Ohio Gozimasu

Hey mom and dad,
wow three weks tomorrow!! Time is flying!!  Still loving it though.  This past week was rough though.  They threw so much at us. language and spiritual wise. :-S  We're to the point now where the sensai don't even speak english. :-S  I have to translate everything in my head, and quickly too, or I'll miss the next thing they're saying.  Japanese is nuts!!! Sunday was fast sunday.  Really different here. It was mission conference.  Longest meeting I've ever been in! 2 1/2 hours!!! ah!! It was really great but my butt was so sore!!  Thank you for my ipod, I'm loving it!!! I love having that music in the background.  I turn it on first thing in the a.m. and off last thing at night. :-)  It's hard to stay focused all day every day when you're in the MTC this long.  There have been times when I've had so much thrown at me I started to wonder if I'd be the first ever MTC suicide.  haha it still is fun though.  Elders Stevenson and Mozingo make life amazing!!  They're hilarious. I have a bunch of pictures of us for you coming soon.  Well our lesson last week went great.  I nailed it!!  I was like throwing out scripture references to answers like nobody's business.  We prayed for forever before hand, and I really could feel the spirit speaking through me.  There's no way I could have remembered everything I said on my own.  My testimony is growing by leaps and bounds!  It's so cool.  Everything our church is all about is just making so much more sense. haha  Anyways, thanks for the braces too. I'm back in action, and I honestly can't miss on the court.  I've been lighting it up and getting some sick dunks as well. :-)  Well it's been dumping snow on us up here as well. I've liked the change.  Lot's of good photo ops.  I hear Ian is doing great. Sounds like he's working hard. Keep encouraging him.  He has such a good year coming up!  Umm I'm running short on time.   Oh ya the japanese we had to know for the lesson last week.  I nailed it! Cha Ching.  Our investigators were a japanese kid from BYU studying electric engineering at BYU, and a local doctor, who served in the fukuoka mission not too long ago, also at BYU.  They couldn't believe I've only been studying the language for 2 weeks. :-)  If you write me back today make it really short.  I'll explain how my email works in my written letter latwer today.  MTC is so awesome!  I get to hit the temple today as well. So cool with all the missionaries from our branch.  How is everything going?  you can still send me a dear elder today. :-)  I love mail. hahaha Up here in the cage(MTC),mail is the highlights of our life, and laundry, which I'm headed to in a few min.  I love laundry.  It's when I get to contact the outer world and chill with everyone here.  I found Elder Alldredge!! we got a pic. I'll send it home soon too.  Elder Lark left today. I got to chill with him for a bit yesterday and say goodbye.  That was cool.  K wow I'm running low on time. I really wish I had time to say everythingi want. I know this email is kinda all ovwer the place. Ah! I have so many stories and experiences to share.  I guess we'll have the rest of life for that huh?
Love you a thousand,
Keep those knees warm for us, we can feel it.
Elder Gatchell

P.S.  send Elder childs in my district a letter or small package.  Hasn't got one email, letter or package.  not even his family! :-(  Just something small. Everyone in our district is getting family to do something small. love you