Hi family!
I'm just writing quickly to say that I got here safely. Japan sure is different.
So after arriving in the Tokyo Narita Airport I had to leave all of the other missionaries to go to my terminal. I flew up to Sapporo and slept most of the flight. I didn't even mean to fall asleep, but we were stuck waiting to take off, and I guess I was just way tired. But it was a good sleep. After arriving in the airport I met up with President and Sister Daniels and the other missionaries from Tokyo (two elders and a sister). We stopped by McDonalds to get some food before going to the mission home. It was surprisingly good. Well, we got to the mission home and went to bed. Futons are not bad, I slept really well.
Today was just a lot of training and information. It was interesting because I had to have a translator for the majority of the training. But I understood quite a bit, too. We ate breakfast with the Daniels in their home (right next to the mission home) and it was the best breakfast (besides temple breakfast) that I've had since becoming a missionary. For lunch we went out to eat at a cool place where they give you raw meat and you cook it over a grill in the middle of the table. It was way good. So far I am loving the food. Let's hope it stays that way.
So, here's the lowdown on my mission: my trainer is Elder Lottermoser from Fresno. His trainer when he first came to Hokkaido was Elder Raymond, so Elder Raymond is my grandpa, or something like that. We will be serving in Asahikawa, a smallish type (400,000) city in the middle of the island in the mountains. It's actually where I expected to go, so that's pretty cool. We have a baptism planned for next week and we have two more investigators that are very close to baptism. It's super exciting. So in a few hours I will be getting on a train and riding it for about an hour and twenty minutes up to Asahikawa.
I have gotten to say hi to Elders Raymond, Jones, and Sanborn (all from Spanish Fork) and Elder Fry (who also took Jap 101 at BYU).
I love you all and I am super excited to finally be here in Japan. Thank you for you love and support.
Elder Christensen
