Asahi bike store finally got my extra large bike in after a weekish so now I can actually get around places much faster. Our area is actually pretty huge, it takes about an hour to get from the top to the bottom with a bike. We still haven`t hit all there areas yet because we tend to stay on the train line that goes straight through the city because that`s where most of the people are during the day.
For dendoing this week, we were able to find about 10 new investigators streeting and housing but only a few the investigators are actually progressing and keeping the commitments. But... its okay because we can find so many more investigators this week! Everyday Elder Hinton and I are finding a bunch of people to talk to. The daily breakdown of the people we talk in a percentage is about: 70% not interested, 15% willing to listen, 5% willing to meet again and about 10% insane. I feel that the 10% of insane people is what spices up my day. Haha I love talking to crazy people! But I love teaching lessons more! New investigators are always great and progressing investigators are even better. Well other than that, every week we have free English classes where a bunch of people come. Teaching them English is so much fun! A lot of them are actually pretty good at English as well. We meet a bunch of potential investigators there too.
Oh snap! I didn`t know Sister Mcyntire and Emiko san (my mother-in-law) knew each other! I seriously can`t believe how small the world is though. Turns out this one couple in my ward is one of my friend`s parents! His name is Koji Takagai and he used to live in Heritage Halls with me. He told me that he used to live in Kobe and told Pres Mcyntire that I was coming to. But who would have known I`d be his parent`s ward missionary in Okamachi! AANNNNDDD one of the sister`s in my area used to be companions with Emma too. I still haven`t seen Emma though, maybe at zone meeting!
Well anyways, I`m lovin the good old dendo! Its so much fun meeting a bunch of new and interesting people. I love teaching people when I get the chance too. Elder Hinton and I are gonna rebuild this area! I`m trying my hardest to be a more effective missionary everyday too! Sank juu berry much for all the advice mom. I`ll try to avoid running over homeless people with my bike from now own. Because you know, I loved doing that all the time. Well I love all of you! Except Rupert. I still hate you. Be safe family, I`ll talk to you next week!

Love ya,
Elder Saito


Note: To those of you who didn't understand the "running over homeless people part"-my mom has a guy in one of her classes that had to come home from his mission because he got seriously injured after hitting a homeless man on his bike and flying out onto the sidewalk.

9/19/10

Hey Dad and Mom,

Things are going really well here! I was moved to Okamachi area in Osaka after the dendobu and I'm living in an apartment with 3 other elders. My companion's name is Elder Hinton. He's actually a really good guy and hard worker from Oregon and we get along well. The place I'm in is a relatively large city and there are a lot of people to talk to here! It's kinda hard because we're the first elders in this area in a while so we techinically have no investigators to really work with...but it's okay because we found 6 new investigators dendoing in the part 3 days! I'm not gonna lie, denoing is sometimes hard. There are some people in Japan who are so cold hearted and hard headed but at the same time there are a bunch of people who are willing to listen. Probably one of the hardest instances was when we were housing and met a really awesome kid who was pretty interesed in our message. We gave him a BOM and committed him to read and pray and he accepted it. When we were walking away from his house his dad came running to us and gave us back the BOM. The dad was really nice though but it was still hard to take back the book. Other than the hard instances I feel like dendoing in this city goes really well. There are a lot of people who will listen to you if you just strike up a natural conversation. I'm starting to feel a lot more confident in my Japanese so I have no problem contacting now.

So anyways, I tried buying a bike last week but turns out they had to special order a bike for me because I was too big for any of them in the store. Hopefully I get that bike by the end of this week. Bike dendo would be a lot more easier because we can cover more space in less time. Walking around the same area all the time sometimes get a bit hard at times...

I gotta go now but I hope everything is going well back at home! Don't worry about me, I'll be fine! I'll try to send you a letter by tomorrow but it'll take about a week to get there.

Love you guys! Except Rupert. I hate you,

Elder Saito

NEWS

We just found out through some connections (aka mother-in-law via further connections with mission president's wife) that Rex is in Okamachi. It's some city close to Osaka. COOL!!!

Email

Hey Mom!

The first day in Japan has gone pretty well. Today the weather is a bit cloudy and it actually feels pretty good. Its not as humid here as I thought it would be though. So yesterday all my plane rides were okay. And it turns out I didn't have to pay extra money for taking another carry on for JAL.LUCKY! JAL planes are so amazing though! they look as if they were straight out from a space craft. Anyways we arrived in Osaka around 8ish Tuesday night? President Mcyntire was there to pick us up with a bunch of vans. He's a really cool guy too! But we came to the mission home around 9 or 10ish. I was crazy tired because I'd been up for a while too. But we just ate a small dinner then went to the apartments that are right behind the church and slept. I slept like a baby! I haven't slept that good in a while.

Anyways in the morning we ! went on with personal studies and stuff until breakfast. After a little bit of orientation Pres Mcyntire took us out to a buffet. It was a really good all you can eat place with okura and stuff! It was a lot of fun. After we went for our first dendoing. I'll be honest, it was pretty scary at first. My trainer just let me go throughout the streets and stuff. But I remembered what you said and just smiled and said hello to everyone. I was able to hand out 5 pass along cards and two Book of Mormons. It was actually really really fun and I liked it a lot! Then after dendoing we went by this beautiful little Jin-ja. I wanna buy an omamori sometime! Anyways, now I'm here waiting in the mission home to get my first interview with the President. I'll be here till Thursday then be moved out so I probably won't be able to write anyone for a little bit longer.

Thanks mom! tell everyone I say hi! and tell Rupert I hope a door falls on him.

Bye,
Elder Saito

Rex and his first companion.

Rex and the mission president/ mission president's wife.

Some Pictures...finally!

Rex leaves for Japan tomorrow!

LINK

Apparently, my camera takes such high-quality videos that no uploader can handle them. Fortunately, youtube was able to upload it but made the quality all crappy and such...along with the fact that it took an hour to upload.

So please, enjoy. I'm sorry that the quality sucks. Youtube says that the quality may improve once they've finished processing it so who knows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCKtuQUm280

9/7/10

Blame my Dad for scanning pictures as a pdf. I can't upload the pictures...so standby...I WILL upload them someday.

Mom and Dad,

Hey how are you guys? The MTC is great. I love it so much here. I love all the people here! Oh and guess what? I leave to Japan on Sept. 13, next Monday! I can't believe how quickly time goes by. It's kinda a bittersweet feeling though. I'm so excited to finally (Rex spelled this: finalle...well, I guess speaking Japanese is what will be important for him for these next 2 years) get out into the field but at the same time I'm gonna miss everyone from the MTC. My friends and I have a fantastic plan when I get back though. They're planning to transfer to BYU and we're gonna try and room together in some dinky house. It's gonna be amazing if it works out! And we have this plan to make a biker gang. we're gonna call it "同性愛" (this means "gay" by the way)! haha and I do know what it means...but we are in Provo! They'll think it just says something awesome in kanji! We're all gonna buy Honda Nighthawks and shadow motorcycles and take a Utah temples tour with them. I'm so excited! I hope it works though!

So next Monday I'll be on a plane straight to Narita, Tokyo! So by next week my address will change. I think Japan is gonna be amazing! I'm probably gonna freak out when I get off the plane and realize what I got myself into though. haha I wonder how it's gonna be over the in Kobe?

How's Rupert? Has the ceiling fan fallen on him yet like I prayed for?

So guess what. I was teaching a lady at the TRC who was from Provo. She was half Okinawan and from Hawaii. I asked her if she knew the Arakaki's and surprise! She did.

Well I need to go now. So I probably won't be able to write back for a while or until I get settled in Japan. I'll try not to die on the plane or anything.


*Rex will be leaving this coming Monday! I will make it my goal to post up pictures before we get a letter from him when he gets to Japan.