Monday, October 22, 2012

Hey Family,

 

Sorry I am emailing a little bit earlier than normal, but today we are going to SKY TREE!!!!!!! If you don't know what it is, google it cause it's gonna be awesome. We are leaving in like a hour or two.  I bet that you guys are writing me and emailing while I'm writing this one. 

 

This week was pretty good, but yesterday was not so great for us. We worked hard all week and got 3 lessons set up for yesterday. One of them was for sure going to come to church, but he didn't and now we can't get ahold of him. The other guy forgot that we had planned a lesson after church so he bailed.  And Kobayashi, never called us back to set up a specific time so he ended up falling through. So 3 lessons fell through. It was a real bummer for sure. So we just dendo-ed for like 3 hours instead, but we didn't find anyone. Not from a lack of conversations though, people were very willing to listen last night. We had like 20 good conversations, but no one had interest in religion. Sometimes it's hard being white in Japan. Sometimes people don't take us seriously. They are like,"ahhhh how cute, they are trying to speak Japanese". Or they are super suprised that we know Japanese, but they can't get over the fact that we are from America so they don't whole-heartedly listen to our message. 

 

But other than those few small things, Life is Good!!! Japan is way awesome! It's starting to get cold here, like 21-25 degress all the time (celcius). And man, it gets cold in Japan! It's very very humid here and so it's like a bone chilling cold kinda feel, ya know. Anyway, this week, we had a giant Fall Festival that the ward put on. We had tons of non members show up to it and we played lots of games, had a way good talent show, and then took everyone on a church tour. It was way good for all of the inestigators to get a very calm and easy feeling about church. Most of them already come to English class and kids English class every week, but they usually are not able to see anything other than the gym. 

 

Okay, so I just read your letter and I was dying laughing! "The District", hahahaha. We are required to watch and study The District in the MTC and out here in the field.  I've seen all of the episodes like 10 times so far, hahaha.  That's so cool that you guys get to watch and study The District just like me! My favorite investigator is Manny. He's way cool and I've met people that have changed their lives very similar to the way he changed his. Have you watched the Law of Chastity one yet?? It's a huge joke among all missionaries world wide, haha. I've met most of the people from The District. They are teachers at the MTC. Actually, funny story, Clark Sensei is pretty good friends with Sister Boils? I think is how you spell it, anyway, he called her in the middle of class one time and put her on speaker phone and we all said hi to her, haha. Have you guys seen The District 1 as well? That's the one that follows the people in Texas. 

 

My email might be pretty short too, kinda low on time and not whole lot happened this week.

 

We usually make our own meals everyday, or we go out a few times a week.  The members just drop off a lot of little things every week in a Fruit Basket of sorts. I love Okonomiaki and Curry Rice and Indian Curry and Sushi and Maborofu and Hayashi and Taco rice and Yakiniku and Yakisoba and tons and tons of food that you have no idea what it is, :) haha! There are no Teriyaki shops in Japan, haha. Only in America do they use the word Teriyaki. Usually restaurants or the food is called Yaki (grilled) then the name of the food like Tori (Bird/chicken), Yakitori or Yakiniku (grilled meat). I'm actually getting pretty good at cooking Japanese food so get ready for a house full odd Asian-ness when I get back! When we eat at members houses, they usually make American-ish food for us. They think it's American, but it's not really, it's just not Japanese food, haha. But for sure we eat rice in just about everything. Always, always rice and it is super expensive to buy rice in Japan! It's insane, like maybe more expensive than America. We have been trying to go to Costco for a few weeks now, but we need a car and a member in order to go. We strated a tradition in our house, 500 yen Fridays! At our local grocery store, they have 500 yen pizza's, Japanese pizzas, so they are really weird and kinda gross, but they are way cheap and we buy them at like 8 at night so they are 30% off. In reality they are like 320 yen so it's a pretty good deal. But everything is smaller in Japan, like a large or extra large pizza in Japan is a medium in America, and Dominos costs like 25-30 dollars here. Way crazy!

 

These past few weeks, we have been trying really hard to find very prepared people to teach.  It's easy for us to get phone numbers and maybe sketchy investigators and appointments, but to find really prepared people who will apply the gospel is very hard.  One of the attributes we look for (and Bishop Doutre mentioned this in his letter to me), is humility. Are they too prideful to listen to a message about church? Are they too guiltful of their sinful consience to want to change their lives or admit that what they do is universally wrong? Will they put us and the gospel on their priority list or are they too busy, too engulfed in the world to make time for us? It's hard filtering for the right people. Sometimes I feel like an old prospecter panning for gold in a dirty river. But luckily, I've got all the right tools, a treasure map, and I personally know the person who hid the gold! All is not well, but all is do-able, fixable. 

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethern; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice and be exceedingly glad."

D&C 128:22  - that is our mission theme!

 

Have a great week! I will for sure! I love you guys and will think about if I need anything and I will get back to you!

 

Love,

Elder Crandall