Email #94      October 24, 2016

Beloved Family and Friends,

This past week was a great one. My iPad is currently not working and I am typing this out on the church computer and don't have much time, so I am going to have to keep this pretty brief (please pray that I will be able to get my pictures and videos off the iPad without any problems!). I'll share a couple of highlights from the week. We were blessed to hear from Elder Bednar this past week. Excluding the MTC, I've had the privilege of hearing from 3 apostles on my mission, and Elder Rasband and Elder Stevenson before they were ordained. It was a great conference. I learned a lot, especially about being an agent and not an object, about acting and not being acted upon. We sat in the second row and had a wonderful experience. On Friday, we had one of the best lessons of my mission. We taught Katayama Kyoudai, a returning less active we have been working with closely, and as we were leaving, I gave him a hug and told him I loved him. As I turned around to say goodbye, he was crying. He's not a very expressive man, and it felt good to know that I have been an instrument in the Lord's hands to change his life. I have probably had more experiences than I realize where I have been blessed to see the Atonement change other's lives, but this was one of the most touching. I've struggled a little bit earlier in my mission with knowing whether or not I have made a difference in the areas and with the people I have served. The Lord has really been blessing me this past week to see a little bit how my service has affected those around me. I know it really isn't about me at all, but it is reassuring to know I am leaving this area stronger than I found it. I love the members of the areas I am serving in. Remind me to tell you all about them!

I'd like to end with a spiritual thought. I've been studying recently a lot about having a change of heart. As I've been studying, I've come to the conclusion that having a change of heart consists of us giving our hearts to Christ and allowing Him to do the changing. When we give all of ourselves to Christ, as we do what He would do and act like Him, we allow Him to take our heart and to turn it into something much, much better than we could have ever done ourselves. As I have pondered this, I have been thinking about how I can live in a way that will allow me to have that change of heart. The phrase that has come into my head over and over again has been, "Follow Christ." As we follow Christ, we can have that change of heart. We can reach our potential and be as happy and as full of peace as possible. We can love others like Christ and be filled with joy. It's hard to articulate just how much following Jesus Christ blesses our lives. I have been blessed with the opportunity over these past two years to really follow Christ. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve Him here in Japan. I love this country. I love the people here. I am so grateful for them and for their wonderful examples. I love my companions and President and Sister Nagano. That love originates in my love for the person I love more than anything or anyone else, Jesus Christ. As I have turned my life over to him, I have personally experienced how much He loves each of us, all of us, and how he can change the world, one by one, for the best. I know that I will live my life following Christ, and know that there is not a better way to live. I know that as each of us follows Christ, He will change our hearts and our lives forever.

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Email #93       October 18, 2016

Mom,

Completely forgot to email. I'm alive and so sorry! I'll email you on Monday!


Love,

Elder Calhoun

Email #92B         October 11, 2016

Pictures

Pictures

1. The shortest stairwell ever
2. This is Katayama Kyoudai! He's the best. We've been working with him quite a bit. He's an artist. I asked him to draw me a painting of a Japanese landscape that I could take home as both a reminder of him and of Japan. Instead, he just drew me! 2 year ago me would be rejoicing, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. It's pretty sweet though. 
3. This is my main man, Elder Cannon! We were in the MTC together and I got to live with his older brother earlier in my mission. He just finished and was in Tokyo, and came to watch a session of conference with us with a mutual friend. He's the best. He helped me a lot, much more than he knows! 
4. We went to a pretty sweet festival thing. It was basically like a Japanese state fair. 
5. They had 100% BEFF American food at the festival
6. That same day was a holiday here in Japan, Sports Day. All the school kids had these big meets where they competed in different events. 
7. The temple today! I'm with Elder Atkinson, and the Elders on the left are the ones we live with. Elder Nitta is on the left and Elder Snyder on the right. Elder Nitta is also transfer one. He's from Alpine, Utah, and actually knows Greg. Elder Atkinson is from St. George. I've lived with Elder Snyder for 3 transfers now. He's the best!

