Email #68   February 29, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

This past week was great! I am loving working with Elder Cardon. He's
hilarious and super agreeable, a hard worker, and a great person. I
have been so blessed to only have amazing companions! I'll go through
the week quickly, mostly for my sake so I can remember things because
I'm a little behind on my journal. Oops. On Tuesday, we had a great
zone conference. We learned about simplifying our work, using stats,
and obedience. I learned a lot about being obedient and what our
standard of obedience should be, how to find effectively, and how to
teach by the Holy Ghost. On Wednesday, we had a really fun service
project. We went to an elementary school and the kids practiced their
English on us by introducing Japanese culture. We had to pretend like
we didn't speak any Japanese, which was brutal. There were some words
that they forgot in English and they were talking to themselves trying
to figure it out and we couldn't help them despite understanding. One
of the groups quizzed me after after this festival for girls and
asked, "Who is the festival for?" I replied, "Girls." She said, "Brnnn
brnnn (like a buzzer sound at halftime, Japanese say it if you get a
question wrong and hold up their arms in an x shape). It is for
girls." Their understanding was pretty basic, as evidenced, which made
it super cute and funny. On Thursday, I had exchanges with Elder
Aleman. They went well, we did a lot of finding and were able to find
2 new potential investigators through calling unknown people on our
phone. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up with both of them this
upcoming week. On Friday, we did weekly planning and had family home
evening. Weekly planning took forever. We made this big plan to talk
to more than a thousand people this week, but it fell apart after we
learned we can't do really straightforward, fast dendo on the train.
We're still going to try to talk to as many people as we possibly can
and really focus on finding this upcoming week. We have a big goal to
find 10 new investigators. Please pray that as we work as hard as we
can, we will be able to do so! Family Home Evening went really well,
we were able to teach a few lessons and talk to the Ugandan man, myth
and legend Dennis. It was a really good lesson, he got really
emotional and told us how his work has been preventing him from going
to church but he can't find a new one and needs to support his family,
and can't quit his job. Please, please pray that he will be able to
find a new job! On Saturday, we did a lot of finding. It went well, I
am loving the combination of riding my bike and doing kinjin (golden
investigator) dendo. We are able to talk to so many people in a short
amount of time, it's so effective. On Sunday, we had stake conference
in Chiba. It went well, Elder Yamashita from the first quorum of the
70 came and spoke. The ward had a meal of sandwiches and soup that was
super good. We got home and my bike had fallen over into this pile of
sand and shells next to our apartment building, and one of the shells
had popped my tire. We walked to church, which is a little far,
probably 2 miles or so, and did stats and reports and stuff. It was a
great week! We're pumped to do a ton of finding this week and really
get our area going, because it's as dead as can be right now. Life is
good, and I am loving being here in Narita, being a missionary,
working with Elder Cardon, and doing God's work. I've never been so
happy!

I've been thinking about bike riding a little bit these past few
weeks. We do a ton of bike riding, and sometimes it's pretty sketchy.
Japan's roads are narrow and cars will come flying towards us or from
behind us and come within a couple of feet, or sometimes a few inches
of us. There are plenty of potholes, sometimes my lights die and I'm
riding blind, there are drops into sewers or creeks, and many other
things that could make me fall. I've noticed, however, that as long as
I follow my companion, no matter what dangers there might be, I am
safe. As we travel along the road of life, there are many dangers,
obstacles, trails, and other things that derail us from our intended
course. Sometimes we don't see them until it is too late or almost so,
like potholes; sometimes it these things happen because of our own
negligence, like dead lights; sometimes we ride too close to the edge
or temptation blinds us like the bright headlights of an approaching
car. No matter what it may be that makes us stumble or fall, I have
noticed this: that as long as I follow the examples of those I know
are good, honesty, integrity-filled, righteous people, I can know the
course I am following is one that will keep me safe and happy. I have
had many such examples throughout my life: my parents, grandparents,
siblings, and other family members, amazing friends, loving teachers
and leaders, previous companions. However, especially on my mission I
have come to know that there is one person above all others who has
set the perfect example and can show me perfectly which way to take,
despite whatever dangers may surround me: Jesus Christ. As I have
really thrown myself into following Christ's example, I have never
felt more filled to love and peace, self-fulfillment and self-esteem,
never known with more certainty that the path that I am taking is the
path that will keep me safe, allow me to help others, help me down the
road, and make me incredibly happy. I also know that this isn't
something that applies just to me, but to everyone. I love Jesus
Christ and love you all as well.

