#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
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!
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