June 25th, 2018- SUBJECT LINE #99

Yes, this is the 99th time I've had to think of a creative subject line for my email, and yes, I ran out of good ideas a long time ago. :) For anyone that might be wondering, I have 104 total emails to create subject lines for... I'll let you do the math on that one.

As I try and remember some of my first emails home, I recall mentioning when I got my first haircut on my mission, and how I thought that was somehow significant because I'm a missionary. No matter how old we are, the version of ourselves two years in the past is always embarrassing.

Juxtapose that with today, when everything in my life appears has lost it's luster because it has become my daily life. This is not to say I am not entertained or fulfilled by what I do, I've just lost the capacity to recall what I've done when trying to recant what's noteworthy in these emails. So forgive me, please.

In spite of all that, (and in report for this week), among many things, we helped someone move, ordered an overnight package for another missionary's birthday, had interviews with our mission president, and went to the baptism of a Filipino member family.

I realized this was likely the last time I helped someone move on my mission... there seem to be more and more of these "last time" things. I would say I wonder why but clearly, I don't haha. Strangely enough, none of them feel any different than when I did them the 3rd or the 28th time.

One of the Elders in the area just West of us that covers the same ward had a birthday this week. I've had the privilege to be his leader throughout different parts of our mission, and he is a good Elder. The kind of guy that sort of goes under the radar but is good in his heart and deserves some recognition. My companion and I conspired together for his birthday and ended up using my companion's Amazon Canada Premium account to order him a gift with overnight shipping. So I haven't ordered anything in a long time, and I forgot how overwhelming the anticipation would be! This story proves the point yet again that we are happier when doing things for others rather than ourselves. Elder Martin and I were both more excited to get this package in the mail and then give it to Elder Sparks than to have gotten something in the mail for ourselves. Service fills our hearts.

Other than talking to President Shields for the second-to-last time in an interview setting and eating a lot of Filipino food we didn't do much else other than spreading the gospel, which tends to be the one constant in our lives. Frankly, I couldn't think of a better constant than that. Luckily, that's a constant we can all have, and there are perhaps infinite ways to do so.

As a public service announcement for all you listeners out there, we won't be broadcasting any emails next monday June the 2nd because that will be a federal holiday day due to Canada day being on Sunday the 1st. Consequently, you can tune in to hear more about Elder Callor's adventures on Tuesday June the 3rd. We'll see you all next time on 77.7 DVE.

Love,

Elder Callor

June 18th, 2018- CHRISTMAS KARAOKE AND WAKEBOARDING

I will only be brief this week, but my first items of business are as follows:

1) I apologize for the accelerating entropy and decline in the quality of my emails as time passes.

2) happy father's day to all father figures!

3) I have now officially begun my final transfer. 6 weeks and I will be home. My companion and I are staying together. Here in Don Valley.. my mission brother is like Cain - he is now a district leader, and he gets to "kill" me haha. 

Moving on I have a few anecdotes for all who care to read them! :) which is still a large group of people with support, whom I love and am grateful for.

So anecdote #1. Elder Martin and I found a large 3 ft by 3 ft letter "S" right outside our house on the curb. We passed it a million times and always said we would take it just for fun, but we waited too long and it was taken away haha.

As for our second anecdote today, earlier this week we went to a member's house, and they are a lovely Korean family who made us spectacular Korean BBQ. After our dinner they made us sing in their Karaoke machine, but the only "mission approved" songs they had were Christmas songs. The visuals that played while we sang were a bunch of people wakeboarding - needless to say it was a surreal moment. Missions bring some interesting experiences haha.

I love you all. 6 weeks always go quickly, so enjoy your final precious moments without me, they'll be gone before you know it ;)

Love,

Elder Callor

June 11th, 2018- NO MORE HIDING, WOODEN FLOORS AND FREE ENGLISH-

So by this time next week I will no longer be able to hide behind the phrase "I go home next transfer", because the transfer will be over! Soon I'll be starting My Plan, a program you do for your last 6 weeks as a missionary to help you prepare for and adjust to going home.

It's an interesting feeling.

To tell you all a little more about where I am and what I'm doing, my apartment has a really nice shower - the kind that is directly overhead and just rains on you. We live in a basement in a neighborhood which is much better than any of the typical Toronto apartments. Funny thing about Toronto apartments that in EVERY SINGLE ONE, and I'm not joking or exaggerating, they have the exact same wooden flooring. I guess it's just cheap and very available. Even in a ton of apartments across Ontario they have that same flooring. I've been lucky to be in a few houses and apartments in homes on my mission, but I've sure seen a lot of that flooring. In 6 weeks I can stand on carpet :)

There are elders that cover the other half of the ward we are serving in so we are with them a lot and it's good fun. One of them is going home in a week so we'll be going to downtown Toronto to get him some souvenirs today. I'll be talking to him about any advice he has on serving for my last transfer.

I've taught some English classes on my mission in the past, but I've been the only teacher for this class the last 5 weeks and I've become really invested in the students and the class. I quite enjoy it. I've gotten to know each of them and we've started to get more students and it's been very fulfilling to help them each personally and see real progress in contributing to this community.

