Email #3    Sent from MTC Thursday, November 6, 2014

Hi Family! I'm going to start this letter the same way as last time, with the things I would love for you to send. Thanks a ton for all the package you're sending Mom! If you haven't sent it by the time you get this, would you mind adding the following? If not, no worries! I would love some tabs I can use for my scriptures. The ones that are colored on the end and see through on the sticky part. I'm going to use them to help mark my lessons, so if possible light blue, orange, green, purple/pink, and yellow would be the optimal colors! They have them here at the MTC but they are like 8 dollars which is ridiculous. I would also love a Mead spiral notebook, like the ones I had for school. Not the massive one, but one with one or two dividers would be awesome. Also optional requests: a yo-yo and some bouncy balls. Some of the guys are very good yo yoers and having something to relax every once in a while is such a stress reliever. Could you also dear Elder me some evidence that North Carolina is the BBQ capital of the USA? Maybe Dad could do that, I made that statement in class and no one believed me, they were much too stiff necked. That's about it for the packages, thanks a ton! I got an email from President Budge this week, I need to have at least $250 either in cash or on my debit card when I leave for Japan. $150 is for the checked bag, which the mission reimburses, the other $100 is for a bike helmet and bag. Is everything up and running with the new account? I do have one other request. Instead of emailing me the missionary updates, could you send them to me via Dear Elder? That way I wouldn't use any of my email time to read them and I could see them not just on Thursdays. I would love to hear from as many people as possible, including Cam, Tessa, Nate, Hailey, Jolie, Camille, Stephen Tenney, Nate Livingston, or whoever you can think of. It's so fun to hear from other missionaries, especially those who are in the MTC with me, and see their take on things. Thank you so much!

This was a pretty normal week. Our temple session was really great again, and I talked to President Butler, our branch president, about the questions I had. He helped a lot! It feels so good to go outside on P days, and throw around a frisbee or a softball. As you know, I ran into Sister Kennedy and Sister Huisken at the exact same time last thursday! We ran into each other in the cafeteria, it was and is so great to see them around the MTC. How was your Halloween? Ours was pretty great. We had a normal day, but lots of people in our district got Halloween stuff which made it super fun. Elder Diderickson got glow stick swords and teeth and stuff. When we were heading back to our flat, our Sempai, or the Elders a few weeks ahead of us, had rushed back and put on whatever stuff they could find and dressed up. They then came rushing into our room and we had a dance party while they threw candy everywhere. It was super fun. Their costumes were super creative, two guys were men in black, complete with glasses and ray guns (no idea where they got them), there was a ghost, Santa Claus, Superman, and an evil jack o lantern man. I know this sounds so dumb but you have to take whatever entertainment you can get in here!

I worked a lot on grammar and Katakana this week. I almost have it all the way down, and I'm working on my sentence structure. Japanese sentence structure is so much different, it's crazy. If you wanted to say, "I know that the Book of Mormon is true through prayer," the structure in Japanese would be: Prayer through the Mormon Book true is I know." At least I think that's write, I'm probably still wrong! It's a work in progress though, and it's getting there! One of our teachers, Pearhson Kyodia, said we weren't bringing in the Spirit as much as we should because we were reading from this book we have called the Ninja, which gives sentences in Japanese and is super helpful. He challenged us to not us the Ninja for sentences at all, and to come up with our own. It has been way hard but really good for learning and it HAS brought the Spirit into our lessons way more! I'm glad we have teachers that are so kind and helpful but also super honest. 

The best part of my week was the combination of Fast Sunday and the devotionals we heard. There's an Elder who just left the MTC, Elder Lee (He's actually going to my mission, i'm so excited!). He's from Hong Kong and is honestly one of the nicest, most kind, happiest people I've ever met. He works incredibly hard and is always smiling and asking you how you're doing. I was wondering how and why he's so happy and how I can share his same happiness, so I decided to fast on Sunday to be a happier missionary. I had a little dumb epiphany during testimony meeting. Someone was doing something that was really bugging me, I don't even remember what it was. It was making really irritated and thus less happy when the thought struck me, "Why is this irritating me?" No good is coming out of it, they aren't doing anything wrong, and I'm just being dumb. I've been really trying much harder since then to not let little dumb things bug me, and I've noticed that I've been much happier because of it! We had a great devotional on Sunday by Wendy Nelson, Russel M. Nelson's wife. She talked about having questions going into devotionals and asking for specific things for help and lots of other good stuff. The Tuesday devotionals were the best though. We got to go to the Marriot Center in the morning and heard David E Evans speak, the same man who said, "May our strength be faithened." He had a great attitude about it and even talked about it. He then spoke about tenacity and being a tenacious missionary. (All of the speakers talk about tons of good stuff but I just don't have enough time to tell you everything they say!) We had the Goldens come that night, Elder Golden is a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy from South Africa. His wife spoke first, and wouldn't you know, she spoke about being a happier missionary! She spoke about 5 things we can do to be happier missionaries: Understand that we are working on the most important work ever, to leave behind the things of the world, to work as hard as we can, to be as obedient as we possibly can, and to love the Lord, my companion, and the people we are going to teach. Her talk really helped me, and it helped me with my testimony of fasting! Elder Golden also gave a great talk. He was called to be an Area Seventy in his thirties, and was called to salt lake when he was 48. He thought he was going to be released, but President Hinckley called him to be an General Authority until he turns 70! (You really don't have it so bad, Dad). He thought that President Hinckley made a mistake because he was getting older (his own words) and was about to call to confirm, but then thought, "I don't want the Prophet to think he's called a fruitcake as a General Authority!" He asked for a sign that it was the right thing for him, and he opened his scriptures to a scripture he had never marked or really registered before, and the next day, when President Monson was setting him apart, he quoted from the exact same scripture! Wild. He also had a great line in which he said, "Faith is personal righteousness." I really like that, and am working on increasing my faith!

Well, that's about it for this week. I didn't really take any pictures, the only ones I took are with Sister Huiskin and you already have them! I'll be sure to take more this week. Can you do me a favor and fix any spelling errors I made before you send this out? I'm sure there are plenty of them, I just don't have time to fix them! Love to all of you, especially Liza!

Calhoun Choro

P.S Please thank Lisa and Liz for their letters this week! The Halloween cookies were a huge hit in our district and the other gift that came with it came right as I ran out, so thank you so much! Also please thank George for his letter and Tessa update last week. Also, thank you Heidi and Bradley for the package, and Nana and Betsy for the cookies, photo album, and supplies! I bring my photo album to all our lessons and all the investigators love to see the pictures. I'm still expecting a letter or email from Kelsey too. Liza: here are two Japanese words for you: Chikaraziyoi means powerful and ai means love!