Smooth Sailing: Week 56 in Japan

Good Ole Jitensha Taxi

This week flew by. We've been working hard, found some people, and just been teaching. I've been learning a lot from Elder Call. He's a really down to earth guy who has already taught me so much Japanese. It's been an absolute blessing to have the companions I've had and I attribute a lot of the fun times I've had on my mission to being able to work with them.

I have the best district leader!

We've been blessed to be able to teach a lot of lessons this past week. Been getting Elder Call really broken in on a bicycle. This area has some decent sized hills so hopefully we can stay in decent shape despite the holiday season.

We've been working with members a ton for the past little while and they're honestly the best. They're not only great people but they provide a lot of support and help with a lot of the missionary efforts. If it wasn't for them we would really be struggling with the work. It's a big strength to my testimony to see such strong members be excited to share this positivity with others.

Speaking of members, the 2nd counselor in the bishopric here is a triathlon runner and runs up Mt. Takao early in the morning on Saturdays. After hearing about this from another member we ended up making plans to run with him on Saturday at about 5:00 in the morning. I'm so incredibly excited, more updates on that next week.

Also we went to Costco today and got a ride from a member. Last week we spent a decent amount of money on a bunch of fruits and veggies. Being that we're all incredibly intellectual teenagers we decided to balance out our fridge with a couple birthday cakes, a cheesecake, and a rotisserie chicken. Also Costco muffins. You always need Costco muffins. We don't really eat out so we're actually very ahead on our budget! Yay for learning how to work with finances and building savings! (Shout out to the Loftus couple)

The member that took us to Costco (you're the man Misu Kyodai) also showed us this park in the mountains right by our apartment, and get this, there's a zip line! Needless to say we will going there throughout the week for our morning exercise. They've got a big rope climb, pull up bars, plenty of trails to run on. You know. The works. There's just been a lot of fun discoveries this week and a lot of laughs. Usually missions have a lot of Up and downs to them but this week has just been a lot of good times. A lot of laughs, a lot of faith building moments, a lot of learning, a lot of humbling, a lot of joy, and just a lot of being a missionary. Just know that I'm having the absolute time of my life!

愛を込めて、
Elder Cuff

We played at the park today.