Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Yeah, I guess that it is that time of the year again.  This year`s Christmas will be a little bit different, I don`t know why I would think that at all though...oh yeah, because I will be talking about Christ all day long in a Japanese Train Station, that`s why!

Well, I am really grateful that I had the chance to talk with you twice last week even though the circumstances weren't the best.  I always love hearing your voices and I am really excited to be able to hear them again in a couple of days.  I am really excited to hear my dear sister`s voices because I haven`t heard them in such a long time.  Anyways, I hope that everyone has a great Christmas and we can talk more about your Christmas during our phone call.  By the way, Madisen, I have not yet received your package but I`m sure I will be getting it in a couple of days.  Also, about the telephone call, can everyone have some questions already lined up?  The phone call can only be 1 hour long max anyways.  

Well, to be honest nothing really out of the ordinary happened this week.  I did get to go on a companion exchange with Elder Fuchigami though.  It went well for the most part but he probably thinks I am really dull especially compared to his current companion, Elder Broeder.  We had the chance to talk with a group of 10 College students though.  The Japanese people always get a laugh of off me when I tell them that my name means small in German.  They just can`t believe it.  

The most interesting thing that happened within the last few days was the Ward Christmas Party that we had on Saturday Night.  It was really fun and you could really get into the Christmas Spirit there.  I will attach a few pictures of the Christmas party in this email.  We basically got there and realized that there was a ton of good food, a perfect situation for starving missionaries in a very expensive country.  Needless to say, we ate as much cheesecake as we could without being rude.  They also put on a Talent Show after we ate the food.  We got to hear renditions of `Poorwayfaring Man of Grief` on the violin (which reminded me a lot of Elizabeth because it was played by a young women around Elizabeths age), `You`ll be in My Heart` on the guitar, among others.  Elder Fuchigami got to participate in the talent show too.  By participate, I mean forced into it by the over excited Bishop upon the Bishop hearing his talent of playing the ukulele.  They, Elder Fuchigami and the Bishop, played `Crazy-G` on the ukulele together and it was pretty funny.  After the talent show, we got a visit from Santa himself who looks a lot like Brother Nishida wearing a Santa suit, white sneakers, and a fake white beard covering his real white beard.  I have a picture.

Well, I don`t much what else to say other than I look forward to talking with you on Christmas (My Boxing Day)!  I love you all!

With Love,

Elder Klein

Petting the Magical Deer...finally!

Dear Family,

How has everyone been?  By the sound of it, Utah is quite the winter wonderland right now.  I can`t imagine being that cold, with that much ice and snow.  It sure is cold over here but at least it isn't that cold and the roads aren't icy and there isn`t a ounce of snow on the ground.  I don`t think that I could say the same for the Sapporo Mission, though.

Last Preparation Day we, FINALLY, got to go to magical Nara!   We finally got to Nara after about an hour and a half.  The cool thing about it was that everything that we wanted to see was within walking distance of the train station.  It was quite べんり(convenient).   We got to see some really old Shinto and Buddhist temples, pet some magical deer, and fight our way through the crowds and crowds of High School students.  No kidding, though, that the streets were pack full of High School kids from different High Schools on a school field trip.  It was good and I am glad that I got to go.  I will definitely send some pictures in this email.

Petting the magical deer

A little kid running from the deer

A baby deer in an unusual spot

 Shrine

This was Kolton's favorite picture of a little kid in traditional robes

Well, this week has been really tough.  I didn`t want to mention this... but Aunt Pat said that it would be a good thing to tell you about.  So, last week on Monday, I got into a bad bike accident.  Where we live is on the top of a giant hill that we call the Hill of Faith.  We were going to go visit an investigator at his work so we climbed on our bikes and started to head down the hill.  Then, for some whatever reason, I lost control of my bike a bit, my brakes didn`t work quite right, and I flipped over my handlebars.  I, luckily, broke most of my fall with my right hand.  I am really lucky that I didn`t break my hand, though, and after my hand, my head was the next thing to hit the paved road.  I was wearing my helmet and everything so it wasn`t too bad, but I got a nasty cut on my forehead where my helmet wasn`t covering my head.  After that, I tumbled down the hill until I came to a stop.  I got two big cuts on both my knee caps and bruises along all my body.  It took a second for Elder Rasmusen to realize that I wasn`t following behind him and when he came up the hill he saw me lying on the road.  After 15 minutes, I walked back to the apartment, bandaged my self up and wiped the blood off of my hands, feet, and forehead.  I told Elder Rasmusen to tell Sister Zinke what just happened and then I proceeded to rest for the rest of the night.

Needless to say that my body is still aching from the crash but most of the cuts and bruises have gone away.  My right hand hurt for 2 days and I was worried that I had dislocated a bone or broken one, but my hand was really bruised though.  But, I have been working every single day even though it nearly killed me to do so for several days.

Last week, we had 3 lessons with M. Shimai (the one with the small baby).  We have been trying to teach her everything so that she can be baptized whenever she can.  She really wants to be baptized but she hasn`t talked with her husband about it; she hasn`t even told her husband that she is meeting with us.  We really hope that everything turns out alright, but I am not worried.

