Email #34 June 15, 2015
Dearest Family and Friends,
I did it. I finally did it. As the legendary musician Iggy Azalea once said:
"I'm in the fast lane, from L.A. to Tokyo"
I have finally, after like a 7 year stop in North Carolina, made it
from L.A. to Tokyo. And Tokyo is for sure in the fast lane. This past
week has been a blast, here we go! Last Monday, we got transfer calls
and I found out I was coming to the mission home to be tech staff. I
couldn't believe it because I have nothing to do with computers. On
Tuesday, we did a lot of packing and saying goodbye and transferring
our investigators to the other companionship. It went really well, we
were able to say goodbye to all but one of our solid investigators,
and everyone had a return appointment with Elder Crosby. Thank you so
much for your prayers! The one bummer was that we weren't able to say
goodbye to the Adachis. Sister Adachi got sick and had to go to the
hospital, which in Japan doesn't mean anything because everyone goes
to the hospital as soon as they catch a cold, literally. But it did
mean we couldn't say goodbye, which was a bummer because they're
seriously the best! On Wednesday, we transferred! Elder Scott, Elder
Shimoji, and I all went to the honbu. It was a fun train ride, it was
pretty crazy because we had our bikes and some luggage and stuff and
the trains were packed. After we arrived, we walked our way to the
honbu and I met Elder Alder. He's the man! I'll include a picture with
him. He kind of talks like Jordan and he reminds me of Elder Barnes.
He doesn't really look like an athlete, but he's a beast. He played
basketball in high school and his team won their division's state
championship in Idaho. He went to Provo for a year, and played on the
same soccer team as my MTC companion Elder Erickson! He's a stud. I
went and ate ramen with Elder Shimoji after that because Elder Alder
had already eaten. It was fun to eat with Elder Shimoji one last time.
After eating, I was introduced to my new job of tech staff! Basically,
we have a bunch of stuff to do during transfer week and then after
that we just do a bunch of random miscellaneous stuff and have more
time to dendou. This week has been super busy though! We taught
Eikaiwa that night, and right before we thought we had time to go fix
an iPad. We didn't, but we were able to stop and talk to a guy and
give him a Book of Mormon and get his number. It was sweet because we
literally had 5 minutes to go work and we were able to talk to a super
cool guy! After that, in Eikaiwa, I used the things I learned from
Sister Nitta in Oyama. She was an English teacher here in Japan before
her mission, and was super, super good at teaching Eikaiwa. I tried to
do what she did and it went really well! The students here are super
cool, and one of them told me I look like John F Kennedy and now only
calls me Kennedy San (kind of like Mr. Kennedy but not as formal or
weird) so he's helping their case out a lot. We have a pretty sweet
relationship, I teach them free English and they tell me which famous
celebrities I look like. I'm a big fan. On Thursday, we played
dodgeball for exercise in the morning. It was really fun because all
of the returning home missionaries were there, so there were like 30
of us all playing. It was every man for himself and was a blast. My
arm killed the next day from throwing and my feet were destroyed but
it was totally worth it. We went on exchanges later that day, I went
with Elder Griffiths and Elder Alder went with Elder McKnight. Elder
McKnight, the missionary I am replacing, was going home, so he wanted
to have lessons with as many people as he could before he went home.
Elder Alder went to the lessons so we could have someone from our
companionship there, and I went with Elder Griffiths, another
returning missionary, to try to fix the broken iPad we have. It was
really cool, we went to Ikebukero, the second busiest train station in
the world (right after Tokyo), and tried unsuccessfully to find a
place that could fix the iPad cheaply. We failed, but we did find
something priceless: AN AUNT ANNIE'S. There's an Aunt Annie's in my
area! A lot of you probably don't know about my love of cinnamon sugar
pretzels, especially from Aunt Annie's, but it borderlines obsession.
That was a treat, and knowing that there is one in my area is even
better. Elder Griffiths and I then met with one of his former
investigators. It was incredibly awkward. It was his investigator and
the investigator's member aunt, who he lives with. It was rough, but
we went to McDonald's and I got a soft serve so it was almost worth
it. On Friday, we played dodgeball again, but a much more toned down
version because everyone was tired and had sore feet. We also got
Sister Budge's leftover food for the returning missionaries, which was
awesome. We then took the assistant's bikes to zone meeting because
they had to leave to Niigata right after that. It was so much fun.
