Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! SHE DONE GOT MARRIED!!!!  Man, I'm choking back tears of joy when I look at the pictures of Kelsie.  The strange thing is, I don't feel sad or angry or anything really towards not being able to be there.  Elder Shibuta knows how I feel, too.  His older Sister got married a few weeks ago too and he hardly felt any kind of emotion towards it either.  It's so awesome though, I love Weddingzzz!

Here is the lowdown on Christmas calls.  Elder Shibuta is calling his family at 11 am our time for like probably 2 hours-ish to be honest.  Then after that it's my turn at like 1.  I think that is about 9 at night Christmas eve your time.  We can actually call too as well as skype if you would like, but you would be paying for it, haha.  But it isn't too expensive though on your end if you call me, not me call you. I'll be free to talk between 11-1 Christmas my time. Just a heads up, the Internet here is way sketchy so skyping might be annoying cause it will drop a lot, but it's better than nothing. 

I got your package and haven't opened up the presents yet from sheer use of awesome will-power!

We are pretty set on having Fernando's baptism this Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then Seiji's on the next Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then Ninoska's on the next Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!! President Budge has gotten way excited about it.  I had an interview with him today and he gave a lot of great advice on how to hasten the work.  Elder Bednar spoke recently at the MTC and shared how the reason the MTC training times are lowering and more missionaries are being allowed to serve is cause the Lord is hastening his work.  Like in Jacob chapter 5, the allegory of the olive tree, it talks about how in the last days, the Lord will work with his servants in the vineyard and he will hasten his work.  I know that to be true.  Today was also Temple day and we went to the Pokemon center in Tokyo and had a great time. 

Everything is going great here and I cant wait to see you on Tuesday (Monday) next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you!

Elder Crandall

Monday, Dec. 10, 2012

Ossssssss!

 

Mi familia ha do!  Just 5 more days by my calendar!!!  We are having a Christmas party on the 15th and I'll be thinking of you guys the whole time :)

 

Well, it's going to be a white Christmas in Yachiyo :) The man that we met who handed us his phone and was like "call me", we were able to meet him and talk about what he has heard about Mormons. His name is Fernando and he is 61. It turns out, that he got all the way to a baptismal interview in Okinawa, but failed it cause tithing was a problem.  That was 5 years ago and in that time span, he was thoroughly humbled by the Lord, haha.  He says that now tithing is no problem at all, he doesn't even want money, and he wants to learn and get baptized.  We set a date for him for the 30th, but we are thinking about bringing that date closer.  We met with him 4 times last week and have basically gone over everything with him at this point .  He has a lot of deep questions about justice and mercy and repentance and has an incredible amount of faith. We could honestly probably baptize him this weekend, but we need to give the ward time to prepare for him.  We are thinking of baptizing him on the 22, then Ninoska on the 23, and then another guy, Seiji on the 29.  3 baptisms in 1 month! Yachiyo ward is running around like chickens with their heads cut off, haha, Japanese wards maybe get 3 baptisms per year so they have no idea how to handle 3 in a month, haha.  We are working with about 8 other people who we want to help them set dates for the end of this month or January.  This place is the future of dendo in Japan.  Its not really Elder Shibuta or I, it's the Spirit that resides in the ward members and in their efforts.  I love Japan. 

 

I wasn't home when your package was delivered so I have to call in and get them to bring it to my house again :(  but I'm way excited to see what's in it!  Christmas in Japan is kinda lame cause no one's Christian, but there are some Christmas lights put up in neighborhoods and stuff.  We broke out the MO-TAB Christmas stuff this last week and the apartment is feeling pretty bright.    

Could you go on my facebook and accept friend invites from whoever, Asian people, people my age from America, and so on.  They are asking to read the weekly letters and I told them they could get a hold of them through my facebook.:)  Thanks!

 

My compeniero and I are working hard every day, teaching a lot of lessons as we go.  Every night I'm completely exhausted, but every morning I'm refreshed and ready to start anew!

 

I cant wait to see the wedding pictures!!!! I'm so excited!!! Have the best week ever and I love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Crandall

 

Christmas 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

I know you are all wondering what to send to Elder Crandall for Christmas!  Well, it is super expensive to send any package (even small packages) to Japan.  We suggest you send a Christmas card or a letter of well wishes to him instead!  It's only $1.05 (or so) to send a letter to him in the mail.  We know that Elder Crandall would love to hear from you all, especially at this wonderful time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  After all, that is Whose message he is sharing with the people in Japan :)

Here is Elder Crandall's address:

Elder Christopher Ronald Crandall
Japan Tokyo Mission
4-25-12 Nishi-Ochiai
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to
161-0031 JAPAN

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

Craig & Mauri

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

Hello Family,

 

Man, you guys are gambating really hard back home and it's so good to hear how much fun and success you guys are having.  Things are going great here, incredibly great.  So great, that I'm incredibly busy with other things.  But I squeezed some time in to email.  We have a lot a lot of investigators right now.  This past week, many of them got really sketchy and cancelled their appointments, which was very frustrating.  But we rescheduled for this week and so far it looks like all will be good.  We have a goal for 5 baptisms this month!  And we can do it for sure!  But we will need tons and tons of help and miracles from the ward and the Lord.  Not this weekend, but the next, we have pretty for sure a baptism planned!!  And then on the 29th we have another investigator for sure.  Our other 3 potentials are not 100%, but they have a lot of desire and could very well get baptized. 

 

Everyday, we are seeing crazy miracles and blessings from the Lord here.  For example, yesterday we went  grocery shopping at a super market and as we were leaving, this old guy walks up to us and asks if we are Mormon.  We very happily, yet cautiously, said yes. (sometimes people ask if we are Mormon just to chew us out, haha) Next thing I knew, he and my comp started speaking Spanish and it turns out that he is from Peru.  He told us that he met the missionaries is Okinawa and has a BOM that he has read.  He then handed us his phone and said, "Put your number in it".  We gladly did just that and he took his phone back, said, "Call me" and then walked away, haha.

 

I went on splits this week with a Japanese elder named Shimamoto and then an Australian elder named Elder Goodridge. Both of them are very old missionaries and have tons of wisdom and experience that they graciously bestowed upon me.  I went and dendoed in a very Inaka (countryside) area for the first time.  It's probably the most country side area in the whole mission.  Like, the Church building is in the middle of a rice field, haha, it's way funny.  It is very hard dendo because the people are so few, but it was relaxed and more calm out there. 

 

(to answer your question, I get letters from a few of my friends.  Only like 1 or two a transfer, but I keep in pretty good contact with my friends in other missions via email.)

 

Only 11 more days till the wedding!!!!  I'm sure it's getting crazy over there and I am praying real hard that Kelsie will get better.

 

I'm gonna send a new picture like dad requested.

 

Dad: Can I hear some cool mission stories about when you were in Chile.  I meet with a lot of people from South America and maybe if I share one of your stories in a lesson, they can relate to the situation better cause it's from their home area :)

 

I love you all so much and I want you to know my heart and prayers are always with you :) Keep praying and thank you so much for all of your effort.  I kid you not, I can feel your love every day.

 

Love,

 

Elder Crandall

Monday, November 26, 2012

Hello my wonderful family :)

 

Thank you for sending me all of those emails, haha.  It really made my day and made it a little bit brighter over here.  It's kinda cloudy and rainy today.  But today and especially this past week was amazing.  I love Japan!  I love being a missionary in Japan, especially in Yachiyo.  The Lord truly loves the members in Japan and he blesses the members who are striving to follow their commitments and to share the gospel soooooo much.  I saw sooooo many miracles this past week and it is because of the amazing members that we have in the area. 

For example, we have started a caroling part that sings at busy parts of town once or twice a week.  It consists of us, the sister missionaries that are here with us (Sister Swainston and Sister Champenois (she is from Denmark)) and a handful of members and investigators that like to sing.  It was cold and rainy and no one stopped to listen while we sang.  But after we were done caroling, we started to hand out fliers and stop people. We were able to talk to a lot of prepared people who were very excited about hearing our message and coming to church and we found a few new investigators.  I know that because the members got involved in the missionary effort, the Lord was pleased and he blessed us with prepared people that we easily found in our path. 

