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
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment