Monday, November 18th, 2013

Hello Everybody!!! 

Well mother, it's gonna be pretty easy to get an ecclesiastical interview from President Wada.  Don't worry about that.  I am glad that everyone is doing great back home.  No big news is good news, right?  I remember when I started to do my BYU applications as well.  I think the gist of my essays where on my future goals, big life plans, and to show them that I have a solid plan to get the best education possible.  I think they are looking for people who understand the purpose of BYU and know what they want to do when they get there.  

This week was by far the craziest week of my entire mission.  Just when I thought things couldn't get any busier or any more fun, I got a phone call that changed the course of my entire mission.  It was Wednesday night, I was stopping people and handing out English class fliers at Higashi Kanagawa station when Elder Hill answered a phone call from Pres.Wada.  He told us to go somewhere a little more quiet to talk with us.  I was puzzled by this 'cause I knew that he was in Korea at that time attending a mission presidents seminar.  We walked down the street a little bit until we got to a quiet stairway and then we put President Wada on speaker phone.  He started to address me and told me that he was sorry to have to do this to me in the middle of the week, but that he was going to give me my transfer call right then and there.  With absolute sureness and resolve in his voice, he then told me that my new assignment was to transfer to the Mission Office and be his new Assistant!  It took me about 5 seconds to respond because I didn't know what to say or how to feel about it.  Pushing back tears of sadness and excitement I feebly responded with an okay and asked when I am to move.  

After calling the then assistants that night, I found out that I had to leave the next day, so I packed up, said goodbye to all of our investigators and headed off to the Honbu (headquarters).  And so today, I am emailing you all from the mission office computer!!!  I am in Kichijoji ward, the stake center for the Musashino Stake.  The mission office is right next to the church and I live on the first floor of the mission office, and let me tell you, it is a dang nice place to live.  It's all practically brand new.  We have 2 showers, bunk beds, 3 computers, I have my personal phone now, and the Wada's live right above us and often bring us delicious home cooked food.  Last Thursday through today (Monday) has been an absolute whirlwind of activities and events.  I gave a zone training the morning I left without anyone knowing that I was leaving, that was hard and really sad for me.  I picked up the Wada's at the airport and got to ride through Tokyo at night and go on Rainbow Bridge.  We had one of the Kichijoji elders investigators get baptized and then had stake conference Saturday and Sunday.  This next week, tomorrow and the whole rest of the week, missionaries are going home and the new missionaries are coming in.  On top of that, Elder Evans of the 70 is coming tomorrow to give a two mission conference and we have had to organize all of that.  The elder I am replacing is going home right now and we have been busy saying goodbye with him to lots of people.  We had a welcome to the 'Bu party with the Wadas and the Yamashita's (the office couple) last night which was really fun.  Then had zone P-day today with all of the Musashino missionaries and we played dodge ball and made steaks and mashed potatoes.  We eat goooood here at the Honbu!  

My companion's name is Elder Medeiros and he is from Hawaii.  He is like 6'3" and used to weigh like 330 lbs, however, since the start of his mission he has been eating healthy and working out every morning and he has lost 140 lbs!  He is a fit beast now.  We run like a 5k every morning and play basketball a lot at the church.  He is an awesome missionary.  He got here a transfer before me so he is still learning the ropes as well.  I am now on transfer 13, in my 7th area with my 11th companion serving as the AP.  

Kyle and Connor, in case you are wondering what an AP is, every mission president selects two missionaries out the whole mission to be his personal assistants.  Basically, all we do is maintain the best area in the mission, the example area, then do every thing that President Wada says.  He has a lot to say.  When ever we have a spare moment, we go out and find.  Luckily, we live in one of the best finding areas in Japan.  There are always tons and tons of people around all the time and there is a humongous outdoor mall right next to us.  

It seems like I am going to be here for the rest of my mission.  I only have 6 months, 4 transfers left and Elder Medeiros will go home after 2 and I will need to stay and train a new assistant and carry on the mission for the rest of my time.  

