August 21, 2011

Dear Family,

It`s good to hear that things are going well at home and, by the way Alisa, Happy Birthday. Wait Nicole`s birthday is soon too, right? Well Happy Birthday Nicole!

Well this week has been a crazy week all together and I don`t know if I can explain it all in a email. I may need to wait until I get home to explain it. So basically this past week my companion got sick and it was also transfers last week. So he wasn`t able to work and so I did a little bit of calling on the phone to talk to investigators and stuff. But things got bad and so we had to come to the mission home in Sapporo and he went to the hospital. He has been recovering since then.

We actually came in on Thursday and I`m still here. So I have been doing different things like the first day I stayed with him while he rested. The next day I helped the mission home with a little bit of work, but also got to work with a many missionaries on splits this past week. Within that I got to go to a summer festival at a church here and yesterday I went to a church that had sacrament meeting first. That was the first time that I`ve done that since I`ve been in Japan. The meetings at all my previous churchs have all first been priesthood and sacrament meeting was last. So it was an interesting feeling.
I also got to go with a missionary and his convert to a concert where the man played Beethoven and the missionary had already talked to President Evans and the APs and got permission.

This week has really been a crazy week, but I also have some interesting news. They are going to be doing an emergency transfer with me, because my companion has been getting better, but in case his situation gets worse they want him to have a Japanese companion that can understand him and help him out. So I`ll be leaving Asahikawa and be transfering back to Obihiro, which was my very first area on my mission. My companion is a Japanese missionary that came with me from the MTC to the mission and we will continue to be zone leaders. So it will be interesting going back to my first area where I couldn`t speak the language and now being able to communicate quite a bit. I`m excited to go back and the funny thing is that I left Obihiro at the beginning of August last year and I will be going back on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. So I could be there for the rest of my mission or transfer to another place. But it will be exciting to see everyone again and just this last week when I went to the summer festival I met one of the Obihiro members that came to the festival. I felt bad because I couldn`t remember what her parents looked like, but I will be able to refresh my memory when I get back. So that is a lot of the crazy stuff that has happened. Today I`ll be going back to Asahikawa and packing and then tomorrow is when I`ll be going to Obihiro I think. Well I love you all very much and I know Heavenly Father has been bleesing you all. Thank you all for your support.

Love

Elder Daniel Gandy