Email #27            April 28, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

I have basically no time, but this week was truly amazing. First thing
first, I'm transferring. I'm going to.... Oyama!! And my new companion
is Nihonjin and his name is Elder Shimoji! He is apparently an animal
and works incredibly hard and this will be his last transfer, so we're
going to make sire he goes out with a bang. I am incredibly excited,
especially because he doesn't speak any English and it is really going
to help my Japanese. I have been hugely blessed with amazing
companions! Second, we had branch conference on Sunday! It was a huge
miracle. As you know, the whole zone has been busting our butts to get
100 people to branch conference. We all prayed and fasted and worked
as hard as we could with the members, and WE DID IT! It was amazing.
15 minutes before it started, we only had 40 people or so, and five
minutes before it started we had 75. But by the time the sacrament
started, we had 103! We weren't going to make it, but a van full of
english teachers who had flown into Japan less than 24 hours before
came to church. There were 6 of them, and they put us over! No one
knew they were coming, and they won't ever go to church again because
it's too far, but they came! It was truly a miracle. I am so thankful
for Heavenly Father and how he watches over this work and directs it.
I have no time to include anything more, but it was an amazing week!
Next week I'll email from Oyama and with a new companion! Super
exciting! Love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 We hiked Yahiko Mountain today and at the top there was an interesting guy doing interpretive dance. Elder Barnes and I hauled down the mountain to make a train and made it, then slept through our stop and lost like 2 hours.  It was a super fun day!

 Most of the elders in our zone and a couple of investigators.  #bluesteel.

 In Japan they have these sweet potatoes and they have this really iconic call for them that they play from trucks and at markets and such places.  It's in a minor chord  and is really haunting sounding and just repeats the word for sweet potato, yakiimo, over and over again.

Branch Conference after a lot of people had left.  It was amazing!

