Hi everybody!
It's nice to hear from you all again! All I can say is that I am so glad that I don't have to go back to school yet!!! I still have one more year until i have to face that reality again! But it's coming horribly fast though, I'm now wrapping up my 10th transfer out of only 16, so it's coming quickly! I have no idea what's going to be happining for this next transfer, but I'm excited to find out. I've found out that I really like moving around in the mission, the change keeps me sane I think. As much as I love all the people and stuff, I like getting around. The work is still going kinda slowly here in kanagawa, we've been finding alot of new people lately, but pretty much none of them are japanese. I love how I'm here in japan as a missionary, and we always get excited when we find a foreigner because they are much more receptive to us. But we've been having some good fun, and meeting alot of really cool people, (and alot of really not cool people) along the way.
Last week was our last time teaching the Kids English class, which is a major weight off the shoulders, but it was alot of fun. And now all the little kids in the ward know and love us! it's the best! This ward has a huge primary, maybe like 30 kids, and there are some way cute kids... I don't know, but japanese kids are just so much cuter than normal american babies...... hhhmmm.

We've been focusing alot on streeting lately in the mission, because most of the mission is a bunch of newbs who can't do it, so lately I've been doing alot of training on it, and going on comp splits and focusing on finding. It's amazing how the lord times some things. For example yesterday. I was on my bike, and I stopped this guy, all i could really say was that my name was olsen, he saw my nametag, then ignored us and kept walking, which didn't feel too good. (Because it had happened alot yesterday) But in that short amount of time, from a sidestreet, a 20's looking kid came out infront of us, and we stopped him, and had a great conversation. Turns out he was in nebraska the same time cam was, and he speaks perfect english because he studied over there! he also wanted to know some good places to tour in oregon, but i couldn't remember where we went when we went there, (Mom if you could give me the names of the cool places we went, that'd be awesome!) but the best thing was, that if i hadn't tried to stop that angry old man, and gotten horribly rejected, we wouldn't have met this way cool kid named Kenji! we're gonna be meeting with him later this week. Way cool!

anyway, that's my spiritual uplifter for the day. have a great week family!

-Brady

August 23, 2010

Suddenly everybody's having anniversaries for some reason! Omedetougozaimasu! (That means congratulations) Sounds like home is just as fun as ever without me, but now that school starts, I'm back on the exciting side of things, now that you guys can't go on a vacation once a week!

This week, i will tell my email story through pictures, and the explanations thereof...

First off, this week we had the children's english class again, and since there wasn't a holiday this week, they came back in full force, all 20 of them. This is only about half in the picture, but it was all we could do to get them all to sit down and just color a piece of paper! The kid on my right is called ToKun, he is the craziest, we'll be talking to the class, and he'll just walk up right infront of everybody and collapse on the floor and start snoring.... mom I have no idea how you have done this for so long... But i only have one more week to teach it, then they'll be back in school!

2- one special ability you learn on your mission is the ability to fall asleep anywhere, I was sitting there trying to find people to call, leaning against the wall, and i legitametley fell asleep like that, so my comp took a picture.

3- Me and my companion elder guy, our bikes broke, so we had to resort to other methods of transportation. Actually, that's partly true, my chain broke in half saturday night, like 5 miles away from home at about 8:45 at night, so I had to kick it home kinda like a scooter. Then I had to do that for the next 2 days because i couldn't get it fixed yet! But it's all good now, (27 bucks later...)

4- The most random bench I've ever found in my life...

5- The 2nd most random bench i've ever found. Both of these benches were at a college we were walking around on companion splits, and it was just too good of a photo opportunity to pass up!

So yup! that's what I did this week, it was pretty fun! I'm thinkin i'm gonna be out of this area though in 3 weeks, I'd be ok with that, of course there's a few people I don't want to leave, but I'm ready for a little bit of change! like being a normal missionary! I don't want to deal with other peoples problems anymore! I just want to work in my area! anyway, love you all, thanks for the awesome emails! and have fun in school suckers!!! he he he...

August 16, 2010

wow, nothing gets me quite as trunky as salem days,,, well, and byu football, and since that's just around the corner, it's gonna be a hard to focus 3 months most likely... the picture of the Water Skeeter was pretty dang awesome, and sorry tad, but in that picture i got of you and mud volleyball, it looks like the game just ended, and you were way mad, don't worry, I've been playing volleyball every week out here for about 6 months, so I'm practicing hard, then next year we'll show those old aldrege men who can really get dirty... (pun intended i think)
wow I really miss salem days though.

This past week, lets see. They are all kinda the same as of late, but i did get alot of really awesome pictures and maybe even a video i'll send ya. so because it's summer break here right now, all the little kids have nothing to do. so the relief society came up with this brilliant idea, The missionaries will teach english to the kids! First off, i think it's a great idea, we already teach english ever thursday night, but here's the catch. we teach to adults. Now we have a class with children, age 0 (yes, that's a zero) to 12! and all the parents just kinda bring their kids, then they leave to some other room, and we have 15 tiny kids, who don't want to learn english, just attack the missionaries,,, it makes for an interesting hour. I want to call mom for some advice, but i can't really do that, so I called the couple i met back in october last year, they teach little kid eikaiwa too. so they're helping me out a bit, it's just too insane!

So, on saturday, we were coming home, when we found this matsuri, it's a japanese festival. This week is called Obon, it's where they do this freaky dance, call back their ancestors to life, then they eat, drink and be merry for the next day they all die again. so we went to this festival and watched all the freaky ness, way cool. I got some videos, but i don't know if you can watch them, they're in a weird format. but i'll at least send some pictures of it!

pictures-

1- Me and sister hooker reading the little helians a book
2-Me and elder guy at the Shimizu families house. the mom is less active, but the kids Hisamitsu and Miki are so cute!
3-part of the Obon dance, (i like this one, they look like oompa loompas!)
4-another part
5-The best view I've ever seen of Yokohama!


yup, that was my week! dancing, teaching eikaiwa, and pretty much just trying to find good pictures I guess! wait, then we also worked! we found a Kinjin!!! (golden investigator in japanese) she's from sri lanka, and wants to be baptised so that she can marry her boyfriend! yosh!!!

peace out!
btw, if you can keep getting me Nick's email! and dozo, give him mine!
-elder olsen