weekly email

It was Elder Orton's birthday! The 13th. Elder Gary and I snuck out
again to prepare a special treat for Elder Orton: peach cobbler. It
took a long time to find peaches, and they were expensive. We all sat
around the table and ate straight from the pan with spoons.

Elder Arscott blew it. His front tire popped like it was sniped by the
police. Luckily, a long-past missionary had his bike stolen in the
area, and the police literally started calling this week saying they
found it. A nice Giant which tire matches Arscott's Louis Grandeau
pretty well. The question is whether to steal parts from the Giant and
salvage the Louis for a few transfers, or switch over to the Giant and
ditch the Louis.

Koji-san scare. Our baptism-date investigator came in Wednesday night
all fidgety and talkative. He's usually fidgety because he's slightly
handicapped, but not very talkative. Not like this. He just started
spouting for a good twenty minutes or so about some problem with his
parents, saying he couldn't meet anymore and would have to cancel all
the plans and such. What? No! So we called his mom the minute she got
off work (Kou-san is extremely punctual); she turned out to be
literally the nicest lady we have ever talked to in Japan. She said
things like, "I'm not even against him getting baptized at all," which
is unusual in Japan. The only problem she had was that Koji probably
shouldn't ride his bike at night--it's unsafe for him. So can we do
lessons on Saturday or Sunday afternoons from here on out? Whew.
Koji-san really blew that one up.

Holland Conference was cancelled!!! We had a special Nagoya Mission
Conference with Elder Holland coming and it was all cancelled a few
days before!

Last 10 minutes of the night, we're en route home and OYM one last
guy--a businessman. Businessmen are tough because they never want to
talk or listen, and always reject the hardest. This guy stopped for a
bit. Said he was busy, but would listen for about one minute. We get
talking and he shows some interest in Christianity. Actually said he
has wanted to learn about it but he's never had the time. This guy
literally owns several big companies and travels between four homes
across the island. You could tell by his posture, way of speaking, and
the fat Rolex on his wrist he is rich. Way cool! We exchanged numbers
and may get a follow-up. So ecstatic that we actually got a
businessman.

Elder Holland Conference is back on! It actually happened. We heard
the morning prior that everything was out back and would happened as
planned.

Guess what?

I've officially shaken an Apostle's hand, looked him in the eye, and
talked to him. It was seriously intense. I'm gonna have to get back to
you on the details of that whole conference.

愛しています！

カードん長老から
Elder Cardon