Elder Dunn and the horrible, no good, very bad week

Dear family and friends, 

You know how some weeks refuse to end? Well yeah, that was basically one of those weeks here. Here let me explain; 

Monday

Our companionship and language studies were wrecked by going to the bank with Elder Leach and a Elder Mukai. It gave me an opportunity to read a little bit with was nice. Then we wrote our families, de-stress begin.  Then we went to Kumars as a district which was great! Elder Jennings and I reminisced about the MTC. Then we went to koenji. Have you ever heard of the term, "hipster"? If so I can almost guarantee that that is where the root of it all is. All of their shops have just outrageous clothing. I think the most interesting part is that they all think it is the American thing, so they wear it. I'll tell you what my sense of fashion has changed on my mission being emerged in a culture where everyone is aware of what they wear. But, I refuse to wear a 1950 motor cycle helmet for fun because it is fashionable. It was a culturally intriguing experience for sure. Then we came home, and I slept during dinner. After we began the cleaning party! Yay! It took a while, and to be honest I turned into the apartment barber and cut everyone's hair. I'd rather do that then find out what kind of monsters are growing in our vegetable drawer. 

Tuesday

As we were getting ready Elder Ford came in and announced that one of the missionaries that was supposed to be on their way didn't get on the plane because he forgot his passport on the train in Utah. Talk about a great start to the day. Then during companionship study sister Wada asked us to mogi with her, only I forgot about it, and a Elder Leach was at the bank! So I grabbed Elder Ford and we went upstairs. It worked. It was just kind of weird being he only one that wasn't ped. I got a lot of helpful feedback though. I just need to relax more when I speak. After that we planned to begin setting up futons in the church however the youth reserved the room we normally use for a choir practice so we had to wait on that. Around 4:30 Elder Yamada arrived and we all made bread however we were having issues with the computer downloading the videos needed. If that wasn't enough sister Wada called us telling us that the plane was over an hour late and two Japanese sister arrived on a different plane! So they were stuck at the airport. We were told to go get a light meal so Big Macs it was. We were also waiting on a sister via Shinkansen from her hometown so we sent the sisters to the eki, well she made her way from the eki to the Honbu no problem, so We called the sisters. Then sister Wada called saying she would be at the Honbu in 30 minutes and asked for Elder Leach and I to meet her at the eki to grab their bags. Well on the way over we met an American man who tried to argue with us about grace. We told him flat out we didn't have time to argue, and asked him instead if he thought it was Christlike to argue with his fellow man. With that we ran to the eki to find sister Wada. Helped her to the Honbu then went to the bus depot to meet new missionaries. I talked to a man about his skateboard for a little bit that was relaxing. Then when the bus arrived president wasn't on it because he had to wait at the airport with a sister who left her wallet on the plane! So we helped he new missionaries take things to the Honbu and went upstairs to the Wada's. Well just when we thought nothing else could go bad one of the sisters that just arrived exclaimed, "I'm so sorry, I have no idea what I did but, the toilet is overflowing." Oh no...sister Wada looked like she was going to cry so we burst into action. We told her not to leave the kitchen and went to  face the mess. And sure enough there was water just gushing out of the toilet. So we ran downstairs and grabbed all of our towels and the plunger. Then back upstairs where I rolled up my sleeves and pant legs and got to work. Who knew I'd use those skills here. Then we cleaned up all the water, and since my pants were pretty weak just left them rolled up. Funny thing was that president was on his way and elder leach wanted his jelly downstairs for bread so we ran down, and noticed president and the new sisters on their way, so we ran after them. Only my clothes were on a mangled mess, my tie pulled down button unbuttoned, pants and sleeves rolled up, and not wearing any socks. President and the new sisters gave me an interesting look so I explained what had happened. To which president judged, "today has been horrendous!". Indeed it had been. We then ate dinner, cleaned the kitchen which took us past 11, and then went to bed. Now you are getting the idea of how this week was going...

