Monday, March 25th, 2013

Hey mommy :)

 

So I've attached a bunch of pictures of our various activities.  We had a pretty fun week and we were all over the place.  The Sakura (tree blossoms) are coming out for sure and they are everywhere in this city.  We  took quite a few pics so I hope you like the ones I got. 

 

Like I said, we did a lot of various things this week, haha, including attending the wedding of a sister in our ward.  It was really awkward, haha.  The guy she married got back from his mission last transfer, so he was only two transfers ahead of Elder Anderson, haha. He literally got home and first day was taking engagement pictures with this lady.  They were a way cute couple though.  The ward asked us to attend the reception for a little bit with the sister missionaries, so we like picked them up from their apartment, which is on the way to the church, and went to the reception with them.  We were all like, "this is really weird, it's like the ward asked us to go on a weird date, haha".  It was also especially weird for one of the sisters cause she is going home today and we were making fun of her telling her that this is going to be her in 6 weeks, haha.  

 

Because it was that sister's last week, Sister Kai is her name (like Dragon Ball Z Kai), we went to a few farewell parties for her and such.  She was a trooper for sure, no tears, but a lot of almost crying.  I made sushi for the first time at one of the parties!  Pictures soon to come!

 

We had quite a few lessons with Naoki this past week and he is doing really good.  We finished all of the lessons with him and he is ready for baptism.  However, he wasn't able to come to church this week cause he got sick and had a fever, so we have to push his date back to the 7th of April.  He was bummed about that, but he understands.  He is such a good guy. 

 

I don't know what's up with Teppei.  He moved to a different ward and we were in the process of referring him when I transferred out.  He isn't on the list of baptismal dates, so he doesn't have one right now, but that kid was way prepared and ready to go for sure.  But, an investigator that Elder Shibuta and I, a Brazilian kid named Igor, is looking really good to get baptized in a few weeks :)

 

We just got back from a place called Sweets Paradise!!!!  It's an all you can eat cake and brownie and ice cream place.  Pics are included.  I felt like I was gonna throw up while I was there, haha.  I still kinda feel like it, haha.  We went with the district and a few investigators.  Pretty sweet experience :D  get it....

 

Tell Blake I say Omedetogozaimasu! (congratulations)

 

Kinda short this week, but such is life.  We have 7 weeks this transfer so this is week 7 for me.  We get transfer calls and maybe Elder Anderson might get transferred for his last transfer, kamoshiremasen (might).  But we'll see!!!!!!!!!!

 

Have a wonderful week.  I'm gonna send Kelsie an email now so I'll talk to you later :)

 

Love You!

 

Ai,

 

Elder Crandall

  

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

すごく奇跡の週だ ! (It's really a miracle week!)  よかった ! (Was good!)

Dear Family,

We had a rather splendid week.  I will talk about everything that was cool, then I will tell you about our super miracle at the end :)

We have a PI (potential investigator) named Kitanishi San and he loves studying religions.  He wouldn't agree to come to a lesson, but he agreed to come to a discussion.  Because we had nothing going on we agreed to go, normally we wouldn't attend something like that.  We met at the church with a few members and him and they just argued religion for like 2 hours.  Kitanishi San is very very hard hearted and thinks that he is above other races and religions and that the Mormons are above other religions as well.  We tried to explain to him that that is pride and we treat everyone the same because everyone is a child of God.  He says he is christian, but when we brought up the requirements for salvation he wouldn't listen and said that salvation isn't important to Christians.  We quickly pulled out a gazillion scriptures from the bible about salvation and destroyed his argument.  But he just got mad at that and said he is better than us so he doesn't need to listen to us.  He compared himself to the main character of fiddler on the roof and no one understood the connection, including me.  He asked one of the members why there are so many lawyers in New York.  The members were like, "How does this have any sort of connection to what we are talking about".  Then Kitanishi San was like, "Well then, it turns out that you can't answer my questions".  Then they argued over why he was asking him why there are so many lawyers in New York.  Eventually Kitanishi was yelling, "JUST ADMIT THAT YOU CAN'T ANSWER MY QUESTION AND I'LL TELL YOU THE ANSWER".  Our member was like, "fine, I don't know why there are so many lawyers".  To which Kitanishi was like, "see, you don't know everything".  Kitanishi is a very prideful old man.  We completely won the 2 hour argument by using simple doctrine and Kitanishi walked away from the discussion kinda bummed cause his ideas about us and about religion don't have any doctrinal foundation.  We don't think that we will meet with him very often. 

