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