Subject:久しぶりですね


Hello family and friends! Sorry I haven't written a letter for a
bit now. I ran out of time last week and this week was Temple P day so
I am writing it on Tuesday over here. Well let's see, first of all,
this transfer has gone by incredibly fast. Next Monday we will be
receiving our transfer calls and I could be staying or transferring to
anywhere in the mission. It's always crazy to think about the goals
and thoughts about a transfer right when it begins, and then seeing it
end so quickly. Although the transfer isn't over yet, I am pretty
happy with it. Me and Elder Brown have had some fun and it's been
awesome living in the apartment with Elder Scott and Elder Huntsman.
Fun talks and fun missionary work. Although this area has been a
little rough on me on account of the lack of people we find, I have
been Happy and looking forward to improvement in my life. It's truly
an eye opening experience out on the mission because there are so many
things that you could never really feel anywhere else. But I think
I've grown immensely because of it and am glad to have learned the
things I have so far. And it's not over yet! More terrible times to
come, and more knowledge to obtain through those experiences.
So, even though I can't remember a lot of details of what's
happened the last couple weeks (because it goes by so quickly) I'll
just try to say the things I do remember. The main thing me and Elder
Brown have done would have to be finding an actual investigator. He's
not blooming up in the Gospel or ready with a baptismal date yet, but
he is a genuinely good guy and I feel for him. I see him and where he
is in his life now, and I just wanna make him a happier person. His
name is Nakai 中井 Yuuta 勇太 and he is a pretty average 22 year old
Japanese guy. He just moved to an area pretty near us (Shakujikoen)
and he has a job making/serving sushi. He works quite a lot and
doesn't like his job much. He just has the basic struggles of what
could make him happy in life and doesn't seem to have a ton of
direction. He hasn't told us about any specifically hard trials in his
life but he realizes that there are people that get so depressed about
life that they do bad things to themselves. Obviously he doesn't want
that, and so he wants to make sure he doesn't get to unhappy about his
situation. And we've talked quite a bit about that with him and how
it's terrible how life can just take us down sometimes. He doesn't
believe in a God right now and says that he has never really though
about it before. He has also told us that he can't believe in
something he cannot see. However, we taught him about prayer and being
thankful for the things we do have and he's told us it makes him a lot
happier. We told him to ask God for help when he needs it too, and
hope that he can feel the spirit and feel more comfort in a time of
need.
So that's who we've been trying to work with lately but he's a
super busy guy. I am excited for what the future brings though, and I
hope to at least improve his happiness/direction in life because joy
is the eternal goal right? "men are, that they might have joy". That's
a good little scripture. Anyways, I think that's all I'll say for now.
We did some service in the pouring rain yesterday and that was fun.
Haha.

And just remember that even when we make a big mistake or fall into a
terrible situation, we have two options. We can let it keep us down
and fail to improve. Or we can realize that it's now happened and we
cannot change the past, so live to improve from where you are.

Until next week!
Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老