Love you all, have a great week!

Email #92                 October 11, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

This past week was a great one! I am loving working with Elder Atkinson. He's a beast. We're working hard and trying to get our area going. We've been doing a lot of finding trying to find new investigators to teach, and need to do more of it. We had a lot of meetings that kept us off the streets last week, but we had a cool experience on Tuesday or so. We were leaving the church to go finding, and Elder Atkinson saw a door that looked like it was glowing and felt like we should go house it. We knocked the whole apartment complex and saved that door for last. We knocked it with high faith and even higher hope, but no one came to the door! We left and continued to try to follow the Spirit. A little while later, we saw this cool looking kid and tried to get his attention a few times, but he was listening to really loud music. Elder Atkinson finally succeeded in getting his attention, and then we ended up walking to the station together and having a good talk on the way there. He became a new investigator! We had told him we were going to the McDonald's by the eki, so we went after saying goodbye so we wouldn't be liars. We talked to a college kid in the McDonalds who was wearing the same kind of watch I have (I've never seen anyone else wearing that watch). He was leaving McDonalds so we quickly gave him a flier. He read the 無料英会話 (Free English) part and lost his mind. I've never seen someone so excited about Eikaiwa. He was saying, "まじですか？完全に無料ですか？これの代わりに何かありますか？めちゃ興味ある(Pretty much just "I'm pretty hype about free english class.") We ended up switching contact info and have been in contact since, and hopefully he will becoming this week. It was a sweet experience because if Elder Atkinson hadn't followed his prompting to house that apartment, we wouldn't have been in the right place to find that kid, which means we wouldn't have gone to McDonalds and found a potential investigator/Eikaiwa student, the only person I've ever seen who had the same watch as me. As Brother Curtis, our 伝道主任 would say, "As if by chance!" God's hand is so in this work! That was one of the sweet miracles we were blessed to see this past week. We were also super blessed to watch General Conference. I learned a lot. I think my favorite talk was President Nelson's, "Joy and Spiritual Survival." I love that God's purpose and our purpose is for us to be happy! I'm so grateful that I have really applied the good news of Christ into my life these past two years and have had the opportunity to really find and spread that joy. I have never been happier in my life! 

We had the opportunity to go to the temple today. I don't like listening to it in Japanese usually, because I don't want to make going to the temple into a language study, but today I was given a headset that only had one earphone. It was nice to listen to it in both Japanese and English. My Japanese still has a long ways to go, but it was nice to be able to understand it in both languages and pick up on a few nuances from each. I love Japan and Japanese. I'm soaking it in as much as I can. I love this country and this people and this work! Life is good. 

As promised, I've been studying about having a change of heart. I think I understand pretty well what having a change of heart entails, but I'm going to hold off reporting for a couple of weeks. For a spiritual thought, I've been reading from 3 Nephi 11 this past week, where Christ visits the American Continent after His resurrection. I don't think I've ever been more touched by scripture. I'll share one part that really stuck out to me:

3 Nephi 11:13-15

13 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto them saying:

14 Arise and come forth unto me... that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.

15 And it came to pass that the multitude went forth... one by one until they had all gone forth...

There are a few things here that really stuck out to me. The first is that Christ invites us to "come unto [Him]." He doesn't ask us to go somewhere He hasn't gone, or somewhere He knows we should be but He isn't. He invites us to COME to HIM. Christ lived a perfect life and set the perfect example for us. If we are willing to come to Him, He can change us, heal us, make us better, happier people. However, that willingness must come from us. Christ cannot go to us, we have to come to HIm. The second thing I loved is how the Savior ministers to the multitude one by one. Jesus knows and loves us as individuals. He knows our needs and our wants, He knows our pains and our joys, He suffers with us when we suffer and rejoices with us when we rejoice. I love that the Savior knows me and you, individually. There is nothing more life changing or powerful than learning that God is our Loving Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I am so grateful that I have come to really know those things. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Email #91            Monday, October 3, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

This past week was great! Most of our people have gotten to the make or break point and a few made it and a few didn't so we don't have very many solid investigators. We went finding this past week and found some good people. Most are still potential investigators, so please pray for them that they will meet with us and progress! There's not a whole lot to report from dendo this past week. We had a really good planning session and should be much more productive this week. I love this work. I love Elder Atkinson. I'm sorry, I really can't think of anything eventful from the past week. We made a sweet video today, but it's too long to send over email. 

