Dear all:

Merry Christmas! It was a good week this week. On Tuesday we had our Christmas Zone Conference which was way fun, we had some delicious food and great training. Wednesday we decided to go visit some less actives, because President Yamashita has been stressing working with less actives more lately. So because we're still waiting for the ward to give us a list of less actives they want us to work with, we picked some random names on our ward list and went to visit. The first couple either shut us down or had just completely disappeared off the face of the map (like their houses just didn't exist anymore) but then we showed up to the third one's house and he was really happy to see us, invited us in and we just talked for about an hour. He told us he still does family history work like all day, reads the Book of Mormon daily, and has a very solid testimony. He told us he wants to come back to church, but his health is very bad (he has lung cancer, we think. It's very hard to understand him) and it's hard for him. He says no one really visits him and the missionaries came once three years ago but never came back. We left him with a prayer and went to our next appointment, but that night he called us just to say thank you for visiting him. He's a super solid man and we're really excited to work with him.

That same day we went caroling with a member family to some other members and less actives. It was super fun, and then they took us out to eat after. So all in all a good Wednesday. 

Thursday was Christmas. I got to talk to my family which was great (I only say that because they're reading this) and then we went to lunch with a member couple from Seattle. We had this Chinese food called Dim Sum (yes, we had Chinese food on Christmas. I just needed my Red Ryder). After that, we headed to the biggest area of our mission, Sakae, and caroled and streeted with our whole district for the rest of the night. It was way fun and then we went to McDonald's for dinner. 

From that it was kind of a boring week. I don't have a lot of time so that's about it for this week, but it was good. I felt really lucky I could just be out here serving the Lord to commemorate His birthday. I love this gospel and and happy to be here preaching it. Love everyone.

Elder Callahan

I got pictures to work, so here's everything from the past four weeks.

Left to right: Elder Anderson, Elder Hobdy, and some no name loser

We tried to talk to this guy on the street, turns out he was lost, we walked him to his house. He was kind of off, but it was fun.

We stumbled across this massive cemetery in the middle of a bunch of houses.

Hospital selfie

It snowed and we built a snowman.

Then we turned the snowman into a giant snow roll.

The hands down creepiest picture of Jesus I've every seen (sorry if any of you love this picture and this offends you, but it's true)

Sakae

We visited one of the sisters' investigators, and they lived in this giant prison style apartment. We called it Alcatraz.

It was an exciting week this week. I moved to the middle of Nagoya city, to the Gokiso ward, and am now in a three man companionship. It's pretty fun, and we get along really well. Gokiso is a cool place. It's super metropolitan, the biggest area in the mission in that regard (although one of the smallest boundaries wise) and there's so many people here. It's easy to find people to talk to. Apparently, though, it's not easy to find people to teach because when I got here we only had one solid investigator. Not good. So that's what we're working really hard on now. 

Some cool happenings:

-Second day here we met some members at the church to help them do a Secret Santa type thing. Turns out they're American, and the wife is the sister of a member we knew in Pennsylvania. Who knew? It was way fun, until the end when Elder Anderson, one of my new companions, tripped on a giant rock and ripped his pants. Even then it was still pretty funny. 

-They do an English class at the local orphanage here, so we went and played cards and taught English there, which was way way fun. The kids were super funny and it was fun to just hang out with them. 

-There's also a soup kitchen type event where we hand out food to homeless people that some members come to and we help out at, which is also really fun. I got to meet some of the members and help out some homeless people, so it was a fun 2 in one type of deal.

-This Saturday we didn't have any plans so we were planning on heading out to just talk to people, but right as we were heading out we got a call from a man who we'd been trying to get in contact with all week. He told us he had set an appointment with us that night and was at the church. None of us knew anything about that (two of us are new here) but we ran over to the church and had a really good lesson. It was way cool.

Other than that a pretty uneventful week. We're working on building our investigator pool right now because it's pretty sad right now. If we're going to get this area hopping again we're going to really have to rely on the Lord and His help to get the work moving here. It's going to take a lot of hard work and faith but the Lord will help us as we put in all we have. So that's my plan for this transfer.
Sorry for the short email but I don't have a lot of time.

Love 

Elder Callahan

No pictures this week because I can't figure out these computers. They'll come next week.

This week's highlights:

-Our less active family came to church! We've been working on them for two transfers and the finally got here. They didn't stay the whole time but they got to be here for sacrament meeting and take the sacrament and that's what's really important. We also went to visit last night and their house was super clean and their absolutely insane children were calm...so everything is going good with them right now. That's the best thing that happened this week. 

-The sisters are teaching two Peruvian families (well technically they're one family because the dads are brothers) and we accidentally found another branch of the family on Tuesday, so we're teaching them now. Basically it's this giant Peruvian family of like 30 people who are all investigators now. That was really cool.

