Letter from Matlock – 16 November 2010 (arrived the 24th)

 Dear (Family in Japanese characters),
Well we still can’t find any Japanese people to teach….we did house a huge apartment complex full of Chinese college students who couldn’t speak Japanese though – that was painful…good thing Chinese use the same writing characters as Japan or that would have been downright impossible.
We’ve been teaching a 7 year old girl the lessons since she’s getting baptized soon.  I just found out that I’m studying the same Kanji she is!  Reading at a 7 year old proficiency is not bad right?  So this week I got a letter from mom and while I was opening it I said, “I love my mom!”  Then my companion said that was such an American thing to say.  So I asked him what you don’t love your mom?  He said he does it’s just hard to say it.  I mean near impossible.  I’m doing what I can to break it but I don’t know if there’s anything I can do.  Aren’t you glad I’m not Japanese?  Love you mom!  Keep sending me letters please.
Oh!  Almost forgot.  We’ve been meeting with an investigator a lot this week - he really enjoys meeting with us and just soaks everything in.  We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and the five steps to it – faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end.  At the end of the lesson he said, “Wait, so I need to get baptized don’t I?  It’s one of the steps right?  So given the apparent interest he was showing we invited him to be baptized.  That will be December 12^th.  All I can say is that I had better not be transferred before then!
So we went to the temple today so I don’t really have time to write this letter but that’s alright since not much happened this week.  About 7 or 8 out of 10 appointments cancelled or didn’t show up.  Actually I did get my butt whopped at ping pong by a Chinese college student.  It’s not just some stereotype; the Chinese will kick your trash at ping pong!
We also housed into a guy from Peru.  I tried to use all the Spanish I knew, failed, but luckily he spoke Japanese, said he would come to church so we acquired a Libro de Mormon in case he was serious about that.  I want to learn Spanish so bad!  It’s got to be way easier than Japanese.
Next week will be the year mark from when I got my mission call!  Where did the time go?  I still feel like I just got here…
Anyways - (Elder Wyman in Japanese characters)