Last Friday, we had to go to Nara again for a Zone Training Meeting.  We had to wake up especially early so that Elder Rasmusen could make it to a District Leader Meeting before the actually Zone Training Meeting took place.  We went through the meeting and it was okay and after we decided to proselyte for an hour as an entire zone in Nara.  We exited out the church and each companionship went their seperate ways.  Elder Rasmusen and I ended up herding 10 High School Girls to the church, for a church tour, that stopped and talked with us.  I know for a fact that they weren`t really interested in the church but more in that they thought that I was good looking (the benefits of knowing a language even though those talking don`t know that you know the language).  We ended up handing them off to another companionship because we had to be back early so we could have a lesson with M. Shimai.  Friday was certainly one busy day though.

Well, it was great to hear about what is happening in Utah.  I hope that everything goes smooth with Vic and Madisen helping Vic`s sister this week for her wedding.  Mom and Dad, I hope that work is going okay.  Speaking of which, about the lady that walked into your work Mom, I have seen a stereotype like that in Japan like noneother.  Except for 20 and younger kids, it seems is that everyone in Japan thinks that all that Americans do is carry around guns and shoot people whenever they feel like it.  I have heard them make up excuses and statistics like 何回も(more times than I can count, Nankaimo) about America being the murder capital in the world.  All I can do is shake my head and say, `No, I am an American, I know what America is like, people just don`t wave guns around and have nothing better to do than to shoot people.`  I have to be honest though I have, on occassion, wanted to say, "Yeah, America is soooo dangerous.  I can`t show it right now but I have this HUGE scar on my back when I got into a firefight in Downtown New York.  It was crazy." and just completely freak them out.  Probably shouldn`t though....

Also, Elizabeth, I hope that everything is going okay.  I read about your eye exam.  Don`t worry, glasses aren`t bad at all.  First, I wanted to scream Hallaluah when I first put on my glasses and, when I realized that I could see, I wanted to sing `It`s a whole new world.....`.  Glasses are great, I never knew how much they could help until I had a pair of my own.  Second, Glasses are really cool.  I get compliments about how my glasses make me look like Clark Kent (Superman) all the time and that they really like them on me.  If I get compliments like that if I am a normal looking guy then I can only imagine the compliments you will get because you are an extremely cute girl.

I hope you have fun at your work Christmas party Madisen.  Maybe you`ll be able to see the lost 117 pages of the Book of Lehi this time around when Dr. Dork shows you all of his books.

 I love you all.  Talk with you again.

Love,

Elder Klein

Where's Waldo...in Kobe, apparently!

(Sorry!  I didn't have the chance to post Kolton's letter last week, so it is a week late.  Whoops.)

Hey Family,

Sorry, I actually don`t have a lot of time right now.  I guess that today (with fingers crossed) we will actually be able to go to Nara.  Needless to say, with this much waiting and anticipation, my expectations of the place are pretty high.  I just hope that we don`t get lost along the way because Elder Rasmusen has never been to Nara either.  I just hope that we don`t get stuck riding on trains all day trying to find our way to and from Nara.  Again, fingers crossed.

Yeah, so last Preparation Day, we went to Kobe because there was something wacky going on with Elder Rasmusen`s Japanese National Health Care Card, so we had to go and figure that out on Monday.  It was pretty miserable because it was absolutely pouring by the time we stepped off at our stop.  We ended up, like my prediction said, spending the entire time running around inside of City Halls and traveling inside of trains.  I did manage to find a copy of Where`s Waldo for kids inside of the Kobe City Hall, I couldn`t resist picking it up while Elder Rasmusen was doing his things.

This week, we have been having a lot of trouble with all of our appointments falling through.  We didn`t have a lesson with the Teenage Girls because they canceled and we didn`t have a lesson with M. Shimai because none of the members that we called showed up (we need at least 1 male member or 2 more female members to do a lesson with a girl).  So, we just ended up talking in the Genkan (Entrance way) of the church while we waited for the members to arrive (which they didn`t).  We talked a lot and we got to all smile at M. Shimais little boy T. Kun while he was crawling to and from people.  He started playing with my G-Shock half way through talking with M. Shimai and he ended up slobbering all over it.  I love kids though, so it is okay.

We actually had Zone Conference last Friday and we heard from Zinke kaicho.  He really is a great man.  We talked a lot about different things and it was all pretty good, there was some comments from the peanut gallery (the other missionaries) that I really didn`t agree with, but other than that...

I also had the chance to talk with Zinke kaicho after the zone conference about where I am now that I finished my goal of staying for one more transfer.  We talked a lot and I won`t mention everything that we talked about because, like I have said before, I want to try and make these emails as uplifting as possible.  If you want to know anything about what we talked about you can ask Aunt Pat or you can tell me what you want to know in your next letter to me.

On Sunday, after church we got to go help S. Kyodai (a mentally disabled member) move out of his apartment into another house.  It was really hard since he didn`t pack up anything for us and we were all exhausted because we haven`t eaten anything because of fast Sunday.  We eventually got everything moved out, though.  I think the Bishop was really happy that I was there because we needed to move his fridge and I was the only one there who was really, umm... able to move the fridge.

Well, I am really grateful for all your letters that you sent me this week.  I loved hearing about how Dad`s talk went, Elizabeth chilling on Thanksgiving weekend, the Black Friday madness that you all had to go through, and about Thanksgiving.  It is always nice to hear about what is going on at home.  I hope that everything went ok with the mail lady mom.  Customs can certainly be a pain to deal with.

Well, I think I need to start finishing everything up.  So, I love all of you and I will write again next week!

Love,

Elder Klein