Monday, December 3rd, 2012

Hello Family,

 

Man, you guys are gambating really hard back home and it's so good to hear how much fun and success you guys are having.  Things are going great here, incredibly great.  So great, that I'm incredibly busy with other things.  But I squeezed some time in to email.  We have a lot a lot of investigators right now.  This past week, many of them got really sketchy and cancelled their appointments, which was very frustrating.  But we rescheduled for this week and so far it looks like all will be good.  We have a goal for 5 baptisms this month!  And we can do it for sure!  But we will need tons and tons of help and miracles from the ward and the Lord.  Not this weekend, but the next, we have pretty for sure a baptism planned!!  And then on the 29th we have another investigator for sure.  Our other 3 potentials are not 100%, but they have a lot of desire and could very well get baptized. 

 

Everyday, we are seeing crazy miracles and blessings from the Lord here.  For example, yesterday we went  grocery shopping at a super market and as we were leaving, this old guy walks up to us and asks if we are Mormon.  We very happily, yet cautiously, said yes. (sometimes people ask if we are Mormon just to chew us out, haha) Next thing I knew, he and my comp started speaking Spanish and it turns out that he is from Peru.  He told us that he met the missionaries is Okinawa and has a BOM that he has read.  He then handed us his phone and said, "Put your number in it".  We gladly did just that and he took his phone back, said, "Call me" and then walked away, haha.

 

I went on splits this week with a Japanese elder named Shimamoto and then an Australian elder named Elder Goodridge. Both of them are very old missionaries and have tons of wisdom and experience that they graciously bestowed upon me.  I went and dendoed in a very Inaka (countryside) area for the first time.  It's probably the most country side area in the whole mission.  Like, the Church building is in the middle of a rice field, haha, it's way funny.  It is very hard dendo because the people are so few, but it was relaxed and more calm out there. 

 

(to answer your question, I get letters from a few of my friends.  Only like 1 or two a transfer, but I keep in pretty good contact with my friends in other missions via email.)

 

Only 11 more days till the wedding!!!!  I'm sure it's getting crazy over there and I am praying real hard that Kelsie will get better.

 

I'm gonna send a new picture like dad requested.

 

Dad: Can I hear some cool mission stories about when you were in Chile.  I meet with a lot of people from South America and maybe if I share one of your stories in a lesson, they can relate to the situation better cause it's from their home area :)

 

I love you all so much and I want you to know my heart and prayers are always with you :) Keep praying and thank you so much for all of your effort.  I kid you not, I can feel your love every day.

 

Love,

 

Elder Crandall

Monday, November 26, 2012

Hello my wonderful family :)

 

Thank you for sending me all of those emails, haha.  It really made my day and made it a little bit brighter over here.  It's kinda cloudy and rainy today.  But today and especially this past week was amazing.  I love Japan!  I love being a missionary in Japan, especially in Yachiyo.  The Lord truly loves the members in Japan and he blesses the members who are striving to follow their commitments and to share the gospel soooooo much.  I saw sooooo many miracles this past week and it is because of the amazing members that we have in the area. 

For example, we have started a caroling part that sings at busy parts of town once or twice a week.  It consists of us, the sister missionaries that are here with us (Sister Swainston and Sister Champenois (she is from Denmark)) and a handful of members and investigators that like to sing.  It was cold and rainy and no one stopped to listen while we sang.  But after we were done caroling, we started to hand out fliers and stop people. We were able to talk to a lot of prepared people who were very excited about hearing our message and coming to church and we found a few new investigators.  I know that because the members got involved in the missionary effort, the Lord was pleased and he blessed us with prepared people that we easily found in our path. 

We had 5 investigators come to church on Sunday and we were able to teach most of them periodically throughout the day.  A few of them seem to have genuine interest in getting baptized and we set up a lot of times to meet with them this week.  One of them is called Joy.  He is about 26 and he is from India.  He is Islamic, but he doesn't really follow or believe his religion and he is very open to studying and learning more about what we teach. 

We are teaching this one girl named Ninoska and she is 20 and from Peru.  Her mother is less active and her father is not a member.  Her mother doesn't want to meet with us cause she kinda has a lot of guilt and doesn't want us to try to re-convert her, but she very much wants Ninoska to learn and get baptized.  She is very close to baptism and we are just going through the commandments with her at this point.  In fact, we are planning on teaching her the Word of Wisdom tonight.  She speaks very little Japanese or English so we do it all in Spanish.  Wish us luck and pray for us!

