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!