We had 5 investigators come to church on Sunday and we were able to teach most of them periodically throughout the day.  A few of them seem to have genuine interest in getting baptized and we set up a lot of times to meet with them this week.  One of them is called Joy.  He is about 26 and he is from India.  He is Islamic, but he doesn't really follow or believe his religion and he is very open to studying and learning more about what we teach. 

We are teaching this one girl named Ninoska and she is 20 and from Peru.  Her mother is less active and her father is not a member.  Her mother doesn't want to meet with us cause she kinda has a lot of guilt and doesn't want us to try to re-convert her, but she very much wants Ninoska to learn and get baptized.  She is very close to baptism and we are just going through the commandments with her at this point.  In fact, we are planning on teaching her the Word of Wisdom tonight.  She speaks very little Japanese or English so we do it all in Spanish.  Wish us luck and pray for us!

We are also teaching another guy named Manaka who really wants to get baptized, but at this point we are making sure it is for the right reason.  We are not sure if he will keep the commandments after baptism, like not drink coffee, and so we are really trying to help him see that he has to be truly converted to the doctrine and to Christ,

We are working with two families, the Tanaka's and Watanabes, and they are using our family English class program.  We go over to their houses once a week and teach English to their way cute kids.  They have a little interest in the gospel and we will keep working with them until they gain interest.  I have faith that they will. 

And we have a lot of other people that little by little they are coming closer to Jesus Christ.  I don't have a lot of writing time today cause we have sporadic lessons through out the day, but this is the story of my life now a days, haha.  Which I am very grateful for.

But we haven't done anything too crazy other than teach a lot of lessons every day.  We don't travel very far and like you can literally see the church from our back door.  It's 3 houses and 1 graveyard down from us :)  I love it here and I especially love my companion so much.  He is a beast of a missionary and a very humble and loving man.  I feel so much love for him and I love how bold yet kind he is in everything that he does.  

I had a dream three nights ago that there was a big earth quake and that I was in a strange house and didn't know where I was so when the earth quake came i didn't really know what to do.  I woke up and told Elder Shibuta that I had a dream about an earthquake.  I told him that if there is an earthquake today, that I prophesied it!  I kid you not, at 5:45 that afternoon, while we were teaching the Tanaka's English, there was about a magnitude 4 earth quake that hit us.  It shook the house pretty good but didn't do any damage.  I called it, straight up.  Elder Shibuta as my witness.  That was the first earthquake dream and the first earthquake I've experienced in Japan :)

Please pray for the people that I mentioned.  I know that God hears every one of our prayers individually and blesses us according to how well we unify our desires together with His.  

Happy Thanksgiving (which I didn't have at all, haha) but, shoganai (it is what it is). 

Thank you for sending me the picture of Ben :) it really brightened my day.  I think about him a lot and the relationship we had.  I think dad can kinda relate to me considering the James was less active growing up.  I missed a lot of chances to share the gospel, but he sure has an awesome foundation from which to build his faith.  He will join the church to yogen shimasu.  

I love you and good luck with the wedding!  I love you all and tell everyone back home that I love them sooooo much.

Elder Crandall

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Me familia! Como estan?

 

Man, so because of this last week, I need to ask for a few more things in that Christmas package, haha! :)

 

First of all, let me tell you about my week. We were able to see a lot of miracles this week! Everything just seemed to go our way.  Every time we went streeting or housing, we found a prepared person who was interested.  Like, I think after all was said and done, we had like 3 lessons set up for this week with people and a lot of new phone numbers.  At our English class we had 4 new people come and two of those people became new investigators who wanted to learn more.  We found an Indian guy who hates Japan but loves America and he wants to take us out to an Indian Curry place sometime soon.  I made friends with a guy from Turkey and Shri Lanka and both of them had friends that were looking for places to go to church on Christmas, which we happily recommended our church.  This past week was great for Elder Anderson and I.  Plus, for Thanksgiving, we got invited to the Naval Base to eat with an American Family and play in a Turkey Bowl! The old guy Yamamoto san came to church as well! He was really funny and kinda awkward.  He kept on saying that he wasn't christian and he wasn't sure about religion and we were like "Hai, we know, we will teach you", haha.  He could only stay for most of church cause he had to take care of his mother in law, but he liked it and I think that he will come again next week. 

 

Kohoku is starting to come alive! The Bishop and his wife even invited us over for dinner :D they haven't invited missionaries over in like 9 months, haha.  We were able to teach a family English class example to their family and another family and we built a solid relationship with them and talked for a long time about missionary work and such.  Member dendo! The most effective dendo!

 

My future was looking brighter than ever, tons of new investigators, people coming to church, and then I got the call that I was transferring :)

 

Now I am in the Yachiyo Ward in the Chiba Stake :) and let me tell you, this is the promised land of all of Japan :) :)

On average, we taught like 1-3 lessons per week, 1 member present lesson, and find like 2 new investigators.  Consistently, Yachiyo teaches about 21 lessons per week, 13 member present lessons, 10 new investigators, and they had 15 investigators come to church last Sunday :D  On top of that, they get like 6 referrals every week and have 5 people lined up for baptism :)

 

I was so surprised to hear I was transferring, and then to find out to Yachiyo! I was in shock.  This area is the most successful area in the whole mission.  Partly because of the elder before me, he was the greatest streeter and makes friends with everyone, but mostly because of the ward members and their faith and fire for missionary work.  It is honestly amazing to be a missionary here.  Like, we walk outside and people practically walk up to us and ask what we are doing and if they can learn more. The Lord loves Chiba!  Many, many people are prepared to hear the message here and I am so blessed and humbled for the opportunity to serve here. 

My new companion is Elder Shibuta! His name is Japanese, but he is 100% Braziian! Can you believe it? He is fluent in English, thank goodness, but he is from Pontagrossa Brazil and looks exactly like my old roommate Riley, haha.  He is on transfer 6, I am only 4, so we are both very young, but his Japanese is way good, and so both of us together do pretty well.  He is like the coolest guy, idk, he is exactly like me I guess. We have the same hobbies, interests, and he is a beast at dendo.  He goes way hard in everything and has a ton of faith.  He is Latino so he has the biggest heart ever and loves everyone. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and now Japanese, which comes in handy around here.

 

We have  this giant neighborhood of about 300 Peruvian families right down the street.  This place is just crawling with Latinos from all over and so we have a few investigators that we teach in Spanish and Portuguese. So, I need to re-learn all of my Spanish again! AHHHH, I forgot everything! So my new Christmas list contains a Spanish dictionary and a basic Spanish conversation book :) This place is so cool and its flat! Kohoku was one of the hilliest places in all of Japan and Chiba is smooth and flat so I am loving that.  I'm sorry this letter is so delayed, our p-day was yesterday but we had to teach some lessons so we have to spread our p-day over the course of a few days, haha. 

 

I don't have a lot of time but a have a few requests.  Although we have 5 people lined up for baptism, they are still a ways away and need a lot of help and miracles.  Could all of you please, please pray for the investigators in Yachiyo that they will be able to join the church and know it is true. The members here are doing a perpetual 40 day fast where they take turns fasting for investigators and because of their desires and them knitting their hearts together, the Lord is blessing us like nothing else here. You don't have to fast, but please, please remember those people in your prayers :)

 

There is a member here, his name is Brother Chiba, he lives in Chiba :), and he is one of the reasons for all of our success.  He is 25 years old and he is a recent convert of about 5 years.  He is maybe leaving for a mission in January for Sapporo Japan, but because of his anti -father, he might not be able to go. But Chiba is the man! He has a part time job but only works like 4 hours a day and he spends the rest of the time hanging out with us and doing everything with us, haha. He dresses up like us and has a bike and joins in lessons, helps us street, and is Japanese so he can help us if we ever have questions. Every lesson we teach is basically a member present lesson and he is the perfect member missionary, cause he knows exactly what we want from members as missionaries. He is better at streeting and stopping people and teaching lessons than most RM's, haha. He used to live next to the Honbu (mission home) and he would hang out with all of the AP's all day and President so he's basically the best well trained member in the world. And he the funnest guy to hang out with, just way super happy and always cracking jokes, haha. 