We are also teaching another guy named Manaka who really wants to get baptized, but at this point we are making sure it is for the right reason.  We are not sure if he will keep the commandments after baptism, like not drink coffee, and so we are really trying to help him see that he has to be truly converted to the doctrine and to Christ,

We are working with two families, the Tanaka's and Watanabes, and they are using our family English class program.  We go over to their houses once a week and teach English to their way cute kids.  They have a little interest in the gospel and we will keep working with them until they gain interest.  I have faith that they will. 

And we have a lot of other people that little by little they are coming closer to Jesus Christ.  I don't have a lot of writing time today cause we have sporadic lessons through out the day, but this is the story of my life now a days, haha.  Which I am very grateful for.

But we haven't done anything too crazy other than teach a lot of lessons every day.  We don't travel very far and like you can literally see the church from our back door.  It's 3 houses and 1 graveyard down from us :)  I love it here and I especially love my companion so much.  He is a beast of a missionary and a very humble and loving man.  I feel so much love for him and I love how bold yet kind he is in everything that he does.  

I had a dream three nights ago that there was a big earth quake and that I was in a strange house and didn't know where I was so when the earth quake came i didn't really know what to do.  I woke up and told Elder Shibuta that I had a dream about an earthquake.  I told him that if there is an earthquake today, that I prophesied it!  I kid you not, at 5:45 that afternoon, while we were teaching the Tanaka's English, there was about a magnitude 4 earth quake that hit us.  It shook the house pretty good but didn't do any damage.  I called it, straight up.  Elder Shibuta as my witness.  That was the first earthquake dream and the first earthquake I've experienced in Japan :)

Please pray for the people that I mentioned.  I know that God hears every one of our prayers individually and blesses us according to how well we unify our desires together with His.  

Happy Thanksgiving (which I didn't have at all, haha) but, shoganai (it is what it is). 

Thank you for sending me the picture of Ben :) it really brightened my day.  I think about him a lot and the relationship we had.  I think dad can kinda relate to me considering the James was less active growing up.  I missed a lot of chances to share the gospel, but he sure has an awesome foundation from which to build his faith.  He will join the church to yogen shimasu.  

I love you and good luck with the wedding!  I love you all and tell everyone back home that I love them sooooo much.

Elder Crandall

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

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

Monday, November 12, 2012

Hello Family!

 

Thank you Connor :) I liked your letter!

 

So I just got the invitation today! It is the first letter that I've gotten this whole transfer and I'm on week 6 of it, haha.  It was way ひさしぶりですね。But I like it! It's way classy and refined, yet simple and modern :) they look really cute together, haha! I'm working on the video.  In fact imma gonna finish it and mail it right after this :)

 

Well, this week, was good I guess.  Kobayashi didn't make his baptismal date, he was still kinda far away and so we have been trying to set a new date with him, but he has gotten really sketchy and doesn't email us back or answers our calls very often anymore.  We are kinda starting to go back to square one with him and stick to ping pong and trying to become better friends with him and get him church friends.  But we found a new investigator this week.  We went streeting in Hiyoshi which is home to a very very large University and so we really wanted to talk to a lot of college age people and stuff like that.  Low and behold, we call out to this random college guy in English but the guy behind him replies instead back in English.  The guy that replied is about 70 years old and is like one of the happiest people that I have ever met.  His name is Yamamoto and he used to live in New York and is fluent in English.  I was on splits with my DL Elder Hosier that day and so we just started talking to him about America and why we are in Japan.  He was very happy and told us that his life motto is to make everyday more happy than the last day and so he always walks around with a smile and tries to help people.  He said that he used to believe in God, but recently he doesn't know.  His best friend of 50 years passed away 2 weeks ago and he was very heartbroken and sad about that.  Elder Hosier shared a very touching experience where he had a closer relative who was like his best friend pass away and he related to Yamamoto very well.  We then explained to him about our beliefs about God and the purpose of life.  We then shared the the plan of salvation and told him what his friend was doing right now. ( we didn't just say this is what we believe, we told it very factually and very bold which was key to sparking his interest) We told him that we need to do certain things like get baptized in order to return to live with God and because his friend was never baptized he can't return to live with God, BUT, we taught him about baptisms for the dead and how he can do that here in this life for his friend. He was kinda hesitant at first, but by the end of our talk, he pulled out his planner and asked when and where our church was and we set up a time to meet with him.  It was a cool experience for me because we didn't do a whole lot of explaining our beliefs, we mostly just testified about things and how important these things are to us and how it will bless his life and his friends life.  He is coming to church Sunday!

