DD 5.45 寝たくてたまらない

Where did you get the shovels to sled on?

They were sitting outside of our apartment complex one day ... They are still good shovels.

Jump roping? Where? How? When?

My companion likes to jump rope, and brought some, so some mornings we go out and jump rope in the little park behind our house.

Did you replace your bike light yet?

Yep ... Now I have a mini spotlight on my bike ... You can almost see the beam shining up in the night sky ... it's nice

What were you looking for at the recycle shop?

A jacket, some shoes, a new snowboard, maybe a soccer ball. They have everything for way cheap.

Did you get the bike tool from Amazon yet?

Not yet ... Y'all know that I could have bought one here right? I just thought that if you were sending me a package the one I already had would be nice ... But whatever. (Note from Dad: no fun in just buying it in Japan, then I wouldn’t have had any fun finding and shipping the product from www.amazon.co.jp … harder than it sounds ;-)

Report on your district? How is your companion progressing?

The district is way good. Everyone has really solid baptismal dates ... well, everyone except us ... We have no investigators right now, but we're working on it. Elder Nielson is doing alright.

Did you fix your pants? or are you taking a picture of them so we can replace them at missionary mall??? We are hoping you send a picture of them!

I may have forgot to take a picture of them ... I'll do something

Did you hurt your head when you fell?

Yeah, it was bleeding all over the place. Elder Nielson had to carry me to the nearest store where he bandaged my gaping head wound with some magazines ... I lost a lot of blood, but I'm alright. No, my head is fine.

When I saw my bloody gory wound

Are you typing your e-mails to us on your iPad or on the church computer?

We are not allowed to use the computers anymore ... So pictures might be a little/lot more difficult ... we are also not allowed to take pictures on our iPads … maybe ... it's all very confusing.

Does it take you longer to send e-mails on your iPad keyboard?

No, I'm actually a little faster … years of texting prepared me for this day quite well.

How are your district leader training meetings going??

I dislike them more than anything in the whole world ... But they are pretty good. People say that they are good, so who knows.

Did you know Mom makes us think of one more question if we end on the thirteenth question??

Yet still you don't end on a multiple of five ... SHAME!!!!!!

Is your Japanese bag still holding up? Did you buy a Japanese umbrella? Rain pants??

Good. I have to yet to buy one ... I may just borrow one fromm the church every time it rains ... my rain pants are awesome!!!!

That pain in your neck, is it gone? still hurting?

It's gone!!,!,

Still doing those neck exercises Sam sent you?

Sometimes ... Trying to prevent my neck from getting fat though ...

So this week we just tried to find people all week. We literally had no lessons ... a first for me. It was really hard. We were taken out to dinner by a man named Brother N, he's Okinawan ... he spent like 10000¥ on Sushi for us, then made us go to an Italian restaurant where we ate pizza and some other cinnamon sugar bread stuff with cream on top ... and then we had to tell him that we had a curfew and had to leave before he took us to Baskin Robbins for round three ... I have never eaten so much food in my life ... Major bummer though, the next week was Fast Sunday and we were all so starving all day ... It made no sense.

Pretty much that was my whole week ... yeah, not that exciting I know ... I guess; this week I started writing all my emails in Japanese ... That's something new. Also for language study I downloaded all the I'm a Mormon videos in Japanese on my iPad and all sorts of fun talks and stuff. Now I have the apostles to listen too ... I figure they probably have some pretty good Japanese right? Well,  the only downside is that it's all church words ... I can have a deep discussion about the second coming of Christ, His atonement, and what the principle of repentance means in terms of eternal salvation ... but I have NO idea how to say "yes, I would like my doughnuts to go" ... it hurts my heart every time ... I know what they are asking me, but I have no idea how to respond ... and I wanna cry. Every Time ...

