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!