I've been thinking a lot about having a change of heart. Elder Bednar is coming to Japan and we get to have a conference with him, and in order to prepare, we've been studying some of his talks. One of the talks addresses the topic of having a change of heart and it's been really sticking out to me. I'm going to study it this week and then share with you what I learn. I also just reached 3 Nephi 11 in the Book of Mormon and am so excited to read it. 

I'm sorry for the quality of these emails. Right after I send them, I remember all the good stuff we did and all the thoughts I've been having. I promise I'm alive and well and have never been happier. I love this gospel. I love thinking about this gospel. I love Jesus Christ. I love Japan! I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Email #90          September 27, 2016

Amazing Week!

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was incredible! We busted our butts and were able to hit the standards for almost everything. We did a lot of prep for Yuta's baptism. I'm just going to include a picture of Elder Atkinson's weekly email so you can kind of see what we did this week. By far the best part of the week was seeing Yuuta get baptized! He was baptized on Saturday by Kawamura Kyoudai, an amazing member who was recently reactivated after years of inactivity and who has the best family ever. He has such a cool story. On Sunday, both Daniel and Yuuta were confirmed. It was an incredible week. Although we played an incredibly small role in Daniel's baptism, he came up to us and said hi of his own volition. He's a super shy, cute kid, and I felt super complimented that he just came up us and said hi and shook our hands. It's the little things. I love Yuuta so much. He's an incredible kid. His testimony was almost exclusively one of gratitude. He got baptized on his 20th birthday, the age of adulthood in Japan. Today, we went and saw the imperial palace in the middle of Tokyo. It was sweet. I am loving the work. There is nothing I would rather be doing. I love the Japanese people and am going to give them my all until the end. We are going to bust our butts to find three new investigators who can be baptized before the end of the transfer. Pray for us. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Email #89

Dearest Family and Friends,

Sorry, no time! This past week was great, Daniel got baptized! Yuuta's baptism is this Saturday. Exciting stuff. Great week! Please pray for them!

I was thinking about the same thing i shared about last week, how one of the qualities I am trying to work on and that I most respect in others is their ability to feel joy in other's accomplishments and joy. I was reading this week in Helaman 7, where Nephi feels huge sorrow for the wickedness of his people. As I've been thinking about this, I think the attribute I'm thinking of expands to more than just joy. I looked up empathy in the dictionary and it said "the ability to understand and share the feelings of others." I had never thought of empathy of dealing with positive emotions as well as negative. The importance of empathy has been making a huge imprint on my mind recently. Not necessarily sharing the emotions of others, but feeling sorrow for their sorrow or sadness or even sin and feeling joy in their joy and accomplishments. Nephi didn't follow the people in their wickedness, but he understood the consequences of their actions and felt true sorrow for them. Christ's ability to empathize is amazing. Not only did he take up Himself our sins, but He can comfort us and empathize with us perfectly, something I can't always do, even if I've experienced the same thing as someone else. Christ is so perfect, and I need to improve my ability to empathize with others. 

Sorry, I'll send a longer email next week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Daniel and his dad on Daniel's baptism day!

