June Pictures

July 8th

Well, week 1 in the tiny town of Abashiri, with my "should have been born a Mexican" Okinawan companion Elder Kina, as District/Zone leaders, has been completed, and Holy Cats was it interesting. Just about every night we are busy with phone calls, getting/giving reports on everyone and their numbers for the week and investigators with baptismal dates and what not, as well as trying to help all of our own investigators and area needs. Got to go over to the next area over, Kitami, my first area, to do my 1st workshop at weekly District Training Meeting, got home, packed and left for a 3 hour train to another area to go on splits with another DL. Well the main reason we went over there was for a baptismal interview for a 12 yr old girl, which I got to do! Also a 1st. She was really fun, had no problems and passed just fine, they did a good job of teaching her. This week we go on splits with the Kitami missionaries, next week we go on splits with the other DL and have a Zone Conference workshop, etc. We are pretty busy. Thats been about it, its been pretty warm and muggy lately, too much sweat. The windows in the apartment are always open and the fan is always spinning. Good times!
A Man. A Member. A Missionary.
Elder Andrew Kade Jones

Ok everyone, the big news. We had our transfers this past week and guess what? I transfered! So after 6 lovely months in Muroran, I got the boot, to the opposite side of the island, to a tiny coast town called Abashiri. Its got a bunch of ports and bays and fisherman and apparently Russians. Its been pretty cool lately,and theres always a breeze, which makes all the hills not so bad. Its a branch, with about 20ish members at sacrament meeting; one 10 yr old girl in Primary, one 17 yr old guy in YM/YW, and one 27 yr old SA, and theyre all siblings. The rest are 35+, most of them over 60. The "building" could fit in my kitchen/living room space. Its pretty cozy. Our apartment is a decent sized, fairly clean. The only problem is the doors are at about 5`10" so I have to duck, Im allready getting a crick in my neck from keeping my head down all the time.
My comp is Elder Kina, Japanese from Okinawa, the southern scattered islands. Hes 24 and went to BYU-Hawaii for a bit, his english isnt bad; enjoys reggae, is a beach bum, and likes to pretend he is a Mexican. It gets pretty interesting, he`s a way fun guy.
I also happened to gain the responsibility of being a District/Zone Leader! So every week we have District Training Meetings and do work shops, as well as overseeing 2 other DLs and their missionaries, so we keep track of about 20+ missionaries total. We have meetings in Sapporo (6hrs away by Bus) every month and also have workshops at Zone Tarining Meeting and Zone Conference, as well as splits with our district, the other DLs, and the APs, and pretty much have phone calls to make every night. Should be keeping me busy for a while! Its a pretty big step up but Im pretty stoked for it. We allready have plans to go to another area to do a baptismal interview, and it looks like I get to do it! So this will be quite a week and transfer of firsts. I will be letting you all know how it goes.

Elder Andrew Kade Jones