Email #48 September 21, 2015
Dearest Family and Friends,
These past two weeks went really well. Last week was awesome. On
Thursday, we went up to Kiryu for zone conference. It had rained a lot
the night before, especially in Tochigi Ken, where the conference was.
As we were driving up, the missionaries in the zone started calling
saying the train stations were closed and they ended up needing to
cancel the conference. We just ended up going on to Niigata. The next
day we had Niigata zone conference. It went well. Our training was
pretty good, it could be a lot worse. After zone conference, I got to
go down to SANJO! It was so much fun. I got to eat at Toncatsu Sanjo
and meet with quite a few of my old investigators and Mori Kyoudai. It
went really well and it was fun to go back. I was also able to beat
Elder Barnes's egg record at Toncatsu Sanjo, and now have the Tokyo
Mission Record. For those of you who do not know, Toncatsu Sanjo is
this famous restaurant in Sanjo that has this really good chicken dish
called Toncatsu but it also has all you can eat eggs. Elder Barnes had
the record with 16, but I was able to beat him by one with 17. It was
a little rough because you have to eat your whole meal too, and I
wasn't planning on going for the record when I ordered so I had
ordered the biggest meal. But I did it. Dang it feels good to be a
champion. After staying for the day, we went back on Saturday for
district conference in Niigata. We had the rest of district conference
on Sunday, and I got to see all of the Sanjo members. It was awesome
to see them. When they saw me, pretty much everyone's first comment
was, "You've lost weight," before saying hello or anything. Japanese
people are so upfront, which can be brutal if you've gained weight but
nice if you've lost it. I love the members in Sanjo so much. We drove
back that night and got in late. It was a fun drive, just me and Elder
Hughes and the Naganos. We got to talk to them and get to know them
better and learn from them. It was a really great few days, full of
the Spirit and learning and catching up. This past week has also gone
really well. Sugimoto is doing really well. We had a good lesson about
baptism on Tuesday. He still doesn't completely understand the
importance of the priesthood, but he is praying about getting baptized
this week, and we are planning on setting a date with him tomorrow!
Please pray that it will go well. On Wednesday, we had the most
throw-down conference ever. President Whiting from the Area Presidency
came and humbled us. He talked a lot about how we need to have more
faith. It was really good and badly needed. On Saturday, we went up to
Ibaraki ken, where the worst of the typhoon hit, to help the people
who got flooded there last week. It was really fun and it was awesome
to help those who needed it. It was pretty crazy, you could see the
water line from the flood and it was about 6 feet of water. Many
people's houses were flooded and they had a ton of cleaning to do.
They had to take out their flooring and dry it and there was just a
ton of garbage that got washed in. They were all taking it like champs
though, pretty much all of them were still happy and kind and smiling
despite having to trash pretty much all of their stuff. It was
impressive. Afterwards we went to the hot springs but we couldn't go
in which was a bummer, but we all ate together and had a good time. We
also taught Kosei, a new investigator after the service project. It
went pretty well, we taught a terrible lesson but it ended well and we
are going to meet again. Good stuff! Today was lots of fun too. We had
zone p day here in Nakano and everyone came and we had a big barbecue
and played basketball and had a blast. It was fun to be with the zone.
Everyone brought their own meat for the barbecue and Elder Harrison
and I made shish-kebobs. They were fire. They took forever to make but
it was so worth it. Great day! I love you all, have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Calhoun
These past two weeks went really well. Last week was awesome. On
Thursday, we went up to Kiryu for zone conference. It had rained a lot
the night before, especially in Tochigi Ken, where the conference was.
As we were driving up, the missionaries in the zone started calling
saying the train stations were closed and they ended up needing to
cancel the conference. We just ended up going on to Niigata. The next
day we had Niigata zone conference. It went well. Our training was
pretty good, it could be a lot worse. After zone conference, I got to
go down to SANJO! It was so much fun. I got to eat at Toncatsu Sanjo
and meet with quite a few of my old investigators and Mori Kyoudai. It
went really well and it was fun to go back. I was also able to beat
Elder Barnes's egg record at Toncatsu Sanjo, and now have the Tokyo
Mission Record. For those of you who do not know, Toncatsu Sanjo is
this famous restaurant in Sanjo that has this really good chicken dish
called Toncatsu but it also has all you can eat eggs. Elder Barnes had
the record with 16, but I was able to beat him by one with 17. It was
a little rough because you have to eat your whole meal too, and I
wasn't planning on going for the record when I ordered so I had
ordered the biggest meal. But I did it. Dang it feels good to be a
champion. After staying for the day, we went back on Saturday for
district conference in Niigata. We had the rest of district conference
on Sunday, and I got to see all of the Sanjo members. It was awesome
to see them. When they saw me, pretty much everyone's first comment
was, "You've lost weight," before saying hello or anything. Japanese
people are so upfront, which can be brutal if you've gained weight but
nice if you've lost it. I love the members in Sanjo so much. We drove
back that night and got in late. It was a fun drive, just me and Elder
Hughes and the Naganos. We got to talk to them and get to know them
better and learn from them. It was a really great few days, full of
the Spirit and learning and catching up. This past week has also gone
really well. Sugimoto is doing really well. We had a good lesson about
baptism on Tuesday. He still doesn't completely understand the
importance of the priesthood, but he is praying about getting baptized
this week, and we are planning on setting a date with him tomorrow!
Please pray that it will go well. On Wednesday, we had the most
throw-down conference ever. President Whiting from the Area Presidency
came and humbled us. He talked a lot about how we need to have more
faith. It was really good and badly needed. On Saturday, we went up to
Ibaraki ken, where the worst of the typhoon hit, to help the people
who got flooded there last week. It was really fun and it was awesome
to help those who needed it. It was pretty crazy, you could see the
water line from the flood and it was about 6 feet of water. Many
people's houses were flooded and they had a ton of cleaning to do.
They had to take out their flooring and dry it and there was just a
ton of garbage that got washed in. They were all taking it like champs
though, pretty much all of them were still happy and kind and smiling
despite having to trash pretty much all of their stuff. It was
impressive. Afterwards we went to the hot springs but we couldn't go
in which was a bummer, but we all ate together and had a good time. We
also taught Kosei, a new investigator after the service project. It
went pretty well, we taught a terrible lesson but it ended well and we
are going to meet again. Good stuff! Today was lots of fun too. We had
zone p day here in Nakano and everyone came and we had a big barbecue
and played basketball and had a blast. It was fun to be with the zone.
Everyone brought their own meat for the barbecue and Elder Harrison
and I made shish-kebobs. They were fire. They took forever to make but
it was so worth it. Great day! I love you all, have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Calhoun
The Nakagawas, the coolest family ever from Sanjo
Sister Howe from Australia using Bojangles in her training at zone conference. The word is spreading.
Brother Watanabe, the man who speaks Greek (his Japanese is so hard to understand, one of the members calls it Greek)
Eating eel. It was surprisingly good.
Tokyo Subway map. Madness.
Eating during sumo. We had sashimi. It was good.
