Thursday, July 19th, 2012

Elder Crandall has arrived safely in Japan!!  We are very blessed to have a good family friend, David Tarr, working in Japan and he was able to be at the airport when Christopher landed and took some great pictures for us!

David and Christopher

When they were done at the airport Elder Crandall and the group of missionaries that came with him from the MTC all headed to the mission home for a good night's rest.   





Christopher with his Mission President, President and Sister Budge

Elder Gallacher with Elder Crandall, new missionary companions

He is serving in his first area, Kohoku, Yokohama and is excited to begin the work.  He had a little glitch buying his bicycle, but all is well.  We will hear all about his first week in Japan next week!  Stay tuned!!

Information about sending mail to Elder Christopher Ronald Crandall:

All letters and packages should be sent to the Mission Home.

v   The only packages that can be forwarded to missionaries are those sent through the POST OFFICE of your home nation.

v   PLEASE DO NOT SEND PACKAGES BY FEDEX, DSL, OR UPS – they do not forward packages for us like the Post Office does.  The mission then has to pay to send it to the missionaries.

v   Please include your missionary’s first and middle names because we often have missionaries with the same first and last names.

v   Please do not send large boxes. Mail is delivered on motorcycles here– they do not have room for large boxes. The mission has to pay the charges to have them shipped by another shipper or try to get them to a zone conference. That means your missionary has to carry the large box on the train to his or her apartment. The Post Office of your country has smaller mailing packages you can use. You can send a few of these instead of one big box.

Please use the following address for mail to your missionary. They all love receiving letters from home. Again, we would like to ask you to always put the first and middle name of your missionary on the envelopes as we have several missionaries who share the same last name.  Please let your family and friends know to do this, too.

Elder Christopher Ronald Crandall

Japan Tokyo Mission

4-25-12 Nishi-Ochiai  

Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to

161-0031   JAPAN





Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

Yoshi hitobito!

the i in yoshi is silent so its not like the mario yoshi, its just yosh...

It sounds like you are going to have a very lonely week mother! Best wishes to you, but I don't have any pity for you :) enjoy it kudasai.  This week was a good week.  We got our itineraries on Friday and here is the schedule.  We leave to go to the airport at 5 in the morning.  We have a Delta flight leaving Salt Lake at 8:40 am for LAX.  I will have time to call you at the SLC airport before that flight.  Around 7-ish I should be free to call.  Here is what I am going to do, as far as calling you goes.  I am going to have a few quarters and I am going to get on a pay phone and give your cell phone, mommy, a call.  I will then tell you the telephone number of the pay phone, you write it down, and then when my time runs out, you call me back on that number :) It charges the same amount as a long distant call so if we have long distance minutes, it will use those.  There is no official policy for telephone calling so I can talk for as long as I want. :).  Then, I will fly to LAX and I arrive there at 9:40am, LA time, and I have a lay over there until 1 pm.  I can also call home from LAX, using the same technique that I described above.  It is recommended that we do not use phone cards because they are extremely unreliable and are pretty expensive.  Quarters and calling back is the best way.  Then, I fly to Tokyo Narita Airport.  I am on the Delta flight 283 to Narita.  I will arrive at 4:25 pm on July 17 in Tokyo, July 16 back in the states.  I will then be picked up by my mission president and taken to their house to spend the night.  The next day I will meet my comp and begin the work :D Sooooo send me a dear elder confirming this plan.  I won't have access to email or anything after this. After about Friday, anything mailed to me I probably won't get and they will not forward anything to Japan unless it has the correct amount of postage, including dear elders.

So tomorrow, a filming crew from Tokyo are coming and they are filming our district for a few hours and interviewing us.  They are broadcasting this news story to 6 million people in the UK and to 28 different news stations throughout Japan, so basically all of Japan.  The story will have kind of a political angle to it, with, ya know, Mitt Romney running for president and all.  They think that the church is training missionaries so that we become great businessmen and political leaders so that we can spread out and take over the world. Yeah, right, not!  So we are kinda expecting to get grilled in that aspect by the reporters and such, but we prepared for it quite a bit yesterday.  So yeah, I'll basically be famous throughout Japan.  They are going to air it next week and I will send you a link to the news story.  Also, MSNBC, BBC and a few other networks will pick it up as well.  So that will be fun, pray that I don't say anything stupid and slander it like they usually do haha.

Well, should be a grand old week ahead of me, I've started packing a little bit all ready and have all my toiletries and what not ready to go for the next two years haha.  I'm excited to call you mommy and daddy! Dear Elder me the details of your lives and when would be best to call and what not. 

