Eyyyyy, Konnichiwa friends!

How's life back in the US? Because Japan is 超やばいよ！hehehe. It's great
to hear all the news dad! I really enjoyed the letter you sent. So
yeah, Japanese is coming along slowly but surely. I think about where
I'm at and how long I really only have sometimes. But then I realize
that I'm just a transfer 3 and if I can keep it up and become twice as
good by transfer 6 or 7, I should be doing alright. Anyways, I've
realized that I can generally keep a pretty decent conversation with a
Japanese person now. When they use words I don't know or something
I've never learned, they can normally explain their way around it to
something I know. But that being said, I still have to guess a lot of
what people are actually saying. As expected, native speakers talk
quickly (it seems) in their own language and that can also really get
to you sometimes. It's still very difficult to jump into a
conversation and figure out what they're talking about, but when I can
somewhat lead the conversation, I can do alright. Also, heck yes those
cards you sent are sweet. They've been working very well recently and
I feel like the more I learn (just like vocab) the quicker I can lean
them. So right now I'm on about 55 and I could for sure give the
meaning of each Kanji and some of the readings. But yeah, there are
thousands of them so it'll be a while before I can actually understand
a full sign. But it always feels good to pick out a word or two that's
in Kanji. Tough stuff. Thank you again for sending those. I'll
probably request the next set in the future but I have another 250 to
memorize and review along with the others first, haha.
Also, the companionship is doing pretty well so far. Up to this
point, Elder Bunker is definitely the easiest one to talk with and
make jokes around. We have differences obviously, but at least we talk
a lot. And dang, this transfer is going by fast. Already starting week
4 and it feels like he got here yesterday. Oh yeah, and I'm pretty
happy to say that I can fear factor it up (to an extent) when it comes
to eating these crazy dang foods. I figure there's no way I'm going to
let horrible taste ruin the rest of my Japan experience, so I just eat
what's there and try to make members happy. Speaking of members, and
in general, people..I love 日本人 (Japanese People)!! They are so awesome
and everything they do is either way cool or way cute. Sounds kind of
weird but dang do I love having a solid conversation with someone. I
feel like I've learned to love strangers more then ever while being
out here. So even though Japanese people are the best, I actually met
a couple of guys from Switzerland a couple days ago! I knew you would
love hearing this too, Dad, because of Federer of course. (And by the
way, that is Awesome that he had another set of twins!! No way! Now
he'll have 2 doubles teams! Haha). But yeah, on the train, I noticed
that they weren't Japanese (pretty easy to tell, hah) and so I asked
them if they spoke English. Then they replied with "yeah, a little"
but they were actually just totally fluent with a sweet German style
accent. And we had a way good talk about why they were in Japan and
where they were heading. And of course I mentioned and talked about
how I was a missionary and stuff and that I had a friend from Hamburg,
Germany (Julien) because they spoke German. Then when I mentioned how
you love Roger Federer they knew him immediately. So I thought that
was pretty cool. And it's just weird because by the end of it, I would
have totally gone with them right there to hang out and be best
friends for life, haha. Everyone you meet you just love. Usually at
least, haha.
Heyyy nice work on the blog too! I hope you continue to save all
of my vids somewhere so that I have them once I'm back. Since this
iPad is only a 16 GB (32 GB がひつよう！) I have to erase vids from time to
time and I feel sad if I don't get to see some ever again. Also, you
should like this week then, because it's just gonna be a big letter.
No videos to fiddle with...I think. I'll check after. Also, ahhh yeah,
I'm glad momma Bates is keepin you on task. I love Bates 長老 so much
man! And speaking of him too, I got to see him 2 days ago! We had a
big mission wide (Tokyo South and North Mission) conference in
Kichijoji (headquarters) and I got to see my MTC district again!! It
was amazing and I could hardly believe it when I saw them again. It
had only been 3 and a half months since I saw them last but man was it
wonderful to see those old friends. Me and Elder Bates are going to be
Kings Among Men when we return, hahah. And the other crazy thing was
that I saw Alec Smith again too! (from forever ago, our kind of
neighbors). He s in the Northern Mission so it was cool too see him
too. I was so happy to see and talk to everyone again and I can hardly
imagine how it will be after the 2 years and seeing you guys again!
And I'll be honest, I can not even wait to see Sean again too. I wanna
hang out with him and everyone else every dang day, hah. So yeah, good
reunion stuff went down. The conference was actually because of Elder
Cook coming to talk and apparently it's been quite a while since a
General Authority has talked to Missionaries in Japan. So yeah, way
cool experience.
Ah yeah, Cristel is way way cool too. I am a proud Brother of
hers. 毎日、私はクリースタルみたいに成りたいです (I want to be like Cristel everyday). And
that's just like her to always be busy with friends and church, haha.
That's also sweet that she's getting pro at photography. That way, she
can take sweet pictures of me when I'm a model. Haha. And dang, I also
can't wait to see Zeus. He sounds like a super cool dog. Everytime I
see a dog on the street I just want to pick it up and play with it all
day. Very nice work on that fence by the way. It looks super classy
and totally small dog proof. I'm also pretty sure I told you this but
I want to play some more tennis when I get back. I'll probably be
pretty bad still, but good enough to beat up on some of my friends
(like Bates 長老) who want to play it up. And I bet that duo with you
and Troy is unbeatable. Totally gonna go to nationals. Hey, you
remember when we went to Colorado for that one tournament together? My
companion is actually from Colorado. So fun fact ね？
Ah yeah, and I definitely have a lot of experiences already.
There's just so much that happens in a day. I'll have a lot of little
stories for small talk and stuff. And just random things about Japan
that you wouldn't think much about. Soooo, I hope you liked the long
letter again. I loved your letterand the pics. Have a great week. Love you all!

