Elder Tolen's Adventures in the Japan, Tokyo South Mission: Cereal-Eating, Painting-Stealing Senpai!

This week was chock full of fun stuff. To begin the week, we had a cereal eating contest, to see if we could set a district record. As a district, we ate 52 bowls of cereal. That was 7 people. We were missing three people. But we had heard the record was 38. So. Yeah. That happened.

Then that night we had a devotional from the director of media for the LDS church. I can't say anything, but some crazy stuff is going to happen by Christmas. Keep your eyes out. Just a friendly tip.

The rest of the week was pretty boring, but I feel like I'm bonding with my roommates more and more. Like earlier this week, they have these paintings in all of the classrooms, but each classroom only had one, and some of them weren't even being used. So. One thing led to another, and by the end of the day we had four huge paintings in our classroom. Needless to say, we had to put them all back. Lame. It looked really cool. I feel like my companion and my roommates are going to be great friends I have throughout my life.

It is kind of overwhelming here, but it's that overwhelming part that pushes you to be better. I have been writing down three things every day that I feel grateful for, and I find myself being grateful for things that I didn't think people could be grateful for, like the clouds.

My favorite thing in the MTC is the Spirit that resides here. My least favorite thing is having to wait until Thursday to email everyone. But if you write me letters, I can write/send those at any time!

So this week we got こはい！(kohai= people newer than us going to japan, so now I'm a senpai.) That's pretty cool! My cousin [Ryan Morrill] came into the MTC yesterday, so I'm keeping my eye out for him, so a picture will be posted soon.

Well, I just want you guys to know that I love all of you, and think about each of you. Please if you get the chance, write me a letter. I love those. With letters I can read them, ponder them, and then write a response instead of writing a rushed email with the short amount of time I have a day. Or use "DearElder.com"--I love getting those, too. I miss you guys, but I can't wait to get out into the field! Ah! I'm almost 1/3 of the way done with my MTC experience, and it's been crazy. My companion and I have been teaching "investigators" since the first day. Here's the catch: The lesson has to be in Japanese. It was really hard at first, but it becomes easier everyday. I love it here. Please feel free to write/email me. I love you guys, and I'll be sure to keep you all updated!

トーレンちょうろう