Email #74     April 18, 2016

As always, I have forgotten that this week is temple p day. Since p
day moves to Tuesday when we go to the temple, I'll email you all
tomorrow! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

Email #73    April 12, 2016

I'm Still Alive

Dearest Family and Friends,

I apologize again for the lack of communication. There's so little
time to email and my motivation, sadly, continues to plunge to
pathetic levels. I apologize. We didn't have much time to email on
Monday, so I've been working on this email during meal times, which is
why I'm sending it now. These last few weeks have been really good.
We've been blessed to see some crazy miracles. I'll share some
highlights from the past few weeks and then do more of a play by play
from the past week. Pretty much the highlights of the two weeks before
this past week were staying with Elder Cardon for another transfer and
a good district meeting.  This past week was amazing. We found a new
investigator named Kosuke. We found him on Saturday two weeks ago, got
his Facebook, and then met with him on Monday. We were playing
basketball with a youth in the ward and another investigator, and
Elder Cardon messaged Kosuke, seeing if he wanted to come play. He did
and was pretty good. After playing basketball, it got pretty cold, so
we decided to go inside and play some ping pong. Kosuke was like, "Is
it ok if I take a look around your church?" We told him of course it
was ok and took him on a church tour. We ended in the relief society
room, which has the font, and taught him the restoration. We extended
a soft baptismal invitation, which he accepted. He also took a Book of
Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet. He just pounded out the restoration
pamphlet while we were playing ping pong. He said that he didn't
really understand it super well because there was so much new
information, but that he would continue studying it at home. He's the
man. He lived in San Diego for 2 years and his English is pretty good.
I told him I used to live in Irvine and he recognized it and got
pretty excited when I told him. The Irvine connection has been pretty
insane. I'm just waiting for the Chapel Hill connection to pull
through. He said he for sure wants to learn more, so we're going to be
meeting him when he doesn't have work. He's like 24 and way cool. We
found him on the street, asked him if he had interest in Christ and
Christianity, and he said yes. He had interest because all of his
Christian friends in San Diego were super nice, and he wanted to know
why. Good lesson about how our examples speak volumes. Please pray for
him! On Thursday, we had interviews. Mine went really well. Sister
Nagano launched into this hilarious story about checking the Shibuya
Elder's apartment. They went to see how clean it was and only gave the
Elders there a 2 minute warning. When they arrived and checked the
shower, Elder Hipps (who now lives with us here in Narita) was hiding
in the shower with a huge trashbag full of junk that they had
attempted to clean. They had also moved all the dirty dishes into a
different sink that is at an angle that is impossible to see unless
you pass it. Pretty funny. The Naganos are the best. Conference was
incredible. I learned a lot, but feel like I will learn a lot more as
I continue to study the talks over the next little bit. One of my
favorite talks was Elder Nelson's priesthood session talk. I've really
been thinking I need to increase the faithfulness and power and
gratitude and pretty much everything about my prayers. It's amazing
that we can learn how to pray by praying to learn how to pray. After
the Sunday session, we visited the Sugiyama family, a great family
here in the ward. The mom actually passed a way a few years ago, and
when that happened, quite a few of the kids went less active. We were
able to meet one of them, Akiya. He's seriously the man. His English
is pretty good, he's 19, and he's going to college to learn law. Which
is already pretty cool but made much cooler by the fact that all of
his school is taught in Mandarin. Crazy stuff. He is a super great guy
and I think we could really help him. Hopefully we'll be meeting up
with him again soon. After that, we went home. On the way home, we
passed a guy who looked to be in his mid 30s and who honestly didn't
look like someone interested in the gospel. We stopped him and just
asked him super straight up if he had interest. I'll just type out the
conversation pretty much word for word:

Elder Cardon: "Hello, we're volunteer missionaries for a local church.
As volunteers, we teach about Christ. Do you have interest in learning
more about Jesus?"
Man: "Yes."
Elder Cardon: "Wait, really? You have interest in learning more?"
Man: "Yes."
Elder Cardon: "You want to learn more about Jesus Christ?"
Man: "Yes. I really want to learn."
Elder Cardon: "Ok, is it all right if we meet again?"
Man: "Yes."
Elder Cardon: "In order to do that, is it ok if we trade phone numbers?"
Man: "Yes."