Bye Bye!
Carlini 忍者長老

Heyyy, so it's beautiful here in Japan because the Sakura is in full
bloom! I have a bunch of pictures and videos that I'll be sending
after this and some stories for you guys. Hope you enjoy!

This week had some rough parts but from the vids you'll see the
highlights. These videos show the happy times but don't think that's
all there is. I had some rough points during the week but it's always
nice to see the good. I'm pushing through it so far. Still have a lot
to learn and a lot to go through but at least we have a really busy
week ahead. That should take my mind off of things I hope, haha.

Yeah so I haven't really mentioned all of the new foods I've been
trying (usually when I have to) over this time period. I don't really
know the name of most of the things but yeah I've had a bunch of new stuff.
But one in particular that I recently had the hardest time wit hand was
amazed that I didn't throw up was spaghetti.....I ate a whole plate,
at a members house. It was really rough....BUT I DID IT FAMILY yup
that's just something I wanted to throw in. Hope you're happy!

I totally love and miss you all!

私は神様によって、全てのことを出来るよ！
でも、私のためにいのんでください。
いつも、愛していますよ！

Much Love, Carlini 長老

Hey Family!
I hate to hear such bad news about Grandma passing away
but it sounded like it was only a matter of time.
I really do believe that she is incredibly happy right now
and because of the great life she lived she can be with God. Anyways,
I'm sorry to have not written to much to you guys lately. The videos
are just so easy to do haha. But I know that it's really nice to have
the letters so we can remember all of this. Soooo, this week has been
different for sure because we had transfers obviously. Although I
didn't do much except for switch desks and downgrade into the small
room, hah. Things have been kinda rough with the new comp because we
just don't see eye to eye at all on some things. But I think that if I
am able to focus my efforts on the investigators then this transfer
will go by quickly. The language. Let me just say that Japanese is
incredibly difficult and the more I learn, the more I realize how much
more there is to learn. And to be quite honest, having only 2 years to
fully study it and be surrounded doesn't seem like a lot of time now.
I was hoping and expecting to be relatively fluent by around 7 months
but I don't feel that too much anymore. I study my butt off and I'm
trying to learn all I can. It just takes learning and hearing another
language enough to realize how many freakin words and grammar
principles there are. And then you have to use those same things back
to a person without taking 5 minutes. Hahah, so yeah it's difficult,
but I am certainly learning. I really wanna connect with these people
better ya know? Obviously the spirit helps with that a bunch but I
hate when I feel super awkward seeing someone and not having much to
say to them.
Anyways, on to the other questions, haha. We have 4 in our
apartment still, but there is a slight change. Instead of having
Kuniyuki (my last companion), we have a Nihonjin! And he's brand new,
so Elder Staheli is training him. It's a nice little perk and I was
able to practice speaking more Japanese just today with him. He
doesn't really speak any English so it's a good opportunity. Hmmm, our
daily schedule changes a bit from day to day for sure but we mostly
wake up, work out, eat, do our 3-4hour block of studies (personal,
companion, and language), then we eat lunch and go out to do