Love,
Elder Calhoun

Email #67     February 23, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

It's been a great past few weeks! I am loving Narita and everything
about it. I'll tell you a little bit about it. It is by far the most
hilly area of my mission. It's crazy. I'm going to have yerked calves
at the rate I'm going. No matter where you go, it's up and down some
big hills/small mountains. I hate changing gears on my bike, but I
don't know how long that will last. Church is about a 15 minute bike
ride from our apartment. There are two routes to church. One is pretty
flat, it's a little bit up hill but anything too bad. The other route
is just straight up uphill the entire way. What we usually do is take
the flat route to church, and then take the other route home and just
cruise downhill the entire time. I have literally no idea how it
works, it boggles my mind. I feel like I'm living out a dream of just
always being able to go downhill no matter where I go. I don't know
what kind of magic is required for a miracle like that, but I'm
incredibly grateful for it. The church here is on a hill and it looks
pretty sweet. It's next to a big mall and some other stores and looks
like this castle on top of a hill, it's legit. Our area is right next
to the largest airport in Japan. It's pretty weird, around 50% of the
people on the train have huge suitcases and are traveling somewhere,
and there are a lot of white people. I've developed this fear/just
huge shock of seeing white people while in Japan, so I guess Narita
will either help me overcome that fear or I'll just break and go nuts.
A bad part about being right next to the largest airport in Japan is
that our gaijin power has all but disappeared. Basically, in Japan,
being white and American gives you huge power. Japanese people love
Americans and talking to an American is a super sweet and rare
opportunity for them. It's really easy to just approach someone and
say, "Hello! How are you?" And they'll talk to you in their broken
English and you can just go from there. Being white in Japan is super
great for talking to people here, but we don't have that same power
around the airport because there are so many tourists. Thankfully, my
companion is a pretty good looking guy, so we should be able to stop
people just from his sheer handsomeness. The ward here is great. There
are a few young people who have returned from missions and have super
solid testimonies. It's a lot smaller than my last ward, there are
probably around 50 people or so who come, about half of Kasukabe. The
stake president is from our ward, and his wife has soo much missionary
fire, it's amazing. She came to DCS, our meeting where we correlate
our work with the ward, and she was spitting out ideas and help left
and right. The bishop also seems great, he made us a list of all the
less actives and recent converts and part member families in a day. We
do a ton of activities. Monday is basketball, Wednesday is English
class, Friday is Family Home Evening and Ping Pong, and Saturday is
another Eikaiwa class and once a month there is tennis. I think it
might be too many activities. We dropped basketball because only a few
people go, and none of them have interest in the gospel. We are also
going to start rotating who goes to Eikaiwa on Saturdays, as there are
only two classes and there are three sets of missionaries. We were
able to teach some good lessons during the last few days since I've
come. Our area currently doesn't have any progressing investigators,
or any solid investigators that we consistently work with. I'm excited
to do my best to turn things around. My companion is named Elder
Cardon. He's a beast. I've never met someone as happy or easy going as
him. He has a crazy past and some great stories. He's from M******n,
which could have potentially put us off to a bad start, but his family
is from Ohio and he's a big Buckeye fan and hates living there. He's
been on his mission for almost a year and is half Japanese. He's a
great companion, so kind and just loses it whenever I say a joke or
try to be funny, no matter how dumb it is. It's great. He's kind of a
convert, his parents were both members but went really less active,
and didn't go to church for a lot of his growing up. He went to some
mutual activities after the youth in his ward reached out to him, saw
how different they were from other people, and started going to
church. His family started seeing what a difference it was making in
his life and realized that it had to be true and started going back to
church. Now, almost his whole family is active and he's working on the
ones that aren't. I'm loving working with him, he's so willing to work
hard and be obedient and put up with me and my madness. Nothing
incredibly noteworthy has happened over the past few days. Before
coming to Narita, I went to say goodbye to the members I got closest
to in Kasukabe. I love Kasukabe and will carry a piece of it in my
heart no matter where I go. There are members there that have become
eternal friends, friends that I want to keep in touch with in years to
come. I have already made one of those friends here in Narita. His
name is Sugiyama Kyoudai. He's 51 right now, has a really young
family, and is one of the kindest people I've ever met. In church on
Sunday they asked me to introduce myself, and I said that I liked
sushi. He invited us over for dinner that night, as that was exactly
what they were having. We went to his house and everything about it
was unreal. His house is super American, it has an oven and an island
in the kitchen and a big table. I'm going to go back to America and
just be blown away at the wealth. Anyway, the sushi was out of this
world. He had gone to a fresh fish market the day before and gotten
really nice salmon, tuna, cornetfish, shrimp, and squid. It was the
best sushi I've ever had. I think it was a combination of my tastes
changing to really love sushi and not having $1 sushi, but man, it did
it for me. It was just us and Sugiyama Kyoudai, his nonmember mom, and
his son, Shion, who's 10. Shion lived in America for a few months and
speaks a fair amount of English and is incredibly witty and hilarious.
He knew how to play chess and wanted to play. I thought that he wasn't
going to be very good, so I didn't try super hard at the beginning (I
didn't not try, I was still 100% intending to win) and he sure made me
regret it. He won a very close match with some coaching from his dad.
It was humiliating. However, we were able to build a really good
relationship with their family because of it, Shion wants to come to
Family Home Evening on Fridays and I'm really hoping he does because I
need a rematch. They are an incredible family. Their mom passed away a
few years ago from cancer, but Sugiyama Kyoudai is as strong as ever
and is so incredibly kind. Today, we went to his house because we had
forgotten a paper there the day before. He ended up taking us to these
various shops around town that had the cheapest food I've seen in
Japan. We got probably a 15 pound bag of carrots for $2 and some other
good stuff. We also got 4 kilos of good chicken and pork for $8. I
can't remember American prices for the life of me, but in Japan,
that's a steal. It was super kind of him. He speaks English really
well and loves the missionaries. I'm really looking forward to getting
to know him better and trying to help his family. It's been a great
week. I'm living with Elders Crosby and Aleman. I lived with Elder
Crosby in Oyama, so it's fun to be with him again. Elder Aleman was
from Elder Unsworth's MTC district, and is one of the kindest,
gentlest, good people I have ever met. I am loving Narita. Please pray
that this week we will be able to find new investigators,
investigators who will have desire to learn of Christ and move towards
baptism! Really quick spiritual thought this week, next week's will be
much longer. I really cannot believe how happy I am as I testify of
Christ. We are talking to everyone (President Nagano has asked us to
really focus on people ages 15-25 so that they can build and
strengthen the church in Japan through serving missions, getting
married in the temple, having kids, and providing leadership. Because
of that, we talk to everyone who is around that age group, not so much
really old people) and no matter how those people respond, I am so
happy as I teach and share my testimony about Christ. I think that my
love for the Japanese people is continuing to grow and be
strengthened. The more I love them, the less scared I am to talk to
them, and that fear has virtually disappeared. I love Japan! I love my
companion and the missionaries here and the members and the people
that I have the opportunity to talk with on the street, and I hope I
will be able to help them as I share my testimony of the Savior and
how He can bless their lives.

