Email #34       June 15, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

I did it. I finally did it. As the legendary musician Iggy Azalea once said:
"I'm in the fast lane, from L.A. to Tokyo"

I have finally, after like a 7 year stop in North Carolina, made it
from L.A. to Tokyo. And Tokyo is for sure in the fast lane. This past
week has been a blast, here we go! Last Monday, we got transfer calls
and I found out I was coming to the mission home to be tech staff. I
couldn't believe it because I have nothing to do with computers. On
Tuesday, we did a lot of packing and saying goodbye and transferring
our investigators to the other companionship. It went really well, we
were able to say goodbye to all but one of our solid investigators,
and everyone had a return appointment with Elder Crosby. Thank you so
much for your prayers! The one bummer was that we weren't able to say
goodbye to the Adachis. Sister Adachi got sick and had to go to the
hospital, which in Japan doesn't mean anything because everyone goes
to the hospital as soon as they catch a cold, literally. But it did
mean we couldn't say goodbye, which was a bummer because they're
seriously the best! On Wednesday, we transferred! Elder Scott, Elder
Shimoji, and I all went to the honbu. It was a fun train ride, it was
pretty crazy because we had our bikes and some luggage and stuff and
the trains were packed. After we arrived, we walked our way to the
honbu and I met Elder Alder. He's the man! I'll include a picture with
him. He kind of talks like Jordan and he reminds me of Elder Barnes.
He doesn't really look like an athlete, but he's a beast. He played
basketball in high school and his team won their division's state
championship in Idaho. He went to Provo for a year, and played on the
same soccer team as my MTC companion Elder Erickson! He's a stud. I
went and ate ramen with Elder Shimoji after that because Elder Alder
had already eaten. It was fun to eat with Elder Shimoji one last time.
After eating, I was introduced to my new job of tech staff! Basically,
we have a bunch of stuff to do during transfer week and then after
that we just do a bunch of random miscellaneous stuff and have more
time to dendou. This week has been super busy though! We taught
Eikaiwa that night, and right before we thought we had time to go fix
an iPad. We didn't, but we were able to stop and talk to a guy and
give him a Book of Mormon and get his number. It was sweet because we
literally had 5 minutes to go work and we were able to talk to a super
cool guy! After that, in Eikaiwa, I used the things I learned from
Sister Nitta in Oyama. She was an English teacher here in Japan before
her mission, and was super, super good at teaching Eikaiwa. I tried to
do what she did and it went really well! The students here are super
cool, and one of them told me I look like John F Kennedy and now only
calls me Kennedy San (kind of like Mr. Kennedy but not as formal or
weird) so he's helping their case out a lot. We have a pretty sweet
relationship, I teach them free English and they tell me which famous
celebrities I look like. I'm a big fan. On Thursday, we played
dodgeball for exercise in the morning. It was really fun because all
of the returning home missionaries were there, so there were like 30
of us all playing. It was every man for himself and was a blast. My
arm killed the next day from throwing and my feet were destroyed but
it was totally worth it. We went on exchanges later that day, I went
with Elder Griffiths and Elder Alder went with Elder McKnight. Elder
McKnight, the missionary I am replacing, was going home, so he wanted
to have lessons with as many people as he could before he went home.
Elder Alder went to the lessons so we could have someone from our
companionship there, and I went with Elder Griffiths, another
returning missionary, to try to fix the broken iPad we have. It was
really cool, we went to Ikebukero, the second busiest train station in
the world (right after Tokyo), and tried unsuccessfully to find a
place that could fix the iPad cheaply. We failed, but we did find
something priceless: AN AUNT ANNIE'S. There's an Aunt Annie's in my
area! A lot of you probably don't know about my love of cinnamon sugar
pretzels, especially from Aunt Annie's, but it borderlines obsession.
That was a treat, and knowing that there is one in my area is even
better. Elder Griffiths and I then met with one of his former
investigators. It was incredibly awkward. It was his investigator and
the investigator's member aunt, who he lives with. It was rough, but
we went to McDonald's and I got a soft serve so it was almost worth
it. On Friday, we played dodgeball again, but a much more toned down
version because everyone was tired and had sore feet. We also got
Sister Budge's leftover food for the returning missionaries, which was
awesome. We then took the assistant's bikes to zone meeting because
they had to leave to Niigata right after that. It was so much fun.
They were these compact foldable bikes with tiny pedals so we were
just cruising through downtown Tokyo for a little more than an hour
seeing all the coolest parts of Tokyo. Tokyo is a blast, but it's so
crazy. If Las Vegas is sin city, Tokyo is Sodom and Gomorrah or outer
darkness or something. It's insane. We went to this legit pizza place
before zone conference that was so good. They had standing room only
and it was on this back alley kind of hidden and so delicious. It was
really fun to go with Elder Alder, because he served in Shibuya and
knew all the good places to see and eat. We had a really good zone
meeting, our zone is sick. It has the English speaking areas and is
the biggest zone in the mission and is just a blast. One of our zone
leaders is French, and another companionship has one Elder from
Finland and the other from Hong Kong. It's so cool. After zone
meeting, we went and had Taco Bell. Seriously, Tokyo is the best. It's
the only Taco Bell in Japan off military bases, and it was soooooooooo
good. It was kind of weird though because they tried to make it really
hip so it had dim lighting and was all hardwood and was playing rap
music. Not the Taco Bell I'm used to, but still just as good. Saturday
we did tech all day because the Assistants called us and asked us to
make some stuff. That night we had Chinese Night, and we went with
John, one of our investigators from Taiwan. It went really well. It
was all about Christ and who He was, and the Chinese missionaries were
asking people who their hero was, and John said his was Jesus Christ.
That was really cool. Sunday was good too, we went to the family ward
with one of our investigators, Yuichi. After sacrament meeting, the
bishop asked for our help to translate for one of the members here,
who is a foreigner and only speaks English. He has some small mental
issues like anger management I think because we talked for two hours
and tried to help him but at the end he just blew up and threatened to
burn down the church. It was pretty crazy. We went to the YSA ward
after that because that is technically our area. It was really good,
the YSA members are so cool. I got to talk to a lot of them and get to
know them a little bit, and they're all sick. Yesterday, we went to
downtown Tokyo and ate at this super good ramen place then shopped. It
was fun, but shopping as a missionary is so weird. I would rather just
sleep I think. Sorry this is so long, I kind of just start and ramble
and ramble then finish. Love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 Elder Ishikawa during our earthquake drill. He would have died.

