Email #81     Monday, July 11, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

I am alive and doing well. I'm sorry, I had no time yesterday to
write. Here are some pictures. I will send a good email next week.

Love you all,

Elder Calhoun

Email #80   Monday, July 4, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

This is Elder Calhoun. Things here are going great! I am back in Tokyo
in an area called Senzokuike working with Elder King again. We were
companions for one week back in Kasukabe, about 8 months ago. He's
from Australia but has been getting way into the 4th festivities
today. We had a sweet bbq and went hard for like 4 hours. I'm full out
of my mind. We have soooo much extra food. We had an investigator who
was supposed to be baptized on Saturday, but his mom didn't give him
permission. So, at the latest, he'll get baptized when he turns 20,
the legal age you become an adult in Japan, and when his Mom said it
was ok. I'm sorry, we have to go to an appointment, but here is a
video! Love you all, have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Email #79          Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Beloved Family and Friends,

I didn't have time to write on Monday.  Thesepast two weeks have gone 

really well. I transferred! I left Narita andam now back in Tokyo, in an area 

called Senzokuike. I love it. I'm working with Elder King again! He was one

 group ahead of me in theMTC, and I remember seeing him once there. 

 He was Elder Unsworth's and my companion for a week in Kasukabe. I
think President Nagano forgot we had already worked together, but I'm
pumped to be working here with him. My last week in Narita went well.
The last day was the best. We went out to eat with Kosuke. We had raw
horse! Ever since I heard people eat horse here, I've been trying to
find a place that sells it, and was finally successful. It was
delicious. I will include pictures. Please make sure Abbie sees them.
We had a good talk with him. Kosuke looked up our beliefs and found out
about the word of wisdom and the law of tithing, which is great if he
can build his faith. Please pray for him! That same day, we also had
two people walk up to us and then give us their numbers. It was pretty
crazy. I transferred the next day, last Wednesday, and said goodbye to
Elders Higashi, Aleman, and Hipps. I love those Elders and will miss
them. I am loving Senzokuike though and the Elders I am living with.
Elder Broberg is from Utah, Elder Snyder is from Pennsylvania, and
Elder King is from Perth, Australia. Living with them is a blast. Our
area is doing well right now. We have an investigator getting baptized
this Saturday! His name is Yuuta Tateyama. He's 19 and a super kind,
good guy. He's the best. He was found in the South mission six weeks
ago and then referred up here. He's been to church all six weeks and
has accepted all the commandments and everything taught to him. Please
pray for him! Right now he's trying to get his mom to sign his
baptismal form, but I think he's a little nervous to ask, so please
pray that he will and things will go well. The last few days have been
full of visiting less actives, teaching, preparing for the baptismal
service, and meetings. We are actually over two wards, Senzokuike and
Tokyo 2nd. Tokyo 2nd is an English speaking ward for foreigners. We
have six hours of church every Sunday, but it's cool and also weird to
go to an English speaking ward.  Ilove both wards, they both have some 

incredible people in them. I'm super excited to be working here!

Recently, I've been incredibly grateful for the parable of the
laborers in the vineyard. There is so much that I am just learning now
that I wish I had known and applied so much earlier in my life and
mission. As I've been thinking about this, the laborers in the
vineyard, as well as this quote from Elder Renlund's conference talk a
year ago "God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are
becoming than about who we once were" have helped me a lot. I'm really
grateful that even though there are so many things I wish I were
better at or had started doing earlier or had realized earlier in my
mission, God is grateful that I am working on them now. This is a
wonderful gospel! Elder Snyder also had a thought that I really liked.
Elder Bendar has a talk from the MTC where he talks about the
character of Christ, and how Christ always turned outwards when he
could have turned inwards. Elder Snyder said there was a point in his
mission where he judged every decision he made by the question, "Am I
about to turn outwards or inwards?" He then did it if it turned
outward, and didn't if it turned inward. I liked that a lot and am
going to be trying to apply it.  I love you all!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

P.S. We are going to do a barbecue on July 4th. Can you please send me
some good barbecue recipes, especially some classic North Carolina
barbecue recipes? Like how to make North Carolina barbecue sauce and
all that goodness? Thanks so much!

