Email  #30           May 18, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

I am writing this on my way home from Tokyo and don't have my planner with me, so this is going to be short! I'm sorry, I'll send a longer email next week about what happened this week. It was awesome, as always! I'll tell you what we did today though. Today was one of the coolest days of my life. We went to Nikko, a huge park in the mountains in our zone. Elder Shimoji's sister's husband's dad lives close to us, so he so kindly took Elder Shimoji and also me because he had to. But really, it was so nice of him! It was a two hour car ride each way, but boy was it worth it. The drive up reminded me a lot of North Carolina, there were trees everywhere. It felt good. We went around the mountains, there were some really pretty views and some sweet rivers. After that, we went and took pictures at this lake up in the top of the mountains. It was super pretty. We then went and saw this huge waterfall! It was gigantic! I think that for today, not really paying attention and trying to understand Elder Shimoji and his sister's father-in-law's Japanese was a blessing. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and we took this elevator down to the waterfall and I walked out and my mind was absolutely shot. Just boggled. It was probably the prettiest waterfall I've ever seen. It wasn't as big as Niagara Falls, but boy was it beautiful. I'll include some pictures. After that, we went and ate then visited this super famous shrine. We went and ran into three sets of senior missionaries, and we were lucky enough to go on the one day a year they have a huge samurai parade. We got to watch the whole parade, and it had more than 1,200 people in it all wearing various samurai, warrior, or priest outfits. It was super, super cool. We didn't get to go into the actual shrine because we didn't have time, which was a bummer, but it was totally worth going today! I'm going to try to go back next transfer somehow and take a picture with these really famous carved monkeys they have at the shrine. The shrine is HUGE! The biggest one I've seen yet, I'm really excited to see it up close. There were so many tourists there, so many white people. It was so weird to see so many after being like one of three in Sanjo. I didn't like it, it felt so wrong haha. After that, we went home and had an appointment with two potential investigators from the college in Oyama. They're so cool. Their names are Hyuuma and Daiki, please pray for them! We ate donuts at a donut shop and talked about sports and life and the Book of Mormon. It went really well. We then hopped on a train with another friend, Yosuke, to watch the BYU Wind Symphony perform in Tokyo. It was super good! I was also able to see a ton of good buddies from the MTC and Sanjo (Elder Walker) and the South Mission! It went really well, Yosuke had a good time and met President Budge and now Elder Shimoji is teaching him the Plan of Salvation on the train ride home. He hasn't had any interest before tonight, but please pray that this will be the turning point for him! That was today, it was awesome! We aren't getting home until 11:30, which is going to be rough, but totally worth it. I had a really sweet experience this past week studying about faith, I'll share it next Monday! I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

1) Elders Nicholson (left) and Brummet, in the south mission, 
from theMTC! I love Elder Nicholson, he's the man, 
I'm so glad for theopportunity missions give to meet awesome people like him. 
I love Brummet too, but Elder Nicholson and I really hit it off in the MTC.

2) Samurai from the parade

3) The huge, beautiful waterfall!

4) The lake in the top of the mountains in Nikko

Love you all, have an amazing week!

