A Year Without A Santa Clause......At The Ward Christmas Party!!

So much has happened this past week so I decided to write paragraphs to help me remember.

Branch Christmas Party:  We were shoveling snow the morning of and a random lady walked by us.  She said, `Sumimasen` which means excuse me so as I was shoveling near the road, I assumed she was trying to get by me but it turns out, this usage of excuse me was to try to talk to me.  She asked about English class and I mustered out the fact that it was Tuesday nights at 7.  Then more Japanese came flying and I was confused.  Luckily, Elder Vaughn came over at that time and invited her to the Christmas Party that night.  She was the only person who came from the many people we had invited over the past two weeks but she seems pretty solid, even if she and her five year old daughter are only interested in Eikaiwa right now.  The Party itself was quite amazing.  First was a special musical number of `O Holy Night` by Elder Vaughn on the trumpet and Elder Mueller on the piano.  Then a game, and another unplanned game so that the Reilef Society could run and grab the decorations for the cookies which no one remembered to buy and then a play by us and the youth.  It was basically a live action version of the short on the Toy Story 3 DVD were Barbie and Ken want to go to Hawaii for Christmas but they forget the plan tickets.  So, we faked a Hawaii and I, along with Elder Williams and some sisters in the branch, hula danced!  Then the Christmas story was told and it ended with `Oh Happy Day` from Sister Act.  I don`t know how it was all connected but it was pretty entertaining nonetheless.  We couldn`t get Santa to come to the party this year because we did it too late in the month for Santa to come because he was so busy.

Christmas Eve and CHRISTMAS!!!: On Christmas Eve we had dinner at the Branch President`s house and got a cool recreation of some of the pictures in the Book of Mormon (picture shown below with my Christmas Eve PJ`s).  Then, on Christmas morning, we cooked a good breakfast with bacon like stuff and eggs and hashbrowns.  Vaughn Skyped his family and later we ate with a less active who gave us a legit Christmas cake that Japanese people eat on Christmas which was pretty good.

Christmas Breakfast

Boxing Day:  To celebrate my Boxing Day and for my family to experience me in Japan on Christmas, I called the family in up in Canada Boxing Day morning.  It was really fun to Skype with everyone and see how they were doing.  I even got to talk to Shelby in New York, even though it was only for a few minutes.  I included a picture of the Canadian side of the family.

Skype Selfie with Family in Canada

Kocan: On Saturday, I went on companion exchanges with Elder Williams and I dropped my helmet on accident in the gutter while I was walking over the ice with my bike.  It stopped itself and I was able to get it out of the gutter before it was lost forever.  Another Christmas Miracle!

Helmet in Gutter

Yamashita Kaicho:  President Yamashita came to Takayama this past Sunday to see his granddaughter be blessed in our branch.  It was pretty cool to listen to him talk in our Branch and his family nearly doubled the size of the branch.

So this past week was great.  We experienced a great Christmas Day miracle as well!  We were biking down the street and we stopped a bunch of high school kids to wish them Merry Christmas.  One of the them started speaking in nearly fluent English and we talked to him for a while.  He has some interest and wants to do our English for 30 minutes and the gospel for 30 minutes program and he loved talking with us.  It was great to see a person with interest on Christmas that has real potential!

Thank you all for you e-mails, packages, gifts, letters, and prayers this past Christmas!  I hope that everyone has a wonderful week, an amazing New Year, and keeps the Spirit of Christ with them throughout the whole year.  I am sorry to say I won`t be able to e-mail for the rest of the year but I guess you understand.  I love you all and keep the Christmas Spirit alive!

Christmas Eve Gift

Christmas Gifts

Picture with Santa after he shaved!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JAPAN!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM JAPAN!!!  Whether you are actually reading it on Christmas or another day it really doesn`t matter since I will never know.  This week is Christmas and will be the very first one I have spent in Japan!  I have spent half or so of my Chirstmases in Canada so it is not really my first foreign Christmas but it is my first Christmas in a place that is mainly Buddhist.  This past week before I get carried away was filled with snow and, well, snow shoveling.  I included pictures of me and Elder Vaughn on top of the church roof dumping snow and the pile that Elder Williams is standing on.  It was really fun jumping off of the roof into the snow pile.  I just slid down it and took an awesome video of me jumping off the roof.  It was too big to send so sorry about that...

Elder Vaughn says that Christmas here in Japan is a lot like Valentine`s Day in America, it is pretty much an excuse to party and stay up late with members of the opposite gender as well as an excuse to eat a bunch of candy.  Kids here actually still have school on Christmas so that is a huge bummer.  It is amazing though how this Christmas Season I can still feel the Christmas Spirit even though I am in a country full of Buddhists who don`t really understand the true meaning of Christmas.  I think I understand finally what the Grinch realized after he stole all of those presents that fateful Christmas morning.  It isn`t about presents or getting school off or huge football games or even Santa Claus, Christmas is really all about Christ.  It is more of a feeling instead of a set of traditions or a special day.  I never understood why people would say `Have the Christmas Spirit with you all year.`  Santa doesn`t come everyday of the year, I don`t eat Grandma`s delicious ham rolls every day, I don`t spend time with my extended family everyday.  But Christmas is more than that; it is a Spirit of gratitude and appreciation for what Christ did for us.  It is the Spirit of change and of improvement, to be better.  Christ came into the world as a newborn babe so that he could grow and learn like we do and eventually give his life to atone for the sins of all of us.  While a lot of the times, we are thinking throughout the Christmas season `What am I going to get for Christmas` or even `What am I going to give so and so for Christmas` but the most important gift has already been given to us by Christ.  He is the Gift that Our Loving Father in Heaven gave to us because he loves us and wants us to return to Him.  So maybe instead of dwelling on the physical as I have around Christmas time, we should focus on the Spiritual.  God has given us Christ; now, what shall we give him?  We will never repay him for His gift to us but we can show our gratitude by improving and choosing something to give to Him.  Maybe it might be being more charitable to those around you.  Maybe the gift might be to share the gospel with those around you.  Maybe the gift could be reading the scriptures more diligently.  Whatever it is, Christmas time should be a time of improvement and giving back to God so that we can live with Him again.