missionary work. Unless we have something else planned. Then have
dinner later that night, and we almost always Kubarikai (hand out
English class fliers) until 9. But yeah, we actually have a decent
amount of lessons this week and some awesome people in our area with
baptismal dates. So that's great stuff right there.
So let's see, from this last week me and Kuniyuki 長老 had a pretty
cool experience together. In this mission we have a thing called the
power of ten. It's a goal for every companionship in the mission to
get at least 10 meaningful contacts a day. So that makes the minimal
requirement for a week 70. So, the night before we had to turn in
stats, me and Elder Kuniyuki realized that we only had 66 contacts for
the week, and proposed an idea. We both had food ready to eat and it
was the end of the day. But he suggested that we try and go get those
last 4 contacts with the 20 or so minutes we had before planning. So,
we had a quick prayer and went out the door for who knows who. And as
soon as we walked out of our complex, there were exactly 4 people
walking down the sidewalk towards us. So once they came by, Kuniyuki
just started throwing out all the main Japanese you use to start a
conversation and say that we are missionaries. They didn't seem very
interested and kind of just kept walking but he persisted and gave
them all English class fliers in case they wanted to come. It was a
pretty funny experience and we may have frightened them more then
enticed them to join the church but hey, we got those 4 contacts!
Hahah, so yeah, that's that.
Dad! You better make sure to study that Japanese card you bought
because Mother's Day is (kind of) coming up. I wanna hear that pure
accent, haha. I hope you guys have a great week and enjoy all the
pictures I was finally able to send. I'm sorry about Grandma. I know
she's happy.

I love you all!
愛していますよ！あなたたちはさいこのかぞくです！

Love, Carlini 長老

So this is our district (and zone leaders)! Or at least it was. We got
transfer calls this morning so starting Thursday, it will be
different! Although I'm staying in Kamiooka this transfer so there's
your important news!! I'm actually just becoming companions with one
of the other Elders in our apartment too. He's the taller one in the back,
right next to me (behind me).

This is our zone for zone p day! We played frisbee in a sweet park.

Me, Moau, and Blanchard 長老! These elders are awesome

Pretty basic week. Sorry gotta go now. bye

こんにちは！私のかぞくを愛しています！！
Konnichiwa! Watashi no kazoku o ai shite imasu!!
Yoooo, so I think I'll write a letter for ya this week. Sorry I'm
sending it on Wednesday here. I forgot that we had temple p day this
week on Tuesday so we didn't have a p day on Monday. Annnnnd, because
of some problems yesterday, I wasn't able to send an email until
today. Soo yeah, heres the weekly letter.

Alright so I don't think that I told you this but I got my bike
finally! It's way sweet and we found everything for a pretty sweet
deal. Its all red and brand new. I have a picture on my camera...and a
lot of other pictures I haven't sent yet...but I never have a
converter, haha. So I'll have to send those sometime. But everything
on my iPad is readily available to send, so don't worry, I have some
content for you guys. Oh yeah, and since the bike is all red and I'm
in the land of Pokemon, I named him "Flareon". I don't know if you
know that name specifically or not but if not, go ahead and search it
maaaaan. He's way cool.

