November  9, 2014

First real email from Jarek since he has been in Japan. He is all grown up and I'm not there to see him. This is real tough for me. But I love that he is so excited to be there in Japan and has really enjoyed his first week there.
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Wow it was an amazing first week I have absolutely no idea what is really going on I can pick up a some grammar and some vocab that I have learned but it really is amazing how little you actually know when you get here!!

 

We got to Japan wednesday night then thursday we had orientation until about 4 and after that we went and did some contacting I was super nervous to do the contacting it was hard too, because after you said something when they talked back you like don't understand what they said! Friday we split up and went to our different areas my first area is Asahikawa which is one of the coldest areas in the mission so im super excited for that. we have like 20 investigators right now!! We have had about 6 visits with investigators over the 3 days that I have been in Asahikawa I love visiting with the people the first visit the guy spoke really good english so i was able to speak a bit of english and that was really good. we went from one baptismal date to 3 baptismal dates so I guess I came at the right time haha but really I was able to testify a bit during those lessons where we set up the dates for baptism and it was awesome!! My companion and I taught the advanced English class on friday night, it was fun to speak english. On sunday I got to do a self intro in japanese and also bear my testimony I was super nervous for that but it was fun to do that!! I am so excited to be in Japan even though I don't know what is going on all the time I am so excited to be here right now!!

 

I used Chop sticks for the first time, I am not terrible at eating with them I was able to eat everything with them so that was good! Everything I have eaten so far has been absolutely delicious! My companion is Elder Horne, he is from Arizona and he as been out for 6 transfers he is on his 7th, he is really cool and he is super smart and a hard worker! We live with two other elders, Elder Roopinia and Elder Dobashi they are the zone leaders Elder Roopinia is from Tahiti and Elder Dobashi is from Saitama Japan. Our Apartment is the second biggest one in our mission so that is really nice.

 

I know this church is true and I know that with the Lord's help that I will be able to speak this language and help more people come unto Christ I love you all and hope everything is going great!!

 

-Elder Stevens