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in Japan this Christmas Season to tell others of the gift of Christ that God has given us.  I am grateful to be able to improve myself everyday and become more converted to Christ by sharing His gospel.  While I will miss seeing all of those I love this Christmas, I will be serving among others that God loves and those who He wants to use the gift of Christ`s atonement to help them in their lives.  One gift we gave as a mission to Christ was memorizing the Living Christ in English, given by the 12 Apostles in 2000.  I`d like this to be my Christmas present to you: `We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary.`  I know that Christ lives and that even before that very first Christmas, he loved us and decided to give his life to make us happy.  May we all remember Christ, not this Christmas or next Christmas but also throughout all of our lives.  I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope that you enjoy this wonderful Christmas Season, wherever you may be.

                            Elder Vaughn and Elder Hall shoveling snow off the roof of the church.

                                                       Pile of snow after all of our efforts!!

Ringwood...not Ringworm

So this past week, we went to a mission tour which was basically us meeting with the zone in Kanazawa with President Yamashita and Elder Ringwood who is a member of the seventy that is now the Asia Area North President.  It was a really good meeting.  Elder Ringwood taught us that `Our challenge is not the message, but is with the messenger.`

It really made me think, `Yeah, our message is perfect but not all the times does it come out perfect.`  The thing that makes missionary work hard isn`t the message or what we our saying but is with the person giving it.  First off, the language can be hard and if we don`t try to learn the language diligentily, we won`t be blessed with knowing it.  Second, if we are obedient, we can`t deliver the perfect message in a way in which the Spirit will be present.  He gave us an analogy of how Obedience is the electrical system in a car and that the engine is the Spirit.  Our obedience is what starts the Spiritual Engine or is what invites the Spirit into our work but once our obedience is on, the Spirit is the driving force and does the work.  All we have to do is to be obedient and try our best which isn`t always the easiest, especially when outside it is below freezing because of Satan`s icy temptations and we think we can`t get the Spiritual engine to start.

He also taught us how we can`t take the ups and downs out of life but we can learn from those lows to improve.  God put these in our life to help us grow so we should use them to our advantage.  If you face the problem now that you are facing in a year, the second time around you should be a lot more prepared for it.

He also told us to tell our family (and friends) that the brethen (the General Authorities) are grateful for your sacrifice in getting us missionaries out here and sustaining us while we are gone.  I am sure some of you are glad to have shipped me off for the two years but he wanted us to show gratitude for all the help you have given us.

And I`d like to thank you all myself for all the help and support you have given me.  If you are on my e-mail list, you for sure have touched me and helped me grow positively before, if not once, but multiple times.  So thank you for all the help, the e-mails, the letters, and the prayers and while most of you can`t give me a wrapped present or something like that for Christmas, you have given me your prayers, support, and thoughts which, to me, is much more valuable to me than anything that money could buy for a man with friends, truly is the richest of them all.

I hope everyone enjoys the Christmas season and this opportunity to remember Christ in your daily life. 

 I love you all and have a great week!

Snow outside of the apartment... and a side note, I have only fallen off of my bike to land softly on the white, driven snow twice so far so I am staying pretty safe still.

Let It Sn....NO!!

This past week, well, the inevitable happened, it snowed.  Now, I would usually be excited by this but, well, I have to ride my bike in it.  Actually, on Sunday, we ditched the bikes for fear of sliding (which I did once later that day anyways) and woke up like usual but instead of personal study in the morning, we shoveled in front of the church.  Luckily the church is small so it didn`t take too long.  On Saturday since we couldn`t bike, we just went old fashion housing and invited people to our upcoming Christmas party.  It was really effective because usually it is like, `We are missionaries, gospel, gospel, gospel` which sometimes causes people to be uninterested since we are just `those Christians` but when we ask them the true meaning of Christmas, it still brings up Christ and we get to talk with people that wouldn`t have talked with us otherwise.  I am surprised that about 70 percent of the people we asked what the true meaning of Christmas was didn`t know but we explained it to them.  They always talk about Christmas cake which is a tradition in Japan were they eat cake on Christmas.

This week was pretty good except for the snow and a bunch of canceled appointments but, this week we have a Mission Tour and Elder Ringwood of the Seventy is going to come to Kanazawa Thursday.  I also found out today that we are having a Mission Conference in February and that Elder Ballard will be coming to speak to us.  He came and spoke to us in the MTC so Round 2 should be fun.  And this time I will get to shake his hand probably too.  And maybe even get a picture!

Speaking of pictures my camera is dead with no charger so I will get pictures to you all on a later date.

I also heard a word I hadn`t heard in seven months yesterday.  We were coming out of 7/11 and we started talking to two 20 something year olds smoking outside.  We talked about English and they were asking us questions.  `One was what is Holy fact?`  Fact, fact, hmm... oooohhh... Yeah don`t say that.  He said he heard it on Call of Duty or `Shi O D` because c is shi in Japanese.  So whoever is playing C.O.D. at 2 a.m. in the morning, watch the language because you never know what Japanese person will pick up on it.  We taught him how to say, `Don`t say that` so hopefully he will teach those people a lesson.

I hope everyone has a great week and keeps dendoing in your respective places.  I heard He is the Gift is something cool to use to do missionary work this Christmas but I haven`t used it, I don`t think they have it in Japanese.  

Have a good week and stay thirsty my frie... I mean, stay warm everyone.  

Love you!

I Go Back to December Once a Year!!

IT`S DECEMBER (at least as I write this it is in Japan, I am not quite sure about the rest of you all)!!!  The tourist part of town in Takayama is full with Christmas decorations to please the Europeans and some of the Japanese.  Christmas has actually come up in a couple of conversations with people on the street when we ask what their opinion about Christ is.  They all say Illumination (which is what the Japanese call Christmas lights) and Christmas cake is the best.  I am hoping Christmas cake has a lot of frosting and is pretty big and that a member might delight us with some.

It hasn`t snowed quite yet but I am waiting very carefully for it.  Vaughn Choro says that once it snows we will do what we call `Snow Dendo` and go outside, find someone shoveling snow and say, `Hey, can we help you` and then spread the gospel that way.  I`m hoping some people will let us in their house to warm us up by the fire so that we can get into a proper lesson but, then again, I would rather not have snow in the first place.  So, I am dreaming of a brown/black/green Christmas.  Maybe one P-day I will make a snowman!

