Email #45           August 31, 2015

Bummer

Dearest Family and Friends,

I wrote an email earlier but it got deleted! As my good friend Elder Diderickson would say, "Bums." I'll write a good email next week. We had a really fun and crazy sports night. As wild as it was, it was super effective.  There were 6 investigators and 2 less actives who came.  Good stuff.  Transfers are in, Elder Alder is out. I'll miss him, he's a beast and I've learned a lot from him. My next companion is named Elder Harrison. He's transfer four so we're going to be like headless chickens running around. Pray for us. I love this gospel and the happiness it brings me and everyone else. I also love all of you! Have a wonderful week!

Love,Elder Calhoun

Photo from the temple 

 P day is fire, but missionary work is infinitely better!

 Panorama from companionship study.  We throw the soccer ball at the beginning and whoever drops it has to sing a solo for the second verse of our opening hymn.  After we pray, we all stand up and recite the first vision and our purpose.  This idea just came to us one day as we were reciting it.

Screenshot from video of me getting pegged in the face.

#44         Tuesday, August 25

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week went really well! I don't have very much time so this is
going to be super short, even by Elder Calhoun standards. Some of the
highlights of this week were talking to Ken after Eikaiwa, district
meeting, and the temple today. After Eikaiwa on Wednesday, I had a
really good talk with Ken. He's such a stud. He really wants to be
happier but is having a hard time thinking that the gospel is a
reality and that Christ can really help him. We talked about how the
church is true and that Christ is a very real, living person who
performed a very real, applicable atonement, and although many
different people have varying thoughts or beliefs about this, it does
not change the reality that Christ and the atonement are real, true
things. He said that he would pray this week to know whether or not
the Book of Mormon is true. It's amazing how much I've come to love
the people that I work with on my mission. The times that I have felt
the Spirit most strongly are when I am teaching and feel heaven's love
for the person that is being taught. It's so incredible that the
Spirit is the real teacher, and that as we teach both the hearer and
the teacher are edified and uplifted. District meeting went really
well because of the amazing missionaries here in Nakano. Sister Palmer
did a training over Skype. It was really good. She was and is an
incredible missionary and I have learned and am still learning a ton
from her about dendo, our attitude about life, and choosing, finding,
and spreading happiness. Nori, a super cool member from the YSA group
here, also talked about how we can work more closely with the member
here. He basically just said that we need to show interest in the
members and get to know them and love them. We are going to memorize
all of the ward member's names (which is so hard, Japanese names are
so hard to remember) and do a Book of Mormon challenge with them,
thanks to Sister Palmer. We will challenge all of them to give out a
Book of Mormon within a month, and to share their experiences in
testimony meeting. This will allow us to all work towards a common
goal and for the missionaries to follow up with the members and get to
know them better. The temple today went really well. I have found that
when I go to the temple with a question that I need help with or need
answering, I get much more out of the session. It is a real, tangible
way that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and I am so incredibly
thankful that we have one in our mission. One other highlight was
staying awake in church this week. It was hard, especially because we
have two sacrament meetings to go to, but I did it. My thought this
week is about commitment. I've found that when I commit myself to do
something that I know I can do if I set my mind to it and that God
wants me to do, I do it. When we commit ourselves to this gospel, we
find happiness. When we commit ourselves to reading the Book of Mormon
and praying about it, we discover truth. When we commit our
investigators to do something, they change. When we commit ourselves
to do something that is alignment with God's will, He will help us do
it. It might be hard, but we can do it. That's a really empowering
principle I think. Also, I challenge everyone to read "Absolute Truth"
by President Spencer from the July 1979 Liahona. It's one of the best
talks I've ever read. I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 Elder Yoshino and his Ferrari background.  Sometimes we 

change the background when he leaves the room.

 Yugi, the man.  He leaves for BYU on Thursday.

Elder Nakaima.  He's awesome.  Sometimes he looks like a Simpsons character.