He then proceeded to take our phone, put in his name and phone number,
and save his profile. He said he was busy for the next few days, but
to call him after that and to schedule something. We were blown away,
that has never happened to me before. Normally, you can tell the type
of people that are open to change, but even then it take some
conversation and building of trust and friendship for them to be
willing to meet up again and trade contact info. This guy is golden
and we're way pumped to meet him again. His name is Fumiyaki, please,
please pray for him!

Today we had zone p day in Chiba. It was a blast, we went to the beach
and played sand volleyball and capture the flag on this huge field
next to the beach. I miss open fields, they're so rare here in Japan.
There's literally no space. No one has yards, and a nice Japanese
house is probably the size of a double wide in America. Imagine a
normal, middle class home in America and then shrink it to half the
size just by making things smaller and cutting out any unnecessary
fat. America is such a powerful country. I was a patriot before my
mission but now I'm off the charts. Anyway, zone p day was a blast. It
was forecasted to be super cloudy all day, and as we were going to the
train station, it was lightly drizzling. By the time we got to Chiba,
the rain had stopped, and by the time we got to the beach, the sun had
come out. By the time we played capture the flag, the sun was shining,
the sky was blue, it was warm, and we were able super happy. It was a
sweet miracle. That's pretty much the past few weeks. Life is so good!

I'm sorry, I don't have time for a spiritual thought this week. I'll
send a good one next week. I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

 This and next 3 photos: Sakura (cherry blossoms)

 Keeping the artsy levels one hunna

 The night before zone p-day at the beach, I asked Elder Hipps if I should turn my jeans into jorts.  He said: "Yes.  Don't think.  Just do."  I did.  The jorts power levels were so high the entire apartment joined me.  We looked so real at zone p-day.  Also, I made the world's trashiest tie out of the cut-off fabric from my jeans. Trashing at volleyball in jorts and a denim tie was pretty raw.

 More apartment jorts photos.  Elder Hipps is squatting.  Elder Alerman is in the back.  Elder Cardon is on the right.  Elder Hipps is also from NC.  It feels good to have a fellow tar heel around.

 Zone p-day!  It was a blast.  It's kind of hard to read my shirt, but it says:

 "SNAKE PIT."  I found it at a recycle shop.

 We went to Sutamina Taro, an all you can eat restaurant, and I ate all this.  I almost died.

 Japanese people have a really weird thing for Coleman lanterns.  We went to an American import store one time and they had Coleman lanterns in the antiques section.  They were broken and were selling for around $100.

A pretty cool shrine in Chiba.