 

We have a baptismal goal as a mission for 300 this year and right now we are at like 210.  90 people in a month and a half is totally do-able, especially here in Yachiyo we are going to be a big contribution.  The ward is about 60 active people, but the Bishop is the best, the ward mission leader is the best, and our stake president has more dendo fire potential than most oil rigs :)

 

I love you all and I need to go teach people! YAY!

 

Thank you so much! Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Elder Crandall

Monday, November 12, 2012

Hello Family!

 

Thank you Connor :) I liked your letter!

 

So I just got the invitation today! It is the first letter that I've gotten this whole transfer and I'm on week 6 of it, haha.  It was way ひさしぶりですね。But I like it! It's way classy and refined, yet simple and modern :) they look really cute together, haha! I'm working on the video.  In fact imma gonna finish it and mail it right after this :)

 

Well, this week, was good I guess.  Kobayashi didn't make his baptismal date, he was still kinda far away and so we have been trying to set a new date with him, but he has gotten really sketchy and doesn't email us back or answers our calls very often anymore.  We are kinda starting to go back to square one with him and stick to ping pong and trying to become better friends with him and get him church friends.  But we found a new investigator this week.  We went streeting in Hiyoshi which is home to a very very large University and so we really wanted to talk to a lot of college age people and stuff like that.  Low and behold, we call out to this random college guy in English but the guy behind him replies instead back in English.  The guy that replied is about 70 years old and is like one of the happiest people that I have ever met.  His name is Yamamoto and he used to live in New York and is fluent in English.  I was on splits with my DL Elder Hosier that day and so we just started talking to him about America and why we are in Japan.  He was very happy and told us that his life motto is to make everyday more happy than the last day and so he always walks around with a smile and tries to help people.  He said that he used to believe in God, but recently he doesn't know.  His best friend of 50 years passed away 2 weeks ago and he was very heartbroken and sad about that.  Elder Hosier shared a very touching experience where he had a closer relative who was like his best friend pass away and he related to Yamamoto very well.  We then explained to him about our beliefs about God and the purpose of life.  We then shared the the plan of salvation and told him what his friend was doing right now. ( we didn't just say this is what we believe, we told it very factually and very bold which was key to sparking his interest) We told him that we need to do certain things like get baptized in order to return to live with God and because his friend was never baptized he can't return to live with God, BUT, we taught him about baptisms for the dead and how he can do that here in this life for his friend. He was kinda hesitant at first, but by the end of our talk, he pulled out his planner and asked when and where our church was and we set up a time to meet with him.  It was a cool experience for me because we didn't do a whole lot of explaining our beliefs, we mostly just testified about things and how important these things are to us and how it will bless his life and his friends life.  He is coming to church Sunday!

 

So next Monday is the end of the transfer (dakara) it's transfer day.  So, I may or may not, maybe, I think, might be, idk, be transferred.  If I don't, then for Thanksgiving we are going to the Yakosuka Naval base and having dinner with an American Family :)  and then that same transfer, we have Christmas and New Years! It's three holidays in 1 transfer and so I would honestly love to stay here with all of the ward members that I know and with Elder Anderson cause he's cool.  But man, let me tell you, new years ( ShoGatsu in Japanese) is like the biggest holiday in Japan.  Apparently, it's a two week celebration and the elders get fed like twice a day for two weeks.  I'm way excited, haha, plus I just love Christmas anyway, by far my favorite Holiday. 

 

This past week, I had a cold but nothing too bad.  I was still able to dendo and do stuff, but it wasn't as fun, ha.  Everyone in The Cabin (our house) is sick right now, but we refuse to wear the doctors masks that all of the Japanese people wear!  'Tis the season.  Last week, I bought Heat Tech thermals and a really soft scarf :) I would never wear a scarf in America, but here in Japan it's the cool thing to do.  I'm actually wearing it right now :)  

 

This morning I had rice and milk and sugar for breakfast :0 yummy  When I get back, there are a lot of things that I want to do with you guys, as far as food goes.  We need to do shabushabu, yakiniku, gyudon,curry, kimichi, tim tam slam, real ramen, oyakodon, cha han, maborofu, and the list goes on!  Me and Elder Anderson take turns cooking and so I've gotten pretty good at cooking lots and lots of weird things :) none of them are really that weird though. 

 

I hope everything goes smoothly with the rest of the wedding plans! Every time I think of the wedding I get way excited and I feel so happy for them.  I wish I could be there, but sometimes I'm relieved that I'm not, hehe:) But keep praying for us to find prepared people and that the members of Japan will have a change of heart and become more involved in this great cause :)

 

I love you all so much and I want you to know that I truly know with all of my heart that the cause that I am involved in is ordained of God and as his servant I testify to the divinity of this Gospel and of Jesus Christ.  I love you.

 

Elder Crandall 

Monday, November 5, 2012

Hirro!! (it's Hello but with a Japanese accent :)  )

 

Man, the weeks seem as though they are flying by.  Not a whole lot happened this week that was successful.  We spent a lot of time streeting and we got rejected pretty hard this week, haha.  Like we had a few people yell at us to go to do not nice things (like regular middle aged business men type people yelling at us) and people were very uncharacteristic of Japanese people.  But, such is life.  We got a few phone numbers but those people seem kinda sketchy.  It's better than nothing, I guess.  None of our investigators could meet this week because they are busy, so we visited a lot of members and had fake lessons with them so we could keep up our teaching skills.  It's hard going a week without finding new investigators.  But it feels as though we are on the verge of a great breakthrough in this area.  Please keep praying that we will be able to find new prepared people to teach :)

 

Today we went to Landmark Tower again, the third largest tower in Japan, and it's just right down the street from us.  This is the one that has the world's fastest elevator.  It was kinda cloudy and we couldn't see very far.  But we visited the Pokemon center again and then went to Uniclou and bought some winter clothing.  I bought some thermals and a really nice scarf :)  Riding bikes here in this weather is bitterly cold.  I know it's only like 60'ish, but with the humidity, it feels like 40ish.  When it gets down to freezing, it's bone chilling cold. Our house has like no insulation so we have to turn the heaters on 24/7 and bundle up as best we can. 

 

I made a friend who is from Pakistan yesterday.  His name is Muhamad Ali and he is way cool, haha.  He looks like he is black, but he is just really tan.  He moved here a few years ago so that he can send money home to his family.  He says that 15 yen (15cents) can feed his whole family for one day.  He is doing pretty well for himself now but he really liked that we were from America and that we are serving Alah (God).  He gave us his number and wants us to call him if we ever need food or anything.  It's amazing to see how Christlike some people are without even knowing they are Christlike.  Like this man, he is probably more Christlike than most Christians in America (maybe even a lot of Mormons).  His whole purpose in life is to feed his family and give service to his home country and other less unfortunate people.  He was preaching to us about the importance of helping the helpless and quoting the Bible and Mother Teresa.  A way cool guy and I wish him the best of luck in Japan.

 

One of our ward members got married this weekend so we helped set up his reception.  We didn't stay for the party cause we needed to dendo, but it was very American, yet it retained a lot of Japanese things too (like sushii for dinner, haha).  It was way fun and it made me think about Kelsie's wedding and such. 

 

Shout out to my good friend Alex who is going into the MTC this week!  I heard word through the grapevine that a few of my friends have put in their papers due to the new age level.  It gives me so much joy to hear about those things and I wish them well as they join me in so great a cause.  I also found out that one of the guys I'm serving with is high school friends with Riley Creer and Conner Earl who I lived with at BYU.  Way small world.  He has pictures of both of them in his family album and I was way excited to see them in there, haha. 