 

So next Monday is the end of the transfer (dakara) it's transfer day.  So, I may or may not, maybe, I think, might be, idk, be transferred.  If I don't, then for Thanksgiving we are going to the Yakosuka Naval base and having dinner with an American Family :)  and then that same transfer, we have Christmas and New Years! It's three holidays in 1 transfer and so I would honestly love to stay here with all of the ward members that I know and with Elder Anderson cause he's cool.  But man, let me tell you, new years ( ShoGatsu in Japanese) is like the biggest holiday in Japan.  Apparently, it's a two week celebration and the elders get fed like twice a day for two weeks.  I'm way excited, haha, plus I just love Christmas anyway, by far my favorite Holiday. 

 

This past week, I had a cold but nothing too bad.  I was still able to dendo and do stuff, but it wasn't as fun, ha.  Everyone in The Cabin (our house) is sick right now, but we refuse to wear the doctors masks that all of the Japanese people wear!  'Tis the season.  Last week, I bought Heat Tech thermals and a really soft scarf :) I would never wear a scarf in America, but here in Japan it's the cool thing to do.  I'm actually wearing it right now :)  

 

This morning I had rice and milk and sugar for breakfast :0 yummy  When I get back, there are a lot of things that I want to do with you guys, as far as food goes.  We need to do shabushabu, yakiniku, gyudon,curry, kimichi, tim tam slam, real ramen, oyakodon, cha han, maborofu, and the list goes on!  Me and Elder Anderson take turns cooking and so I've gotten pretty good at cooking lots and lots of weird things :) none of them are really that weird though. 

 

I hope everything goes smoothly with the rest of the wedding plans! Every time I think of the wedding I get way excited and I feel so happy for them.  I wish I could be there, but sometimes I'm relieved that I'm not, hehe:) But keep praying for us to find prepared people and that the members of Japan will have a change of heart and become more involved in this great cause :)

 

I love you all so much and I want you to know that I truly know with all of my heart that the cause that I am involved in is ordained of God and as his servant I testify to the divinity of this Gospel and of Jesus Christ.  I love you.

 

Elder Crandall 

Monday, November 5, 2012

Hirro!! (it's Hello but with a Japanese accent :)  )

 

Man, the weeks seem as though they are flying by.  Not a whole lot happened this week that was successful.  We spent a lot of time streeting and we got rejected pretty hard this week, haha.  Like we had a few people yell at us to go to do not nice things (like regular middle aged business men type people yelling at us) and people were very uncharacteristic of Japanese people.  But, such is life.  We got a few phone numbers but those people seem kinda sketchy.  It's better than nothing, I guess.  None of our investigators could meet this week because they are busy, so we visited a lot of members and had fake lessons with them so we could keep up our teaching skills.  It's hard going a week without finding new investigators.  But it feels as though we are on the verge of a great breakthrough in this area.  Please keep praying that we will be able to find new prepared people to teach :)

 

Today we went to Landmark Tower again, the third largest tower in Japan, and it's just right down the street from us.  This is the one that has the world's fastest elevator.  It was kinda cloudy and we couldn't see very far.  But we visited the Pokemon center again and then went to Uniclou and bought some winter clothing.  I bought some thermals and a really nice scarf :)  Riding bikes here in this weather is bitterly cold.  I know it's only like 60'ish, but with the humidity, it feels like 40ish.  When it gets down to freezing, it's bone chilling cold. Our house has like no insulation so we have to turn the heaters on 24/7 and bundle up as best we can. 

 

I made a friend who is from Pakistan yesterday.  His name is Muhamad Ali and he is way cool, haha.  He looks like he is black, but he is just really tan.  He moved here a few years ago so that he can send money home to his family.  He says that 15 yen (15cents) can feed his whole family for one day.  He is doing pretty well for himself now but he really liked that we were from America and that we are serving Alah (God).  He gave us his number and wants us to call him if we ever need food or anything.  It's amazing to see how Christlike some people are without even knowing they are Christlike.  Like this man, he is probably more Christlike than most Christians in America (maybe even a lot of Mormons).  His whole purpose in life is to feed his family and give service to his home country and other less unfortunate people.  He was preaching to us about the importance of helping the helpless and quoting the Bible and Mother Teresa.  A way cool guy and I wish him the best of luck in Japan.

 

One of our ward members got married this weekend so we helped set up his reception.  We didn't stay for the party cause we needed to dendo, but it was very American, yet it retained a lot of Japanese things too (like sushii for dinner, haha).  It was way fun and it made me think about Kelsie's wedding and such. 