Email #88    Monday, September 12, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week went super well! God has been pouring down miracles on us.
On Wednesday, we had follow-up training for the new trainees. It went
pretty well. After that, we had Eikaiwa. Thank you everyone for the
birthday wishes! The older I get, the less receiving material things
matters and the more just feeling loved (as effeminate as that sounds)
matters. Thank you so much everyone, I felt very loved! I wish I had
time to reply to everyone individually, but I don't. I will do my best
to do so in person. On Thursday, we had a good district meeting and
weekly planning. We taught Hide and Yuta and did some contacting.
Friday was exchanges. It was a way good day, I was with Elder Broberg
and we had a blast busting our butts. We found 4 外人 potential
investigators and one Japanese guy. We had ping pong that night and
taught two investigators. The next day I didn't feel super hot and so
we did some housing and a lot of contacting and then went to a dinner
with a member family. They were actually friends with one of Elder
Yoshida's former colleagues and invited her over for dinner. They also
invited this super smart half German half Japanese guy named Hiro who
was super cool to talk to. We had a thought at the end and had all the
members there share their testimonies and the Spirit was super strong.
Members are the best! Sunday was great as well, Yuta came to church in
a tie and a white shirt and only one minute late! He's improving so
much. We also had the opportunity to teach Daniel, our little 9 year
old friend who is getting baptized next week. He's the best. I'll send
a picture of him. Things here are going so well! This past week, we
were actually able to hit every single standard in the standards of
excellence for the first time in my mission. We also now have 5
progressing investigators and things just get better and better! We
just had transfer calls, and I am staying. I'm so happy to be here
until the end, and will 100% be giving it my all. Unfortunately, Elder
Yoshida is transferring. I love him so much! I will share more about
him next week. My new companion is flying over today from Utah. I'm
training again! I'm super excited. Life is good!

I've been thinking recently about how one of my favorite attributes in
people is the ability to legitimately feel joy for others. The Book of
Mormon gives so many good examples of people finding joy in other's
success, even when they necessarily aren't doing so well, like Alma
and Ammon or Antipus's army rejoicing for the 2,000 warriors. I am
really trying to work on this. I know that finding joy in others is a
huge way to not only spread love and happiness and deepen
relationships, but also to become more happy ourselves.

I love all of you! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

1. Daniel!
2. Kouki was super nice and bought me this shirt for my birthday. He's
a super good kid.
3. There's a member in Tokyo Second Ward who never adds missionaries
on Facebook. I made it a goal to be the first one. He was talking
about how good he is at ping pong, and I said I would play him, but if
I won, he had to add me. I whipped him. It was actually way good, our
relationship has gotten really good
4. We went bowling with Joe and Yuta, two investigators, to say
goodbye to Elder Yoshida and Elder Broberg

Love you all!

Email #87   Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

久しぶり！I'm sorry I've been so terrible at emailing lately.

