August 27,  2015


whoah... There it is the one year mark kinda its on wednesday or thursday I don't know but it is transfer week again which means super busy, I got my transfer call yesterday, I will be staying in Honbu as recorder and my companion Elder Hishii will be transferring. My new companion will be Elder Owada he is from Tokyo he was in my apartment when I was in Hakodate so I am pretty excited because I love him:) I will also be the District Leader for the Moiwa district I will have 8 members our ZLs, STL and 3 new missionaries both the ZLs and STL are all training new missionaries so there are a lot of young missionaries and a lot of really good veteran missionaries, just a bit nervous for that but it should be okay:) Don't have a lot of time this P=day to email but that is basically what is happening I will let you guys know more specifics next week! Love you all have a great week!!

August 23, 2015

[ Mom's note: Today we had Tristan's farewell. He gave a wonderful talk. It was especially sweet to know about that very moment that helped him to decide to serve a mission. This is so tough. I can recall how hard it was when they both went to Heritage Tours last summer. Now it will be a whole year.....I will post Tristan's letters and updates on this blog as well.]

This week was a pretty good one, way busy though, still in the middle of training the Arrington Couple and trying to get everything else done for transfers kinda crazy but things are getting done and I am happy, was able to go on splits this week with the DL we  went in his area and was able to go and visit with a wonderful family and a nice guy was fun to be teaching lessons and doing stuff again can't wait till I have my full dendo time again but for now the 3 hours a day will work:) Also had zone Conference this week everyone got to see me get wrecked by the cinnamon challenge so that was fun! The AP's tied it into love and you can have the right ingredient for (cinnamon) but if you don't have the full recipe or use it wrong aka the cinnamon challenge, you don't get the same result like Paul's words "if you have not charity you are nothing" or something like that cinnamon we have right ingredient but in order to get cinnamon toast crunch we need the other stuff. yea it was something along those lines but yea those are all the highlights for the week!!

I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!!!

                                                                       1.Zone Conference    

                                                               
                                                                2. Zone Conference             

       3. Sister Yoshimura- her birthday was this week, she was trying to make my
face but a little different:)    

Aug. 16, 2015

 Wow it's email time again. Time flies so quickly but I probably say
that like every week it was another good one here in the Honbu.
Highlights are probably a visit with an NA family, they had a bunch of
visitors so it was a lot of fun we were introduced to a lot of new
people so it was good a couple said that they would come to eikaiwa so
I'm excited for that. Next would probably be that we got to watch Meet
the Mormons again with all the members and investigators  in Japanese
it was pretty good but I think the movie is just better in English, I
think the stories of the different people were super good but the
beginning I don't think that anyone got any of the jokes with
references to movies and TV shows. But watching those football scenes
again made me really happy! And then today we went with a member to a
City called Otaru it's beautiful and we went up a mountain and then He
took us for ice cream and ya that was about it but it was fun!! I love
you all and hope that you have a great week!!
1. dtm lunch

2. New couple missionaries

3. Did the cinnamon challenge( it was for a good reason I hope it was
for the AP's zone conf. Workshop so it better be good because I
thought I was one and done with that freaking challenge.

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Aug.9, 2105

Hey everyone another week down in the Honbu! and it was a good one we had a lesson with an investigator, she is way cool and she has been studying the bible for 40 years and right now feels that there are 2 choices that could possibly be right and our church is one of them so hopefully we can get her to feel that it is our church through our testimonies. We were also able to meet with a Less active member and we had a good conversation there, and of course we had some really good time to get out and find people so that was fun too! Eikaiwa(english class) was great this week we had a lot of people come so it was super fun, we also had a sports night this week with a bunch if the youth in Sapporo, we played basketball and everyone was freaking out at how good me and Elder Horne were at basketball, we ball soo hard man!!

The Arringtons cam this week as well my financial replacement people and secretary replacement people as well. I still have the recorder job but we will see how long I stay it will either be for a really long time or it will be for a super short time is what everyone is saying and what I am thinking. but that is it for the highlights I love you all and hope you have a great week!! 

                                                                Zone Pics

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Aug. 2, 2015

Good week this week!! We were able to get out and do some work and we had one lesson this week that was pretty good we like through it all on the line for this guy his name is ishii, he is what is called an eternal Investigator, missionaries have met with him on and off for like 7 years, and before I came Elder Hishii and Elder Birch were trying to get him to come to church and see if they could help he come closer to Christ, but anyways back to the Lesson, Elder Hishii threw like everything out there it was so freaking good he was basically like " yo man do you understand why we are here and what we are doing, do you know what you can get from this if you put forth the effort, ARE YOU LISTENING man I Freaking love you and want you to put some effort in I love you and want you to receive all these blessings I have right now!"  That is probably the best I can explain it in english, but Yes it was just amazing I don't know what else to say, but if the end final result he is going to come to church this month. I was honestly blown away by that lesson, if you knew Elder Hishii its just like that is not his personality he is literally the nicest most humble person you know but when he was tearing this dude apart, that is a little strong but really, he was doing it because that is what he needs to progress right now. oh and I guess I havent said anything about Elder Hishii yet but he is from Kyoto and we have been on a mission for the same amount of time we are going home at the same time, pretty cool but, he is an amazing chef, super fun and willing to do what ever to get the work done and going faster, I love him and we are having a blast!!!

