Email #17

James Calhoun                                                                                                      February 16, 2015  Zone Bowling Competition on P Day  Henderson Choro and Calhoun Choro Calhoun Choro, Cozy, Mobley Choro	Feb 16 (6 days ago)

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was great! On Tuesday, we went over to Watanabe Kyoudai's house. He is doing really well, and has been coming to church every week. Tosaka Kyoudai taught him basically the entire lesson. Wednesday was crazy. I went on exchanges with Elder Henderson, we stayed in Sanjo and Elder Mobley and Elder Stembridge went to Nagaoka. Elder Henderson is a beast. He's a legit cowboy from Utah who had his own business, worked on his family farm, broke horses, played football and baseball, and did two years of college while still in high school. He is an incredibly hard worker, super nice, and really funny and fun to be around. I understand more why dad's favorite companions were wrestlers or farmers. In the morning, we had a really good district meeting. The mission is really emphasizing baptismal dates and working toward baptism. Elder Walker, one of the Elders in our apartment, had a really good training on repentance. He's awesome. He's from Hawaii and soooo chill. Elder Henderson and I then made no bake cookies for one of our investigators, Okamura, because we missed an appointment with him, and Tosaka Kyoudai, because he's been helping us so much. There are no ovens here in Japan. It stinks a little bit. We had an unplanned lesson at Church with Mori Kyoudai, a less active, after we finished the cookies. It was really difficult because he speaks incredibly quickly and only wants to know feelings, not your thoughts, just your feelings. It's a little weird. He's really awesome though. We then went and taught Okamura, it went well and he liked the cookies. After that, Elder Henderson, Elder Walker and I all ate ghost peppers during dinner. Ghost peppers are the hottest natural peppers in the world. In Scoville Units, a Halipeno (i have no idea how to spell that) pepper is 7,000 units, a Habanero pepper is 100,000, and a ghost pepper is 1 million. I ate it and for the first minute and a half or so it wasn't very bad, and then I swallowed it and my mouth and throat were on fire. It was miserable. We had milk and peanut butter and ice cream there to help cool the burning, and ice cream was the most helpful and I ate a ton of it. I have a video of it but it's long so I'll probably have to show you after the mission. We had Eikaiwa after that, and in the middle of it Elder Henderson went to the bathroom and threw it all up. It burned his and Elder Walker's stomachs pretty badly. It was quite the experience. But, now I can say I've eaten the world's hottest pepper! We had a lesson with Cozy after Eikaiwa with Tosaka Kyoudai. We had to leave at 9:20 so we wouldn't break our curfew, but they stayed and talked until 11! It went really well. Cozy is getting closer and closer to baptism! He is a really amazing man. On Thursday, we had interviews with President Budge. They went well; the longer I am around the Budges the more I like them. They are really incredible. It's crazy they only have a few more months left! On Friday, we celebrated Nozomi Shimai's birthday. We had pizza! Pizza here is super expensive, the large size is like extra small in America, and each one is $20. It was really fun though, we played musical chairs and I let her win. It was hard but worth it. On Saturday, she got baptized! It was awesome, especially because Sanjo hasn't seen a baptism in a year and a half, and hasn't had a baptism with the person staying active for 5 years. It was really great to see how happy she was, and how many people came to her baptism. Yugi Kyoudai and Cozy came, it was awesome. The Spirit was really strong and it was all super powerful. Things in Sanjo are really turning around! That night, the Sisters heart attacked our door and left as all our own Tim Tam boxes. Tim Tams are these super good chocolate bars, and you can bite off the ends and then suck hot chocolate through it like a straw and it's amazing. Sunday was good, we had a big group lunch afterwards that was pretty good. They have some funky foods though sometimes. Today, we had zone p day! We went bowling. It was pretty fun, except Elder Henderson beat me. Losing to him is the worst. Then we went and played ping pong. And I lost to Elder Henderson again. Rough. But, it's been a super great week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Email #16

