Elder Callahan in Japan

Things that happened this week:

# 1 Fun Thing: TAUE! An older member couple asked us to come help them plant rice in their rice field and we were more than happy to help. I'll attach a lot of pictures below. We showed up at 12:00, they fed us lunch consisted of rice balls made out of their homemade rice, made us put on old Japanese farmer hats, and then we got to work. You basically just walk around barefoot in a muddy field submerged in water and stick the rice sprouts in the mud. It was super fun and involved a few mud fights and more than a few sunburns. It took about four and a half hours and by the time we were done we were absolutely covered in mud. Super super fun.

#2 Fun Thing: Barbeque! We had a branch barbeque Saturday morning which was awesome! They bought a bunch of Brazilian meat from a Brazilian import shop the next town over and we grilled and ate all morning. The branch president also wanted to use it as a tool for missionary work so in preparation he printed out 1000 flyers and asked them to put them in the mailboxes of people who lived around the church. It ate a lot of time, but it was worth it because on guy showed up. He walked up to the parking lot and was just kind of standing there not knowing what to do so we went over there and welcomed him and got him some food. The branch members were way awesome and were super friendly and nice to him. We got to talking and we asked him about his experience with religion and God and whatnot and he seemed not really interested. But then we got talking about English, and he said he was interested in that, so we got him a flyer for our 30 minute English/30 minute Gospel program that we do. He was reading it and saw the part that talks about what our church meetings are like, and pointed to a part where it talks about Priesthood Meeting helping people become better husbands, and said he wasreally interested in that, more than English. So he asked if we could meet again and talk about it and we said sure! So that's pretty exciting.

Other interesting things:

That less active that wanted to meet at the park that I mentioned last week met us on Wednesday. I didn't know what to expect, really, so I was a little unsure. We sit down, and he immediately just goes off. He starts telling us all about this religion that believes in six saviors, the sixth having been born in Japan 25 years ago, and how there are people trying to kill this guy so that all humanity will perish but there are people trying to protect him, and both the protector people and the trying-to-kill people have infiltrated the ranks of this big Japanese TV company and how if you watch reality TV closely you can see them broadcasting out messages about this guy. Pretty fun stuff. He also tried to prove the the church wasn't true because ancient paintings of Jesus look different than the ones the church uses...? And that the church was hindering science because BYU doesn't let you study science. He didn't really know what to say when I told him that wasn't true and that I was going to study science at BYU, so he went back to talking about the painting thing. After a while of this I was done so we just bore our testimonies and walked off. Not much use arguing with people like that haha. So that was a fun experience. It was interesting because as he was talking I had such a strong feeling that what he was saying was so far away from the truth. It was almost a physical reaction. Not sure how people who once had the light of the gospel can ignore those feelings and head down a path so far into left field, but I guess it happens. But it was a good testimony to me, though, that the Spirit always always warns you of spiritual danger.

We had our branch conference on Sunday which was way awesome and then we had a great Shokujikai afterward (I forget what that is in English but it's when everybody brings food to church and then eats it afterward). It was so good. The best food I've ever eaten in Japan.

Other than that, kind of an uneventful week. Love you all, have a great week!
Elder Callahan

Taue lunch!