11/8/10

Hey Mom and Dad,

Herro parents! How are you guys? I is happy to hear from you guys again. I can’t believe how quickly weeks go by when you’re on your mission. I feel as if I just was emailing you guys yesterday. This second transfer is going by even faster than the first though! Can you believe I’m already starting my third week? I swear this mission is going to be over before I know it. So is it already snowing a lot over there in Utah? Lets see, its starting to get kind of cold over here in Osaka though. Definitely not Utah cold yet, it just gets a bit chilly so we’ve busted out the vests and scarfs for dendoing. I heard it doesn’t really snow in Osaka...its just cold like how I imagine a frozen tundra would be. Thanks for sending me the packages though! I haven’t received them yet though but I’m going to pretend like I did. Gloves should come in handy though when I’m biking in the freezing wind though! Tell Shirley thank you, thank you very much. Has Ryan got his mission call yet? I was talking to a sister who was companions with Emma and she told me that Ryan accidently turned in his papers saying that he was 530 pounds or something. Is that true? I can totally see it happening though!

Well, this past week was pretty good. I feel like I’m improving and getting more and more comfortable streeting and getting more involved in lessons. Being able to stop people and strike up conversations seems natural to me. Which I assume is a good thing. I figured once Elder Hinton leaves I’ll be the one responsible to keep up the connections with investigators and members. That is if I stay in Okamachi though...which I probably will because we have investigators with baptismal dates who need to be baptized. One of our investigators is supposed to be baptized this week but unfortunately, has a big problem. His name’s Hatakeyama and he has one of the strongest testimonies I’ve seen yet. He really understands that importance of baptism and wants to get baptized but his parents are super hantai. I guess he was supposed to be baptized quite a while ago but his parents got really mad at him and told him that if he were to be baptized, they would disown him. Its such a complicated situation. We’ve tried to meet the parents with the bishop but he told us it would be a bad idea. He’s kinda shy so its hard for him to bring it up with his parents again so we’ve been trying to support him. He’s not supposed to even have contact with us missionaries but he still lets us call him. I’ve been calling him for the past few weeks and trying to encourage him to talk to his parents again. Amazingly, he did. But his parents became even more angry so things just got more difficult. I couldn’t really do much but comfort him and give him scriptures of hope and faith. He really believes though, which gives me faith that he will get baptized sooner or later. Hopefully, we can get him to talk to just his mother because she seems to be more understanding. If we have atleast her support, I think that things will workout.

Well anyways, I can write for hours about our investigators but I’m far too lazy and I’d rather hear from you guys. So, whats the plans for Thanksgiving this year? Are you guys sending me a frozen turkey this year? haha jk. I’ll just have a slab of tuna or something instead. Oh and for MOM’S WEEKLY QUESTIONS that I always forget to answer. No, I don’t need a Pants Guard Band Device That Protects Pants from the Chain That Spins to Move One’s Bicycle. My bike has a chain guard so I think I’m fine.

Oh and this Sunday there was a return sister missionary that was visting our ward because of her cousins baptism or something that looked really familiar. I asked if we knew each other and she said she wasn’t sure. Later her parents came and I saw her mom staring at me...then all of a suddenly she yelled ’RIKI! RIKI!` and came scuffling towards me. Turns out her and her family lived in Provo about 6 years ago and eat dinner at our house once...or something like that. I forgot their name...I think it was Sakuma or something...but I`ll send you guys a picture. Anyways, the family’s dad worked at BYU for a year or something teaching math...and dad befriended him or something? I can`t remeber the details but the picture should be enough.

Well, I gotta go now. Things are going well over here in Okamachi. No worries about me dying or getting hit by cars. I is careful. The pictures I`m sending are in order: That one family I met, a huge Mcdonalds, and the city lights of the area we are dendoing.

Hope you guys are doing well! Be safe and don`t work too hard!

Love you guys,

Elder Saito

There are pictures but for some reason they won't upload on my computer so stand by, I'll get them up eventually.