Saying goodbye to Kei and his buddy

   

Me and Elder Miller pre-haircut. He's the man

We caught a huge toad right by the office

Email #33      June 8, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

This has been a crazy day so it'll probably be a shorter email this
week. I'm transferring! After only one transfer in Oyama, they are
closing our area and I am going to the mission home to be tech staff.
I have absolutely no idea why they made me tech staff because I both
have no desire to learn about computers and don't know anything about
them, but it will be a blast! I'll live with 4 other Elders including
the assistants and Elder Yoshino, my favorite guy ever from my zone in
Sanjo. I will learn a lot from all of them and it will be an awesome
experience, I'm excited! My new companion's name is Elder Alder, he
was Elder Nielson's companion and I've heard nothing but good things
about him. I'm a little bummed that I won't get to work with our
investigators here in Oyama anymore and that I won't get to know the
members as well as I would like to, but I am really excited to go to
Tokyo and have the opportunity to live and work there. This week went
really well. We had some good lessons and our investigators are all
doing really well. We played ping pong and taught Hyuuma on Wednesday,
the first college student we found who has been a referral machine for
us. We didn't set good expectations to teach him when we found him,
but we taught him the restoration and it went really well. He has
interest! He asked really good questions and said we could keep
teaching him. On Thursday, we had an awesome lesson with Kei. We had a
lesson scheduled but he cancelled right before we pulled up. We didn't
see his text and got there right as he was living with his friends,
but he said we could teach him a quick lesson so he grabbed his three
friends and they went in his apartment and we taught them all. We
showed them the Because of Him video, it went really well. One of his
friends has really good potential. On Friday, we had a fun music
festival and I sang a song with Daiki, another awesome college student
with really good potential. On Saturday we had stake conference in
Kiryu. It was awesome. After, we went home with Nakai Kyoudai. We got
to Oyama at around 9:20, and he asked us if we wanted to eat. We said
yes because we were fasting tomorrow, but we thought he meant it in
the are you hungry sense. He said we should eat out, and we agreed
because he asked us where we wanted to go. We said McDonalds so we
could make it back on time but he said he didn't want to eat there. We
ended up eating out at a steak and hamburg restaurant and got home at
10:20! The food was really good and it was super nice of Nakai Kyoudai
but the feeling of being wonp (not following the rules) sucked. We
felt so bad. Never again! On Sunday we had stake conference again and
Minagawa came. It went really well, the talks were awesome. I didn't
understand them at all, but Elder Shimoji translated them for me
afterwards. We had a bye bye party for Elder Shimoji and Sister Nitta
that night that went really well. We had three investigators come and
Elder Shimoji bore his testimony. It was at the Adachi's house,
they're the best. I'm going to miss them! That was this week, today
has been good too. We went out to eat with Matsunuma and Kawaguchi
Kyoudai at Stamina Taro, this all you can eat meat place. It was good!
I'm going to miss the members here! Please pray that our investigators
will keep meeting with Elder Crosby and his new companion! Love you
all, have a great week! I'll email you from Tokyo next week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 1