Email # 72    March 30, 2016

Beloved Family and Friends,

I apologize for taking a leave of absence for a few weeks in the
emailing department. The p-days are flying by and the day is over
before I know it. This past week went really well. Last Monday, we
went to the train station and handed out flyers for Easter and for
English class with 4 members. It was sweet, the ward mission leader
and bishop both came and helped, and the bishop is the one who
organized it. Mad respect. After that, Elder Cardon needed to pull
some money out from the post office (the post office is the best place
to withdraw money in Japan). As we were walking by these benches,
there was a young kid sitting by himself a little ways off. We were in
a rush and had a different appointment, but felt like we needed to
talk to him. After a short but intense internal debate, we went over
and talked to him super simply, introducing ourselves, explaining our
purpose, and asking him if he had interest. He said yes! He ended up
living pretty far away, but we switched phone numbers and hopefully
will be able to meet up again sometime soon. It was sweet, especially
since we've just been getting hammered during finding the last six
weeks. We've been going out and working hard and with faith, but we
haven't been able to find virtually anyone. Here's to a new transfer!
On Tuesday, I had exchanges with Elder Hugo, a newer missionary from a
different area called Yachiyo, but still in our district. He was a
beast, talking to everyone. On Wednesday, we had some good dendo time,
doing a lot of finding and visiting less actives. On Thursday, Elder
Crosby and I had exchanges. We also did a lot of finding, and talked
to a ton of people. It went well.  On Friday, district meeting, study,
and family home evening took basically all of our time. District
meeting was good, everyone shared their testimonies about Christ as
Sunday was Easter. The Spirit was really strong, everyone had stellar
testimonies. On Saturday, we had virtually no time to go out and talk
to people, which is the worst. We had Eikaiwa, and then a Shogi-kai,
and then a ward tennis activity. Shogi is Japanese chess. The pieces
move differently and the pieces aren't divided by shape. With the
exception of size, the pieces all have the same shape but different
kanji. A crazy thing about shogi is you can put the pieces you take
from your opponent and put them back on the board as your pieces,
which makes the games super long, twice or three times as long as
chess. I still don't completely grasp the strategy and playing makes
my head hurt. The ward really wanted us to go, but only two members
showed up. We need to either drop it or make it more effective,
because it wasn't worth the time. However, the highlight of the
shogi-kai was playing Shion. The first week I came to Narita, Shion's
dad, Sugiyama Kyoudai, had us over for dinner. While we were over
there, Shion, who is 9, challenged me to a game of chess. With his dad
coaching him through the game, he won. I've been waiting for a chance
to get redemption, and on Saturday it came. Shion was there for a
primary activity sans his dad. I seized my chance and challenged him,
a challenge he gladly accepted. I destroyed him twice. Now, some of
you may be asking, "Should you really have taken a 9 year old kid to
town at a friendly chess game?" The answer is a resounding yes. I
would have gone to any length for the redemptive W. Tennis was also
really fun, but I was trash. Whatever little skill I had before
leaving has completely departed me. My previously non-existent
backhand has degraded to the point where I either hit it into a
bordering court or over the fence. It was humiliating, but Elder
Aleman and I were still able to pull out a tournament doubles win.
They paired one ok person with a beginner, so we just always hit it to
the beginner. Somewhat vicious, but I slept soundly knowing I ended
the day with straight wins. The good thing was everyone else knew so
little about tennis and cared so little about the score that everyone
had fun. There were two recent converts and two less actives that
come, and in total there were about 18 people. Which was madness
because we only had one court. Sunday was Easter! It was a good day.
Church went well, a white guy from the bay area named Brother Perkins
came and said he might know the Brownings. We were able to teach 4
lessons despite being in the apartment most of the day. Elder Cardon
had a pretty rough week, he banged up his body on his bike in a
variety of ways at least 4 times in the past week. He had two straight
up wipe outs, one of which included some head to metal pole contact
(#helmets #hallelujah); an incredibly close wipeout down a flight of
very steep stairs, and a crash into a pole that ended him up on the
street and coming within inches of getting plastered by a Prius going
40. We took it easy on Sunday because his body was literally falling
apart, his ankle was ravaged and he could barely walk or bike. We did
a lot of calling, some planning, and a lot of reports. We were able to
have a good conversation with Dennis, this sweet recent convert from
Uganda. He's having a tough time right now finding a new job and
trying to help his family, so please tuck him in your prayers! Today,
we got transfer calls! I'm staying with Elder Cardon here in Narita.
I'm pumped out of my mind, I love Elder Cardon to death and am super
pumped to be staying here with him for another transfer. Elder Crosby
is transferring, so our apartment is going to be me, Elder Cardon,
Elder Aleman, and the new Elder, Elder Hipps. I think he's from North
Carolina, which is going to be blast. I'm loving Narita! I'm loving
the work!