Wednesday

We woke up pretty worn out and went for a run. I ran with elder Siqueira he is from San Paulo, Brazil, and a recent convert of 2 years. If that is t awesome enough he learned English and Japanese at the MTC! He is amazing! We ran together and talked to a man. Had our normal trainings and Elder Yamada and I worked on putting screen covers on all the new iPads. Around 11 a man came in and asked if we knew about a doll in the church. Confused we went with him and looked around, sadly we didn't find anything but would look for it. It was really creepy. After lunch we planned to dendo with the new missionaries however I lost my wallet, so we ran around everywhere looking for it, it was in my bag...that was embarrassing, and the other Elders went so we didn't need to go. For dinner I lead the group to ippudo a Japanese ramen shop! I think the new elders and sisters liked it. In my group we had an elder from England, and a sister from Finland with us! That was pretty cool. Then we went to eikaiwa and on our way back we ran into the other group that went to udon. Elder Leach ordered a ginger ale and they brought it out in a giant mug, confused but impressed by their generosity he drank it, then turning to the other elders asked, this tastes like vinegar. So he asked the one of the workers what was in it, to which he responded, "sake". Which is Japanese for alcohol. And uhh news flash for anyone reading this who isn't a member, Mormons don't drink alcohol. So that wasn't too good. When we arrived at eikaiwa though we had a surprise from one of our students! Markers! The past few weeks we didn't have a good marker so she bought us one! It was an enjoyable class and thank goodness nothing flared up during that but when we got out president texted to tell us that the elder who missed his flight had come except his luggage was destroyed in turbulence so they would be at the airport working on figuring things out. We think they got home around 11. After we tried to start setting up the iPads however the new missionaries used iPads in the MTC so they had already created Apple ids so we had to plan to get them all and change all the missionaries passwords. 

Thursday

During breakfast we got a call from sister Eyring telling us that her and her companion were separated on their way to the Honbu and her companion didn't know how to get to the Honbu. So Elder Yamada and I went out to go and try and find her because we had an idea of when she would be arriving. At the train station, eki, we waited and prayed we would find her. Elder Yamada had the impression to go upstairs and after we got their I had the impression we needed to go up the escalator. At the top we waited and sure enough 10 minutes later a blonde sister came running toward the gate win fear and panic, she didn't see us. So when she clicked through we walked up next to her and I said, "hey, we will help you from here." To which she screamed and began to cry. It was cool being able to help someone. She then told us the story of how a member found her and asked her for help and also someone in Shibuya took her to the exact train to get on! It was pretty amazing! Then we began changing passwords and setting up iPads. Around 11:30 I received a package from China! I was confused out of my mind! It was the new screen covers sent directly to us from the factory! That was pretty legit. Then we began to finish only some of their passwords wearing right so we had to go without lunch to fix it all. Our training afterwards was alright, we finished strong which was good. After we began figuring out all of of the returning missionaries out as far as futons go. That was a fun run around. During dinner I slept, and about half way through we got a call from the Nagoya mission asking if I would build their portal. I told them to call me next week. This week was a little too busy. After we finished we began getting all kinds of office work done involving a new transfer. Getting rosters and pictures up. 

Friday

I'll tell you what, being exhausted from the night before did not help in the morning. I felt to dead to play dodgeball with the missionaries so I slept in until 6:30. Breakfast was so delicious! It was one of the best breakfasts I have eaten in a while. It was a pretty sad morning though Elder Kennedy and Elder Bennion went home! They were in my first apartment in Japan! That is crazy to me it has already been that long! They seemed so old to me when I came into the mission. After the goodbyes. We worked on taking down all the futons and iPads. Except when we had to pay for the futons we had no money in the cash box which basically turned into the box because it was drained...it has been a long week. We got a lot of office work done which was great. Around 3 a crazy man came in for president so that was a little exciting. But then we kept working and had dinner then district meeting. It was great we talked about farmers so naturally I was all ears. Then we went out to find people, everyone was turning us down except the last man we talked to named Caesar who is from Brazil! He was way nice and we were able to exchange some contact information! 

Well as you can tell it wasn't awful, no one died, but it was a pretty dang tough week.

The title of my email is from one of my favorite children's books! 

Either way, 

Big Hearts! 

Elder Dunn

Sorry there weren't a whole lot of good pictures taken this week in the office! 