Dont have a bunch if time to Email this week but those are the highlights. Love you all have a great week!!!

 

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July 26, 2015

[Mom's note: I guess this makes up for last week ;) ]

Wow things are way crazy here at Honbu, it is super busy all the time, especially during transfer week, and good news didn't transfer hooray more time it Honbu!! but ya anyways I picked up the recorder responsibility, and secretary too, and I still get to do the wonder Financial stuff! Cool benefits of being the financial guy I get to have meetings with all the other Financial Secretaries in Japan and the Finance guy who is in charge of Japan Area Finances, Another interesting fact I am the only Financial Secretary who is not a senior missionary yay maybe hahah anyways we got a New AP and it is my Trainer Elder Horne "Called it" I told him day one that he was going to be the AP and he became it keiji(revalation) or what.

Transfer week at Honbu are crazy, me and Elder Hishii my new companion are in charge of opening new apartments for the mission and since the mission is growing we have to open a lot of new apartments which is super difficult and annoying because it takes time and we can't get a lot of missionary work done, Especially during transfer week we are in charge of a lot of stuff for incoming and leaving missionaries making sure flight plans and everything is good, we both just want to get out and dendo(do missionary work) but were super busy this week, but on sunday we had some time in the evening, and it was super funny we were both super excited and happy and we got a good 1 hour of finding time, but the first house was the funniest we were so excited and like omg so happy to be housing I love this stuff hooray for dendo, and on the first house Elder Hishii did the Contact, long story short we got yelled at for about 4 minutes because the dude was shokujichu(in the middle of eating) but it didnt even matter because we were able to get and get stuff done so we were super happy!!!

Also me and Elder Horne took the written drivers test, we both passed it was a 10 question test made for 2nd graders I think studied the book so  much but then when I took the test I was like I wasted so much time!!! For example one of my questions was "I had a long day of work and I am super exhausted but I decided to drive anyways is this ok?" Like seriously this question was so like i dont even know why they asked it but ya those were the type of questions.

Anyways I love you all hope you have a great week!!

Elder Stevens 

                                                                      Hawaiian party

                                                                        Sister Free ( By the way that pic with sister Free she is the one who knows Dr. Wynn but thats not it she was also best friends with Maddie Glenn yes the same one who lived next door to us, where we jumped on the tramp for hours!! Way cool right?)            

                                                                      zone serious

                                                                       zone funny pic        

                                                District plus investigators and a member

July 19, 2015
[Mom's note: This is all we got from him this week.]

No time this week at all its transfer week and things are crazy more updates next week but lots of stuff to do and no time I love you all talk to you next week!!

July 12, 2015
[Mom's note: I think this is his longest email so far ;) ]

One week down in Honbu with the new Responsibilities and everything went great I was able to get the work done pretty quick and we were able to get out there and get some good work done found a lot of really nice people and hoping that when we go back that we can get some great opportunities to share the gospel.

This week we had ZTM and our ZL's gave us 2 great workshops the first one was on doctrines, principles and applying those in our lives as well as the the people that we teach emphasizing the use of the book of Mormon, and the other was on listen to people it was really good the Mogi (role-play) that we did was really good and I learned a lot from it, we have a lot of investigators in Japan where ever you are that have just one problem and the mogi helped remind us that listening and asking the right questions are super important. 2. You ask Mr. B (who is investigator of Elder) what he thinks about Christ. He said, ?I believe that he was certainly a great

teacher. I enjoy reading his teachings in the Bible. But I am not for sure about his being a son of God and his atonement. 4. You are talking with Sister D (less active for 2 years), she says, ?I don?t quite understand the Book of Mormon. I don?t get too much out of it. So, I don?t enjoy it very much.

These were the two mogis that I did.

I also had an opportunity to give a talk in Sacrament yay!! Always nervous and this ward is an actual sized ward and everyone knows more people equals more scary right??! But it was all good had a lot of help from the lord and spirit so everything went great, this is my talk.

Self intro

-Family, #, age, Little brother has mission call to Fukuoka

-Japan Stuff, How Long: 8 Months, Areas Asahikawa 3 Months Kitami 4.5 Months, and Hakodate 3 weeks

-Favorite Food, Katsudon and sukiyaki

-Hobbies, sports especially Football

-Excited to work in the Kotoni Area, With Kotoni Ward

Message

Akashi

What is Akashi?