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was amazing! So many miracles, and super fun! On Tuesday, we went to Cozy's Buddhist shrine. He's one of our investigators, and he's having a hard time going from Buddhism to Christianity, even though he loves the gospel and reads the Book of Mormon and prays. He knows the Book of Mormon super well, and was asking us about Ammon and King Lamoni. He said he wanted to be more like King Lamoni without us even bringing him up! We always ask him why he doesn't get baptized, and he just says, "I'm Buddhist!" We're getting there though. He is super funny and a really nice guy. Sorry, I'm sidetracking myself. We went to his shrine because they were doing Oni dancing, and we wanted to relate to him more as a Buddhist. It was crazy! Oni is Japanese for demon, and they do this crazy dance thing where these brightly colored potbelly demons with huge swords and hammers climb over a wall and do this sumo intimidation dance, and then everyone throws beans at them and they die. It was pretty wild. I have a video of it I'll send after this. Hoshino is also doing way better, he hasn't been able to remember how to pray, but this week he gave an awesome, correct prayer without help! It was sweet. He's also reading the Book of Mormon more, which is awesome. On Wednesday, we had a good district meeting in which we set new transfer goals. We set the goal to see two baptisms and have 30 people, not including missionaries, at church. Nozomi Shimai, one of the sister's investigators, is for sure getting baptized this transfer, and there are so many other investigators close to baptism! I think we can reach it. And I know we can do the 30 people at church goal, but I'll tell you about that when I get to Sunday. On Thursday, we went down to Nagaoka, the area where the zone leaders are, for district leader training. Joetsu, one of the areas in our zone, has a really tiny church, smaller than ours. The man who rents out the church building there just went bankrupt, so the church has to find a new building! The problem is they don't have enough people coming each Sunday to get a mew building, so President Budge sent up Elder Sakamoto to take care of things. Elder Sakamoto was the senior Assistant, but he was transferred up here just to take care of it. Pretty crazy! He's one of the district leaders now, and it was fun to see him. He's a fantastic missionary. During the meeting, I went with the other district leader's companions and handed out flyers at the train station. We call it Mitsuketaikai-ing. The other missionaries were really good at it, and I tried my best to keep up with them! We handed out all of our flyers, which felt good. This week, we have been really trying to focus on Yugi Kyoudai and getting him back to church. He doesn't like sitting down and having lessons, so we are trying to build a friendship with him so we can get to that point. On Friday, we went out to ramen with him. It went really well, and he came to church on Sunday! He is making big progress. Nothing really happened on Saturday, but I went and had Sukiya for the first time. Sukiya is a restaurant where the serve beef, cheese, and onions over rice with soy sauce. It's really good. I'm starting to appreciate Bradley's letters so much more because food is often one of the high points in my day. I could talk about it for a long time, and the food here is incredible! Sunday was a day of miracles. The weather was fantastic, the weather the whole week was super amazing: no snow, no clouds, just sun and it was around 50. Perfect! But today it's mid 20's and snowing hard. Bums. Sunday was looking to be just a normal day, but more and more and more and more people trickled in before church! We had 12 friends (investigators, less actives, and recent converts) at church! Our total, not including missionaries, was 33! We met our goal on the first Sunday of the transfer! It was incredible. It was mostly from Sister Palmer and Sister Peterson, they are super hard workers and crushing it! It was amazing, the sacrament meeting room was pretty much full, but there is still room for improvement. Tsuchida Kyoudai, our missionary leader, said it was the most people ever in the church! A huge miracle. Today was super fun! We went bowling, Elder Mobley likes it as much as I do. I'm still struggling to do as well as my one fluke game at BYU. It's getting there though. I've also been trying to learn We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet in any spare time I have at church, and I almost have it down! I'm still making quite a few mistakes, but i think I'm almost at the level where I can play in sacrament. I'm going to try to learn a few hymns so I can at least play a few in my next areas. Here are a couple of pictures with Elder Mobley and the Sisters. Sister Palmer is the one next to me, then Nozomi Shimai who's about to get baptized, then Sister Peterson. I have a side story. The day that picture was taken, I ran out of my good American hair stuff. It was super sad. Now I have this gel called Gatsby and it's rough. It's like 6 times as powerful as my old stuff and smells super strongly of strawberry and comes in a pink case. I didn't think it was for men at first. The first day I used it turned my hair into sharp, immovable, strawberry smelling spikes. Probably the saddest moment of my mission. It took me like 3 tries to wash it out. My life is hard. I'll send the videos after this! That's about it for this week, love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Love,

Elder Calhoun

 Elder Mobley Followed by Elder Calhoun

Back to front: Mobley Choro; Peterson Shimai; Nozomi Shimai; Palmer Shimai; Calhoun Choro

