Dear Family,

It was great getting your e-mail. It sounds like everything is going great. That is so awesome that Joshua won those awards but its not very surprising やっぱり he is very talented. That is why I always brag for him and still do.

I think that is so fun that my friends still come over and hang out. Seems like they are all doing really well. I can't wait to find out where Ferrin and Shorty are going on their missions. We figured it takes about 10 or so days for a letter to get here. Usually when we check the mail we just get a bunch of pizza coupons that make the price half off which is still double the price of pizza in America so its not really worth it. Speaking of food this week me and my companion made some fried chicken it was so good.

So earlier this week I went on my first exchanges. It was a lot of fun. They only had three bikes and since I was the smallest I had to ride on the back of one of the bikes. We had several people that looked at us kind of funny. I first went with a missionary who actually reminds me a lot of Mikey. It was really fun. He has only been in Japan for one transfer more than me so we both don't know the language that well. It was great though because we actually taught a lesson and gave them a book of mormon with our very simple japanese.

There have been so many miracles I've seen. I love mission life it is so great. This week we actually have been having a lot of success with less actives. We are also meeting with an excommunicated member. We have found out that they all still believe in everything that church teaches. They just don't know if they can do it but we know they can and we are always there encouraging them. We actually had three less actives come to church and we met some more that people haven't seen in forever.

So yesterday we had a Baptism!!! It was an amazing experience seeing her take this step in her life. This was my first baptism! YAY!!! I felt so honored to be a part of that special ordinance. Afterwards she bore her testimony and it was just so amazing. She has a real desire to learn and grow. I loved seeing her grow and progress as we taught her. It is so great being a missionary I have honestly been so blessed and I'm so grateful for all of the prayers. We also taught the lesson in priesthood meeting the other day and we talked about prayer. The power of prayer is amazing it has been so helpful to me. I know that Heavenly Father listens to our prayers and answers them. He will always be there we just have to make sure we make that time for him and always make it a special experience. Now I'm actually getting ready to go to my first zone conference. I love you all so much and pray for you everyday. Thanks for all of your support.

Love Elder Gandy

p.s. here is a picture from the baptism.