 

I'm getting way excited to hear the results of the Election!! It's gonna be crazy either way.  I wish Romney the best, but even if he doesn't win, it really doesn't matter anyway.  The world is going down the toilet fast.  As a missionary, we focus mostly on the small side of the picture, like individual worthiness and personal testimony.  And the truth is, if that is not stable and 100%, then the big picture doesn't matter anyway.  Of course we need to do all we can to make this world the best place possible to raise families, but if we get too caught up in the big picture and lose sight of the more important details, all will be lost. Ganbaro Nippon!

 

I want you guys to know exactly how much I love you, but my words will do nothing to convey that magnitude. 

I love you.  I miss you and look forward (but not toooo much) to our great reunion in 2 years. 

Good luck America, and to the Burdette's and you, with the wedding :)

 

Till we mail again,

 

Elder Crandall 

Monday, October 29th, 2012

Hello Family,

 

Wow....... I don't even recognize you people any more, haha!  iPhones, MacBook Air, what is going on!  I guess I was an anchor to this family and now you're floating away to Mac-land! (Elder Crandall is a die-hard PC guy!)

 

Suggestion for the "creature" under the house, Dave McMullan, my water polo coach and swim coach, is an exterminator.  He might be a good reference for what to do or who to call about the cat stuck under the house.  He lives right across the street from Ben's house, the very first house in that neighborhood.  You could stop on by or google his company or something. 

 

Man, what a way crazy week in America! I've been hearing a lot about the election from members and random people on the street.  Economically, Japan wants Obama to win because Japan and China are profiting off of America's bad economy.  They want America to decrease because America's economy is correlated to theirs.  I hope Romney wins, I really do.  It already is making an impression on Missionary work world wide.  People have been just a little bit more open to hearing about our church because of Romney.  Their curiosity is increasing little by little. 

 

This past week, we had a few lessons taught to investigators and they went really well.  I went on splits with my district leader's companion and we had a great time in Kawasaki.  We taught 3 lessons that day to various people and got Dominos Pizza that night.  Pizza is incredibly expensive in Japan.  Dominos had a buy one get one free deal so that's why we went.  It is 2500 yen for one medium size pizza.  That's like 30 bucks for a medium pizza.  It's absolutely insane. 

 

We had 3 mogis to members this week (visits to members where they pretended to be investigators).  We did a lot of teaching this week which was really good.  Although they might not have been very interested or even investigators for that matter, teaching is good.  It makes us better missionaries.  Elder Anderson and I get along great, honestly.  It is way way fun living with him and working and serving with him.  Our teaching style is progressively getting more and more unified.   We have become fairly effective teachers, now we just need to find prepared people to teach.  We teach when we find and we find when we teach (PMG)  and we are able to teach a lot on the street.  But we need to find prepared people, we call them kinjin, which means golden people.  People that have interest find they have need.  It's hard work, mathematically, 1 / 5000 people we talk to on the streets or in their houses will get baptized.  But that is not how the Lord works.  We can either talk to people all day and the last person we talk to have interest (which is a test of our faith) or we can show our faith and have the Lord trust us enough to deliver the prepared people quickly.  I don't know, either way, we still talk to as many people as possible, haha. 

 

It is really starting to get cold here.  Like way, way, way cold.  No one ever warned me that Japan is bitterly cold in the winter!  I am going to go to a store called Uniclo and buy things called heat tech which are basically these thermal under wear things that are perfect for missionaries in Japan.  It will only be like 30 or 40 dollars.  Did I mention that I bought an electronic Dictionary, finally?!  It has a kanji pad so I can write down words I don't know, which is basically all kanji, and it will pull up definitions.  It was only 180 which is a way good deal cause it is usually 300-ish.  Japan is crazy expensive.  I'm sorry mom and dad, but I'm currently serving in the second most expensive mission in the world.  Please do not forget how blessed we are to only have to pay 400 a month.  The housing bill every month is at least a few thousand, then we spend another 400 on food and transportation alone.  As long as we keep paying tithing and fast offerings, the Lord will bless us for sure. 

 

Today, we had a Zone P-day!!!!  It was way fun!  We had a giant pancake breakfast at our church, which is the stake center, and then went to a park that is next to it and played football and frisbee for a few hours.  But now I'm super sore!!  My back is way tight and I can't move my neck, haha.  It's a combination of sleeping on the ground and riding hunched over on a bike that's slowly killing me.  But my legs are getting way big now, haha.  I've put on about 18 pounds since I left home and it's all gone to my legs, haha.  My area is probably the most hilly area in the whole mission, and since I've been here in the area the longest, I'm like the most conditioned missionary in the whole mission. ;)

 

Kobayashi San has a baptismal date for the 11 of November, but he probably is not going to make it.  He still is having a hard time understanding the BOM and how to apply things into his life.  But he has a desire to get baptized and to follow Christ.  Other than him, we do not have very many committal people or progressing people. 

 

I got recruited by NuSkin yesterday.  They approached me while I was handing out English class fliers and they started grilling me about my education and what I'm doing in Japan. After a while I told them I was Mormon and they started freaking out since their CEO is a well renown Mormon.  They got really excited and wanted me to check out their home office in Shin Yokohama, but I kind of blew them off.  But today, they emailed me and are trying to follow up with me.  Now, I realized that they did the exact same thing to me that I try to do to people everyday, haha.  They approached me on the street, asked about my background, taught me about their company, took my information, and are trying to set up an appointment with me, haha.  They are like missionaries for Nuskin.  Way weird, but now I know what it feels like to be an investigator. :)

 

This last Friday, we had a giant surprise birthday party for one of the sister missionaries in our area.  We had a lot of members and investigators come and we made homemade pizza and cookies.  It was way delicious, like, we were able to make American pizza's with Japanese ingredients!  Which reminds me, could you send me the recipes for biscuits and gravy and Chinese Sundaes? That would be awesome!

 

I hope you guys have a great, great, great week and have lots of fun and maybe do even a little bit of missionary work on your own.  I thought of some ideas for you guys... 

Dad- Read the Spanish BOM, physical copy, on the days you are not the person driving to work in your car pool.  People might ask you why you are reading it in Spanish, you can say cause your fluent!, and then maybe share some mission stories and explain what you did.  I know it maybe is a little bit tempting just to sleep during that time, but don't you think that the Lord wold bless you with whatever you stand in need of that day if you were sacrificing sleep for study?

 

Mom- You are kind of in a very interesting situation, my mother.  You don't really have a whole lot of close friends that are not Mormon, but maybe, you could contact some of your old high school and college friends that are not Mormon and just check up on them and see how they are doing.  Just find one person on Facebook or something like that and ask them about their life and kids and what not.  Then, they will ask you about your kids, and you can talk about me and give a simple explanation about missions.  I can guarantee that they will be amazing at exactly what missionaries do.  They will think about it, and just a simple testimony about missions can plant great seeds of potential. 

 

Kyle- Date Mormon girls, hahahaha!  It sounds like it's been way easier for you to do that than for me.  Good job, having a lot of girl friends that are Mormon.  High school can totally suck sometimes.  I bet, especially now that the church is getting a lot more publicity because of the election, the church is being brought up a lot in school.  If there is ever an opportunity where a teacher or a student stands in need of correction of a gospel principle, simply say that you're Mormon and this is what we believe... Especially teachers, they will say a lot of things that are skewed in some way to be against what we believe.  Correct them; simply and kindly.  I don't know how missionary-ish you are feeling, but if an opportunity arises where you can simply share a basic overview of what we believe with your whole class, do it!  You're in mission prep right? You can use the PMG and just give a simple lesson overview.  I've heard a lot of stories of students who have born their testimonies to their classes and people have been baptized because of it.  Just a thought...

