Eric's Mission, Tokyo, Japan

So guess what, it rained, snowed, hailed, sleeted, and thunderstormed everyday this week, like always, and we got to ride our bikes through it everyday too. lol  It was actually sort of fun riding in the snow because I got to skid to a stop!  I wiped out like three times though so I still need more practice.  It's definitely harder than doing it in a car.  It was so amazing to see everyone again last week on skype.  I'd like to shout out a thanks to my family for hosting it at their house.  It's pretty sweet having the party house right? lol  I can't wait to be able to skype everyone again in May. The time was just way too short. Well this week is Shougatus, New Year.  Also, tomorrow we have a mandatory all day apartment cleaning day.  I don't really care because I have been wanting to clean the apartment for a long time.  I just never have time to do it.  Sharing an apartment with 5 other teenage guys can get ve...

Christmas!  But it's just been way too crazy here so it doesn't even really feel like it at all.  The only thing that makes it seem like Christmas is getting to skype with everyone tomorrow and all the presents that we got from the ward and from all of you guys!  Thank you soo much!  I just wish we had a tree to put them all under instead of piling them all on my desk.  It makes it really hard to study with tons of presents on your desk I can tell you that.  lol  So what's new with all of you?  I don't really know what to say because I get to talk with all of you tomorrow through skype which is super amazing and I'm really excited for!  Unfortunately all the equipment that the old missionaries used was broken so I had to buy everything but it's all worth it!  I can't wait to be able to talk with you all again, I just hope that it works.  lol We are going over to the Oseki`s house tonight for a Christmas eve dinner and I'm pretty e...

Hey everybody!  So sorry we are going to have p-day tomorrow because we have a caroling activity at a rest home all day today.  I actually get to play the violin and I'm super excited!  So don't worry about me I'm fine and playing the violin for some senior people!  Should be super fun.  Also, mom I have a question about the rice pudding recipe.  In the recipe it says I need eggs in the instructions but it never listed eggs in the ingredients list.  So how many eggs do I need to make the rice pudding?  Also how many servings does the recipe make? Because 3/4 a cup of rice doesn't seem like that much.  Should I double it or something?  I'm going to make it tomorrow so I'll check up with you again then.  Thank you so much!  I can't wait to make such an amazing Christmas memory.  Love you all, and I'll email again tomorrow!  Mata ashita!  また明日 Eric   Elder Hall Preparing To Transfer To Tokyo ...

Hello Everyone!   Have you guessed yet?  I'll tell you later.  lol Wow, I have been so busy with the mission that I haven't had time to think about Christmas at all!  It was a huge surprise when I got home one night to find that my desk was covered with Christmas packages from everyone!  I think that's the most mail that I have ever received in one day, 3 packages and 2 letters!  That was a great day!  But don't worry, I haven't opened any of the packages up yet, I'll wait until Christmas well except for maybe the rice pudding ingredients.  lol  So about the rice pudding, we are out of rice!  What's up with that?!  I'll have to go buy some more before I can make any.  And for some reason rice is super expensive in Japan.  But it's totally worth it!    We have been getting lots of snow the past few days and it's actually starting to stick now.  We just recently had transfers and on Thursday when all...

Hey everybody! How are you all doing?  We have had another amazing week here on the opposite side of the world.  So first off, I'm sure that you are all wondering what happened with the transfer calls that we had this morning.  Well good news, I'm staying in Niigata for another transfer so I don't have to pack everything up again!  But one of my companions is transferring to Nakano to work as the new presidents assistant!  That's my second companion that has been sent to the mission home to work!  I guess I've been trained by the best!  Oh and I still get to work with Elder Shibuta again and our old district leader, Elder Pronk, is coming to work with us as the other zone leader.  Yep you guessed it, I'm serving with the zone leaders again!  This will be my third transfer in a row working with the zone leaders!  Everyone in my zone now calls me the 3rd zone leader because I've been with them for so long.  And it...

Hello Everybody back home!  It's good to be able to read all of my weekly emails from everybody!  I love hearing from you!  So another busy week.  I think I should be fine with the clothes that I have right now.  The rain pants work really well and they're the konnan brand or something like that, I can't really remember.  They also have some boots at the apartment that the other Elders left so I can just use those.  And transfers are next Monday so I don't know if I will even be staying for the winter months or not, will just have to see.  It sounds like you all had a really fun Thanksgiving back home.  For ours we just made some of my mashed potatoes and some chicken.  I made sure to document it for you all to see. lol  Oh and one of the sister missionary's mom sent us a pumpkin pie and it was super amazing!  We had to split it between 5 people but it was still really good.  But Thanksgiving had some reall...