Love,
Elder Calhoun

Email #66  February 16, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

I am transferring! I'm going to Narita, in Chiba Ken. My new
companion's name is Elder Cardon! I'm really excited to go work there
with him, it's going to be a blast. I don't have much time because I
have to pack and want to say goodbye to the members here. I will send
a good catch up email next week. Love you all, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

Email #65    February 9, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

I'm sorry, I don't have a ton of time this week. I'm just going to
share most of my President's Letter from this week so you can know
what I am up to and what I have been doing.

This past week went really well. We were blessed to see lots of
miracles. I am loving working with Elder Faganello, he is a great
missionary and friend. We have really been working on talking to
everyone, especially about Christ. We are making sure that with everyone we
talk to, we bring up our purpose and talk about Christ, not just going
straight to tutoring or Eikaiwa. We still have a little room to
improve, but we are doing better and better and becoming the finding
machines you told us we were. The biggest miracle we saw was probably
yesterday (Saturday). We had the ward basketball activity, and two
investigators and two less actives came. One of the investigators
doesn't have a ton of interest, he just comes for the basketball, but
we have been teaching him after we finish playing, and he has been
listening to what we tell him and taking what we give him, like
pamphlets. His native language is Thai, so we are trying to hunt down a
Thai Book of Mormon right now for him. The other investigator has a
lot of potential. He is the friend of a very less active youth named
Kichiro. Kichiro and his friend both love basketball, and we have really been making an
effort to reach out to him and his friend. After playing with them, we
were able to teach them with the ward mission leader, and Kichiro
committed to coming to sacrament meeting! He has been to sacrament
meeting once since I have been here, but before that, he hadn't been
to church in years. Last time he came with Riku, his friend, so
hopefully they will come together. Mashuu, Kichiro's more active but
still less active older brother, has been to church two weeks in a row
and also committed to coming to church today! The Lord is really
blessing us, and I am so grateful that Mashuu and Kichiro, members of
a family I have really come to love, are moving in the right
direction.