Lowlights:

-We went to find a former investigator Thursday night. On the way there Elder Schmeil told me a story about a period of 3 weeks when he would get a collect call every hour from someone who would just say "Henrique Schmeil" over and over until he hung up. We got to the FI's house and it was this apartment building in the middle of a bunch of other abandoned apartment buildings. It was pitch black and we got up to the door which was surrounded by old chairs and trash and rotting onions. By this point we were way freaked out. We knocked once, no one answered and booked it out. Japan is haunted.

-We showed the "Finding Faith in Christ" video to one of our investigators. She laughed at all the crippled people that Jesus healed and then started freaking out during the Atonement/Crucifixion part. So that's the state we're in with her.

-I don't know if this is a lowlight or highlight. But Thursday we went to teach an english class for the company that the Ward Mission Leader works for. The last time missionaries did that, it was two missionaries that are no longer here, so I didn't know what they taught last time, and I went with a Japanese missionary who doesn't really speak English, so it was all me. I went in planning to talk about families, and turns out that's what they talked about last time! So it was way awkward and I kinda just winged my way through it. It turned out ok. 

Also Japanese companies are terrifying. There's so much protocol and customs that you have to follow that my Japanese companion did not prep me for. Luckily he knew what to do and I could just kind of follow him but I was way worried about offending someone. 

But it was a good week. I hope everyone's doing well. Love you all

Elder Callahan

Service at Brother Usui's house

Sister Ashikawa, the mom of the family that came to church this week.

Trains

They're not real, Japan has no freedom.

Okazaki Okazaki

Letters from children are always nice (even if they're a little disturbing).

Another good week. We've gotten in contact with almost everyone in our area book and have seen a lot of good come out of it. There are some people who didn't know why the missionaries stopped visiting and were really happy to see us. So that's been really good. That also involved a lot of biking. I don't exactly know how previous missionaries found some of these people, because they live far. We've been out 8 or 9 kilometers from our house by bike which is a long bike ride. But it's been fun. It's good to see how the Lord blesses us when we are really working hard to accomplish our goals and the mission's goals, and His goals. I've been thinking a lot about how lonely people can get sometimes. We have seen some pretty lonely people this week and talked with some people who just don't feel like anyone cares about them. These are the people I think that God is watching out for the most and that Jesus Christ is with most often--they just don't realize it. That's always been a component of the gospel that I really really love, that we are never ever alone. Even when we are at our lowest points, when we feel like even we have abandoned ourselves, we have a Friend and a Comforter there. It's so comforting to know that we will always always always have somebody there for us no matter how lonely, sad, or worthless we feel. God loves us. He knows us. Christ knows everything we are feeling and suffering and is always waiting to help us. Always. 

That's a pretty hopeful message. I'm really grateful to be able to share it. Gospel's true, y'all.

Elder Callahan

We went to the rice fields outside of town.

Sometimes when we speak too much English in the apartment, Elder Yamamoto does this.

Story time:

I don't know how many of my friends remember Holly Palmer, but for those who don't know her, she was a percussionist/clarinetist in the band with me my freshman year (she was a senior) and is the daughter of my Japanese teacher. She's in the Kobe mission right now (but I think she goes home soon). Anyway, this man is Brother Takahashi:

He was first taught by Sister Palmer in Kobe, and he moved here to Gamagori (ten minutes out of Okazaki) and was baptized a couple months later. This was a little over a year ago. A couple weeks ago, the other Elders in our apartment, Elder Naylor and Elder Charlton, were coming home after a pretty unsuccessful day and decided to talk to one last person before they came in. So at 9:20 they talked to a man named Tsuji walking down the street and he was super super interested. They set up an appointment on Saturday, but the lesson was pretty unsuccessful. They tried to answer his questions about God and religion but he didn't really understand and they walked out feeling like it didn't go so well. He did, however, agree to go to church the next day because he had nothing better to do. At church, he met Brother Takahashi and they immediately hit it off. Brother Takahashi came and helped out with the next lesson with Tsuji san, and was able to really answer his questions and help him to understand God and Christianity. After this lesson, Tsuji san started progressing like a mad man. On Wednesday the 16th Elder Naylor and Elder Charlton committed him to get baptized on the 28th. They met with him every day after that. I went on splits with them a couple of times to appointments with Tsuji san and the lessons would go something like this: we would tell him about a doctrine. He would ask why we have that doctrine. We would tell him. He would say that makes total sense and accept it 100%. We would then tell him about a commandment. He would spend the next hour complaining about how Japanese society doesn't agree with that but in the last ten minutes say he has no problem following it. It was pretty funny actually. He quickly gained a testimony of prayer when he prayed for help at work, got an answer almost immediately,and used that answer to fix his problem, which led to him not having to work overtime anymore, so he could meet with the missionaries every night. He really came a long way from when they first met him. He had just moved here to Okazaki, didn't have any friends, and really didn't have a very good life. But yesterday, this happened: 

