Dear all,

Weekly highlights:

Tuesday we went way far out into the middle of nowhere into a place called Ina. It used to have its own branch of like 5 people but back in January it got shut down and absorbed into our area. So we went with some members to visit some of the less active members out there. It was way fun. The family we visited was way cool. They're less active but have some of the strongest testimonies ever. They're both RMs and we spent most of the time talking about that. They also made us incredible curry and chicken. The husband works on Sundays, but he can get time off for sacrament meeting. The problem is that the church is so far now that he can't get back in time to make it to work every week. So they come when they can. Tough situation.

We also taught our American investigator, Matt! He's just about the kindest, politest, down to earth guy you'll ever meet. He's interested in our message but he's also really wary of organized religion, so we're working with him on that. 

Thursday we helped one of the members with his garden (Brother Kina, the one playing the weird Chinese instrument in the pictures I sent out last week). And when I say garden I actually mean his farm haha. We moved a lot of dirt to make rows for his crops. Plus we got to wear farmer hats again just like when we planted rice. So that was good.

Then after that we went with one of the members to play futsal with a friend he wanted us to meet. It was super fun. One of the other guys who came to play found out we teach free English and was way excited and is coming this Wednesday. As an aside, this guy was also on the Japanese version of American Ninja Warrior, so if you're into that check him out this next season. He told us we can teach him English and he can teach us muscles. Pretty funny dude.

Saturday I had one of the most bizarre experiences of my mission. On Wednesday we were going up to visit a less active who lives way up in the mountains (the one who's reading the Book of Mormon that I mentioned last week). There's a stoplight up there in the middle of all the mountain farmlands and we were sitting there waiting for it to change and this guy comes up over the hill behind us and starts talking to us. Turns out he speaks completely fluent English because he lived in Boston till he was 10. It's crazy, he sounds 100% American. Anyway, he and his friend were building this little cafe out of a shack on the bottom of the hill. The way it's situated makes it so that unless you climb down the stairs made out of rocks you can only see the roof. It looks like a hobbit hole straight out of Lord of the Rings. We got talking to them and told them we were volunteers and asked if we could help build anything. They said no, but they would need help on Saturday night. They were participating in what they described as a Moroccan Flea Market and wanted help taking down their booth after it was over. We said sure and they gave us directions and we told them we'd be back Saturday. So, we went up there Saturdaynight. They said it was only like 10 minutes past their hobbit hole, and the directions sounded really easy. Well, they weren't. It was up this giant mountain for like another hour. We got completely lost up in the mountains way far from any sort of civilization. Finally after asking a bunch of taxi drivers we finally made our way through the forest to this place. It was bizarre. It was like we biked into Narnia, through Narnia, and came out in Jamaica. Everyone brought their own home made hemp products and weird Jamaican/African instruments and bead necklaces and all sorts of strange stuff to sell. We walked in and asked for our hobbit friend, and they said he was somewhere in the back. We wandered through it, past a bunch of stalls and beer booths, until we got to the back, where there were people smoking cactuses. We didn't find our friend, but at that point I'd had enough so we got out of there pretty quick. I can't really do it justice with my writing but it was straight up one of the weirdest places I've ever been. Just a strange atmosphere. We'll stick to meeting our hobbits at their hobbit hole. 

Other than that not a whole lot to report. The Work is good. We keep plugging along here in Suwa and things are going good. Love you all!

Elder Callahan

One of our English students found this in his house when he was cleaning. He has no idea how or why he has it. Pretty funny.

View from the futsal court

Sushi after District Training Meeting

GUYS DID YOU KNOW MCDONALDS SELLS SOCKS? THEY'RE ONLY LIKE 3 DOLLARS OR SOMETHING! I THINK I ALSO DONATED TO CHARITY BUT I WASN'T REALLY PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT THE LADY WAS SAYING BECAUSE LOOK AT THESE SOCKS

Shout out to Jim and Fumie Moulton, who sent me a package even though they're not responsible for me. Thank you!