Talking to gaijin, Going to the Shinden, and Transfer Emails

兄弟姉妹の皆さん。こんにちわ！

This week was long! So it might not make perfect sense. Gomen! 

Saturday 

Our morning study was interrupted because of the returning missionaries having a study session. We just gave them the procedure about going home, I can't believe we are already gearing up for missionaries to come in and go home again! Wow! Time sure is flying. We went shopping, then emailed, after Elder Leach wanted a new watch for his birthday so we went shopping, ate some dinner. After dinner we 

Sunday

Church was really good, we sat next to our older friend this week! We are slowly wearing off on her. Her conversion will take some time. After church we had some office work to finish, we also were able to do some weekly planning. At night we met with Josey! It was a great meeting, he really has a desire to choose the right and follow  God, slowly but surely we are making progress, it is always exciting when you can see it first hand. 

Monday

After studies, Elder Leach and I were at the stoplight waiting to cross and we notice a middle aged woman looking at a map, up and down, she looked and then she began the whole flip the map in different directions motion. It was pretty obvious she was lost. So when the light turned we walked over and offered to help. She was kind, and was lost, so we walked her to her hotel. It turns out she is from Ireland and came here to visit her daughter, she had never met missionaries before and was curious as to why we were in Japan. Great question! Then continued our journey to zone conference. On the train we talked to a man from England, I have noticed in my few months here in Japan that foreigners are afraid to talk to missionaries because they know 9 times out of 10 we will talk to them. Elder Leach and I were talking back and forth and noticed the man was listening in, so I just turned and asked, "well you seem like a smart man, what do you think?" I think he was more surprised that we acknowledged his presence then me asking for his opinion on the matter. He openly voiced it then we were able to talk with him. Turns out he is a chef in Shinjuku! Way cool! Zone meeting was good, i have been trying to find how things I learn can apply to me in the office, it is a neat paradigm shift. Afterwards we were on the plate form for a train and wouldn't you know it, there was a foreign woman standing a little of the ways off, then I had the impression that I should talk to her we ventured over there. I was a little nervous because we aren't supposed to approach woman about dendo, but I was told so I will go and do. We got on the train and I was trying to figure out how to not awkwardly start up a conversation, that is pretty socially unacceptable. So I ignored the prompting at first and sat down next to a Japanese man and began talking to him, well I asked him one question, looks at me, then his phone and then gets up and right off the train he went. Well looks like there is no ignoring the prompting now. She said something to me and we were able to talk! Turns out she is half Indian and half Greek but was raised in England, and she is looking at various religions and was curious about ours, Elder Leach and I were able to place a Book of Mormon with her before we had to get off the train. Talk about an interesting train ride. After we got off we were walking down the street and met a man with some clothes that would rival any hippie with long hair and round glasses. He was way cool, sadly no interest but we got a picture anyways. We had FHE at night which was fun because we were able to help sister Wada with the food, as well as catch up on some office work. 

Tuesday

We got up for the morning pack of the trains. I'll tell you what getting smashed into other humans at 8 am is just a great feeling...I am sure of they packed people like they do here in America there would be fights, and sweaty Americans. We felt sick from the hot air so we walked to the temple from a nearby eki, a woman called out to us on our way turns out she is a Filipino from the Tokyo 2nd ward, way kind, she even helped us get to the temple. Elder Leach had some work at the Area Office to do so we went there and talked to some people for a little bit. The temple was wonderful, I did the session in Japanese which amazing, I couldn't believe how much I understood. After the session we came home and got to work. Then we went to Koenji which is at the end of area and mission. When we arrived we needed somewhere to park our bikes so we found a grocery store so to make sure they didn't tow our bikes we went in the store to look around. There were two American-Japanese businessmen shopping. The one was so surprised at how cheap everything was he exclaimed, "I don't know how they are doing it, it so cheap...they have to be losing money? Does this make sense to you?" It was funny to us because we were the only apparent English speakers there and his comments weren't directed toward us. We found a dang expensive cantaloupe though, he was right things were dirt cheap there. We met a few people, one man tried handing us fliers but we kind of dendoed him instead, I think that kind of threw him for a loop. We tried to visit a less active but got lost/the map told us the wrong address. So on our way back we met the Japanese version of Jack Black, I kid you not this man had a scraggly beard, a little heavier and was holding a corn dog! It was awesome talking to him. We walked him back to his house! 