 

Connor- I can guarantee you, Connor, that there will come a time in your near future where the people that you interact with at school will bring up religion in general and you will be asked what you believe.  My challenge to you is to take courage and to declare that you are Mormon.  But more importantly, I challenge you to be a good example and live our religion in such a way that the people will not be surprised that you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  They will not be surprised, it will seem like a normal thing to them.  That is my challenge, to be firm in the faith and to stand as a witness at all times, in all things, in all places.  Kinda cliche, but a good principle, desho. 

 

Tuxedo's challenge - to not be stupid and to be around still by the time that I get back.

 

Kelsie's challenge - to get married and to write me!!!!!

 

I love you all dearly and I can assure you that I pray for you as much as you do for me :)

 

Elder Crandall

Monday, October 22, 2012

Hey Family,

 

Sorry I am emailing a little bit earlier than normal, but today we are going to SKY TREE!!!!!!! If you don't know what it is, google it cause it's gonna be awesome. We are leaving in like a hour or two.  I bet that you guys are writing me and emailing while I'm writing this one. 

 

This week was pretty good, but yesterday was not so great for us. We worked hard all week and got 3 lessons set up for yesterday. One of them was for sure going to come to church, but he didn't and now we can't get ahold of him. The other guy forgot that we had planned a lesson after church so he bailed.  And Kobayashi, never called us back to set up a specific time so he ended up falling through. So 3 lessons fell through. It was a real bummer for sure. So we just dendo-ed for like 3 hours instead, but we didn't find anyone. Not from a lack of conversations though, people were very willing to listen last night. We had like 20 good conversations, but no one had interest in religion. Sometimes it's hard being white in Japan. Sometimes people don't take us seriously. They are like,"ahhhh how cute, they are trying to speak Japanese". Or they are super suprised that we know Japanese, but they can't get over the fact that we are from America so they don't whole-heartedly listen to our message. 

 

But other than those few small things, Life is Good!!! Japan is way awesome! It's starting to get cold here, like 21-25 degress all the time (celcius). And man, it gets cold in Japan! It's very very humid here and so it's like a bone chilling cold kinda feel, ya know. Anyway, this week, we had a giant Fall Festival that the ward put on. We had tons of non members show up to it and we played lots of games, had a way good talent show, and then took everyone on a church tour. It was way good for all of the inestigators to get a very calm and easy feeling about church. Most of them already come to English class and kids English class every week, but they usually are not able to see anything other than the gym. 

 

Okay, so I just read your letter and I was dying laughing! "The District", hahahaha. We are required to watch and study The District in the MTC and out here in the field.  I've seen all of the episodes like 10 times so far, hahaha.  That's so cool that you guys get to watch and study The District just like me! My favorite investigator is Manny. He's way cool and I've met people that have changed their lives very similar to the way he changed his. Have you watched the Law of Chastity one yet?? It's a huge joke among all missionaries world wide, haha. I've met most of the people from The District. They are teachers at the MTC. Actually, funny story, Clark Sensei is pretty good friends with Sister Boils? I think is how you spell it, anyway, he called her in the middle of class one time and put her on speaker phone and we all said hi to her, haha. Have you guys seen The District 1 as well? That's the one that follows the people in Texas. 

 

My email might be pretty short too, kinda low on time and not whole lot happened this week.

 

We usually make our own meals everyday, or we go out a few times a week.  The members just drop off a lot of little things every week in a Fruit Basket of sorts. I love Okonomiaki and Curry Rice and Indian Curry and Sushi and Maborofu and Hayashi and Taco rice and Yakiniku and Yakisoba and tons and tons of food that you have no idea what it is, :) haha! There are no Teriyaki shops in Japan, haha. Only in America do they use the word Teriyaki. Usually restaurants or the food is called Yaki (grilled) then the name of the food like Tori (Bird/chicken), Yakitori or Yakiniku (grilled meat). I'm actually getting pretty good at cooking Japanese food so get ready for a house full odd Asian-ness when I get back! When we eat at members houses, they usually make American-ish food for us. They think it's American, but it's not really, it's just not Japanese food, haha. But for sure we eat rice in just about everything. Always, always rice and it is super expensive to buy rice in Japan! It's insane, like maybe more expensive than America. We have been trying to go to Costco for a few weeks now, but we need a car and a member in order to go. We strated a tradition in our house, 500 yen Fridays! At our local grocery store, they have 500 yen pizza's, Japanese pizzas, so they are really weird and kinda gross, but they are way cheap and we buy them at like 8 at night so they are 30% off. In reality they are like 320 yen so it's a pretty good deal. But everything is smaller in Japan, like a large or extra large pizza in Japan is a medium in America, and Dominos costs like 25-30 dollars here. Way crazy!

 

These past few weeks, we have been trying really hard to find very prepared people to teach.  It's easy for us to get phone numbers and maybe sketchy investigators and appointments, but to find really prepared people who will apply the gospel is very hard.  One of the attributes we look for (and Bishop Doutre mentioned this in his letter to me), is humility. Are they too prideful to listen to a message about church? Are they too guiltful of their sinful consience to want to change their lives or admit that what they do is universally wrong? Will they put us and the gospel on their priority list or are they too busy, too engulfed in the world to make time for us? It's hard filtering for the right people. Sometimes I feel like an old prospecter panning for gold in a dirty river. But luckily, I've got all the right tools, a treasure map, and I personally know the person who hid the gold! All is not well, but all is do-able, fixable. 

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethern; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice and be exceedingly glad."

D&C 128:22  - that is our mission theme!

 

Have a great week! I will for sure! I love you guys and will think about if I need anything and I will get back to you!

 

Love,

Elder Crandall  

 

Monday, October 15, 2012

Buenos Dias mis amigos!

 

I've used a lot of Spanish over the past few days, haha.  We have a less active member who is Mexican, a family from Bolivia had us over for dinner a few days ago, and the other elders that we live with have an investigator from Peru.  But I've basically forgotten all of my Spanish, haha.  If I try to speak a different language, I pronounce everything Japanese-ish and I think in the Japanese grammar order, so my Spanish sound like a drunk old mans Spanish, haha. 

 

General Conference as a missionary is awesome!!!! Man, it was like watching the super bowl, haha!  But honestly, it was awesome getting to see the announcement from President Monson and everyone in the room was cheering, haha. My top three favorite talks were Elder Christofferson (I've really taken a liking to him recently, I've read a lot of his stuff over the past few months), then Elder Oaks, and then Elder Holland (he went hard in the paint for sure! it was awesome and we are going to suggest it to some of our less active RM's). It was way fun watching GC with everyone in our zone. We were all huddled in a class room on the second floor of our stake center while the rest of the stake watched it in Japanese downstairs. The translators do not carry over the tone of voice or excitement or any rhetorical devices that make talks powerful and interesting. Thus, in Japanese, it's really boring and they don't really take a whole lot out of it. But man, this was such a great conference and I took a lot out of it. A few weeks ago, our Sister missionaries gave us cards to write a question that we wanted to get answered at conference on.  I was wondering how I could better help the people that I talk to on the streets feel the spirit.  I had forotten that I wrote this question down and stuck it in my white handbook until like the second to last session.  But from the whole GC, I concluded that the key to helping people that you don't know feel the spirit is Love. As cliche as that sounds, honestly, love is the most effective spiritual tool that we have. If we impress upon random people that we love them, they will be drawn to our message becuase they will feel the Love of Christ flowing through us; that love is subsequently carried by the Holy Ghost to their hearts. We pray to find prepared people, we pray that when we meet them, we will know what to say and do, and we DO meet these people. But God will only prepare as many people as we can handle and that number is correlated to our faith.  In missionary work, and in life, we measure our faith by our actions. And if our actions are full of love, then everything that we do is going to be awesome :)

 

This past week, we found two new investigators! One of them was from Ekaiwa (English class) and the other was from streeting in the far corner of our area. We have lessons with them this next Sunday and I will tell you more about them if things go good, haha. One of them is 50ish and the other guy is about 20. I'm way excited about it though :)

 

Elder Anderson and I get along great! We have very similar personalities, we are both very deep people and we have great studies together. He is completely fluent in Japanese, like way way fluent.  It's nice having someone so good at it because we can be more personal with our ward members and investigators, and I think people just like us better when we are more fluent, haha. He is a way hard worker and we see a lot of miralces and things have been working out in our favor more often than not :) We were able to meet with two of our less active members, both very tama tama (by chance) but we shared very good messages with them and were able to more fully descern their needs and figure out why they are not coming to church.  Honestly, both of them have weak testimonies of Christ, He is not their focus and they are getting distracted with other things. Like the prophets always say, if everyone was to build a solid foundation on Christ and always put Him at the center of their lives, there would be no wavering and falling. 