Here we are with Yuuta (pronounced like Utah. He's sitting) and the
Kawamura Family. They're a huge miracle I'll tell you about next week.
The dad, who is holding the baby, is going to be doing the baptism.

Email #78      Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Dang It Feels Good To Be A Missionary

Dearest Family and Friends,

This past week went really well! I am loving working with Elder Higashi and am enjoying every second of my time here in Narita. Transfer calls are a week from today, and I'm worried that I might be transferring. I'll have to make the most of this upcoming week and potentially end my time here with a bang! 

We were blessed to see a lot of miracles this week. We found three new investigators and a new investigator for another area. We've really been blessed recently. God's timing is interesting. I don't think we're finding more people because we are working harder than before or have more faith; I worked hard with faith earlier in my mission and didn't find nearly as many new people. I do think some of it has to do with Elder Higashi. He is an amazing finder and really good at making people who have interest into investigators. I am trying to learn as much as I can from him before our time together is up. I also think a large part of it is just God blessing us. I'm not sure why He is blessing us so much now, but I am incredibly grateful for it. Life is good!

I've really been thinking about the importance of the Spirit. If we have the Spirit to be with it, it will guide us in every aspect of our work. Literally every aspect. That's so amazing! I love the Spirit and am so grateful for its guidance. 

I love you all! Despite my slacker emailing and terrible memory, I really love all of you and am praying for you. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

Dose 写真 Doe

 We went to this place called Tika-tika House. All this food was like $9, which is super cheap in Japan. It was soooooo much food. So filling. The meat is this fried chicken like stuff called karāge. It's super good but soo heavy. This place also has these gigantic sundaes, but they ran out before we got there. Bummer

 We made mabo-curry burritos. In Japan there are two really popular foods called mābōdoufu and curry. They are very different and never eaten together, but Elder Hipps learned to combine them in his last apartment from another Elder, loved it, and we have been making various mabo-curry dishes ever since. This was the latest. It was pretty good

 We went finding with our ward mission leader, Masato Kyoudai. He's a recently returned missionary, so he just put on his badge, stole Elder Hipp's bike and helmet, and turned into a missionary again. He's such a big help.

This is Shohei and Viwako. They are the best. Shohei is about to start his mission in Orem. He was converted like two years ago and is soo solid! Viwako is from Nigeria and is so kind. He's the man. I learned some pidgin from another Elder and can say a few things to him in it, and he absolutely dies. It's the best

Love you all.  Have a fantastic week!

Email # 77   Tuesday, June 7, 2016

GREAT WEEK,  SHORT EMAIL!

Dearest Family and Friends,

This past week was great. We were able to teach 21 lessons and find 4 new investigators. Our area is really doing well and we have been hugely blessed lately. Kosuke is doing really well still, please keep praying for him. I am loving working with Elder Higashi and being in Narita. Life is good. I was recently reading in Alma and had some cool insights. I really like how in Alma 17:10 the Spirit tells the sons of Mosiah to be comforted and then it specifies that they were comforted. I think a lot of times we feel the Spirit comfort us and are comforted momentarily, but then forget what we felt and stress or are sad again. It's important to accept and remember what the Spirit tells us. Life is so good! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

 This is indo curry.  It's so good.  I'm praying it's in America.

 This is Kosuke!  He's the best.  The woman is Sister Tabuchi, the stake president's wife.  She has crazy fire for the work and is the best.  She helps us so much.

 Yu Oto!  He's a recent convert that I've heard a ton about but met for the first time last week.  He always does the pose I'm doing in this picture (except for this one I guess).

 Sato Kyoudai asked us to help him buy some plants for his garden.  He didn't really need our help though and just ended up helping us take this big bag of carrots home.  He's too nice.  I really like this photo, though I;m not entirely sure why.

 This is Ayumu, one of our investigators, and Elder Higashi.  Elder Higashi asked Ayumu if he wanted to retake this photo as his eyes were closed, but they were open lol.  He's so kind.

