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16 July 2012::

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

 

I hope that you had a great day or are having a great day. Next year i will be at your party for sure. But today, just know that i am thinking of you and am excited for you. Last year you got an eamil from my bishop with my pictrue in it. Now you get an email from me. Next year is even better because i will actually be tHere. It is like a step system. Pretty funny uh?

 

That is so cool that you got to go and meet President Albrecht. I love him so much. I am so thankful that you were able to meet my temporary father. He is the greatest right? I am so gald that he was my mission President. You are right. He has so much love for everybody. I really miss it. That missionary that you met actually went home after his 2nd transfer. One of my previous companions was his trainer. Thats how we knew eachother. Pretty cool uh. I bet you loved meeting somebody who was just with me. Thats a pretty cool thought to me. I hope he said good things about me. But he probably lied haha. jk. I hope what he said made you happy. I am trying to be the missionary you want and expect me to be.

 

I am glad taht you had a great week. It sounds like you are just partying it up this summer. All i hear is about you going to the cabin, hawaii, or utah to party. It sounds really fun. Some of taht food sounds really good too. Maybe you can send me some quick-to-make-recipes. I need some new cuisine in my life. The only catch is i dont have a stove. So jsut some stuff that doesnt need a stove to make. THanks. I sure love you.

 

So my week was really good. but i think the weeks are getting harder and harder to remember. I will try my best to remember what happened this week or at least the highlights. Lets see. . . I gotta pull out my journal.

 

So i finally did my training that i was telling you about. It was super good. I did my training on desires. That subject reallyhelped me alot when i was a younger missionary. So that is what i did. I had some cool object lessons. One of them is water, dish soap and dry ice. When you put the dry ice into the soapy water it has a reaction and makes tons of bubbles. You should try it. The Budges got robbed and Sister Budge had lots of necklaces stolen. Because of that there was some detectives that stopped by. Pres. Budge was doing interviews so he sent me and another elder to translate for Sister Budge. It was cool. I was like in a detective case. I felt good.

 

On thursday we went to the temple with our recent convert, Tsutomu. It was so great. They asked me to translate the spiritual message to Japanese because the talker didnt know Japanese. It was fun but i need to study my temple words for sure. haha. It was super great to see Tsutomu gettin baptized for the dead. He had a huge smile on his face. It really brought me the best happiness. I love him so much and am so grateful for that expirence. My baptism was cool. It was the first time in almost 2 years doing baptisms. Crazy. Well this is where it gets interesting. I am an american in Japan doing baptisms in Japanese for Korean names. isnt that a bit strange. I had to laugh about it when i thought about it. One of the names dated all the way back to 1333. That is a long time. I hope to meet him inthe after life.

 

Friday i had a cool expirence. While i was passing out flyers a guy came up to me and started talkin to me. He had been to america for 2 years and went to church once. WEll today i got an eamil from him saying that it was destiny that we met and that he wants salvation. It was way cool. maybe ill send it to you. At the end of the email he closed by sayin "your lost sheep". How funny is that. He is going to get baptized in August. Thats what we are planning for.

 

On sunday i finally got to be interview by President Budge. I was supposed to be interviewed by him on Wednesday but i didnt have time. So I did it on Sunday. You could definately tell he is different than President Albrecht. Pres. Albrecht had way more love. President Budge is laid back and a way funny guy. You cna tell he is brand new. haha. I am glad i get to know him. I am excited to deepen my relationship with him and to get to know him better. Sometimes it is pretty hard thinking that Pres. Albrecht isnt my Pres. anymore. I loved him so much. But I got Pres. Budge now, so i will make the best of it.

 

So I am just loving life right now. It is supe hot. Not as hot as last summer though. I am doing great and super healthy. The only thing that is wrong is that you can totally tell i am an old missionary. My white shirts arent white (a faint yellow/ same with the garments), both my pants have huge holes in them, my shoes have holes in them, and my workout clothes stink super bad. haha. The other elders make fun of me for it. I really need to buy new stuff. Can you go to bank of america and see how much money i have in my account. I also need a new card. My card expires next month which means i wont be able to get any money out of my account. THanks you are the best. 

 

I love you mom. You are the best in the world. I cant wait to see you in a coulpe of months. I cant believe that i have like 6 months left on the mission. Time goes by so fast. I am still ZL and time is still going to go as fast as ever. So better be planning on what you want to do when you come here. It will be here in no time. You will love it here. I love it here so much. I fyou can still pray for me that would be great. I could use them. Tell my siblings that i love them and that they need to write me more often. I love getting mail. It is amazing as a missionary. Well, im super tired and i cant think anymore. I love you. THat is the important part. Cant wait til next week. Stay Classy!!!