This week was, well, transfer calls but nothing changed in our four person district so it was really not that big of a deal this time around.  It will be good that we will all be here for Christmas, just the four of us because Elder Williams has quite the selection of Christmas music.  Other than that, this week has kind of been rough.  Our Filipino friend/investigator talked to his Mom about us and wanting to be baptized and she told him he couldn`t meet with us again.  Jay has agreed to meet us one more time because he is rebellious and likes us a lot!  We are going to go over and talk to his Mom this next Fast Sunday with our Branch President so we can have all of the branch prayers and fasts going our way.  Hopefully we can soften her heart and Jay can continue preparing for baptism on Christmas but if we can`t at least Jay has taken steps closer to Christ.

We did this week, however, get an appointment with a former investigator that elders long ago contacted.  The coffee and beer cans outside the house has given us some worry but I think it is about time I practice my teaching the Word of Wisdom skills again.  `Don`t don`t drink, no don`t even think about it, Drinking stinks, stinky drink no doubt about`.  We went with Lisa a recent RM who served in Tokyo after we ate out at her new work called Lotterria (Vaughn calls it the Wendy`s of Japan, not as cheap as McDonalds but not as good and pricey as In-N-Out).  She won`t be able to help us teach lessons but we can still talk a little English with her before she heads off to the BYU English Learning Center next April.

I almost forget to say but this Thanksgiving we had, well, the most traditional Thanksgiving dinner ever, all you can eat SUSHI!!!  I tried to get Eel sushi so I could have the same food as the Pilgrims and my BFF ancestor William Brewster had at the First Thanksgiving but I settled with Duck with Black Pepper which was just as good.  And I had Taco sushi... but taco in Japanese is octopus so I was thinking I could find a Taco Bell in Japan but instead of Mexican food it would be octopus.  That was for lunch and for dinner we had the first meal we made in Takayama with no rice, mashed potatoes and fried chicken!  I also tried to make vanilla pudding but I accidentally burnt it and spilled a bunch of the powder before I made it.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Turkey Bowls, football, and good `ole `Merican turkey and that everyone enjoys the start of Christmas season!  

Thanks again for all the letters and e-mails!  Have a dandy of a week!

Barely Surviving and Thankful for it!!

So this past month there has been a problem here in Takayama and it is now safe to announce because my Mom has heard the news from an Elder Mueller`s Mom on Facebook.  So, bears in the surronding mountains have been coming into my city in order to get food because there is a scarceness of food in the mountains this year.  All of the school kids have bells to scare the bears off and there have been five attacks so far.  Luckily God is on our side or else I would just have to grin and bare it but, no need to worry about me.

This upcoming Thursday is a day us Americans like to call Thanksgivings!  Sadly, in Japan, they call it, just the 27th of November but, our plan is to go pig out somewhere and get super fat and lazy.  Maybe we will do that after we pay our tithing so that the storehouse will be full.  But, we are probably going to have a themed Eikaiwa class tonight for fun as well.  We learned last week in Eikaiwa that one student had a friend who shot three monkeys here in Japan and that they were going to eat them.  So, maybe he will give us some monkey meat for Thanksgiving but I am pretty sure shooting Monkeys is highly illegal here.  But, I shouldn`t judge I guess!

This week we had something to be grateful for.  We have a Filipino investigator Jameson who has a pretty interesting story.  We first met him outside a 7/11 that was opening and in order to talk to everyone we see, Vaughn Choro asked him `Hey, is this 7\11 open now?`  There were signs everywhere that said open in English and Japanese but it worked and he invited us to a get together their school was having.  We went, ate, said hi and left.  Then we played ping pong at the church a couple of weeks later and gave him the `we are missionaries` talk.  Then he came to church and we taught him the first lesson duringSunday school when we weren`t expecting him to come.  Then yesterday, we played Uno at the church (which he had never played before) and after we finished a game, he started telling us about how he was going to the Phillipines to see he Dad`s grave.  This random topic quickly changed to the Plan of Salvation, to the Gospel of Christ, and then to Baptism Invitation.  He kept switching back and forth between Japanese and English so I got about 3\4ths of the conversation and I talked a bit too.  It was really weird because we hadn`t planned it at all and were just planning on giving him an intro to the Book of Mormon.  But, the Spirit took over and he has a baptismal date on Christmas Eve!  Basically when talking and teaching to Jameson, I learn about how the Spirit really does everything and we just happen to be trying our best.  We have to get permission from his Mom still but he told us he has faith in Christ and wants to follow him.

So, for Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary and help change people`s eternities.  I might not be with my family this Thanksgiving or Christmas but I am helping others be with their families for eternity.  I am grateful for being able to build myself and my testimony here out in Japan and for having the Spirit guide me even when I feel lost.  Even though I can`t write much to all of you, know that I am grateful for you and that I love you.  I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and can be able to be grateful for all the blessings that God has given us in our lives.  And start playing that Christmas music!!!

That Guy Really Needs a Book of Mormon

So this week was pretty good but it has been slightly getting colder, and colder, and colder.  First 15 degrees, than 10 degrees, now we are hovering around four degrees Celsius of course.  The question before the week was sweater or no sweater and now the question is, should I put on my rain gear on top of my sweater, jacket, touche (Canadian word for beanie), gloves, and thermal underwear or is it not going to rain?  It hasn`t snowed quite just yet but the key word in that sentence is quite.

My companion sometimes says that the people are as cold as the weather, which is actually pretty accurate.  I want to start recording the temperature next to my daily stats in my planner to see if there is a direct correlation with the temperature and how many people we get to talk to in the street and have become new investigators.  People just are less inclined to talk about the gospel or quite frankly anything when it starts dropping into the single digits.

Once this week on a cold day we did have a good talk with someone!  Like usually, my e-mail consists of talking with a gaigen (someone not Japanese) that speaks English because that language I don`t have to read between the lines.  But, we do the usual if someone is in front of us... we start braking and saying `Konichiwa!` and get them to start.  So, we start the whole Japanese thing but the guy speaks English and is only slighty tan and from Australia.  We said we were missionaries and he was like "Well I actually moved to Japan to this small place so I could study out the truth."  (*Nice, nice, and we are here to give the truth!*) 

"`80 percent of what you have been told is propaganda and only 20 percent is truth." 

(*Wait, what?*)  "On my own I am trying to filter out the lies and get to the truth.  Basically I want to find the time before science and religion and find the truth from the beginning."  So I was kind of confused.  Should I go into the whole `We have no beginning...` and quote `If You Could Hie to Kolob` or just be like we have the truth!  Vaughn Choro handled it well and talked about the Book of Mormon and the full gospel.  We talked a bit, and then invited him to go on Mormon.org and read the BOM.  He said thanks and we rode away.