Haha, anyways, another different thing about this week is that me and
the other Elders went down to Kanazawa Hakei on Friday and it was
crazy. It's about a 40 minute bike ride from Kamiooka so it was a
tiring day I'd say. But it's a good way to stay in shape. It feels
like we're inside so much from studying and planning that if we didn't
go out biking, we'd all get fat! Haha, but yeah, it was a super dendo
filled day. We were down there pretty much all day streeting and
Kubarikai'in. And speaking of kubarikai's, I've been getting some
meaningful contacts! And I say that cheerfully because I got them
without Kuniyuki choro there to help! When we pass out the fliers we
stand a bit of ways away to cover both sides and I used to call him
over to help in understanding. But lately, I've been having (very very
small) conversations with Nihonjin! And explaining about our eikaiwa
class! So yeah, it always makes me happy when I can slightly
communicate with these awesome people.

Hmmm, let's see. So we've been meeting a little bit with Peace lately
and that's been good. He's a way cool guy and his English is pretty
good. He comes to basketball at Isogo Center that we have every week.
Way funny guy. He said he likes reading the Bible and Book of Mormon
so we were able to read with him yesterday. By the way, he's a member,
but he's been inactive for quite a while. Also, we got to talk to all
the other Japanese and Chinese guys that come to sports night too.
They're all great guys.

Soooo, that's the main stuff that has happened from last week.
Obviously it's not even really a cent of what we've done but those are
some main points, haha. If I had a full day to write then I would
totally use it up with how many things go on here. But yeah, I've been
in Japan for a month! すごいですね？ Sugoi des ne? (It's great, isn't it!?)
oh yeah and of course, we went to. The Tokyo temple!! I have some
pictures of it. Pretty cool stuff. And La Salsa again of course, haha,
that place is delicious! I also have some videos of Sakuragichou which
is where landmark tower is and all these awesome places to shop are.
And like I say in the video, I NEED TO TAKE YOU THERE SOMEDAY! It was
beautiful.

That's all Mates. Have a good week and enjoy the vids/pics.

Carlini 長老

Heyyy, so I'm going to write just a little bit for this week because
as always, we don't have much time,haha. But yooo, it was a way sweet
week here in the Jay Pan. I had some very rough times but also a
couple of the greatest times since being here. First off, the coolest
thing ever happened with one of our Eikaiwa students who we were
thinking could be a future investigator. She is the nicest lady ever
and her kids are way crazy. They don't speak any English really, but
she is actually way good. So anyways, this happened right after
emailing you guys Last Monday. So yeah, it was her birthday that day,
and so we went and got her a sweet apple pie from Costco! I don't
think I said this yet so yeah, THERE IS A COSTCO HERE! It's just like
America pretty much. Except that everyone is speaking Japanese, haha.
So yeah, we went to go give her the pie that night and being the
awesome lady that she is, invited us in! Then she figured out that we
hadn't eaten dinner and decided to buy pizza! It was crazy awesome
because she went crazy and bought like 6 mediums haha. So we were
thanking her a ton and saying that we didn't need it but she's too
dang nice and went out to buy it! Oh yeah and while we were waiting
for her and the sisters to go buy it, I played freakin YuGiOh with her
younger son! Or at least tried to, haha. It's all in Japanese so if I
didn't know the card already, then I didn't really know what the heck
it did. So in the end, I got owned. But yeahhhhh, we had pizza and
then she shared the pie with us! Holy heck it was such an awesome
night. And now she is progressing big time with the gospel. I think
that she is really loving having it in her life. Gosh dang. So I'm
gonna watch the other videos you sent and if I have some time I will
send another story or two. Wahhhh, the mission is crazy hard work but
these moments make it freakin cool. Bye for now