I'm still working hard and I know Japanese better than ever! I also know the Gospel better than ever! Should probably tag that in their as well... Tell Kyle good luck at camp and to have fun like nothing else! He will be living the same schedule I am for a few days haha. 

 Love you always!

Elder Crandall

July 3rd, 2012

Thank You for the MTC 4th of July package! I've been saving a lot of it until tomorrow when everyone is going to feast with each other and celebrate the fourth of July.  This week has been pretty cool.  Last Tuesday, we had 10/12 Apostles at a devotional which Elder Perry spoke at.  Only Elders Packer and Hales were not there.  Elder Perry spoke about a bunch of church statistics and on a lot of the different programs the Church offers.  This was for the purpose of us being able to reactivate members and know what the Church does for people after they are converted. 

In less than two weeks, I will be in Japan! We will get our itineraries this Friday, but we will probably be flying through LA-X and not Seatac. There is no way for me to send pictures to you guys yet.  They closed the print shop here and the computers do not have camera or sd card ports, sooo you will probably just have to wait until I can send you stuff from Japan ha.  Yesterday was the last class period for one of our Sensai's.  Shaner Sensai got an internship with Mitt Romney's campaign headquarters in Boston and he is leaving for Boston this week, so yesterday we all said goodbye to him and took pictures and held a small party in his honor.

Not a ton happened this week overall.  My Doryo and I have been working hard teaching our investigators and all of our investigators are really close to baptism.  We are trying really hard to remain focused and to endure to the end with our MTC experience.  I love just chilling with the Nihonjin and talking to them.  I know enough Japanese to understand basically everything that they say, and I can communicate back well enough.  All of them love Ichiro Sazuki and I'll be sure to tell them that my family went and saw him at a game this week.  私は日本人のために愛しています。神様は私たちの天のお父様です。ジョセフスミスは真実預言者でした。ジョセフスミスによて、モルモン書はほにゃくしました。私の家族がほんとにほんとに愛しています。この復員は真実だと証していま巣。イエスキリストが私のs食い主だとしています。Know that I love you and am trying my best to make everyone back home proud.  Most of those Kanji are correct, google translate might be able to translate that mess.

Happy Birthday Mommy and Kyle! I wish I could be there! Have a happy 4th of July and blow tons of しまた up for me!  

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Hola kazuko.  My doryo hates it when I mix like three languages in a sentence ha.  But there are just somethings that I only know how to say in either English or Spanish, so I'll just kinda throw them into the mix.  Well, this week was pretty dang awesome.  First of all, no one has heard anything about visa's or passports yet.  We are pretty sure that we are getting our itineraries this Friday, so I should know everything by next week.  Since Saturday, the MTC has been crazy.  There are more missionaries here right now than they have had before, plus all of the mission presidents are here and there are like 100 mission presidents or something, its crazy, and the Quorum of the Twelve plus the First Presidency have been randomly sighted over the past few days, but they have yet to publicly display themselves or give any talks.  However, tonight, at 4:30, there is a devotional and this devotional usually has all of the Apostles there at it.  We are so excited for that and since it is P-day and everyone else has class until then, we are going to start camping out for it early and we should be able to get really good seats.  I'll let you guys know how that goes later.  On Saturday, we met our mission president, Pres Budge, and his wife and they are awesome! Completely awesome, super chill and legit, really down to earth, really young like maybe 50 at the most, and President Budge kinda looks like JFK ha.  It was basically love at first sight, we are going to have so much fun with them and President Budge is just an awesome man.  He has lived in Tokyo with his familty for about 17 years total.  He was the first American Ceo of a Japanese National Bank, he is an economic genius, BYU graduate, incredibly successful, and loves missionary work and everything Japanese.  He and his family lived in Sandy before they got their calls to serve as mission presidents.  He will be my mission pres for the full two years and I'm sure I will talk about him more in letters to come.  We learned some more statistics about the Tokyo mission.  It is the most expensive mission in the world right now, the Tokyo temple is one of the most expensive buildings the church owns, and the church owns over a billion dollars worth of property in the city of Tokyo, that is cumulative of the temple, the mission home, and all of the apartments.  I am so excited to get to Tokyo, I leave in less than 3 weeks!  The Japanese is coming very fast, the Nihonjin just arrived and they are super cool and talkative, and my testimony of the gospel increases dramatically everyday. 

