Elder Okazaki
HEY!
Well, this week has been good. I guess I’ll start out with Transfer
Meeting. It was really fun. President came up and he puts together this
powerpoint. First he puts up the new guys (we have 6 this transfer, 4
next, then 1, then 0..) then he puts us the guys who are training and he
does this all 1 by 1 so whenever someone’s picture pops up everyone
yells and it’s a really good time. So We found out that I’m not
staying with Elder Lundgren. Elder Lundgren got transferred to the Beira 2
area and will be the new Junior Zone Leader of the Beira Zone. Its
actually pretty a big deal to be zone leader because there are only 2
zones in the entire mission so only 4 guys in the mission are zone leaders.
The Beira Zone leaders run Beira too. They’re pretty much who we go
to when we need something. So it’s a big job. I can’t think of
anyone better to be zone leader than Elder Lundgren though. He’ll do a
really good job. As for me, I’m staying in Munhava which will be nice
and my new companion will be Elder Pierson. I don’t really know him
that well so I really don’t know what to expect. He’s in his 6th
transfer and I will be his first junior companion. This is the first time
he’ll have been a senior companion. So we’ll see about that. I’ve
also be his 6th companion. He’s never had a companion twice in a row.
Also this will be his 5th area. He’s been moved around quite a bit.
I don’t think he’ll be quite as good as Elder Lundgren but that is
to be expected. Elder Lundgren will leave Wed. night and Elder Pierson
will come over Wed. night so we really won’t miss much work. I’m
excited to see how things go. The language is going well. Yesterday after
church we had to go find a guys house who was at church but we
didn’t know where he lived so after church I walked with a branch missionary
(pretty much a priest from the branch) to his house. For some reason
the language just kinda clicked. And I could understand what he was
saying and I could respond and it was really cool. Before I could catch
simple specific question and knew the general idea of what they were
talking about but yesterday I could understand exactly. It was really really
cool. Then that night Elder Lundgren had a meeting at the chapel so we
were just kinda hanging out in the foyer and talking to this
Mozambiquan who was a former missionary and I understood perfectly and me and
this other guy talked for like 30-45 min. and I actually understood every
word. It was really neat. So hopefully that will continue and wasn’t
just a one day thing. We’ll see though. Sound like Dad had fun with
audit work. Our branch got audited last week too. So we were at the
church doing the same work you were doing. Funny thing. On another note,
between the two companionships in our district we had 49 investigators
at church. Pretty cool. 3 out of the 4 full families we’re teaching
were there too. It was a good Sunday. OH! I also got your package at
transfer meeting. So good. However, you guys got to understand, we have
plenty of normal food here. Like the noodles were nice and the tomato
paste and the soup and rawmen, but those are in abundance here. Especailly
noodles. On the other hand, we don’t have mac+cheese or cream savers
so those we’re way nice. Probably the best things to send would have
to be like those brownies. We really liked those.. or just American
candy, like those starbursts. And just kinda specialty items. We have
plenty of basic items. Like noodles, floor, bread, lots of soup mixes, just
tons of raw matierals. What we don’t have are things like cake mix.
We could make a cake out of all the raw matierals we have here but it
tastes a lot better from those boxes. So ya, brownies are good. And
stuff like that. Also, don’t feel forced to send a package every month.
One package lasts me a while. I still have a box of brownies and tons of
other stuff so thanks. But really we’re not short on food or
anything else over here by any means. But ya, the package was way good. I also
got a dear elder from you guys. It was the one you wrote before you
went to the desert with franny for her birthday. It had a little
paragraph from Bapa in it. I love hearing from him. I’m excited to get the
package from franny. Those chocolate chip cookies in here food savers
thing is my favorite. So ya, sounds good. I got a nice post card from jase
adams too. Tell him good luck in the race for king. My money is on to
win. From what I hear it sounds like our family is turning into a track
and field kinda family. Will is doing long jump and the 800 and Andrew
is still winning races. Pretty cool. So ya, next letter I’ll let you
know how things are going with the new companion! Hope all is well!
Love you guys and miss you!
Elder Okazaki
PS. Its getting hot…