So then, after a couple minutes of biking in the opposite direction of him we got to a stoplight and Vaughn said "That guy really needs a Book of Mormon."  Then it clicked in my brain, I had brought a English Book of Mormon with me in my bag the night before to seminary (which is held every Wednesday night and the missionaries come to support the youth) and I still had it on me.  "Wait a minute", I muttered, as the light turned green ahead, "I have one I brought to seminary!"  So we raced back, hoping he hadn`t turned off the same street.  We catch up to him after a couple minutes of swerving in and out of the sidewalk and road and say, "`We forgot we had a English Book of Mormon."  We are panting and trying to catch our breath and still in the moment.  Then Vaughn very smoothly says, "If you read it, you will find your truth."  The guy got really happy when we stopped by and I think he felt loved.  The first time we stopped him, he probably thought, `Oh it is just their job to talk to people about their church`  but then when we chased him down a few minutes later, I think he felt really loved.  So, now we have the Australian Grant Laurie on our board with no contact information in the apartment and hope that he will find the truth for himself in the Book of Mormon and give us a call.

Also this week, our Filipino friend came to church!  We taught him lesson one with all the four of us missionaries and two 17 year old youth in the branch.  We finally found a Book of Mormon in Tagalog for him too so we hope that he can be progressing soon.

Also I have my first Baptism Date Set!  It is with an 11 year old in a less active family that has some mild form of Autism mixed with ADHD so the parents felt like they needed more time.  But, we started lessons with him and while he is easily distracted, Casey is really fun.  He is half Japanese so his Dad is an American who served in this mission twenty or so years ago and his wife and Casey speak some English.  And, the family invited us over for some gyoza next Sunday.  That makes my fourth dinner appointment in Japan!

Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week and mark on their calendar BYU`s bowl game in Florida.  I would probably go, but, it might be a little ways out of the mission.  

Love you all and have a great week!

Less Active Work, In Our Church and Others!

So, like most weeks, this one was again quite interesting for two white folk running around the streets of Japan.  First off, we did what they call here `McDonalds` Dendo.  We met a guy we had OYMed to (or basically Opened Our Mouths to on the street) a couple of weeks back who had asked to be our friend.  So, we went to McD`s to meet him but we didn`t eat there because he didn`t want to.  We had known he was a bit socially awkward, but from the first meeting on the street we deemed him fully capable of hearing the glad message.

Now, in Japan, McDonalds have a really nice second floor with a bunch of tables that it is cool for people to meet people and talk to people instead of a disgusting ball pit full of diapers that they won`t let me go in anymore because I am too old in America.  There are usually adults sitting up there doing work on their computer or kids doing homework or teenagers playing Pokemon.  So, we meet him there and start talking, building the relationship.  He shows us pictures of his Star Wars action figures which were pretty cool and he had a Bane action figure with him he let us hold.  He even gave us a picture of one of his action figures for safe keeping!  So, this 27 year old who actually had a girlfriend was kind of nerdy in the extreme told us half his money from his job goes to action figures and he lives with his parents.  So a failure to launch kind of guy.  This meeting was already great e-mail material but then we transitioned to the gospel.  'We'd like to share a message with you.  What do you think about religion?'  'Oh, I am Mahikari.'  AAAAHHH!  Mahikari is a really creepy religion that is actually ran out of Takayama but is in most parts of Japan and they are this religion that believes in some really weird stuff and describes their God like we see Satan.  And their symbol is a weird star of David thing but they don't have anything to do with Jews.  He only said he was a member because his Mom was so he was a less active Mahikari but he didn't want anything to do with the gospel, so we said goodbye, thanked him for the picture and went on our way.

Later in the week we visited a less active member of our church.  The branch here is doing this massive To the Rescue program and they want the missionaries to visit all of the less actives in the ward (which is like 70 or so) to see how we can help them.  We went to one on Sunday night and he answered the door which was pretty good and we got talking.  He said that he was baptized two years ago and that he really loves missionaries because the ones who taught him were his friend when he needed one the most.  We asked him his current views about the church and he said he wants to come back but has work.  So, we asked him to see if he could get if off to come to church.  He was really happy to see us and seems like someone who was waiting for a gentle push back into the church.  And we are planning on doing a Family Home Evening with his non-member wife and two daughters.  It is amazing to see how the Lord directs us as missionaries to find the people, whether active, non-members or less active, who really need our help the most.  Hope the Lord can direct everyone this week to help someone in need. 

 Have a great week and enjoy the Fall weather everyone!  

Love you all!

Las Vegas sign in Numazu

View from Apartment in Takayama

Halloween Themed English Class

New Friend and Waffles!

So Takayama is pretty crazy.  My district leader in Numazu had served here before and told me a little bit about it and he said it was really inaka (small town) but it was really fun.  So, I thought that would mean there would be no one on the streets to talk to or there would be snow up to my knees and we would have to phone dendo a lot but it has actually been the quite the opposite.  There are basically two sides of the train station and Vaughn Choro said that one side is the touristy side and the other side is the Japanese side.  We don`t stop and talk to a lot of tourists because, well, we can`t teach them and baptize them and strengthen the ward by talking to them but on the way back from visiting a less-active, we ran into an older Belgian tourist couple that was trying to communicate with some Japanese that didn`t speak English asking for to directions.  We stopped to help but it seemed like they figured where the train station was but we still conversed in conversion.  We asked them what they were doing here and told them about why we were here on a mission and smoothly transitioned to religion.  It was weird because I was able to understand everything and jump in whenever I wanted.  They first said they believe in this weird, higher power that controls the universe and we explained that we believed in God as our Father and they wanted to know more and asked us what our main doctrine is.  I wanted to say the truth but instead we gave them it in the Plan of Salvation and we talked about the Restoration.  In his thick Belgian accent e said after we explained, `That makes sense!`  They were too busy sightseeing to come to church but we gave them a Mormon.org card and luckily I had a small English version of the Book of Mormon I gave them and we told them to learn more on the website and to look up the church and missionaries in Belgium so hopefully the good old Liberts do that.  And if you are serving in Belgium and reading this, you are welcome.  So hopefully something good will come of it and here a great conversion story over General Conference one day.

