Andrew Durrant <andrew.durrant@myldsmail.net>

To Dad Mom Oct 5 at 6:38 PM

Hey everybody! How's it going???

Well this week was so tiring! Hashimoto is one of the hilliest areas

in the mission field. Everyday we have to climb several mountains to

get to the town next to us. It's a hard area for a new missionary to

start in because it just drains all your energy. Elder Hancock is

doing his best though. We got him a new bike last week and now he's

doing a little better catching up with me. He still doesn't have those

dendo legs though! He'll get them soon, probably after this transfer.

Nothing too special happened this past week. We had tons of finding

time and only got a couple P.I.'s. It's a hard area to proselyte in

because everybody wakes up early and goes to work in Osaka, then they

get home late at night. Most people aren't home so even housing seems

ineffective right now. We're hoping that a couple of our potential

investigators will become investigators this week though once we meet

with them again. I kind of feel bad because all me and Elder Hancock

are able to do right now is housing, and just housing for hours gets

pretty つらい.  He's taking it like a champ though right now.

Yesterday we met a guy called Papa. He told us to call him Papa. He's

66 years old and is probably the most prideful 66 year old on the

planet. As if he learned nothing from his drug induced youth. He's

such a cool guy though, I swear he's in the Yakuza.

But, he loves the missionaries and loves to feed them. During our

dinner with them Elder Hancock told Papa that he was tired so Papa

went on this huge one hour rant about how men shouldn't complain and

that if you complain you aren't a man and just beat him down. It was

pretty funny. After that Hancock and I  havent complained all day today about

being hungry or tired haha

Today I found a purpose to the tennis racket I brought with me... We

got to play tennis today! The other missionary in the yonin apartment

also played tennis. His name is Elder McCarthy and is from Salem.

Apparently he helped coach the woman's team. Elder Hancock got pretty

frustrated with tennis but Elder Yamamoto went from 0 to hero in 2

hours. He got pretty darn good by the time we finished playing. I

showed him how to do the forehand and backhand and after an hour of

practice, he got it down. It was so nice to get out on the courts and

play tennis.

So last Monday we were biking around in the mountains and checking out

rivers. It on the way home I tried to go down this jump and I got some

good air but I landed and popped my back tire. I guess I haven't

learned my lesson yet but I was able to patch the two holes in my tire

and it's back to normal. I'm done going off jumps and stuff for now...

My bikes taking a little bit of a beating with all the hills we climb.

It's doing better then Hancocks bike and he bought a new bike last

Thursday.

What's happening back home? I guess it was Beebees 4th birthday today.

Grandma told me that you went up to Teresa's and saw Momo and she

remembers you still. I hope she doesn't turn into a shy cat while

she's there though. Did she still know her name? Haha well we were

watching a talk that President Monson gave this morning and he doesn't

look too good. Towards the end of the talk he was barely standing on

the stand and leaning over. He looks kind of bad. I found out thought

that Elder Stevenson is now an apostle! I've actually met an apostle

now haha. That's so cool he's an apostle and was back in our ward

years ago.

Well so far this has been a good transfer. I just want to keep having

fun and find some more investigators. We have a goal to teach 20

lessons a week and this past week we taught 10. Hopefully we can get

some investigators this week and teach more lessons. The members here

are great though and help out tons!

Love you guys lots and hope you have a good week!

- Elder Durrant