Dad: It's good to hear that work is going we'll and that you are keeping busy. I agree with you though, doing work that no one else wants to do is always good. Then you’re indispensable because you enjoy the work that no one else wants to do ... Just be careful. If it's really complex, don't be the inky one that is doing it and then mess up, you'll be the only person that they will blame.... But I am sure that you won't! You were always showing your work to make sure that you are doing things right ... Unlike me... I still just do everything in my head ... But whatever's. I got your letter in the mail today too, it's a really sweet Poem, I have never thought about peer pressure like that, it can be good or bad, it depends on who our peers are. Thank-you so much.

Mom: I'm glad to hear the Clydesdale passed his inspection.... even more pleased that auto correct has Clydesdale in it... It even capitalizes it for me! Whoo! I hope that all is going well with grandma and such. All the snow here is gone pretty much ... so don't worry about me, I'm plenty warm ... It's a bummer, I kiss the snow, it was way fun actually!! Hope that all is well on the home front.

Sam: best card ever ... should have gotten earlier .. oh wait, I never did valentines; say, go me! Good to hear that you and Abi are still chillin wid Brittany and Katie, can't believe that she is going to college this year, that's insane! I feel like she should still just barely be in high school, scary thought, by the time that I get back she will have more school done that I will at that point ... Samar day, but I’ll speak Japanese ... worth it ... Plus all the gospel experience too!! Interesting about law school ... Good luck.

Abi: I just spelled your name wrong three times ... I love spell check ... I'm glad to hear that you are proud to be driving Clydesdale. Remember when you drove him in high school and were so mad to give him up, and then you were so mad to have to take him back? Maybe that is why he was mad at you for a while, I hear that all is well now and that things are going better with him. It's good to hear that you are doubting your major a little bit. It's good to know that everyone can doubt the surest thing, and still come back to the knowledge that it was the right thing to do. Sorry to hear that Herbert (Abi's plant) died ... That's no good. Good luck in your D and D game next week, I would like some details about how it goes and what actually goes Xeon ...

So sorry for my spelling. Now instead of just random letters and stuff, my iPad is just changing the word to other words, and I can only imagine what it must be like to try and read one of my emails ... I truly am really sorry, I'm not even trying to do it, it just happens ... I really have a talent for this whole making stuff hard to read crap. Sorry

So this week, not much happened, and so it's hard to draw a spiritual parallel from nothing, but I guess that it just goes to enduring to the end. Sometimes life is really hard, sometimes life in the church is really hard, but sometimes you just have to keep going and try to make the best of it. It's not always great, it's not always lessons and baptisms and referrals, but sometimes it's walking through the snow for two hours to try to visit some people that may have had interest, only to have the door slammed in your face with a couple words, that mean you never go back, muttered under their breath. It's all hard sometimes, but if we just gave in to the pressure to quit, if we just gave up and stopped trying, then what would be the point of all that we had done? What would be the point of the promises we made before? What would be the point of all that we had learned? So I guess the point of it all, is to never give up, we have all had some spiritual experiences in our lives, some moment when we knew that what we were working for was the right thing to do. All we need to do is remember those experiences. I know that they are what will give us the strength to, in the words of a much wiser man then me, "sell our harmonica in order to find one last meal;" to give all that we have, just to keep going, just to keep holding on, just to keep our vision as high as our potential. So in short, yes, sometimes it's hard, sometimes it seems impossible, but was anything ever worth it, easy?

Thank you all so much for your support and love, I love you all so much.

Elder Griffiths.

PS. I've been out for like 8 months, and I only have 5,500 hits?!?! What is this garbage? But seriously, thank you all for reading about my silly life.

Part of a letter sent to Trenton in which he is responding to:

This month’s poem, however, illustrates the problem involved with blind obedience or blind acceptance of somebody else's direction. No matter where you are, or what you do Trent, you need to know for yourself why you do the things you do. I mounted a sign on my bike when I was in the mission field that said, "Ask Me Why I'm a Mormon". I hope your response is not, "Because I was born that way".

In response to your poem question, it's not just because I was born that way, that may have been the reason when I was younger, but it is not the reason now. Thank you for your love and encouragement and all that you have influenced me to do in my life and in making me the person that I am today.

寝たくてたまらない ... I'm dying for sleep
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