Love your Van De Breezin Son,

11 July 2012::

I am so sorry that i am not answering or writing your emails seperatly but i have been super busy and i dont have the tiem to do so. I am doing so GOOD!!!! Life here in in Japan and as a Zone Leader is super busy but really good. So i do have an answer for you about President Albrechts homecoming. It is on the 15th of July at 11 A.M. The church is located across the street from Krispy Kreme's in Orem, UT. Thats all i know. I am sure people up there know about it. His address is 909 S. 725 W. Orem, Ut. His emial is steve_albrecht@byu.edu or leann@albrechtfamily.com. I am sure they would love if you could get to it.

 

So it is great to hear how everything is going on at the cabin. I am kinda bumbed that i dont get to participate in that. Oh well though. Hope everything continues to go smoothly. So I have been really busy this week. We had tons of lunches to go to and lots of splits to go on. I went on splits in my bean area, Shibuya. It was way fun. When i was there 1 year ago, we didnt really work. But we worked hard when i went there again. We also ran to Tokyo Tower. THat was super fun. It took us a total of 1 hour to get there and back. Maybe a total of 6 miles. It was pretty solid. When we finished splits we had a English Class and we celebrated teh 4th of July. It was super fun we had about 60 people come and more than half werent members. It was super fun. A great turn out. Thursday i had splits to go on with Elder Nakamura again. I went on splits with him my 2nd transfer and it was fun to work with him agian. Friday was super cool. We had aobut 1.5 hours to go finding and we found 3 new investigators. Talk about being blessed. Saturday i had the great oppurtuity to go on splits with a pre-missionary. He is thinking about going on a misison. It was a stake event. It wasnt very good at all. He didnt hlep me at all and i tried to make work as fun as possible but it is hard when nobody wnats to listen. So at the end he said that he had a good expirence which is good. I also got to meet President Budge on Saturday. He is really different from President Albrecht. I hope that i can get a good relationship like i had with Pres. Albrecht. We shall see. I have a mini-zone conference Tomorrow and i get to have a interview. I am super excited. SUnday after church we went to a old folks home to sing. It was super cool to see how excited tehy were to see us and get a performance. It was suepr hard singing in Japanese stuff that you dont know. haha. But it was fun.

That was my week in a real short wrap up. It was a super expensive week this week. Being a Zone Leader is SO expensive escpessially here in TOkyo. I am going broke. But still good. So, as busy as i was, it was a bit of a hard week, mentally. Since i have come to this area, our stats and investigators and everything has just gone down. It doesnt make me feel very good. I also had the thought of being released of ZL after 1 transfer and that stressed me out a bit. There was just so much that was stressing me out. I never thought taht a mission could entail so much stress. I think i just put it on myself. I have decided that my thoughts are my weakest point. I fasted on Sunday that i could develop stronger thoughts and be more positive in my thought process. I could use some prayers with that. onegaishimasu. On sunday, night i was thinking aobut how long i have been on my missoin. It is July of 2012. I am half way throught the summer of 2012. That is so crazy. I cant believe that i am going to start the down hill slide of my mission here in a very short time. It is going by so fast. I only have 5 transfers left. 5! That is not ver many. I love you guys so much but i realized on Sunday that i have lived without seeing you for 1.3 years. That was a big shock to me. Tomorrow i have a training to give and i am going to do it on Desires. Please pray that i will be able to give a good training. I am way nervous about it.

 

I dont know waht else to say. I am out of things to say. Oh, i have not gotten 1 letter this transfer. I got your postcard but no letters. What is up with that? I love mail! Maybe you can get my siblings or nephews to write me. I would love that. I would love a letter from a girl too. !!!! I am doing pretty good. Trying my hardest. I am definatley going to need new EVERYTHING when i get home. I bought 1 new pair of mesh garments today but they are way to big for me. I am kinda mad. I forgot the size that i got last tiem. My garments right now slightly yellow. They are slightly yellow because i wear them running. It is pretty gross and i ma going to need new ones when i get home. haha. Well I love all of you very much. Please continue to pray for me, i could use them. Today at the tmeple was great. I love going to the tmeple. I cant wait to go to them temple with everyone again. It will be super fun.

 

You are right mom. I have about 3/4 left of my mission. It is a scary thought of home. It really is. I dont like to think to much about it becasue my thoughts get carried away. But it is super scary. I dont konw what  i am goin to do. We shall see.

 

I lvoe you mom and dad. I am grateful for the both of you. I am sorry my emails have gotten bad. I just really am not focused right now. I think i got most of my week in though. I hope to get a letter this upcoming week. I am goign to send you a birthday card this week so you will get it late. Sorry. I have been to busy to send it. But one is coming. Have a great week! I lvoe you with all my heart.