#43         August 17, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was a week of recovery after destroying Elder Henderson at
capture the flag. I was tired pretty much all week but feel much
better now. Naps are amazing things. On Tuesday, we were supposed to
go to sukiyaki with a less active but he cancelled on us. Sukiyaki is
this delicious Japanese food where you get a ton of vegetables and
other stuff like potatoes and mushrooms (are mushrooms vegetables?)
and then this super thinly sliced pork and beef and it's all you can
eat. All you can eat restaurants in Japan are really good, the quality
of the meat isn't like it is in America. Anyway, we scrambled really
hard to get someone to go with us but no one could. We were craving it
super hard so we just went anyway for dinner. It was super good but
Elder Alder got sick the next morning from eating so much meat. He
repented of not being a man and being able to handle his meat. We've
been eating out much less than before and it feels really awesome.
Eating out a lot is the worst. This past week was Obon, a really big
holiday here in Japan where people believe that their ancestors come
back to their shrines in their house and then leave at the end of the
holiday. It's really good for family history work, but because
everyone goes back to their hometowns for it, a lot of our
investigators left Tokyo or were busy for the week. We had to cancel
our English bible class we teach every Tuesday. On Wednesday, we had a
good day of work and then went to Eikaiwa. One of our investigators,
Ken, comes to Eikaiwa every week and really likes it. He says it's the
highlight of his week, and that we're some of his best friends because
we're kind and care about him. The gospel is so awesome. Ken reads the
Book of Mormon because we ask him to, but doesn't completely
understand why we ask him or the blessings he can get from reading.
We're trying to get him to switch from reading because we ask him to
to reading because he knows it will bring him happiness and the
Spirit. Eikaiwa is always fun, I love our students. They're so funny
and awesome and the game we play at the end is always hilarious. On
Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Ogata, the recorder here in
the mission home. He's a beast. He's so kind, he's always doing dishes
and cleaning up and showing love to everyone. He's the man. We went
and visited some less actives, none of which were home, then went to
another less active's house who they are working with named Yamamoto.
He has kind of a rough living situation. He had the craziest wiring
I've ever seen, he had like wired his apartment himself and had a
bunch of speakers around his house so his record-player would have
sick surround sound. Yes, correct, he uses a record player. It was
actually kind of cool, he played some Bob Marley for us to show how it
all works. I'll include a video of it. That night we went to a super
good ramen place around Ikebukero, the second biggest train station in
the world that's in our area. It's seriously massive. It's bigger than
a lot of airports I've been in. We went finding that night and it went
well. I'm liking finding more and more, I feel like I'm working hard
when I do it and it always feels effective. It's a good feeling. On
Friday, we had a good zone meeting in the morning. One of the
districts in our zone has been working on making this huge, door sized
Book of Mormon to use at Shibuya crossing, the biggest crossing in the
world. We went in the car to pick up the Book of Mormon and drop it
off at the Shibuya church. Having a car is so nice. The Japanese
Elders drive and we just tag along and study or do calls or something.
It's awesome. Zone meeting went really well. Elder Cannon had a great
training about the mindset of doing missionary work and Elder
Lamminatious (I know I spelled his name wrong but there's no way it's
happening), an Elder from Finland, about working with members. We went
to all you can eat indo curry, this really delicious kind of curry
from Nepal or India with bottomless Nan, the most delicious bread on
earth. Elder Cannon and I had been talking smack about who could eat
more nan and he has an iron will so I had to do some preparing. I took
Cam's advice and pounded a ton of water right before bed, a whole
gallon. It was a bad idea, I had to get up like 4 times that night to
use the restroom. However, it worked. I won. I ate 17 and he ate 14,
but we were both out eaten by a missionary named Elder Seager. He had
26. He's legendary for his eating abilities. He gained 100 pounds his
freshman year at BYU because he would have a cake every single day,
half of it for breakfast, a large Chick-fil-a meal, Creamery Ice
Cream, and would pound at the Cannon Center. He's an animal, he can
eat like no one I've ever seen. We had some good tech time after and
then went to volleyball. It went really well, we talked to these two
Nepalese guys we've been working on for a while about coming to church
to play ping pong and one of them came the next day! He wants to learn
about Christ and Mormonism, as his cousin is a less active here in the
ward and he's never really heard or learned about Christ. He's 17 and
an absolute tank. Huge guy. Saturday, we had a great day. We worked on
some things for the giant Book of Mormon and then went and did it! It
was such a cool experience. We just talked to everyone we could at the
crossing and talked about the Book of Mormon. We ended up handing out
around 40 copies in the short 2 hours we were there! It was amazing.
There was one group that just walked up to us and asked if they could
each have a Book of Mormon, as they were from China, where they aren't
allowed to have religion, and really wanted to learn more about
religion and Mormonism. It was super cool, we had brought Chinese
copies of the Book of Mormon that we gave to them. We're trying to
take it past just Shibuya and hopefully get it going online. We're
using the hashtag #thebook in our posts. Mormon friends with
Instagram, Facebook, and/or Twitter, please post about the Book of
Mormon using the hashtag and invite your friends to do the same! I
think this has some really awesome potential. We are trying to send it
out to some big Facebook pages too and have them explain what we're
trying to do. We got one page to make us their cover photo, LDS
Missionaries, but they didn't explain the hashtag or anything. It
still has like 2,000 likes which is kind of cool. Anyway, please post
about the Book of Mormon using the hashtag! Sunday was great too. We
had a good church, lunch, tech time, and then YSA church. One of the
YSA guys took like 4 pieces of bread and then they ended up being like
2 pieces short. Probably the only time in the history of the church
someone has sinned while taking the sacrament. It was super lame. We
went to a devotional they had that night by the new BYU-H President
with a less active. He ended up just walking out like 3 minutes in but
there was a general authority there and we didn't just want to stand
up and leave so we listened to it. It was really good. He talked a lot
about loving learning and how God wants us to love learning. Not just
studying to get good grades, but to make learning a lifelong pursuit
because it's an eternal principle. It was good. Elder Whiting also
talked about how much revelation and the Spirit he has felt from
people talking from the pulpit where he was standing, which was a call
for repentance for me. Staying awake in English Sacrament is kind of
hard, but staying awake in Japanese Sacrament Meeting is downright
impossible. Sacrament meeting Japanese is literally like impossible to
understand and we can't use our iPads to search words or read other
gospel materials so the members don't think we're slackers and just on
our iPads during sacrament. I'm really going to do my best to stay
awake in sacrament from now on. Pray for me though, I seriously need
it. Today was good too. We just chilled and napped and played ping
pong. Lots of fun and relaxing. I love all of you, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 "A Food Thing Is Caught."  Japanese English is the best!