We are working with a less active man named Tezuka San and we had a similar less/discussion with him where we answered his anti Mormon questions that people had been attacking him with over the years.  At first, he seemed to be a lot like Kitanishi, but his heart is in the right place and I believe that Tezuka is looking for legit answers to his questions and will apply the gospel little by little.  He is a cute old man. 

On Friday, I had an interview with President Budge where we mostly talked about the New Paradigm and my role in this paradigm shift.  The idea, of course, is that members will do the finding and we will do the teaching.  However, a few months ago, the eikaiwa program in the church (the English classes that we teach every week) had a paradigm shift where they called ward eikaiwa coordinators and the role of the missionaries was to change from finder/preparers/teachers to only teacher.  Well, over the past 6 months, in every ward I have been in, I don't even know who got called to that position and nothing has changed at all.  President Budge told me that for now, what we do as missionaries won't change.  We will still have to go out and get rejected all day and filter through people ourselves.  But, President Budge is working on new key indicators of success for bishops to use to track referrals and member's investigators with the vision that little by little, the wards will transition to a full time finding status.  During the interview, President Budge reached into his bag and said, "Elder Crandall, I haven't shown this to anyone yet.  I want you to be the first one."  As you can imagine, I got really excited at that!  Then he whipped out a series of PowerPoint's and new charts that he is going to make all of the bishops use to track the progress of the ward member dendo.  It wasn't super exciting stuff, however, there was some cool stuff about what the Lord expects as a report to get back to Him from the leaders.  I guess, I never really thought about what kind of report the Lord wants to receive at the end of the week and month from his called servants.  It just goes to show that the Lord has His hand in all things and "when progress is recorded and then reported, the rate of success increases"- President Hinckley.  

Alright, for the big miracles.  I will do my best to pen down everything that is happening and the whole story.  So, we got a referral from the zone leaders who are in the ward just north of us.  Last Saturday at basketball, this kid, Naoki, got invited to come play by his friends, but he doesn't like basketball so he sat out in the hall and talked to other elders and us a few times just as we rotated in and out.  He is from the Philippines and came to Japan about 3 months ago.  After basketball that night, the zone leaders took him on a church tour and then agreed to meet with him this last Tuesday.  They met on Tuesday and taught him the message of the Restoration.  He loved every word that was said.  He felt the spirit super strong and when he learned about the priesthood and true authority, he told them that he had been baptized a born again christian in the Philippines, but he knew that their authority was wrong.  He asked if he could be baptized that Sunday!!  They set a date with him for the 24th.  However, he lives at the train station right next to the church so they referred him to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We met with him on Saturday with the zone leaders and with one of the AP's and my comp and I taught him the Plan of Salvation, really well I might add, because we did it in English, haha!  He loved everything about it and says that he totally feels like he is Joseph Smith.  He told us that when he came to Japan he was looking for a Christan church to go to.  But he couldn't find anything.  On top of it, he had a ton of questions that other church's could not answer so he was just chillin'.  He told us that God guided us to him so that he could learn of His true church and so that His power could help his life. He loves the Book of Mormon and highlights tons of stuff as we read with him.  He came to church on Sunday and had a great time.  God's church is way different from born again's and so he had a lot of technical questions, but he felt the spirit and had a good time with the youth.  He is fluent in Japanese by the way.  He is half Japanese.  And 16.  We taught him the word of wisdom after church and he felt like this commandment was made specifically for him because he has fallen into a deep coffee addiction.  Like, he gets ulcers from all the coffee that he drinks and his family and doctors are telling him to quite, but he never had a spiritual reason until now.  We are following up with him daily on that and he wasn't able to keep it yesterday, but just a few hours ago we got an email from him saying that today was MILK day and he hasn't had any coffee!!!  Yay!!!!  

Naoki has had a very very hard life so far.  His parents used to fight really bad in front of him which scarred his childhood.  Then they split and his dad lives in Japan.  Growing up, his mom is like a teenager and goes to casinos and parties with her friends everyday and he had a lot of hate and anger towards her.  He started to have anxiety really bad which caused him to have a lot of break downs and not be able to sleep for days.  He was in a help care institution a few years ago when someone gave him a bible and he read the whole thing while in his stay in the hospital.  He said that one time while reading, he prayed all night to forgive his mom and to feel the love of Christ in his life.  He then felt the spirit come into his room and felt his anger towards his mom wash away and ever since then, he has been a devout believer in the power of the Atonement, which as a missionary is way awesome!!  He has struggled with anxiety on and off, as well as suicidal thoughts and a bad group of friends, but ever since he has met the missionaries he has been able to sleep well, maintain a solid level of happiness, and improve his relationship with his dad (he lives with only his dad).  We set a new date with him for the 31st, Easter Sunday, and we will continue to work with him daily to get him ready.

This kid really is awesome though!  Like way awesome!  He wants to be a missionary really bad.  He says it has been his life goal and he just thinks Elder Anderson and I are the "Bees Knees", the "Kat's Pajamas".  Naoki wants to help us teach his friends and we have a few other Philipino friends that come to basketball that we want to teach with him.  Our young Mens leaders are way excited about this and we are excited for the future with Brother Naoki Morita (森田ナオキ兄弟) is his name. 

Sounds like you guys are almost busier than me with church stuff!  Good luck in Boston Daddy!  Kyle, I don't remember what I wrote my Junior research paper on, but I remember not thinking it was fun at all.  But I got an A!  :)  Just write very cookie cutter and use BIG words.  Use a dictionary a lot!  I'm not a super creative writer, but I just wrote how I thought Mr. Bates would write.  Kinda suck up to his writing style.  Also, if you blatantly apply some of the rhetorical devices, he will recognize it and mark you higher. 

Connor, otsukaresama desu.  Ganbate ne.  Scountingu goodo lucku pleazu ok.  :) that was my Japanese accent, haha! 

Kelsie, jealous. 

Have a wonderful week!  Here are some pics from this week1 :)   (giant cup of noodles on our way to zone meeting, a card we made for our elders quorum president (the picture of us doing the Neko Chan (cat pose) is famous), Cherry Burger that I ate today).

Love,

Elder Crandall

PS. Went to the temple today and had a cherry burger again afterwards.  Dad would love it!.   Also, shout out to KatieAnne for getting called to Mississippi!  Whoooh!

Monday, March 11, 2013

Heeeeyy family!  You will get this at like 2:30am your time.  My apologies, but this week we had a two zone P-day at our church building and we just got back.  We only have like half an hour, so unfortunately I will have to cut it a little bit shorter than usual. 

 

We went to a 4 year old's birthday party on Monday.  That was probably the funnest part of the week, haha.  She's great!  Hina chan is her name.  Then, I went on splits with the district leader in his area and met a lady who's daughter lives in Bellevue.  The Done family was the name she married into.  Do we know the Done's?  Anyway, they were nice people.  Then we had an area blitz at this huuuge eki (station) and I had a way fun time dendoing with Hall Choro (Elder Hall) who I knew at BYU.  He is in my doki group.  I had a great conversation with a scouter at this eki that we were at.  This guy is like the scum of the earth, his job is to walk around the eki and to pick up scantily clad women and take them to clubs.  The more women at the clubs, the more men come and then the more business they get.  He hates his job, he wants to move to New York and be a business man there and wants to learn English from us.  But I was like," Dude, you have an evil job, man.  We have to respect women and treat them with respect because they are God's special children."  He kinda scoffed at that and said that he doesn't believe in God.  But I was like," That doesn't change the fact that it is wrong.  You're not happy because you are not following God's commandments.  Whether or not you think God is there, He is and His laws effect your life".  He kinda thought about that, but was just like, whatever.  However, at least he thought about it.  It's a successful thing in my eyes. 

 

President Budge came to our ward and gave a big stake dendo fireside to all of the leaders and it was way awesome.  He really is the best ever.  He and the area presidency came and talked about the big paradigm shift in Japan where members do all of the finding and we do all of the teaching.  Yayyyy!  I hope that day comes fast.  President Ringwood called our bishop and asked him to apply the teachings of this book called "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" and to be the test for for all of Japan.  Hopefully more to come on the big paradigm shift. 

 

We went to Costco today, again, haha.  This time with the Sister missionaries in our ward.  Got 24 muffins!  Yay!

 

Well, that's all for today!  Love you all and am so proud of my brothers and non-existent sister!  ;)

 

Bye bye,

 

Elder Crandall

Monday, March 4th, 2013

Dear Familia,

 

Everyone how is? (I put that question into Japanese/ English in case you were wondering)

 

Man, this week was spectacular.  One of the best of the mission so far.  I'll start off with Monday.  On Monday, we had planned on going and just dendo-ing around the general area, but I felt like we should go and visit a member who had recently become active again after 20 years and who had spoken at stake conference the day before.  My companion agreed and so we went and visited him at like 7pm.  We knocked and he answered the door and said, "What!  Why are you here!", rather sternly, and we said that we were in the area and just felt like visiting.  His countenance changed all of a sudden and he hurried us inside and sat us down.  He said that right as we knocked on his door, he had just finished praying that someone would come and help him pray for his friends so that they would come back to church as well.  He has 6 friends that are less active that he is working with trying to get them to come back to church and he wanted to get more people involved so that it would be more powerful, I guess you could say.  He sat us down and started crying very hard because he knew that God had sent us there to help pray for his friends.  He has also been sharing the gospel with 5 of his friends from his school days and from work.  He had given out like 2 Book of Mormon's that week and brought his friend to stake conference.  This guy is a dendo beast and we showed up at the right time for us to help him with his dendo efforts and we were able to pray with him and we also received 5 referrals from this brother that night.  His name is Brother Masuda and he is my hero.  He bore a testimony about this on Sunday and it really fired up a lot of members to get more involved in dendo. 

 

Then, on Tuesday, we got a phone call from a brother in the ward and he said that some random guy had been calling him asking about coming back to church so he referred his phone number and stuff to us and we were able to call him up.  His name is Ogura san and 5 years ago he had been an investigator for two lessons.  He got really sick then and lost contact with the missionaries after a while.  He called us and said that he really wants to start coming to church again.  He said that he has a lot of problems in life and that he knows that the church in a good place where he can receive that help and guidance.  We were not able to meet him last week, but he said that this up coming week will be less busy so we can meet.  By Tuesday afternoon, we had received 6 referrals!  It's crazy!  An absolute miracle. 

 

Then, on Friday, March 1st, we had a mission conference at the Tokyo temple annex.  And Elder and Sister Nelson came!!!!!!!!  It was way super legit!!!!!  One of the coolest experiences of my mission for sure.  They and then Elder and Sister Ringwood, who is the area president of Asia North, came as well.  They came in the room and everyone stood up immediately and a powerful silence filled the room.  He entered and said how great of a sight we are / were and beckoned for us to be seated.  He then asked that we all come up row by row because he wanted to shake our hands.  I was sitting towards the middle front part of the room.  I waited my turn and then when it was my turn I walked up and shook his hand and he asked what my name was.  I told him my name is Elder Crandall and then Sister Nelson asked me where I was from.  I told her that I was from Puyallup, Washington and she nodded and Elder Nelson said, "It's a pleasure to meet you Elder Crandall", to which I said, "It's a pleasure to meet you as well".  Simple greeting, but the biggest thing that stood out to me were his eyes.  His eyes are bright blue orbs of endless crystal-like oceans of purity and love.  Like, I really can't describe it, but when I looked into them I got lost in an expansive eternity of amazingness.  I will never forget how soft and loving his eyes are. 

 

Then, President and Sister Budge spoke to us about various things and then President and Sister Ringwood did the same.  All four of them were very funny and kept the feeling of the whole meeting very light, yet spiritual.  But, no one was as funny as Sister Nelson.  She was super sarcastic and made a bunch of Asian jokes and Elder Nelson jokes.  She said that we were the best group of missionaries that she had ever visited.  We sang a song that Elder Nelson wrote and we also sang our mission song for them.  She told us a cool story about how she met Elder Nelson which involved the song that he wrote and also shared some good advice about filtering out the people who are looking for truth.  After her, Elder Nelson got up and spoke.  He was a crack up as well, haha.  I was way surprised at how many jokes they made in their talks, haha.  He spoke on a gazillion different topics and I took very thorough notes, but for the sake of time I'll just share the best stuff... 

He personally says that you, to you Mom and Dad, that all he says to say to you is, Thank You.  He knows that our mission is one of the hardest in the world.  He knows that people here care more about fashion and cars than they do about their homes or families.  He says thank you for letting me come here. 

He told us that the only weapon anyone really has is love (and then he told us to ponder that 'cause it's really deep.  I have yet to figure it out).  He told us that the day and age of Housing and Streeting and Tracting is OVER!  We are beginning a new age in Tokyo where we rely on the members for everything!  The members (you guys) are not to pray for the missionaries to find people to teach.  You are suppose to pray so that YOU can find people for the missionaries to teach!  He said that that is the new age of dendo we are in.  He also told us to work with our ward mission leaders like never before.  They are suppose to set up all of our appointments and set up stuff with the members for us.  He told us to respect their authority and to respect the keys of the priesthood at every level. 

 

He then opened up the floor for a Q&A period.  He said that this may be the only time that some of us get to be in the same room as an Apostle and to ask up!  And for some reason, I don't know why, my hand shot up first right as he said that and he called on me.  I stood up and said, "Probably the biggest problem we face here in Tokyo is that people are too busy to meet with us.  Both members and investigators feel too busy to get involved in missionary work.  What personal advice or council would you give to people who are too busy?".  Pretty good question, right?  It was a way weird experience.  I could feel my voice speaking but my mind didn't know what my body was doing.  But that question was something that I was thinking about lately.  He said that it was an excellent question and then asked the audience if they had any thoughts first.  Some people gave some good answers and stuff, then he looked at me and said, "Say this to them.  Do you like eating?  Do you like Rice?? (everyone laughed at that).  You wouldn't dare think of being too busy to feed your body.  The same goes with your spirit as well.  You need to feed your spirit, at least for a few minutes every day.  Tell that to people and see how it goes.  But that was an excellent, excellent question Elder."  I smiled childishly and felt good.  Someone asked what would be the best thing  to do during our hours with nothing planned and he said, "Ask the Ward Mission Leader!  He can Help You!"  Everyone laughed at that as well.  He told us that he did his best to prepare the entire world for us this last general conference.  He really wants members to get involved or else we will not be able to take advantage of great growth of missionaries in the world.  Especially here in Tokyo, we have big need for member help. 

 

He talked about a lot of other things and gave us a way cool blessing at the end of his training.  I testify that he is an Apostle of Jesus Christ.  I know.  I've met him.  He is a true prophet and a dedicated servant of the Lord and he carries a special witness of the Savior. 

 

The next day, we went through the temple with a recent convert Chinese guy named Ryu to take out his endowments.  It was way fun and a way cool experience for him. 

 

Elder Anderson and I are genki (healthy) and we are having too much fun here in Matsudo.  It's a great area and we are doing all that we can to get the members involved here.

 

I love you all and it was way fun to see the video of Kyle sing and dance, haha.  He's actually pretty good, I'm impressed!  And also Brendin's home-coming, haha.  Man, he is tan.  I'm way white right now.  Urayamashii!  Jealous!

 

Talk to y'all next week!

 

Love you!

 

Elder Crandall