Email  #26         April 20, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This past week was really amazing and a ton of fun. As you know, last
week we went and saw the Sakura, or Japanese Cherry Blossoms. We went
to Takada castle, which is one of the top 3 places to see it in Japan.
It was amazing. When we got home, we were exhausted and had no time to
do anything except clean and buy groceries for the week. And today has
been pretty crazy, but I'm going to do my best to email everyone who
emailed me last week. I'm sorry if I don't get to you, missionary life
is packed! On Tuesday, we went and visited less actives to invite them
to branch conference. I think I talked about this a little bit last
week, but the branch has a huge goal of getting 100 people to branch
conference. The church here is so small that each individual unit is a
group, and instead of a stake, it is a district. I don't completely
understand it, but know that there aren't that many members. Our
branch is made of the Joetsu, Nagaoka, and Sanjo groups. Joetsu has
about 6 active members other than missionaries, Nagaoka has about 40,
and Sanjo has around 20. In order to meet our goal, we would have to
have all the active members come, along with 34 less active members,
investigators, and friends of members. We have been working incredibly
hard to make sure that we meet our goal. On Tuesday, the Elders from
Nagaoka and Joetsu were doing service in our area as part of a zone
service project and needed our bikes, so we walked everywhere. It was
a lot of walking. Whenever we walk, I feel dead by the end of the day.
I just lay down in bed and sleep. It was a tiring but good day. On
Wednesday, we did a lot of service. Brother Tosaka, on the the members
here in Sanjo, has been really busy lately and said that he just
didn't have time to make it to branch conference. We asked him if we
could help him, and he accepted, which was awesome because Japanese
people don't really like being helped. We got up at 5 and he picked us
up at 5:30 to go help him with his rice farming. We moved a lot of the
saplings he had to his greenhouse, were they will stay for about a
month to grow until they are big enough to grow in a legit rice field.
It was really interesting. It was me and Elder Barnes, Elder Walker
and Elder Farnworth, and Elder Henderson and Elder Hutchings. We
cranked through it and finished it a few hours more quickly than he
thought we would. After we helped him, we went to Brother Watanabe's
house to help him. He is a recently reactivated less active who has a
mouth disease that makes it really hard for him to talk and eat and
use his mouth in any way. Because of this he can't work, and his house
is falling apart. We went expecting to help him with his house, but he
wanted us to help with his yard. He had a small bamboo forest in the
back, and we destroyed it. We all worked as hard as we could for 4 or
so hours and razed it. It was incredibly satisfying to see this thick
bamboo thicket get totally destroyed. I didn't take before and after
photos, but we're going back on Thursday this week and will take
pictures. His house needs a lot of work, but it was a good start. That
night, we had a good Eikaiwa and were able to talk to some of the
students about coming to branch conference. I think a couple of them
are going to go, which would be awesome. On Thursday, we did more
service for Tosaka Kyoudai, but we had basically already done
everything he needed us to, so we just helped him clean and pack away
some equipment. He's so awesome. After that, we went to Kumagai
Kyoudai's house. He is also a farmer and in the branch presidency.
He's been a member forever and is super solid and kind. We helped
spread mulch and peat moss for some of his blueberry bushes, and then
we helped in his strawberry greenhouses. After we finished, we went
and ate at this place called World Buffet. It was gross. I think Japan
is changing my taste buds. I can't handle super sweet things anymore,
they don't taste as good and it gives me a stomachache. It's kind of
nice. People here eat really healthily, but World Buffet was a ton of
low quality gross food and even a bunch of 19 and 20 year guys didn't
like it. It was still fun to go though. On Friday, we had district