One of the new investigators we found is this guy, Tanaka San!  He's 91 and a WWII vet.  He said he's looking for truth and had met missionaries previously.  In between the time they met him and we met him, he read the whole Book of Mormon!  Super interesting guy.  He's about to start working again so he can make more money.

Email #76       Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

久しぶり! I know you've all been rejoicing that it's been so long since an
email of mine has hit your inboxes, but I'm back. At least for this
week. Sending long emails requires energy, something I am often short
on. These last few weeks have been fantastic! I'll just give a brief
run down on what has changed over the past month or so. One of the
biggest things is that we had transfers! My beloved Elder Cardon has
gone up to Sanjo, my first area. My new companion's name is Elder
Higashi! He's the absolute best. We've been in the same zone the past
two transfers, and I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with him
two transfers ago. He's hilarious, and I was super pumped when I found
out he was my companion. We've been working really hard and have been
soooo blessed to see tons of miracles. Our area has really been
picking up, we have found a lot of new investigators and a lot of them
are progressing right now. My main man Kosuke is doing super well! He
has come to church the past two weeks and is coming again this Sunday
as long as he doesn't have work. We're teaching him later tonight. His
understanding is super good, and he asks amazing questions. He's an
amazing guy! Please pray for him! Those are pretty much the only major
changes. This past week went super well. On Tuesday, we went to the
temple! One of the people Elder Higashi worked with in Chiba went to
the temple to do baptisms for the dead for his first time, so we went
with him. It went well. He was having a hard time getting under the
water initially and had to do the same person quite a few times, which
stressed him out I think, but it all worked out in the end and
everything was fine. On Wednesday, we came home and did some good
dendo and then had Eikaiwa. Eikaiwa is always good. On Thursday we had
exchanges. I was with Elder Hipps. It went well, we were able to make
one of the guys who comes and plays basketball a new investigator. The
other elders also found a new investigator and a potential
investigator, so we ended the day with three new people, which was
sweet. Friday was district meeting and family home evening. Both went
well. I learned how to play shogi, or Japanese chess, and am
thoroughly enjoying it. We can only play at Family Home Evening, which
is very good. It's a blast and pretty good for building relationships
with the members that come. On Saturday, we had the ward's monthly
shogi activity, which was fun but absolutely destroyed my brain. I
don't think it's the most effective activity, not a ton of people
come, and have asked to stop it, but the ward keeps it because a non
member husband of one of the members comes when he can. We did some
good finding as well. Sunday was super good. We had church, and Kosuke
came! So did the Naganos. They taught third hour, and gave a lesson
about member missionary work. They also were both able to talk to
Kosuke and hit it off with him really well. President Nagano is going
to go eat at his hotel (he works at a hotel that also has a nice
restaurant) before he picks up the next group of missionaries here in
Narita. We had a 食事会, or like a pot luck after church. It was
delicious. We also had a YSA party after the potluck, which went super
well. Kosuke was able to become friends with a lot of the YSAs.
Yesterday was also good, we did weekly planning. We've been super bad
about finishing weekly planning. We were fasting to start a 40 day
fast (i'll include a picture of what that is) yesterday as an
apartment, which made planning pretty rough. We ended our fasts with
some ramen though. I got the extra extra big size and it was a lottt
of food. It came in a huge bowl. We also saw a pretty cool miracle
where one we ran into one of the new investigators we found who said
he would come to church, but then didn't and we couldn't contact him.
We ran into him wayyyy far away from where we first saw him, and were
able to set up a return appointment and find out why he didn't come to
church. Huge miracle! Today, we got to go to the temple again! It was
great. I love the temple so much and am so grateful we have one in our
mission. I learn so much every time I go, and feel more and more peace
each time. We went and had breakfast kebobs beforehand. We woke up
early to get to Tokyo with enough time before the session started. We
ate at Elder Hipp's favorite kebob place in Japan, which is open 24
hours. It was so good. I'm for sure down to make having breakfast
kebobs a Tokyo temple tradition. After the session, we went and ate
with Yu Oto, a recent convert of two years who I've heard a ton about
but have never been able to meet. Until today. He lived in Australia
for 15 years, so his English is super fluent. It was sweet to finally
meet him and get to talk with him. We had aburasoba, which is
basically just ramen without the broth to which you add vinegar and
oil. It's pretty terrible for you but super delicious. We've eaten out
wayyyy too much this past month and are going to take things way
slower this month. It was a great day and has been a great past few
weeks! I love you all and am so grateful for all of you! Have a
wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Calhoun

P.S. Probably a lot of pictures to follow. Sorry.

