Adventures with Elder B

It turns out that my pronouncement that "All is well in Zion" was a little hasty. Things have again become difficult, though I am coping better and reacting more wisely. I'm sometimes baffled at just how immature and childish some missionaries can be. I can't say that I am always a model of dignity and repose myself, but I do feel a little out of place when around those individuals who think that nothing is more important than when the next meal is.

The highlight of my week was definitely my companion exchange with an elder in my district. He's a smart guy whose mission so far has been very similar to mine. But we had a great time just talking about missions and difficulties, as well as Ueda, where we both have served before. He also has seen a lot of anime, so we talked about that a lot and he gave me a list of ones that he suggested, so I have a lot of resources for keeping up my Japanese when I get back to America.

This is our English class. We gave them a whole bunch of words on pieces of paper and had them put the sentence that we took them from back together. It was maybe a bit more difficult than we anticipated. . .

We also had a sports activity this week! We played "soft volleyball," which is what the volleyball association invented to make volleyball more possible for older people and and kids and everyone else too. The ball is bigger and a lot softer. It's a lot easier to play than normal volleyball. Though the court is smaller, so the two people that were there who had a lot of volleyball experience kept hitting it out of bounds.

Here's a picture with everyone in strange poses.

Here's a picture of my team after we had just won! (I'm in the red shirt)

This is everyone who played. Two of the people, the one on the far left and on the far right are both English class students. The two Japanese people without name tags are members. And the rest of them are the Nakatsugawa missionaries.

I'm enjoying my responsibilities as district leader a lot more than I did last transfer. There's a lot less pressure from the Zone Leaders than there was before, due to the new Zone Leader. And I'm just a little more used to preparing training and making sure everything gets done that needs too. It's also just a relief just to be able to talk to people other than my companion at the end of the day. We do reporting three times a week. So my evenings after we've planned for the day can be pretty busy, but I like talking to everyone. I think I might be more social than I thought I was. I really do enjoy talking to people, it's just that some people are difficult to work with. Especially when the leaders are trying so hard to keep everyone here. It's not like a job where people who cause problems can be fired. 

Anyway, the time is swiftly slipping away. And I am determined not to let even difficult companion relations, which is my least favorite thing about missions, ruin my mission experience for my last nine weeks. It would be such a waste. So I figure the only solution is to just do what I can, realize that this is the Lord's work, and so it can't be stopped, and to look for the good things that happen every day.

I send my regards and my love,

Elder Mueller