Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

Dear Family,

 Well I am happy to say that I have survived my first week as a senkyoshi (missionary)!  The MTC is the craziest place on earth and it has been the most spiritual and productive week of my life.  It was great to see the Cutright side of the family before I left.  Uncle Craig told me a lot about the culture and the mission field and I will be serving in places that he helped open up.  It was awesome to be able to go to the temple with grandma and grandpa before I left.  I don't have a lot of time to write emails, only 30 minutes on Tuesdays, but I'll tell you all that I possibly can about my mission.  I have a lot of time to respond by hand writing so if you do email me or send me a letter, I will be able to hand write back quickly. 

 My first companion's name is Elder Rollins.  He is from Meridian Idaho, which is right outside of Boise.  He took Japanese in high school so he is really good at being social and can carry conversations well in Japanese.  He is a great mentor to me, although I am the senior companion.  There are 8 guys in my district.  Elders, Roney (District Leader), Siepel, Blake, Howell, Baker, and Metsatahti. And then me and my comp.  Roney, Siepel and Howell are from Utah, Blake is from Arizona, Baker is from Oregon, and Metsatahti is from Finnland!  How crazy is that, the dude learned English from playing World of Warcraft and he is quite good at Japanese.  Me, Rollins, Blake and Howell all live together and all of us are going to Tokyo.  The other guys are going to Nagoya.  So I got to the MTC at 12:50, like we were supposed to, by 1:30 I was sitting in a class room with everyone in my district being taught by a teacher who only speaks Japanese and will not speak English ha.  His name is Clark Sensei, he is a tall ginger from Las Vegas and he served in Tokyo.  On Friday, we taught our first investigator, in Japanese.  This character named Yao Naoaki Son was formulated and we teach him as though he is a real investigator.  Once a day, we have been preparing lessons for him and we go down a few floors from our class room and we teach him about the Gospel.  So far, we have taught him about God, Jesus Christ, the Atonement, that God loves us and has a plan for us, he is reading the BOM, we taught him how to pray yesterday and we are preparing a lesson on the POS for tomorrow.  He doesn't speak any English,, all of this is in Japanese.  I learned how to pray in Japanese on Thursday and we have been challenged to say every prayer in Japanese. 

 Everyone in my branch is really awesome.  In our branch, there are 2 Finnish people, 4 New Zealanders, 3 Australians, and 2 Brazilians.  Most of them are going to Tokyo as well.  The Guy Elder Hall who I knew before I came here lives right next to me.  Two Shimai (sisters) in our branch are from Washington, Issaquah and Chelan, and I will be serving with both of them in Tokyo.  Our Zone Leader is from New Zealand, he has a funny accent and can be kinda hard to understand, but he is a great man and an awesome senkyoshi.  I have learned more Nehong-go (Japanese) in the past 5 days than most high school students do in a year of high school and this is because as I life my life according to the rules of the mission, I am blessed with the Gifts of the Spirit, one of which is the gift of tongues.  I really do love it here.  Every minute of every day is planned, and although that can be hard at times, it is teaching me the principle of obedience.  Tell everyone back home that I love them and miss them and I have so much more to tell everyone, but I do not have enough time on the computer.  Write me if you want to know more!

I challenge everyone to step up your family spirituality and unity and to begin to have daily family scripture study and prayer.  I challenge you to read the Book of Mormon twice while I am gone, once each year.  The Lord will bless you with a greater love for one another and you will see and feel His love more in your individual lives.  I will follow up on this so you better start doing it :) I love you all so much and I look forward to hearing what is going on back home.  Happy birthday Connor!!!!