Shocking Annoucement/I Totally Predicted It

Hello Friends and Family!

Well the topic of my letter this week is of some controversy!

On Feb 23rd at 10:00 in the Morning we were told by President Budge that the Mission would be splitting.  The same day the Church announced 58 new missions World Wide.

The New Mission will be the Tokyo South Mission and this mission will stay the Tokyo Mission. The name will not change.

We're unsure exactly how the Elders and Sisters will be split but we do know that we are losing the Yokohama Stake, Fujisawa Stake, Machida Stake, and the English Stake in the Area. The Mission boundaries for the Tokyo mission has also changed and we now go all the way North to Nigata, Which is in the Sendai mission currently. The mission is buzzing with this info. I'm shocked as well, but I predicted it. I'm sitting in the living room of our apartment looking at stats and say "Hey with all the new missionaries coming in they could split the mission." and Elder Tauchi totally agreed with me and then 2 days later we got the news, I wigged out. It's sad because it's separates people from old areas, areas they wanted to go to and friends. It does however mean that we'll be able to focus our efforts more. I know if I've said this before but with the mission the way it is there are approximately 7 million people in Tokyo Zone. Last time I checked there were 23 full time proselyting missionaries. If you do the math that's over 300,000 people per missionary. Well over 600,000 per companionship. We don't have the resources to talk to 600,000 people.

That's the exciting news this week. Things have been good other than that. Elder Tauchi and I are sick but getting better. Well I am at least, Elder Tauchi is going to cough up a lung any second I think. It's a quiet P-day for us.

These are a few Snippets of the Week:
Here's our lunch today. I Introduced Elder Tauchi to Sloppy Joes he loves them. It was awesome.

The other picture is of Brother Busso. He's from Italy and he's a chef.   He's the craziest most passionate man I've ever met, then again he is Italian. He's so awesome.

This is Shibuya. A panorama of Shibuya stole from Elder Tauchi. We went there last Thursday. I dare you to count the people.

Well that was this week! Thanks for all the love and support!
Take care and pray often. I'll write a much more solid letter next week. I just really wanted to share the news!

Love from Tokyo
Elder G

Working Hard, Small Miracles

Hello Everybody!

Today was another Wonderful and Relaxing P-Day for Elder Tauchi and I.
I know from these e-mails all you think we do is play but i promise we do plenty of Dendo.

This week was a really hard week for us honestly. We haven't been able to make appointments with any of our investigators and we pretty much did housing and streeting all week long. It's not that I don't like finding. I just am not very good at it. Thinking on your toes in Japanese is a whole other world from teaching. Teaching I'm good at. Teaching is awesome. Anyway it was a pretty slow boring week and by Sunday night we were pretty run down. (Sundays we have two 3 hour blocks of church, ward missionary council and prayermeeting not to mention all of the Recent Converts and Investigators we try to squeeze in the Last Second.) But it wasn't all bad. Wednesday we got a new Investigator. Her name is Wakanaちゃん and she's way cool. Apparently her mom is a return missionary and hasn't been to church since Wakanaちゃんs been alive. She came to Eikaiwa and then to the Big Country Dance/Dinner we had at the church for the English Ward. That was AWESOME! and we're going to see her again this week. Then Sunday night we we're thinking about what we would do today for p-day and we decided we go see the Gundam in Daiba and then check out some of the stores there. We we're thinking of who we could invite and we thought of an investigator we thought had dropped us, Reuben. We decided to call him one last time. Turns out he'd lost his phone and run out of minutes when he was on his ski trip this past week and hadn't gotten them back until that same day. He still wants to meet us and although he couldn't come to Daiba with us today we're excited! That means this week we have one or two more lessons that we didn't have before! YOSH!!
Here's a bunch of pictures from the Dance and and Today.

Now all of you who heard me talking about Gundam but didn't understand know. IT'S SO COOL!! When we went shopping we found a machine for Purikura. Are we not the coolest missionaries ever?
I hope you all have a great week and endeavor to more fully feel the spirit in your lives.
Lots of love from 洗足池,
-Elder Howard

Translation:  A purikura machine is a photo booth, hence the pictures with flowers and accessories.  Photo booths are obviously much cooler in Japan.

Giant 60 Mobile Suit Gundum:  Link to an article talking about the giant Gundum Elder Howard is standing next to in his photos.

Exciting New Transfer

                                                                                                                      11 Feb 2013
Hey Everyone,

Well today is the First day of a New Transfer and I have some awesome news!
My comp, Elder Tauchi, is a District Leader this transfer. I'm way stoked because i get to go on splits with every Elder in the District Tokyo zone is the biggest zone in the the mission and our District is one of the biggest as well. there are 8 or 9 other missionaries. So i get to go on splits like 6 times i think. It also means i have to study because i may be asked to give trainings at District meetings or during splits. It's awesome! We work really hard here in Senzokuike, which means that  we'll be even more busy! It's a little tough, but it means my japanese is gonna be that much better and his english is pretty awesome as well. We have some great investigators so hopefully this transfer can be a really successful one. Wade's comp Elder Kerr is a District Leader too! I think this is a good sign for Wade and I in the future to become District Leaders or Zone Leaders. It's something to shoot for. I

Unfortunately am running out of E-mail time so I have to cut this one short.

Thanks again for all your love and support. I took these pictures this week on the way to our apartment and one today for p-day. We played soccer with the young men at Tokyo Tech!

Love from Senzokuike
Elder Howard

First Week in Senzokuike

Hey Everyone!
It's a bad start to my weekly e-mailing but i just don't have time to answer everyone's e-mails in depth!
I'll answer what i can every week but plan on getting a big update e-mail from me every week!

I'm in Senzokuike which is an awesome awesome area. It's about 20 minutes from Shibuya, which is like the most
downtown place in Tokyo. When people think Tokyo, they think of Shibuya. Senzokuike is like a suburb i guess but it feels
more densely populated than even salt lake city. It's in tokyo zone though which is cool!!
Elder Roberts and Elder Hogue are my zone leaders! Elder Roberts was my zone leader when i was in Takasaki! He goes
home this Transfer and Elder Hogue is my doki. He was with me in the MTC and was my zoneleader there too! They're awesome missionaries
In senzokuike we have 2 wards. The Senzokuike ward and the Tokyo 2nd Ward the tokyo ward is an english ward which is awesome.
We taught 21 lessons last week. the mission record is 26 if that tells you anything.
I was companions with Elder Lee and Elder Tauchi. Elder Lee just left to go to the Honbu to be recorder but
Elder Tauchi is here with me. We're a good team! We teach some in English and some in Japanese!

Today was Temple P-day so we went to the temple and I saw all my friends. Elder Bingham, Elder Healy, Sister O'rourke, Elder Mosdell. Elder Vandegraff, The Lot!!
Here's a couple of pictures of the day. After the Temple we went and to an American Diner in Yokohama. It was a blast!
Well until next week!
Love frome senzokuike
-G