Dear Family,

Wow it sounds like a lot has been going on at home. Its so exciting to hear about all the different things that have been happening. I also really appreciate the spiritual thoughts that you have.

Well we don't have a whole lot of time today because we are heading down to Nobeoka to meet with everyone in our district for a p-day. So I will try to get in as much as I can. This last week has been really great. So we got to meet with three of our progressing investigators. We had really good lessons with them and you could definately feel the spirit as we taught. Only one has a baptismal date which is this upcoming Sunday so hopefully everything goes well. I'll probably give you more information about that next week. Hopefully we can set a date for the others.

We have been having some amazing experiences the work is definately moving forward in Japan. We got a referral from this member that we met this week also. She seemed super interested in everything we talked about. She said she would come to church but the reason she can't is because the member who referred her had already made sure he took every Sunday off for the month. So that is kind of a funny situation.

Last week we got to go down to Usuki. It was my first time to go down there. While we were there they were having an Obon festival. It was really interesting. Obon is where they welcome back all the people's spirits who have died in the last year. The way they celebrate is by doing this dance basically all night long. Elder Everett and I actually got to learn the dance. It was pretty fun and it actually reminded me a little bit of an ancient Hawaiin dance.

This last week has been a lot of fun. Missionary work is great. The lesson we taught a lot this last week was Lesson 3 in Preach my Gospel The Gospel of Jesus Christ. So we did a lot of studying on that this last week. Two scriptures that I connected this week are 1 Nephi 3:7 and 1 Nephi 7:12. I like these scriptures because it shows that Heavenly Father has been preparing a way for all of us. We need to remember Him and all that he has done for us. I know that he has also been preparing His children in Japan. I'm sorry we're running short on time and I can't give as much detail. I love you all very much!

Love Elder Gandy

P.S. Happy Birthday to Alisa a couple days ago and Happy Birthday to Rachel in just a few days which also happens to be my six month mark on my mission. Its so weird thinking that it has already been half a year.