Week 78 - April 8, 2013

Aloha Family!
I am enjoying being busy as zone leader! I love always having a lot of work to do. Elder Hill and I are working very hard and are extremely excited to see many souls brought unto Christ in Yokohama zone. We're super,super busy working to manage, mentor, and motivate our zone. We have 11 companion exchanges (24 hours each) planned for the next few weeks so Elder Hill and I will be working with each missionary to help each of them to catch the vision. I'm so grateful for all of the opportunities I have to serve and love as a zone leader.

Elder Hill and myself in Kanagawa are doing well. We have a good amount of investigators with four of them progressing and three with baptismal dates. One of them is very solid and the other two have a lot of interest but are a little difficult to meet with. We have good goals and plans for this week, and are excited to see more growth and success. The ward was very welcoming yesterday and it's looking like we'll be able to see more success from them in the near future. There's a bunch of people in the ward who are friends with Watanabe sensei.

The zone is all doing well. It's looking like we'll be able to see a few more people come unto Christ in the next few weeks. We've been doing a lot of planning for the zone and will be focusing a lot on obedience this transfer. The more obedient you are the more blessed you are. It's very exciting thinking of the possibilities and potential of this zone. We will be holding a zone meeting tomorrow morning and are excited to get the zone all together.

Anyway, a little about the area, etc: Yokoham zone is the smallest zone in the mission area-wise, and the most south in the mission. It's basically the southwestern side of Tokyo Bay. Here in Kanagawa we actually live with the stake president. He and his family built a new home with an apartment for the missionaries. They and the missionaries moved here about two months ago. The apartment in Hibarigaoka was very nice, but this one may even be better. I'll try to get pictures out to you within the next few weeks. There's less space, however, because there are four missionaries living here. The Kohoku Elders, over in the area just to the west of us, live here with us. An Elder Medeiros transferred into Kohoku this transfer and is from Wahiawa. He's cousins with the Medeiros boy that married Cissy Kaaa. He's been on his mission about a year and has actually lost almost 100 lbs. so far (~95 right now!) He started his mission at 320 lbs. and his goal is to get to 200 lbs. by the end. He's very good with tracking what he eats, and he'll probably be able to lose a lot more here as Yokohama zone is all up and down with big hills everywhere.

If you'd like, check the lds newsroom site thing for a video report on Elder Nelson's visit to Japan. There are a few clips of our conference together and you can see me for a second in the choir.

I love you all!! And as always, am so grateful for your love and support. Take care and have a great week!

Love,
Elder Rindlisbacher

Hey Dad!
My companion is Elder Hill. Apparently you grew up just five houses down from his grandparents, Nathan and Marilyn Hill, on the same street and was in their ward! His dad's name is Dan Hill. He knew you but you were older than him. He was good friends with Matthew, his sister Valerie was friends with Kathleen, and his brother Ben was best friends with Norman. What a small world!!!

Love,
Elder Rindlisbacher