 My main man Ken!

 The door-sized Book of Mormon

 My friend, Elder Lamminatious (Elder L), from Finland

 Doing missionary work  at the busiest intersection in the world.

People here have issues with Spam.  They love it.

#42       August 10, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week went well. Today was fun. It took lots of time because we
had a zone p day. We played capture the flag, Tokyo West zone vs Tokyo
East. Elder Henderson is now in Tokyo East. We destroyed them 3-0. I
outran Elder Henderson and it felt so good. All the missionaries here
in Nakano are so amazing. We saw some cool miracles this week. Sato
Kyoudai, a member here, knocked on our door during dinner and asked to
go dendo with us. We went and visited a different member and prayed
with them then went out and worked for an hour and a half. We were
able to find 2 potential new Eikaiwa students and give out a Book of
Mormon. It was cool. Working together with members is a big focus
right now in the mission. We're figuring out how to do it, but
visiting members before dendoing is a really good idea I think. That's
about it for the week. It went really well and as always, there is a
ton of stuff to report, but I'm plastered right now and have zero
time. I'm sorry that I didn't get to email anyone today, I seriously
sent out zero individual emails so please don't get mad at me for not
emailing you. I read an amazing article by Spencer W. Kimball from the
July 1978 Liahona. It's about keeping the Sabbath day holy. Here are
some of his thoughts:

"The Sabbath is a holy day in which to do worthy and holy things.
Abstinence from work and recreation is important, but insufficient.
The Sabbath calls for constructive thoughts and acts, and if one
merely lounges about doing nothing on the Sabbath, he is breaking it.
To observe it, one will be on his knees in prayer, preparing lessons,
studying the gospel, meditating, visiting the ill and distressed,
writing letters to missionaries, taking a nap, reading wholesome
material, and attending all the meetings of that day at which he is
expected.

