Well, today is Jarek's birthday so I sent him 2 dozens of doughnuts to share with his district and two ties and a pair of shorts. His grandma Blackhurst also sent him some money and treats. It's been hard to celebrate his bday with him not here. I miss him tonz today. You know, I understood but never quite grasp the parable about Jesus leaving the 99 sheep and going to find the one but I had a light bulb moment and I wasn't even thinking about it. I was just driving to one of my many destinations when I realized that Jesus was trying to say that he loved each one of those sheep so much and knew them each literally, and entirely that when the one had disappeared he felt the void that, that one filled. I guess in my mind I was thinking of them as just sheep and not realizing that it's hard not to miss someone when you love them entirely and they have a purpose in YOUR life, that when they are not there, there is a void that can't be filled til they are back.
I have my four kids and you would think that with only one of them gone the rest would still keep me busy enough that I wouldn't really noticed that one is gone but THAT IS NOT THE CASE. I feel the emptiness that Jarek fills. His smile, his sarcasm when I don't get something he said, his correcting me when I use teenage vocabulary wrong, the joy on his face when he eats the food I cook b/c we share a love for food, his willingness to do things even when I ask him to do it last minute.and really so much more. Him taking Kira to Harts every time he picks her up from school when I can't. Kira even says it's not the same as when Jarek takes her...ok, I get it. I had to experience the feeling to fully understand why Jesus would leave the 99 and go look for the 1 that is missing. Not that He love the 99 less just that any one soul that is lost is a huge deal because he loves them completely, knows them completely, and has a role in His plan therefore He wants to find them and bring them back to they can fill that emptiness. Whoa....I know...kinda deep coming from me.
His email from today Oct. 2nd:
Hey everyone!
Thanks all for the Birthday Wishes!
Week 4 is now in the books it was a lot of fun as usual. We had nothing
really all that new this week just the usual devotionals class and
Role-play. The biggest change to our role-play with our PI's is that we
can't use our book that had pre-made sentences, I was kind of scared at
the beginning but am glad that we did it. My goal for this week was to
learn 42 new words a day and review the 42 from the other day so that it
would be harder to forget them. I'm probably going to increase to 56
new words a day, as well as learning some kind of grammar structure
everyday. I have probably one of the best knowledge of words in my class
but I still struggle a bit putting it into the correct grammar
structure, I can say a lot of simple things with ease, bearing testimony
and praying with the vocab and grammar I know is pretty easy and I am
almost to the point where I can say almost anything I want to in an
English prayer, so that is pretty nice:) I was challenged by my teacher
yesterday to find out how to ask deeper questions because I was able to
one on one role play with him because we had an odd number in class
because 3 Elders "were sick" (I don't think that the all the Elders were
really sick 1 was he wouldn't miss class unless he really was like
about to die, the other 2 really had poor excuses for being sick but o
well that is my thinking I don't know how they feel so I can' judge
them.) Back to the 1 on 1 role-play, I was able to ask really simple
questions to make him think and answer but when we had our evaluation
review he told me to work on asking more specific questions to help the
investigator better.
The fun stuff for the
week, My and my companion had an Ice cream eating contest on Sunday
evening, he had 8 bowls of ice cream, I had 8 and 1/2, It was a fun
competition I guess there were a lot of people watching, it was the
first time that I have had ice cream in the MTC and probably the last
time. One of the elders in our district set his alarm for 6 on Tuesday
night and it went of Wednesday morning and Thursday morning because he
couldn't find it was annoying but really funny because my companion
jumped out of bed both times running to his alarm clock to turn it off
because it was habit for him to do that, so it was pretty funny to watch
him run to the clock try to turn it off but to no avail because it
wasn't his alarm clock:) One of the elders said ai shitai to one of the
teachers which means "I want to love you" and not just like really like
someone but the biblical sense of 'Adam knew Eve' so our teacher laughed
pretty hard, as well as the rest of us when we figured out what it
meant.
Hmmm.... A song from heritage tours "I
believe there are angels among us" it says 'Oooh I believe there are
angels among us, sent down too us from somewhere up above, they come to
you and me in our darkest hour to show us how to live, to teach us how
to give, to guide us with the light of love.' I love this song and I was
reminded of it by a talk that was giving on Tuesday by sis. Schweitzer
she told us that we have angels around us to help us through the hard
times, when I think back to learning this language and all the stuff I
have done in just the short 4 weeks I have been here I know that the
ones that we love who have passed on here helping me when its hard for
me to do something, and I know that the Lord has played a huge role in
helping me learn the language, there would be no way that I would be
right here without the spirit and the Lord on my side. I know that
angels and Loved ones are there to help all of us in our hardest times
of life, also that all you need to do is ask God for help he wants to
help you, he has so many blessings in store for everyone. The picture of
'Jesus at the Door' is one of my favorites, he wants to help us and
bless us but there is no handle for him to open the door on his side, we
have to answer the door figuratively and let him in so he can bless us.
I love you all!!
-Elder Stevens
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Anyway, his email from last week, Last week September 25:
Another great week done in the MTC! Now officially the longest time I've
been from home I think?? Anyway had a lot of great things happen, my
companion and I had another fake investigator baptism, and I'll say it
again, even though it is a fake baptism it feels so great to get someone
to commit to baptism, it really just makes me so excited for a real
baptism and progressing investigator (PI), our lessons are getting a lot
better in nihongo (japanese) we are able to say a lot with out the book
even though they are pretty simple sentence structure comments and
questions being able to do a lot with out the book is crazy. We also had
another great devotional we had M. Russell Ballard come and talk to
us!! Two apostles in my 3 weeks here!! Its crazy and super awesome, his
talk was so uplifting and he reminded me why i am here who i represent
and what kind of job i am doing? it was a good self check as a well as
confidence boost, I know I'm only three weeks in but it is good to be
reminded to start good habits now so we can keep them later into our
missions.
"watashi wa jibun no maue ni taiyo no
kagayaki nimo massatte kagayaite hikari no hashira o mita. so shite,
sono hikari no hashira wa shidai ni orite kite. So shite, sono hikari wa
tsui ni watashi ni furisosoida. Hikari ga watashi no ue ni todomatta
toki watashi wa hisshi ni tsukushigatai kagayaki to eiko o motsu futari
no okata ga watashi no ue no kuchu ni tatta orareru no o mita. suru to
sono uchi no ohitokata ga watashi ni katarikake, watashi no na o yobi
betsu no okata o sashite. 'kore wa watashi no aisuru ko de aru, kara ni
kikinasai' to iwareta."
My japanese spelling
isn't perfect but i did memorize this, this week it is the first vision
in nihongo. The spirit that is carried by this message is so strong, for
every and especially missionaries memorized the first vision, it is
such a strong testimony of reality of Joesph Smith and what happened in
the grove, I swear every time I hear it i get goosebumps, and it doesn't
even matter what language it is said in I still get goosebumps. I sang
in the MTC choir and we sung "Joseph Smith's first Prayer" we sung it
for Elder Ballard which was amazing, and he told us of the importance of
this message.
I was also able to host this
week, I hosted an Elder from Fiji he was going to Arizona, he was so
cool and spiritual and just so grateful for everyting!! I was also able
to see Elder Ethan Johnson while he was passing by I wish I would have
been able to host him but at least I was able to see him.
Anyways
those are the big highlights of the week, other wise it is the usual,
10 hours a day in the class learning how to teach and learning nihongo.
Love ya'll
Elder Stevens
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