Email #50   Sunday, October 4, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

P day is on Wednesday this week so we can go to the temple. I will
email you then.

Love you all,
Elder Calhoun

Email #49  September 28, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

I am happy and doing great, but have no time. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

Email #48    September 21, 2015

Dearest Family and Friends,

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

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 The Nakagawas, the coolest family ever from Sanjo

 Sister Howe from Australia using Bojangles in her training at zone conference.  The word is spreading.

Brother Watanabe, the man who speaks Greek (his Japanese is so hard to understand, one of the members calls it Greek)

 Eating eel.  It was surprisingly good.

Tokyo Subway map.  Madness.

Eating during sumo.  We had sashimi.  It was good.

Email #47    September 14, 2015

Dearest Friends and Family,

Today was so fun and crazy. I have literally no time but I am alive
and thriving. We went to sumo today and it was one of the coolest
things I've ever seen. I'm sorry I've been such a slacker at emailing.
I will repent and improve. I am happy, feeling the Spirit, and
spreading the joy. As OneRepublic would say, It's Gonna Be (and
already is) a Good Life.

Love you all so much,
Elder Calhoun

The second video was an upset so people got ticked and threw their
pillows. Madness.

So sorry! I--James's mom--don't know how to post videos :(  We'll have to have James show us upon his return.

Email #46      September 7, 2015

Happy Birthday James!!  We love you so much!! Mom, Dad, Abbie and Lu

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week went super well. It was awesome. Thank you so much for all
of your birthday wishes. Today was a really great day. All of the
people here were so kind and really made it a good one. I wouldn't
want to be anywhere else. I didn't do a ton of emailing today, so if I
didn't email you, I'm really sorry. Life is hectic but oh so good.
This past week was transfer week so we did a lot of things for
transfers. On Tuesday, we prepped for transfer week and had a really
good lesson with Sugimoto San. We are going to try to set a baptismal
date with him tomorrow, so please pray for him and for us! He is truly
a good man. I don't think I have ever seen anyone who loves Jesus
Christ so fully for having been a Christian for such a short amount of
time. On Wednesday, I parted ways with my beloved companion Elder
Alder. I am grateful for the time I had with him and the friendship we
were able to form through the sweat, tears, and computer time. He's a
man and I was blessed to learn from and work with him. I also met my
new companion Elder Harrison. He's a beast. He was a massage therapist
before his mission and made music and loves computer stuff. It's like
pretty much 100% that I'm going to look for my wife at the massage
school at BYU. Hopefully they have one because I would seriously love
to marry a masseuse. Wednesday was good, we did a lot of transfer
stuff and then had a good Eikaiwa. Thursday was boring, weekly
planning and meetings and lots of long things. Friday was awesome.
Elder Mobley's parents missed their flight, so I had the privilege of
getting to work with him one more day. We made him do all of the tech
stuff and then we went to volleyball together and taught Raja. We got
back and his parents were there and his dad has the most manly,
powerful beard I've ever seen. Like Santa but more manly. Elder Mobley
is the man, I seriously love him and couldn't have asked for a better
trainer. On Saturday, we had all you can eat sukiyaki with Takada
Kyoudai. That man can POUND food. He's like 50 but he out ate me.
Except I ate more ice cream than him. After that we went to this
seminary event where they had members and missionaries each say a
scripture mastery and they did all 100. It was pretty fast but so
boring. They had 4 of us doing one scripture so we just did it in
parts even though we all knew it and all the members thought it was
hilarious. We had ping pong night that night and it went well. We were
able to teach a great member present lesson to Hiroki, one of the
Eikaiwa students we teach. He likes ping pong so he can and it went
well. He's a stud. Sunday was really good. We were able to talk about
doing a Book of Mormon challenge, where each member gives a Book of
Mormon to their friend, with both the family ward and the YSA ward.
The family ward thought that the members wouldn't have enough
missionary fire, so they're going to do a fireside about it before
hand. So cool! Both wards are going to do it. Sunday and today were
both answers to prayers. I was getting a little frustrated because
I've been busting my butt trying to work with the members and see
success here in the honbu and I thought that we haven't really been
seeing anything. But today and yesterday like three different members
told me that they appreciated the work I've been doing and that they
like who I am as a person. The older I get, the more I appreciate
little acts of love. I guess that's my spiritual thought this week.
Love everyone. Be kind. Show your love, no matter how small it is or
how small the gesture is. It really meant a lot to me this week. Thank
you family and friends for all of the shared memories and TLs. As much
as I loved getting cake in my birthday package, I loved getting all
your messages more. I will send pictures tomorrow. I love all of you,
truly, and I am so grateful for all that you do for me and for your
friendships and kindness.