meeting. I gave my first training ever. It went pretty well I think, I
taught about exact obedience and how we can change our desires to
desire obedience so it won't be such a difficult thing. We also had a
really fun ping pong night, we committed Yuugi to coming to branch
conference. I love that guy. He is such a great person, and is coming
along. We are still trying to get him to come to church, but I think
he is doing better and better. On Saturday, we did a lot of housing
and tried to invite as many people as we could to branch conference.
We also practiced singing to Mori Kyoudai, a member who was inactive
for 27 years and has just recently started coming back to church. He
was a high school music director and is incredibly blunt and OCD about
music. He has us sing musical numbers in church sometimes, and gives
all the Elders grief about our beautiful singing voices. He made us
sing, "O Come All Ye Faithful" after church on Sunday. We crushed it.
It was actually not as bad as we were thinking it would be, but we
still have no idea why he wanted us to sing a Christmas song in April.
On Saturday night, we had Family Home Evening with some of the members
and less actives who wouldn't normally have it in their houses.
Afterwards, we had a big conference call with all the missionaries and
members in the branch about how many people are going to branch
conference and miracles we saw this past week. The grand total is...
119!!! We know that all those people won't come, but it is awesome to
see the progress we are making and how much Heavenly Father is helping
us and all the members reach this goal. On Sunday, we did some more
housing and visited some potential investigators to invite them to
branch conference. Sunday was a pretty normal, good day. Church was
good, and we had a lesson with Watanabe Kyoudai after with Tsuchida
Kyoudai. Tsuchida Kyoudai is the best, he's the group leader and the
group mission leader, and is such a hard worker and amazing man. I'm
going to miss him and all the other members when I leave. Transfers
are next week, and I can't believe how fast everything is going.
Whether I stay or go, I'll be happy. I love Sanjo, and really want to
come back later in my mission so I can actually have conversations
with the members and communicate with the people here. Today, we got
up and did our normal morning routine, and then Elder Barnes needed to
buy a bike light, so we went to Asahi, the bike shop chain here in
Japan. This morning as we were biking to church, I noticed that my
bike tire was super crooked. I have no idea how, I went to bed and it
was straight, and then this morning it was crooked. When we went to
Asahi, they looked at my bike and told us to come back in a couple of
hours. They gave me a rental and we biked off. We got a call about 20
minutes later saying that we needed to come back because something was
wrong. It turns out that my derailer on my chain got bent and messed
up the back tire, and has to be replaced. It's going to be more than I
would like to admit, and for the next week or so I'll be riding a
mamachari for the next week, or as my dictionary says, "A granny bike,
with a basket in front," because they don't have the right part right
now. It's basically a beach cruiser. Today has been an adventure, and
so will riding a granny bike, but it will be a blast. I think one of
the biggest things I've learned from my mission is how much of life is
about how you approach it. If it's raining, I don't have to be
miserable, I can appreciate it and enjoy myself. If my bike breaks, I
can have a super fun time riding a granny bike for a week. Just choose
happiness! The more you choose to be happy and make the most of the
moment, the less little dumb things will bother you and get you down.
I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Sanjo, Japan and to
learn and grow and bring others the same happiness I have in my life.
I'm in Sanjo, Japan! That fact still blows my mind. I love my mission
and my companion and the people here and this gospel and you all! Have
a fantastic week, sorry for the super long email!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 The greenhouse where we moved all the rice.

