DD 3.45 ... pie and then stuffing and pie and then some other desserts and then some more pie ...

Please report on the dual mission conference?

It was really good. Elder Evans talked about working with the members and stuff.

How did your song go at the mission conference?

It was really good actually.

Johnson Choro, who sang with you, where is he serving?

Oyumino

Who are you singing with for Christmas? For what? What are you singing?

We are singing for the Matsudo Christmas concert, and we are singing, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” ... in Japanese. It is Chuin Choro, President Noda (from the mission presidency), and me.

Do you want us to send you some sheet music in case you have to sing again?

I have always been given the music ... and hopefully this will stop soon.

Since Japan doesn't have Thanksgiving weighing down Christmas, have they already started decorating for Christmas? Are their lights up yet?

Yes. We actually have a free concert that is always happening here; we have already heard a bell choir preform Christmas songs.

Any snow yet? Twitter says it’s getting colder there. Ski resorts here are open! How cold are you?

I’m still warm ... sometimes really hot. There are some who get quite cold. For example: everyone who has not experienced our 30 degrees below 0 winters in Logan.

How many times a week do you wear your rain pants?

Not much anymore. It stopped raining.

Do you ever use your umbrella?

When it was raining all the time and we walked places; yes.

Have you gone running again with your comps or what is a one-time thing?

Not quite ... maybe just the once, but we do run sometimes to get home in time.

Where do you run at? Just in the streets? Can you guess-estimate how far you ran? (We are very excited at the prospect of you running again!)

We just run in the street, around three miles.

Where was the Costco you went to? What city?

Makuhari-ish.

How did you get to Costco? Who has a Costco card???

We rode a train, then walked, and then bused ... Dunbar Choro has a membership.

What did you buy there? Anything besides peanut butter and hot dogs? Did you just buy stuff for you guys or for your zone?

Just peanut butter and some nutella; then some hot-dogs for lunch.

Do you need more contact solution?

I have already bought some here.

What contact solution are you using? Buying it there?

It’s the complete stuff that is way expensive in America ... apparently its dirt cheap here.

How many sweaters did you take with you? What colors? Black and gray?

I only have the one black one.

Do you have any plans for Thursday? (Thanksgiving) or will it be just another day?

Lots of dendo ... family’s will be together and really thinking about giving thanks to God and how their lives have been blessed ... well that’s the hope.

Do you have any suggestions for your Christmas package?

I can’t think of anything yet.

Any word on the Christmas phone call?
We received this notice from the Mission Office:

This year, Christmas phone calls will be happening in December from Monday the 23rd to Friday the 27th.  You may use Skype, so use that free service if you can. Because of the weak wireless connection, Skype may not work well for everyone and you may encounter multiple dropped calls. As an alternative you can have your family call your mission cell phone. It is very expensive to place international calls, so do not place a call to your family. If you cannot get Skype to work, Have your family call you. (Remember to keep your calls no longer than 30 or 40 minutes as stated in the missionary handbook.)

So this week was pretty good. At the Elder Evans conference they announced that before Christmas our mission will be a test mission for using iPad minis ... yeah, that’s exciting right? So other than that this week was pretty good. After the Elder Evans event we had a mission conference for Christmas ... we got to watch, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and some other home videos for the Budge’s.

Me and the way sick maamaa chaddi I rode on splits ... we tore it up pretty good.

So this week as a companion of the zone leaders I am able to do a lot of splits with other missionaries. This week we had two back to back and out of our area!! Wahoo!! Party!!! It was pretty fun actually; we found these big American dogs at seven-eleven. They are like a giant corn dog, but for some reason, a thousand times better. We also found some way cheap chocolate bars ... mmmmmmm black thunders … I ate a lot of really good food this week. For breakfast after we got back from splits we had no more bread for breakfast, so we made pancakes ... put on peanut butter ... and then some chocolate sauce ... and then DEVOURED THEM WHOLE!!!!! It was quite delightful. Then on Saturday we went to the High Priest’s Thanksgiving day thingy were we had turkey and pie and rolls and pie and mashed potatoes and pie and then stuffing and pie and then some other desserts and then some more pie ... it was really good pie!!! Maybe when I return I will make like a thousand peanut butter pies and eat them all ... maybe I’ll try to make one here. How hard can it be; just mix some whipped cream and peanut butter for the middle and then top it with goodness and then devour it whole ... I really miss eating btw, everything here is good, but they don't really believe in sweets.