 

Shout out to my good friend Alex who is going into the MTC this week!  I heard word through the grapevine that a few of my friends have put in their papers due to the new age level.  It gives me so much joy to hear about those things and I wish them well as they join me in so great a cause.  I also found out that one of the guys I'm serving with is high school friends with Riley Creer and Conner Earl who I lived with at BYU.  Way small world.  He has pictures of both of them in his family album and I was way excited to see them in there, haha. 

 

I'm getting way excited to hear the results of the Election!! It's gonna be crazy either way.  I wish Romney the best, but even if he doesn't win, it really doesn't matter anyway.  The world is going down the toilet fast.  As a missionary, we focus mostly on the small side of the picture, like individual worthiness and personal testimony.  And the truth is, if that is not stable and 100%, then the big picture doesn't matter anyway.  Of course we need to do all we can to make this world the best place possible to raise families, but if we get too caught up in the big picture and lose sight of the more important details, all will be lost. Ganbaro Nippon!

 

I want you guys to know exactly how much I love you, but my words will do nothing to convey that magnitude. 

I love you.  I miss you and look forward (but not toooo much) to our great reunion in 2 years. 

Good luck America, and to the Burdette's and you, with the wedding :)

 

Till we mail again,

 

Elder Crandall 

Monday, October 29th, 2012

Hello Family,

 

Wow....... I don't even recognize you people any more, haha!  iPhones, MacBook Air, what is going on!  I guess I was an anchor to this family and now you're floating away to Mac-land! (Elder Crandall is a die-hard PC guy!)

 

Suggestion for the "creature" under the house, Dave McMullan, my water polo coach and swim coach, is an exterminator.  He might be a good reference for what to do or who to call about the cat stuck under the house.  He lives right across the street from Ben's house, the very first house in that neighborhood.  You could stop on by or google his company or something. 

 

Man, what a way crazy week in America! I've been hearing a lot about the election from members and random people on the street.  Economically, Japan wants Obama to win because Japan and China are profiting off of America's bad economy.  They want America to decrease because America's economy is correlated to theirs.  I hope Romney wins, I really do.  It already is making an impression on Missionary work world wide.  People have been just a little bit more open to hearing about our church because of Romney.  Their curiosity is increasing little by little. 

 

This past week, we had a few lessons taught to investigators and they went really well.  I went on splits with my district leader's companion and we had a great time in Kawasaki.  We taught 3 lessons that day to various people and got Dominos Pizza that night.  Pizza is incredibly expensive in Japan.  Dominos had a buy one get one free deal so that's why we went.  It is 2500 yen for one medium size pizza.  That's like 30 bucks for a medium pizza.  It's absolutely insane. 

 

We had 3 mogis to members this week (visits to members where they pretended to be investigators).  We did a lot of teaching this week which was really good.  Although they might not have been very interested or even investigators for that matter, teaching is good.  It makes us better missionaries.  Elder Anderson and I get along great, honestly.  It is way way fun living with him and working and serving with him.  Our teaching style is progressively getting more and more unified.   We have become fairly effective teachers, now we just need to find prepared people to teach.  We teach when we find and we find when we teach (PMG)  and we are able to teach a lot on the street.  But we need to find prepared people, we call them kinjin, which means golden people.  People that have interest find they have need.  It's hard work, mathematically, 1 / 5000 people we talk to on the streets or in their houses will get baptized.  But that is not how the Lord works.  We can either talk to people all day and the last person we talk to have interest (which is a test of our faith) or we can show our faith and have the Lord trust us enough to deliver the prepared people quickly.  I don't know, either way, we still talk to as many people as possible, haha. 

 

It is really starting to get cold here.  Like way, way, way cold.  No one ever warned me that Japan is bitterly cold in the winter!  I am going to go to a store called Uniclo and buy things called heat tech which are basically these thermal under wear things that are perfect for missionaries in Japan.  It will only be like 30 or 40 dollars.  Did I mention that I bought an electronic Dictionary, finally?!  It has a kanji pad so I can write down words I don't know, which is basically all kanji, and it will pull up definitions.  It was only 180 which is a way good deal cause it is usually 300-ish.  Japan is crazy expensive.  I'm sorry mom and dad, but I'm currently serving in the second most expensive mission in the world.  Please do not forget how blessed we are to only have to pay 400 a month.  The housing bill every month is at least a few thousand, then we spend another 400 on food and transportation alone.  As long as we keep paying tithing and fast offerings, the Lord will bless us for sure. 