Besides talking to tourists, we ran into a high schooler Phillipino who tried speaking English to us and invited us to a festival his school was putting together the next day.  So we went, ate some food, and said hi to him and were going to contact him later but then he called us and straight up us asked if we could be his friends.  So, for that day, our stats were 1 lesson, 0 referrals, 2 Less Actives, and 1 Friend.  We will be contacting Jake soon to try make him a friend in Christ by teaching him but overall there are a lot of people to talk to here in Takayama.  We have only ran into two potential investigators again on the streets so it is a lot smaller than Numazu but plenty of work to be done.

The branch here is pretty cool too and I should be able to get really close to all the members since there are less than I am used to and I can speak a tad bit more Japanese than when I first came to Japan. There are about 30 active members but we only have 20 people at church minus the missionaries.  It will be fun to get to know them.

And yes, it being cold was true, I had to pull out my coat once this week but, I can always have the warm feeling of the Spirit inside me to warm me up.  Hope everyone has a good week and sorry for the lack of pictures but next week I will upload some of the new apartment, area, and elders here.  

Love you all!

Elder Hall

Numazu, It's Bean Fun!!

Hello Everyone!

So, a couple things for today.  First, this is my last day as a beanchan so tomorrow I will be fluent, or at least I hope.  Second, I will no longer be with Siedschlag Choro, sadly.  He`s been a good Dad out in the field and I will definitely miss him dearly.  He is actually going to Gifu to be District Leader and will be companions with Elder Esplin in my doki and will live in the same apartment as my MTC doryo Ricks Choro.  And third and possibly the craziest of all, I`m being transfered to...

So we were sitting in the apartment waiting to be called during transfer calls.  This week was senior week a.k.a. the beanchan is the senior companion for the week and has the phone so, when President Yamashita called, I picked it up out of formality.  I was expecting to send the phone immediately over to Siedschalg because the whole district decided at yogenkai (literally prophecy meeting where after DTM we guess where everyone is going) everyone said Siedschalg was going to become District Leader somewhere and that I would stay, all eight of us missionaries guessing said that.  So, I was pretty sure that Siedschlag would leave and I would stay as he had just finished training me and had been in Numazu for awhile which meant I would stay and get a new companion.  But, after President Yamashita asked me how I was doing, he said he needed to talk to me.  So I figured he was telling me who my companion would be here in Numazu after Siedschalg left but he preceeded to say, `Elda Hall, you will be transferring to Takayama and Elda Ban will be your new companion.`  Ban?  `V-a-u-g-h-n` Oh Vaughn.  So there it was, probably the biggest surprise of my life.  I handed the phone over to Siedschlag and once he got off, we both announced to the apartment that I was going to Takayama so I figured that Siedschalg would stay but then he said he was going to Gifu.  So, our apartment is becoming a futari and only Smith and Martini Choro will be staying and they will take over all of our investigators.

 If you don`t know anything about Takayama, well, basically it means tall mountain in Japanese so it is the one of the coldest areas in the mission.  And if you check your calendar it is October now so I am going to switch from the moderate, nice Vegas-like winter of the Shizuoka Zone to the freezing tundra of the Kanazawa Zone.  Good thing I bought all of that winter gear before coming out here!  Also, it is a super small city and it has only a small branch and I will be going from a district of eight people to a district of only four people who all live in the same apartment.  So it will be definitely interesting.  Don`t know how I will react to all of the changes but I am trying to go forth like Nephi instead of like Jonah (because that whole inside the whale thing doesn`t sound too appealing, unless it is warm in there...)  It is just sad that I had to say goodbye to everyone in my district and in the ward and our investigators so soon.  I know I will make new friends in Takayama but it may take some more time.  Luckily, my Vaughn Choro seems pretty cool as I got to talk to him over the phone the other day as I had to call to get the apartment address.  Also, luckily I have all my friends back at home.  Doesn`t matter if you are serving a mission in Asia, Argentina, Colorado, Nicaragua, New York, Florida, the MTC or if you are getting ready to go on a mission or if you live in Provo, Las Vegas, Orem, Idaho, Canada, or Denmark as I really appreciate the support and all of the prayers as I feel them every time I make a mistake or am having a bad day.  So thanks everyone for everything and helping me feel loved as I`ll need all of that as I say good-bye to my bean area and start things over again in the snowy land called Takayama.

Everyone have a good week and enjoy the season of Fall while you can!

Love you all!

Elder Hall

Super (lame) Typhoon!!

So apparently there was this super huge typhoon but we only barely got hit by a little bit of wind and rain.  The mission home still sent out texts to everyone to stay inside until further notice for our safety but that only lasted from six last night to 9 this morning.  So, I am safe, and we have a clear view of Mt. Fuji again with no clouds in the sky.  Maybe it hit the other part of the mission hard but I am still not sure. 

Oh, and by the way, if everyone thought I died because of the typhoon and my e-mail being Tuesday, it is only because yesterday was a holiday (Health and Sports Fitness Day or something like that) and President Yamashita has made our P-days on Tuesdays when there is a holiday on Monday so we can catch everyone who is home on those holidays.  But since today was P-day, we went as a district to Mt. Fuji and some waterfalls.  The waterfall was really beautiful and big and people come all around to see it.  It was pretty fun.  And also I forget to mention that one sister a couple of weeks ago got sent home for a couple of transfers in order to recover from Whooping Cough that she had somehow contracted.  While we miss Neves Shimai, we are excited to have the new edition of Garrett Shimai who is pretty fun too.  I hope you enjoy the pictures I am including in this post because I have been slacking on showing you pictures...

