10/10/10

Herro Famiry!

I is happy to hear from you guys! Sounds like my pictures finally sent through that email though. I swear this computer I`m using is from the 1800`s. I can`t trust it with anything really. The guy I`m standing next to is Okamoto.

So things are good in Provo huh? Ryan`s finally turning in his papers? About time! Oh and tell them I was able to say hi to Emma over the phone. She accidentally called us because she thought we were the AP`s haha. Yeah but anyways I think I`ve lost a little weight here too. In the MTC we had food shoved in our mouths every fourish hours but in the field, our schedule is different. We dendo pretty hard and our area is pretty big too so its hard to find time to go back to our apartment and eat. We don`t really want to waste money eating out so dinner is usually a small meal that we eat at like 9:30. But hey, I still feel fine and genki. Plus I`m not here to impress anyone with muscles anyways. I want to buy a protein shake here just to maintain but it costs just about my right leg for a little bit of powder...sooo i`ll be ghetto and just eat eggs and milk all the time.

So this week was pretty long and tuff when it came to finding new investigators. Mainly because we didn`t have that much time to do finding because of General Conference and stuff. The first part of the week was definitely the hardest. We decided to go down near Osaka, the city, to do some city and mall dendo. The city we went to was called Shinosaka. Its actually a pretty big city with people running around all the time. It kinda reminds me of New York but smaller. Anyways, city people are cold as ice. Just about 80% of the people there were dressed in business attire. Black suits, suitcases and cellphones. Many of them are just running back and forth from their work and had literally no time at all just to stop and talk. Most of the people wouldn`t even acknowledge us when we said hello. Seeing people like this just reminds me of Elder Uchtdorf`s Saturday session talk. I KNOW WHAT YOU`RE THINKING! "Rex actually listened to Conference and now he`s gonna make a reference to it?!" I know right? Amazing. Maybe all of Japan will sink into the ocean now. Anyways yeah, Elder Uchtdorf`s talk about how just slowing down and going back to the basics in hard times can be the solution to most problems really hit me. Its so simple! Yet its so hard for people to abide by. I`ve caught myself during this week trying to use complicated contacting methods and stuff when we couldn`t find that many investigators. And for lo and behold, it didn`t work. Next week we`re gonna take things easy and go back to the basics for dendo.

Well, more news of the week. We were able to get another baptismal date with this guy named Kawai. He`s an owner of a dog grooming store named Shampoo Plus. Very sincere guy who works every day to support his family of four. He really likes how our church is family based and understands that his example is going to affect how his children will be raised. His date for baptism is set for the 30th of October but I actually think that it may take longer. He`s always so busy that its hard for him to read the BOM and praying to know is so foreign to him. But he seems to be progressing well.

What`s really bad is that we can`t get a hold of the boxer,Tomonaga! We haven`t seen or heard from him this past week. Hopefully he`s not dead!

Our other 約束しや　Okamato seems like he`s improving. We met with him yesterday with our bishop after watching conference. He told us that he didn`t feel comfortable getting baptized because of all the new commandments he`s learned. It really scared us when he said that but we were able to settle his woes when we explained that commandments are not rules but rather things to protect us. Then, we threw in the analogy of how commandments are like fences to protect us rather than limit us. (General Conference reference!! YEAH!) We then shared 1 Nephi 11:16-17. He then understood the importance of baptism and keeping the commandments and committed to try harder to become prepared. I`m so glad we got some of his doubts out of the way. Like you said, we don`t wanna baptized him if he doesn`t feel ready.

Anyways, life is good on this island. I think I`ll be just fine so no worries about me. Well I gotta go and do some missionary stuff now! Hope everything is going well at home. Mom and Dad, I know you guys are working hard but don`t forget to stay genki too! And you better be using that tredmill everyday Mom! Well tell Rupert that I hope a plane crashes into the house and only lands on him.

OK! Bye!
Love you guys,
Elder Saito