They were these compact foldable bikes with tiny pedals so we were
just cruising through downtown Tokyo for a little more than an hour
seeing all the coolest parts of Tokyo. Tokyo is a blast, but it's so
crazy. If Las Vegas is sin city, Tokyo is Sodom and Gomorrah or outer
darkness or something. It's insane. We went to this legit pizza place
before zone conference that was so good. They had standing room only
and it was on this back alley kind of hidden and so delicious. It was
really fun to go with Elder Alder, because he served in Shibuya and
knew all the good places to see and eat. We had a really good zone
meeting, our zone is sick. It has the English speaking areas and is
the biggest zone in the mission and is just a blast. One of our zone
leaders is French, and another companionship has one Elder from
Finland and the other from Hong Kong. It's so cool. After zone
meeting, we went and had Taco Bell. Seriously, Tokyo is the best. It's
the only Taco Bell in Japan off military bases, and it was soooooooooo
good. It was kind of weird though because they tried to make it really
hip so it had dim lighting and was all hardwood and was playing rap
music. Not the Taco Bell I'm used to, but still just as good. Saturday
we did tech all day because the Assistants called us and asked us to
make some stuff. That night we had Chinese Night, and we went with
John, one of our investigators from Taiwan. It went really well. It
was all about Christ and who He was, and the Chinese missionaries were
asking people who their hero was, and John said his was Jesus Christ.
That was really cool. Sunday was good too, we went to the family ward
with one of our investigators, Yuichi. After sacrament meeting, the
bishop asked for our help to translate for one of the members here,
who is a foreigner and only speaks English. He has some small mental
issues like anger management I think because we talked for two hours
and tried to help him but at the end he just blew up and threatened to
burn down the church. It was pretty crazy. We went to the YSA ward
after that because that is technically our area. It was really good,
the YSA members are so cool. I got to talk to a lot of them and get to
know them a little bit, and they're all sick. Yesterday, we went to
downtown Tokyo and ate at this super good ramen place then shopped. It
was fun, but shopping as a missionary is so weird. I would rather just
sleep I think. Sorry this is so long, I kind of just start and ramble
and ramble then finish. Love you all, have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Calhoun
I did it. I finally did it. As the legendary musician Iggy Azalea once said:
"I'm in the fast lane, from L.A. to Tokyo"
I have finally, after like a 7 year stop in North Carolina, made it
from L.A. to Tokyo. And Tokyo is for sure in the fast lane. This past
week has been a blast, here we go! Last Monday, we got transfer calls
and I found out I was coming to the mission home to be tech staff. I
couldn't believe it because I have nothing to do with computers. On
Tuesday, we did a lot of packing and saying goodbye and transferring
our investigators to the other companionship. It went really well, we
were able to say goodbye to all but one of our solid investigators,
and everyone had a return appointment with Elder Crosby. Thank you so
much for your prayers! The one bummer was that we weren't able to say
goodbye to the Adachis. Sister Adachi got sick and had to go to the
hospital, which in Japan doesn't mean anything because everyone goes
to the hospital as soon as they catch a cold, literally. But it did
mean we couldn't say goodbye, which was a bummer because they're
seriously the best! On Wednesday, we transferred! Elder Scott, Elder
Shimoji, and I all went to the honbu. It was a fun train ride, it was
pretty crazy because we had our bikes and some luggage and stuff and
the trains were packed. After we arrived, we walked our way to the
honbu and I met Elder Alder. He's the man! I'll include a picture with
him. He kind of talks like Jordan and he reminds me of Elder Barnes.
He doesn't really look like an athlete, but he's a beast. He played
basketball in high school and his team won their division's state
championship in Idaho. He went to Provo for a year, and played on the
same soccer team as my MTC companion Elder Erickson! He's a stud. I
went and ate ramen with Elder Shimoji after that because Elder Alder
had already eaten. It was fun to eat with Elder Shimoji one last time.