 2

 3

 4

5

1) My main man Hyuuma
2) Ueki, another college student who loves One Direction and is way
chill. We went and had thai food with him
3) the fattest cat ever. He belongs to a member and is also crosseyed
4) the bye bye party! Brother Adachi, the most genuinely kind man
ever, and Kamishima Kyoudai in the back
5) Nakai Kyoudai and the wompsack dinner

Love you all, have a fantastic week!

Email #32     June 2, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

Sit down and buckle up because this is going to be a long one. This week was jam packed with crazy stuff, it was one of the best of my mission. On Tuesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Crosby. We went out to visit some members and potential investigators and ended up biking for a long time, like 3 or 4 hours total. We ended up talking to all the people we wanted to though and talked to quite a few people along the way. That night, we met with one of their investigators named Shun. He speaks really good English and is absolutely obsessed with Owl City. Like literally his whole world revolves around Adam Young, the main guy. Owl City had a concert here in Tokyo on Thursday and he figured out where they were staying and which train they would take and stuff, it was pretty impressive. He wanted to test his english to make sure Adam could understand him when he saw him. We had a lesson about prayer and being happy no matter what would happen. He ended up waiting at the back entrance of the Owl City guy's hotel and it worked. Powerful. On Wednesday, we had a really good district meeting and learned about studying and Japanese and feeling the Spirit and all sorts of good stuff. Later that day we went and visited one of our investigators, Kubota San. He does not have a happy life. He has two kids and is married but his apartment is a wreck and his teeth are destroyed from smoking and who knows what else. He just looks ravaged. He came out in his wife's v neck and it was way too small on him. The gospel will bring so much peace and happiness to his life. Teaching him is really hard though because he always has his kids with him and they are loud and distracting and we're just standing outside his apartment. We're trying to teach better lessons with him and get him to come to church. On Thursday, we had a blitz up in Utsunomia, the biggest city in our zone and in our prefecture (kind of like a Japanese state) but with not a lot of investigators. We ate and then went on exchanges to blitz there and find some more investigators for the missionaries there. I ended up with Elder Amado, who was in the MTC at the same time as me, we're the same transfer! He's the man, he's from Peru and speaks English super well and is a convert of 3 years and is 26 and has already graduated from college. It was super fun to dendo with him. We just went for it and the first four people we talked to accepted a Book of Mormon. We only had four on us so we passed out pamphlets until time was up. It was really awesome. We testified about the Book of Mormon to each person and they accepted. It was super cool. We both had no idea what we were doing but it was a blast. I'll include some pictures from the day. That night we went to Ooki Kyoudai's house and had curry with him. We ate on his ping pong table. The curry was so watery but it was still good. He taught me how to box afterward, he used to be a collegiate boxer. He's such a funny guy. We have chorus every Friday and we sing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" every week and he can't pronounce half the words. It's hilarious. After that, we went and ate donuts with a member, Brother Watanabe. I love him, he's so awesome. On Friday, we had our last interviews with President Budge! Scary. This transfer ends next week, and next transfer we get our new Mission President. Exciting but scary! I really love President Budge. The more I have gotten to know him, the more I love and respect and appreciate him. My interview was awesome. We just talked about faith and love and lots of good stuff. I asked him how I could improve and he was so nice, he just said to look forward to the rest of my mission and realize that "the best is yet to be." It was so comforting and really nice of him, especially because there are lots of things I could be doing better. We had weekly planning later and then went out to eat with Kei Yamanaka. Last week or two weeks ago I called him Yamanaka San, but he asked us to call him Kei. He's the man, he seriously is. He is progressing so quickly and understanding so well and