This week is going to be crazy so please please pray for me!  This is going to be the biggest trail yet, but it will bring the most blessings.  I am so excited to be working under President Wada.  He is one of the most amazing men I have ever met.  I love him and I feel so much love from him.  

I love all of you as well and pray for you every day.  I have to go to wall mart right now so I'll email you next week!!! 

Take care and know that I love you! 

Elder Crandall

Monday, November 11th, 2013

Hey everybody! 

Thank you so much for the great email this last week.  I am so sorry to hear about the Cooney family and the loss of Betty.  I remember meeting her one time, at least I think it was her, on a plane ride back from Salt Lake many years ago.  I have a very vague memory of that so I'm not totally sure if I'm right.  But in the end, it brings a little bit of joy to my heart to hear and know that she endured to the end and is now gaining her eternal rewards.  I truly believe that.  

Ya know, here in Japan, they believe in one of two things.  They either believe that after they die, the wicked go to hell and the righteous are reincarnated into a different form, destined to continue this never ending struggle of sorrow and pain.  Kind of a dark perspective.  Or they believe that there is nothing after you die, it's the total end of everything.  Actually, I just got out of a lesson with one of our investigators, Zach, and we asked him what he thought about it and he told us that he was taught in a Buddhist school that reincarnation is real and that he might come back as a bug if he didn't work hard.  But he didn't believe it. However, when he thought about the normal Christian alternative of heaven and hell, he felt really bad 'cause he was worried that he would go to hell.  So now he has concluded that he just shouldn't think about death at all and just give it his all until he dies. But he is 19 and is completely miserable at this point.  He is reaching out for help, but will never admit it 'cause of pride.  He wants to change, but change is scary for him.  He has gone through child abuse, starvation, abandonment, and now he is going through poverty.  We read 1 Nephi with him, showing him how the scriptures relate to him and when we got to the point were it talks about Nephi being born of goodly parents, we asked him if he loved his parents and he told us that he hates his father and doesn't love his mother.  His father beat him and abandoned him for months at a time as a child and his mother bosses him around so he doesn't love her, he respects her, but he sees her as a symbol of oppression that he needs to overcome.  I told him that like Nephi, I learned so much from my father.  I told him how we would always go camping together and how he taught me everything I need to know about camping.  And how while we would camp he taught me life lessons and shared his testimony with me.  I told him how much I love my father.  I told him that the key to parenting, the key to influencing people and the key to raising children is love.  He then asked us what love is like.  He said he doesn't know what love is and that he dearly wants to know.  I shared Moroni 7:44-48 with him and told him to go home and study those verses and to come back and tell me what love is.  I feel too much love from the people around, especially my family, to think that this life is the end of all happiness. There is more to life than work, school, movies and golf.  I know there is a greater purpose for us, each of us, and this life is nothing more than preparation for the next one.  

I am afraid that this is all I can share due to time this week.  Thank you, mom, for feeding the missionaries.  I have been fed once by the Relief Society back when I was in Yachiyo ward, I know how much they appreciate it.  

I love you all so much!!!  This week is transfer calls so hopefully I don't go anywhere, but with my history, who knows whats going to happen!!! 

Muchos Gracias, 

Elder Crandall  

Wednesday, November 6th, 2013

Dear Family,

 

I appreciate the last letter that you guys sent.  It had a lot of advice and council that applied directly into my dendo here.  Thank you.  Sorry it has taken so long for me to reply.  I read the emails two days ago, but we didn't have time to write emails until today because we went to the temple and had various meetings.  Because we are the zone leaders we met with the stake presidency and had a big meeting with them, exactly what dad was asking about, haha.  

This last week has been one of the most exhausting weeks for me my entire mission.  In one weeks time, from Monday to Monday, we went on splits 4 times.  All 4 of the missionaries I went with were new missionaries, haha.  The only day that I was not on splits was on Sunday, 'cause we had church.  It was incredibly exhausting, but with splits comes miracles and we had a huge miracle this last week. 

