Hey

We had a little time right before we head out to Kyoto so I figured I would send you a short email.

This was a fun week. We had interviews with President and it sounds like I will probably still be here in Ibaraki. We have transfer calls tomorrow so we will know more then. Other than that he didn't really say a lot. Pretty normal interview.

My year mark has come and gone and its pretty crazy to think about. Elder Buerger and I ended up doing a Split on our year mark which was pretty cool to think we were made comps one year ago to the day. At the end of the day we went out to eat at a yaki niku my fav so it was way fun.

We did a ton of contacting this week but not much came of it but on Sunday we got a call from the ZL's and they had a referral for us. He came to their church and went to the whole meeting. We are going to teach him tomorrow he is 16 so hopefully it works out. He doesn't want to come to our ward because in the other ward we share a building with is his girlfriend or something like that so it would be awkward but I think we can talk him out of it hopefully. We will see what happens.

Thank you for the package it was great. Everything was awesome thanks a ton. I will have some cool picture for you hopefully next week from Kyoto that should be good. Sorry its a little short this week. Oh yeah do you remember that member I talked about that was coming to Utah from Tanabe? I think she will be going this week. You should email her and ask her if she wants any help or wants to visit or anything her is her email.
mai-4-leaf-clover@hotmail.co.jp
Let me know if you get a hold of her.

I will let you know what happens for transfers next week. I expect everything to be the same but you never know.

Anyways thanks for everything

Love you all
Cam

Hey,

Sounds like you had a pretty busy week. I haven't gotten the package yet but I am sure it will come soon. Pancake mix? I didn't ask for any Pancake mix did I? We can buy plenty of it here for cheap don't worry about it. My comp and Burgers comp hit their year mark next transfer after the first week. They have been in the field longer but we are older by 2 or 3 weeks I think.

The language is coming along good. I can say whatever I want now and not stumble as much as I use to but its not where I want to be yet. I still have lots of work to do but I really like studying it and am planning studying after the mission for sure as either as a minor or double major if I could pull that off. I am trying to get some Kanji down right now but its pretty tough for me. I have around 120 memorized but can only read most of them. Still working on the writing part. Anyways, I still have tons and tons of work to do with the language but I have come along way from this time last year.

It has started to get warm over here also. We don't have to wear coats and gloves so its nice and it makes it a little easier to talk with people. More people getting married? Thats pretty crazy stuff. Weird to think that I could be old enough to get married. Japanese people seem to think we are crazy when we tell them　we get married around 20. They wait until they are older so its a bit different.

Well it was kind of a bland week . . . again. I don't know why we can't seem to get anyone to meet with us. We street really close to our church so we give a few tours a day to people but after seeing the church they don't want to meet again which is getting frustrating.This transfer has flown by even though we haven't had alot of success which is good. Transfers are next week and we have interviews this week so we will most likely know what is going on after interviews. I would love to stay with Honma 長老 for another transfer but I think he will be gone but never know.

Tuesday - we had lots of dendo time in the morning but no luck. We had District Mtg. and went out to eat afterwords. There is a really good hamburger place that sells burgers that are just as good if not better than American ones. We got alot ;) Speaking of food I am afraid that I am getting fat now. In the city we don't really ride our bike much and no hills. There are stores and restaurants everywhere so we can get stuff alot easier and cheaper too. We also don't have a scale in this apt. so I am getting scared. Who knows, maybe I will come home and you won't recognize me.

Wednesday - Elder Honma had some problem with his stomach so we stayed in the apt until around 5:00 then Elder Buerger and i went out to teach eikaiwa.

Thursday - Elder Kudo caught a nasty cold but Elder Honma was ok so we went out dendoing until 4:00. After 4:00 Elder Honma went with Elder Bureger so they could teach a guy they found and I stayed at the apt with elder Kudo and got a good nap in and some extra study. They didn't get back until 9:00 so my day was over.

Friday - It was contacting time all day but we didn't really have any good luck. Not very fun but we did give a tour to a guy that was really cool. Maybe he will come to our sports night but was pretty busy. We will see what happens.