Wednesday

Staff meeting was good, we discussed the transfer breakdown. The Wada's are Leaving for Korea in two weeks for a mission president seminar so the office and assistants are holding down the fort. Talk about frightening... We then had our various office work to do. We helped Sister Wada set up their printer, she showed us some of their family photos which were awesome!  At dinner Elder Mukai got upset because it turns out a companionship will have to move out and it is looking like it'll be him and Elder Ford. Next transfer there will be 7 people in the Office, which is a lot. So he punched the fridge, kicked a hole in our potato box, punched his bed, and broke my water bottle. It was an adventurous dinner calming him down. Eikaiwa was great! We talked about the weather which was fun because we traded phrases in Japanese and English. After we helped sister Wada set up for MLC and she proposed that Elder Leach and I only speak Japanese to her from now on. She wants us to speak well by the time we leave. We saw president in his office and jokingly said something about one of the Halloween costumes he wore that sister Wada showed us. He then talked to us for a half hour about his previous costumes! 

Thursday

Breakfast with the leadership was enjoyable, we found out one of the elders has to go home due to whopping cough. So he go to stay with us during MLC. We kind of kept him away from everyone else. After lunch, we had to go up for my favorite part discussion items. They are pretty dang funny to Elder Leach and I because we have the special opportunity to see things from a more birds eye view. We gave a training about iPhoto sharing which was pretty entertaining. After Sister Wada and I spoke in Japanese about my nose. To say the least I look like rudolf the red nosed reign deer. That was a fun and exhausting adventure. 

Friday

Everyone was out of the office so it was Elder Leach and I ruling the roost. Then sister Wada came down, and had some things to discuss. 10 minutes later she called and Elder Leach compared us to an Indian call in center speaking tech support. Sister Wada thought it was pretty funny because she started talking with an Indian accent! She had to hang up she was laughing so hard. We came to the realization that we needed screen covers for iPads since we hadn't heard back from the company who supplies us. So we took a trip to Hachioji to go to daiso to buy all of their screen covers. Then we ate at Go Gos curry it was delicious. Then we came speedily home to make it to district meeting on time. District meeting was good, most of it consisted of planning out the Halloween party the next day. After we worked on finalizing all the transfers before emails tomorrow.

Saturday

We worked on getting all the emails ready to send to everyone for their new transfer. It took some time but we got it all out smoothly on time. Afterwards I took a nap because I was exhausted. Then we went to kumaras for lunch. It is a nearby Indian curry restaurant with some of the kindest people running it. Then we came back and began getting things ready for the new transfer we will be receiving a new companion to the Honbu, Elder Yamada from Manhattan! I have had quite the variety of companions on my mission.we look forward to work with him. Around 4 we went over to the church for the Halloween party. I wore my cowboy hat, rain boots and a bandana, also known as a cowboy with limited resources. Elder Leach was a "movie producer" wearing a baseball cap and basketball shoes with his normal missionary clothes. The missionaries were asked to creat booths for the event so we did an obstacle course filled with all kinds of fun stuff. I was asked to work this goblin contraption made from boxes and construction paper. It was pretty impressive. As most people know a good goblin has to make growling noises so I became horse from the station. The party was awesome, it is amazing how big Halloween is here in Japan. They even had a piñata! Sadly none of the kids could break it with the plastic bat or the young adults so I was asked to finish it off. Ha. That was fun. At the end we sang I with one of the investigators, and then got chased around by the primary children. 

Sunday

I woke up and was horse, I mean I could hardly speak. Thankfully Elder Ford gave me some cough drops. Those kept me awake at church too! After church we had weekly planning which mostly turned into a split the areas game. Since we are splitting into two areas we are making all the proper preparations to fix things when it happens. At dinner we had an apartment pow wow. About who was moving out. Chief Bates was in charge. Thankfully Elder Leach and I are in the clear since Elder Yamada is becoming our companion. It turned into a came of approaching the elephant in the room in a calm manner. Well it all worked out for the greater good between all of us. Elder Leach and I sped off to a lesson with Josey. He read the assignment we gave him, it is neat to see our lessons to transition into more gospel related talks. It is exciting. 