One good but mistaken man I know claimed he could get more out of a
good book on Sunday than he could get in attending church services,
saying that the sermons were hardly up to his standards. But we do not
go to Sabbath meetings to be entertained or even solely to be
instructed. We go to worship the Lord. It is an individual
responsibility, and regardless of what is said from the pulpit, if one
wishes to worship the Lord in spirit and truth, he may do so by
attending his meetings, partaking of the sacrament, and contemplating
the beauties of the gospel. If the service is a failure to you, you
have failed. No one can worship for you; you must do your own
worshiping of the Lord."

"The purpose of the commandment is not to deprive man of something.
Every commandment that God has given to his servants is for the
benefit of those who receive and obey it. Man profits by the careful
and strict observance of the Sabbath, man also suffers by the breaking
of the laws of God."

I really love how this gospel is all about our happiness, and that
keeping the Sabbath day holy can and will make us more happy. Sunday
is a good day, and I am grateful that I am learning to appreciate it
more.

I love all of you, have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 Teaching Yuichi, on the far left and his friends.  This is from last week.  The man next to Elder Alder is coming to church in the first week of September when Yuichi gets back from his vacation!

 Me and Elder Henderson.  My tie is from Lindsey.  It's way dope and I received a lot of compliments.  Thank you so much Lindsey!  Sorry for no email.  You rock.

 I broke my third chair of my mission this week.  I don't know how I'm breaking so many chairs.

 Balling in Yoyogi Park.  It's super fun and really good finding.  TK, one of our progressing investigators, was found here.  We found another PI and had a blast doing it this past week.

 We found Mexican food today.  It was delicious and our table was a football table and we had way too much fun.

I pet a squirrel monkey today.  It was so cool.  Today was such a good day.  It was someone's pet, and it also had its own little pet monkey stuffed animal.

#41    August 3, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

I don't have much time tonight, I'm sorry. I'm a slacker, but know
that I'm busy helping people here in Japan! This week went pretty
well. We could have worked harder I think. This week we are making
consecration our focus, really being exactly obedient and working as
hard as we can. Missionary life can be hard because you realize just
how much room for improvement you have. 10 months ago, I would have
thought that I was working super hard. Now, I see that there is so
much room for improvement and working harder and being better. It's a
good motivator. I'll share a couple of cool experiences from this past
week. We taught Yuichi yesterday with his friends. It was a super long
lesson, but it went really well and I think we could get a new
investigator from it. We taught them the restoration and one of them
was really interested and is going to come to church. Another cool
experience was going to shinokobo, or Korean town. We didn't find any
Koreans, but we got 3 Facebooks and a cell phone number. One of the
people we found has been texting us unceasingly about English class.
He's going to bring a friend. That was pretty cool. I have a quick
spiritual thought this week. I read this in Mosiah 2 today:

"4 And also that they might give thanks to the Lord their God, who had
brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, and who had delivered them
out of the hands of their enemies, and had appointed just men to be
their teachers, and also a just man to be their king, who had
established peace in the land of Zarahemla, and who had taught them to
keep the commandments of God, that they might rejoice and be filled
with love towards God and all men."

I really like that last part. I have been thinking a lot lately about
how I can be more kind and loving to those around me, especially my
companion. I think that one of the biggest ways I can do that is be
more exactly obedient to the mission rules and the commandments. As I
am more obedient, I will have more of the Spirit and be more happy and
more filled with love "towards God and all men" and thus be more kind
to them. Life is good. I am happy. I am going to work harder and be
more happy this week. I am really far behind on my journal, so I am
working on that. Please follow up with me and ask me if I have been
catching up next week. As I write in my journal more, I think these
will get shorter, as I will no longer feel the need to chronicle my
mission in letters home. Please be happy this week! I love all of you,
have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

The pizza Elder Alder made a few nights ago.  We didn't really have cheese but he just went for it. #respect

District picture!  I was trying to rush back to make the photo timer but didn't really make it.  The other picture was worse though.

What happens when I touch the computer.  Pray for the mission.