Email #15

James Calhoun	Feb 2 (6 days ago)
to me, William

Dearest Family,

Whattup! I had a great week! Monday was super chill, I had a super long nap and then couldn't sleep at all that night, but it was worth it. Plus, Takashi came to church! He said he prayed to have more strength because he's been so tired from his job, and all his emotional stress and physical tiredness went away! Super cool. He said it was ok for us to email him again,so that was a big answer to prayer, both for him and for us! On Tuesday, we went and taught a less active member named Watanabe Kyoudai. He has a disease that makes moving his mouth really difficult, so his speech is super hard to understand. We have to have a member there to help, and it's hard for them to understand. The lesson went well, and we're teaching him again tomorrow. He also came to church on Sunday! That was super awesome, especially because he lives super far away and has to take the train, and the only train arrived in Sanjo an hour and a half before church started. He's such an awesome guy! His house is also falling apart because he can't work anymore, so that could be our first awesome opportunity for some hardcore service. In the lesson we taught, the member we went with, Tasaka Kyoudai, taught a lot and really went hard. He laid out he basics and did a really great job. Brother Watanabe had to get up to get something, and Tasaka Kyodai said, "That man is speaking Greek! He's so hard to understand." We were really glad he was there, because we were having an even harder time understanding him. One of the hardest things about teaching lessons is the sitting. It's crazy hard! It's really polite to sit on your heels (it's kind of hard to describe, like when the tops of your feet are on the floor and you knees are together forward, it's called seiza in Japanese) and I can't do it, I'm not flexible enough! And then you sit cross legged after they tell you to, and that's brutal too after a while. You sit on these woven straw floors called tatami mats, and the tables are super low. I'm awful at it, but getting better. Wednesday was pretty crazy. All our plans were falling apart, and we went to go visit one of our investigators who we hadn't talked to for a while. Right as we were getting there, these Jehovah's Witnesses got there too, and they knocked on the door before us and our investigator, Hoshino, told us he was busy! It was pretty funny. We think Hoshino has some memory problems though, so he let us in and had probably forgotten all about it by our next visit. We visit him about once a week to remind him to read the Book of Mormon and pray, but we aren't really teaching him or focusing on him other than that. We just want to be a good influence in his life! On Thursday, we went up to Niigata for a conference with a Japanese member of the 70, Elder Aoyagi. The 70, for my non Mormon friends, is a group of men who are called to administer over our church in different parts of the world. They're usually really highly accomplished, and they devote all their time to helping our church without pay. He talked and did a training and it was really awesome! He had a really great answer to a question one of the missionaries asked, how to deal with parents who are opposed to our message and having their children join. He said to try to meet with them and explain who we are and what we do, and how awesome their child is and how it will bless them. I think that was a cool moment for me, and a testament to how awesome this message really is. We aren't a sketchy or a bad or weird religion, and basically the only reason someone would be opposed to having their child join is because they don't know enough about us. We don't try to pull some shady tricks or anything, we just inform the parents about who we are. I thought that was pretty sweet. On Friday, we went back and visited Okamuda, the Buddhist man Elder Farnworth and I found last week. We taught him a little and he taught us a little, but he took a Book of Mormon! Hopefully it ends up going somewhere. On Saturday, Elder Mobley and I went door to door. At one of the apartments, this lady answered right as Elder Mobley was putting a flyer in her slot. It really freaked him out, and then she started giving him Bambi eyes, and that REALLY threw him off his game. He tried to explain who we were, but he was really struggling. He finished and then just stood there in silence for no joke a solid 7 or 8 seconds and then stammered on. The lady even threw in a hair flip for him. It was really funny. Sunday was pretty good, we went back to the apartment of a young guy we found last week who said we could come back, and we gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and he said he would read it. Hopefully that goes somewhere too! Today, we had transfer calls! I'm transfer two! And... I'm staying with Elder Mobley in Sanjo for another transfer! Exciting. Actually, nothing changed, the other Elders are the same, and the Sisters! Crazy. We have to crush it this transfer. Today we realized that we've been awful about taking pictures and sending them home, so we took a few at an import store here in Sanjo. I also got a pretty good video of Elder Farnworth and whathe does. That's about it for this week, love you guys! Dad, I did get the pictures. It looks awesome! Thanks for the email about Chris, I'm about to send him something. Mom, thanks a ton for the update! You are seriously the best. I love you all so much, thank you for everything! Have a great week! 