When he bore his testimony after being baptized he was comfortable, cracking jokes at the pulpit, and just talking about how much the gospel has changed his life. And now he's got that ward family that has just been encompassing and accepting him and making him feel loved which is wonderful. And even thought we only met like 3 times and I couldn't communicate with him, apparently my bumbling and incompetent Japanese was so endearing to him that he wanted me to baptize him. So there you go. Left to right: Me, Elder Naylor, Brother Tsuji, and Elder Charlton. So that was my day yesterday. Thanks Holly! 

Other things that have happened this week;

We had a really fun ward talent show Saturday night. The members here are so funny, but the highlight was the bishop, who came out dressed in tight leather pants, a sparkly blouse, and a fedora, and sang a song to all the women in the ward. It was hilarious. The parts I could understand, anyway. Bishop Ammons, your fox suit was nice, but the bar has been raised. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture, because my picture was dead. Forgive me.

We also had a really cool experience at the beginning of the week. We decided to go visit a 17 year old recent convert, Karen, kind of randomly, and when we got there, her mom (not a member) answered the door. Now her mom is a Brazilian and so I couldn't understand any of the Portuguese, but afterward Elder Schmeil told me that Karen was being bullied pretty heavily at school and hadn't been to school in a week. So we got as many ward members and missionaries as we could to write her  notes and brought them to her with some candy or something and dropped them off. Those notes touched the mom so much, she told us that she could tell that people in this church were true followers of Christ and that she wanted to be a part of it. She set up an appointment with us for the next day her husband gets off work (because he apparently wants to hear the gospel too) and also gave us a referral. Pretty cool, huh? So don't forget the impact your example has. If we are members of a church that professes to follow Jesus Christ, you better darn well act like it, because if you don't people see that and it damages the reputation of the gospel, even thought it's because of imperfect followers. But if you act in a way fitting of a disciple of Christ, people really can see what the gospel is all about. Through the examples of members people can see how the gospel can change you for the better. 

We met a Chinese college student named Mac that is way interested in the church and agreed to meet us for lunch Saturday, but the appointment fell through when he texted us that morning saying "I drank too much sake last night and now I am not OK." As disappointing as it was it was also pretty funny. We may have some work to do with him. 

So that was my week. I've gotten a lot of culture questions so I will maybe write more about that next week. Anyway. Have a good week, all.

Love,

Elder Callahan

We go hard in weekly planning sessions. Also I may or may not have eaten all of that in an hour and a half and almost thrown up.

Yes, I took a picture of a manhole cover. Don't judge me.

When we have FHEs with less active members, sometimes this happens.

Hello everyone.

It`s been a pretty interesting week. We left on Monday at 3:30 in the morning, and spent  the next 17 hours flying. We stopped in Detroit, which was fun because that:s where we spent our ten hour layover when we went to Europe. So I got to see the rainbow tunnel again. Anyway, we got into Japan at about 4:30 in the afternoon on Tuesday, Japan time. This was about an hour before we were supposed to arrive, so after struggling our way through customs, we walked out of the gate expecting the mission president welcome...and no one was there. 

Luckily, we were all so tired that it didn't even phase us, and we just sat down and waited. After about 15 minutes the APs and office staff showed up and we did the normal thing. Apparently that's the first time anyone has gotten in early before. So I guess we're special or something like that. We spent the night at the mission home (the location of the absolute softest beds in the Milky Way Galaxy) and the next morning we did our orientation meeting. In the afternoon, we got to meet our trainers. 

My trainer's name is Elder Schmeil (pronounced like smile but if you couldn't speak English). He's Brazilian, but his English is flawless, so we communicate fine. He's pretty much the nicest person I've every met, to the point of frustration. When we were traveling to our area he carried all my bags and wouldn't let me touch them the whole way there. He's way funny too. 

We're in Okazaki right now, which is a city east of Nagoya. It's definitely city, but not huge city like New York. There's also some nice countryside area that we visit every once in a while and that we pass through when taking the train to the other smaller towns in our area. I also hear there's a beach here but I haven't been to it yet. 

So we got to Okazaki in the afternoon on Wednesday, we planned, went out to eat, and then left to teach Eikaiwa, the English class program the Church here does. That went well except I was so tired I don't really remember anything. Friday we picked up an old bike a missionary had left at the church when he went home for me to use until I got my bike, and then made the hour or so ride out to that countryside area I mentioned before. 