Sat. - We had our lesson with Otsuchi. We have decided to start from the very first principle in the first lesson and go from there. He doesn't understand the gospel well and we are going to try to reteach it all. Our bishop helped us teach and did an amazing job and bore a great testimony that really brought the spirit in well. He invited him to stay for all of sacrament mtg. (He leaves after the sacrament is passed) Otsuchi said he would try. We were pretty excited after the lesson, because he finally seemed like he was going to make some progress. After the lesson we went out dendoing and gave a tour of the church but he didn't really get enough interest to meet again.

Sunday - Otsuchi came to church but left again half way through sacrament. We both were really disappointed about it and surprised when he got up and left. He is 30 years old and lives with his family still. His job is on the computer every day so he basically has no social skills period. We are really trying to get members to fellowship him but when he only stays half way through the mtg its kind of tough for them. I am not sure how to help him but we are going to keep trying.
After church we had a dinner appointment with a few members. It was really good food. The brother that invited us over had rootbeer and gave us some which was a nice treat. (You can't buy it here unless you go to an import store) We helped them make their own Missionary plan after eating and hopefully they will be able to help their friends and family learn about the gospel. After the lesson we headed back to the apt and turns out that Kudo choro got sick again so Burger and I headed out and grabbed some food that a member had ready for us and after that the day was over.

So yeah kind of another week that we didn't find anyone but we are trying hard. The other guys are having a hard time finding at the moment too so its not just us. I really hope it picks up soon. I really like the area its a great place and the members are pretty cool for the most part. I just wish we had some more people to teach. We have interviews with president this week and we will probably find out what is going to happen next transfer but he might not give us any hints so its hard to say.

I am excited to get the package I am sure that it is going to be great. Thank you for everything love you
Cam

Hey
How are you?

Well this week might be a little short I only have a couple of minutes, we found that some zone leader in somewhere else decided to plan a sports meeting at our church a week ago and decided to wait until 9:30 last night to tell us that 15 missionaries would be coming to our church at 1:00 the next day. Needless to say we weren't very excited about it.

This was another slow week but we had a good time.
Monday night was a bit interesting. After P-day we went out to go streeting, after around 10 min. we saw this guy on the ground with 2 girls trying to help him get up. When I first saw him I thought he was drunk or something but he ended up just been super tired or weak or something. We tried to help him get on his feet but he couldn't do it. He eventually got up and tried to ride off on his bike but fell over so we decide to walk him a bit and ended up walking him all the way back to his house. It took us forever and he almost fell over a few times. While walking we found out he hadn't eaten for a week. When we got to his apt. we helped him get inside and it was a tiny one room place with absolutely nothing inside except a dresser, radio, and a Futon (mattress that you sleep on that lays on the ground). It was pretty sad. We don't see alot of that kind of stuff here in a Japan but it was a humbling experience. Needless to say I was alot more grateful for what I had after that.

Tuesday we had service again and we went to a party with our group. They sang a bunch of songs and we had a bunch of crazy things happen that I don't have time to write about but man it was a blast. It rained the rest of the day and we didn't have much luck housing.

Wednesday we had District meeting and went to a burger place that was super good afterwords. Red Robin worthy for sure which is way hard to find here in Japan. After that not much luck but we went streeting.

Thursday and Friday it rained off and on and killed most of our dendo. Not alot of luck but we did find a new area that is super big with people all over the place that could end up being a place we head out to quite a bit now.

Sat. We had a lesson with Otsuchi but not a lot changed. We have decided to try to reteach him the lessons and see how it goes. He really wants to learn but has a hard time actually committing to anything which gets a bit frustrating but we will keep trying. Anyways, after that we went out but not much luck.

Sunday we had a good day but we didn't find anyone. We were able to talk with one guy that was super super close but not quite there.

A little frustrating that we haven't found anyone lately but we will just keep trying our best to see what happens. Hopefully we can get things to turn around soon.

Love you tons
Cam

Hey!

How is everyone?

Things are going good over here in Ibaraki Japan. We didn't have any success finding but we had a fun week.

Monday
After P-day we went out to do some streeting but not alot of luck there maybe next time I guess.