Anyways, this past week was the real time for General Conference.  We got DVD`s with it in Japanese and a couple of other languages (including the one I happen to speak, ENGLISH!!!) so we had the sacrament room for Japanese (since most people speak that language) and a small room for us English speakers, basically missionaries and the couple of gaigen who married Nihonjin.  But it was really good.  I still haven`t seen the last hour of conference, where I heard Elder Bednar talk to investigators, because we had an appointment right after so we had to leave early to bike there.  But it was awesome like usual.  The thing I got from it the most was that we need to always have the courage to face God and have a purpose in our life with our rutter faced in the right direction always looking to eternally progress and continue to get better.  And it is so true!  I just think back to my last month before going on a mission when I was chilling out in Vegas waking up at noon, eating Cheetos and watching SportsCenter and then staying up until one procrastinating packing for the MTC.  I didn`t have a purpose, no job, no school.  I didn`t have my rutter set in a certain direction, just doing donuts in the water with no to show for except for a lot of waves in the Ocean and a thinner O-zone layer from all of the gas I burnt up.  I compare that to now where I have an hour of language study to improve my language, I have every hour planned out in the benefit for others and a set path with my rutter always facing one way.  I am far from being perfect and sometimes my rutter veers me off the path that delays me but with my goals and everything written down, I am aiming somewhere.  Sometimes in life I just wanted to pass another semester at school or turn a year older but the thing with time is that it will always happen.  But I never really looked at myself and said, you know what, if I work on loving others for a month, I can grow and be a better person.  If I study math an hour a day after school, I can get better grades.  I never made goals really.  But now I am trying to do my best to have a direction so I won`t look back after this month and say, `Well, I didn`t improve but I got through a series on Netflix!` but I`ll say `Wow, look how far I have come in doing my home teaching or in my super hard college class or in exercising everyday`.  I think that is what the brethren wanted me to remember and really learn this conference.  I sure it was something different for everyone but I think if we can take what we learned from General Conference and really try to improve on that aspect and to get better at it, we will look back on today and say, `Wow, I am glad I choose then to improve so that I could be where I am today.`

Hope everyone watches and re-watches conference and everyone has a great week wherever they may be.  

Love ya all,

General Conference hasn't happened yet

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week was another great week over here in Japan.  This morning I was trapped inside the apartment for the first hour and a half of my Preparation Day because of a crazy typhoon ``Master the Typhoon is raging!!!``  It was pouring down hard and the wind was pretty insane.  We made the mistake of opening the front door and a bunch of rain came in and got our shoes wet in the genkan.  Luckily, it had started a little bit last night but it wasn`t too bad with my newly bought raingear, and so it ended a little bit before noon.  Now it is sunny and the category 2 typhoon is past.  Unless we are in the eye of the storm and then riding back to the apartment would be killer.

Exciting things that happened this week including me teaching my second lesson in English since being in Japan.  Last night Siedschalg and I went over to the Bagochay family and it was the first time meeting with them since they returned from the Phillipines.  We followed up on the Word of Wisdom and invited him to come to church Sunday.  We explained General Conference and that it would actually be in English so hopefully that will be motivation to come to church.  I said the opening prayer and it was really weird because I hadn`t said a prayer in English in public since entering the MTC so I was trying to realize I didn`t have to stick to a certain amount of grammar patterns.

Also this past week, we had interviews with President Yamashita.  It was really short because everyone in the zone (which includes about 26 missionaries) had to be interviewed by him so we each only go ten minutes.  Something he said to me really stuck out to me.  He told me that if you are improving everyday and that you are now better than you were yesterday, then you are a successful missionary.  It really got me thinking and I think that applies to life in general, missionary or not.  Like imagine from where you are now in your personal progression that you are a million light years away from perfection because let`s be honest, that is where we all want to be someday.  Now one way to look at it would be `Wow, a million light years, that is a lot, no way I can do it.`  Or you can look at it like, `Wow, a million light years, that is a lot, might as well start today.`  If you take it a mile at a day, it might seem like it will take forever.  It might just be a mile at first but you are one mile closer that next day.  And then they start building up.  A year later, 365 miles closer.  A decade later, 3,650 years later and so on and so on.  Like my Mom would always say when I would complain about my chores or homework that I had a lot to do.  `How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.` Wherever you want to be in life, if you just get a little closer than you were yesterday, you are a success.  If you want a better grade in class, study harder and harder each day.  If you want to get a sixpack, start by doing one crunch a day, then two, then three.  If you want to learn a language or be a good missionary, talk to one more person a day, knock on one more door a day, compliment your companion one more time.  At first you might just touch one`s person life or learn one grammar pattern each day but it will start to add up.  After a month, I`ll be talking to 31 people a day, know 31 more Japanese grammar patterns.  All it really takes is step by step improvement.  And then, one day when you are looking back, you`ll notice you are that a tenth of the way there, or half, or there reaching your goal or dream!  So don`t become discouraged if you aren`t the kind of person you want to be yet, or you don`t have a six pack quite yet, or you don`t see yourself having full conversations with Japanese, just realize that you are better today than you were yesterday and tomorrow you will be even better and next year, you might achieve your goal. Hope everyone has a good week!!

Elder Hall

CANADIAN SMARTIES!!

So the new senior couple missionaries are super nice and they have been giving us a bunch of food and they gave us this whole thing of CANADIAN SMARTIES so I was pretty excited to eat them and know that they exist in Japan.  They aren`t as good as the real deal but they are pretty amazing none the less.  And the others in the apartment didn`t really care for them so I ate them all!!!

My Hometown

Dear Family and Friends,

An essential part of missionary work is building a good relationship with your investigators.  So, the usual when you first meet someone or have a first appointment is you tell them about yourself.  Like your name, family size, what country you are from.  A lot of Japanese have traveled to America or even Canada (which by the way, Happy Canadian Thanksgiving [which I believe is this week] everyone).  So, many missionaries will find out during this getting to know you phase that the person has visited their hometown.  This happened to Elder Smith a couple of times as he is from Washington and a lot of Nihongen travel to the Pacific part of America (and everyone here loves Ichiro too).  He has been pretty happy about it and uses that as a connection to build a relationship with the person.  For me however, I realized I can`t do that.  Everyone but me can be happy that someone they know visited their hometown.  If you are from Utah and your investigator said they have been there, you say `Oh, I am sure they know a little about our church.`  If you are from Brazil and they have been there, you think, `Maybe they know Portuguese and I can further confuse my bean who barely knows the difference between Portuguese and Japanese by talking with them in Portuguese!`  If you are me, your investigator says `Oh you are from Vegas?  I`ve been there!`

 There are three ways to re-act:

1. Obliviously- `Oh, have you been to the Coca-Cola factory and the M&M shop?  A couple of the best things to do on the Strip!`

2. Ignore- `Oh, that is cool.  How about we talk about the Gospel now!`

3. Dread- Remain absolutely quiet as you realize that teaching the Law of Chasity and the Word of Wisdom, just got a lot harder then you thought.