 

This next week, we have a giant fall festival and it's kinda Halloween themed.  Kids get kinda into Halloween in Japan, but I dont think that they go trick or treating or anything.  But we are not allowed to wear costumes of course, kinda, I think, haha.

 

Tell Connor that in seventh grade I took english, science, pre algebra, gym, band, social studies, I think..... I don't remember too well but I remember feeling really scared but really cool for not being in elementary school :) Tell him that he should do leadership and video classes if he gets the opportunity. 

 

I laughed really hard at the "I own a car in Utah" phrase that Dad said to Kelsie, hahahaha. That's what's up. Kelsie getting told off by the parents, haha!

 

I hope you guys have a good week and I am attaching Grandpa Crandall's blessing for Dad.

I Love you guys and tell Kelsie and Tuxedo that I say hi!

 

クランダル長老 (Elder Crandall)

October 9th, 2012

Dear Family,

Hello Hello! Wow, what an exciting week for sure.  A lot of ups and downs on both of our ends. 

Happy Birthday, DAD!!! Wasn't this your 50th or something like that?? Man, over the hill, one foot in the grave or should I say vase (they cremate everyone in Japan).  It's good to hear that he is still young enough to believe that he can still golf ;)

Well, I'm still in Kohoku, but I got a new Companion!!! Elder Gallacher was awesome, but I'm way excited about my followup trainer.  Elder Gallacher was my Dad, and now my new companion is referred to as my Mom, haha.  His name is Elder Anderson and he is half Japanese.  His dad serves in the air force so he has lived all over the place, including Olympia, but most recently he lived in Virginia; actually most recently, he lived in Japan....

He is on transfer 11 and he is a boss.  Man, I'm on transfer 3 now.  I'm almost 1/4 of the way done with my stay in Japan!!!! AHhhhh time is flying by.  Elder Anderson has had mostly Japanese companions his whole mission and he is way way good at Japanese.  He is shorter, wears glasses, looks very Japanese, and is a way cool guy.  He went to BYU for a year as well and he stayed one building over from my building.  He is a great guy, we get along great, and he is way exited to be here in Kohoku. 

One of the Zone leaders that I live with, Elder Cook, finished his mission yesterday.  He was such a cool guy.  His parents came to Japan to pick him up and they are touring the area for two weeks.  He was sad to see it end, but he said it didn't feel like anything was changing.  It hadn't hit him yet that it was over.  I talked to him for a while because we went on splits on Saturday and he told me how weird it is trying to imagine something other than missionary work.  This is his life.  He has become Japanese and missionary work is his Job, his purpose in life, or so it seems.  I am starting to relate to that, haha.  I don't know what else I would do if I wasn't a missionary.  THIS IS MY LIFE!!! This is my job, my hobby, everything that I do in life.  It's way, way crazy cool. 

Here is the thing, I've never really been a fan of the Japanese language.  It's always been way difficult when things are suppose to be easy in English, there are like 100,000 different kanji in the world, and the people talk at like a billion meters an hour.  The grammar is completely backwards from English and all of the vocab sounds the same, but has different kanji meaning to it.  Taihen for sure.  But, ever since I came to Japan, I've been able to immerse myself in the culture and now I think like Japanese people do.  They think differently than the rest of the world, and now that I'm thinking like them, I understand the Japanese and how to speak and read like them.  Elder Cook said that now that his Japanese is like as good as you can get, there is nothing more fun for him than speaking in Japanese, haha.  I'm starting to feel that way a little, but I'm way way far away from fluent.  I'm about as good as the average 5 or 6 transfer missionary at Japanese, a little above the curve at understanding. 

So a few crazy things happened to us this week.  We had two investigators come to church! It was kinda random and we didn't think that they were 100% set on coming, but they did and it was a great week for Elder Gallacher to end on and a great week for the ward to see us working hard and bringing people to church.  We were also able to help Kobayashi get a little bit closer to Baptism, but he is still far away from that point.  He doesn't understand repentance and that is kinda totally key for baptism, haha.  Repentance in Japanese is kuiaratame (koo-e-ar-ah-ta-mae).  Say that 5 times fast!

The guy who bought us the really expensive sushi a few transfers ago moved to the top of Japan a few weeks ago.  We said goodbye to him and wished him luck, it was kinda sad.  Well, this last week, we were dendoing in the middle of a giant city far away from our apartment and we ran into him!! It was crazy, totally by chance, perfect coincidence. Then, later that week, we were in an area at the top of our map, in a random tiny little town, and we ran into him again! He was visiting a friend and we happened to walk into him.  I don't know why we were suppose to run into him so many times, but I'm glad we did cause he is totally awesome and he gave us some great advice and counsel for the ward. 

I haven't been able to watch General Conference yet.  We have to wait a week for it to get translated into Japanese, then we will all watch it together in English and Japanese at the stake center this week end.  I'm way excited though and I love the new missionary age rule!!!!!! It's great that young men don't have to wait around and do nothing for a year if they really want to serve.  And it's great that sisters can serve much younger now too! We need more sister missionaries, honestly, they are much better at missionary work than us guys, haha, especially in Japan! It's a great decision and it will be a great help to all missions world wide!

Well, we are going to go hit the streets hard this week and really try to help the ward become more self dendo sufficient.  If they didn't have missionaries serving in the ward, this ward would probably not have any convert baptisms.  Our ward has had 5 baptisms in the past year and a half and only one of those people still comes to our ward.  That's not real growth, this ward needs a family that lives in the area and that is friends with the ward members to join the church.  That is real growth, families stay in the ward, families grow where they are planted. So wish us luck in helping the ward members convert their friends.  We are having a giant stake party this month and it's going to be a great dendo opportunity!

Have a great week! I love you!

Elder Crandall

October 2nd, 2012

Hello Everyone!

Well we had another great week in Kohoku.  This upcoming Friday we hear about our transfer calls and odds are that my companion will get transferred and for sure the other Elder we live with will be transferred, well Elder Cook for sure because he is going home, but you never know with transfers, haha. 

This week was a great finding week for us. We found a few new potential investigators and we are trying to set up lessons and what not with them so we can help them learn the gospel! A few university students, a middle aged guy, and then a family! We handed out a total of 4 Book of Mormons this week, we tried to do one a day but some days we had none, and one day we had two.  Japanese people don’t like to take things.  They feel obligated to give back in return.  So it’s definitely a miracle every time we get one out, haha.  But how we found the family was an absolute miracle and a way cool story.  Before I share it though, it’s totally becoming Fall in Japan.  The leaves are starting to change and you can feel it in the air.  It’s becoming Halloween season!  Also, I don’t know if you guys heard or not, but this last Sunday, we had a massive typhoon hit us, haha.  A massive hurricane came from the south and swept up the entire island.  It had winds of about 50m/s which is like 100-110 miles per hour.  Crazy wind storm , but Japan is built to withstand typhoons and it didn’t do any damage. 