Tuesday
We had zone conference in Kyoto. Kyoto use to be Japan's capital along time ago so its where all the really cool temples and shrines are. The pictures I sent that have the gold building in it (Kinkakujin) is there. We will go this transfer when the Cherry Blossoms bloom. It was a great zone conference. We focused again on working with members and increasing our teaching skills. Everytime we hear from President McIntyre I just admire him more and more. He truly is the lords servent here in Japan. We also found out what areas we will be getting from Hiroshima mission. We will be getting a big Island called Shikoku and about half of the main land part of their area. We will be almost doubling the size of our mission and getting around 35 to 40 missionaries. It all happens in July so we have some time left but its going to be great. I hope that it all works out well.

Wednesday

We had service again. After the funny experience last time I was pretty excited to go again and it didn't disappoint. Turns out some other volunteers came to help. We sang songs, made some doll things for a festival that was going on, and ate some food with them. There were a lot of funny moments that you just had to be there for but right before we were leaving one lady shook my hand and held it for a good 20 sec. or so. Honma Choro couldn't hold it in and put his head in the locker next to him and started to laugh. Man, I'm not sure how I did it but I held the laugh in somehow until we got out. We are going again this week and they have another party. i am sure we will get some good stories from it. After service we did dendo and had eikaiwa both were pretty normal.

Thursday

We did our weekly planning and I got my brake pads replaced. After 9 months of everyday use they were pretty much gone especially after Tanabe which is just full of hills. It ended up raining which really kills us and we didn't have a whole lot of luck talking to people which is always frusterating. We don't get snow where I am at but in the top 2 areas of the mission they get enough that they can't ride bikes. Its been really crazy weather getting hot and then back to freezing cold kind of like Utah. Just lots of rain the last few days which is never fun.

Friday

We had our first split of the transfer with the elders in our apt. I went with Kudo Choro and we dendoed in their area. We were able to find one investigator which was cool. He was kind of iffy so we aren't sure if he will show up to the appointment or not but we are hoping. We had a lesson with a member that night that went alright. We got some good feedback and called it a day

Saturday

We had Otsuchi's lesson first thing. It went pretty well but he isn't moving forward very well. We just can't get him to commit to anything. We are trying to get more members involved which we think will help but we will see what happens. He is really the only chance we have for a baptism this transfer.

After the lesson we had the chance to go to a concert with one of our Eikaiwa students and her family. The concert was put on by Janice Kapp Perry who came out from America to Osaka and also to Sapporro. There was also a Japanese Pop group that is famous but members. It was pretty good, the Pop group was kind of dodgy for missionaries but president gave people permission to go if they had investigators and he was there. At the end they had all the missionaries that were there (14 of us maybe) to sing our mission song. It was fun and something that we don't get to do a lot. I also saw Brandons Grandma, Sister Fujita there again. I forgot my camera and we took a quick picture with my comps camera but something happened and it didn't turn out. She tried to give us 1000 yen each (around $10) but we wouldn't take it from her. She is super nice and from what I heard from the missionaries in her area quite the missionary too that brings friends to church and even has helped some of them be converted. It would be pretty cool to serve in her ward sometime.

Sunday

Otsuchi came to church but he only comes and takes the sacrament then leaves. We can't get him to come to classes or the whole meeting so we are going to work on it with him. Other than that it was a pretty normal sunday. It rained all day so we just went housing but in the city its pretty tough. Almost everyone has the little intercom things and just say no thanks through that so it makes it frusterating.

It was a fun week though. We have a lot of finding time this coming week so we are going to work really hard to find some new people to teach. We are having a really good time together and getting along great. We just have to find someone to teach now.

As for the package I can't think of anything else at the moment. Thanks for everything.

I got the video of the dog playing dead and laughed pretty hard. Honma thought it was pretty funny too. I am excited to meet her.

I will send an email to grandma and grandpa to see how they are doing. It feels like they just met me in the MTC doesn't it? Man, its going by so fast and everyone says once you hit your year mark it goes even faster. Its crazy to think about. Its already the 3rd p-day of this transfer which is crazy.

Thank you for everything
Love you
Cam