Eric's Mission, Tokyo, Japan

So after a 5 hour bus trip and a 2 hr train ride I have finally reached Togane, the land of endless rice fields. lol  We have a pretty sweet apartment in a building right next to the station.  My companion is named Elder C... and he is pretty nice.  We have seen some pretty crazy miracles this week.  We started off with zero investigators on Thursday and we have found a new investigator everyday this week!  That's 4 new investigators!  I have no idea how it happened, it just did.  Actually today my companion was playing the flute outside of the station and a guy came up to us and asked us if we could go to his recording studio so he could record him.  We were like yeah but let's meet at the church and teach you a lesson about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ first and he was like no problem.  Who would have known the power of music.  lol Unfortunately I left the violin back in Niigata because I was too ...

How is Everyone? So the big news for the day is that we got transfer calls today and guess what, I am officially leaving my home in Niigata and moving way down south to the rice paddies and strawberry fields of Togane.  Apparently Togane is the 2nd most rural area in the mission so I'm going to have tons of fun conversing with Japanese farmers.  I was talking with my companion Elder Pronk who used to work there and he says that it's a 30 min bike ride to the nearest town and to the church so I'll get in really good shape!  Which is good because I'm gaining more weight.  It's all because of the rice we always eat.  And guess what, they called me as the Senior companion! How crazy is that?!  I feel like I definitely don't know enough Japanese to be the best one at Japanese in my companionship.  And on top of that I am opening up a new area which is crazy!  There is already a Togane A team and we are going to be Togane B team. ...

How has your week been?  From what I have heard it has been super cold, even colder than it has been here in Niigata!  I feel super bad for all of you because I can barely survive here in 30 degrees!  I'm sure that at least all of you that had exams this week are excited for them to finally be over. Hm so what's new with me...I got to play a guitar with an amp as I was buying a string for the violin.  And while I was playing the guitar I was able to dendo, do missionary work, with the guitar center rep that was helping me out.  Unfortunately we didn't get another appointment with him so he's technically not a new investigator but we got his # and we are going to visit him today when we go suit shopping.    Oh also this week I was able to work with a brand new 1st transfer missionary named Elder Smith.  He is super nice and he really has tons of faith and desire.  Even though it was just us in a world full of ...

Happy New Year!  I hope that everyone had an amazing winter break and that everyone is super excited to start heading back to school and work this next week.  lol  Because of the raucous New Year celebrating in Japan, we did a lot of house cleaning and scripture reading.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish the whole Book of Mormon in a day but I did get to Alma so I'm pretty proud of myself!  Elder Shibuta and I went on splits with one of the transfer 1 missionaries last week and it was super interesting.  He kept asking me for help with Japanese and to my surprise I actually knew the answers to most of his questions!  I can't believe that I have learned so much in such a short amount of time.  But I still feel like I don't know very much so I need to keep working hard to learn more.     We have our big mission conference at Niigata tomorrow and since we have the apartment closest to the church every...

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 ...