After eating, I was introduced to my new job of tech staff! Basically,
we have a bunch of stuff to do during transfer week and then after
that we just do a bunch of random miscellaneous stuff and have more
time to dendou. This week has been super busy though! We taught
Eikaiwa that night, and right before we thought we had time to go fix
an iPad. We didn't, but we were able to stop and talk to a guy and
give him a Book of Mormon and get his number. It was sweet because we
literally had 5 minutes to go work and we were able to talk to a super
cool guy! After that, in Eikaiwa, I used the things I learned from
Sister Nitta in Oyama. She was an English teacher here in Japan before
her mission, and was super, super good at teaching Eikaiwa. I tried to
do what she did and it went really well! The students here are super
cool, and one of them told me I look like John F Kennedy and now only
calls me Kennedy San (kind of like Mr. Kennedy but not as formal or
weird) so he's helping their case out a lot. We have a pretty sweet
relationship, I teach them free English and they tell me which famous
celebrities I look like. I'm a big fan. On Thursday, we played
dodgeball for exercise in the morning. It was really fun because all
of the returning home missionaries were there, so there were like 30
of us all playing. It was every man for himself and was a blast. My
arm killed the next day from throwing and my feet were destroyed but
it was totally worth it. We went on exchanges later that day, I went
with Elder Griffiths and Elder Alder went with Elder McKnight. Elder
McKnight, the missionary I am replacing, was going home, so he wanted
to have lessons with as many people as he could before he went home.
Elder Alder went to the lessons so we could have someone from our
companionship there, and I went with Elder Griffiths, another
returning missionary, to try to fix the broken iPad we have. It was
really cool, we went to Ikebukero, the second busiest train station in
the world (right after Tokyo), and tried unsuccessfully to find a
place that could fix the iPad cheaply. We failed, but we did find
something priceless: AN AUNT ANNIE'S. There's an Aunt Annie's in my
area! A lot of you probably don't know about my love of cinnamon sugar
pretzels, especially from Aunt Annie's, but it borderlines obsession.
That was a treat, and knowing that there is one in my area is even
better. Elder Griffiths and I then met with one of his former
investigators. It was incredibly awkward. It was his investigator and
the investigator's member aunt, who he lives with. It was rough, but
we went to McDonald's and I got a soft serve so it was almost worth
it. On Friday, we played dodgeball again, but a much more toned down
version because everyone was tired and had sore feet. We also got
Sister Budge's leftover food for the returning missionaries, which was
awesome. We then took the assistant's bikes to zone meeting because
they had to leave to Niigata right after that. It was so much fun.
They were these compact foldable bikes with tiny pedals so we were
just cruising through downtown Tokyo for a little more than an hour
seeing all the coolest parts of Tokyo. Tokyo is a blast, but it's so
crazy. If Las Vegas is sin city, Tokyo is Sodom and Gomorrah or outer
darkness or something. It's insane. We went to this legit pizza place
before zone conference that was so good. They had standing room only
and it was on this back alley kind of hidden and so delicious. It was
really fun to go with Elder Alder, because he served in Shibuya and
knew all the good places to see and eat. We had a really good zone
meeting, our zone is sick. It has the English speaking areas and is
the biggest zone in the mission and is just a blast. One of our zone
leaders is French, and another companionship has one Elder from
Finland and the other from Hong Kong. It's so cool. After zone
meeting, we went and had Taco Bell. Seriously, Tokyo is the best. It's
the only Taco Bell in Japan off military bases, and it was soooooooooo
good. It was kind of weird though because they tried to make it really
hip so it had dim lighting and was all hardwood and was playing rap
music. Not the Taco Bell I'm used to, but still just as good. Saturday
we did tech all day because the Assistants called us and asked us to
make some stuff. That night we had Chinese Night, and we went with
John, one of our investigators from Taiwan. It went really well. It
was all about Christ and who He was, and the Chinese missionaries were
asking people who their hero was, and John said his was Jesus Christ.
That was really cool. Sunday was good too, we went to the family ward
with one of our investigators, Yuichi. After sacrament meeting, the
bishop asked for our help to translate for one of the members here,
who is a foreigner and only speaks English. He has some small mental
issues like anger management I think because we talked for two hours
and tried to help him but at the end he just blew up and threatened to
burn down the church. It was pretty crazy. We went to the YSA ward
after that because that is technically our area. It was really good,
the YSA members are so cool. I got to talk to a lot of them and get to
know them a little bit, and they're all sick. Yesterday, we went to
downtown Tokyo and ate at this super good ramen place then shopped. It
was fun, but shopping as a missionary is so weird. I would rather just
sleep I think. Sorry this is so long, I kind of just start and ramble
and ramble then finish. Love you all, have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Calhoun
Elder Ishikawa during our earthquake drill. He would have died.
Saying goodbye to Kei and his buddy
Me and Elder Miller pre-haircut. He's the man
We caught a huge toad right by the office
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