Elder Faganello and I are really trying to, as Elder Faganello put it,
"end this transfer with an explosion." Despite our hard work this
transfer, we have had a ton of rejection and a lot of our
investigators have dropped off the map and we haven't been able to
find many new investigators, even though we have been doing kinjin
dendo. However, we know that as we continue to work hard and be as
exactly obedient as we can, we will be blessed to see miracles. I
don't think I have ever been more happy receiving rejection than I am
at this point in my mission. I have really been praying and studying
and working to be filled with charity for my investigators and the
Japanese people in general, and Heavenly Father is blessing me to feel
more and more a stronger and stronger love for them. As a result of
this increased love, talking to everyone has been getting easier and
easier and even though it is always sad when people reject the gospel,
the thing that would bring them more happiness than they could
imagine, it is becoming easier and easier to just be happy all the
time despite the rejection.

I had an insight this past week about charity and feeling love for the
people here. I have always loved the Japanese people, but the past few
weeks I have been feeling that I need to strengthen that love and just
be filled to overflowing with charity, especially for the people I am
working with. When I hear about other missionaries, I sometimes have a
tendency to say things like, "It would be so much easier to love the
people if they showed emotion or that they appreciated my love." The
grass is always greener. I realized this week that I have been looking
at things all wrong. If I really want to love the Japanese people and
have my heart be filled with charity for them, I need to love all of
them, all of the aspects of their culture that are hard sometimes,
understand and appreciate them. I have been making more of an effort
to do this, and I have been incredibly blessed to be filled with more
and more love and appreciation for the people I have been so blessed
to labor among. I still have a long way to go, but I am so grateful
that Heavenly Father helped me realize this and has increased my
charity!

I'm so grateful for the gospel and for all of you, I love you all!
Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

Email #64        February 1, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week was great! I had the most rejection I've had yet on my
mission this past week. We've been having a hard time getting people
to church and meeting with our investigators this transfer, but we're
doing our part. Despite having a ton of rejection this past week, it
was a really happy, good week. Nothing out of the ordinary really
happened, but it was just good. The harder I work and the more I throw
myself into the work, the happier I am, no matter what happens. We
were blessed to have two walk ins at sacrament meeting. One was a
nonmember couple who just moved into the area and found the church on
google. They slipped out before we were able to get contact
information, but hopefully they will be back next week! There was also
a man who lives nearby who just came to see the church because he was
curious. He didn't seem 100% there, but it was a big blessing to have
2 people we had never met just walk into the church and stay through
sacrament meeting. I've been really thinking about love this week, and
how I need to be filled with more love for the Japanese people. I
already love them so much, but just like pretty much everything else,
I feel like there is room for improvement. Please pray for me that I
will be filled with love for the people here in Japan, my area, and
the people we are working with!

In other news, I learned how to whistle this week. For as long as I
can remember, I have wished that I could whistle. I would hear other
people who could, and wish that I could be like them and be able to do
some sweet whistling. However, I never really put in the time I needed
to become a whistling beast. In Elder Paul Cannon style, except much
less flowy and in a much shorter way, I would like to compare
whistling to our testimonies. I think that my journey to whistlehood
has much in common with the journey to acquiring our testimonies. Just
as there are those who have been able to whistle for as long as they
can remember, there are often those around us who have had testimonies
their entire lives. We may look at those who know that Christ is their
Savior, that the gospel brings happiness to their lives, and wish that
we were like them, that we could just know the same things. Some of us
may have gotten our testimonies quickly, after attending church or
reading scriptures for the first time. Others of us may have been
going to church for as long as we can remember, doing all the things we
need to be doing, and still may not have received the answer we have
been looking for. However, unlike whistling, having a testimony of the
Savior and His gospel will bless our lives beyond anything we could
imagine, make us happier, strengthen us in our trials, and give us an
irreplaceable feeling of peace. And even though there are some of us
who may work hard and long to be able to whistle, we may never be able
to. However, I know that if we put in the work and are sincere, we can
all be blessed with the happiness and peace that accompanies knowing that
Jesus Christ is our Savior, that He loves us, and knows us
individually. I am so thankful for my testimony of Jesus Christ, and
for the opportunity I have to help develop that same testimony in
others. My favorite scripture, 2 Nephi 4:16, sums it up pretty well I
think:

"16 Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart
pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard."

My soul truly does delight in the Lord and His gospel. If you can't
whistle yet, keep trying! If you have no desire to whistle, or to come
to know that Christ can bless your life through the gospel He has
restored through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
please consider it, as I know that it will be the same joy and peace
to you that it has to me and millions of others.

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 I went in between 2 metal poles after going shopping, thinking I could cut in between them without slowing down.  I didn't factor in the swinging of the bags, and the pasta sauce in one of the bags hit one of the poles and pretty much exploded.  It's hard to see, but it got all over my pants, shoes and bike.  I pretty much greased my bike chain with pasta sauce.  It was pretty gnarly.

 Elder Ito put on a wig today at zone p day and straight up looked like Zero from Holes. 

 I gave him my shoes and it was lights out the same.

Classic Japanese English