Elder James Calhoun, Tokyo Japan Mission

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