Week 48 – Sept. 3, 2012

Aloha, 

I'm glad everyone's doing good. Thanks for the pictures, mom. And for ordering that book! It will help so much when I'm able to use it. I'm glad Mikela's Cheer Camp went well. And the ward service project sounds awesome. I'm glad that so much work was able to be done! Tell Keanu good job for picking up so much trash, and for doing well at his first cross country meet! I'm so proud of him. I remember the Seabury meets being some of the more difficult ones.

When I transferred here I took my bike on the train again. I don't want to try to trust the shipping companies. The trains weren't too full though, because it was in the early afternoon (around 4:30pm.) The transfer method was changed up a bit by President Budge, so instead of all meeting at Shinjuku Station we just transferred directly to our new areas alone. It felt pretty weird sitting on a train alone for an hour and a half. Urawa is not a big city, but definitely not inaka. It's probably just a little more tokai than Sagamihara. It's been an interesting week! We haven't been teaching very much, a decent change from me leaving Sagamihara, but we're working hard, and I'm sure we'll be blessed with more lessons over time. I haven't learned too much about Korean food yet. Elder Kim is pretty good at cooking, but has only made Korean food once. I think he's planning on making more. He's glad that I'm fine with spicy  foods, all of his other companions couldn't enjoy the stuff he makes.  It's still really hot and humid. We were completely fine from the Okinawa storm though.

The ward here is awesome. There's a lot of people that attended BYU Hawaii and still go back every once in a while. Our bishop and dendo shunin (ward mission leader) are great. Yesterday after church I asked the bishop if we could meet with him some time to talk about his vision and goals, so that we can become one with him and set our goals and plans according to what he knows needs to be done. He was really busy at the time, but said he'd call us. We were then able to meet with one of our investigators named  Ejima san for a quick lesson. After that, bishop invited us and the two sister missionaries serving in Urawa (it's nice to have more than one companionship in a ward!) out to lunch at a place called  Sutaminataro.  Sutaminataro is a yakiniku, sushi, soup, curry, and desert tabehodai (buffet!) So we ate a lot, and were able to have a great talk with him about the ward. He is a great person. He loves the missionaries so much.

Ejima san, the investigator we were able to meet with on Sunday, is a great person. He's very quiet and shy, with a good heart. He has a baptismal date set for his birthday, 9/28, but he probably won't be able to make that, as his mom and sister who he lives with are hantai (anti) towards the church. Legally he doesn't need their permission to be baptized, but he really wants their support. He also has some problems with commandments, but he has a huge desire to change and repent, and I'm sure we will be able to work with him to overcome them over time. Sunday was my first time meeting him, and he was completely open and honest. He's just a great guy.

President Budge is very young, at only 52. I believe that Sister Budge is planning on having every missionary sign the quilt she made. I think there will probably be about 500 missionaries come through the mission while they're here.

There's no Costco in the area. The Costco in Sagamihara didn't really have good deodorant or toothpaste anyway though. I'm on my last one now... but if you can't get any out here, I can figure something else out. I might be able to work something out with missionaries with Costco, etc.

All in all, we're doing great here! Thank you so much for your support and prayers. Serving the Lord is amazing. I love serving my district here, and I look forward to doing all I can to help to build this ward and area.

I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!

Elder Rindlisbacher

 P.S. I don't think you sent the talk you wrote about mom. Or maybe I just can't find it.

I love you!!!