I am neither Japanese nor a girl...

Hi Family,

Last P-Day was spent all inside our church`s Family History computers.  Elder Rasmusen had to write all of his papers for his BYU application, so I just got to sit around in the computer lab for my entire P-Day. Really boring.  This P-Day isn`t going to be any better.  We have to now go settle something with Elder Rasmusen`s Alien Card in Kobe.  I don`t want to get into all the hows and whys, but I get to spend my P-Day riding trains and visiting City Halls.  I really hope that this will be the end of this streak of running around and doing nothing fun on P-Day.

You wanted to know what part of Canada Elder Rasmusen is from.  He is from British Columbia and lives in a small town near Vancouver.

It is starting to get really cold here in Japan.  As soon as the sun goes down, it starts to get freezing.  The actual temperature isn`t that cold, but because of the humidity everything just seems really cold.  No rain, no snow, just really cold.

 I can`t remember anything special that happened last Tuesday.  But last Wednesday, we got to teach the two young-women.  It was pretty good and I think Yuna enjoyed it a lot because we taught an overview of the Plan of Salvation, and she has thought about some of the questions that tie into the plan of salvation.  All and all, it was a good lesson.  After the lesson, I gave Yuna your email address, Elizabeth, so I would expect that she will write to you soon. If not I will give you her email address so that you can write to her first.  I also took a picture with them so that you can see who you are writing to.  Yuna is the one in the middle and her friend is the one on the right.  Apparently what Japanese teenage girls love to do when taking pictures now is to hide their faces and hold up two peace signs.  I don`t get it at all, but then again I am neither Japanese nor a girl so...  Wednesday was also the last day of Elder Steers being in Hirakata.  I am sad to see him go, he was a really good guy and I will miss his sense of humor.

So, on Thursday we got another Elder in the Hirakata District.  His name is Elder Fuchiguchi (I think, I keep on messing up his name).  He is from Hawaii and is half Japanese and half American.  I really don`t know to much about him to be honest.

We also got to go 'House Hunting' on Thursday.  We have this potential investigator who is a realtor who works in a model home for Panasonic (Yeah, Panasonic the electronic company, I did not know that they made houses now...).  We got to go through the house tour with her and see all the ins and outs of a modern Japanese home.  It was pretty cool and really big, I thought, for a Japanese home.  It has all the features one expects from a Panasonic home: two kitchens, run entirely off of solar energy in case a nuclear disaster happens (I had to use my electronic dictionary a lot when she was describing it. I don`t usually use words like 'Nuclear Radiation' when dealing with investigators), and has a bathroom in which the toilet flips open as soon as you open the bathroom door.

The rest of the week passed by normally.

I am really happy that you all are enjoying yourselves.  It sounds like Vic is having fun with his new RC car and Elizabeth is enjoying the Hunger Games Movie.  I think that dad is really rocking his new suit, you look way nice.  Mom, I hope that moving all the Christmas stuff goes well; I think that you will make it all look very nice in the store.  Madisen, I hope that everything is going to get better at work, especially with training a new employee.

Well, about the Christmas presents.  I really don`t know when I will be able to buy them here in Japan, most likely in a couple of weeks.  So I am really sorry, I won`t be able to get them there in time for Christmas, but I will try my very best to get them there as soon as possible.

About the sushi bar, it was actually one of the conveyor belt ones.  What happens is that you have a conveyor belt pass by every booth with random sushi that you may want.  You can pick the plates up whenever and start eating and your total cost will be however plates of sushi you ate at the end of your meal.  You also have an electronic menu where you can order specific sushi that you want and they send it straight to you on a second conveyor belt that is exactly over the first.  If you eat 5 plates, you get to slide them into a bin and play a little game on the electronic menu.  It plays a little video and you watch and see if you win or not, if you win - you receive a little prize.  I won one last time and I got a spinning top.

