The church is the same everywhere you go

2/16/09 Email Message

Mom,

I'm glad to hear things have loosened up over there! Maybe the "stuffy" label will have to come off now after all ;)

The party looks like it was a blast! Kendall looked so cute - and I especially loved Jims Nemo -that boy has no shame - I love it! Can you tell him I said hi?

Thats cool that you talked to Tommy's sister. I actually like his little sisters a lot, both of them were always so nice to us when we came over and invaded their house all those times. In fact I love his whole family. They are amazing people. I hope you said hi for me!

Im really glad Kendall posted those on Facebook for me. She is such a great little sister. I was really wanting my friends to see what Ive been up to and enjoy my experiences with me. Im also glad you all enjoyed them so much. I take my camera with me everywhere I go - mainly because I know it will make my Mom happy to see what Im doing ;) And Im really happy Ive made that a habit. There were so many moments I captured on that camera that I will be forever grateful for preserving. Im excited to tell you all the little stories behind all of them!

And I love how my friends were quick to jump all over me when they thought I was breaking the rules. Its good to know they are there to keep me in line. But just to clear the record I never get on any sites that arent church owned (no matter how tempting it may be).

Are you still thinking about coming out to get me next year? That would be cool if you did. One of the dying [going home] missionaries came to church with his parents a few weeks ago and I talked to them about what they had to go through to get it done. They said it was actually really simple. They just called Church Travel Department and they took care of almost all of it. And they didnt even have to commit until about 4 months before hand. So you have a lot of time to figure that out.

Things are going good here though. We had one of our Mongolian friends come to church for the first time on Sunday. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting, so it was a great oppurtunity to teach and bear my testimony for him. Also, the man that is in charge of translating the Japanese Book of Mormon came and spoke to us. I got to talk to him after sacrament meeting which was an awesome oppurtunity. He was probably the smartest man I have ever met. Its funny how many incredibly talented people there are in the church.

I have a little bit of a funny story. For a long time I was so shell shocked about being in Japan that I didnt really take the time to notice much around me. But now that things have calmed down a lot and my Japanese has improved enough to understand people, Im able to notice a lot more. Yesterday I realized that the church is the same everywhere you go - even in Japan. There is the one huge family that always gets to church earlier than everyone else so they can get "their spot" in sacrament. There are the deacons that dont quite know how to tie a tie, there are the little kids that can only be kept quite through bribes of Cheerios and there is the one old man who gets up and tells crazy stories in testimony meeting. All the stereotypes are found even in a branch of 35 people in the middle of Nowhere Japan. When that realization hit me I couldnt help but smile. Maybe thats just more proof that this church is true ;) But I love you and I miss you like crazy.

Im glad everything is going so well. I hope to hear from you soon!

You are the best mother I could have ever asked for. God sure knew what He was doing when he put me with you :)

SO Much Love,
Elder Brendan Kingsford