 

On Friday, we got an email from the mission office saying that we got a referral from Mormon.org.  We got the name, address, and phone number of a man named Andris Zapata.  We didn't have time to visit him that night because we had a lesson that went long with Mukaiyama, but we looked up his address and he lives like less than a 30 second walk away from our house. The next day we went over to his house.  When we went over, he wasn't home, but his wife was and we were able to meet her.  We left our phone number with her and that night Andris called us up.  He told us that he has been wanting to come to church for a while, but couldn't remember where the church was.  We agreed to meet up at the station Sunday morning and walk to the church. 

 

He showed up at the station the next morning and we attended church together.  Andris is from Columbia and he moved to Japan about 13 years ago.  He was born Catholic but has some Mormon friends and knows a little bit about the church.  He moved to Japan, got married, and has one 7 yr. old boy.  Ever since he moved to Japan he has strongly adopted the Japanese working culture, after work he would meet up with his buddies and go out drinking every night.  He has been doing this for a while, but one day it really hit him how guilty he felt about always going out drinking and leaving his wife home with his boy.  He came home one night and saw how sad his kid was cause he had been waiting a long time for him to come home and he knew that he needed to change his life.  He remembered how happy he was at church with his family in Columbia and decided that he needed to come back to church.  The next day, before he ate breakfast, he said a simple prayer of thanks over the food and his little boy walked in on him offering the prayer.  The boy asked him what he was doing and he told him that he was praying to God.  The boy then went and grabbed a little snack and sat down and starting praying silently over the snack.  Andris saw this and was deeply moved and felt that he needed to teach his boy about Christ.  He then went to YouTube and pulled up a video on the life of Christ and sat down and watched it with his boy.  During the part where they crucified and buried Christ, he felt little tear drops on his hand.  He looked down and saw that his son was crying and asked him why they did those things to Christ.  Andris was even more moved by this and felt an even stronger conviction that his son needs to learn about Christ.  He then thought about who could teach his son, who could help him learn about Christ.  That's when he remembered our church and went to Mormon.org and asked for the missionaries to come over. 

 

Andris had an amazing time at church.  He shared his testimony of Christ with everyone, absolutely loved the Primary, had a great gospel principles lesson with him in which he shared all the defined moments he has had in the past concerning his son and wanting to come back to church.  We gave him a BOM in Spanish and he started reading it.  But that's not the best part!  The best part is that we live at the Stake President's house.  Andris lives less than 30 seconds away from where we live.  He and the Stake President's wife hit it off very very well at church (Andris practically fellowshipped the entire ward himself), and they have children the same age. 

Instead of telling only President Ito (the Stake President) all the things that I feel are misplaced about our ward and it's dendo, I am going to give Pres. Ito an investigator family and they are going to help us teach them!  We are going to make Pres. Ito an example for our ward and especially the whole stake!  We have already started arranging plans for an FHE all together and inviting them over to their home to hear the lessons.  Andris is very excited to teach his family the gospel and Pres. Ito is more than willing to provide his home for us.  We had the big Stake Presidency meeting yesterday and Pres. Wada was there as well.  I brought Andris up during the meeting and so now all eyes, including Pres. Wada's, are on Pres. Ito and his responsibility to convert this family. 

 

It's a huge huge huge miracle and it has the potential to be the spark that will ignite the entire stake!!!  I'm way pumped up about it and Elder Hill is as well. 

 

In answer to Kyle's question, all I can say is read the white handbook man!  All we do is follow the white handbook.  The only thing that is different about my mission is that we are not allowed to talk to women in a finding situation unless they talk to us first.  We can't stop a woman on the street and start talking to her about the gospel.  It is just too sketchy.  They aren't interested in the Gospel, just cool Americans.  Also, we can't go into a house if there is only women there.  There has to be another man above the age of 20, or a priesthood holder of the age of 18.  20 is the legal age in Japan, like how 18 is the legal age in America. 

I have 3 new missionaries in my zone that were born in 1995.  They are barely 18 and they had their calls while they were seniors in high school.  CRAZY!  Think about that, Kyle!

Love you!  愛していますよ！！！

 

クランダル長老