Dear Familia,
Everyone how is? (I put that question into Japanese/ English in case you were wondering)
Man, this week was spectacular. One of the best of the mission so far. I'll start off with Monday. On Monday, we had planned on going and just dendo-ing around the general area, but I felt like we should go and visit a member who had recently become active again after 20 years and who had spoken at stake conference the day before. My companion agreed and so we went and visited him at like 7pm. We knocked and he answered the door and said, "What! Why are you here!", rather sternly, and we said that we were in the area and just felt like visiting. His countenance changed all of a sudden and he hurried us inside and sat us down. He said that right as we knocked on his door, he had just finished praying that someone would come and help him pray for his friends so that they would come back to church as well. He has 6 friends that are less active that he is working with trying to get them to come back to church and he wanted to get more people involved so that it would be more powerful, I guess you could say. He sat us down and started crying very hard because he knew that God had sent us there to help pray for his friends. He has also been sharing the gospel with 5 of his friends from his school days and from work. He had given out like 2 Book of Mormon's that week and brought his friend to stake conference. This guy is a dendo beast and we showed up at the right time for us to help him with his dendo efforts and we were able to pray with him and we also received 5 referrals from this brother that night. His name is Brother Masuda and he is my hero. He bore a testimony about this on Sunday and it really fired up a lot of members to get more involved in dendo.
Then, on Tuesday, we got a phone call from a brother in the ward and he said that some random guy had been calling him asking about coming back to church so he referred his phone number and stuff to us and we were able to call him up. His name is Ogura san and 5 years ago he had been an investigator for two lessons. He got really sick then and lost contact with the missionaries after a while. He called us and said that he really wants to start coming to church again. He said that he has a lot of problems in life and that he knows that the church in a good place where he can receive that help and guidance. We were not able to meet him last week, but he said that this up coming week will be less busy so we can meet. By Tuesday afternoon, we had received 6 referrals! It's crazy! An absolute miracle.
Then, on Friday, March 1st, we had a mission conference at the Tokyo temple annex. And Elder and Sister Nelson came!!!!!!!! It was way super legit!!!!! One of the coolest experiences of my mission for sure. They and then Elder and Sister Ringwood, who is the area president of Asia North, came as well. They came in the room and everyone stood up immediately and a powerful silence filled the room. He entered and said how great of a sight we are / were and beckoned for us to be seated. He then asked that we all come up row by row because he wanted to shake our hands. I was sitting towards the middle front part of the room. I waited my turn and then when it was my turn I walked up and shook his hand and he asked what my name was. I told him my name is Elder Crandall and then Sister Nelson asked me where I was from. I told her that I was from Puyallup, Washington and she nodded and Elder Nelson said, "It's a pleasure to meet you Elder Crandall", to which I said, "It's a pleasure to meet you as well". Simple greeting, but the biggest thing that stood out to me were his eyes. His eyes are bright blue orbs of endless crystal-like oceans of purity and love. Like, I really can't describe it, but when I looked into them I got lost in an expansive eternity of amazingness. I will never forget how soft and loving his eyes are.
Then, President and Sister Budge spoke to us about various things and then President and Sister Ringwood did the same. All four of them were very funny and kept the feeling of the whole meeting very light, yet spiritual. But, no one was as funny as Sister Nelson. She was super sarcastic and made a bunch of Asian jokes and Elder Nelson jokes. She said that we were the best group of missionaries that she had ever visited. We sang a song that Elder Nelson wrote and we also sang our mission song for them. She told us a cool story about how she met Elder Nelson which involved the song that he wrote and also shared some good advice about filtering out the people who are looking for truth. After her, Elder Nelson got up and spoke. He was a crack up as well, haha. I was way surprised at how many jokes they made in their talks, haha. He spoke on a gazillion different topics and I took very thorough notes, but for the sake of time I'll just share the best stuff...
He personally says that you, to you Mom and Dad, that all he says to say to you is, Thank You. He knows that our mission is one of the hardest in the world. He knows that people here care more about fashion and cars than they do about their homes or families. He says thank you for letting me come here.
He told us that the only weapon anyone really has is love (and then he told us to ponder that 'cause it's really deep. I have yet to figure it out). He told us that the day and age of Housing and Streeting and Tracting is OVER! We are beginning a new age in Tokyo where we rely on the members for everything! The members (you guys) are not to pray for the missionaries to find people to teach. You are suppose to pray so that YOU can find people for the missionaries to teach! He said that that is the new age of dendo we are in. He also told us to work with our ward mission leaders like never before. They are suppose to set up all of our appointments and set up stuff with the members for us. He told us to respect their authority and to respect the keys of the priesthood at every level.
He then opened up the floor for a Q&A period. He said that this may be the only time that some of us get to be in the same room as an Apostle and to ask up! And for some reason, I don't know why, my hand shot up first right as he said that and he called on me. I stood up and said, "Probably the biggest problem we face here in Tokyo is that people are too busy to meet with us. Both members and investigators feel too busy to get involved in missionary work. What personal advice or council would you give to people who are too busy?". Pretty good question, right? It was a way weird experience. I could feel my voice speaking but my mind didn't know what my body was doing. But that question was something that I was thinking about lately. He said that it was an excellent question and then asked the audience if they had any thoughts first. Some people gave some good answers and stuff, then he looked at me and said, "Say this to them. Do you like eating? Do you like Rice?? (everyone laughed at that). You wouldn't dare think of being too busy to feed your body. The same goes with your spirit as well. You need to feed your spirit, at least for a few minutes every day. Tell that to people and see how it goes. But that was an excellent, excellent question Elder." I smiled childishly and felt good. Someone asked what would be the best thing to do during our hours with nothing planned and he said, "Ask the Ward Mission Leader! He can Help You!" Everyone laughed at that as well. He told us that he did his best to prepare the entire world for us this last general conference. He really wants members to get involved or else we will not be able to take advantage of great growth of missionaries in the world. Especially here in Tokyo, we have big need for member help.
He talked about a lot of other things and gave us a way cool blessing at the end of his training. I testify that he is an Apostle of Jesus Christ. I know. I've met him. He is a true prophet and a dedicated servant of the Lord and he carries a special witness of the Savior.
The next day, we went through the temple with a recent convert Chinese guy named Ryu to take out his endowments. It was way fun and a way cool experience for him.
Elder Anderson and I are genki (healthy) and we are having too much fun here in Matsudo. It's a great area and we are doing all that we can to get the members involved here.
I love you all and it was way fun to see the video of Kyle sing and dance, haha. He's actually pretty good, I'm impressed! And also Brendin's home-coming, haha. Man, he is tan. I'm way white right now. Urayamashii! Jealous!
Talk to y'all next week!
Love you!
Elder Crandall
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