Nov. 4, 2011

Aloha,

I hope you are all doing great! How has your past week been? What has the ward been up to? And how's the weather? I hope you got my two letters in the mail with pictures.

This week has been good, but very frustrating and stressful... An elder in my District, Elder S, has been sick and having "migraine" headaches since Saturday. He's in a three-some, but we've been rotating through our district(6 Elders, not including Elder S) staying back at the residence with him. The thing is, he's only sick when it's convenient. He magically get's better for things that he wants to do. He's been to all firesides, devotionals, piano auditions and even a night outside playing soccer. The morning after playing soccer, he refused to get up, again. We are trying our best to continually love and support him, but we're being forced to miss class because he seemingly doesn't want to be here. It's hard, but we pray and hope that he'll come around soon. He actually came into the MTC six weeks before we did, but was sent home for two weeks because of this same "medical" reason... we can't do much more than wish for the best! He's helping all of us grow in a different aspect. And giving us experiences that will help us later, in the field and in life. Other than that, this week has flown by! Time is definitely picking up speed. It's been four weeks and two days now since I entered the MTC. We're in week five of our stay here. Our sempai leave on Monday and Tuesday... then we have a week and half before our kohai(the group Dallin comes in with) arrives. We're told time will really fly by then!

Mark 'Keenan' Kaaa arrives this next Wednesday, the 9th. We're hoping he rooms in the same residence building as us. If you see him before he leaves, wish him luck for me and let him know we're excited to see him!

Thank you dad for the DearElder! It was so great to hear from you. It was great to read a little about what you've been up to. It's great that you're beginning to paint again. Keep me updated.

I hope that everyone is enjoying school and work and life. We're blessed with so much! Never think otherwise!... we all have so much as long as we're obedient. Happiness is why we are here. And happiness is promised!!

How was Halloween? What did everyone dress up as? I hope the weather was nice that night. Here, my companion and I, bought a bunch of candy from the bookstore and gave it away before and after class. It was fun and nice to get people to smile just a little more.

Staying diligent with the Japanese language is paying off. I feel like I can understand and converse more with my teachers and progressing investigators. Our lessons are flowing better and we actually committed our first baptism yesterday. We still need to teach him a lot more and get him to be able to pass a baptismal interview, but it is still pretty exciting.

My testimony of prayer and of companionship/good companion relationships are two things that have definitely grown a lot while I've been here. Our knees are being used a lot! We were privileged to hear from W. Craig Zwick, of the Seventy, this past Tuesday for our devotional. He spoke mostly on prayer. It was a really nice meeting that reinforced a lot of good points of prayer and its extreme importance. Our district devotional reviews after each devotional are always awesome as well.

I just got back from the temple! It's 10:10am now... we were in the 7:40am endowment session. It's really a privilege to be able to do work there each week. I know that the weeks are so much better because of it! The weather is really nice today. Clear blue skies and it isn't too cold. We've had some decently cold days so far. Snow has come below the Y twice, but we haven't had any in the MTC yet.

Anyway, I love all of you with all of my heart!! I know that I could be in no better place than here, at this time in life! I pray for all of you constantly... and you are always in my thoughts. Your love and support provides me with great motivation and courage. Thank you so much. I Love you so much.

Love,
Elder Rindlisbacher