One of my favorite ads in Sanjo.

Email #25     April 13, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This weeks was awesome! Sorry this is getting to you so late, we had a
really long zone p day down in Joetsu and I wasn't able to email until
late tonight, which means this email won't send until Tuesday. Last
Tuesday, we went and gave the sisters all of our referrals for them.
We have been doing a lot of housing lately, and we have been talking
to a lot of women who are interested, so we refer them to the sister
missionaries. Later in the day, we did a lot of housing and streeting,
visited a couple of potential investigators, and set up role play
lessons with the members. We are supposed to be teaching 20 lessons a
week, and since that is so hard in our area, President Nakagawa, the
branch president, wants us to do mogi lessons, or role play lessons,
with all the active male members in Sanjo every transfer. It helps our
teaching skills and also allows us to get to know more about the
members and their conversion stories. We had a lesson with Hoshino as
well, and decided to drop him. He has no desire to be baptized right
now, isn't reading his scriptures and praying every day, and has
bigger mental health problems than we thought. He just isn't motivated to do
anything. We are going to keep inviting him to activities, but not
teach him or meet with him anymore. That was kind of a bummer because
he was our only investigator that we could meet with consistently, but
it will be good to have more time to find solid investigators. On
Wednesday, we had an interesting lesson with Okamura. He's a funny
guy. He talked a lot about how China is going to take over Japan and
how America can't stop it, how Japan only attacked Pearl Harbor
because of a note from a Russian spy, and a lot of other crazy stuff
about how Japan wasn't at fault at all for what they did and how China
is taking over. He talked and talked and talked. The key to our
lessons with him are having Elder Makise come. He doesn't take any of
it, and makes sure that the lesson stays on track. We think that Okamura's
just lonely and wants someone to talk to and dendo (do missionary work
to, try to convert us). He is progressing though, slowly but surely.
We also had a good lesson with Cozy after Eikaiwa. We talked about
recognizing the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and how he feels when he
feels the Holy Ghost. It went well, but then Cozy just kept talking
and talking and derailed his own thought process and got super off
topic. It went well overall, but we need to make sure that he doesn't
get sidetracked in the future. On Thursday, we went to Kamo after
weekly planning. Kamo is a small city next to Sanjo that has a
college. We had never been before, so we called Elder Walker and asked
him how to get there. He got mixed up and sent us the wrong way, so we
walked for twenty minutes or so before we realized we were going the wrong
way. By the time we got it all figured out and had made it to the
college, we had to turn around and go back. We had a good mogi lesson
with Yoshida Kyoudai after that. It was a tiring but good day. On
Friday, we had a zone meeting in Sanjo. It went really well, there
were some really good trainings, and then we had a zone lunch and
practiced singing for the branch conference on the 26th. We have all
been working hard and doing our best to meet our goal of 100 people at
the conference. Right now, we have 95 people who have committed to go!
We are working on getting more, because we know not all of those
people will come, but we are getting really close. If you guys can,
please pray that we will meet our goal! I know that the conference is
going to be a really wonderful opportunity for our investigators and
the less actives that attend to be able to feel the Spirit and progress. I went on
exchanges with Elder Hutchings, one of our zone leaders, after the
lunch. We talked to some really awesome people and found a lot of new
housing to do in the future. After that, I went on exchanges with
Elder Farnworth for the rest of the day. We went to ping pong and saw
Takashi, the most solid investigator when I first arrived who then got
a job and hasn't been to church or meeting with us since, even once! It was
really awesome. He likes Elder Barnes a lot, and we are going to try
to meet with him more often. On Saturday, we saw General Conference! It
was amazing. I think my thoughts copy Elder Diderickson's exactly in that
I don't know if this was my favorite conference because it was more
amazing than past conferences, or because I was more prepared for it
and really paid attention throughout it. Either way, a lot of the
things I have been working on and praying about and thinking about
were addressed. My favorite talks were Elder Oaks, Elder Ringwood, and
Elder Eyring's Priesthood talk. Elder Ringwood's talk really stood out
to me. This was my favorite line, "The good news of the gospel of
Jesus Christ is that the desires of our hearts can be transformed and
our motives can be educated and refined." I am so grateful that I can
change and have my desires changed as well! Conference was really
wonderful. On Sunday, Takashi came to the second session! He said he
felt led to go to church and President Monson's talk really helped
him. On Sunday night, we went down to Joetsu and stayed the night
there. On Monday, we went to Takuda castle, an area in Joetsu famous
for its sakura tree, or cherry blossoms. It was beautiful! The trees
were everywhere, and in full bloom. It was raining, which made it even
more beautiful. It was a super fun day, and now I am sitting in bed
exhausted. This upcoming week is going to be awesome, we are doing a
ton of service for the members in Sanjo. Missions and this gospel are
amazing! I'm loving Japan and life, and I hope everyone is loving
theirs as well! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