Well I don`t what else to talk about, so I think that I will just leave it here.  I love you all,

Love,

Elder Klein

The Feel Good

Kolton with his Pokemon calendar

Hi Family,

So, last Preparation Day, I did not get to go and pet the magical deer in Nara.  We had to stick around the apartment all day because the zone leaders had to swing by and get Elder Rasmusen`s signature on a baptismal record and Elder Steers and Elder Broeder took forever to email.  So, by the time we finished doing everything and had some free time it was about 3:30.  We couldn`t go to Nara because it takes 1 and a half hours just to ride the train there.  So, we got to do my favorite thing on Preparation Day- sit around the apartment doing nothing.  Guess what I get to do again today?  You guessed it!  I get to sit in the church family history computer room while my companion types out all of his essays for a BYU application until the end of Preparation Day.  Can you imagine the kind of enthusiasm I am feeling right now...Haha!

 Tuesday was a pretty normal day.  We just ran through the motions and there is really nothing special to talk about.

 Wednesday, we had another companion exchange, this time Elder Steers came over to Hirakata 2 (My area).  Everything was pretty good, we planned a lesson for 3 hours, though, because the paperwork in this mission is absolutely ridiculous and because we have never planned together before.  So, after 3 hours of planning and two bowls of popcorn while doing so, we finally finished our lesson plan to teach M. Shimai about the rest of the Restoration.  The problem is that we didn`t have time to practice giving her lesson until it started.  So, throwing caution to the wind, we waited for M. Shimai to arrive at the church which took her a little bit; she was 45 minutes late to the lesson (she is normally only 10 minutes late).  After we sit down, with us and all of our members present, we say a prayer and, then, ask her how her Book of Mormon reading is going.  She had no idea what she needed to read so she just opened up to the last book, Moroni, and started reading.  She said that she had a question about what fasting is.  I look at Elder Steers and we again threw caution to the wind and taught her about fasting instead of our 3 hour planned lesson because we had another lesson downstairs with our teenage women investigators in 15 minutes.  After we finished the lesson, we booked it downstairs to teach another lesson, which went really well.

After that, we got to go visit a less active member down at the Hirakata shi eki.  She is from the Philippians and, while I can`t write about everything that is happening in her life, she is going through absolute hell right now.  It took all the strength that I had not to break down crying for her while she was telling me about her life.  I told her in my sincerest of hearts that I could feel what she is going through and told her if there was anything that I could do to help her, than she needs to tell me.

After, we did that then Elder Steers wanted to help me feel a little better because I have been sick all week.  He said that one of the things that he loves to do when he gets sick is to make a special drink to get him through the day.  He said that the drink consists of Red Bull and Orange Juice.  I was game for it, but I felt that there was something a little bit more that we could add to it.  Then, it came to my mind - Match!  Match is my favorite drink of all time (Yes my absolute favorite drink), plus it is a vitamin drink, so it has enough vitamins to kill a horse, and I felt like that would make all the difference.  So, after buying all of our ingredients at a conveni, we headed up to our apartment to make the drink.  However, after making the mixture of Red Bull, Orange Juice, and Match, I refused to drink it until we came up with a proper name.  After talking for a little bit, I found the name for the drink, `The Feel Good`.  After a couple of drinks of Feel Good, I was feeling a little better.

The next day, Thursday, we went on another companion exchange, this time with the Zone leaders.  To be honest, we didn`t get much done in the exchange, but it was fun when we went to visit less active members with the one and only - Aoki kyodai!  It was fun because we got lost 10 times because Aoki kyodai has no idea how to follow his GPS, even though I could tell what it was trying to tell us - even though I can`t speak super honorific Japanese like the GPS can.  So, I had to give Aoki Kyodai directions all throughout the night when he wasn`t following the GPS`s instructions.

Friday, we got to go to my first Sushi Bar ever in Japan.  It was Really Good... I want to go back there sometime, especially since it wasn`t very expensive and it is 5 minutes from our apartment.  I can taste a HUGE difference between Japanese Sushi and American Sushi, though.

Saturday was normal and so was Sunday.