Love,
Elder Calhoun

Email #45           August 31, 2015

Bummer

Dearest Family and Friends,

I wrote an email earlier but it got deleted! As my good friend Elder Diderickson would say, "Bums." I'll write a good email next week. We had a really fun and crazy sports night. As wild as it was, it was super effective.  There were 6 investigators and 2 less actives who came.  Good stuff.  Transfers are in, Elder Alder is out. I'll miss him, he's a beast and I've learned a lot from him. My next companion is named Elder Harrison. He's transfer four so we're going to be like headless chickens running around. Pray for us. I love this gospel and the happiness it brings me and everyone else. I also love all of you! Have a wonderful week!

Love,Elder Calhoun

Photo from the temple 

 P day is fire, but missionary work is infinitely better!

 Panorama from companionship study.  We throw the soccer ball at the beginning and whoever drops it has to sing a solo for the second verse of our opening hymn.  After we pray, we all stand up and recite the first vision and our purpose.  This idea just came to us one day as we were reciting it.

Screenshot from video of me getting pegged in the face.

#44         Tuesday, August 25

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week went really well! I don't have very much time so this is
going to be super short, even by Elder Calhoun standards. Some of the
highlights of this week were talking to Ken after Eikaiwa, district
meeting, and the temple today. After Eikaiwa on Wednesday, I had a
really good talk with Ken. He's such a stud. He really wants to be
happier but is having a hard time thinking that the gospel is a
reality and that Christ can really help him. We talked about how the
church is true and that Christ is a very real, living person who
performed a very real, applicable atonement, and although many
different people have varying thoughts or beliefs about this, it does
not change the reality that Christ and the atonement are real, true
things. He said that he would pray this week to know whether or not
the Book of Mormon is true. It's amazing how much I've come to love
the people that I work with on my mission. The times that I have felt
the Spirit most strongly are when I am teaching and feel heaven's love
for the person that is being taught. It's so incredible that the
Spirit is the real teacher, and that as we teach both the hearer and
the teacher are edified and uplifted. District meeting went really
well because of the amazing missionaries here in Nakano. Sister Palmer
did a training over Skype. It was really good. She was and is an
incredible missionary and I have learned and am still learning a ton
from her about dendo, our attitude about life, and choosing, finding,
and spreading happiness. Nori, a super cool member from the YSA group
here, also talked about how we can work more closely with the member
here. He basically just said that we need to show interest in the
members and get to know them and love them. We are going to memorize
all of the ward member's names (which is so hard, Japanese names are
so hard to remember) and do a Book of Mormon challenge with them,
thanks to Sister Palmer. We will challenge all of them to give out a
Book of Mormon within a month, and to share their experiences in
testimony meeting. This will allow us to all work towards a common
goal and for the missionaries to follow up with the members and get to
know them better. The temple today went really well. I have found that
when I go to the temple with a question that I need help with or need
answering, I get much more out of the session. It is a real, tangible
way that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and I am so incredibly
thankful that we have one in our mission. One other highlight was
staying awake in church this week. It was hard, especially because we
have two sacrament meetings to go to, but I did it. My thought this
week is about commitment. I've found that when I commit myself to do
something that I know I can do if I set my mind to it and that God
wants me to do, I do it. When we commit ourselves to this gospel, we
find happiness. When we commit ourselves to reading the Book of Mormon
and praying about it, we discover truth. When we commit our
investigators to do something, they change. When we commit ourselves
to do something that is alignment with God's will, He will help us do
it. It might be hard, but we can do it. That's a really empowering
principle I think. Also, I challenge everyone to read "Absolute Truth"
by President Spencer from the July 1979 Liahona. It's one of the best
talks I've ever read. I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

 Elder Yoshino and his Ferrari background.  Sometimes we 

change the background when he leaves the room.

 Yugi, the man.  He leaves for BYU on Thursday.

Elder Nakaima.  He's awesome.  Sometimes he looks like a Simpsons character.