So, on Saturday morning, we had a lesson with our progressing investigator, Kobayashi San, and that went really well.  I guess I should mention that the day before I had been praying really hard that we would find a family to teach.  Right before the lesson started, we got a call from some random guy and he said that he wanted to meet up with us and meet his family and take us out to lunch.  His name is Tad Bekku, a Japanese guy who speaks perfect English, completely random, never met him before or anything.  So we agree and set up a time for that afternoon.  We met him at the train station and he asked if we were hungry.  No introductions or anything, just kinda hey, I’m Tad, let’s go eat!  He is about 65 and looks like the most stereotypical Japanese guy.  He took us out to a really fancy American steak restaurant and dropped like 80 bucks on lunch.  We were so confused and amazed at what was going on, it was so random, but such a blessing.  At the restaurant, he told us an amazing story about his family.  Thirty years ago, the wife and their three kids ages,10, 5, 3, moved to Manti, Utah.  At the time, they didn’t know any English, they had no friends in America, and the wife started to attend Snow College in order to learn English and get a teaching degree. It was very hard for them at first, but as soon as they moved into the neighborhood, their Mormon neighbors befriended them and took very good care of them. They would take them to school, to church, various activities, bring food over, and helped them learn English. They were only in Manti for a year and then they moved back to Hiroshima, but they were eternally grateful for the charity that they received from these Latter-day Saints. When they got back to Japan, they hunted down the missionaries in Hiroshima and gave them tons of food and treated them very well. And they have been doing that to missionaries for over 30 years. They have a stack of over 40 missionary cards. They are not members yet, but all of their friends are Mormon. They house many LDS people that come to visit Japan and love everything about us. They had not visited missionaries for over 3 years, but Saturday morning, they woke up and felt like they wanted to give us a call and introduce themselves.  We met up with his wife and they took us to a giant elementary school field day and we watched Japanese children chicken fights.  After that, they took us to their house and fed us like 40 bucks worth of ice cream, haha.  They have a ton of Mormon friends, but they all live in the states and so our plan is to introduce them to the members here.  We are making cookies for them and we are going to try to teach them this week.  They don’t have a lot of gospel interest, but they love Mormons! And heck, that’s good enough for us, haha.  I know that the Lord answered my prayer to find a family to teach, and I’m so grateful that we were able to find them in such a miraculous way! They found us!  

Kobayashi is one step closer to baptism but we need to make sure that he is truly converted to the gospel and that he is having a true change of heart. 

This next week is going to be a good one, and BTW, the mission went to the temple together today and so that is why the emails are a day late, haha.  I finished the BOM all the way through.  I started when I challenged Kyle, where is he at in the BOM?

Have a great next week and I know that the Lord blesses you each day, more than you know :)  I’ve seen it in my mission life and I know it’s the same in real life.

Love you so much Family!

Elder Crandall

Monday, September 24th, 2012

Hello hello Crandall-ke!,

Thank you for the emails and it was awesome that Kelsie found time to write me too :)

Crazy busy week back home it seems like! It's awesome that the wedding is moving forward without hindrance and everything is going according to plan! I'm sad that I can't be there, but this is the way that our family has been built.  I did the math real quick and I'll probably get married while Kyle is on his mission, then Kyle will get married while Connor is on his mission, then at Connor's wedding, one of us will be feuding with Connor and we will be missing someone.... JK :) At his wedding everyone will be there for sure! :) But yea, such is life. But I'm excited for it and I'm slowly but surely working on my speech for the wedding :)

This week was an absolutely great week for us! On Tuesday, we had a 3 zone conference in the neighboring zone, Fujisawa, and Elder Aoyagi from the Quorum of the Seventy, who is the second councilor in the Asian North Presidency, came and he and his wife trained us all day.  It was way good and he talked a lot about desire, faith, and different teaching skills.  He referenced the book of Alma a lot. Before the conference he asked us all to read the whole book before he came, and he drew on his past conversion story and stories from the scriptures to better define what kind of dendo (missionary work) Japan needs right now.  His wife was way cool and did a lot of different mogi (mock lessons) with us.  That day, we helped our zone leader's investigator, who I have had the opportunity of teaching tithing to him before- Hotta San- do his baptismal interview and then we went out to Burger King with him afterwards, haha.  It's not too bad actually. 

Later that week, I went on splits with our district leader, Elder Hosier, and is was way awesome.  We went to his area, Kawasaki, and streeted people all day, "tracted".  He is a way cool guy.  He is from Alamo, Nevada, population 500 or less I think, and he grew up working on a ranch.  But he was the starting quarterback for their school, did basketball and baseball, and is a way big city-ish guy.  You would never guess he is small town.  Anyway, he and I did bike dendo the whole time, just ride on the sidewalk and stop and talk to people and we found a ton of success.  We gave out countless fliers, placed 3 solid pamphlets, and gave out 3 Book of Mormons.  Total, we tried to stop over 100 people, and of those 100, we probably had conversations with 25.  I talked to this white guy from Scotland and he was messed up in the head.  He has been living in Japan for the past 26 years and says that he thinks Japan is the most dangerous country on earth.  He told us that he would feel more comfortable walking down the streets of the Bronx at 3 am with $1000 hanging out of his pockets than living in Japan.  He said he was christian, that he prays every day, and that he loves what we are doing as missionaries.  But he is very, very bitter against God.  He told us that his son was thrown off a building by Japanese Police and they said it was suicide (what was he doing on top of a building being harassed by the police in the first place), but he was bitter at God for taking his son.  He feels as though God owes him, that he has been wronged, much like how the lamented feel.  I shared our message with him, the whole first vision, introduced the BOM and had him read some things, but I didn't give it to him because he would not have read it.  He listened with his ears, but he didn't listen with his heart.  It was too full of bitter and malice and our message couldn't get into it.  He told us that he hates his life, he hates the Japanese people, he has been unhappy for the past 26 years and he is looking forward to death.  We did all we could, but in the end, we told him good luck with his life, told him where the church is and wished him a good day. His name was Ian.

The next day, we had our usual ping pong night from 7-8:30 and both us, the sister missionaries, and the zone leaders all had an investigator come.  It was way chill, we played Jenga with milk cartons and played the guitar and piano and had a good time.  Right now, we are teaching a guy named Kobayashi San and he is very interesting.  He was almost baptized 4 years ago, Clark sensei taught him a few times or so I hear, but he fell through and dropped off the map.  He was "resurrected", if you will, a few months ago and the Zone leaders taught him a few times, but he lives in my area so they transferred him to us.  He loves ping pong and is really good at it and after the activity we taught him a lesson.  He knows all the doctrine, knows all of the lessons, but he doesn't understand it all.  He has a learning disability, is really strange and I can't understand his Japanese, but he has a desire to understand and be baptized.  We went over all of the things you can and can't do as a member with him and then I set a baptismal date with him for the 11th of November!  He is about 35, really quirky and quiet.  But he loves the church and the gospel and we just need to help him understand the BOM and get him a good church friend. 

Then, on Sunday, Hotta San got baptized! They did it right before the neighboring ward started and Elder Checketts baptized him.  It was way good and spiritual, all of the missionaries sang a song with Elder Cook playing the guitar.  Earlier that day, Elder Cook baptized a Vietnamese guy in his old area so both members of the companionship got to baptize someone on the same day!  It was a way good day and Hotta is going to come to FHE tonight with the SA's and we are going to try to hook him up ;)

It's been way good recently and we have seen the Lord's hand in everything we do.  Honestly, we do nothing, we can't do anything as missionaries without the Lord's help.  I have two weeks left with Elder Gallacher most likely and we are going to try to make this the best two weeks of our relationship thus far. 

It's Fall in Japan and it was, I dare say, a little bit chilly yesterday and it has been raining a lot recently.  The people still reject us hard, but I'm getting better at getting them to at least listen to us before they reject us! :)

I have pictures that I want to send you, but I think I'm just going to mail them with the package that I am putting together.  When will I get that off?  I have no idea, haha.  Eventually! :)  But thank you for all of the fun pictures and the package!  I got it on Thursday my time, so 7 days calendar, 6 days in reality for it to send. Thank you sooooooooo much!  The scones are awesome and everything traveled perfectly fine. :)

Tell the Boys that I am proud of them and everything that they do.  I think about them a lot and I can't wait to hear what awesome things they do while I am away. 

