Email #32     June 2, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

Sit down and buckle up because this is going to be a long one. This week was jam packed with crazy stuff, it was one of the best of my mission. On Tuesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Crosby. We went out to visit some members and potential investigators and ended up biking for a long time, like 3 or 4 hours total. We ended up talking to all the people we wanted to though and talked to quite a few people along the way. That night, we met with one of their investigators named Shun. He speaks really good English and is absolutely obsessed with Owl City. Like literally his whole world revolves around Adam Young, the main guy. Owl City had a concert here in Tokyo on Thursday and he figured out where they were staying and which train they would take and stuff, it was pretty impressive. He wanted to test his english to make sure Adam could understand him when he saw him. We had a lesson about prayer and being happy no matter what would happen. He ended up waiting at the back entrance of the Owl City guy's hotel and it worked. Powerful. On Wednesday, we had a really good district meeting and learned about studying and Japanese and feeling the Spirit and all sorts of good stuff. Later that day we went and visited one of our investigators, Kubota San. He does not have a happy life. He has two kids and is married but his apartment is a wreck and his teeth are destroyed from smoking and who knows what else. He just looks ravaged. He came out in his wife's v neck and it was way too small on him. The gospel will bring so much peace and happiness to his life. Teaching him is really hard though because he always has his kids with him and they are loud and distracting and we're just standing outside his apartment. We're trying to teach better lessons with him and get him to come to church. On Thursday, we had a blitz up in Utsunomia, the biggest city in our zone and in our prefecture (kind of like a Japanese state) but with not a lot of investigators. We ate and then went on exchanges to blitz there and find some more investigators for the missionaries there. I ended up with Elder Amado, who was in the MTC at the same time as me, we're the same transfer! He's the man, he's from Peru and speaks English super well and is a convert of 3 years and is 26 and has already graduated from college. It was super fun to dendo with him. We just went for it and the first four people we talked to accepted a Book of Mormon. We only had four on us so we passed out pamphlets until time was up. It was really awesome. We testified about the Book of Mormon to each person and they accepted. It was super cool. We both had no idea what we were doing but it was a blast. I'll include some pictures from the day. That night we went to Ooki Kyoudai's house and had curry with him. We ate on his ping pong table. The curry was so watery but it was still good. He taught me how to box afterward, he used to be a collegiate boxer. He's such a funny guy. We have chorus every Friday and we sing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" every week and he can't pronounce half the words. It's hilarious. After that, we went and ate donuts with a member, Brother Watanabe. I love him, he's so awesome. On Friday, we had our last interviews with President Budge! Scary. This transfer ends next week, and next transfer we get our new Mission President. Exciting but scary! I really love President Budge. The more I have gotten to know him, the more I love and respect and appreciate him. My interview was awesome. We just talked about faith and love and lots of good stuff. I asked him how I could improve and he was so nice, he just said to look forward to the rest of my mission and realize that "the best is yet to be." It was so comforting and really nice of him, especially because there are lots of things I could be doing better. We had weekly planning later and then went out to eat with Kei Yamanaka. Last week or two weeks ago I called him Yamanaka San, but he asked us to call him Kei. He's the man, he seriously is. He is progressing so quickly and understanding so well and such a good guy. I really, really like him. Please pray for him and that he can keep progressing and receive an answer to the Book of Mormon's truth. Anyway, we ate with him Friday night, we were going to eat ramen but the place was closed so we went to Sukia, this gnarly kind of fast food chain. Google it! After that, he came to church for a second and we talked about what would happen on Sunday. Friday night we had ping pong and chorus, and two new Eikaiwa students Elder Shimoji found on exchanges came. One said he was really good but he wasn't. So disappointing. I'm honestly not even that good at ping ping but I've never had someone better than me come to ping ping night. Some day. We gave them each a Book of Mormon after chorus and one of them could have interest. On Saturday, we had a baptism! One of the sister's investigators got baptized. It was good. Later that day, we meet with a potential investigator named Ueki and taught him about the restoration. It went well, hopefully we'll be able to meet him again! We also had a lesson with Arnaldo. We set a new baptismal date and talked about getting a blessing in order to stop smoking. Elder Shimoji and I started feeling a little sick on Saturday, but still went for ramen because it was closed on Friday. It was good. Sunday was awesome, except Elder Shimoji and I got sick. I rocked a surgeon's mask for the first time. But we had four people come to church! We would have six but two came late and didn't count. Kei came and brought a friend! It was legit. After sacrament meeting, we had some members talk to Kei and his buddy to become friends with them. After church, we taught Arnaldo. He had a bunch of questions about olive oil. It went well. We slept after church because Elder Shimoji had a fever and we were both feeling awful. I gave my first blessing! It was a cool experience. That night, we went to the Bishop's house with an investigator, Minagawa. It went really well. The last lesson we taught him did not go well, he is super shy and doesn't have a whole ton of interest and last lesson was too much. After dinner, Yanada Shimai asked us why we became missionaries and it turned into a testimony meeting. It was really good, it wasn't too strong and the Spirit was super strong. He committed to come to church! On Monday, nothing super crazy happened. We were both still feeling pretty out of it so we did some planning for the rest of the week and visited some members. We also visited Jared, a 14 year old investigator from Peru. His mom is investigating too, and his grandparents are members here in the ward. Recently, Jared hasn't been progressing because his grandpa is pushing him so hard to get baptized. Please pray that their relationship will strengthen so Jared will want to read and pray and can progress. Today, we went to the temple! It was awesome. We woke up at 5 and took a bullet train, it was sweet. It was so fast. My voice is completely shot, but I'm feeling a lot better. After the temple, we went to a restaurant called burgermania. It was really good, it felt good to have a good burger. I had this famous kind that all the missionaries love called the cherry burger. It had this cherry paste stuff that was super good. Elder Nielsen was also there, it was so good to see him and Elder Mobley and Elder Walker and all my buds from earlier. I love those guys! Going home was an adventure. Tokyo is crazy. People there are nuts. Girls wear some of the craziest stuff I've ever seen, like lace up converse platform shoes with like no joke a 6 to 8 inch platform. It's crazy. We also saw a guy drinking milk out of a water balloon. People are weird, but Tokyo is so cool. It's huge. The train stations are massive, I can't even believe it. On the way home, we took an earlier train that we were expecting and it followed the same route until we hit a fork, and it took the wrong one for us. We got off a few stops later but it added about an hour. Elder Shimoji and I were out, if felt really good. We got home and shopped then had family home evening. Kei was supposed to come, but he thought it was on Wednesday night, so he missed it! Bummer. All good though, we're meeting him tomorrow. It was an amazing week! Love you all, have a fantastic week! I'll email you on Monday! 

Love,

Elder Calhoun

My drink artsified. It's this weird soda that has jello in it.  I like it.

Me and Elder Amado toasting to an awesom blitz.

Tanaka Shimai.  She's so nice.  HEr husband is less active but she comes every week.

 Elder Shimoji doing him.

Where I'm getting my haircut on Monday.