愛、

カラフ-ン長老

Email #14

James Calhoun	Jan 26 (13 days ago)
to me, William

Dearest Family and Friends,

This was a fantastic week! It was full of miracles and really fun. We have been really trying to stick with showing the members love, so they know that we want to work with them and need their help to get things going here in Sanjo again. And it has been working so incredibly well! On Tuesday, we had our second mogi lesson in two weeks, this time with a family named the Kumagai's. They are super awesome, the dad was baptized thirty years ago with the mom and they have been super active ever since. Unfortunately, they have seen a ton of people fall into inactivity, and they haven't been feeling super positive about the missionary work in the area. But since telling them about our need for their help and desire to work with them, they have been so willing to help! The Japanese are seriously so awesome. Wednesday was pretty uneventful, we had a good Eikiwa, and one of the men was getting super into the game and was really competitive. It reminded me of the story of dad getting super competitive at the social games. He did win though, but probably just because everyone was so shocked at how intense he was getting and just let him win. Whatever works! Friday was a really awesome day. It was Elder Farnworth's birthday, so we went out to eat to celebrate. In Japan, they have a type of restaurant called yakiniku, where there is a grill in the middle of the table and they bring out unlimited slices of raw meat and you cook it on the table. It's delicious, and really fun. We went to one in Sanjo and had a really great time. Here's a time lapse of the meal. We got Elder Farnworth a beanie, he loves beanies, and he has been wearing it around ever since. After eating, we went to visit the last member we hadn't showed love to, Tasaka Kyodai. He lives pretty far away, about a 30 minute bike ride. The bike ride there was super rough. The wind was blowing against us the whole time, and my legs were on fire by the end. Thankfully, it was on our back on the way back, and was much easier. We told Tasaka that we really want to work with him, and he was really grateful that we visited him. We are going to have a member present with him with Cozy San, an investigator who we are really pushing for baptism, because Cozy is struggling going from Buddhism to Christianity, and Tasaka already has! It's really amazing how the members can help so much. We had exchanges on Saturday, and we saw a pretty sweet miracle. I was on exchanges with Elder Farnworth, and he really loves housing. I do not. He said it's a good way to show the Lord that we are working hard. I really didn't like that because it's so ineffective, I really thought the Lord would want us to spend our time finding or doing missionary work in a more productive way. On Friday night, I prayed that we would find someone willing to listen to the gospel. We housed for a few hours, had dinner, and went back again. The last apartments we were doing are the equivalent of the projects in America: government owned and super sketchy. At the last door we knocked, a man saw us, asked if we were Mormons, and let us in right away! That never happens! He let us in and talked to us. He is part of a Buddhist sect called Nichirenshoshu, and they are famous for doing missionary work. He let us in and started talking about his religion and gave us a ton of reading material about it, but he is willing to listen to our message and wants us to come back. He may not be a golden investigator, but there's potential! It was also a really great lesson for me that the Lord does things his way, and we shouldn't doubt that he will put people in our path. Housing may not be the most effective method of doing missionary work, but if we have nothing better to be doing with our time, if we are working as hard as we can, and if we have the faith, Heavenly Father will place people in front of us. On Saturday, Elder Mobley and I decided to go housing, as more people would be home on the weekend. Neither of us like to house, but I have a lot more faith in it after Saturday. We found a young guy who talked to us and told us we could come back! He doesn't have a ton of interest, but there is hope there too. You take what you can get in winter in Sanjo, and the Lord is really providing. That was the theme of the week for me: the more you turn to the Lord, even on things you don't think you need help on or require His assistance, the more He is willing to bless you. I had a couple of scriptural insights this week as well. The first is pretty general: even in the case of prophets, or especially with the case of prophets, Heavenly  Father doesn't bless them with miracles or visions or what they desire until they have put in the work. Lehi doesn't get his prompting to leave or get his vision until after preaching to the people of Jerusalem. Nephi has to go back and get the plates, and deal with his brothers. We have to put in our work before Heavenly Father is willing to give us our biggest blessings. Anther insight was in 2 Nephi 1:5 and 11. Isaiah is so humble! He's a prophet of God, and yet feels so keenly his weaknesses and sins. We can always be more humble. Verse 11 is super interesting. He's basically told to preach to the people, and his first response is, "How long?" Missionary work is hard! It's hard for prophets! But man is it worth it. That's about it for this week. Love you guys, you're so awesome! 