Take care and have a great week.  Good luck with the pictures and everything!  I love you guys so much and I can feel your prayers strengthen me daily.  Please pray for me and my companion to strengthen our relationship so that we can see even more miracles. :)

Love,

Elder Crandall

Monday September 17, 2012

I am doing great!  It's not a billion degrees here anymore.  Things are starting to cool down and we are transitioning into Fall.  This past week was the first time that I have been dry, haha. Everyone is always dripping with sweat and if you work outside, you wear a headband, like a legit Asian headband, haha.  And yea, everything is good :)

Thank you for telling me about your guys adventures back home!  I hope the boys are adjusting well to school and it sounds like you guys are having a great time at the Fair and planning the wedding and what not.  Not a ton happened here in Kohoku this past week, but I'll tell you some of the fun things that we did...

I went on splits with my zone leader, Elder Checketts, on Tuesday and it was way cool.  He is from Provo and is a way cool guy, tons of fun to dendo with.  We taught three lessons to investigators that day.  The first lesson was interesting because it was with this 19 year old guy named Ueda San.  He is still in high school, and we found him streeting the other day.  He lives kind of far from the church so when we met up with him we suggested just going to the park and talking there.  But he really wanted to go to the church so we said okay.  But this kids bike was a wreck, completely rusted over, the back tire was all the way flat, the wheel spun in all directions when he peddled, and the chain kept falling off.  So as we were going to the church, we stopped at our apartment and tried to help out his bike in any way we could.  The other elders went and picked up a new tire and a new pump for real cheap and we waited for them outside the apartment.  We ate Nashi and we did a very thorough BOM introduction and reading with him.  We spent like 10 minutes just talking the BOM up while we were going to the apartment, to the point where he was like, "Let me see one! Do you have one?! I want to read it!" Which was cool to see a guy so excited to read a BOM.  After a few hours, haha, we finally fixed his bike and went to the church.  We sang some hymns with him and taught him the whole first lesson and he prayed at the end of it.  He doesn't really believe in God yet, but he really wants to.  His mom is a little hontai (I'm not sure what that is in English, anti?) about religion in general, but other than those things, he is down for the business.  We had a big CES FHE with all of the single adults in the area yesterday and he came to that and had a good time. 

Our next lesson was with a guy named Toshi.  Toshi is like 5-10, 200 pounds of muscle, really big football player kind of guy, and he loves America and English.  Loves the culture and the way of living, his English isn't very good, but he is trying hard, haha.  He wants to be a professional singer, R&B artist, and he has been training his voice to sound like the artist Neo. And he sounds like him too, haha.  He is Christian and kind of reminds me of Uncle Phil actually, haha.  We taught him about the restoration and authority, went over the entire background of the Bible so he could have some knowledge of the prophets the BOM mentions, and then I committed him to pray to be baptized and set a date to work for with baptism.  We have a tentative plan for him to get baptized next month and he will keep working towards that.  He has met with a few other missionaries before, but I think this group of missionaries are the right ones for him.

After him, we taught the zone leader's investigator named Hotta.  Hotta is what we call a kinjin, a golden person.  He met with the missionaries ten years ago, but was too busy to get too involved.  Last month, he thought a lot about the purpose of life and religion and wanted to find answers.  He remembered that he had a BOM so he looked us up on mormon.org and contacted the zone leaders asking for answers.  This kid is awesome.  He read the entire BOM, and then, is reading the teachings of President Kimball and Heber J. Grant and what not.  I taught him the law of tithing, or should I say, he taught me the law of tithing when I asked him if he had heard about it before, haha.  He is going to get baptized next Sunday!

Other than that, we just did a lot of streeting and talking to people.  We got a few numbers but they are kinda bimio (unsure) and maybe won't turn out to be anything.  If you have not watched Elder Holland's CES talk yet, watch it!  It is on lds.org and it is legit.  I've seen it twice, English and Japanese, but it is much much cooler in English than in Japanese.  He is a boss.

Well, I hope you guys have a great week and do lots of fun things! Tell the ward I say "hi".  Who is our ward mission leader these days?  And also, you guys should have the missionaries over for dinner one of these days.  Do it for me :)

Love you guys and will talk to you later!

Elder Crandall .   

Monday, September 10, 2012

Hi Mommy :) and Dad and Kyle and Connor, and everyone!

It's weird to hear all about school and stuff and not starting school myself.  My body tells me that it is time to start school again, like, it's telling me that it is time to start doing home work and studying and stressing out, haha. But it's totally awesome that everyone is adjusting fine and that school is looking to be very fun this year :)

I get more and more exited for Kelsie each week! Let me know when the dates are, like when she goes through the temple, receptions, the wedding, and so forth :) Have fun planning, Mom :) Don't go too crazy over this. When it gets hard and stressful remember that I won't be a part of any of it, but I would gladly do any of the hard and stressful things if I could :)

Kyle and Connor are being great otsukaresama's and working hard in school.  Connor, I was smaller than you when I started Junior High, haha.  I remember how crazy it was and feeling super small.  Just don't be afraid to talk to people and never judge anyone until you get to know them.  I was friends with a lot of people that I wasn't sure if they were cool or not until I actually got to know them, haha.

Kyle, Good luck with choir man.  It's not easy memorizing things, but at least you don't have to memorize Japanese songs.  Japanese songs are so crazy.  They are really hard to understand because they have really long sentences for really short phrases, so they cut out a lot of their grammar.  It's like a string of words without any order to them really.  The hymns are a mess.  "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" is in the hymn book and literally translated from Japanese it says, "Light, Light, Like Jeeesus, Light, Light, Like Jeeesus", instead of "a Sunbeam, a sunbeam, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, a sunbeam, a sunbeam, I'll be a sunbeam for him". Sooo work hard, you will do fine :)

This week was very good for us.  We were able to find 3 new investigators and we taught many lessons.  If they start progressing I will tell you more about them, but they are different college students and we ran into them streeting over by our church building.  For the past few weeks I have basically been training my trainer, haha.  I won't go into too much detail, but Elder Gallacher felt as though he has been in a bit of a mission slump so I have taken over a large part of the leadership position and increasing his faith in our missionary work.  So that has been a huge blessing to me but I still have a lot I need to learn before I am 100% trained.  We have been focusing on a lot of streeting(stopping people walking down the street) lately so we have been hanging out by a lot of different train stations and busy china town, I guess you could call them, haha. We are getting really good at teaching mini lessons and figuring out if people have interest in the church right now.  We went on splits with our District Leader and I spent the day streeting with his companion.  He is a very shy kid, but I made him say hi to 300 people and by the end of it, he stopped and talked to 3 people on his own which is a huge improvement.  We have been trying to give out a BOM a day and it is actually pretty hard because Japanese people don't like receiving things for no reason.  They are very humble and receiving gifts just means that they have to do something nice back, haha.

My Japanese is getting better little by little.  I always know what's going on and I have been using the phone and emailing a lot more recently. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time today to detail everything that I have done this week, but I'll give a brief overview...

We have a weekly takyu (ping pong) night every Saturday and I get my butt whooped hard, haha! We found a way cool curry restaurant with a guy we can share the Gospel with a little bit every time we go; weekly eikaiwa is going great; this guy in my ward was baptized in Puyallup in the 70's and I was able to get to know him really well; we visited over 10 ward members and shared little messages with them; had a Zone conference and President Budge taught us about faith; turns out our less active member that we were trying to bring back has a mental disorder so we shouldn't visit him often anymore, haha; one of our Sister Missionaries had a Birthday, but other than that, we hit the streets every day this week for like 4-5 hours a day. We've talked to over 100 people this past week, but 3 of them I think have genuine interest.  The work is slow and can be hard, but it is progressing nonetheless and we see miracles daily :)

I love you guys and I always pray for you and our loved ones back home. Please keep praying for me and please pray for the members in Japan to have more courage to share the Gospel with their loved ones. 

Love,

Elder Crandall