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