 

Today, we had a Zone P-day!!!!  It was way fun!  We had a giant pancake breakfast at our church, which is the stake center, and then went to a park that is next to it and played football and frisbee for a few hours.  But now I'm super sore!!  My back is way tight and I can't move my neck, haha.  It's a combination of sleeping on the ground and riding hunched over on a bike that's slowly killing me.  But my legs are getting way big now, haha.  I've put on about 18 pounds since I left home and it's all gone to my legs, haha.  My area is probably the most hilly area in the whole mission, and since I've been here in the area the longest, I'm like the most conditioned missionary in the whole mission. ;)

 

Kobayashi San has a baptismal date for the 11 of November, but he probably is not going to make it.  He still is having a hard time understanding the BOM and how to apply things into his life.  But he has a desire to get baptized and to follow Christ.  Other than him, we do not have very many committal people or progressing people. 

 

I got recruited by NuSkin yesterday.  They approached me while I was handing out English class fliers and they started grilling me about my education and what I'm doing in Japan. After a while I told them I was Mormon and they started freaking out since their CEO is a well renown Mormon.  They got really excited and wanted me to check out their home office in Shin Yokohama, but I kind of blew them off.  But today, they emailed me and are trying to follow up with me.  Now, I realized that they did the exact same thing to me that I try to do to people everyday, haha.  They approached me on the street, asked about my background, taught me about their company, took my information, and are trying to set up an appointment with me, haha.  They are like missionaries for Nuskin.  Way weird, but now I know what it feels like to be an investigator. :)

 

This last Friday, we had a giant surprise birthday party for one of the sister missionaries in our area.  We had a lot of members and investigators come and we made homemade pizza and cookies.  It was way delicious, like, we were able to make American pizza's with Japanese ingredients!  Which reminds me, could you send me the recipes for biscuits and gravy and Chinese Sundaes? That would be awesome!

 

I hope you guys have a great, great, great week and have lots of fun and maybe do even a little bit of missionary work on your own.  I thought of some ideas for you guys... 

Dad- Read the Spanish BOM, physical copy, on the days you are not the person driving to work in your car pool.  People might ask you why you are reading it in Spanish, you can say cause your fluent!, and then maybe share some mission stories and explain what you did.  I know it maybe is a little bit tempting just to sleep during that time, but don't you think that the Lord wold bless you with whatever you stand in need of that day if you were sacrificing sleep for study?

 

Mom- You are kind of in a very interesting situation, my mother.  You don't really have a whole lot of close friends that are not Mormon, but maybe, you could contact some of your old high school and college friends that are not Mormon and just check up on them and see how they are doing.  Just find one person on Facebook or something like that and ask them about their life and kids and what not.  Then, they will ask you about your kids, and you can talk about me and give a simple explanation about missions.  I can guarantee that they will be amazing at exactly what missionaries do.  They will think about it, and just a simple testimony about missions can plant great seeds of potential. 

 

Kyle- Date Mormon girls, hahahaha!  It sounds like it's been way easier for you to do that than for me.  Good job, having a lot of girl friends that are Mormon.  High school can totally suck sometimes.  I bet, especially now that the church is getting a lot more publicity because of the election, the church is being brought up a lot in school.  If there is ever an opportunity where a teacher or a student stands in need of correction of a gospel principle, simply say that you're Mormon and this is what we believe... Especially teachers, they will say a lot of things that are skewed in some way to be against what we believe.  Correct them; simply and kindly.  I don't know how missionary-ish you are feeling, but if an opportunity arises where you can simply share a basic overview of what we believe with your whole class, do it!  You're in mission prep right? You can use the PMG and just give a simple lesson overview.  I've heard a lot of stories of students who have born their testimonies to their classes and people have been baptized because of it.  Just a thought...

 

Connor- I can guarantee you, Connor, that there will come a time in your near future where the people that you interact with at school will bring up religion in general and you will be asked what you believe.  My challenge to you is to take courage and to declare that you are Mormon.  But more importantly, I challenge you to be a good example and live our religion in such a way that the people will not be surprised that you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  They will not be surprised, it will seem like a normal thing to them.  That is my challenge, to be firm in the faith and to stand as a witness at all times, in all things, in all places.  Kinda cliche, but a good principle, desho. 

 

Tuxedo's challenge - to not be stupid and to be around still by the time that I get back.

 

Kelsie's challenge - to get married and to write me!!!!!

 

I love you all dearly and I can assure you that I pray for you as much as you do for me :)

 

Elder Crandall

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