Chris, Robert, Andy, Steve, and Kim at Brick Oven...3 RM's from Sapporo Japan--Fun Times!

Elder Christensen and Elder Tuttle-- Elder C.'s first trainer experience

Jumping Place ...missionaries love it!

It has been another great week here in Sapporo. That is pretty cool that you got to have lunch with Steve, Andy, and Robert. Oh, it feels weird to call them by their first names, especially Elder Fry, because I didn't know him before our missions.

And it sounds like Education Week was fun. I hope that this week goes well, too.

That's pretty funny that you told Sister Payne that I am playing the piano in Japan, because I probably average about 3 minutes of piano playing per week. Usually I have to accompany one or two numbers here and there, but that is it. I have absolutely no practice time, so I have gotten pretty bad.

But since we're on that topic, yesterday President Daniels took me, Elder Tashiro (one of the APs), and two sister missionaries with him to church in a place called Shinoro (a suburb on the outskirts of Sapporo). We were in charge all the time in Sacrament Meeting, so the sisters sang 3 pieces (2 of which I accompanied), we all bore our testimonies, and it ended up being really good. Unfortunately I had to play the accompaniment on the organ because they didn't have a piano in the chapel. It was pretty rough, mostly because the keyboard was split on two levels and both keyboards were extremely short. Luckily, we got a piano for the fireside that immediately followed, and I accompanied another piece. It was a great day at church, even if I didn't know anyone and will probably never be back in that ward.

Something funny was that everyone thought I was an AP. They saw President with two elders, one of which they knew was an AP, so they all assumed that I was an AP. It was pretty weird.

Last p-day we got to have a zone activity where we climbed the nearby peak that overlooks Sapporo. We also got to see a Shinto temple, which was really cool.

This week, like the past few weeks we have met a ton of foreigners. This week we met people from Spain, France, Holland, Saudi Arabia, Korea, China, and Hong Kong. The guy from Saudi Arabia gave us some tips on how to learn Japanese (he is really good and has been living in Japan for the past four years): 1- get a Japanese girlfriend 2- watch television in Japanese 3- read Japanese comics. I am sure that it is good advice (I have actually heard all three of those tips before), but unfortunately as missionaries, we can't apply any of those tips. I guess it just goes to show that God really is helping us out with the language because we can't use any of the typical methods for getting accustomed to Japanese.

We continue to be led daily to great people. Just this last Thursday, there were two instances of us being guided. Both times we were riding our bikes and suddenly I turned, without knowing why. But within 5 minutes of turning, we were able to stop a really good person and teach them a lesson and set a return appointment.

On Tuesday we got a referral from some missionaries in a place called Kitami. They found a cool guy who was from Kitami, but is going to school in Sapporo. He happened to be visiting home for the week, and they found him and taught him. We got to meet him as well (once he got back to Sapporo) and we were able to set a baptismal date with him. At the end of our lesson with him, one of the members from the ward came in and said "Wow, you're meeting the missionaries?" It was someone that went to the same high school in Kitami a couple of years ago. How crazy that they happen to live within the same ward boundaries now. We are excited for our next lesson with that guy.

Well, I had a lot more awesome experiences, but I think that I am out of time. Elder Tuttle is an amazing bean and he is improving at an amazing rate. I love missionary work and experience miracles every day. Thank you all for your emails, love, prayers, and support. I love you all. Have a great week. Happy Birthday Bryce!