Monday, February 17, 2014

Monday, February 17th, 2014

Hello Family!

This week was a lot of fun. There's a ton of snow down here that we
weren't expecting. Actually made it so that the four missionaries who
were going to return home couldn't get on the airplanes because their
flights were canceled. That was pretty rough. We weren't able to send
them home and they had to stay here at the office for another three
days. We shoveled the church parking lot for a total of six hours the
other day. We had to get all of the snow out-of-the-way so that church
wouldn't be canceled again like last week. It was really tough. Not
only did it snow about a foot but there was tons of rain the next day
so it made underneath the snow basically a river of water. Elder
Call and I went to town shoveling our little hearts out but to no
avail. We barely made a scratch in the snow. We had lots of help from
the other missionaries in the office and 4 members helped out as well.
It worked out in the end however because the parking lot got cleaned
and people were able to come to church and take the Sacrament!

We had a lot of investigators come to church as a unit here in
Kichijoji. We had our investigator, Kazuya, show up with his girlfriend,
Mari, and enjoyed the Sacrament meeting with them. Sacrament meeting
consisted of the High Priests all talking about something that I
couldn't understand because the Japanese was extremely difficult. The
missionaries had the opportunity to sing with the High Priests. That
was pretty enjoyable! We sang "Let the lower lights be burning" in a
normal four part harmony. Nothing too classy, but fun just the same!
Singing in Japanese is pretty fun! I'll have to show you sometime!

This week we picked up my third group of new missionaries. We went to
the airport in a bus to pick them up. When the new missionaries
arrived at the airport they looked very nervous and also very excited.
I remember exactly how they felt not too long ago. We rode through
Tokyo at nighttime and they got to see many beautiful towers all lit
up. It was pretty fun. For the next two days we trained them in
various things that they needed to know to be missionaries here in
Tokyo. On Thursday the trainers came and we assigned them to new trainees. Then those missionaries went to their areas together. I'm excited to see what
kind of miracles will come from the amazing companionships.  Elder Kuniyuki, the guy I trained, is training again! He's one of the best!

Right before Elder Medeiros left he bought $150 worth of meat. Just
for the assistants. Oh yeah! We've got steaks, spareribs and all sorts
of good stuff stocked away in the freezer. The other elders are pretty
jealous but sometimes we share with them! It's pretty good stuff!

It turns out I need to be nicer to my body 'cause after we shoveled snow for six hours I got pretty tired and then the next day after church I got pretty sick and was throwing up and was just exhausted. But I'm doing better today and am functioning much better.  

This week will start the testing for missionary work on Facebook.
Elder Call and I, plus a few other missionaries will start the
testing process and we will see how we can apply Facebook into our
mission. That being said, there are a few rules to us using Facebook.
Some of those are I am not able to respond to posts or messages from
family and friends. I can still leave my Facebook open for everyone to
see my posts and such, however most of those posts will be in Japanese.
Feel free to try and Google translate some of those posts that I put
up, but they're most likely going to be wrong. Google translate just
doesn't cut it these days! The objective is not for me to be able to
add pictures and things to show my family and friends the fun stuff
I'm doing but to use Facebook as another means to keep in contact with
those I meet here in Japan. That being said, if people decide to
message me or use chat with me I may not respond to them. If that
happens, don't be offended! I still love you and I'll talk to you
later! Feel free to talk with those investigators and other friends
that I am friends with on Facebook! You can help them out with their
conversion process or help them learn things about the church if they
have questions! It should be quite the adventure and I'm excited to be
a part of this hastening of the work!

It's a lot of fun working here at the office. We've got some good guys
coming up in a while for baptisms, and many more friends waiting
outside to talk with us!! Toru is still away on business but he should be back next week.  We are just having fun doing our thing.  

I love you all! Hope you have a great day!

Love,
Elder Crandall

P.S. Check out Me with these chocolates Sister Yamashita
got from a parking attendant! We definitely won't eat these and drive!



















Saturday, February 15, 2014

Tuesday, February 11th, 2014

Hello family,

I am currently riding a bus on my way to the airport.  Not to go home
or anything, but to pick up all of the new missionaries!
We had a very interesting and rather peculiar week this last week.  It
snowed about 6 inches here in Tokyo and you would have thought that
the bombs dropped and WW3 had started cause everything was shut down
and all heck was breaking loose.  They just don't ever get snow here
and no one knows how to drive generally, so when it snows things just
go crazy.  But I am safe and turned crisis into opportunity in the
snow.

