Just a quick update

Jeff has a new companion, Elder R from Richfield.  It sounds like he's doing fine and still loving Japan.  Elder W was made a zone leader and Jeff is excited for him, but sad to see him go.  Jeff is hoping to meet up with Elder W again at USU when he comes home.

New companion time! (transfer 3/16)

Super short update for today, Jeff is getting a new companion.  Because of the change P-day is again delayed one day.  Jeff will stay where he has been and will be joined by Elder R.  I'm sure we'll have more info tomorrow afternoon when we get a full update instead of a short one liner explaining the delay.
Happy Sunday! 8)

New companion next week?

Well, it seems that Elder Mosdell is doing fine. They had 5 investigators at church on Sunday and have 3 baptisms tentatively arranged for next Sunday morning. Jeff is still missing chocolate, cheese cake, and crunchy peanut butter so we sent him a box with all of those things and more. From this week's email it looks like they are expecting Elder W to be transferred next week because he has been in Yachio since November. I'm glad we sent a silly gift for him in the package, he has been a good trainer and companion for Jeff over the past 2 1/2 months. Here are a few of this week's photos:


Elder W helping a former investigator move

Monday was temple day again,
here is the Tokyo Temple.



so we can finally have pictures 8)

It looks like they are finished working on the spire





This is photo of how to make an origami shrimp which
 "looks fun" according to Elder Mosdell.

Japanese food stuffs, I recognize mochi ice cream and Fanta Melon soda. 
No clue what the other two things are.



Conference and Easter

Elder Mosdell got to listen to General Conference last weekend in English! They went to the Chiba Stake Center to watch it along with all the missionaries in their zone. Elder Mosdell learned so much he said it would take all week to write it down. We're glad to hear it was a meaningful conference for him. On Sunday they had an investigator come to watch General Conference. She had a wonderful experience even though she's shy and having the whole stake together made her a little nervous. They taught several investigators during the week and have two more who want to be baptized.

Spring has arrived. Jeff took these in between conference sessions.

They had a really nasty taifu (typhoon) on Tuesday and it shut down some of the trains due to the high winds. Elder Mosdell and Elder W were on splits with other Elders because Elder W was doing surprise cleaning inspections on missionaries apartments. The taifu stranded them away from their apartment so they ended up spending the night in different apartments. So on Wednesday Elder Mosdell got to go to a district meeting with the Elders he was staying with. Then when Elder W made it back they went to their district meeting.

Jeff will be celebrating Easter on Saturday. He doesn't know why it's not the same day we celebrate and thinks that's a little weird. He misses being with family for Easter and the traditions we have. He asked if we rolled any Easter eggs (one of our fun family traditions). We did that yesterday and took videos that we will be sending him later. Jeff is looking forward to his next package and can hardly wait.

Jeff cooked some fried fish for the first time and the batter didn't stick as well as he hoped. But he's going to try again. They bought a bunch more rice balls at the 7-11 because they were on sale again. They ate them for lunch Saturday and Sunday in between conference sessions. He also tried cooking rice balls since they eat a lot of them. Jeff's rice ball was good, but a little ugly looking he says 8) They weren't quite as good as the ones they bought and he's not sure what to put in the middle of them yet. It nice to see him learning to cook more.

First fried rice ball

Preparing for the coming week

Good news and fun

So last week's email was short because on Monday Jeff and his companion had a long lesson with an investigator because things aren't going well and then he had to fix his bike from hitting a pothole on Sunday. On Tuesday they had an investigator tell them she'd come to church. Wednesday is the day they teach English class at the church. They had a new student who is fairly fluent in English, but he dues use "mate" a lot so Jeff thinks he learned English in Australia. 8) Then they had an investigator commit to baptism, he just hasn't set a date yet. He had attended a baptism the Sunday previous so that was a good experience for him. On Thursday they attended a four zone conference in Matsudo. Then on Friday they had another lesson with a female investigator and she set a baptismal date for the 21st of April! They are super excited about that. 8) Saturday they spent the day cleaning their apartment because they had "super strong winds (worse than Spanish Fork on a normal windy morning at the mouth of the canyon) and rain." They were told to stay inside. Here's what Jeff had to say about Sunday, "SHE CAME TO CHURCH! Which was amazing :D" They may let the Sister missionaries from Inage take over teaching because they have been having a hard time getting members who can go with them. But they will still be stopping by for visits and will definitely be at her baptism!

Glad to see he's happy!

Jeff ended up sleeping through the strongest earthquake to hit the area since he got there. It woke Elder W up and he stayed up for a while responding to messages asking if they were ok. We know that the mission office will do checkups as well as the district and zone leaders. There are also members who check on the missionaries frequently too. It's comforting to know there are plenty of people watching over our missionaries!

Jeff and his companion played "guess and check" on some riceballs that were on sale at the 7-11. They didn't understand most of the kanji on the labels so it was an adventure. Jeff got one filled with salmon eggs and one with cooked fish (probably tuna he thinks). He thought they were both great. Elder W was grateful he didn't get salmon eggs, he thinks they're way gross. At the zone conference on Thursday they had Bento boxes. Jeff got one with yakiniku (fried meat) and then won a second one (they had extras) with a round of rock, paper, scissors 8) silly Elders! He wasn't sure what was in the second one, but he says it was "way good!" Sounds like a hungry missionary to me.
Spring is coming slowly to Japan and Jeff wishes it would "kick into gear." They will be watching conference next week. Jeff is thankful it will be in English for the missionaries. He is very excited to watch it.

Some cute kids that came to English class

A game they played in English class