October 2010 New Missionaries

This week, we welcomed 5 very nice elders into the mission! Left to right: Elder Pedersen (Utah), Elder McClellan (California), Elder Augusto (Brazil), Sister and President Baird, Elder Flint (Australia), and Elder Bardzinski (Australia)! It was great seeing their faces and meeting them for the first time! We know they will be great!

A picture of the missionaries with their trainers in the Meito church.

Elder Augusto (right) and Elder Jorgenson- Suzuka

Elder Julio Augusto is from Curitiba, Brazil.  He is the 8th Elder Augusto in his extended family.  He enjoys singing and has a great voice.  He also likes soccer and technology.  He wants to build robots and will study mechancial engineering.  He is a happy person, a quick learning and a hard worker.

Elder Jacob Jorgensen calls Mesa, Arizona his home.  He comes from a close and loving family and has four great sisters.  Elder Jorgensen loves drawing, piano, cross country and track, and academics and he is a hard worker.  He has looked forward to serving a mission all of his life and would have chosen Japan because he has many Japanese friends.

Elder Flint (left) and Elder Valentine- Fukuroi

Elder Jake Flint is one of several great Australian missionaries, coming to us from Brisbane.  Elder Flint loves to read, play basketball, study physics and play classical music on the piano.

Elder Christopher Valentine looks forward to marriage and a great family after his mission.  He loves music and playing the saxaphone.  He likes bringing people happiness, so he knows a mission is the perfect way to do that. 

Elder McClellan (left) and Elder Warner- Ueda 

Elder Thomas McClellan has three younger brothers in his family.  He is from Los Gatos, California.  Before his mission, his favorite things to do were soccer, badminton, drawing and making memories with his brothers and friends.  He has a goal to live to 100, just to say that he did it.  While he’s living that long, he plans to build a McClellan Family castle. He also plans to send a “hello” three years and five years into the future, then see how far off he was.  He describes himself as calm and calculated, yet somehow still spontaneously fun.

Alpine, Utah is home to Elder Brett Warner and he loves to act, to show people who his is and what he can do.  Elder Warner recently lost his mom to cancer, and he hopes to serve and help others as she did. He is a very loyal friend and loves to learn.  During the trial of his mother's cancer he grew closer to the Savior and found Him as a friend.

Elder Bardzinski (left) and Elder Stachowski- Nonami

Elder Steven Bardzinski is from Werribee, Australia. Elder Bardzinski is a twin and his brother is serving in Equador.  He loves Japanese music, graphic design and photography.  He was an exchange student in Japan before his mission. One of Elder Stachowski's former companions says he is very smart.  He enjoys chess, is kind, and knows how to do what he needs to do.

Elder Pedersen (left) and Elder Jackson- Toyama

Hurricane, Utah is home to Elder Christopher Pederson, and he enjoys reading and cooking.  He loves to study the ancient world and history.  He enjoys singing and is working on becoming a public speaker. Elder Marcus Jackson has the advantage that his mother is from Japan and his father speaks Japanese.  He is from West Point, Utah but has also lived in Japan.  He enjoys calligraphy, piano, listening to music, going to the temple and making food.  .

What a Way to Spend Thanksgiving!

Today we got to wear pants almost all day long!  I love pants!  And they make service a lot easier.  

Today we went down to the church to help Nii Shimai clean the church building.  She was a little surprised to see us in pants, especially since mine are already covered in bleach stains.  We explained that we had permission from the mission president to do service on Thanksgiving and then she wasn’t quite so shocked.  

We got to clean the doors and the windows.  Cleaning the windows on the second floor was really fun.

Then we teamed up with the elders and two ward members to make a clubhouse for the kids to play in on Sunday.  We had a huge sheet of very thin cotton which we layered and then sewed it together.  Then we spray painted it red, blue and yellow.  It was a lot of fun.  I’m excited to see the kids playing with it on Sunday.  

We had a really fun Thanksgiving.