February 25, 2012

This is our first letter from Joseph. On the outside of the envelope he wrote: "PLEASE send my a care package of snacks! Arigato Gozaimasu! [Thank you very much.]" Fortunately I had already sent him a small care package but it didn't have many snacks. I would love suggestions for snacks from any of Joseph's friends. At home his snacks were nearly always ramen noodles or popcorn. He isn't a big fan of really sweet things so I'd love some suggestions. Just one more quick note - President Porter (our stake president) told me not to correct his spelling when I type his letters since this is the one time in his life that he has an excuse for bad grammar or spelling since his focus is on Japanese rather than English. I'll really try to suppress my natural inclination to be an editor. Here is his letter:

Dear Family,

Things here have been great. You can feel the spirit just about everywhere you go. My companion is Elder Barruss. He is slightly taller and has red hair. Everyone in my room is actually going to Fukuoka but we are the only ones in the branch going there. I saw Anthony Petersen the other day in the book store. It was crazy seeing him after all these years. I also met a Parker Andrus who said he worked at This is the Place with us. We met our branch president the other day also. Pres. Krueger had everyone go around and share a brief testimony and it was amazing the spirit was so strong there. My zone leaders are awesome. You can already tell that they love everyone here and want to help them as much as they can. The Japanese language is coming along all right. We learned introductions, prayer, and sharing your testimony. Yesterday we taught an investigator in complete Japanese. I couldn't understand anything he said. I just hope he got the message we shared with him. We actually get to teach him again sometime soon. Oh yeah, my P-day is going to be on Friday so that's just a head's up.

Love,
Elder Gandy

February 22, 2012

We dropped Joseph off at the MTC this afternoon. He reminded me of a race horse at the starting gate, chomping on the bit and ready to be off and running. After we got off the freeway in Orem, every red light seemed to intensify his desire to get there and get started. Arriving at the MTC allows for just a quick goodby at the curb these days but it is great to watch the missionaries walk off with their luggage and an escort to get them started off immediately.