Sister Kotter and a cake we received from some parents of a missionary in the mission.  Really nice of the.  Sister Kotter is the best.  She and Elder Kotter are the office couple here, and they work so hard.  Sister Kotter is hilarious. She has such a wonderful sense of humor and we all love her.  They are fantastic.

#40         July 27, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was awesome! It's almost time to sleep so this will
(probably) be brief. It was transfer week, so we had a lot of work. It
went well, we knocked it out quickly and were able to teach the most
lessons we have yet here in Nakano, which was a huge miracle for
transfer week. We played dodgeball with the arriving and departing
missionaries and it was roughhh this time. I threw my arm out pretty
badly on Tuesday so the next day when we all played together my arm
was killing me and I couldn't throw and I kept getting out and it was
the worst. I hate losing so much. Transfers were fun though, 3
missionaries got delayed so we had to train twice and got twice the
amount of leftovers from the mission home. And there are a few
missionaries going home early for BYU that arrive tomorrow so it's
been pretty crazy around here. The best day of this past week was
Thursday. Elder Bischoff worked with us because he was going home and
needed a companion for a day and he used to be tech staff. He's 6'6
and a big boy, not skinny, like in good shape. He's a gentle giant,
super kind and loving and gentle. We went and visited a less active
with him and it went super well. The less active committed to church
and to play basketball. It ended up being too hot for him to come, but
that was big progress. Kind of a lame excuse but we had a really good
lesson. Then we met with Sugimoto. Sugimoto kind or dropped us three
weeks ago, and we didn't know why. We talked it out and had a super
spiritual lesson. It was incredible! He's back! He came to a summer
festival we had on Saturday and then came to church on Sunday! He
believes the Book of Mormon is true and we haven't even taught him
Moroni 10:3-5. So cool! Elder Bischoff is a miracle worker. It was an
awesome week. I'm loving the work and Japan and everything about life.
Life is good! We didn't really have time to study this past week, so
it'll be a quick spiritual thought. One of my favorite scriptures now
is Mosiah 2:41. I love this gospel because of the happiness it can and
will bring to every single person. I'm a missionary because it makes
me and other people happy! Have a wonderful week everyone!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 Elder Aiken: Alex Henderson and Spenser Miller's friend from BYU

 Natsumatsuri, or Summer Festival.  They send cold noodles down the pipe thing and you catch them and eat them in sauce.

 A really blurry photo from zone meeting a week or so ago.

We cleared Ipads and found this awesome photo of Elder Cannon.  He's the man!

#39       July 20, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

I don't have very much time again, I'm so sorry. I didn't use very
much of my email time today and we didn't use all of our p day time so
I'll be able to email a little bit during lunch tomorrow. This is
going to be a really brief email. I'm doing great, this past week was
awesome, and I'm loving life! Today was transfer calls. Nothing really
changed, Elder Alder and I are staying together for one more here in
Nakano. I'm excited, he's the man. We're going to make consecration
and hard work our biggest priority this transfer, really getting out
of the office as quickly as we can and dendoing hard. The one sad
thing that is changing is that Elder Cannon is leaving. He'll still be
in my zone and I'll get to see him pretty frequently, but living with
him has really been amazing. I've had the privilege to know two of the
 Cannon brothers, and I've learned tons from both. Pray that he goes
to BYU so we can all have a blast together there. We saw two really
cool miracles this past week (that I remember. oops). On Tuesday, I
shared a quote my dad sent me with Yuichi, one of our investigators.
The quote was by Teddy Roosevelt and was about trying and not giving
up. We were able to discover Yuichi's needs, which are to talk about
culture and society. He's such an interesting man. He said that there
have been two really good things that have allowed him to progress in
the gospel. The first was simple service, or just doing simple acts of
service to help others, one of the really big emphasizes of the Church
lately. The second was this quote. He said that it was the first sign
of culture from a Mormon missionary in ten years. Good stuff. We're
going to set aside ten minutes to talk about culture and relate it to
the gospel, and then teach the rest of the hour. We're also going to
try to start a meeting with church members where he can just talk
about culture and society with Mormons. It was really cool, and I
think that will really help him progress. The second big miracle was
on Friday. We had a really good zone meeting about finding and
becoming better missionaries. We go to a volleyball activity every
Friday and try to teach a less active and some potential
investigators, but lately it hasn't been very effective. We decided
that we weren't going to go if we couldn't find a way to make it more
effective. We invited a potential investigator to go with us and he
accepted, and since that was the only time we could meet with him, we
decided to go. Right when we got there, this 20 year old calls down to
us from the floor above and asks if we're Mormon. We started talking
to him and he came down and played volleyball with us for a while. He
did a homestay in Utah and his host family was Mormon. He said that he
has been really busy lately but wants to come to church. That was
really cool. As soon as we decided to really consecrate our time,
Heavenly Father blessed us. Another cool thing we got to do this week
was finish designing the mission logo. It was a great week. I'm really
grateful to be in the honbu and have the opportunity to get to know
the Naganos. They are incredible human beings and mission president
couple. I'll include a quick spiritual thought. Today, I was able to
finish reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. I know that the
Book of Mormon is true. The more I read it, the more I realize how
much of my testimony revolves around it, and how important it is for
investigators to read and receive a testimony of. I am so grateful for
the peace and the comfort and the knowledge that comes from that book.
I'll send some pictures tomorrow during lunch. I love you all, thank
you for your patience with my terrible emailing, have a wonderful
week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 Elder Cannon sleeping in all his clothes in order to be exactly obedient and make curfew.