P.S. Since our p day was so long in Joetsu, I'm not going to be able
to email very much, so if you don't get a reply from me, I'm so sorry!
I'll do my best to email next week!

 Ancient Japanese armor

 Cherry blossoms

 and more cherry blossoms

 Elder Walker looking good

 With Elder Barnes in front of Takada Castle

Email #24                                  April 6, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week went really well! On Tuesday, we went to a free gym here in
Sanjo and played some basketball with the kids there. It was a ton of
fun. Not to brag, but also to brag a little bit, I was able to dunk.
It blew the mind of the kids we were playing with. Everyone here in
Japan is at maximum 5'8, and I don't think they had ever seen it
before. We were able to get their numbers and talk to them about the
gospel a little bit. We also went and visited Hoshino. He got a new
job this past week, and hurt his back while working. We went to see if
he was ok. He was doing fine and as happy as always. He is such a
happy, genuinely kind person, he would make an amazing member! On
Wednesday, we had a good district meeting (a meeting where you get
together with the other missionaries in your area and talk about what
you have been doing well and what you can improve on). After the
district meeting, I went on exchanges with Elder Henderson. I really
love Elder Henderson. He is such an amazing guy, and has become a
lifelong friend. That is one of the amazing things about missions, all
the solid, lifelong friends you make. We went and taught Okamura with
Elder Makise, a Japanese senior missionary here. Okamura is making
progress slowly but surely, he let us open and close with a prayer,
which he had not let us done previously. We taught him about the
restoration, and Elder Makise really made him think about what he
believed. He does not know his doctrine very well, and Elder Makise
knows it better than him, which makes for some interesting
conversations. We had a good Eikaiwa (English class) at night, we
talked about Easter and why it is celebrated in America, and had a
good discussion with one of the students. On Thursday, Elder Barnes
and I got back together in Nagaoka after Elder Henderson made me his
famous breakfast. It consisted of raw oats, granola, honey,
cranberries, peanut butter, a banana, and then had milk poured over
the whole thing. It was surprisingly good and very filling. We have
been running every morning, and I feel so much more hungry throughout
the day. It feels good. We had a good weekly planning session as well.
We ended the day by going to the Nakagawa family's house. They are so
amazing, and we ended up talking to President Nakagawa for a long time
about how we can help the branch and our investigators. We are having
a big branch conference on the 26th of April, and the goal is to have
100 people in attendance. They are really doing a great job of doing
all they can to meet that goal. All the members and missionaries from
the three different groups all fasted that we would be able to meet
the goal, and we are going to have a big conference call at 9 every
Saturday where we pray that we will meet the goal and to share
miracles from each district. We also have to report who has confirmed
coming. Ping Pong night on Friday didn't go super well because it was
raining a ton. We did go out to eat with Hosokura Kyoudai, a recent
convert in our group. He is such a great person, he speaks English
well because he lived in Seattle for a few years, and he is so humble
and kind. We taught him after we ate, and had a good lesson about the
plan of salvation. On Saturday, we did a lot of finding because the
sun was out and because people are home on the weekends. We had Family
Home Evening that night, and it went well, we talked about the
importance of Easter, watched the Church's new video (which is at
HeLives.mormon.org if you want to watch it), and then painted Easter
Eggs. It was really fun. Yesterday, we had a good church meeting, and
then went and housed. We found a couple of people for the sisters,
which is good because they got whitewashed in. It was a good week!
Today, we have just napped and chilled. I have been reading a lot of
General Conference talks to prepare for this month's session (we don't
watch it until this weekend so that they can translate the talks into
Japanese for the members). I don't have a ton of insights, but I do
really like their talks. Elder Hutchings, our zone leader, had a
really good insight during his final testimony. He talked about what a
privilege it has been for him to be the first person to teach people
about Jesus Christ. I really liked that. We are usually the first
people to ever teach the Japanese people here in Sanjo about Christ.
They have heard His name, but they do not know who He is, and it
really is a privilege to be able to be the first person to do that.
That's about it for this week, I love all you guys! Have a fantastic
week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

1) The cherry blossoms are blooming! 

2) The biggest bowl of noodles ever. It was a dangerous meal, I gotsauce all over my shirt

3) Yuugi with the egg I painted of him. He's crazy

4) Our egg painting family home evening!Have a wonderful week, love all of you guys!

Email #23        Monday, March 30, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This email is going to be shorter because I don't have a ton of time
and I am feeling really tired. On Tuesday, we had p day, and then had
an appointment with a referral named Rokuhara, a younger guy who
graduated from college recently. He's really nice, but an interesting
guy. He is working as a caretaker for the elderly, and doesn't want to
do anything else for the rest of his life. He just wants to have fun
everyday, and his definition of fun is living with his parents, play
video games, reading books, and working as a caretaker. He is
interested in learning about our church, but not in converting.
Thankfully, there is the Spirit! I think he has potential and could go
somewhere. On Wednesday, we had a great lesson with Okamura. He is the
older Buddhist man we have been working with. We went with Elder
Makise, and Elder Makise really helped a ton. Okamura said he believes
in God! We are making progress with him, which is really good.
Thursday was pretty normal, nothing out of the ordinary happened. On
Friday, we had a good ping pong night, and Yuugi and Hoshino came.
Hoshino went from smoking 12 cigarettes a day to 3 because he got a
job! Hopefully he sticks with it and can have a steady job. After ping
pong, we talked to Yuugi about smoking as well, and he says he has
stopped. We aren't sure if he actually as, but he gave us his lighter!
That was awesome. On Saturday and Sunday we did a lot of finding and
found 3 people who said we could come back or would go to English
class. They were full of miracles! And today, we just napped and went
out and housed. It was a good day, we went to McDonald's. Having
American food every once in a while feels good. Love you guys, have a
fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun