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