such a good guy. I really, really like him. Please pray for him and that he can keep progressing and receive an answer to the Book of Mormon's truth. Anyway, we ate with him Friday night, we were going to eat ramen but the place was closed so we went to Sukia, this gnarly kind of fast food chain. Google it! After that, he came to church for a second and we talked about what would happen on Sunday. Friday night we had ping pong and chorus, and two new Eikaiwa students Elder Shimoji found on exchanges came. One said he was really good but he wasn't. So disappointing. I'm honestly not even that good at ping ping but I've never had someone better than me come to ping ping night. Some day. We gave them each a Book of Mormon after chorus and one of them could have interest. On Saturday, we had a baptism! One of the sister's investigators got baptized. It was good. Later that day, we meet with a potential investigator named Ueki and taught him about the restoration. It went well, hopefully we'll be able to meet him again! We also had a lesson with Arnaldo. We set a new baptismal date and talked about getting a blessing in order to stop smoking. Elder Shimoji and I started feeling a little sick on Saturday, but still went for ramen because it was closed on Friday. It was good. Sunday was awesome, except Elder Shimoji and I got sick. I rocked a surgeon's mask for the first time. But we had four people come to church! We would have six but two came late and didn't count. Kei came and brought a friend! It was legit. After sacrament meeting, we had some members talk to Kei and his buddy to become friends with them. After church, we taught Arnaldo. He had a bunch of questions about olive oil. It went well. We slept after church because Elder Shimoji had a fever and we were both feeling awful. I gave my first blessing! It was a cool experience. That night, we went to the Bishop's house with an investigator, Minagawa. It went really well. The last lesson we taught him did not go well, he is super shy and doesn't have a whole ton of interest and last lesson was too much. After dinner, Yanada Shimai asked us why we became missionaries and it turned into a testimony meeting. It was really good, it wasn't too strong and the Spirit was super strong. He committed to come to church! On Monday, nothing super crazy happened. We were both still feeling pretty out of it so we did some planning for the rest of the week and visited some members. We also visited Jared, a 14 year old investigator from Peru. His mom is investigating too, and his grandparents are members here in the ward. Recently, Jared hasn't been progressing because his grandpa is pushing him so hard to get baptized. Please pray that their relationship will strengthen so Jared will want to read and pray and can progress. Today, we went to the temple! It was awesome. We woke up at 5 and took a bullet train, it was sweet. It was so fast. My voice is completely shot, but I'm feeling a lot better. After the temple, we went to a restaurant called burgermania. It was really good, it felt good to have a good burger. I had this famous kind that all the missionaries love called the cherry burger. It had this cherry paste stuff that was super good. Elder Nielsen was also there, it was so good to see him and Elder Mobley and Elder Walker and all my buds from earlier. I love those guys! Going home was an adventure. Tokyo is crazy. People there are nuts. Girls wear some of the craziest stuff I've ever seen, like lace up converse platform shoes with like no joke a 6 to 8 inch platform. It's crazy. We also saw a guy drinking milk out of a water balloon. People are weird, but Tokyo is so cool. It's huge. The train stations are massive, I can't even believe it. On the way home, we took an earlier train that we were expecting and it followed the same route until we hit a fork, and it took the wrong one for us. We got off a few stops later but it added about an hour. Elder Shimoji and I were out, if felt really good. We got home and shopped then had family home evening. Kei was supposed to come, but he thought it was on Wednesday night, so he missed it! Bummer. All good though, we're meeting him tomorrow. It was an amazing week! Love you all, have a fantastic week! I'll email you on Monday! 

Love,

Elder Calhoun

My drink artsified. It's this weird soda that has jello in it.  I like it.

Me and Elder Amado toasting to an awesom blitz.

Tanaka Shimai.  She's so nice.  HEr husband is less active but she comes every week.

 Elder Shimoji doing him.

Where I'm getting my haircut on Monday.