Sorry if this is a pretty dry week, my brain is fried from all the office work. 

Big Hearts! 

Elder Dunn

The hippie  

I love the causes to delays here in Japan

This is a little larger than an apple and it costs almost 20 dollars.

Elder Leach with the Cantaloupe 

Curry and waffles made by our beloved assistants. 

Lunch with the Wada's, Splits!, and moving the district to new apartments!

Hello people of the mainland! 

This week has been great! So busy I can't believe it is already over! 

Saturday

Awaking to one of the Assistants shaking me and yelling,"I got in! I made it!" To a previously at slumbering youth this alarmed me. Got into what? Cookies? My peanut butter reserve? Upon further review I found that no, my food was safe, he got into BYU! It was a great surprise! After our studies we went to the only other place to be filled horrendous amounts Indian curry and nan. It was good going in...after that we went to the grocery store and bought our groceries. Then back to the old apart-o to email and rest. We were going to build a giant pillow fort, but something about having to put everything back later kind of deterred. So a nap sounded much more fitting. After our nedu jikan, we scampered to get dressed then went over to the church to get things ready for the Meet the Mormons night we were having over at the church. So we learned that a 100 ft HDMI chord can only transmit information one way so after we found that out things went a lot smoother. Since we didn't have an investigator we went ahead and dendoed. On our way to the park we walk past the train station. There I saw an American woman (the rule is we aren't supposed to approach woman), however I had the feeling to approach here. So we did, and it turned out to be a great contact! She is a devote Jew! It was neat to talk about our beliefs! I enjoyed the conversation a lot. Then we went to the park and tried talking to people to find a security guard there who was guarding a display of balloons. Since we found it pretty funny we took a picture of Elder Leach next to a light pole. 

Sunday

At church I was motivated, there is an old woman in our ward who isn't a member but has to come every week because she doesn't have anyone to take care of her. So I had the idea, why don't I go sit next to her. I offered my hand out to shake it and she took it! She doesn't shake anyone's hand! Then we were able to have a great conversation. I asked her if she is healthy (basically how are you?) she told me, "i am healthy, but I wish I were sick, then I wouldn't have to be here." It was pretty funny. She was a great, I hope she stays up with herself! After that we came back for lunch and had weekly planning. We got finished then went out to dendo! A man stopped us at the street and asked us if we were missionaries! Of course we were! We talked and it turns out he went to Harvard and studied bioinformatics! Talk about a good contact. When we went to the park this time the security guard was guarding two paddle boats! It was even funnier than the balloons so of course we took another picture! 

Monday

After our normal studies, we went out to lunch with the Wada's and district. It was hilarious! President told us all kinds of really awesome stories before his mission. Sister Wada left early so he stayed and talked to us for another hour or so. He even told us how they met! Talk about a good story! When we got home sister Wada and I worked on figuring out if recipes are copyrighted or not, to post them on the portal. After, we began the work of recreating an app! It is quite the pain. We are recreating the entire statistics app which includes all kind of other small little pieces. It is fun but kind of a pain. After dinner we went out for some dendo, this time there wasn't a security guard watching anything this time but we did find a house with grass growing on the side which was pretty interesting. Then we went back to the apartment so I could grab some clothes and then Elder Richardson and I went on splits. When we got to the apartment sister Wada called, she asked for me, then had me go check their tatami room. Well it turns out that their tatami room is molded pretty badly and they have been sleeping in their kitchen floor for the past week. So she had me assess the damage. I'll tell you what it was pretty bad...thankfully we made it through the night though. 