Scripture Guide , First sentence after that Alma?s Testimony, Alma 7:11-13

How can we obtain Testimonies like this??

Gekiteki and teikiteki na experiences talk about that.

GoDoy?s Story

Alma the Younger

                -Gekiteki Change

                -Teikiteki Teachings

Getting your own testimony is important but even more important than that is sharing it with all the people around you

Lastly Alma 29:9-10 Share

                -From This Scripture through sharing our own Testimony we can bring others to the joy of the Gospel, as well as remember the joy we felt at our own Conversion.

Akashi

Iesu Kirisuto no mina ni yotte o hanashi Akashi itashimashita Amen.

If you don't know a word good luck with Language study:) After church we also had an amazing activity we taught about missionary work then we split up with members and young men and did some Missionary Work!!!! It was way fun!

But those are the Highlights of the week hope everyone has a great week!!!

                                        Japanese King size LOL!!!                              

  ( Mom's note: king size candy bar in Japan is the normal size candy bar in the U.S.)

                                    

                                                        we climbed another mountain yay!!!

July 5, 2015

[Mom's note: I have fallen behind again. I do have a reason though, it's work. The new system is driving me crazy and we were on a vacation.]

Crazy week got Emergency Transferred!! In our mission we have couple missionaries and they got an all of the sudden call from President Uctdorf, to become the Temple President of the Montana Billings Temple I think, its in Montana and whether or not Montana has 2 or more temples I know not!! But anyways they are leaving on the 10th and there responsibilities are to be in charge of all the money and finances of the whole mission!! So I got a call from the Assistants on Wednesday Morning saying that they want me to come to Honbu (Headquarters) on Thursday morning and I took the the train by myself the only missionary on this mission to have done that pretty cool but also kind of scary only been to sapporo twice for transfers so that was kinda crazy but everything was totally fine so no worries!! Anyways I got to Honbu and I am receiving Training from Elder Getz the Senior missionaries but i will be in charge of all of the finances in the mission until the new couples come and they will be here anywhere from end of august to December sooo my mission life really changed!! I am glad to have the opportunity work really close with President Nakatsuka but I dont really know what to think yet we are in the office until like 4:30 every day and we dont have a whole lot of time to do missionary work but I am excited to get out there and get stuff done in the short time that we do have!! We also dont get language study so that makes me kind of sad... But my new companions are amazing missionaries Elder Birch and Elder Hishii, one is Recorder the other the comissarian (idk how to spell) but they are amazing missionaries and super hard workers so I am ready to pound it out with them!!!! Elder Birch is just one transfer ahead of me and Elder Hishii is Japanese he is one transfer in front of me as well but started his mission the same time as me!! But ya to summarize it Up I am the Financial secretary for the mission until the new couple arrives!!!

Love you all hope you have a great week!!!
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June 28, 2015


 Another really fast week we have the new area book app right now on
our iPads so we have to take an hour a day and input stuff from the
area books to the new app so that really takes up some time because so
many missionaries before me had such bad handwriting and it is super
hard to tell what they wrote down and it is even harder because they
are writing in Japanese and it literally looks like chicken scratch it
is pretty awful plus they don't always use the best Japanese or didn't
report on the lesson so it's really and tedious so I don't really like
to do it, but you do what us gotta do right. Other than that really
didn't have all the much else go on beside the usual here. We visited
a lot of people and we found 2 new people to teach!! One of them seems
really promising she is a mom of two boys and has learned about
Christianity before so she wanted to hear more and we made an appt.
for Wednesday so I am excited for that. We got a  sushi goach(free
meal) from a member it was meh... I don't like sushi and everyone(5
missionaries in my district) said this place is so freaking good and
it was meh, my companion ate like $80 worth of sushi I had just under
$17 which was the least amount too, the member threw down like $250
and I felt so bad that is so much money! So made her a card but still
feel like I gotta do something more.

Any Sunday was good we had like 120 people for church it was so many
for a Japanese church I was blown away but it felt good to have a lot
of people at church! And have a lot of less actives show up as well we
did have a meal after church but whatever gets you to church right!!
Usual amount of people is 80ish so it was a pretty good jump!! But I
love this ward it reminds me of an American ward so that makes me
happy!!

Love you all have a great week!!!!

_________________________________________________________________________

June 21, 2015


Another week down in the Sapporo Japan Mission!! Lots of fun we
climbed Hakodate mountain not really a mountain but a big hill last
Pday so that was pretty fun! Went to a place called Yakiniku Bancho,
an all you can eat meat place so that was way delicious!! Other than
that is was the usual daily grind in the mission field lessons housing
finding and NA visits, we have a couple of good investigators here,
but progress is slow for most of them right now 2 of them come to
church and keep every commitment but have a few problems that we need
to help them with but things are looking up and I am super excited to
get going!

Saw a fox that was pretty cool the view was pretty good, very
beautiful city and decent view from the top of the hill.