So while I do have Vegas pride, I might change my hometown to Henderson.  Or maybe I will just carry around a picture of the Las Vegas temple and ask if they have seen it.  Actually that is a really good idea.  I think I will print off some pictures of the temple after I finish writing this e-mail.

Besides this little advice to all missionaries that happened to live in Vegas, this week we welcomed the new senior couple missionaries!  Basically there job will be to not only help us find and teach people but to also help the Numazu Ward in their ward mission plan.  They both lived in Osaka and Oshi Choro used to be a Japanese Area Seventy.  They both speak no English so that is pretty much all I can tell you about them for now (except they have five kids which is A LOT here in Japan) but they should be fun to work with.

Everyone have a great week where ever you might be in the world and enjoy General Conference next week, although I will be waiting an extra week to watch it in English here because the churches here don`t have satellites so wait to send me all of the really good General Conference memes from the BYU meme page until next week and don`t spoil anything!

Elder Hall

Welcoming New Guests

This Saturday we are welcoming a senior couple here in Numazu whose names are the Oshies (which literally means tasty) so today has been spent cleaning up the apartment so that it is nice and representable. Here is to show that procrastination still exists even amongst missionaries. Stupid Satan. But this is the reason for a short and late e-mail so I apologize.

This past week has been really good and we were able to teach more lessons than usual. We had an awesome zone conference though about including the members in missionary work and we talked about how we could include them in the work better. And we talking about using the book `Power of the Everyday Missionary` which, should be canonized alongside the Quadraple Combination and Preach My Gospel. If you haven`t read it yet, read it and if you have read it, live it. Also at the conference, I got a late birthday present from Sister Yamashita, some chocolate and a nice orange tie I will have to send pictures of.

This week though some good moments were eating raw horse over a lesson with an investigator (and besides my Western ideas of killing horses and eating them, it was actually really tatsy when dipped in soy sauce) named Takeda who live in a near-by city where we had to get a train to. The lesson was pretty good and we was our first lesson and we learned he was a Physcologist and when we introduced the Book of Mormon, he was really excited to read it since he had studied form the Bible. Also, we found a new investigator out of a former investigator which I am sure I will have to tell you more about after we had a lesson with him next week. Everybody keep the faith and I hope you all have a very enjoyable week.

Love y`all!

Escape From Numazu Part 2

So the highlight of my week was when we decided to escape Numazu for the second time!  But instead of going all the way to Tokyo South accidentially, we decided to go to a town in our proselyting district called Atami which is about a half hour train ride from here in Numazu.  We meet someone on the street who had actually gone to a Protestant school over in America who we got an appointment with next week so we decided to check out the city, find his address, and maybe even create an Atami Branch while we are there. So, on Saturday, we packed up our bikes and went off on the train to Atami which is a city on the coast.   We got there in the early afternoon and, well, started dendoing!  It felt like those early pioneer missionaries going to a foreign country where they had never heard the Restored Gospel before or like the Final Frontier.  It is in the ward boundaries but there are no active members there.  Atami is set up really weird though.  It has super narrow streets and all of the houses and apartment buildings are squished together and when we housed we had to climb up a bunch of stairs.  The city was basically just squeezed onto a hill and a ton of people live in it.  So we ditched the bikes a lot because it was too steep to ride up it.  I will have to take pictures when I go again Thursday for our lesson.

But while we were in Atami, we also ate at McDonalds.  Now, McD`s is pretty much the same in Japan as in America but some things are different.  One of the special items they had for a limited time was something called a Purple Sweet Potatoes Milkshake.  And so I am trying to live the culture as much as possible (#hashifordayz) I ordered it off the dollar menu.  First off, purple, what the heck?  And sweet potatoe in a milk shake?  I guess yams and sweet potatoes work well with marshallows (shotout to my Mom`s amazing yams with marshallows on top we have every Thanksgiving) so I tried it out.  The purple still weirded me out but it was actually really good.  So next time you go to McDonald`s see if they have the Purple Sweet Potatoes Milkshake for me.

I`d just like to quickly apologize for not being able to answer everyone every week but know that I love everyone and I read all of your e-mails.  Keep up the good work and know I always love to hear from you.  If you want any specific questions answered, I will try to answer them next week.  But everyone have a great week and keep on going.  Thanks for all of you being a great example to me!
あいしてます!!!

Transfer Calls

Saturday was the first experience of transfer calls.  If I had to describe it to someone who is not a missionary, I would pretty much say it is just like that time in Middle School when the teacher was assigning group projects and was reading off the list of the pre-assigned group of people.  Am I going to be in the group where I have to do all the work, where the cute girl that is across the room from me is in, or am I going to have a group of all of my friends where we can slack off and joke around until the last minute?  But instead of getting assigned a project on the Great George Washington, you are being assigned missionary work with another person who you could possibly be assigned to work with someone else besides your current companion and live with them for at least six weeks.  So that is the basic feeling as you wait to see if the phone rings. 

It started right after personal study or at 9 a.m. and we were told to not leave the apartment for the duration of transfer calls.  I was hoping to not be separated from my trainer and I thought the other two elders who just got here as well wouldn`t be transferred so I wasn`t expecting the phone to ring.  After transfer calls were over though, Elder Martini, who we live with, was suppose to call the other people in our district in Fuji and there we thought there would be a couplewho  would be transferred from the four.  So, I waited for two hours so we could call the Fuji Elders.  So, as soon as they texted us at around 11 a.m. that transfer calls were over, Elder Martini called and find out nothing had changed.  So, in my district, no one was moved so another transfer with everybody staying put!  One of our zone leaders did get transferred out though and a couple of people in the zone were transferred but no one close by so Transfer 2 will be pretty close to transfer one, except for the fact that I know a few more things about mission life and Nihongo.

This week has been pretty futsu (normal) expect for the fact a older gentlemen in a Hyaku Yen Shop (dollar store) asked me if I was American and then he started to proceed by talking about American atrocities in World War II which was definitely unusual.