Tuesday

After a long night of rolling around on the kitchen floor and a good old studies to get me spiritually jacked for a full day of dendo! We ate lunch then went over to the Honbu afterwards to print out a talk and send a few quick emails. Then off to the elder quorum presidents house. As we were storming their on our steel stallions we got lost but thankfully now we understand how the weird block system works in Japan. Fun fact; There are no street names, just numbers! We went to his condo, just really quick about the elders quorum president. He lived in Orem for 10 years, he is completely ped in English! We talked in Japanese though, he is the owner of various businesses and has a lot of neat experiences. It was good that we visited him, then we ran to their apartment and grabbed clothes for Elder Richardson. When we got to the church we changed and we met with Yutaro who is awesome! He is a bodyguard and is studying law! He is pretty funny! We had a good heart to heart lesson though, it felt good to be a normal missionary with no worries. After that lesson our next appointment showed up! His name is Tarokuni, he lived in NYC for a while and played in big fancy restaurants playing the piano, however he played so much his tendons began falling apart and he didn't take care of them so they got really badly destroyed so he has had a lot of surgeries. We went out to Gioza with him and Elder Leach and Elder Ishikawa, it was pretty delicious! They were seriously the size of my hand! Elder Leach was flabbergasted at the size. After dinner, Tarokuni helped us place a Book of Mormon with a Nepalese man! It was way solid coming from an investigator. After that we went to the church and he played the piano for us! It was so amazing!! We talked about prayer and sung a few primary songs with him. After our awesome lesson we went out to find more people, well there were these two people kissing in the park and Elder Richardson felt like we needed to talk to them, so we walked right up and interrupted them to give them some of that reiteki na hanashi. They wearing very receptive...I wonder why. We had a good split, it felt good to be outside all day. 

Wednesday

We had studies, then staff meeting! President was hilarious during it. Sister Wada left early so he took advantage of her absence and quickly went through everything and went out to get pizza with us! We also brought Tarokuni along! It was a great lunch. Then we had hordes of office work to get through. We got most of it finished. Then when we went to Eaikaiwa. One of our students bought Elder Leach and I gifts when she went to Harajuku! She also bought us a gift for our sisters! It was so kind. I'll have to send it home sometime! At Eaikaiwa we talked about health. It took the a while to understand health nut. They had a lot of differing views of how to use the word it was pretty entertaining. 

Thursday

We studied then went to the office and busted out a lot of office work. Just working on that app. After we had sports night, it was a blast! We played basketball in teams Americans vs. Japanese. Since Elder Richardson is 6'6", it helped contribute to our win. Elder Ishikawa and I went on splits after so I was back at their apartment. It felt so good to practice Japanese with a native again. Well President and Sister Wada showed up. Sister Wada with a poncho ready to tackle the mold and president with a cookie in his hand. They were pretty funny. She tried scrubbing at the walls, however it wouldn't do anything so the pay determined they needed to move the next day. Thankfully they began packing somewhat. Elder Jennings and I stayed up late reminiscing about the MTC. It was a lot of fun talking to him. 

Friday

After the futsu studies we went to district meeting before lunch. It seemed like there were a lot more grumpy people for some reason, maybe after lunch would have been better. Since it was Elder Leaches birthday we went out to Stamina for some yakuniku. It was delicious. Then Elder Ishikawa and I went housing, sadly there weren't a whole lot of people out. I feel so rusty! It kind of makes me worried for when I leave the Honbu but we will tackle that trial when it comes. Might as well do my best now. We worked hard and met a man who didn't understand my English since he learned English in England! It was pretty neat hearing him speak! I like Elder Ishikawa he is a great missionary, it was weird dendoing with someone younger than me for once. We worked hard though. He kind of reminded me of the bear from the muppets. After we split back at the church and began the great move. Elder Leach and I were told to bike to the sisters apartment and help them. So we stood outside for a while waiting for the car. They finally arrived and we began the switch. The Elders overtook the house! Or should I say Castle! It is the most expensive house the church owns and is second to most expensive to an apartment in shinjuku! It is dang nice. The sisters weren't pleased but it's all the Lords in the end. We moved the sisters to the Yamashitas old apartment, it is really nice, but I don't think they were too happy about it. Then Elder Leach and I bought donuts for his birthday and we went back to the apartment to eat dinner. 

It was been a long long week. But man did it feel good to get out and work! 