And with that, I don't have a lot more I can think of to share. As I said before, transfer calls are in a week so I hope I don't have to go anywhere because that means I would have to pack again :P

More than likely my companion will leave. I could train my last transfer. Or my companion could stay here for one more. I'm not sure but at this point, even at the inconvenience of packing on more tome, I'm happy to go and do what is asked of me wherever and with whomever.

I hope you are all are enjoying the summer and having a fun time :)

Love,

Elder Callor

June 4th, 2018- NOTHING TO DRY MY CLOTHES OR MY TEARS

Hello family and friends!

I'm realizing I won't be writing many more of these... So I hope they've been good thus far. Some have definitely been better than others. Thank you for reading them!

So I was thinking about some random info to share that I probably haven't mentioned. So a few months ago my right thumbnail randomly split down the middle, and I didn't even know how it did. It looked super weird. It doesn't hurt, but I have this weird gap in my thumbnail now that won't close, I think it's just gonna grow out of my thumbnail naturally.

Also, last week on the drive home from a zone conference one of the elders in my district threw up a billion times in a trash bag that I fortunately found last minute. It was a weird experience I wasn't anticipating haha.

Speaking of which, earlier this week I went on an exchange and got to sing in a nursing home which was pretty fun. I felt like I was back in school doing some performance or something. It was pretty weird.

Also, our dryer has been broken for 3 weeks now, it will spin but it just doesn't heat up. We dry our clothes by running the dryer 5 or 6 times and the room temperature air dries it haha. Our land lord is trying to replace it but it's an old unit and he had a really unreliable company at first so it should be fixed this week haha.

Other than that we've just been riding the bus and having all kinds of fun :)

Congratulations to all who've graduated! It's such a great time of life, and I hope that as you're on the verge of so much more you will remember the values that you've been taught and stick to them; you'll need them as you go into the world. 

I'll be seeing you all soon enough and I hope you enjoy the start of a great summer vacation, one I hope to catch the tail end of ;)

Love,

Elder Callor

May 28th, 2018- WHERE DOES IT GO?

Where does the time go, everybody? If anybody knows, please clue me in because really I haven't the foggiest idea where it goes. I've been here in Don Valley for 3 weeks. As I sat down to write this email I started to look back on the week and I realized I was thinking about all 3 weeks together as if they were one week, that's how fast it feels. I don't know much to tell you all about this week.

Just for some facts about where I'm at, I have a really nice shower, one with an overhanging showerhead, which is nice. The only downside is that we love about an hour from the church (when taking the bus). So a lot of our days are just travel to and from the church. We talk yo people, and we manage our time, so everything works out.

It's starting to get pretty warm here. Summer weather came late, but it's definitely here.

I hope the weather isn't too hot there, and that as the school year comes to a close everyone is excited for the summer. Enjoy it!

Love,

Elder Callor

May 22nd, 2018- GENEROUS INVESTIGATOR, SPICY GIFTS

To start, sorry everybody! I forgot to mention yesterday was a Canadian holiday so our p day got moved to today.

Last p day after the p day ended, I was walking with another Elder just outside our house (his companion stayed with my companion at home because our dryer broke and so he didn't have dry clothes to wear to proselyte in). We met a really nice guy and started talking to him like we would anyone else, but he was particularly interested. He just wanted to keep listening to our message. We walked to a nearby park and talked about the restoration. He had us repeat the first vision so he could listen and feel the spirit again. After that we didn't have a Book of Mormon on us so he walked back with us to our house so we could run in and get one for him. On the way we discussed the commandments of tithing and word of wisdom, which he agreed to. In the moment he said "I'll never smoke weed again". So after giving him the Book of Mormon, he said he was being deported and sent back to Pakistan the next day, but he was so grateful to us for sharing this message, and he won't stop studying God's word and hope he can come back or find a place in the world to join God's church.

Also, yesterday we taught an Indian investigator we have who was a doctor in India and is working on getting certified in Canada. He was very kind and giving and while we taught him his wife made 8,000 little tortilla looking things and then he insisted on giving them to us to eat. We had to eat soooo many.  They had this spicy sauce you smear on it and it was not pleasant haha. Luckily, we made it out alive.

So those are my stories for the week.

I hope all of you are enjoying busy May :)

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Callor

May 14th, 2018- CLEAN HOUSE, FREE CHICKEN, DISASTER AVOIDED

Hello everyone!

I'm typing on my phone today so please forgive my typing errors! It takes forever to bus to the church so we just did some grocery shopping by our house, got me a haircut, now we're making food with the other elders.

So, yet again, I cleaned the apartment quite well! It looks nice. I'm pretty proud haha. I doubt all the apartments I've cleaned on my mission are still clean, except for the mansion. Such is life haha.

Earlier this week we went to Popeyes to eat some lunch so we wouldn't have to bus home, and once we started ordering a guy paid for us! We found out his name is Frank and he is from Fruit Heights! I vaguely knew his daughter from high school. So that was a fun experience! I've been through similar things but nothing quite like that haha.

The other day we saw a drunk guy on the street, he got up and was going to cross the street into traffic! So we yelled at him to stop and he didn't stop until right before the lane! It was so scary. Luckily he listened and didn't die right before our very eyes!

I hope all of you are enjoying the spring as it turns to summer :) have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Callor