Hey Everybody! 

So on Thursday I packed up, left Hirakata, left my crazy companion, and met the new beanちゃん at Kobe! Man I was so nervous too haha me and Elder Griffitts met up and I saw Elder Wharton and Barney for the first time in months. Can't believe how long it's been since I've seen them. A good 4 months since I've seen Elder Griffitts. I saw Griffitts and the first thing I told him was "Go Utes!" Since he's a BYU quarterback. Sometimes I bring up the game from 4 years ago when Utah killed BYU but his brotherly love just doesn't let anything phase him haha. Man I love that guy. 

So we got the the Honbu and Kaicho trained us for a little bit then let the new missionaries come in. There were so many of them! It's weird because you see them and you somehow know which one your going to be companions with. My new companions name is Elder Hancock and he's a Texan. He's got that Texas pride too. It's funny because the other two missionaries in the apartment bought him these really nice chopsticks and called it "Hancocks Prideful Chopsticks". So we kinda tease him about it but he takes it well. He loves Japan too! He's pretty excited to go out and work too. Even on the train after I picked him up he was trying to talk to people. His Japanese is pretty good for somebody who's fresh off the boat. He studied it for two years during high school too. He's not fluent, but he's not afraid to look like a fool either when speaking which is awesome! I think that's a problem for new missionaries, they just gotta open their mouths haha! 

Hashimoto is a crazy place. It's a really nice place to, I love it here already! It's super inaka and country and we're surrounded by rice fields but it's so beautiful. The mountains are a pain though because we always have to climb mountains to shop or go to the next town and dendo since we live in this tiny village. I never realised how muscular my legs have gotten in 6 months until now when I see my companion struggling to climb a baby hill and I can fly up it. It might be also because he has the craziest bike ever and we still need to buy him a new bike haha the branch here is awesome too. The Hashimoto branch is pretty famous for having some crazy dendo Fire! We have a goal as missionaries to teach 20 lessons a week and the members totally support us and help us out. They are so good at staying after church for 5 extra minutes so that we can share a short message and teach a lesson. It's hard though because me and my companion are starting with no investigators and don't know the area at all so the members help us out with getting lessons. 

The other two in the apartment are the district leader, Elder McCarthy, and a missionary I served with in Tottori called Elder Yamamoto. His dad is actually the stake president of the Sapporo Stake! He's such a saint too, I love him. We are pretty close because we were in the same district and served a couple exchanges together. 

All in all this is going to be a fun transfer but a huge learning experience for me too! I can't wait to go out and find some people haha we might have to grind through this week though because we need to find people and all there is to do here is housing. I feel kind bad at being a trainer though since I'm not perfect and I feel kind of inadequate but I'm gonna try my best. 

I was just like Ayumi and Ashton at NIS. I remember my first day there and people were cussing and talking about inappropriate stuff and I was a little shocked but I guess I got used to it and realized that it was the real world. I think it really helped for high school though. It will help for when Ayumi goes back to middle school I guess...

The Utes killed Oregon! Dang right when I'm gone and the Utes are playing out of their minds! I guess I have some highlights to watch when I get home. Elder McCarthy in the apartment is also a pretty big tennis player so we talk about tennis a lot too. 

Well I hope you guys have a good week! Sounds like it's been pretty busy and stressful... That's nice the neighbors threw a party for you guys now that everybody is home. Haha I hope they throw me one too! Well love you guys lots and miss you tons! 

- Elder Durrant