Big Hearts! 

Elder Dunn

The balloons and security guard

The boats and the security guard

Bread in a can, along with bee larva.

Gioza shop!

Elder Leach Flabbergasted 

Gioza

Elder Richardson with the Scarecrows

Elder Ishikawa and I

Opening Apartments, Feeling like James Bond, and Learning from Elder Yamashita!

People of the Promise Land! 

It feels like I wrote everyone on Monday or something, but uhh I guess that is what happened. 

Monday

Awaking sick is no walk in the park, and sadly no run in the parks either for Elder Dunn. Lying in bed sick for the first few hours of the day is a great way to start off a busy hectic week. But beds are for sick people not sick missionaries so hopped right up and began a long day. We cleaned for a good long while, and I mean cleaned. Well kind of Elder Leach and I kind of forgot about one of our chores...but we will get to that later. We pulled some old bikes out to sell, however it turns out you need registration to sell bikes. In case you would like a bike shipped to you that has a flat tire and missing brakes, just go ahead and shoot me an email and we can work something out. After buying groceries and writing emails we went to the gym to play some good old American football! It was two on two in the gym which was a good time. It reminded me of playing with my brothers back at home. Then we used President Wada's grill to make steak and ribs, yummy yummy in my 19 year old tummy. Then we had to finish our chores. Which consisted of spraying off the front porch, well since it was dark it didn't work out very well. 

Tuesday

The night before I put my Piano Guys CDs on the SD card of Tiffany (our minivan named after an old missionary, it is so solid that even President calls her Tiffany). So in the morning Elder Mukai, the most lovable scratchy nehonjen, and I went to Kunitachi to help the elders move apartments. On our way down we had a great time discussing American and Japanese Stake Dances, his reactions were priceless! "You eat popcorn?!  What do you do during slow dances? They have them every month? Why aren't they called dance party? Do they play Japanese music?" Just to give you a flavor of my hour long ride with Elder Mukai. For lunch we are at a Chinese members ramen restaurant! It was good talking to them about general conference! Then we began the process of moving apartments, gosh what a pain that can be. I set up the washing machine all by myself, like most things in Japan you plug it in and it works....I didn't test it so who knows what will happen, but it looked right. Then we began going back and forth helping the Elders move things. Then just as we were about to go D2 to buy some lights Elder Mukai was backing up and singing to Piano Guys and ran into a pool and scratched Tiffany pretty good. To which Elder Mukai repeated all the way home, "I feel disgusting! Agh!". On our way home Sister Wada called and asked if we could redo all the recipes on the portal, so now I need to start baking to see how the recipes work! Yippee! When we got home Elder Leach and I went to Shibuya, sadly when people are crammed into you on the train it isn't really the best way to start a good gospel driven conversation with someone. In Shibuya or as Elder Mukai refers to it, "Babylon". We got the iPads exchanged then came home and just as we were about to go finding President Wada handed us a big project that we spent our last half hour working on. 

