From: Elder Conner Carlini
Date: Oct 26 at 7:46 PM
Subject: 早い！


Hey, that week went by quite fast. Not much to say except for we
had some great lessons and met with a new friend of ours from
Bangladesh, named Jamn. It looks like Jammin' but it's pronounced Jaw
mn. Kind of sounds like "German". He is a really awesome guy and
speaks both English and Japanese perfectly well. He says he is Muslim,
but explained to us that it's because he was raised in a Muslim
Culture and with Muslim Parents. He said it was built into him. So now
he's confused. He sometimes believes there is a God and sometimes
doesn't. We had a really good chat with him about his questions and
concerns and he was incredibly nice. He says that there is a very very
low chance that he will ever be a member, but he said that he loves
Mormons. He really admires our way of life and complemented us
multiple times throughout on how we live. Super nice guy. He made me
and Elder Hunsaker (cause we did splits. Lesson was in English) feel
great about being in the church! I can't wait to meet with him again.
He really wants to know truth, but he is confused about what it right
and wrong. He is still culturistic, but has a slightly open mind. That
was probably my favorite part of the week. We also had a little
Halloween party done by the ward. We had a few investigators come. It
was a little lame honestly. Mostly fun for the kids, haha. I hope the
investigators enjoyed it though. At least a good chance for them to
see and talk with members I think.
Well that's it for the main email. Byeeeee

Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老
試練によって私たちは強くなりま

Prayer/testimony meeting witht the zone in Yamate last week


Don't you just feel the genuine Kindness? Hey mates.

From: Conner Carlini
Date: October 21, 2014 at 3:57:46 AM MDT
Subject: Sorry I'm Late

Heyyy, sorry I'm a bit late on the letter but yooo, had a sudden
lesson yesterday and some things came up to the point of having no
email time! But anyways, I'm going to keep this pretty short for now.
First of all, we got our transfer calls and I will be Staying in
Hibarigaoka with Elder Aoki for another transfer! It's nice because I
don't have to stress out about the many changes of moving and changing
companions, but also not as "exciting" I guess you could say. Still
very happy to stay another one here and keep up with the great couple
of investigators we have. Also, I now became the new District Leader,
so that will be a cool change I think. Getting some more chances to
help the Elders and Sisters of the District and lead them to joyous
days makes me joyous as well. Cool stuff.
Let's see...one thing that happened this week was getting to go
to a Translation Meeting in Kichijoji on Wednesday. It was a nice
little experience and we received some training from a guy who has
done translations for general authorities many times before. And the
kind of translation I'm talking about is not from a written talk or
anything like that. It's straight up simultaneous, speaking Japanese
while someone is speaking English, and translating it. It's incredibly
difficult and I am not good at all yet. Although I plan on practicing
using videos and whatnot, I have a while to go before getting decent
at it I think. It's quite an admirable skill. It normally takes me a
little bit to switch over to Japanese, but thinking both at the same
time is way difficult.
Hmm also, we had a prayer meeting type of thing in Yamate
yesterday which was nice. I got to return to my favorite Station in
Japan, Yokohama! It's quite a beautiful place. We went as a zone to a
big park and read the dedicatory prayer of when Japan was opened up
for missionary work, in that very area of Yokohama Japan. It was a
nice experience and we had a small testimony meeting after as well to
end it. Then we went to the awesome Mexican restaurant in Shkuragichou
(La Salsa) and ate well. It's pretty crazy to think another transfer
has gone by and that I am now 7 out of 16 transfers into my mission.
Starting to get up there just slightly. Dang! Well, that's it for now.
Just know that I'm loving our current investigators and it's great to
help them progress and improve their lives! Nakai and Tomoda さん are
totally boss. See you

Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老

Some pictures!


Went to Yamate, so I had to get a picture of Landmark Tower

Beautiful view at Shakujikoen park. The sky looked fantastic


Received this sweet hat from an investigator of ours named Tomoda.
(Next picture)

Subject: It's October
From Elder Conner Carlini
Actual date and time: Oct 6 at 3:25 AM

Hellooo. This is Elder Carlini reporting in once again from
Japan's little prefecture of Hibarigaoka. I have now been here for
almost 3 full transfers and could be in danger of leaving soon! But
don't worry, we have about 3 more weeks left in this transfer so I'm
good for now. Anyways, we had a couple cool things go on this week I'd
say. First was going on splits with the Tokorozawa Elders. Since
they're placing Zone Leaders in different areas now, we get to head
over to Tokorozawa a decent amount on splits and all sorts of
missionary business. I was with Elder Suzuki, who is Japanese and half
Filipino. He has lived in Japan his whole life and didn't speak any
English before his mission, but now he's pretty good. Funny
missionary. Very different from regular Japanese folk, haha. Anyways,
we got to do some Sports Missionary work where we just go to a park
looking for people to play like basketball or soccer with, then play
and tell them about our purpose in Japan. It's always pretty
interesting to see what happens. Sometimes they are kind of weirded
out because religion (especially Christian) is kind of looked at
differently here. And then sometimes they think you're way cool and
wanna do whatever you do, haha! So we ended up finding some really
cool people to play basketball with and created a good relationship.
They were really nice and wanted to come to some activities we invited
them to. Unfortunately they are in Tokorozawa and I'm in Hibarigaoka
so although I might not see them again, I hope they continue to see
and meet the Elders in Tokorozawa!
From there, us and one of the other Elder companionships (Elder
Miyazawa and Elder Hunsaker) got to go with a member to a Kaitenzushi
(basically a revolving wheel with sushi on it that you can take from
whenever) and it was awesome! His name is Brother Fukuda and he's a
really great guy. We were able to chat with him and talk about good
old missionary work while eating sushi. And then at the end he said he
was paying for us all. Haha, we denied it and said we had no problem
paying but he insisted that he planned on it and wasn't gonna let us
pay, hah. The Kindness of a Japanese man can be quite Great.
And lastly this week, we had a lesson with my man Nakai Yuuta. He
is a deep thinker for his age, and he really wants to improve his life
and be happy. He sees that we are normally pretty happy and wants to
do what we do. So, we taught him about the Spirit and told him how it
reaches us and makes us feel. Then explained that a step to having
that feeling with us all the time is through Baptism. We had a really
good member present too so that helped us throw down some testimonies.
He now says that he wants to get baptized, but we don't have a
specific date yet. He is super busy with his job and can normally only
meet once in a week. And he also has to work every Sunday, so can't
come to church as of now. He's a way cool guy though. And I don't
think I've mentioned this, but he loves Tennis. I know my Dad will
like this so yeah, he went to a big tennis tournament last week with
Wawrinka and Nishikori (Japan's favorite player basically, haha) in
it. Sounded way cool. He looked like he had a lot of fun there.
Anyways, me and Elder Aoki are gonna keep working and give some people
opportunities to change their lives. That sounds way cool right? See
ya

Elder Carlini
カーリニ長老
神様の力によって何でも出来るね。

PICTURE 1: Me and Elder Aoki looking way cool


PICTURES 2 & 3: P-day and Elder Scott's Birthday