I was able to hunt down and find Sean on Sunday.  He is doing well, adjusting pretty well. He had a rough start at first because he got food poisioning or something similar to that and was throwing up all night the first night.  But he is doing really well now.  We kinda sat by each other at Sacrament meeting, we had a giant Sacrament meeting, and again at Priesthood.  He'll be in and out before I am! Kinda Jealous.

What is Kyle taking next year in school?, Connor as well, man, he'll be in Junior High.  Crazy.  Well, wish Connor good luck for me at his game.  Just treat it like any other game that they've played and they will do fine.  Keep calm, get your head in the game, and play for fun. Whats Kelsie up to?  I haven't heard from her in like a month ha.  Well, these last few weeks are the only time it will be cheap to send me stuff, not that it is cheap already, but I don't know if there is anything I'm lacking.  I'm doing very well, getting ready to go, I might send you guys a letter this week, no promises though.  Anywho, I love you! Ai shite imasu! Jamatene!    

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Konnichi wa minasan!

( To which you respond "Konnichi wa")( Its a traditional phrase: literally means Hello Everybody!- Then everyone says Hello back; kinda like Aloha)

子に痴話皆さん
玄家ですか。私輪減家ですよ。じゃ、私輪ね本後おきて二理解島してます。たぶん、私輪根本後だけ毎日がありますよ。
So maybe one day you will get a letter from me exactly like that.  Idk, maybe someday.  To be honest, I don't know all of the Kanji for that, the computer automatically writes it in for me.  It looks cool though doesn't it! 兎に角. This week was pretty fun.  All of our 子灰 showed up and it has been fun getting to know them.  Not many of them know Japanese so all they can say are basic phrases, like, どこから着ましたか、お名前輪なんですか、愛足手間巣！And a few other things.  The Nehonjin show up in a week! And we are so excited for that！Once the Nehonjin show up, they are here for 3 weeks, then when they go back to Japan, we go with them! Everyone is starting to get a little bit antsy and anxious to leave.  Everyone in our zone, and my district especially, are really starting to speak Japanese really well.  I've set a goal, on July 1st, I am only going to speak Nehongo, not a work of English.  If I cannot say it, then I won't say anything at all.  We have been doing very well at SYLing throughout the day, but we do not do it well during meals or gym time. So, July 1st, Nehongo only, wish me luck ha. 

I was released as the District leader on Sunday.  We only serve for three weeks then we switch.  Our district accomplished a lot under my rule, It is going to be hard to get much better than we were over the past three weeks.  So this next week, from Saturday until Tuesday, is New Mission President Training, and this is supposed to be the best time to be in the MTC.  Rumor has it, and I've heard this from a lot of quality sources, is that the entire Quorum of the Twelve show up and the 1st Presidency, except for President Monson ha.  Also, the Tokyo mission is getting a new mission president and we get to meet him on Tuesday! Pres Albrecht will be gone by the time we get to Japan, and I'm a little bummed about that because everyone says he is super cool and a great president, but it will be fun to already know the mission president before we get to Japan. 

Sean shows up tomorrow!!! I am so excited to see him, to see someone from the outside world ha.  'Ill take good care of him, but I'm envious that he is leaving before I am :(. My roommate from school is also showing up here soon.  Scott Clawson, if you're reading this, know that the Korean Zone and the Japanese Zone don't speak to each other.  There is a little bit of tension there. I don't know why. 

Anywho, enjoy this next week Family and friends, I know I will.  May the Lord continue to bless you while I am away. 

じゃまたね！

-   クランヅル著路　(Elder Crandall)

Side note from Christopher's family:  If you copy the Japanese characters in Google Translate or another translate program, you can sort of understand what it means in English!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Ahhhhhh so many crazy things in my email this week! Alex Burt just got his call to the Brazil, something Portuguese mission and is leaving in November, and now Spencer got his call to Sendai! That's soooo crazy! I have a lot of friends going to Sendai that are here right now.  He will love it.  Could you Dear Elder me Spencer's address so that I can write him a letter? That would be much appreciated.  Soooooo, you know how I told you I was mailing a letter to you guys last week? Well, I haven't mailed it yet hahaha.  I wrote it, it was kinda short, so I kept adding and adding to it and I've been adding to it over the past few days and it is quite a big letter, so I will mail it today and you should get it by Friday-ish.  Thank you so much for the package! It was totally needed.  About last Wednesday, I developed a really bad cold and I have been sick all week.  So it was completely perfect that you guys sent me medicine haha. The scholurdoodles or whatever they are called were delicious! I shared them with the people in my district and they loved them.  

