Me familia! Como estan?
Man, so because of this last week, I need to ask for a few more things in that Christmas package, haha! :)
First of all, let me tell you about my week. We were able to see a lot of miracles this week! Everything just seemed to go our way. Every time we went streeting or housing, we found a prepared person who was interested. Like, I think after all was said and done, we had like 3 lessons set up for this week with people and a lot of new phone numbers. At our English class we had 4 new people come and two of those people became new investigators who wanted to learn more. We found an Indian guy who hates Japan but loves America and he wants to take us out to an Indian Curry place sometime soon. I made friends with a guy from Turkey and Shri Lanka and both of them had friends that were looking for places to go to church on Christmas, which we happily recommended our church. This past week was great for Elder Anderson and I. Plus, for Thanksgiving, we got invited to the Naval Base to eat with an American Family and play in a Turkey Bowl! The old guy Yamamoto san came to church as well! He was really funny and kinda awkward. He kept on saying that he wasn't christian and he wasn't sure about religion and we were like "Hai, we know, we will teach you", haha. He could only stay for most of church cause he had to take care of his mother in law, but he liked it and I think that he will come again next week.
Kohoku is starting to come alive! The Bishop and his wife even invited us over for dinner :D they haven't invited missionaries over in like 9 months, haha. We were able to teach a family English class example to their family and another family and we built a solid relationship with them and talked for a long time about missionary work and such. Member dendo! The most effective dendo!
My future was looking brighter than ever, tons of new investigators, people coming to church, and then I got the call that I was transferring :)
Now I am in the Yachiyo Ward in the Chiba Stake :) and let me tell you, this is the promised land of all of Japan :) :)
On average, we taught like 1-3 lessons per week, 1 member present lesson, and find like 2 new investigators. Consistently, Yachiyo teaches about 21 lessons per week, 13 member present lessons, 10 new investigators, and they had 15 investigators come to church last Sunday :D On top of that, they get like 6 referrals every week and have 5 people lined up for baptism :)
I was so surprised to hear I was transferring, and then to find out to Yachiyo! I was in shock. This area is the most successful area in the whole mission. Partly because of the elder before me, he was the greatest streeter and makes friends with everyone, but mostly because of the ward members and their faith and fire for missionary work. It is honestly amazing to be a missionary here. Like, we walk outside and people practically walk up to us and ask what we are doing and if they can learn more. The Lord loves Chiba! Many, many people are prepared to hear the message here and I am so blessed and humbled for the opportunity to serve here.
My new companion is Elder Shibuta! His name is Japanese, but he is 100% Braziian! Can you believe it? He is fluent in English, thank goodness, but he is from Pontagrossa Brazil and looks exactly like my old roommate Riley, haha. He is on transfer 6, I am only 4, so we are both very young, but his Japanese is way good, and so both of us together do pretty well. He is like the coolest guy, idk, he is exactly like me I guess. We have the same hobbies, interests, and he is a beast at dendo. He goes way hard in everything and has a ton of faith. He is Latino so he has the biggest heart ever and loves everyone. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and now Japanese, which comes in handy around here.
We have this giant neighborhood of about 300 Peruvian families right down the street. This place is just crawling with Latinos from all over and so we have a few investigators that we teach in Spanish and Portuguese. So, I need to re-learn all of my Spanish again! AHHHH, I forgot everything! So my new Christmas list contains a Spanish dictionary and a basic Spanish conversation book :) This place is so cool and its flat! Kohoku was one of the hilliest places in all of Japan and Chiba is smooth and flat so I am loving that. I'm sorry this letter is so delayed, our p-day was yesterday but we had to teach some lessons so we have to spread our p-day over the course of a few days, haha.
I don't have a lot of time but a have a few requests. Although we have 5 people lined up for baptism, they are still a ways away and need a lot of help and miracles. Could all of you please, please pray for the investigators in Yachiyo that they will be able to join the church and know it is true. The members here are doing a perpetual 40 day fast where they take turns fasting for investigators and because of their desires and them knitting their hearts together, the Lord is blessing us like nothing else here. You don't have to fast, but please, please remember those people in your prayers :)
There is a member here, his name is Brother Chiba, he lives in Chiba :), and he is one of the reasons for all of our success. He is 25 years old and he is a recent convert of about 5 years. He is maybe leaving for a mission in January for Sapporo Japan, but because of his anti -father, he might not be able to go. But Chiba is the man! He has a part time job but only works like 4 hours a day and he spends the rest of the time hanging out with us and doing everything with us, haha. He dresses up like us and has a bike and joins in lessons, helps us street, and is Japanese so he can help us if we ever have questions. Every lesson we teach is basically a member present lesson and he is the perfect member missionary, cause he knows exactly what we want from members as missionaries. He is better at streeting and stopping people and teaching lessons than most RM's, haha. He used to live next to the Honbu (mission home) and he would hang out with all of the AP's all day and President so he's basically the best well trained member in the world. And he the funnest guy to hang out with, just way super happy and always cracking jokes, haha.
We have a baptismal goal as a mission for 300 this year and right now we are at like 210. 90 people in a month and a half is totally do-able, especially here in Yachiyo we are going to be a big contribution. The ward is about 60 active people, but the Bishop is the best, the ward mission leader is the best, and our stake president has more dendo fire potential than most oil rigs :)
I love you all and I need to go teach people! YAY!
Thank you so much! Happy Thanksgiving!
Elder Crandall
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