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