Email #29                  May 11, 2015  

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was awesome! Every week is awesome! This past week was part of Golden Week, one of the biggest holidays in Japan. People get a week of school and work off, which basically never happens. One of the members had us over for a Golden Week barbecue on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun, and good to get to know a lot of the members better. One of the members here served his mission in Australia and speaks English well and also loves basketball, so he gives me the weekly update. Go Cavs! We also taught one of our investigators, Arnaldo, a lot this week. He has a baptismal date and is preparing for baptism, but one of he things he needs to get over first is an addiction to smoking. We met with him a lot to make a quitting smoking plan and to make sure he is doing well. He hasn't smoked for a week! Good progress. He is doing well and reads the Book of Mormon at an unbelievable rate. He is from Brazil, but speaks Japanese really well. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a while and has heard almost all of the lessons. He has a testimony about the Book of Mormon and modern day prophets and is really progressing a lot. We also taught a member on Tuesday who is struggling with the Word of Wisdom. His name is Manaka Kyoudai, and he's awesome. He used to be in a motorcycle gang and was crazy, but turned his life around and is now a solid member. He is working on getting his patriarchal blessing right now. I also met one of our potential investigators, Yosuke. He's a college student who really likes photography. He doesn't have a ton of interest in hearing the lessons right now, but he is showing more and more interest the more we meet. I'll include a picture with him. On Wednesday, we had a good district meeting. Afterwards, one of the members took all of us out for lunch. His name is Itou Kyoudai and he is such a hard working, kind man. I really like him. In just the little amount of time I have been here in Sanjo, we have already had more meal appointments than I did in Sanjo, and have a lot more lined up. It's awesome for my wallet and my mouth, but not so great for my stomach and body. The members here are so kind and awesome here though, it's amazing. A lot of them are young families with returned missionary parents. We had a good Eikaiwa on Wednesday too, there were a couple of Americans my age who came who don't speak Japanese, and it felt awesome to know that I have progressed at least a little bit! I could understand some of what people were talking about, which means I have progressed at least a little! Feels good. On Thursday, we had weekly planning. Weekly planning is so boring and normally I would never talk about it, but Elder Shimoji plans like a wedding planner or something, the most beast planner you can think of. He takes all three hours we can use and really uses all of those three hours. He boggles my mind at how good he is at everything. I'm so glad I am his companion and get the opportunity to learn from him. On Friday, we went and visited an old potential investigator of one of the old Elders here. He had moved out, but the guy who moved in was super cool! He's a college student and loves basketball. He was also really interested to learn about the Book of Mormon and said we could come back and teach him the lessons. We gave him our number and he said he didn't want to give his to us, but I didn't understand his Japanese and asked him to call us, and he did! So we got his number. I've progressed a little, but not a whole lot haha. On Saturday, I finally met Melissa and Jared, two of our progressing investigators. Melissa is Jared's mom. They are from Peru and super nice. We are going to their house this Saturday for a barbecue. They're awesome! Church on Sunday was really awesome. We got a new mission leader, and he is a beast! He has tons of fire and a great vision. It's going to be a great rest of the transfer! We had a great week and taught a ton of lessons. Elder Shimoji is a beast and talks to everyone and I'm learning so much from him. I'm loving life and loved talking to my family today. Love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

 Oyama district lunch.  James's new companion, Elder Shimoji,  has his chin on his hand.

  Yosuke!

The barbecue at the Kawaguchi's house.  Brother Kawaguchi is in the striped shirt.

 One of my "Japanese English" bags.