So, 3 days ago now I officially hit my 6 month mark.  I have been on my mission for 6 months!  I wish I could say, like the other missionaries, that it has gone by really fast. But, to be honest, it has been the slowest time in my entire life.  I just thought that it is interesting that it has been 6 months.

So, to talk about Elizabeth having the PenPal with my investigator, her name is Yuna.  The best way for you two to communicate is probably by emailing her directly.  If it is okay, I am going to give her your email address, Elizabeth, and tell her that she can email you.  As for what to talk about - talk about what you like.  Tell her about what you don`t like.  Tell her about what it is like to live in America.  Tell her what you think living in Japan might be like.  Tell her about Volleyball.  Tell her about anything that 14 year old girls normally talk about.  The only request that I have is that she is still learning English, so try and make it not to very hard for her by using slang (though I don`t think that you have a problem with that).  Try typing some Japanese for her to read too, you can use Google Translator and the internet to help you do that!

Madisen, I hope that work calms down for you a little bit,  you are way おつかれ(Otsukare, hard working).  To answer your question, they do kind of celebrate Christmas here.  They put up a lot of Christmas decorations on stores and such, but it is more like a shopping holiday than anything else.  The major holiday in Japan is New Years Day, if you want to know.

If you are wondering what you can send me for Christmas, the only thing that I would ask is that you send me a nice CD with good songs on it.  I will leave it up to your judgement but they need to `draw my attention towards the Savior and cannot be used for mere entertainment (as the missionary white handbook and our residential black mission binder states)`.  I thought about a few songs that I might want you to send me in the CD:

1. Amazing Grace
2. Good Remixes of the songs; Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, I am a child of God, God Be with You Till We Meet Again (Try YouTube for good remixes or covers of these songs)
3. The Song from Ken Burns; the Civil War (I am really embarrassed that I forgot the name of it)
4. Battle Hymn of the Republic
5. Silent Night or some other really cool Christmas Song like that
7. You Raise Me Up
8. Some tracks from Les Miserables that you think would be good (Sorry, no Master of the House :(
9.  You Found Me (If you think that it could be appropriate)

Again, if you think of anything you have listened to that you think I would like and would meet the criteria, then please send it.  I don`t care if you use 1 or 10 CDs to send me all the songs, just please send them.

Also,can you send me some more pictures please.  Can you also send me a `quote book` with quotes that you think that I might really like, from example like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or the like.  Thank You!

Thanks so much for telling me that Arlynn is alright.  I have spent my entire week worrying over whether or not she is ok.

By the way, we got our new transfer information today.  All of us in Hirakata are staying except for Elder Steers.  Get this, Elder Steers, a fourth transfer missionary, is going to be training a 2nd transfer Japanese companion while being...zone leader!  Crazy huh.  I am just glad that it is him instead of me...

Speaking of Christmas presents, I think I know what I might want to get for everyone, the only thing is that I am not sure whether or not it will be there in time for Christmas.  Another thing is that I will need you to replace the money that I do use for the presents in my bank account after I buy them.  I will let you know when I do buy them so that you can do that!

Love all of you so much and we will talk again next week!

With Much Love,

Elder Klein

Fall in Hirakata

A 'Jesus Love You' church
"Jesus Loves You,  Elder Klein!"

The Love House

こんにちは (Konnichi wa)!

Hey family, how is it going?  I hope that you all are well and happy.

So, this past week sure has been an interesting one.  I have to tell you that we saw the woman with the mental condition last P-day and we haven`t seen her since.  I think she is gone now for good, I think, but I feel so sorry for her.  She is clearly out of her mind, but she gave us all a fright last P-Day when she tried to get into our apartment by pulling on the door (luckily, we had it locked). After that, she decided to barricade us into our apartment by using umbrellas and splashing water underneath our door.  I feel so bad for her...

Other than that, my last P-Day was all filled with lessons with investigators, uh...  We tried to go to Nara (a place I really want to go to where you can touch magical deer, I am not kidding, Google it) but since the Zone leaders needed to come by for our signature on a baptismal interview record and because they were late and because the two other missionaries in Hirakata spent three hours emailing, we aren't able to go again this week.  I really hope that if no one gets transferred next week, then we can finally go.  But, I have no idea what we are going to be doing today, so we will see what happens.