The past few months I've been thinking a lot about charity and Christ.
Specifically, I've been thinking about why Christ loves us. I know
without a doubt that He does love me, but I haven't and probably still
don't completely comprehend why. However, I did have an insight I
think I'll share. Charity is the pure love of Christ. Up until now, as
I've thought about charity, I've only thought about it in terms of
loving Christ. The pure love of Christ means that we love Christ with
everything we can, that we follow His commandments and His perfect
example because of our love for Him. However, I realized that there is
another aspect of charity that I had never thought about. The phrase
"the pure love of Christ" has two meanings:
1. Loving Christ perfectly
but also
2. Loving as Christ loves
If we really have charity, not only do we love Christ fully, but we
also love others as he loves them. As I was thinking about this, I was
thinking about the love Christ has for His Father. Christ's love for
God is something that makes perfect sense to me. Christ knowing our
full potential and wanting us to reach it is another thing that made
sense. When I thought about these two points, something clicked for
me. Christ sees us with our full potential to become like God, which
means there is no difference between loving God and loving us. I think
that that reason is a big part of why Christ loves us; His love for
His Father and for us is the same love! When we do the same thing, our
love for God and our love for others is the same love, which enables
us to have charity, or the pure love of Christ. I love Christ and am
so grateful for Him and His perfect example of love. I love you all! I
love the work and the Japanese people and my companion and this
gospel. Life is good! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

P.S. Sorry I'm sending this so late, I didn't have the chance to earlier!

 A $150 trike!

 Found a flipping powerful ancestor while looking at the family tree

 Playing Shion at chess.  He's the man

 Some of the most baller tsukemen I've ever had

Ward tennis activity

Email #71   March 22, 2016

Yesterday was crazy and I didn't have time to write. I'll try to find
some time in the next few days. I am alive and well! Love you!

... AND continued! :)

 Our old apartment in Kasukabe when we were almost completely moved out

 The Kitaharas!  They are the best!

 A man I saw on the train on transfer day was doing some of the most aggressive sleeping I've ever seen in my life!  He stayed like this for about an hour!

 The old district: Sister Nicholes, Sister Fosa, Elder Faganello kneeling, Elder Porter, Elder Ito, Elder Broberg,  Elder Kuwana

 Narita!  The shrine below is in the trees on the left

 An abandoned shrine we came across a few days ago.  It was a bit spooky looking

 Me and Shohei in front of the temple on temple day.  He's awesome!

 Me and Elder Cardon in front of the temple on temple day.  He is the man!

 The new Kasukabe apartment when we first started moving into it. (So now the old new apartment)

We went out to "all you can eat" pizza, which meant they brought out a single piece 

like this every 5 minutes.  

... and continued...

 Elder Higashi's trashed helmet. He's a beast, but he's dead meat if he falls

 A tiny door, or a gigantic man? (I'm praying to grow 2 more inches and think I might have grown a little bit.  Feel free to join me in those prayers)

 An ad for an internet cafe I saw on exchanges.  The man in looking at penguins.  I have no idea what the thought process was when they took this photo

 This man had a PSP mounted on his dashboard.  #addiction

 We went to an elementary school to do a service activity a couple of weeks ago, and the kids made us fake sushi to say thank you.  This was mine

 A dinner appointment we had at the bishop's house a few days ago.  It was so good.  We had burritos and chicken pot pie and cinnamon rolls.  I ate to bursting

 This man tells me I look like JFK.  We are obviously friends

 We did weekly planning outside a few weeks ago because spring is finally coming!

Zone conference a few weeks ago!

#70 photos continued...

 Elder Yoshino! He's home now, but I love him so much!

 Elder Faganello doing his thing

 Saitama Zone Meeting!  From last transfer

 We've been using this in English class and the students NEVER understand it.  I don't know what it is, but something about this kind of humor just doesn't click with Japanese people.

 7 11 car what-it-do

 We found this HUGE bag of carrots at a local grocery store for just 2 dollars, a huge steal in Japan.  We wanted to take a picture with it but had no idea what to do, so we attempted the Simba, but it looks ridiculous

 Above and below: aforementioned bag of carrots in the fridge.  It was a close one

Narita's trash system is nuts.  You have to sort plastics, burnables, bottles, compostables and extras from each other and take each out on a specific day.  In this picture I'm sorting trash because I messed up.  I can't wait to be able to just chuck everything into a big bag again!