October 25, 2002

Oct. 25, 2002
Dear Family,
The beautiful fall weather that we have been having here in Provo seems to be coming to an end. We don’t miss the wind that always occurs this time of year in So. Utah. We hope all of you and your families are doing well. There are a few die-hard deer hunters here in the Sr. MTC who are moaning because they are not in the mountains. I guess its tradition.
We are not on the internet and probably won’t be as long as we are in Provo. There are no phone lines in any of the rooms here. It works out OK to put the letters on a disk and give them to Marie to send. The only problem is we don’t get any news from you (except what Marie gets and then passes it on to us).
We started our language training last Friday Oct. 18. Our training is held up at the regular MTC and thank goodness we have our car here so we can get back and forth. We are the only ones in the Sr. MTC studying Japanese so we furnish our own transportation. They said we could move up to the MTC but decided we would rather stay here. At the regular MTC we have met several of the missionaries going to Japan. Today one of our teachers took us around the MTC language classes and introduced us to several who are going to the Hiroshima mission. Their training lasts for three months. They were excited to visit with us about the mission. They have a hard time to believe I was on a mission over there nearly 50 years ago. One of the missionaries is an Elder Huntsman from the Cedar area (we didn’t know him).
I can’t tell you how good that language training here is compared with the way I learned it. They have so many good teachers, materials and computer labs (designed especially for the Church), and such a systematic way of presenting it all. I’m sure that after 12 weeks, missionaries going to Japan will be as well or better trained in the language than we were after the first year of being in the mission field and trying to learn the language by ourselves. Shirley and I have three private teachers -a returned Japanese missionary in the morning; A Japanese girl from Brazil that speaks excellent Japanese and English, in the afternoon; and another Japanese girl from Japan who is working on English while she is attending BYU. No wonder the missionary work is going so well throughout the world. Shirley is doing very well with the language but feels like she is in over her head. I have forgotten so much and have a lot to learn also; however I’m glad I’m not starting from scratch with it.
Tonight at our devotional, Elder and Sis. Richards of the Quorum of Seventies talked. Sis. Richards talked about some experiences she had while her husband was serving as the Area Pres. in Hong Kong. She mentioned something about a Philippino girl that was converted to the Church. It made us think about the experiences Afton and Howard had while they were there. The Richard’s didn’t say when it was they were serving in Hong Kong. The Richards were also Mission Pres. in Manchester England where Grandpa and Grandma Christensen served.
We got a follow up letter from Pres. Banks of our mission and also a letter from Elder and Sis. Green, whose place we will be taking in the office. The Church has constructed a new mission office building in downtown Hiroshima. The Mission Pres. and family, Asst. to the Pres. (two elders), two mission office workers, and us, will be living there. It sounds like they have a nice little apartment there for us (similar to what the Dutsons had in Hong Kong). So we are excited about it.
This is the 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th mission that some of the couples here are serving on. After 18 months they come home and visit their families for 6 or 8 months and then go again. The leaders tell us that Mission Presidents all over the world keep begging for Sr. couples. And there just aren’t enough to go around. Several here are going to Russia, the Baltics, Mongolia, Africa, and other challenging places like that; and trying to learn the languages!.
Tues. night was the Missionary Devotional. The speaker was Elder William H. Bradford of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy. I was especially interested because I met him on my first mission. He was a Missionary in Japan and in the Mission Home while they were trying to find out what was wrong with his health. They ended up sending him home for surgery and he didn’t return to Japan. I was in the Mission Home with him for about a week. Much of his speech last night was about his experiences in Japan (I think he was there about two years). After the program we went up and talked to him for a minute. He was interested that I was going back to Japan and we reminisced about our experience there. I remember I was impressed with him at the time.
This has been a terribly cold day! And last night was a hard night for all the kids to dress up and go Halloweening. Most everything has frozen here and we hate to see winter set in. It even snowed last night a little. We miss hearing from you guys and will be glad when we can be hooked up to the Internet. Anyway, we are thinking about you. I guess that’s about it for this letter. We pray that you are well.
Until next time, Love from Gary & Shirley
Sayonara, Gary & Shirley