Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms--to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” -Viktor Frankl

Good morning!

I'm actually typing this up on train to Nakatsugawa for district activity! We are going to this little mountain village that's supposed to be like a mini Kyoto. Thanks for sending all of the emails and letters! I'm sending one your way today. How's everyone doing? Is Savanah's adaptation going well? Does she have a boyfriend yet? My companion goes home in a week so that's pretty funny.  We had burritos

at a members house the other night and she made homemade tortillas! It was like ichinenburi. 

Bad news... my bike pretty much exploded. I took it into the shop because I had a broken spoke and when I would crank up hills my tire would touch the arm supports. Well, it turns out, I had actually broken my back axle! Bummer..... they gave me a loaner bike while they fix it for me. 

Well, we are on our way back from our adventure and waiting for the train. It was pretty cool. Different from what I was expecting, but it was pretty cool. I'll attach pictures. The two guys who said they'd come to church this past week didn't show up and we still haven't taught any lessons, so that's tough, but there's this one Japanese guy named Mack, who we set up an appointment with us, but he called to cancel. The cool thing was that he called and didn't just bail out on us, we will probably be able to meet him some other time. Other than that, lots of talking to people and trying to visit less actives. Oh, I did get to do my exchange with the zone leaders and before that at Zone Conference I got to see sister Sato! It was fun to be able to understand some of what she is saying now, and she was impressed at how much I have improved. She's also seemed happy that her son has been going to church with her. My zone

leader Kokan was pretty cool. We went to ramen with this awesome member named Hisaka, who actually got some American sarcasm. I ripped a paper pretty badly to write a note for some one he was like, "what is this?" So I said I'm an artist and it's supposed to be Mount Fuji. He then proceeded to write about how well I ripped the paper on the note and had me sign it. It was pretty funny. Hahaha, I just realized I turn 19 in a month. I'm an old man. Oh ya, so we were riding down the street on another exchange but with Elder Souza and I see a guy walking with his kid on a tricycle but then I think hmmmm... that looks like a baboon, I must be going blind, but guess what..... it was a baboon! The guy had worked at the zoo for six years and then had adopted the monkey. In human age it was 85 or something (25 in legit real years). We also went to the Yamaguchis for dinner and my bike broke right before then, so I ended up needing to run/walk for 2 miles to get there on time. Also a random japan picture. I love you guys! Say hi to everyone for me!

Love,

Eli

Hi mom!

Thanks for the letter! We went on an adventure today! Lately I've been reading the conference talks from before you were born and they are pretty sweet. Lots of poems and stories.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms--to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

-Viktor Frankl

Cool quote.

I love you.

Love,

Eli