Email #31       May 25, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

I am exhausted! This past week was awesome, I'll just give a quick recap of the past two weeks because I'm so wiped. The week before last was awesome, we taught a lot of lessons and had a lot of fun. Our investigators are doing well, we had a lesson with a new one named Yamanaka last week that went really well! We gave him a Book of Mormon when we found him, and he had read 15 pages between then and our first lesson! It was awesome. We're meeting him again tomorrow, but I'll be on exchanges so I won't see him. Last p day was amazing, Nikko was a blast. We then went to the BYU Wind symphony concert in Tokyo and I got to see a bunch of friends from the MTC and Sanjo. We have temple p day next Tuesday, so I won't email until then. It's going to be a blast, my first one! I think that is one of the times I feel most happy, just seeing my buddies. It reminds me of Alma 17:2 and 3: "...Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God. But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God." It's so legit that we're brothers in the Lord, spreading His gospel together. I love those guys. This week also went really well, we taught a lot of lessons and found a couple cool people. Arnaldo had a cool experience this past week. He's been working on the Word of Wisdom lately and loved coffee. He drank it like water before we taught him the Word of Wisdom. Now, he hates it! It gives him a really bad stomach ache whenever he drinks it. Super cool. Now he just needs to stop smoking! On Saturday, we went to a mountain really early in the morning and dedicated Oyama for missionary work. It was a really cool experience. Today we woke up early and went to seminary and we were the only ones that showed up until the last 5 minutes! Reminds me of high school. It was a great week! Love you all, have a wonderful week and a day, talk to you on Tuesday!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

1) Me and Yamanaka, he's the man! After our lesson, our first one, he

gave us mango soda!

2) We went went and happy birthdayed a youth's house from the ward

3) There was this random guy with a ferret at Nikko, he was holding it

up so it could watch the parade. No idea why

Have a wonderful week!

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2.

3.

image3.JPG

Email  #30           May 18, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

I am writing this on my way home from Tokyo and don't have my planner with me, so this is going to be short! I'm sorry, I'll send a longer email next week about what happened this week. It was awesome, as always! I'll tell you what we did today though. Today was one of the coolest days of my life. We went to Nikko, a huge park in the mountains in our zone. Elder Shimoji's sister's husband's dad lives close to us, so he so kindly took Elder Shimoji and also me because he had to. But really, it was so nice of him! It was a two hour car ride each way, but boy was it worth it. The drive up reminded me a lot of North Carolina, there were trees everywhere. It felt good. We went around the mountains, there were some really pretty views and some sweet rivers. After that, we went and took pictures at this lake up in the top of the mountains. It was super pretty. We then went and saw this huge waterfall! It was gigantic! I think that for today, not really paying attention and trying to understand Elder Shimoji and his sister's father-in-law's Japanese was a blessing. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and we took this elevator down to the waterfall and I walked out and my mind was absolutely shot. Just boggled. It was probably the prettiest waterfall I've ever seen. It wasn't as big as Niagara Falls, but boy was it beautiful. I'll include some pictures. After that, we went and ate then visited this super famous shrine. We went and ran into three sets of senior missionaries, and we were lucky enough to go on the one day a year they have a huge samurai parade. We got to watch the whole parade, and it had more than 1,200 people in it all wearing various samurai, warrior, or priest outfits. It was super, super cool. We didn't get to go into the actual shrine because we didn't have time, which was a bummer, but it was totally worth going today! I'm going to try to go back next transfer somehow and take a picture with these really famous carved monkeys they have at the shrine. The shrine is HUGE! The biggest one I've seen yet, I'm really excited to see it up close. There were so many tourists there, so many white people. It was so weird to see so many after being like one of three in Sanjo. I didn't like it, it felt so wrong haha. After that, we went home and had an appointment with two potential investigators from the college in Oyama. They're so cool. Their names are Hyuuma and Daiki, please pray for them! We ate donuts at a donut shop and talked about sports and life and the Book of Mormon. It went really well. We then hopped on a train with another friend, Yosuke, to watch the BYU Wind Symphony perform in Tokyo. It was super good! I was also able to see a ton of good buddies from the MTC and Sanjo (Elder Walker) and the South Mission! It went really well, Yosuke had a good time and met President Budge and now Elder Shimoji is teaching him the Plan of Salvation on the train ride home. He hasn't had any interest before tonight, but please pray that this will be the turning point for him! That was today, it was awesome! We aren't getting home until 11:30, which is going to be rough, but totally worth it. I had a really sweet experience this past week studying about faith, I'll share it next Monday! I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

1) Elders Nicholson (left) and Brummet, in the south mission, 
from theMTC! I love Elder Nicholson, he's the man, 
I'm so glad for theopportunity missions give to meet awesome people like him. 
I love Brummet too, but Elder Nicholson and I really hit it off in the MTC.

2) Samurai from the parade

3) The huge, beautiful waterfall!

