Monday, September 3rd, 2012

Aosss! (this is what all the teenage guys say, it's basically "whats up"!)

Well hello there, Mommy. Happy Labor Day! Don't labor too hard :)

It sounds like you guys have some fun things planned for this next little while. I am excited to hear what classes the boys are taking so be sure to make them send me an email! I remember when I was starting junior high at Ballou.... it was pretty scarry actually, but you feel so much older and cooler once you get used to it. Is Connor planning on doing choir or anything like that? I think he should, he is pretty good.  He takes after Kyle in that respect.  Is Kyle going to try to do any sports, swimming or running or just musicals and what not? Let me know! Oh, and I would think that scones would do okay in getting here.... I think :) maybe I hope more than anything, haha! Have fun at the fair and also tell the Burdettes I say hi :)

Things are going great in Kohoku.  I'm sending some pictures of cool places that we have been in our area.  And a picture of me with David.  Thank you some much for the peanut butter and the cheese and nachos stuff!  As well as the jacket, of course :)  Peanut butter and cheese are some of the most sought after things in Japan.  They are crazy expensive here, haha.

This week was a great dendo week.  We did a lot of streeting and housing and were able to visit a lot of members and share little messages with them.  We were able to find a few lost less active members that the quorum presidents didn't know about because we went and visited so many members, especially from the ones who have been living here since WWII, haha.   Yesterday, I shared a message with our Bishop's father who is the oldest living baptized person in Japan. He was one of the first people to ever accept the gospel in Japan.  This past weekend, at our ward building, there was a memorial service for the first Japanese missionary ever who passed away recently.  We went to that and it was basically an old people reunion and party, haha.  But one of the Area Presidency, Elder Yamashita, came and I was able to talk with him for a while. He spoke in general conference a year ago about his conversion story, you should re-watch it! 

A guy in our ward just got back
from his mission in Nagoya and he still has his dendo fire and wants to help us out, haha.  He is way funny and cool, but his family is kinda crazy, haha, but we might do splits with him and another young man in our ward.  Also, the stake held an inorikai, prayer party, for the missionaries in our zone and a lot of people came and spoke about the history of missionary work in Japan.  Heber J. Grant gave the dedicatory prayer of Japan back in the day and towards the end of his life he said that that prayer was the
most spiritual prayer he ever offered
in his life, and that is coming from a prophet of God. The members here love missionary work, but they don't know how to do it with the missionaries yet.  They are new members, they do not yet fully know how to bring those around them into the gospel or how to share it with their friends. Once we figure that out, missionary work in Japan will explode. 

Yesterday was Fast Sunday and Gallacker choro and I worked our little butts off, haha.  We walked along the main busy road that runs from the bottom of our area to the top from 2-8 in the middle of the day and stopped at all of the train stations along the way and talked to every single person who passed.  We probably said hello like 500 times, tried to stop and talk to about 100 people, actually had conversations with like 35 people, and met only a hand full of individuals with actual interest.  But, I placed my first BOM streeting yesterday:) and I did it all by myself!  Elder Gallacker was like 20 feet away talking to someone else.  I stopped a college student and told him I am a college student too, but right now I'm on break.  We talked about him and his interests, and then about the Bible which lead into the BOM, to which he had interest and I explained to him what it was and how it has helped my life and I promised him it could help him and he liked it.  We exchanged info and I will call him in a few days to follow up with his reading.  We were fasting and praying to find miracles so that we would have more investigators, and that is what we saw yesterday :)

Today, we just got back from a 100 yen sushi place, kind of like the one we went to before I left, if you remember.  I love eel and cheesy salmon, yummmmm. Those are my two favorites.  So it turns out, Elder Cook, the new guy that is living with us, that I knew his little brother in college and stuff.  It's a crazy small world and now I have friends that live in Europe, China, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and all over! 

It's completely awesome here, I love it so much and I truly am blessed the most when I am working the hardest. 

Love You! Have a great week!
Elder Crandall