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.