This past week I have been reflecting a lot about my first transfer as it had been coming to a close.  And as I was thus reflecting during Fast and Testimony meeting, I was getting a bit down because I hadn`t progressed in my Nihongo as much as I wanted to.  So, to ease my mind, I turned to my English scriptures as I couldn`t understand anything anyone on the pulpit was saying.  A couple minutes into that, I think the Lord somehow rebuked/blessed me when I suddenly heard English over the pulpit.  What the heck, is this what the gift of tongues really means!?!  So when I looked up I half-expected/hoped it was someone speaking in Nihongo but it was one of the two gaigen (foreigners) in the ward, Campus Kyodai.  So I put away my scriptures and began to listen.  He was saying how his daughter was this last week unable to compete in the Shizuoka Stake`s English contest because of her father being gaigen.  He and his daughter were really excited for it and were expecting great things from it but it was disappointing when they learned she couldn`t compete.  Then he talked about how God sometimes doesn`t let us achieve our dreams or He lets us face setbacks.  And that's where I was then as I sadly looked on the lack of progress I made.  Campus Kyodai then said Einstein`s quote `That there are two ways to live life, to see nothing as a miracle or to see everything as miracle.`  And then I started thinking.  Four months ago I was sitting on my couch eating Cheetos unable to speak a lick of Japanese.  Now I am out here living in Japan and speaking to people in Japanese.  Yeah, my Nihongo isn`t great but isn`t just being here a miracle in of itself.  So I have been trying to see my progress as what I have done instead of what I have yet to do.  Yeah I need to set goals and work my butt off but it is easy to become a little distressed.  We just sometimes need to be really grateful for the little things we have instead of asking why we don`t have more.  Even if the glass is only a 1/10 full, doesn`t mean it has to be 9/10 empty.  It is still better than 1/100 full I guess.  So hopefully this next transfer can be spent improving and learning instead of wondering when I will get it all because I am far from that.

Hope everyone has a good week and is getting geared up for the lovely season of Autumn.

Love you all!

Escape From Numazu

Well, as I said last e-mail, I went out to Nagoya for the meeting with all of the beanchans who came over to Japan with me.  It was also for the trainers so me and Siedschlag Choro went over and we took the bullet train after connecting with a smaller train and then got off the train and took the Subway and walked twenty minutes to the honbu (mission home).  Then I was re-united with my doki (group of Elders that came over to Japan with me) and all of my best friends chorotachi from my MTC district.  We got trained by the Assistants to the President and President Yamashita himself.  Apparently since our doki is so huge some of us might be transfer three trainers but, I don`t know how I feel about that quite yet.  (Transfer three trainers means that one would train after three transfers)  After the three hour training, we ate out at some Chinese place and then took the Shinkatsen back to Numazu.  

We had learned at our training to not always do what our trainer does if it is not right and we can still be an example and make own choices but I didn`t really understand it until the train ride back.

Right after we had bought our ticket, we entered the nearest train.  We were seated and I said to Siedschalg, `Doesn`t this train take different stops than the one we got one coming to Nagoya?  Is this the right train?`  Then the train started to move.  We decided we were fine but then my trainer pulled out his phone later in the ride and starting laughing.  `What happpened?`  DUN, DUN, DUN!!!  `We are out of the mission!`  Turns out, the bean was right in the end.  So, we got off of the train, took a quick video and a picture to prove to everyone else of our adventure to Shin-Yokohama (a city in the Tokyo South Mission) and waited for a call from our zone leaders with further instructions.  It was around 8 so we thought we might need to stay the night in Tokyo South and maybe meet our MTC friends that went to Tokyo but it turns out we just got back on a train that took us to Fuji and we got to the Fuji Elders` apartment at 10 which is an hour past when we are supposed to return.  So although it was an accidental adventure, I learned that even beanchans can know what is going on, so always listen to your heart and use a map.  It was only 80 km out of the mission and we didn`t go all the way to Tokyo so it could have been a lot worse.

This week has been kind of weird because of our mishap and the training so not much has happened noteworthy dendo wise but summer vacation here just ended so we are expecting more usual appointments as some of our investigators come back from foreign countries.  So next week`s e-mail should be chalk full of more spiritual stuff.  

Hope everyone keeps the faith and has a great week as they relish in the start of football season and BYU football as I am now suffering from withdrawals.  

See you next week!

Here are pictures to prove our escape......

Shin-Yokohama is in the Tokyo South Mission

Wrong Mission.....Whoops!!

Prayer

So my trainer, since he has control of the phone, got an e-mail yesterday informing us that on Thursday we will be having Trainers` and Trainees` training.  If there wasn`t enough trains in this e-mail, we will also be taking a train to Nagoya, the center of the mission where the mission home is.  Originally it was going to be just at the end of the transfer and I would be able to meet all of the other people being transferred but since my doki (which means all of the missionaries that came over to the mission the same day as me) is so huge, it will be easier to have the twelve of us and our trainers come sooner rather than with everyone else.  So, early Thursday morning, I will go by the bullet train to Nagoya and be trained and get to see the other five elders from my MTC district!  It is like a reunion!  So it should be fun and we should learn a bunch from President Yamashita as well.

My adventure this week also involved the toilet yet again but instead of pushing buttons, I decided to clean it after my neglect.  While it was worth it, I think I would rather try out all of the buttons.

The highlight of my week was yesterday when we got a call during church from one of our investigators named Bart who is from Poland, is married to a Nihonjin, and speaks English and out of the blue came to the church last week.  He said he was sorry he couldn`t come to church but wanted to meet with us later that day.  So, right after sacrament meeting, we asked an American member to come with us to the lesson at the church at four that day.  So we were all prepared and ready to teach Bart when he showed up.  We taught him about the history of the Book of Mormon and really just did a recap of lesson one since he hadn`t heard it for a couple of months.  It was a really good lesson and the member got involved and I was able to speak a lot because it was in English.  And Bart asked a lot of good questions about prophets and prayer and he actually answered a lot of his own questions.  The best part about it was when we taught him how to pray. We talked about how it was like talking to God and was very personal.  Then we asked him if he would feel comfortable saying the closing prayer.  He said yes and he said the most awesome prayer ever!  It wasn`t like many of the prayers me and other members say that have almost a pattern of things that people say to take up time or just out of habit.  Instead, it was very sincere and personal.  I could really feel the Spirit in the room as he asked God to help him in his life.  It made me realize how much prayer really means to me and how much more it could become if I didn`t see it as a burden to say my prayers before meals or before getting onto my futon at night but instead as an opportunity.  It made me realize that I can learn something from everyone, even an investigator who barely knows anything about the gospel.  Hopefully I can be able to have more sincere prayers and realize always the blessings of the Gospel and God in my life.  

Here is to everyone out there having an awesome week!  Until next time...