Well, had another one of those weeks, where we didnt get out of the office much...There was alot of transfer talk, President Evans decided my last area, and I am.... going right back where I started in the middle-of-nowhere-famously-cold Kitami! It was a bit of a surprise, but there is a companionship there that is really struggling, the younger missionary had 2 transfers with a trainer who did no training, just about ignored the kid, and then his next companion was a bit of a stubborn Japanese missionary who doesn't like him for one reason or another and they are not doing good at all, the younger missionary has really been struggling lately. President Evans says he trusts me to go and build him up and get some final success there, so I agreed to it and promised him my best. Well other than that we had alot of time in the office making powerpoints and preparing for various meetings coming up in the next few weeks. Thursday/Friday we were in an area called Shinoro to go on splits with the zone leaders there. It is a 4 man apartment and my bean Elder Spurling is there. We got to catch up and made the mistake of staying up late talking, which killed me the next few days. So this week my replacement comes in and I will train him in the ways of the Assistant, and Thursday I will meet up with my new companion and take the 6 hr bus ride out to Kitami. I was hoping to go down to some famous hot springs on my last P-Day but it seems that there is alot of crazy things going on and in short I will be quite busy running erands today. Welcome to my life. Have a great Week!

Well, we had THE WEEK this week, that 7 day period you have some point during the transfer when you can't wait until P-Day. So last Monday night we had a 1.5 hr drive up to Iwamizawa to stay the night with the Zone Leaders. The next morning we were up early and had a 2 hr drive up to Asahikawa for their zone training meeting with the 22 members of the zone. The zone leaders had a good workshop, we had a 5 min part in it, and it all went good. We all got lunch then the 4 of us returned to Iwamizawa and went on splits there that night. Wednesday morning we all were up and out the door early to return home, the ZLs had splits in another area along the way so we took them to Ebetsu and dropped them off (note: I did all of that driving). Got to the mission home at about 10am, started transfer talk with Pres. Evans. It seems my last area is decided, well, I helped decided, but the Prez keeps moving me around in the system, I think he is just playing with me until the last minute. That afternoon we prepped for a mission correlation meeting with a local stake presidency and that night we met with them. We got home, and spent the rest of the night in the office prepping the agenda for next transfer's zone conference. The next morning (Thursday) I drove us 1.5 hrs down to Eniwa to go on splits with the ZLs there for a few hours before us (2 APs) the 2 ZLs and the other 2 Eniwa Elders hopped in the van and made the 5 hr road trip down to the southern tip of Hakodate. There just happened to be a blizzard raging on our way down there - I'm talking snow blowing sideways and barely being able to see the taillights of the car in front of me and mostly judging by the guardrail next to me and semi trucks coming the other way that send clouds of loose snow into the air that cut off visibility completely for a good 3 seconds. Yeah, I was a little on edge the whole time - drove all of that too. Got to Hakodate that night, and stayed the night in the Elder's apartment, with 14 of us total. The Next day (Friday) we had their zone training meeting, did a great job, we had a 15 min workshop, got lunch at the awesome burger place down there. After several delays and dealing with people with little common sense, we departed from Hakodate that afternoon with the 2 APs and the 2 Eniwa Elders and 2 Sisters. There was also a raging snow storm on the way back again. We stopped off in Muroran (one of my old areas) to drop off some things, I made a detour to cross the big bridge spanning the bay, it was well worth it, very nice view. We dropped off the Eniwa missionaries and got into the mission home at about 10:20 pm Friday night. Saturday was pretty normal, office work and our Sports Night activity that night at the church, Sunday was good, an Investigator came to church for the 3rd time and we had a great lesson....So yeah.... this week should be a little more relaxed. But, it's the Mission Home: It's never quite as calm as it seems.... Have a great week! Elder Andrew Kade Jones

Well, it's now officially 2014! I mean, it was when I emailed last, since that WAS 1/1/14, which means it was just a few days ago, and not much has happened since then. On New Year's Day, Elder Matsuhashi, the other Japanese guy in our 4 man apartment, went with me on adventures (my companion, Elder Asai, is the type of guy who prefers sitting upstairs alone reading, and the other foreigner, Elder Palomaki from Finland, is fine just sitting upstairs and drawing, so it often ends up those 2 and 2). Well, we went Japanese style and went to the local Shinto Shrine, which is the biggest one on the island. Just about EVERY Japanese person goes to the shinto shrine on New Years to donate some money and pray for a god year and other things... What you need to know is that most Japanese people have no idea why they are there either, but it's Japan: you don't ask questions like that, you just go because your parents took you every year and so did their parents and so on... It's tradition. So we went there, and I bought a little souvenir wooden message thing with a horse on it since it is now the year of the horse. Close by to the shrine is the Sapporo Zoo, and last year it was free entry on New Years, so Elder Matsuhashi and I decided to go check it out. I should mention that it was dumping snow, like, hard. Well the zoo was free again! Most of the animals were indoors, except for the monkeys, who were playing around in their yellow/brown snow; the polar bears; the penguins, who were much livelier than when you go in the summer; and the wolves, which were way sick. When we first got over there, no wolves wee out, but a few zoo workers were in the pen. They were carrying around big hunks of meat and shovels, burying the meat around in the snow and under rocks and stuff. Then they let the 4 or 5 wolves out to run all over sniffing out meat and tearing it up. That was totally worth seeing! Other than that there hasn't been too much going on. We got feed a good amount by the church members here, which is typical during this time of year. All the meals were delicious and filling. Now that we've done all our partying and what not, we get into that part of the transfer that leaves you wishing the transfer over already. This week we will be going to opposite sides of the island for zone training meetings and the one day we are here will be us working from morning to night. Good times! Elder Andrew Kade Jones

Happy New Year! あけましておめでとうございます!　Happy 2014! Well what a week. Since I emailed last a lot has happened... and yet not a whole lot... last Tuesday we had the in-Sapporo missionary Christmas Eve Party, which actually went according to plan! Seriously it went smooth and everyone had a lot of fun! There were games, that all ended up being related to animal things...? We then had a white elephant gift exchange, I bought a box of popcorn, and ended up getting a pack of sumo wrestler playing cards and pumpkin flavored toothpaste, so I WIN! There was a nativity program, we watched the Church's First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and had a delicious American Christmas dinner! I even went to the trouble of assigning everyone seats so people wouldnt end up sitting in their usual groups, everyone ended up liking it. From there we headed to this big park in the middle of town to carol, while 4 of us went around and contacted all the people who stopped to listen. That night our apartment went ahead and had our little Christmas celebration, opened our gifts from the ward/each other/our families. I got an electric shaver, which is convenient, and my family went me a Nerf door basketball hoop thing, which I thought was kind of dumb, but it turns out we are all addicted to it now, doing trick shots and playing horse and stuff. So thanks Jones! The next day was Christmas, got to talk to my family and spend the day in the office. Thursday we headed off to Obihiro, my last area, to go on splits with the Zone Leaders there. Had a good time, came back Saturday morning and got caught in a pretty decent snow storm, but our van handled it just fine. Saturday night was the local Messiah concert with a lot of local church members and missionaries. Its not my style (I went last year too so I knew what it was) and I ended up getting a much needed nap. But there were a lot of people to talk to after the show, ended up being a good time. Sunday was pretty normal, as was Monday. Yesterday, Tuesday, was the day of reading the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately there were some missionaries who needed to be moved mid-transfer, and so we had that in the middle of the day. Last night only 2 of the 4 of us, Elder Matsuhashi and I, stayed up to see it to 2014! So today is New Years Day and I'm not sure what the plan is but we'll ring it in right! Elder Andrew Kade Jones