So, last week, again, was very interesting.  On Tuesday, we got to go with an investigator of the other two missionaries to lunch.  We got to eat terrible tasting sushi along with Mugichan (tea), so suffice it to say that it wasn't the best lunch ever.  We did, however, get to meet the investigator`s Catholic friend who was super nice.  We got to go to a place called 愛の家 (Ai no ie) which means `The House of Love` with them.  When we saw the sign, Elder Rasmusen started to get a little freaked out.  I think that he thought that it was a Love Hotel (which for some reason are very abundant here in Hirakata).  After a little bit of work, we convinced Elder Rasmusen to go up with us with the investigator and his friend to check it out.  Much to Elder Rasmusen`s relief `The House of Love` isn't a Love Hotel, but rather a Old Folks gathering hot spot.  It was kinda like a cafe with only old people in it.  We kept hearing `かこいね！(Kakoi ne)` which means handsome/cool a lot from the old people when 4 big Gaijins walk in wearing suits with 2 little old Japanese people.  The cafe was pretty cool, it even had a miniature golf course on the roof and a smoked filled room in the back with old Japanese men playing Majong.  After we told them that we couldn't stay very long, we were escorted out by the investigator`s friend.  Then, before I even knew it, she stuffed 2000￥into my hand before we were about to leave.  After a bit of effort, we managed to explain to her that, as missionaries, we cannot accept money.

After that we headed to Abeno, in Osaka, for a baptismal interview for the Zone Leaders investigator. When we got there, we found out that she wasn`t even home and that her and her husband were out of town and wouldn't be back until the next day.  So, we had to return to Abeno the next day, as well, for an interview with her, which she passed - which is great.  By the way, Abeno is 1 hour away from Hirakata by Train and costs 1500￥ round trip each time.

On Friday, Elder Rasmusen interviewed the investigator from before (The House of Love one) for a baptism which he passed with flying colors!  To celebrate, we went to grab some food at a restaurant and then an ice cream cone at McDonalds.  I don`t like McDonalds food, but something caught my eye at the McDonalds stand.  I saw a Pokemon 2014 Calender being sold at the McDonalds and it was only 350￥!  How could I pass by this opportunity?  So, yes, I bought a Pokemon 2014 calender which I am very proud of.  Heck, they gave me so many free item slips along with it that it basically pays for itself.

I also got to go on companion exchanges with Elder Broeder last Saturday.  It was interesting, to say the least and I think that we really didn't get anything accomplished.  This week, I get to go on two companion exchanges, one with Steers choro and another one with one of the zone leaders.  The joys of being a district leaders companion.

We held the baptismal service for the investigator yesterday and it was good.  We scheduled his baptism for 1 hour before sacrament meeting, but he was 20 minutes late for his own baptism and, because he is such an old man, he couldn't change fast enough for us to finish the program before sacrament meeting started.  At least, he got all the important parts down though - the baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the confirmation.  Yesterday, was also the primary program which was interesting, to say the least.  Children screaming, kids punching each other while on the stand, and out of tune singing were all part of the fun.

I also need to talk to Elizabeth about something.  So, we are teaching these two teenage girls, one is 17 and the other is 14.  I talked to our investigator, the 14 year old, a little bit about you.  I told her that you are also 14 and that you, like her, love volleyball.  I talked with her about it and she thinks that it would be really cool if you got to be pen pals.  I said that I would ask you what you think about it and see if you would like to do it.  The investigator loves English and really wants to go to America some day, so don`t worry about writing or typing a letter in Japanese, although you could learn a little bit of Japanese from her for me.  She also is having a little bit of a rough time in her life.  I can`t tell you everything, but suffice it to say that she needs some really good friends with good standards that she can talk to.    Please tell me if you are interested in having a pen pal from Japan ok?

Well I think that is about it.  I love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder.... ok...


With Much Love,

Elder Klein

We got ourselves a stalker...