District lunch at the Kotter's, the office senior couple.  They're the best!

#38                July 14, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was awesome! We improved and had fun. On Tuesday, we did our
normal stuff and then went and visited two members. The first was the
YSA group leader, and the second was a member who helps us teach our
bible class every week. We are really trying to build up the
relationship between us and the YSA members. On Wednesday, we had
office meeting and it was awesome. I really love the Naganos. They are
incredible. One of the things that has really meant a lot to me is how
much they care about me personally. They ask each of the office
missionaries how we're doing and how our families are doing and what
we plan on doing after our mission. They're incredibly kind and loving
and it has really made an impression on me. Later in the day we had
Eikaiwa, and we were able to teach two lessons after. One of our
Eikaiwa students, who goes to our intermediate class, is named Ken.
Ken is the man. He is so cool and fun to talk to. He's probably around
40 and speaks English incredibly well and is super laid back and also
really open to the gospel. He has been taught a lot but hasn't been
taught the last two transfers. We set up a lesson for Saturday. On
Thursday, we went to the Mission Leadership Conference. Our only
purpose is to take notes for the leaders, we aren't mission leaders or
anything, but it was awesome to be there and hear the sweet ideas
going around the room. I was so drained after, it was crazy. Normally
I feel so fired up after zone conferences and meetings but this time I
was just drained. It was a really cool experience though. On Friday,
we had a good district meeting and then a fun district lunch. It took
like an hour to bring out our food, but it was good to bond as a
district and be able to talk. That night we went to our weekly
volleyball activity. It was fun, but it wasn't very effective. There's
a less active who goes, but teaching him is really hard. We're going
to make it more effective by bringing someone or setting up
appointments with the less active or something, and if that doesn't
work, we'll stop going. I really feel like we need to keep improving
and using our time more effectively. Up until this point, I've had
companions that have been super motivated and just go out and get it
down. This transfer, we're still going out and working, but a lot more
of it is us working together getting out, as opposed to just having a
super motivated companion who tells me to leave. It's been really good
for me to be the one who is motivated and trying to get out and go do.
I've been learning a lot about myself and motivation and becoming a
better missionary. On Saturday, we went and played football with some
of the YSAs. We had an investigator coming, but he cancelled. It was a
really good activity. We were able to talk to a lot of the YSAs and
build a relationship with them. I was also all time quarterback and
throwing the best spirals of my life, which helped make it a good
activity. That night, we went and visited a really awesome kind of
less active who had been sick all week. He had just moved and was
getting stomach ulcers from stress, and couldn't move for a few days.
It was really good to go visit him and show him love. We taught him a
short lesson about D&C 88:119 since he had just moved. By the time we
ended the lesson, it was 9:06 and we had to haul back to make it in
time because his apartment was about 30 minutes away and curfew is at
9:30. We hauled and made it at exactly 9:30, drenched in sweet but
obedient. On Sunday, we had church. Lots of church. We go to two hours
of the family ward because of Yuichi, and then since we're over the
YSA ward we also go there at 2. They have two separate missionary
coordination meetings though, so we have to go to both. It's good
stuff, it really makes me appreciate Dad and the other hard working
church members who have tons of meetings. Hey it's almost 10:30 and I
have to go to bed, so I'll finish this email tomorrow morning and send
pictures. Love you all, talk to you in a few hours!