That was an experience, let me tell you. And I don't think I would call it a good one either. Okazaki has a lot of hills. And when your bike can neither shift gears nor brake, it becomes a little difficult to get up and down those hills safely. Luckily I didn't die, but there were some close calls. 

We have 20 investigators right now, 7 of whom are progressing. Because Elder Schmeil is Brazilian, we have a lot of Portuguese/Spanish speaking investigators. In fact, it took me two full days here before I finally taught a lesson in Japanese. We probably taught six lessons before that. So that "Best Two Years" moment that people talk about, the "This isn't the language I learned in the MTC" moment? Mine was real. I may just come back fluent in Portuguese instead of Japanese. My job during those lessons is to just stand there, smile, and nod. It's fun though. 

One of our investigators is Fernando. He was very very interested, had all the lessons, kept all his commitments, but his wife was very scared of the church. All religion in general, actually. She didn't mind him taking the lessons, but because he worked every day except Sunday she wanted to spend time with him on Sunday, and wouldn't spend that time at Church. So he couldn't get baptized, even though he wanted to. But we found out yesterday that his wife has moved back to Brazil, and he:s going to join her after six months. So now he can come to church and be baptized. 

Another one of our investigators, Fukui, is interesting. Elder Schmeil has only been here for about 4 months, so while his Japanese is pretty impressive (especially for how long he's been here) there are still a lot of holes. Fukui is a seventeen year old high school student who speaks really really fast and with really really complicated Japanese. So neither I nor Elder Schmeil can understand anything he's saying. 

However, by some miracle, he's progressing and is still interested. When we taught him on Friday, it started raining, and as soon as we said Amen to our lesson there was a huge lighting bolt and the power went out in the church. Fukui didn't want to ride home in the rain, so we hung out in the church for like half an hour playing the piano and getting to know him as best we could. It was really fun actually. 

We also have an investigator named Shakespeare (well, he calls himself Shakespeare after Shakespeare in Love) who I actually haven't taught yet but I met at church. He's had all the lessons and has a testimony and comes to church all the time but he hasn't wanted to be baptized yet, and no one's really sure why.

 We also have two investigators, Tatiana and Marcos, who are way way interested and already seem like members (apparently when Elder Schmeil and his old companion first met them, Tatiana said "all these religions talk about God but their hearts are far from him.") but Marcos has Lukemia and since he just got done with Chemo, he can't leave his house because his immune system is so weak and can't come to church. So unless we get special permission, he can't be baptized for another 6 months which is way sad because they're so receptive and willing to learn about the gospel. 

Last night we and the sisters went to visit a less active family, the Ashikawas, who live half an hour away by train. They're a crazy Brazilian family who love the missionaries. The mom is a long time member and the dad is a non member. She was actually really really strong in the church but some things about Japanese culture had been rubbing her the wrong way for a long time and she felt like the Japanese members look down on the Brazilian members, and so she eventually went inactive, which is sad because she actually has a really strong testimony. She gives us referrals all the time and loves to help us whenever she can. It's really kind of a strange situation. 

Anyway, we went to her house to help make a cake for Tatiana and Marcos, because it's Tatiana's birthday today. One of the sisters kept the kids busy (those kids are absolutely insane. My ears were ringing when I left that tiny apartment. They were climbing all over us and everything else they could see. I can't even explain how crazy it was) while we helped with the cake. We ended up accidentally doing all of her dishes and cleaning her kitchen for her, which she really appreciated. We also brought her a bunch of letters from the ward telling her they missed her at church (she's only recently inactive and was slated to give a talk yesterday) so hopefully that helped her. 

I'm trying to think of other things that happened this week, because I know there were a lot but I really can't. The trains are fun. They're actually not very crowded, but we're kind in a less populated area. Also sometimes instead of crosswalks they have tunnels that go under the roads, and in the middle of the stairs down into the tunnels there are bike ramps, but they're really steep, and when I was using that run down bike I would go down on ramp and then up the other one and I almost died every time. 

The hills here are pretty rough to bike. Apparently this is one of the worst places in the mission for hills. The food is also pretty good. It actually took me three days to actually eat real japanese food. Before that I had Mexican, Chinese, and Thai. One thing about Japan that I've noticed: people aren't happy. The only people I ever see smile are Church members and kids. The adults don't smile. It's depressing. That's why we're here though. 

Anyway, that's it for this week. Maybe I'll have more exciting stories next week. 

Take care.

Elder Callahan

The view of Nishio, a neighboring city to Okazaki from Fernando's apartment

View from our room in the mission home

Elder Laird, our last laundry night

We have inspiring decorations in our apartment

Our wonderful teachers, Cook kyoudai (left) and Gregory kyoudai (right)

Elder Salisbury came in right before I left

Our district, branch presidency, and their wives

Elder Francis and I

Rainbow tunnel!

Look who lived in the same building as me.