4) The lake in the top of the mountains in Nikko

Love you all, have an amazing week!

Email #29                  May 11, 2015  

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was awesome! Every week is awesome! This past week was part of Golden Week, one of the biggest holidays in Japan. People get a week of school and work off, which basically never happens. One of the members had us over for a Golden Week barbecue on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun, and good to get to know a lot of the members better. One of the members here served his mission in Australia and speaks English well and also loves basketball, so he gives me the weekly update. Go Cavs! We also taught one of our investigators, Arnaldo, a lot this week. He has a baptismal date and is preparing for baptism, but one of he things he needs to get over first is an addiction to smoking. We met with him a lot to make a quitting smoking plan and to make sure he is doing well. He hasn't smoked for a week! Good progress. He is doing well and reads the Book of Mormon at an unbelievable rate. He is from Brazil, but speaks Japanese really well. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a while and has heard almost all of the lessons. He has a testimony about the Book of Mormon and modern day prophets and is really progressing a lot. We also taught a member on Tuesday who is struggling with the Word of Wisdom. His name is Manaka Kyoudai, and he's awesome. He used to be in a motorcycle gang and was crazy, but turned his life around and is now a solid member. He is working on getting his patriarchal blessing right now. I also met one of our potential investigators, Yosuke. He's a college student who really likes photography. He doesn't have a ton of interest in hearing the lessons right now, but he is showing more and more interest the more we meet. I'll include a picture with him. On Wednesday, we had a good district meeting. Afterwards, one of the members took all of us out for lunch. His name is Itou Kyoudai and he is such a hard working, kind man. I really like him. In just the little amount of time I have been here in Sanjo, we have already had more meal appointments than I did in Sanjo, and have a lot more lined up. It's awesome for my wallet and my mouth, but not so great for my stomach and body. The members here are so kind and awesome here though, it's amazing. A lot of them are young families with returned missionary parents. We had a good Eikaiwa on Wednesday too, there were a couple of Americans my age who came who don't speak Japanese, and it felt awesome to know that I have progressed at least a little bit! I could understand some of what people were talking about, which means I have progressed at least a little! Feels good. On Thursday, we had weekly planning. Weekly planning is so boring and normally I would never talk about it, but Elder Shimoji plans like a wedding planner or something, the most beast planner you can think of. He takes all three hours we can use and really uses all of those three hours. He boggles my mind at how good he is at everything. I'm so glad I am his companion and get the opportunity to learn from him. On Friday, we went and visited an old potential investigator of one of the old Elders here. He had moved out, but the guy who moved in was super cool! He's a college student and loves basketball. He was also really interested to learn about the Book of Mormon and said we could come back and teach him the lessons. We gave him our number and he said he didn't want to give his to us, but I didn't understand his Japanese and asked him to call us, and he did! So we got his number. I've progressed a little, but not a whole lot haha. On Saturday, I finally met Melissa and Jared, two of our progressing investigators. Melissa is Jared's mom. They are from Peru and super nice. We are going to their house this Saturday for a barbecue. They're awesome! Church on Sunday was really awesome. We got a new mission leader, and he is a beast! He has tons of fire and a great vision. It's going to be a great rest of the transfer! We had a great week and taught a ton of lessons. Elder Shimoji is a beast and talks to everyone and I'm learning so much from him. I'm loving life and loved talking to my family today. Love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

 Oyama district lunch.  James's new companion, Elder Shimoji,  has his chin on his hand.

  Yosuke!

The barbecue at the Kawaguchi's house.  Brother Kawaguchi is in the striped shirt.

 One of my "Japanese English" bags.