It sounds like you guys have been having a pretty crazy week, and this next week might be even crazier.  Well, I myself didn't have a pretty crazy week, however, this next week is looking like it will be.  We are getting 36 new missionaries to our zone tomorrow and that will more than double the size of our zone.  I remember my first week here, it seems like an eternity ago, but I'm excited to help out our new missionaries and help them transition to mission life.  My district has decided to SYL (speak your language) all day, as much as possible, for the next 6 weeks and the next 2 years basically.  We all know enough Japanese to communicate what we are thinking and if we don't know how to say it at all, then it probably is not worth saying ha.  This has already been a huge blessing to our language abilities, it really is incredible.  The Branch President praises our SYL goal and abilities and more and more districts are trying to adapt our goal. Everyone feels way more confident in the language and we are starting to stress less about it.  Nonetheless, Japanese is dang hard!  There are sometimes when I have absolutely no idea what someone just said to me or what I said to them.  But that happens less and less often so I take solace in that.

Funny story, my other Japanese teacher went away to New York for the weekend for his brothers graduation.  While in New York, he went to sacrament meeting in the basement of the temple in New York.  I don't know if you know this or not, but Nathan Hall is serving in the ward that meets in the basement of the temple.  My teacher was telling us about how he talked to the missionaries when he went to sacrament meeting, so of course I asked him if he remembered their names.  He said that one of them was named Elder Hall.  Mind blown! This was the same weekend tha tI found out that Clark Sensai knows the Barnes really well and was Mitchell's seminary teacher.  Small small world.  My MTC teachers know both sides of my family now! 

Anyway, things are going great in the MTC.  The days are starting to fly by and weeks are starting to feel like days.  Tell everyone in our family that I love them and miss them.  Tell Erihc I'm proud of him for graduating and I'm sad that I can't make it.  It is so great to see the Gospel continuing to spread through our family and I am proud of Amirah for making the decision to be baptized. It won't be a complete family party without me, but I'll be there in spirit :)

I am writing the Eugenio's a letter and I will be able to mail it tomorrow or Thursday. 

Best wishes to Kaitlyn and Tyler and Quinton as they graduate! Good luck! Party Hard!

Sugoi desu ne! Jamatane watashi no Kazoku! Ai Shitemasu!       

Tuesday June 5th, 2012

Unfortunately, I do not have alot of time to write to everyone today, but I will be sending you guys a hand written letter today so you should get that by Thursday. I sent Kelsie a Birthday letter, but I didn't have her address so it is coming to you first and if you could open the first envelope and take the second envelope that is inside, throw a stamp on that mess and mail it to her that would be awesome.  Do not read it though, it is specifically for her. :)

You guys seem to be keeping quite busy without me around.  Man, I am so proud of Connor and his baseball, he seems to be a way better player than what I was.  I,m proud of Kyle and how hard he is working in school.  I know it is not easy right now, I've been there, but it is do-able and you will be able to accomplish great things.  Hows the family scripture study going? Tell me what section of the BOM you guys are in now? Keep up the good work, Heavenly Father is just waiting to bless you guys, but you have to put in the work to receive those blessings.

I want to share a few of my experiences here.  One of our investigators is named Tanaka Kyodai(Brother Tanaka) and his parents died in a car crash and he prayed to God that they would live and they didn't.  He is 32 years old and a fireman.  We've been teaching him for over 3 weeks and every time we teach him, we invite him to pray and he refuses to pray.  We've been working very hard with him on this and we were finally able to help him understand why prayer is important and how prayer can immediately help him in his life.  Tanaka felt very alone and wanted to feel God's love.  We told him that through prayer he could feel God's love and so he prayed with us for the first time in 15 years.  I felt the spirit testify to this man that God loves him, I felt him feel that.  Because of that one moment, every hardship that I've had in the MTC seemed insignificant, every doubt that I've faced, every worry and concern seemed Meaningless.  That mans simple prayer put my purpose as a missionary in perspective.  If I had to go home right now, I would consider my mission a success, because of that experience. 

But, I've got 23 more months a head of me and a lot more work to do. We have had many General Authories and 70's come and speak to us while I have been here.  Elders Perry, Christofferson, Zwich, Rasband and many others have spoken to us.  Every Tuesday a General Authority comes so I'm really looking forward to tonight.  I had the opportunity to go to the temple and do Sealings today for the first time.  That was such a beautiful and powerful experience.  During the session, we found out that a few of the elders we were with and the sealer and an elderly couple are all related through their grandparents and so it became a little bit of a family reunion, on both sides of the veal.  The Provo temple is one of the most beautiful places on earth. 

Good bye my family! I will write you more!

Love you! Stay Strong!

Elder Crandall