May 24, 2015

Fun week and a fast week we had zone conference in Kushiro this week
so travel took up a lot of our usual mission work time had a BBQ this
week with one of our investigators his name is Ewao and he is a 70
year old man who is super active and loves doing stuff especially
fishing!! We had a lot of good meat even had some delicious intestines
yum!!! That was the big highlight of the week other than that it was a
lot of the usual and nothing that crazy happened.

At zone conference we got workshops from president nakatsuka and
sister nakatsuka and the assistants they were pretty good we talked
about into and unto when inviting others to come unto Christ and
talked about health and good food and exercise so that was cool. The
main thing that I took from it was president nakatsuka's last workshop
on teaching a second grader the gospel we have really been talking
about teaching but teaching a lot more simply lately, most Japanese
people have no concept of God or church things so we have to teach in
the most simple ways, i love how powerful simple words and doctrinal
statements  sometimes we get caught up in deep "I have to prove you
with everything I know" teaching but the simple truth that God lives
and he loves us so simple and it sums up everything because he loves
us he gave us everything we have and we will receive!! Isn't this
gospel just wonderful!! Anyways I love you all and hope you all have a
great week!!

Elder Stevens

                                                                    Zone conference

                                                              Bbq with Ewao

May 18,  2015

Hey everyone what's up?? Another week full of awesome experiences!
Last Pday we had lunch with one of our investigators and he set up a
bbq for this Friday with him so I am super excited! And on Tuesday we
had a lesson with Kusano he hugged me three times!! The best part for
me was when he asked me what would you say if I said God doesn't
exist? And basically I said I would say yo man he exists and I know
that, obviously more politely but anyways he was like oh dang I just
felt something man it just hit me like a 20 ton train going 100mph
man, obviously more politely but anyways it was a great lesson!! The
next really big highlight was Friday night we had sports night
activity and we had 11 people come 3 English class students and 8
investigators and we had one member come too so that was good!! It was
a lot of fun and it was a great way to make good relations and teach
about the gospel naturally! Next highlight was Sunday gave a talk in
sacrament I always thought when I become a missionary I would stop
shaking and being so nervous when I give talks but I was wrong I was
shaking so bad for this talk I don't even know why but it was all good
I talked about the faith, repentance, and grace and mercy and through
those steps how we can use the Savior's Atonement I think it went
great and tons better than my first talk too, but the even greater
thing is Nohara family came to see my talk they are technically the
other missionaries investigators but during activities and stuff I get
the opportunity to talk with them and during sports night I invited
them to my talk and it was the first time they came to church so we
were all really happy!!

Anyways it was a great week I hope everyone else had a great one as well!!

                                                                             Sports Night

                                      Love my companion and this pic reminds me of home "love you Trist"

   Brother Kato drew this picture of the missionaries during ward
council, he is one of the funniest members I know

May 10, 2015

[Mom's note:  Had the opportunity to skype with Jarek on May 9th for Mother's Day. It was so good to hear his voice and see his face. He is so happy and is just loving the mission. We are extremely blessed to have technology so we can communicate with him weekly not sure I can handle waiting for a letter. AND THIS IS THE LONGEST EMAIL FROM HIM YET :)]

Hey everyone week 36 is already over and it was a blast Monday we had
a zone activity and Tuesday we had our zone training meeting and it
was great my dendo Fire "missionary work fire" yea it doesn't sound as
good in English but yea my dendo Fire is blazing right now I freaking
love missionary work!!! Wednesday through Saturday was full of good
and bad 2 of our progressing investigators canceled meetings so we
that was bad but we went out and found 3 people and made some good
specific return appointments so even though we didn't get to see our
investigators hopefully these new people will be added to our pool of
wonderful people to talk to! Sunday was great got to call home and
Skype with the family and then Otani came to church it was great he
had a great time and since president nakatsuka was visiting he got to
meet the mission prez and his wife so that was great!!! One of the
members kids got his baptism yesterday and I was able to help with the
confirmation so that was fun and afterward we had dinner at that
families house! Also one of our investigators, he is a 70 year old
dude but he is still very healthy went fishing and caught a bunch of
fish and came and gave us 5 fish he caught and I ate one this morning
it was delicious just hate the bones! But anyways it was a good week
with some disappointing things but always the good outweighs the bad!!

This week I read the January 2014 ensign and in the first presidency
message president Uchtdorf talks about setting goals but my favorite
part from it was the proverb "The best time to plant a tree is 20
years ago. The second-best time is now.?h We can always change no
matter who, when or what we are doing now, because as Elder Renlund
said last conference "God indeed cares a lot more about who we are and
about who we are becoming than about who we once were." I find a lot
of comfort in these words and as a missionary you have a great
opportunity to immerse yourself in gods work and change we have a
article that is given to every missionary entitled "the fourth
missionary" it talks about all the blessings your can receive when you
serve with all your heart might mind and strength and how by the end
of your mission you can not only change your behavior but you can
change your nature. I love the opportunity everyday to help people
change and come closer to Christ and I love the opportunity I have
each day to change myself and try to get those Christ-like attributes
and although I am not perfect I know that through Christ, who
strengthens us in all trials, even I can be perfect, I am so grateful
for the atonement and all its many blessings, I love you all and hope
that you all have a great week:)!!!!

Elder Stevens

                                                                  Zone Activity

                                                                      My Girlfriend

                                                     Miyabi the kid who recieved baptism

May 3, 2015
[Mom's note: Sorry, I totally fell behind so here are the last 3 weeks]


 Another week in the field transfers came and I am with elder tsutsumi
for another transfer!!!! Other than that nothing much changed this
week he usual missionary life except for Friday we went to a place
called Rubeshibe it was 30km from our apartment on bike it was so good
we were able to meet with a couple of non-members and do some service
for one of them she was so very grateful!! But what is even greater is
that one of them came to church and she brought her son who hasn't
been to church in 4 years so that was a really good experience but
other than that nothing really out of the ordinary besides seeing
small and little miracles everyday happened:) I am running out of time
but I love you all and hope that you all enjoy great success and
happiness!!:)

                                       Elder  Tsutsumi  and Elder Stevens
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 26, 2015

 Another great and quick week in the mission field! We had splits
basically all week so for me that meant a lot of finding but during
that finding we were able to make a couple of good appointments and
teach a couple of lessons. Hoping we can pick up some new
investigators from that group. We also went to Kushiro this week for
district conference which was cool I got to see how the church efforts
in Japan are improving and coming along it really is so different from
American church. Anyways that took a good 2 days out of regular
mission work in our area and splits took 2 other days leaving this
week at a pday and 2 days of good area mission work, but in that time
we were able to teach a couple of lessons oh and we had president
interviews this week too that was fun:) anyways other than that there
really isn't that much to report on I love you. All and hope that you
all have a great week!!!

                                          2 bls of rice with some kind of sauce ( hopefully
                                          he didn't eat it all by himself ;)

                                          At Conference

                                            Good looking bunch! They look like a boy band ;)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 19, 2015

Shout out to my Little Bro who got his mission call this week, he got called to serve in the Fukuoka Japan Mission he is such a boss and he is going to be the greatest missionary Ever!!!!!

Well after that nothing can match it we got Ipads this week so it was kinda sucky for Missionary work we had to go to Obihiro so that took 2 days of being away from our area so that sucked but we were still able to see 8 of our investigators so it was a pretty good week!! I really cant even focus on this email right now I am too excited for my little Bro so I am going to put some pictures on and call it a week I love you all and hope that you have a great Week!!!!!

Elder Stevens