Week 6

Preface: he mostly just answered my questions from a previous email from Mom......

He sent pictures but I am having trouble getting them on here, so stay tuned, I will remain vigilant in finding a solution so you can see them!

Hi Mom :)

Sorry this email is a little shorter, but you will be getting a handwritten in a few days :) Glad you got the card :]  I'm still doing fine on snacks, but if you see anything interesting that you'd like to send, I'll make sure it gets eaten :)
 The tie would be good too :] I will try to get more pictures of me, its just harder to take pictures because of the schedule. Glad that you enjoyed the pictures. Good to hear that the Mandarins are still going, hopefully things get better for them. Thanks for asking people to write, its one of the highlights of the day to get letters :] The dependency of whether I can stay in the country or not is dependent on the country, the reason on my visa for being in the country, and if my mission president is willing to release me or not, because it is normally the home stake president that does the releasing. But anyways, feel free to check, and we'll have fun if we can go; and if not, then it will be such a sweet homecoming :D I don't think there were problems with my visa, but they don't give them to us until 10 days before we leave. Anyways, gotta go! Love, Elder Christopher Ichiro Honda

Week 5: Half way done at the MTC!!

Hi Family!

I'm halfway done at the MTC! The older districts left early yesterday morning, which now makes us the older districts. Not much here is different, same schedule every day, with a lot of studying every day. They will be missed greatly; especially the native Koreans. They are all super fun, and about half of them are going to Pusan also! One of them, (Elder Lee, pronounced EE) studies Japanese in his university, so we would speak in both Japanese and Korean. Our fireside on Sunday night was Sheri Dew from Deseret Books, and her words were very uplifting. I love the work here, even if it is the same schedule daily. It's so cool to read through the Book of Mormon again, and find so many pieces of wisdom and true principles that I've never heard of or noticed before. Our Branch Presidency (Bishopric) is super cool too. President Shin is a convert, and has lived in Korea, Utah, and somewhere in Europe. He's worked for Intel for many years as a consultant and designer. Brother Yost has served as a mission president in the Czech Rep., and always has a bright smiling face on for us. Brother Menlove gives great hugs, and reminds me of a big teddy bear. Their wives are great, and take good care of us whenever they are around. You will be receiving in the mail at least 2 pages either on Thurs or Fri, I promise :) I would love a hand-written letter, its much more fun to see that you have a letter, and it would be easier to answer questions if I have time to look at them before hand. Oh, and next week the new mission presidents come in (I will not be changing mission presidents during my service). That means...lots of Apostles next week! We have a special fireside on Sunday just for the missionaries, which is supposed to include at least 1-2 Apostles from the Quorum of the Twelve! I'll let you know next week who came and what they said! How is everything at home? Work and Band and gymnastics all going okay? How's Roamey? Alex and Jennelle still doing piano? The language is coming along great; I don't have to use notes anymore when I teach lessons, and I can have short, simple conversations in Korean with the natives before they left. On Sunday they will be swithching companionship roles, so I will be the senior companion starting then. I will be District Leader for about 2 more weeks, and today we will be doing about half of the family names for endowments. Anyways, time's up, look for my letter in a few days!

Love,

Elder Christopher Honda

Week 4

Hello everyone!

For lack of time, thanks for the e-mail, it's great to hear that everyone's doing well, and that's great that Akaya got married! Tell her "Kekkon shiki wa, omedeto!" And I did get the package last week, thanks much! It feels like I've been here for more than however long I've been here, but a lot has been going on, and life has just been flying. My Korean improves greatly, I speak English terribly and with a slight Asian accent, and I seem to get better at Spanish and Japanese faster than anything else here ;) It's so fun to talk to missionaries from all over the world and are going to the far ends of the world as well. I've met some going to Armenia, all over Africa, Russia, Norway, Finland, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Argentina, and countless other countries. I've also met some that are heading to San Jose, Sacramento, Orlando, New York, Anaheim, and many other places familiar to us. Everyone here is very easy to get along with, and since they put many missionaries going to Asia in the same classroom buildings, I've gotten to know many Elders and Sisters going to and coming from Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, China, and Korea. Right now we learn by studying grammatical principles in class for about 7 hours, spend maybe an hour teaching our teachers who pretend to be "investigators", and a few hours on our own studying the Gospel and the language. It is very much a lesson-to-lesson experience; no appointment yields the same results, or is as easy AND hard as the one before. I ran into Jared Johnson a few times since I've been here, he's doing well. I also ran into Elder Kirkeiner, who is one of the teachers for the high school I volunteered for winter percussion. Soon our district and zone leadership will be changing, so I'll keep you all updated on that. Just like church callings, we don't ask for them, they are offered to us.  Other than that, not much is different, just studying and studying and eating and studying and playing volleyball and more studying. I greatly appreciate the emails, the letters, and the Dear Elders :] Stay busy, it keeps your mind of those things that aren't necessary at the moment, and keep each other strong, and let each other know that you all love each other often! I'll send home a written letter that you should get Friday/Saturday.

Love,

Elder Christopher Ichiro Honda

Hey Everyone! Please write to Christopher!! He would absolutely love it!!!

 You can use snail mail ( which would be delivered to him every Tuesday) to:
 Elder Christopher I Honda

Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604
 or 

send him a letter that he will get the next day thru an email service at DearElder.com It is free and that means he will get more letters throughput the week :)
 Just go to the website and go to the MTC-Provom write a letter then in the next window put in his info, Busan South Korea, leaves about July 30th 2012, Box #220 and it will give you a box to write a letter in. I use this one the most ;)