12/13/10

Hey Hey Hey,

Hola everybody! I`m so happy to hear from you guys! Well, seems like its been quite the week for you guys with finals and such. Especially you Mom, are you still alive? Its so weird how everything is getting all Christmas-y over there in America. Over here it doesn`t even feel like December. There`s a few Christmas lights here and there but thats about it. I did, however, see a huge santa sitting in a Star of David in one of the Shotengai`s over here. Talk about irony. I think whoever put that up missed the whole point of Christmas.

Well, it was really awesome to see you guys take some family pictures. It looks like Rupert has some lasers shooting out of his eyes. Thats really awesome(x2) that Selena and Richard had a talk in sacrament meeting this week because I actually did too! Mine was only ten minutes though...and I rambled about the Book of Mormon for most of the time. I actually didn`t take time to write the talk so I completely winged it. But, the two investigators who came to church seemed to have liked it so I dont feel bad. Things are going great over here! We had transfers last week and my new companion is Elder Rahn. He`s a superb missionary from Cali and has been out for about a year and a half. Our dendo/teaching and normal personalities are really alike so we get arong rearry good. So on Thursday I went to Sanomia to drop off Elder Hinton for transfers and when we got out of the station, I saw a marvelous sight! Richard should know, he`s taken a picture right next to it! It was a statue of a bunch of butts stacked on top of each other. Thats right. Butts. But, I was still super happy to see it because my bro-in-law took a picture by it a few years ago. I`ll try to send a picture of it.

So yeah, dendo is going awesome. I feel like this transfer is going to go fantabulous! Elder Rahn and I started the transfer off right by witnessing an organized crime. We were dendoing by one of the parks when we saw three random guys sitting on benches. They were kind of distant from each other and didn`t really talk to one another...so Elder Rahn and I decided to go dendo them. We were talking to one of the guys and had a good contact but couldn`t get a appt...so we left the area for about an hour to go dendo the college by there. When we came back an hour later, we saw the same guys walking towards a street light with a pricey looking Mamachadi (a bike) that was locked. Two of the guys were carrying the bike and the other guy was somewhat ahead of the other ones. When they stopped at the stop light, a white van screeched up and one of the guys ran to it and opened the back door. The two other guys shoved the bike into the van and slammed the doors closed. The white van then floored it and screeched out of there while the other three scrambled to their scooters. Keep in mind that we were about ten feet away from them, watching the crime unfold right infront of our eyes. I then saw the guy I was talking to earlier trying to make a break for it so I did what I do best (which is getting in peoples way) and walked up towards him and started re-contacting him again. Haha he realized that I was trying to talk to him and he got scared so he gunned it out of there. I was able to get his license plate number so we felt that we should be good citizens/missionaries and report it to the Koban (police). Pretty fun experience, I would have to say. Grand Theft Bicycle, Osaka Style. Thats how we roll in Japan.

Anyways, our investigators are doing well. We were finally able to meet with Hatakeyama! (he`s the one with hantai parents) I was so happy we were able to meet with him! I`ve only been able to keep contact with him over the phone for the past two months. His parents are still super against him being baptized so we`re trying our best. He has one of the strongest testimonies and faith that I`ve ever seen. Even through all of these hardships, he still wants to be baptized because he knows that its the right thing to do. Unfortunately, his parents are still hantai. That doesn`t make them bad parents at all though. They`re just concerned of their sons welfare. I really want the parents to meet with us or the bishop so that we can show them that we`re not some cult but the real church of Christ. Its a really tuff situation, but we were able to fast this Sunday with him so that his parents hearts will be softened. Our next plan is to get him to write a note to his parents with his testimony on baptism. I almost have no doubt that he`ll be baptized though. Just need to have patience on my part. Plus, all this hardship will just make him a stronger member!

Well, life is good. I hope everything is going well for you guys! I`m lovin life over here so no worries. In the mission, you just work work work over here that you end up forgetting all the hard times. And all the miricales you see just make it better. Well, I love you guys! Stay safe over the Christmas season! Ok.Bye

Mucho love,
Elder Saito