(No pictures followed with this update. James must have run out of time :).

Email #75   May 3, 2016

Dearest Family and Friends,

This last week went really well. Things are going well with our area,
and we are working hard and having a blast. Last Monday, we played a
ton of basketball. We played with one of our new investigators and
then played again with some potential investigators. It was lots of
fun and really tiring. On Tuesday, I had exchanges with Elder Crosby.
It went well, we were able to talk to a lot of people and use our time
effectively. On Wednesday, we had a normal day and a good Eikaiwa.
Thursday, we had district meeting. It went well. I also had the
biggest epiphany of my entire mission, which I'll share at the end of
this email. Friday was a blast. We had an 運動会, which is basically a
field day. It was tons of fun. The weather was perfect, which was a
huge miracle because it was forecasted to rain. It was a stake
activity, with the northern three wards going against the southern
three wards. We were on the northern wards team, which apparently has
never lost. We did a lot of different activities, some of which we
have in America, and some we don't. We had relay races, this tunnel
tag game, sack races, a huge tug of war, this weird game where one
person runs around with a hoop and people try to throw bean bags into
the hoop, freeze tag, a game that I can't describe but will attach a
video of, and lots of other goodness. In the end, we won! It felt good
to keep up the undefeated streak. We also had Family Home Evening,
which was good. Kosuke, our new investigator, came. He's so cool. We
were knackered out of our minds, but it went well. We were able to
teach both him and Fuma. Fuma is praying by himself, which is a huge
miracle! On Saturday we were ravaged beyond all description, sunburnt
and sun sick. We had a good day though, pretty normal. Sunday was
good, we had a great church with a good fast and testimony meeting.
Today went well. We played basketball with those same five guys again.
We were able to talk about the gospel quite a bit and a few of them
might have some good interest. We also went fishing and CAUGHT A HUGE
CARP. It was great. We cornered it in this little outlet and then
caught it in our net. I'll include a video. I was so hype. After
trying and failing in Kasukabe to catch a fish, we finally succeeded.
I'll tell you how it tastes next week. It was a good week.

I feel like missionary work really just clicked for me this past week.
I was thinking about faith a lot, trying to figure out how I can make
my faith a principle of power. I emailed Elder Burgin, an Elder who
served here a little bit before my time, but who all the missionaries
I was around my first few transfers really loved and respected and
talked a lot about. They especially talked a lot about his faith. He
emailed me back, and as I read his response, one of the emails my mom
sent me, and the Ricardi letter (a letter/paper about this beast
Italian missionary from years ago), something really just clicked for
me. As I was thinking about the mission of the moment, I realized that
if I always follow the Spirit, I will always know what my mission of
the moment should be. When I realized this, it was so enlightening. As
long as I follow the Spirit, no matter what happens will be for my
benefit and growth and good. If we get a day full of rejection while
following the Spirit, it means that we can learn and grow from that
day's rejection, instead of it being hard or depressing. We will also
be led to more of those that the Lord has prepared, as we will be
following the Holy Ghost and going where we are supposed to go.
Realizing this was amazing because now I know that no matter what
happens, as long as I follow the Holy Ghost, it will be for my good!
The same thing applies to everyone, even those who aren't
missionaries. As long as we follow the promptings of the Spirit,
everything will work together for the good of us and others.

Life is so good! I am loving the work and am working at becoming a
better missionary and disciple of Jesus Christ. There's not a happier
way to live! I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Calhoun

I don't have time for the pictures, but I'll send them next week!