Email to Family dated 1/24/08

HeyWell im still here in the kawagoe area. i did get a new companionthough. his name is elder vandekraats. hes from russia. just kidding. hesfrom new mexico. he`s a skater. today is kinda me real first day withhim. he seems to be a real cool guy. he does seem to like to do stuff alittle different though. oh well change is good. my companion elder holtwent zone leader off somewhere he was way cool. um i`m running out oftime already cause i had so many emails to read from fam and friends. weare going to find somewhere where we can email longer. my comp likesto have a good time so it should be fun this transfer but im stayingfocussed. um yeah monday i had my first experience of asking someone to bebaptized. haha it was fun but he said no. he`s almost there just needsthat testimony to make the jump into the font. he dropped out ofmiddle school so he cant read very well and cant make any sense of the bookof mormon. it might be harder for him to get that testimony. he`s closethough. and we only found him a couple of weeks ago. um yeah otherthan that not much has happened. i got your package and it was way good.tell tresa i haven`t gotten her package yet but should be close. becauseof transfers they hold the mail for a little bit to see where everyonelands to send the mail to them in the right spot. should be soon.things are great. just got to figure out my new companion. their likepuzzles. when you figure them out you can have fun with them. thanks foreverything. love you all. i will write more when we find that place thathas more email. thanks again. peace out Elder Hyde

Email to Family dated 1/17/08

hey mom things are going good here. we will get transfer calls this saturdayand then i`ll find out what will happen. things are starting to pick upin our area so i kinda wish i stay. oh well we`ll just have to wait andsee. the goodies sound good. they will come in handy. things here areso expensive. and i`ve been retarded with my money. i`m eating way toogood. that and sending the package to tresa and karin has left me broke.oh yeah that reminds me i dont think your really supposed to sendstuff to my address. sorry i forgot to put the mission office address onher package but yeah just send it to the mission office. sorry. anywayyeah like to travel in our area we have to take the train to get to itall. it usually costs like 5 or 6 bucks to get to places we need to andstuff. anyways thats why i took money out of my account. i`m trying tobe more frugal and make my food last longer. anyways yeah things aregood. thanks for everything. bye

Email dated 1/10/08

Heyi`ll just start answering all your questions haha. it doesnt snow herein the area im at anyway. well it hasnt yet anyway. its been prettycold here though but right when i get my coat its starting to warm up.sorry about that. give max a pet for me i feel bad for him. um its prettyhere if you like buildings. haha its pretty ugly. and you cant see toofar off cause of the pollution. its all grey and ugly but oh well maybei`ll get transferred to kofu which is south and by mount fuji and allthem mountains. but yeah i kinda want to stay where im at for a littlebit longer too. im starting to make some friends in the ward and stuff.but oh well i`ll go where the lord wants me to go. i find out nextweek what will happen. my comp has been have some mood problems lately.he`s getting all quiet on me and isnt really wanting to talk to people.its making me talk to people more. i dont know what to do to help himout but i`ll keep workin on it. the other day we had to drop aninvestigator. it was kinda sad but kinda a relief. he is part of that unifiedchurch or something like that. they are crazy. they say all religions aretrue and of god we just need to unify all of them or something. hepretty much wanted to convert us. he would tell us we need to fast for 40days and see jesus. he saw jesus and god in dreams and stuff. oh and hesaid that satan has more power than god and jesus. just goes to showhow satan works on people. satan just makes himself to be powerful andtries to put down jesus only to another man. the guy was crazy. istraight up told him how it is and he would say no way and tell me to thinklogically and tell me all his stuff. it was hard not to laugh at himsometimes cause it was kinda crazy. its just hard for some people toaccept the fact that christ himself atoned for us. he would say that christfailed and gods plan failed and stuff. i`ll tell you what it sure didntfail and in fact it was perfectly executed. oh well just another crazynot accepting christ. ive learned to brush off those that wont acceptthe message. the lord will teach them personally. its says in thescrips about those who dont listen to brush the dust of your shoes. i thoghtthat was funny. anyway i got to get back to work. see you love youall.

Email to mom dated 1/8/08

Hey momthanks for the coat it rocks. sorry i havent been able to email for awhile last week Japan celebrates the new year for like a week and noneof the bussinesses are open. they call it shogatsu. anyway yeah i knowthat new couple your talking about. he actually worked for coach kelleywith cahugh. he actually came into the mtc and volunteered and wetaught him in there. but yeah i know her from school and stuff. i dontthink she knows me though. she was kinda older. um yeah sorry i dont havemuch time i`ll try to get a letter to you guys here this next p day andstuff. we are emailing today too cause we didnt get to last week so weare emailing twice this week. yeah im almost done with my firsttransfer over here and might be getting a new comp. soon and even maybe movingto another area. i hope i dont i just got used to this area and thepeople in our ward. the language is coming pretty good i guess. thatswhat my comp says anyway. i can tell people about joseph smith and therestoration at least. i hope things go good for dad and his back. i had aninterview with prez yesterday and told him about how hard dad worksand he said good cause then i know how to work then and thats hard tofind out here. and sister hill had me tell her all about the fam. so theyknow everything now. well not everything you know but the basics.anyways i better go. i havent heard about whoevers car was totalled but itsounds pretty bad. i have some emails to read so maybe ill find outthere. thanks again.　love you. bye.

