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!
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
No comments:
Post a Comment