3/18/2012

Hey family,

Its good to hear that you guys are doing great. I`m way jealous that you`re in Mexico Dad! But then again I am in Japan which is much cooler on my scale.

Yup here it comes. Its gonna be spring time soon! やったぜ！There were two, not one, but two whole days where I was able to blue skies and sunshine. I can`t wait to burst out of this suit and hit the streets in my short sleeve T. The seasons be changing I tell ya. Speaking of change, we just barely had transfers this past week. The mission just lost a bunch of great missionaries this past transfer but it was something inevitable. It just blows my mind to see how young the mission is now. I`m now officially the grandpa of the zone so I now have the responsibility to encourage, inspire, uplift and train everyone in my zone. Quite the responsibility eh? I`m way stoked though, there are a bunch of young missionaries on the verge of bursting with potential and I get to help them realize that. Ah, the beauties of being a leader. Its not the title that brings joy, but its being able to see those who you`ve worked with surpassing you and bringing a bunch of people unto Christ. Gotta hit the ground running this transfer though, I can`t start getting lazy because I`ve only got four months left on my mission.

Well, Toyooka is interesting. Its got its own pace that I feel like I`ve started to grow accustom to. But just because its got a slower pace then the city doesn`t mean you can lay back and become complacent though. Out here, you got to work diligently and rely fully on the Lord to get things done. Being passive here or doing things on your own will hinder the work. But I know if you work hard enough, the Lord will provide for you. He for sure has for us, I mean you know you`re being blessed when your strongest investigator is a thirteen year old wayward school girl who comes to church on her own. I`m way excited for this transfer though, I know we are gonna see miracles! I just know it. Especially cause I`m with a great young missionary who wants to go out and get it done. There`s something magical about young missionaries who don`t have too much experience because they really know how to trust in the Lord. When you become an old missionary like me, you get comfortable in your own ways and you start forgetting the basics. So its way great opportunity that I`m able to work with a youngin` cause its becoming great review for me. Hopefully, I can spend my last few transfers as a trainer so I don`t forget all the basics of the work.

Oh yes, as for the package. I don`t really need much. I would appreciate some cheap protein if you can get your hands on that and some of those juice mixes if you can. Oh, and PICTURES PLEASE! You know that missionaires are fueled by letters and pictures from ones they love.

Well, I gotta go to Fukuchiyama in a few more hours so I gotta go. Please continue praying for the welfare of the missionaries and there investigators! Your prays are the things that makes miracles over here!

Aight love you bunch!

Elder Saito

3/11/12

Hey family,

How art thou beloved family? I see your emails are now progressively getting more and more trunky with all this talk about the "afterlife", I guess that is just proof that I`m becoming an older missionary. Well, happy birthday to me! I`ve now become a transfer 14 missionary, a true medal of honor I would say.

Anyways, to answer your question Mother, I would be delighted to go to Hokkaido with you guys after my mission. I`m in no rush to go home so we can stay in Japan for as long as you would like. Plus, I can go out streeting or housing on my own while you guys are in the onsen so no worries. I`ve always wanted to see how dendo is in an area other than the Kansai region or Shikoku so I think it`ll be a good experience for me.

Oh yes, well here it is. The big transfer 14. A truely awkward time for a missionary because he still has a lot of time left on his mission but it seems too short of a time span to himself. But I try not to think about it. There is still a lot need to get done on my mission so I can`t waste time thinking about unnecessary things. So I have another transfer in Toyooka to get the work moving faster! Hopefully this transfer we`ll be able to get to work since things have finally started to settle down over here. But there`s gonna be a lot of training I need to get going in the zone as well since I am now officially the oldest missionary over here. Goodness the mission suddenly got younger with this transfer! Well, I`m going to be training a new, young zone leader named Elder Day this transfer. I`m pretty excited because young guns always have faith and a good sense of urgency for the work.

Well, this week was pretty hectic having to run around places doing trainings, emergency kokans and such. I think we spent a grand total of nine hours of riding on a train this past week, but it was good because I had a lot of time to read the Doctrine and Covenants. I need to finish that thing before my time is up! Anyways, I`m kind of bummed that Elder Hasegawa is already going home. I think we needed at least one more transfer together to really get things going here because we literally didn`t have time to dendo but oh well, no point in moping. He`s gonna be a great member over yonder in Tochigi as Brother Hasegawa.

Its finally starting to look like Spring over here...kind of. It snowed yesterday and a little bit today but I think this will be the last of it. I can`t wait to get into my shortsleeve shirt and work! This suit is making me look like someone in the Yakuza.

Anyways, I gotta go. We need to go meet somebody in prison today! Love you guys bunch!!! Have an awesome week okay family?!

Mucho amor,

Elder Saito

3/4/2012

Hellos,

Why hello family! Its a beautiful day here in Toyooka! Its actually raining right now but that's good news. The snow, it shall melt. Honestly, half of me really misses all of the snow and the other half of me can`t wait to put on my short sleeves and sweat my brains out.

Sounds like all of you guys are genki over yonder. I see Selena and Richard are getting accustomed to the hood of Salt Lake, I believe it shall be good fun to crash in their apartment! Speaking of apartments, Dad! Why do you speak of such evils! Do I really have to think about rooming already?! Oh goodness, I guess this is just the curse of being a 14 transfer missionary...In all honesty, I don`t really care where I live so long as its somewhat near campus. I just called Elder Burns and he`s on board with being my roomie! But unfortunately, he`s just as tekito as I am. So I guess just go for south of campus, four people, shared...I doesn`t really matter to us! ONEGAISHIMASU!

Yes, and for going around Japan after the mission. I guess you need to ask President Zinke for permission first then talk to PBO? I`m not too sure but the office should be sending you information about that soon. So, good luck! Here`s President`s email: rgzinke@ldschurch.org Well anyways, I`m done with this talk.

Well, my beautiful bike, GT Aggressor 4.0 has finally broken down. Actually, this is the second time that its broken down but I don`t think we`ll be able to fix it anytime soon because there are`t any Asashis (Japanese chain bike store) over here in Toyooka. I was riding towards a less active`s house earlier this week and my bike decided to die on me as I was changing gears. The chain somehow made its way under the gears and the tire is now bent and rubbing on the frame. I took it to a local shop and they said that there`s no way they can fix it and even if they could they would have to special order parts that could take weeks. So I pretty much just gave up and resorted to borrowing a member`s bike until I can steal one from a missionary who`ll be going home.

Yup, things like that happen every once in a while. Oh well! I`m way grateful for how generous the members are here. If you don`t have a bike in Toyooka you can`t get anything done! This week was a great one over here. I swear, every week in Toyooka is just a great learning experience for me. Most of the week we were out of Toyooka, training our beloved missionaries in our zone, but we feel like we were able to get a lot of things done. We also had ZLC were President just blasted us with doctrine. It was way awesome, it reminded me a lot of McIntyre`s trainings where you just walk out the room fired up and ready to wield a Book of Mormon. There was a particular part of the training that I really felt like I needed. The concept of humility and how its connected to other Christ-like attributes. I think the reason I was sent to Toyooka was simply to be humbled. Its interesting realizing how much I`ve spent my mission thinking just about myself when I should of been thinking of other`s salvation. Read Moses 4:1-2 and see the difference between Satan and Jesus Christ!

Anyways, I gotta go now. Need to walk and pick up my bike thats on the other side of town. Love ya!