Email # 28

Dearest Family and Friends,

I am in Oyama now! I am in the Tochigi Ken Oyama. I really, really
like it. I love and miss Sanjo, but Oyama is pretty sweet. It has a
completely different feel. When I was in Sanjo, I felt really far away
from home, but Oyama feels a lot more like America. They have a ton of
foreigners here, mostly from Nepal, various places in Africa, the
Philippines, Peru, and Brazil. There is also a huge train station, a
college, and lots of people on the streets all the time. I am really
excited to work here! Elder Shimoji is my new companion. He is a work
animal. I have never been more tired in my life. There is not a single
person we see that we don't talk to. We will be riding bikes and
someone will be riding towards us and he'll just yell, "Sumimasen! Kyo wa
ii tenki desu ne" which means, "Excuse me! (The person will slam on
their brakes) Today is good weather, isn't it?" And then he'll bring
up the gospel. And it works! Almost everyone will stop and talk to us
and we have already gotten one new solid investigator just from
talking with everyone. Elder Shimoji is half Japanese, half American,
and grew up on Okinawa. I think he looks Japanese, but most Japanese
people think he is American. He blows their minds when he starts
talking in Japanese because he's totally fluent. He speaks very little
English, and only spoke Japanese growing up. He reminds me a ton of
Cam. He's quiet and a super beast missionary and he moves his hands in
the exact same way. I know that's kind of a weird thing to say, but
it's totally true. I don't know how to describe it, but it's just the
exact same. We speak a lot of Japanese, and I think that the
combination of transfers and working so hard has made my head hurt and
made me more tired than ever. It's really good though, my Japanese has
already improved in the little time I have been with him. This is his
last transfer, and I want to go out with a bang with him. It's going
to be a great transfer! This past week went well. Last p day was
crazy, and super fun. I packed a lot after we went to Yahiko. Tuesday
was basically the same thing. We packed a lot and I got ready to go,
then we went and said goodbye to some of our investigators. That
night, we went to church for dinner with Mori one last time. After
dinner, we had a goodbye family home evening event where Elder Walker,
Elder Farnworth, and I said goodbye and shared our testimonies with
our investigators. It went well. Wednesday was transfers. Elder
Henderson was our companion for a little bit, because his companion
went to Niigata early to say goodbye to some people. It was fun. I got
to talk to him for a little bit and we went to church and talked to
one of the other elder's investigators. The mission is downsizing Sanjo to 4
missionaries instead of 6, 2 elders and 2 sisters. All of the other elder's
investigators had to be transferred over to Elder Barnes and his new companion, so the missionaries

met to hand them over. The missionaries hadn't taught one of the investigators the Word of Wisdom yet,
so the investigator gave the parting missionaries some of Niigata's famous sake as a goodbye gift. Elder
Walker and Elder Farnworth and I then went to the train station and
said goodbye to Elder Henderson and Elder Barnes and Sanjo. It was
bittersweet. We went and had endo curry in Niigata before we got on
our bus. Endo curry is this super good curry with nan and is basically
always made by people from Nepal. It's amazingly good. We then took
the bus down to Tokyo. It was fun, it was all Elders and we just
talked and slept the whole time. We aren't allowed to do missionary
work on the bus, so it felt good to sleep a little bit. We then went
to the train station in Tokyo and I said goodbye to Elder Walker. I
love that guy. I'm going to miss him. He's the man. Elder Farnworth
and I met up with Elder Wheatly, Elder Farnworth's new companion and
my first zone leader. He pointed me in the right direction and I rode
a train by myself for 50 minutes or so. It felt so weird to be by
myself. I met Elder Shimoji at the eki and we went back to the
apartment. These past few days have been really good, we've just been
meeting with investigators and talking to people on the street. A ton
of the foreigners are Christian, and I can't even believe how much
easier it is to talk to them. They are really easy to get numbers and
contact information from, but they are a lot less likely to be commited.
We found a new guy, Tsuchida, just from talking to him on the street.
He's Japanese and has been thinking about God and religion lately. We
gave him a Book of Mormon and we're going to meet up and talk more
about religion later. Church was also good, there are around 80
members with a ton of young families and youth! So different from
Sanjo. It feels a lot like an American ward. I like it a lot, but I
will really miss the members up in Sanjo. They are the best. Today we
shopped and got a lot of stuff, and I took a nap. I'm so tired, it
felt really good. We are going to go teach one of our investigators,
Arnaldo, later today. He is from Brazil but speaks Japanese incredibly
well. We are going to try to set a baptismal date with him, he has
heard all the lessons and is progressing, wish us luck! That was
basically my week, it's been crazy and lots of fun with a lot of
change! Love all you guys, have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 Close, but no cigar.

 Me and Elder Shimoji with the Watanabe family.  The mom was taking the picture.  They're awesome.    We had dinner with them last night, and they are so nice.  They have two older children: one at an English school somewhere in Japan, and the other at BYU-Hawaii.  The dad is less active, but served a mission and seems to still have a strong testimony.  We aren't sure why he's less active, but he is super nice and open and awesome!

Me with Couki one last time before I left.  He's awesome and super close to baptism!