This is the deliciousness I had for lunch today

and how much i enjoyed it
to the point of where I ate too much.
Sorry that that didn't make any sense.

So this week was the other district’s interviews with President Budge, we had ours last week and afterwards the ZL’s got to talk to him ... afterwards they said that someone might be training next transfer and then both of them started to laugh; they are just trying to freak me out.

So yeah ... pretty fun week for the most part. We are singing next Sunday at the Matsudo thing. So that should be a fun way to wrap up the week.

We were helping Brother S move & he has this OstrichPillow
you can sleep anywhere with it, especially in the library at school
yea, I will find one ... and I will buy one.

This week was pretty rough missionary wise. We were not really able to meet with all of our investigators. Brother S is moving and so we had to hand him off to the Koiwa Choros ... successfully btw. Brother A isn’t picking up that phone and Brother C has dropped off the face of the earth. J got a little too violent for Brother C’s taste so he said that he bailed to Tokyo, he said he would call us … but he never did ... which just hurts because it was a miracle finding him after he was taught by Miranda Choro ... anyway, that was kind of a bummer. We have been able to meet with Sawada San a couple of times this week and he’s getting ready for baptism and stuff on the 8th. On Sunday night we heard that Brother S made it to church in Koiwa and was a big hit with the members … there is a guy in the ward who is Chinese … has a stake calling ... turns out, they are good friends already … a Tender Mercy, that was big relief.

Asato Choro, Brother S, Griffiths Choro, & Dunbar Choro
Chillin at the park where we just gave him a lesson ... we are some classy peeps

So about y’all, I’m so sorry to hear that Tiff died ... that was for Abi’s benefit ... for the rest of the family I’m so sorry that I was not in the car with Abi when her car died on the freeway, I feel that I would have been able to calm her down/being able to talk to you guys about where she was and such ... sorry, I’m in japan. I hope that Clyde treats her well this week, he is a true stud ... a true..... STALLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What!!!!?!?!?!? I love that car ... people always see him in my photo book and are like "ARE!! KORE Wa yabai desho" and then I’m always like "Hai yabi" so thank you for that wonderful gift that keeps on giving ... and thank you Clydesdale for being such a trooper all these years ... there were some rough times, when your tranny was about to die and we went to jiffy lube everyday ... those were some of the best days of our lives together ... treat her well Storm-a-geddon ... or Gravy, whoever gets to drive my baby.

Sorry that Thanksgiving cleaning hasn’t been going well. if it makes you feel any better I bet that no one really cares what the house looks like; they'll be too concerned with wedding happenings with my cousins ... I’m still a little confused on all this too btw ... who is getting married and when … Can you give me an update?

So I'm not going to lie, I was always planning on getting married at like 27 when I had a Master’s degree and a career. So, Number 1, I don't feel bad unmarried siblings … and, Number 2, at the Elder Evan conference we talked a lot about marriage ... and how we as elders should get married like right when we get home ... for Elder Evans, waiting three months was too long ... so now I feel like I need to repent, I still really like the idea of getting my masters ...

So this week was pretty good; today we had zone P-Day and then we went and ate fish, I had salmon and little salmon babies in the form of eggs ... surprisingly good actually, next up, pictures.

Chocolate Chip melon pan
it was so good I thought I'd send the picture twice

I recieved this white elephant at the Christmas party
right, its like a real gift ...

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