Yesterday, we tried to go visit some people from the YSA and some less
active members, but Elder Alder's bike got a flat and we had to turn
back to make it to FHE and an appointment we had on time. TK, the
super cool kid we found a few weeks ago, came to FHE and to play
basketball. We were short one player to play 2 on 2, so we went into
FHE and grabbed one more player. In the process, I succeeded in
ticking off pretty much everyone in the room because I interrupted the
lesson. I'm getting really good at offending people. I think I have a
little bit of Granddad's genes, because I did not think about
interrupting that lesson at all. I apologized afterwards which helped
a lot, one of the people who was most irritated ended up saying that
if we ever need help she would help us and to be careful in the heat
and stuff. It was good. We had a fun time with TK. He's a stud, his
English is crazy. He's learning the names of bones right now in
English, which I don't even know. We're going to meet with him again
next week and hopefully have a good sit down lesson after. It was a
good day. Yesterday, we went to the temple. It was really good. I went
with a question this time, and got more out of it than I ever have.
I'm incredibly grateful that we have a temple in our mission and have
the opportunity to go once a transfer. After, we went to eat with
Elder Nielsen and Elder Walker and Elder Mobley. I love those guys. It
was an awesome day. Last night, we went up to check on our garden, and
it got fried. We didn't have time to water it for a couple of days and
it's been super hot here the past few days so it just got hammered. We
are in the process of rescuing it, but it is no longer a roof garden.
It is now just a ground garden. Despite the decrease in the coolness
factor, the fact that we have a garden is still pretty sick. Please
send your best wishes its way for a speedy recovery. Before I end with
a spiritual thought, I would like to say that I'm sure reading these
emails is incredibly boring. The way that I am writing is so dry that
I apologize to those who actually read these emails, and congratulate
you on making it this far. If you have any suggestions on how to make
these emails less dry and easier to read, please send them my way.

This week, and especially the past couple of days I've been thinking a
lot about the importance of preparation. There are a lot of things
that I want to do on my mission and with my life, and I am beginning
to see how important preparing for these things is. One of the big
things I felt in the temple yesterday was the importance of having a
good study. If I want to go out and have the Spirit and be ready to
teach and help others, I need to have prepared to the best of my
ability to know what to say and how to say it and to be ready to be
led by the Spirit. This applies to all parts of life as well. If we
want to hit the game winner or have a brilliant business idea or go to
an amazing grad school or succeed in any aspect of our lives, we can't
just sit around and dream about it or think that it will fall into our
laps. We have to do the small things leading up to that big moment in
order to be ready and prepared to crush it. Alma 37:6 reads:

6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say
unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to
pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

One of the biggest small and simple things we can do is put in the
work of preparation every day, in order to be ready for the great
thing. I love you all, sorry this is so long and in two parts. Have a
wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

P.S. I'm really sorry that I couldn't email a lot of you this week.
This transfer has been so busy, I'm really trying but not succeeding
as well as I would like. Please forgive me!

 Me and Elder Hansen.  He's from NC and loves Zach Brown Band and is basically my better looking, bigger twin.  I love him.

 Me and Elder Mobley!  I've learned so much from him.

I have my arms around Elder Neilsen and Elder Walker.  Elder Walker leaves in just a few weeks.  I'm going to miss him.  I want to be Elder Nielsen's companion really badly.  Elder Mobley and Elder Alder are also on the right, next to the elders in the suits.

 Weird Ads Part II

 The top left apartment burned out.  We saw the fire happening on Tuesday.  It was distressing.  Thankfully no one was hurt.  The firefighters worked hard and are heroes for sure.

Ken and Elder Alder jamming