September 10, 2007

It's another week. I'm not sure what to say. Things seem to be mostly 

the same around here. I'm trying to get Elder Kaneko to get up in the 

mornings. He did pretty well for a couple of days. He's really 

connected with Elder Whitney, who was up to eating the rice, egg, hot 

dog, and ketchup dish that Elder Kaneko makes. Elder Kaneko ate the 

German pancakes that Elder Whitney made. Elder Kaneko may not be so 

obedient, but he's got a lot of energy and enuthisiasm, which is what 

I need more of. I was about finished just before the transfer 

started, but luckily Elder Kaneko has been pushing and pulling me, 

and I'm re-motivated. I just need to find some way to stop him from 

doing all the teaching, and start doing some of that myself. We'll 

start tomorrow, when we finally have some language study time that 

won't be interrupted by meetings and such.

This weekend was stake conference. We had it at the new Harbor High 

School (the stake center is still under construction, scheduled to 

open in February, but I hear it's ahead of schedule). It's a big, 

fancy-pants high school, with huge entrances that have these giant 

semi-Greco-Roman pillars in front. It looks like a mix between a 

small college and a government building. We had a couple of 

investigators come to church. And later in the afternoon we taught 

the Sekesas the 2nd lesson from the Temple Prep manual. One week 

down, five to go.

Oh, by the way, apparently Ashley's back. She and her husband are 

planning on moving back to Marshall, AR, a small town, where there's 

"less tempation." But Harley needs to get a job first, and to do that 

he needs to pass a drug test. So that gives us some time. She's only 

two weeks away from being baptized: no smoking for two weeks, and two 

more times at church. Uh, some people are just so close, yet so far 

away from being baptized.

It seems the biggest problems with the Marshallese are getting them 

to church, smoking, and the fact that they don't get married. They 

just live together. And they usually have financial trouble (or can't 

seem to manage their finances very well), so they can't seem to 

affort the $60 for a marriage license. We have eight investigators 

that need to get married before they can get baptized, ugh! Elder 

Kaneko's getting a bit frustrated with it.

Serving with Elder Kaneko is quite a bit different than with Elder 

Albert. I felt like I had to keep pulling Elder Albert along. He'll 

be a good missionary. While Elder Albert was pretty reserved and 

quiet, Elder Kaneko is really outgoing, so he really helps me out in 

that area. Sometimes he's a bit too social, and we end up being late 

to appointments, or spend too much time on the phone.

Wow, Dusty's getting married, Brittany's getting married, Becky and 

Darrin have new houses, David's getting a job, Betsy's 

pregnant...things are going to be way different when I get home. Am I 

going to be the only one that is not married when I get home? Who am 

I going to hang out with--Jimmy and Andrew will be on missions by the 

time I get back, and I bet Cindy and Dallas will be married by then 

too. Maybe I should just try to head out to Hawaii, I dunno.

Anyway, that's all for this week. Find those people for the 

missionaries to teach!