Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

CONNOR!!!!!! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TANJOUBI OMEDETOGOZAIMASU!!!  TEENAGER NI NARIMASHITA NE!!!!!!!!! YOKKATTA!!!!!

 

Man, it has been a weird week for sure.  I am officially over the hill now.  It's all a count down from here on out.  I can't become home sick anymore, I can only become trunky, haha.  But I'm doing fine nonetheless, not trunky at all.  Everything is just one massive blur and it still feels like it was yesterday when I started the mission. 

 

A lot of my good friends on the mission are leaving for home right now.  My last companion, Elder Anderson, and I got together with Naoki in Matsudo for a bye bye lunch at a sushi restaurant.  He is going home this week.  It was way fun being back in good old Matsudo with Elder Anderson, it felt like I had just been on a 6 week split, like I had never moved out ya know. 

 

This past week was a Major holiday in Japan, called Golden Week.  It's just a string of very unimportant holidays like Independence day, green day, children's day, etc. etc., and most everyone went back to their home town and got drunk for like a week, haha.  So we did a lot of finding, not a whole lot of teaching this week.  We found an old investigator along a river that runs by our house named Shalesh and he is from Fiji.  He called out to us and asked us if he could come to church and we said absolutely he could come to church this week.  He was way drunk when we met him, but he ended up coming to church on Sunday and we had a great time with him, haha.  He is a professional artist and makes murals and such for non profit organizations.  Way cool guy when he isn't wasted, haha. 

 

Thank you, mom, for the story/question about the temple.  To answer your questions, I should tell you what I did today :)   I woke up at 5:40 and went to the Temple :)   We got lost half way there 'cause we had to navigate an unfamiliar route through the busiest train intersection in the world, but we made the second session of all missionaries in the temple.  We get to go once every 6 weeks and all the missionaries in the mission go.  In the future, when the mission splits, we will only get to go once every two transfers.  We go on Tuesday so our p-day switches from Monday to Tuesday on temple day so that is why my emails are always switching what time they come, haha. 

 

I feel really really weird about how this next week is going to go.  So far, it's been a great week and we have even found a new investigator guy that is interested in the church.  But I feel like I have not been able to settle into this area.  I still feel like I am disconnected in some way.  I love the members here and I love the investigators, but I haven't been able to grab this area by the horns and make it mine yet.  Especially when it comes to the investigators that are doing really well.  Kohji and Emi have come a long way and are looking pretty solid to get baptized some time in the future.  We need to focus their progression back on that baptism goal or else they will become eternal investigators who never take the plunge into eternal life.  I'm not sure when they will get baptized, maybe by the end of the month, but I have the strangest feeling that because I didn't grab hold of them and push well enough towards baptism for them, I am going to get transferred out before I see them baptized.  I don't really know what I am saying at all though, haha.  I guess, if this week goes really really well and everyone can meet and we set a bunch of baptism dates and everyone is progressing and we see tons of miracles, then I am going to get transferred out on Monday, is my guess, hahaha.  

 

I was soooooo excited when I heard that Brayden Richards got called to Japan :)  I sent him an email already but I'm still flipping out, I am so excited.  Japanese brothers!!!!!

 

I gotta go dendo now, but I love you all and I wish you all the best of luck in your upcoming tests and plays and performances and everything that is going on back home :) otsukaresamadesu (cheers for good work)

 

I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Take care!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Elder Crandall