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Email #13

James Calhoun	Jan 19
to me, William

Dearest Family,

Hello hello! I had a really great week. I'll start with Tuesday. I need to be way better about writing in my journal everyday, most of the time I get way behind then go back and write it in. I'll try to do better this week! The days are starting to blend together. On Tuesday, we started, as we start everyday, with working out and then study. Those are probably the two areas I need to improve the most. I am so groggy in the mornings that I'm way super bad about working out. I wake up to say my prayer and fall asleep saying it half the time. It's really hard because our apartment is so cold and we can't go outside because of the snow/slush and cold. We do a lot of push ups and sit ups.  Anyway, we studied after that. We have four hours of study everyday: personal, companionship, language, and 12 week. In personal study we read the Book of Mormon, and I read a lot of the study manuals for institute. It's so interesting and gives so many insights, I'm really loving it. In companionship study, we talk about what we studied and we plan for our investigators and read from the handbook. In language study I'm working on my reading, learning a couple of common kanji, vocab, and grammar rules. I really need to be better about using 100% of my study time, but I'm getting better! It's  frustrating that I can't communicate with people well at all. But for all of these frustrations, it's really comforting that I know I'm working hard and really trying to work even harder and be better and that I'm being humbled and that there's still hope to become the person I want to be! I think my insight of the week is how grateful I am for the Atonement. I get caught in the trap of comparing myself to who I could have been if I had started working earlier in high school, done my scripture masteries, prepared better, been kinder, worked out in the morning, and not nodded off in study. But through the Atonement, I can be forgiven for the mistakes I've made, no matter how big or small, and still work on becoming the person I know I can be! I'm also trying to learn more about the enabling power of the Atonement. There is so much I need to work on just for me! Sorry, this has devolved from a play by play of my week to the thoughts of Elder Calhoun, but that's what I've been thinking about A LOT this week. This gospel is so amazing! I am so grateful for it and for the benefits it has in my life. This week was pretty normal, it was really good, but nothing crazy. I really love you guys, I'll probably write another little email in a little bit, I forgot my scriptures again and Elder Walker is bringing them for me. I have the best family ever! 私は私の家族を愛してますよ！カラフ-ンの家族は最高です！

L.O.L (Dad's way),

Elder Calhoun

Email #12 James Calhoun	Jan 12
to me, William

Hello Family!

I am feeling very tired, so this letter will probably be a little
shorter. I had a great week! On Thursday, we went up to Niigata and
had new missionary training with President Budge and the Assistants.
We learned about the differences between finding with faith and just
finding. It was really good, and something I needed to hear. I got to
spend a lot of time with the Assistants, we helped them set up them
went out to dinner with them. They are incredible! They're both
Nihonjin, or Japanese, and their names are Elder Sakamoto and Elder
Kudo. They are both really hard workers and incredibly kind. I learned
a lot from being around them. The next day, I had my first zone
conference. It really should have been a mission conference, but the
area I'm in is so far north we can't meet with the rest of the
mission, so there was the mission conference and the Niigata
conference. It was really awesome. We learned about focusing on
prayer, getting people to church, and working with the members and
Priesthood leaders. We are really going to show the members how much
we love them and how much we need their help. Sanjo hasn't seen a
baptism in over a year, and we're going to change that with their
help! The other elders have an investigator super close, the sisters
have an investigator with a baptismal date, and we are working with
Takashi. He needs to want to come to church more! Will you guys please
pray for him, so that he will want to come to church and overcome is
smoking addiction? Thanks! Yesterday we went to Nagaoka for Sun
Kyodai's baptism. He is a Chinese college student who loves the
gospel. Three investigators from Sanjo went! It was a super spiritual
experience. Today we went to make our own silverware, but we couldn't
find the right place! We went to two different places, and at the
second one was a spoon museum. we made mini spoons that were smaller
than my pinky! It was a little disappointing, but we went and got
sushi afterward, so it was ok. The sushi place is super cool, you
order your food on an ipad and they bring it out on a mini bullet
train right to your seat. I'm sure you can find videos of it online! I
got to take a nap today, which was super nice. I am so incredibly
tired. I think that finally getting into the routine of things and
having the newness of things wear off is making my tiredness catch up
with me. Thanks a ton for the update, the ideas, and pictures!
Everyone looks great, especially Abbie! Just don't loose your retainer
or smash it in half! Thanks a ton for the recipes and cups, they are
greatly appreciated! I really liked your ideas, Mom. I have been
really pushing for more service, but Japanese people really, really
don't like being served. It's a little frustrating. We are trying to
think of ways to serve them that can't be stopped! Elder Mobley has
really been pushing for family history to be used as well. Those are
great ideas! We can't wait to get the crepe recipe! Elder Mobley has
Nutella, and I have 4 pounds of peanut butter ordered from Costco
(thank you Sister Budge!), so we're looking forward to eating the
crepes. Go Bucks! I'm trying not to think about it, and I'm doing a
pretty good job. That's about it for this week. Love you guys, you're
the best!!!!

Love,
Calhoun Chorro

Japanese English is way weird. We have no idea why they have this huge sign!

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