Email # 28

Dearest Family and Friends,

I am in Oyama now! I am in the Tochigi Ken Oyama. I really, really
like it. I love and miss Sanjo, but Oyama is pretty sweet. It has a
completely different feel. When I was in Sanjo, I felt really far away
from home, but Oyama feels a lot more like America. They have a ton of
foreigners here, mostly from Nepal, various places in Africa, the
Philippines, Peru, and Brazil. There is also a huge train station, a
college, and lots of people on the streets all the time. I am really
excited to work here! Elder Shimoji is my new companion. He is a work
animal. I have never been more tired in my life. There is not a single
person we see that we don't talk to. We will be riding bikes and
someone will be riding towards us and he'll just yell, "Sumimasen! Kyo wa
ii tenki desu ne" which means, "Excuse me! (The person will slam on
their brakes) Today is good weather, isn't it?" And then he'll bring
up the gospel. And it works! Almost everyone will stop and talk to us
and we have already gotten one new solid investigator just from
talking with everyone. Elder Shimoji is half Japanese, half American,
and grew up on Okinawa. I think he looks Japanese, but most Japanese
people think he is American. He blows their minds when he starts
talking in Japanese because he's totally fluent. He speaks very little
English, and only spoke Japanese growing up. He reminds me a ton of
Cam. He's quiet and a super beast missionary and he moves his hands in
the exact same way. I know that's kind of a weird thing to say, but
it's totally true. I don't know how to describe it, but it's just the
exact same. We speak a lot of Japanese, and I think that the
combination of transfers and working so hard has made my head hurt and
made me more tired than ever. It's really good though, my Japanese has
already improved in the little time I have been with him. This is his
last transfer, and I want to go out with a bang with him. It's going
to be a great transfer! This past week went well. Last p day was
crazy, and super fun. I packed a lot after we went to Yahiko. Tuesday
was basically the same thing. We packed a lot and I got ready to go,
then we went and said goodbye to some of our investigators. That
night, we went to church for dinner with Mori one last time. After
dinner, we had a goodbye family home evening event where Elder Walker,
Elder Farnworth, and I said goodbye and shared our testimonies with
our investigators. It went well. Wednesday was transfers. Elder
Henderson was our companion for a little bit, because his companion
went to Niigata early to say goodbye to some people. It was fun. I got
to talk to him for a little bit and we went to church and talked to
one of the other elder's investigators. The mission is downsizing Sanjo to 4
missionaries instead of 6, 2 elders and 2 sisters. All of the other elder's
investigators had to be transferred over to Elder Barnes and his new companion, so the missionaries

met to hand them over. The missionaries hadn't taught one of the investigators the Word of Wisdom yet,
so the investigator gave the parting missionaries some of Niigata's famous sake as a goodbye gift. Elder
Walker and Elder Farnworth and I then went to the train station and
said goodbye to Elder Henderson and Elder Barnes and Sanjo. It was
bittersweet. We went and had endo curry in Niigata before we got on
our bus. Endo curry is this super good curry with nan and is basically
always made by people from Nepal. It's amazingly good. We then took
the bus down to Tokyo. It was fun, it was all Elders and we just
talked and slept the whole time. We aren't allowed to do missionary
work on the bus, so it felt good to sleep a little bit. We then went
to the train station in Tokyo and I said goodbye to Elder Walker. I
love that guy. I'm going to miss him. He's the man. Elder Farnworth
and I met up with Elder Wheatly, Elder Farnworth's new companion and
my first zone leader. He pointed me in the right direction and I rode
a train by myself for 50 minutes or so. It felt so weird to be by
myself. I met Elder Shimoji at the eki and we went back to the
apartment. These past few days have been really good, we've just been
meeting with investigators and talking to people on the street. A ton
of the foreigners are Christian, and I can't even believe how much
easier it is to talk to them. They are really easy to get numbers and
contact information from, but they are a lot less likely to be commited.
We found a new guy, Tsuchida, just from talking to him on the street.
He's Japanese and has been thinking about God and religion lately. We
gave him a Book of Mormon and we're going to meet up and talk more
about religion later. Church was also good, there are around 80
members with a ton of young families and youth! So different from
Sanjo. It feels a lot like an American ward. I like it a lot, but I
will really miss the members up in Sanjo. They are the best. Today we
shopped and got a lot of stuff, and I took a nap. I'm so tired, it
felt really good. We are going to go teach one of our investigators,
Arnaldo, later today. He is from Brazil but speaks Japanese incredibly
well. We are going to try to set a baptismal date with him, he has
heard all the lessons and is progressing, wish us luck! That was
basically my week, it's been crazy and lots of fun with a lot of
change! Love all you guys, have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 Close, but no cigar.

 Me and Elder Shimoji with the Watanabe family.  The mom was taking the picture.  They're awesome.    We had dinner with them last night, and they are so nice.  They have two older children: one at an English school somewhere in Japan, and the other at BYU-Hawaii.  The dad is less active, but served a mission and seems to still have a strong testimony.  We aren't sure why he's less active, but he is super nice and open and awesome!

Me with Couki one last time before I left.  He's awesome and super close to baptism!