Email dated 12/19/07 to Family

hey everyone
I`m in JAPAN. its pretty cool. its huge. but im in a not quite so big of area. in the whole tokyo mission there are 40 million people that we have the oppurtunity to share the gospel with. its pretty crazy. my companion is cool. his name is elder holt. hes from california. today is pday so we went to the tokyo temple and are checking out the big city. it is nuts. i`ll get to call you in about a week and tell you everything. i hear you already have my phone number. i dont know the country code so you might have to call the opperator or something for that one but here is my number. 048-474-3660. so maybe get a phone card. so if you can, call at like 6 p.m. on christmas eve. it will be 10 a.m. christmas day for me haha but yeah thats when my companion says is best. that will be sweet thanks. Japan is awesome i dont think im going to get too skinny. we eat good out here. the food rocks. today im going shopping for christmas presents and stuff so im pretty busy. and i teach english class tonight which is fun. we sometimes get investigators through it. we mostly work super tight with the ward. and we do a thing called college dendo (dendo`ing is doing the missionary thing) but yeah daigakko dendoing is fun. we hang out with college kids and just get to be there friend and get in that way. we try to get into the school clubs and stuff. that has been my favorite. we talked to a breakdancer and kinda are in that club haha and we`re looking to get into the baseball stuff and hang out with them. the field is so much better than the mtc. im loving it. and my japanese is picking up. i actually had a conversation with a guy once. it was fun. anyways im excited to here from you and stuff. i best be gettin back to work. talk to you next week. sayonnara.
elder hyde

Weston's mailing address

Elder Weston Don Hyde
Japan Tokyo Mission
4-25-12 Nishi Ochiai
Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo-to 161-0031
JAPAN
Telephone:81-3-3952-6802

Email to Rugers dated 12/4/07

Yeah i'll give it to mom i dont have it on me right now and its hard to eplain and remember. then you can get it from mom hope that works out. hope your looking forward to your christmas present from tokyo cause im looking forward to it. i'll try to find something cool. yeah i leave in a week. im stoked. i have a 3 hour lay-over in LAX. i'll get to call mom and stuff. i dont really want to talk too long though. i'll get to call again in like 2 weeks after i get there. my phone skills are getting better. yesterday i talked to a guy at the refferral center for 2 hours. we talked about everything. i pretty much gave him the first lesson about the restoration. it was crazy. i guess em sending him a postcard from tokyo. he was kinda crazy catholic but it was fun. but yeah i'll call the parents for awhile then we're going to hit up the airport and try to baptize somebody. there should be some japanese people around and stuff to try to talk to and stuff. and real food. but yeah im excited but i hear i will pretty much be totally lost with the japanese. i wont understand anything. my branch presidency says it will feel like im totally alone cause i will have no idea whats going on. but oh well im excited. its supposed to be the hardest 3 weeks of the mission but oh well i feel up to it. im kinda getting over my shyness so i'll just talk and look retarded but im ok with it. i'm just excited to actually do some missionary work. thanks. i'll talk to you in a bit like christmas. maybe the boys would like real samurai swords or ninja stars or something. jk
elder hyde

Email to Rugers dated 11/20/07

Hey
sorry its been so long for me to write back. i didnt have time to email last p-day and thats the only time i can email. and i only have 30 min. so yeah ill try to spit some stuff out right quick.
first mom sent the pictures of the halloween party. looked fun. the email service wont let us open attachments so i couldnt see the ones you sent me.
the language is tough. haha. i can kinda get my point across but all the sentence structure is backwards and crazzy grammar stuff. then make it polite or exhaultive or passive or plain. yeah its crazy.
its good to hear from you guys. keep me updated on stuff. i'm lovin it. i cant wait to get out of the mtc and into the field in 3 weeks and get some real missionary work. in the mtc i have gotten fat. chet might like to know that i have gained 20 pounds. i liked it but im starting to loose it all again now.
anyways thanks for everything. love you guys and give the boys a hug for me.
ai shite imasu.
Elder Hyde

OK. I am going to try and catch us up a bit. These are the emails that I have gotten from mom from Weston. I don't know if I am missing any, but I think we should keep this up. It was a good idea that Jill had.

Christmas from Weston!

We got our Christmas present from Weston a couple of weeks ago. I guess he insisted on staying in the loop of Christmas present giving within the family and we were the lucky ones that he had this year! Sorry everyone else. Jodi and Felipe you are next year, but sorry for the rest of you. ;) In the box were a bunch of tapestries that have Japanese symbols on them and different meanings for business and family. They are pretty cool. Also included in the package was some Japanese candy. I wish I would have kept the boxes so I could remember the names dang it. But we all loved them. The kids especially like the "Poki" cookies I think they were called. We got a package of chopstix and Chet got a couple of ties. The boys also got a little action figure each that they got to put together. Very cool package from a missionary. Like Mardie, I can't get my scanner to work so I will just type out what his little letter included in the package said.

Tresa, Chet and The Boys,

Merry Christmas! This stuff is straight out of Japan. The tapestries even hung in the emporers shrines. Just kidding. It was kinda hard to find stuff but thought you might like the chopsticks. The toys are big over here. And I hope you like the candy. But all in all thats not the purpose of Christmas, is it. The purpose of Christmas is Christ. Without Christ there is no Christmas. It would just be called Mas and that sounds lame. The greatest gift of Christmas is that the Lord Gave us His life. Because of that gift we can experience eternal happiness. True hapyness that our Father in Heaven Experiences. There is no greater gift than that. So lets not forget it. The best Christmas was the first one. I love you all and am tankful for all you do. Give the boys a hug for me.

Elder Hyde

My englis is getting pretty bad.