Well the first week in Japan has flown by. The plane ride was intense—super long. I think it was probably the most bored I have ever been in my life. We got to Japan pretty late at night and we arrived at the mission home. The Fukuoka temple is very pretty and we took pictures around it. I forgot to bring my camera today, unfortunately, and it is back at the apartment. So next week I’ll send more pics.

So they assigned me my first area which is Miyakanojo, Kagoshima. It is not a big city like Fukuoka was. Fukuoka was huge, I had to travel by bus here. It took like four hours or so. Long time but all I did was watch the beautiful scenery around.

After that I met my trainer which was Elder Young. He is not related to the Youngs at all in our old ward. He is really nice and tries every day to push me out of my hard shell.

Miyakanojo is not that big of a city. Not really many big buildings. I would relate it to Provo and Orem combined. I was able to buy a bike on my first day so if you see a big transaction on my card that was my bike. Our apartment was kind-of dirty and such so I’ve unleashed my inner clean freak and have been cleaning in my spare time.

The people here are very nice, mostly older people. They were really nice to me. Going out and knocking on doors/talking to people is harder than I ever expected. I wish the MTC trained me more on that.

The language is coming, I am still better at listening than speaking. But I know I will get better.

We have two investigators, one called T___________ and we are not sure what he wants or if he understand. His Japanese is very fast and a little broken, due to a stuttering problem. We also taught a recent convert named T___________ who is really cool.

Anyway, life here in Japan is interesting. I have learned quite a bit about myself. Ive learned that the most important thing is to testify with conviction. That has been hard for me since I feel like I still struggle with principles. But I know that the Lord will make my weaknesses strong if I work at it. I will try my best! Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all and see you next week!

Elder Bryce