This past week went really well. We had to drop a lot of people and
were unable to meet with some of the people we were meeting most with
just a few weeks ago. However, we were really blessed and were able to
find some really good new people. We found 4 new investigators and had
two new people come to church! It was a great week. Last Monday, we
had a fun p day. We went to a game center and played ping pong and
pool and went bowling with Yuta and two members from the foreigners
ward, Brother Andrus and Brother Baker. It was lots of fun. Brother
Andrus reminds me a lot of Curt. I beat him at ping pong, so it felt
extra sweet. On Tuesday, we did a lot of finding. It felt good to get
out. We found this crazy Nepalese guy who opened the door, grabbed all
his stuff, walked outside with us and started talking about how much
he hates Christians but would come with us to church if he could
receive money. He then handed me the phone and I talked to a different
random Nepalese guy. While I was on the phone the first guy talked to
Elder Yoshida about how much he hates Americans but because he likes
Japanese people he won't yell at us. He was also wearing no underwear
and some pretty baggy pants and every time he leaned forward he was
plumber cracking pretty hard. It was an interesting experience. That
was pretty much Tuesday. On Wednesday we went and helped Brother Baker
move. He moved back to Oregon after living in Japan for 3 years, and
we helped him do some of the last last minute stuff. It ended up being
a good opportunity for 伝道, as we were able to invite his upstairs
neighbors to English class and talk to a really nice family that
hadn't been to church in a while. Brother Baker is a great guy. I'll
for sure see him next time I'm up in Oregon. Thursday we taught Yuta
and did weekly planning. Yuta hasn't come to church yet in church
clothes, like a tie and a nice button down shirt, so we found some
extra ones in the apartment and gave them to him. They fit pretty well
and we're excited to see him at church. He's so solid. He literally
has no problems with doctrine or commandments or anything. He's
basically already a member. We just need to help get him starting
thinking about serving a mission. Friday went way well. We did a lot
of finding and had ping pong night. We had Shunsuke, a new
investigator, come! He was found on member splits by Brother Andrus
and me about two months ago. I've been in contact with him on Facebook
trying to get him to come to different events and he finally came! He
didn't play any ping pong and just asked a ton of questions about
church and what we believe. He had looked up the church before coming
and came with lots of questions. Most of his interest is intellectual
right now, but he has lots of good potential. He came to church on
Sunday! He came late and went to the foreigner's ward and was able to
sit by Brother Andrus, which was pretty sweet. He had a picture on the
temple on his phone with a rainbow behind it. It was pretty sweet.
He's a good guy and God is for sure preparing him. Great day. Saturday
was a good day of finding. Sunday went really well. We've really been
trying to reach out to the youth and every companionship has been
going to seminary once a week. On Sunday, we got some candy and a note
from them saying that they were grateful for us coming and that they
love us. It was sweet! Both of the investigators we thought would come
ended up not coming to the Japanese ward, but both came late and
attended the English ward! It was definitely a miracle. One was
Shunsuke and the other is named Doe. He's from Vietnam and doesn't
really speak Japanese or English, but has a really pure heart. We
found him a while ago as well and have been talking about church ever
since. A little while ago he sent me a message that just said, "I want
Jesus worship." He converted to Christianity in Vietnam and loves
Christ. He's been trying to come to church since we found him, but
finally had time off work to come. He's a super good guy. There's a
member who just moved back to Vietnam that speaks fluent English that
we are planning on using to help him learn. Unfortunately, Yuta didn't
come to church. We still aren't sure why yet, but we will find out on
Thursday, when we have our next lesson. Yuta's baptism is in three
weeks. Please pray he will make it! We were also able to teach Daniel,
a 9 year old son of a somewhat less active family. He's a good kid. We
literally have virtually nothing to do with his baptism, but he will
be baptized in two weeks. Exciting stuff! Yesterday was a normal day
of 伝道 because we had temple p day this past week. We were able to meet
up with TK, a really good friend Elder Alder and I met playing
basketball last year. He's half Taiwanese and is going to school down
there. He's been having kind of a rough time and has been going to
church a lot and is praying and has really changed a lot this past
year. God is working on him! He is planning on moving to America
eventually, and I'm hype for it. He's a really good friend and I would
be hype to hang out with him and get him to church there. Please pray
for him and his family! We were also able to teach Kouki, a former
investigator from my first area, Sanjo. He moved closer to Tokyo and
we were able to go to a missionary futsal activity with him. Please
pray that he will start reading the Book of Mormon again and be
willing to pray about it and learn about it. Today was a good day. We
went to the temple and had baller aburasoba afterwards. I don't know
how to explain it, so just google it. It's so good. By far the best
part of after the temple is spending time with other Elders. It's been
a good week.

I've been thinking a lot about how God knows us individually and has a
plan for each one of us. Of all the things I have learned on my
mission, I think the most important has been realizing that I truly do
have a Father in Heaven who knows me and loves me as an individual. I
love God! I'm so grateful for His love and I know that He loves each
of you. Really realizing this, not just having the knowledge but
really coming to know that this is true, has changed my life. I know
that the experiences I have had in Japan and will yet have have been
the best experiences I could have for my growth and my happiness. They
haven't always been the easiest, but I have loved every moment and am
grateful that I still have more time to give God my all. I love this
country. I love God and am so grateful that He has helped me so much.

I'm so grateful for all of you! I am praying for you and thinking
about you and rooting you on, despite a lack of communication both
general and individual. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun


1. Yuuta taught us the Plan of Salvation
2. Bowling. Brother Andrus is next to me, Brother Baker is on the far
right. And Yuuta!

3. The Temple
4. Us and TK

Love you all!