Hi Family,

Guess what I get to do today?  That's right, we had to schedule 3 lessons today, right in the middle of our P-Day.  So, that is what I get to do all day today.  The only P-Day normal thing that I guess that I am allowed to do today is email you.

Last P-Day, me and Elder Steers went to some recycle shops to find some kimono belts so that we can make scripture cover cases for our scriptures.  It was good and I actually spent a good chunk of my P-Day sewing my scripture cover case by hand.  I think that it actually looks pretty good!

Last week, we also had Zone Training Meetings and Interviews with the Mission President.  To be honest, I wasn`t really paying attention on what was being said during Zone Training because my mind was too focused on what I was going to be talking to Zinke kaicho about.  So, I went in and we basically talked about where my stance is about staying or going, if I am still talking to Aunt Pat, and how he can help.  We talked for a little bit, I guess about 15-20 minutes, and it was good.  I guess that Zinke kaicho told Zinke shimai about what I am going through because she seemed to give me extra special love and attention when they were there.

Last week, we couldn`t really meet with anyone except for M. Shimai, who is our furthest progressing investigator.  We finished teaching her about the plan of salvation and then we watched the movie finding faith in Christ.  It was good, but her baby and the baby of the member present were screaming all throughout the movie, so I don`t know if she got the most important bits out of it.

We have just basically been sitting on our butts all this week planning lessons.  I hate planning with a passion.  I wouldn`t mind it if we planned a lesson here and there, but we are planning one lesson right after another with each lesson taking 1-1 and half hours long to plan and to practice.  The thing that is slowing us down is that it seems that we never have enough paper work to do.  I swear that there is a form to fill out for everything.  It is getting out of control, every zone training meeting we get another form that we have to fill out before we teach someone which just adds to the planning time.  Uhh...

On Friday, we had something very interesting happen.  So, the Zone leaders told us about someone who was stalking them for about 2 days around the church and their apartment.  It was some crazy women who was completely out of her mind.  Harmless, but stalking them none the less.  Guess who showed up on the Hirakata church on Friday?  Yep, the stalker lady.  We first heard her when we were, of course, planning lessons.  We heard a women`s voice outside in the parking lot and Elder Rasmusen asks me if I think someone is outside of our apartment.  I told him yes but that it was only the girls that come to play on our basketball hoop that we have set up outside.  Anyways, we continue our planning until we have to head over to the church to make some photocopies of our lesson paperwork.  We saw her sitting down in front of the church talking quite loudly to herself...with plants (that seemed to have come out of nowhere) circling her with umbrellas barring the church door behind her.  We asked if she was okay and then she said something about the Abeno church, where the zone leaders are.  At that point we thought, "Oh crap, it's her".  We quickly went inside of the church to make photocopies and locked the door right behind us.  We called the Zone leaders to make sure that it was who we thought it was.  The Zone leaders told us "yes, it is her" and at that point the 2 other missionaries showed up and started talking to her with us.  After debating for some time, the 3 other missionaries thought that they needed to cast out evil spirits from her because she is totally out of her mind.  I wanted no part in `casting out evil spirits` so I told them that I would not participate.  They tried to give her the blessing but she kept refusing and after a while we left her alone.  The other 2 missionaries went in to the church to teach a lesson and we went back to planning.  So, we all locked our doors while she wandered around outside for 5 hours.  She finally left, though, when we were heading down to the train station and she followed us down there.  I think that she is gone now, probably to another area`s church, but you never know...  So, I got to deal with a stalker this week.

 I am sending you some pictures of the Halloween party last week.  Sorry I forgot to attach them.

I have no idea what they are playing.  Notice the phantom mask in the background (elder broder) and the top of the chicken head (elder steers) - I assume elder rasmusen took the picture.  Those are some cute little kids.  Kolton is so good with little kids - it comes from teaching the Little Ninja's in karate.

All right, well, I don`t have much time until I have to go teach another lesson, so I hope that you all take care.  If you have any questions on how the depression is going, please talk to Aunt Pat.

Love,

Kolton