We went to a local park and Elder Medeiros, Elder Call, and I built a
giant American snow man, after recruiting some help from some high
school students.  In Japan, they only use two snow balls to make a
snow man, but we flexed our American power and made a 7ft tall, three
balled snow man.  By the time we were putting the finishing touches
on, a crowd of about 30 people had gathered to take pictures.  We
seized the opportunity and took lots of pictures with everyone and
introduced them to the church and to the various programs that we are
involved in.  After staying there for a few hours, we contacted over
40 people, got a few phone numbers, and took a bunch of names for
people to add on Facebook (btw I will pilot an online dendo Facebook
program this next week so don't get surprised if I start using my
Facebook again, haha).  We were wet, but we didn't really feel the cold
as we talked to all of those people and had some fun in the snow.

Elder Call, my former companion in Kawasaki, is now my new companion
and the newest assistant.  He will be my final companion and work with
me till the very end.  He and I are way close, way good buddies, and
so I am way excited to be working with him again.  Elder Medeiros is
leaving on Friday for Hawaii, he doesn't want to go but I don't pity
him at all.  I mean, he is going back to Hawaii, haha, nothin' better than
that.

It's going to be a busy week, no rest for the weary.  But I am really
excited to be working with all of the new missionaries.  It's one of
my favorite parts of being an assistant.

Love everyone and talk to you soon!

Elder Crandall
Sent from my iPad

Thanks for the picture, Elder Call!


















Monday, February 3, 2014

Monday, February 3rd, 2014

Dear Family, 

This week was a great week for sure.  For the most part, all we did was teach people and hang out with church officials from Salt lake.  

We went around to all of the zones in the mission and gave everyone their iPads and did a bunch of trainings.  A man named Brother Richard Heaton, who is the director of the MTC and basically wrote the PMG, as well as the Portfolio Manager of the MTC, Ron Stuts, and the IT director for the Presiding Bishops office in Tokyo came along with us to all of the trainings.  We were able to ask them a ton of questions concerning the iPads and raise our concerns with some of the security systems and things like that.  Brother Heaton and President Wada are good friends and Brother Heaton actually served a mission in Japan many years ago.  At one point, I was able to sit down with him one on one and we had lunch together.  We talked about my mission and some cool experiences and he asked me what I planned on doing after I got back.  I told him that I have thought about applying to work at the MTC and he recommended me to try and do so.  They need good teachers and although I didn't really get any time to teach with Brother Heaton, he was pleased with how we handled the trainings.  He is a great man who had a lot of good advice and shared a lot of good council with concerning how to train missionaries and how to continue the growth of the mission.  Last week we had 4 baptisms as a mission and this week we had 6.  Things are starting to pick up around here and the mission is lengthening its stride.  

Toru went out of town to Nagoya for some job interviews and he is still there. However, we have been able to teach him over the phone and he is doing very well. Also, Kazuya came to church on Sunday and we were able to get to know him and his situation a lot better.  Basically, the missionaries he has met with up to this point haven't really done a good job teaching him so we need to start from square one with him.  But he is doing very good as well in his learning and understanding the gospel.  

I just heard that the Seahawks won the Superbowl!!!!!  President Wada put some sushi on the Broncos so now he has to take his son out to sushi.  He was disappointed but he'll get over it, haha.  

My companion only has 11 more days until he goes home, so basically we have been dendoing way hard wherever we go and eating out at all the good places in the western Tokyo area.  In fact, after this we are going to an all you can eat pizza place that is right down the street with some investigators for P-day.  

On Sunday I got to participate in a Coordinating Council Meeting prep with Elder Kusume of the Seventy.  It was just him and president, his executive secretary, and us assistants.  We went over the status of our mission, the vision from here on, and how each stake and stake president is doing (not that I really know that or anything, haha).  Elder Kusume is quite a character, a way funny guy.  He taught us from the scriptures about the gift of discernment and how we can use that to astound our investigators and help them feel the power of God.  In order to discern their needs, we have to fellowship them and get to the core of their hearts, then with love we help them overcome their concerns, through which they can then feel the love of God and convert and be happy.  

Also, I was able to help Aki get confirmed in Sacrament meeting yesterday. She is going to go back to Mongolia in a few weeks for a month or so and it will be a big defining moment for her for sure because it will be the first time that she will be open with people from her own country about her being Christian.  Her boyfriend got mad at her the other day cause she got baptized before he did when he was the one that had interest in the first place :)  Unfortunately, the closest church to her house in Mongolia is like 4 hours away so she is just going to have to start a branch is her home town or something.  

I hope everyone is having a fun time over there at the game!  My BYU registration is going good, President Wada took care of the endorsements already.  I am going to go get a haircut after this and make sure that I keep my hair to the BYU standards.;) 

I love you all very much and give my regards to Grandma and Grandpa and the family! 

愛していうますよ!

クランドル長老より