Hey

So I am sending you this email from a new area called Toyooka. Its a pretty interesting place, really different than anywhere I have served before. Its probably the 2nd most countryside area in the mission. We can't street or really do tracting in the city part at all so its different than what I am use to. It is also the coldest area in the entire mission and is right by the Japan Sea. It apparently snows like 1 1/2 feet of snow around the middle of January until the middle of march. Yeah pretty crazy huh. I guess the elders that serve here end up just walking around alot or crashing on the bikes. They have giant snow boots in the apt so I should be ok when the snow comes. My new comp is Elder Hoffman he is from the Layton area. We are zone leaders for our zone which is doing really good. He is only one transfer above me and goes home next transfer. My guess is that I will be his last comp.

Anyways the last few days in Wakayama were good. We were able to get a few lessons with some people that I am sad to let go but I know my past comp. is a great missionary and will take care of them well I am sure. Other than that not a lot really happened there.

I transferred to Toyooka on Thursday and got here in the afternoon. I was way surprised at how countryside it was. Definately not the Japan I am use to. We actually live in a house which is kind of cool. On the down side its way too big. Japanese houses don't have central heating or air and the insulation is really bad so we only stay on the first floor but its a nice change from living in an apt. building for once.

The area is struggling it seems. We only have 2 investigators right now and both have a lot of problems that we need to help them work out. One is a high school kid and his parents don't want him to go to church. We had a lesson with him that went alright. He has a date for 12/26 but its going to be pretty hard for him to meet that goal. Another one of our investigators is named kawami. He was found last transfer and is pretty much ready to get baptized except that he is caring for his wife that has Parkinson and he can't leave his house. He stays inside all day and can't come to church so we can't baptize him. Kind of frustrating but nothing we can really do. We are trying to find a way to help him out but it seems pretty helpless at the moment but we will see how it goes.

We have a lot of work to do. Hopefully we can get things going again here but with winter coming and it getting colder and colder it will be a big job that's for sure. I know that I told you that I didn't need any new clothes which if I went to any area besides Toyooka would have been right but yeah didn't expect it at all. I need some big warm gloves that are water proof. It rains pretty much every other day here so they need to be water proof. Also if I could get some big winter socks that would be awesome too. Other than that I have all the other stuff, coats, long johns, scarf, hat, etc. I went to the mission home and grabbed a bunch of stuff that missionaries left when they went home so no worries other than those things. I think thats all i need. Sorry i wish i would have told you all this before you sent all of those packages.

Oh yeah Christmas calls are coming up aren't they, if you could give me a call around 11:00 my time that would work out with my comps family and their time. If something changes I will let you know next week. I will find more about the whole number thing and how it works but you all seemed to figure out how it works last time. I think the number you need to type in before is 81 and leave the first 0 out of 080 or something like that but I am sure you can figure it out.

Anyways thanks for everything. I am excited to be in my new area, a little worried but I think it will all work out.

Love you tons
Cam