Wednesday

President and Sister Wada are pretty sick. Sister Wada claims she likes her voice with a deep scratch tone in it. It is fitting for Halloween if you ask me. Staff meeting was good we discussed much of the rest of the year here in the office. After Elder a leach had the inspiration to finish our chores before Elder Yamashita came of the seventy. We found a power washer, I knew dad would be proud of me. It made quick work and sure did better than the hose! Then we began our work of fixing the Wada's printer in their study room. Well I'll tell you what that places is a gold mine for pictures of them before their mission, all over the walls. Sister Wada thought it was pretty funny all the 90 styles that are hip to the hop now. Well midway through we heard some people coming up the stairs, I had Elder Leach go check and wouldn't you know it, it was Elder Yamashita coming up the stairs a hour early! Oh no we thought! We ran out grabbed our shoes and told Sister Wada who was in the kitchen as we ran for the back door, "he is here". She looked at us funny, then we said again, "Elder Yamashita is here!" She let out a squeal and we threw our slip on shoes on and ran out the door as the door bell rang. Rushing downstairs the office was in panic mode! We all,thought we had an hour, as did president who came running in about 5 minutes later looking equally as panicked. The Yahashitas, Wada's and Assistants had a meeting upstairs, so we thought we were off the hook, well turns out we were going too. So we ran upstairs after grabbing our jackets and went upstairs to join them. Elder Yamashita is a great man, he was a gym teacher most of his life, and was recently released as the President of the Nagoya mission. He currently is serving in the quorum of the Seventy and gave the closing prayer on the Saturday afternoon session of general conference. He invited us to sit down and we had a short little meeting with him, then we were dismissed and Elder Leach and I worked on setting up the chapel for the conference the next day. So the building recently was outfitted with about 10 grand worth of sound equipment which was mostly unnecessary. They locked the door in hops that no one (mostly missionaries) wouldn't use the equipment. Well there is a trap door the leads to a closet we knew about, so you bet your dog we went up there and figured things out. We felt like James Bond, it was fun, but it took a while since it was all in Japanese. Later we had Eaikaiwa and had a fun time with our class, we had a new student who is a chiropractor, fun fact for all of you; in Japan you do not need a license to be a chiropractor, weird isn't it? Our lesson also included us talking about our man 007, it just was a spy exhilarating day for us. 

Thursday

On our morning run we met Elder Yamashita and his wife walking in the park together! After getting ready we began finishing setting up, but about a half hour before they came in the door the stake clerk came in and began changing all of our wiring and sound systems....now I appreciate people magnifying their callings, but there are so,e that kind of hurt others in the process. He was more worried about impressing a general authority then if it actually worked. We had Elder Mukai ask him to stop playing with our stuff. Thankfully he got the idea. The conference was superb! President Wada gave a great RPLA about 1 Nephi 1-4 and related that to being a bold missionary. It was great. After Elder Yamashita gave a great training about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was enlightening for me. Sister Yamashita did origami with us! Her English is great, she is so funny! It was a great conference, I think everyone really enjoyed and learned a lot from him. He asked some really poignant questions. To me he asked, why am I here? And to my companion he asked, why are you here? It caused some good reflection as to the purpose of general authority visits. After the meeting we ate dinner quickly then Elder Leach and I went to sports night to play some b-ball with the Wada's son, and other people from the area. It was a blast. At the end we played some football and President Wada even got in on some of the action and played with us. Elder Leach and I then gave a spiritual thought about football relating it to gods team. 

Friday

Elder Leach and I were alone all day. The assistants left the night before for the other zone conference during Elder Yamashitas mission tour and Elder Ford and Elder Mukai were translators so we were stuck at the Honbu working on office work. It was a quiet day. We went to the bank, I worked on a new ordering system, we had some good conversations. It was just a nice chill day. At night we had district meeting, where we reported on our investigators. New news with Rick, he said, "I hate Dan (this is me). He needs to apologize." If you are confused you are in the same boat as I. He is upset because I rebuked him for some inappropriate comments he made towards the sister missionaries about a month ago. Oh well, commandments are commandments. Gods laws not mine. After district meeting Elder Leach and I went back to the office so he could finish a financial report. After we went to the church for a broadcast to the missionaries and Ward Councils. Only one person showed up from our ward...president texted us and was shocked, most areas had 15 members at least! The people working the cameras were really distracting too because they were trying really hard to make everything perfect, except they didn't care about what was being said. It doesn't matter about what is going on in all the other chapels skyping in, it matters what President Wada and Elder Yamashita are teaching everyone about the importance of Ward Council and how to work together to hasten the work. Elder Yamashitas talk was inspiring I hope that I can take some of the principals that I learned and apply them for when I come home from my mission and am a member missionary. It was really good. Elder Leach ended up going to bed around eleven and everyone else came crawling in after midnight or later. 

Talk about a jam packed week! Thankfully things calm down this week! 

Big Hearts! 

Elder Dunn

Origami mouths representing Doctrine and Covenants 33: 8-10;

8 Open your mouths and they shall be filled, and you shall become even as Nephi of old, who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness.

9 Yea, open your mouths and spare not, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your backs, for lo, I am with you.

10 Yea, open your mouths and they shall be filled, saying: Repent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;

Our conference set up