September 10, 2015-Elder Tristan Stevens

[Mom's note: Well, Tristan did not send a general email to the group so I will update you with the short emails we got from him on Sept. 10, his P Day.

Just started my load of laundry. I wont go to the temple until either later this morning or in the afternoon. The language is okay, still tough but I work hard to keep busy. My companion is Elder Dibble. He is 6'8" and we get along well. Except he doesnt believe that Stockton and Malone are the best duo the NBA has seen. His argument is Pippen and Jordan but I dont think they are close because they werent like a duo they were just two good players on a team together. During gym time he didnt believe I had moves in the post down low and I smoked him with my fake shots. We have similar goals and interests so its good that we get along and work hard together. As district leader I take care of my district. I pray every morning and night for the members of my district and pray for specific needs that they have so my prayers have become much longer. I have leadership training I think twice a week and one district meeting on Sundays where I conduct and assign members of my district to teach a lesson. I have weekly reports to my branch president that include things like companion problems or health problems but yeah its not too much in the mtc, just a load of stress since day 2. I enjoy just food and snacks because the food is so gross compared to the stuff at home. I am pretty sure I have lost weight and thats not good. I had the opportunity to give Elder Dibble a blessing when he got super sick with a cold and the next day he was fine. I have gained a strong testimony of many things but one thing I have come to learn is that a mission isnt what determines if you make it to the celestial kingdom or anything like that, and a testimony isnt enough either. True conversion to this Gospel, His Atonement, and living day by day with that in mind is what allows us to use the atonement to make it back. I will continue to work hard and stay busy. I sent a letter home, you should get it today or tomorrow. The Dear Elders are nice thanks for those. Love you.

He did play ball, but he is 6'8" and super uncoordinated so its not hard to beat him. Parry Choro is from Salem he is athletic and social and a cool guy. Roley Choro is from Virginia he is super quiet and doesnt really talk at all and he does karate during gym. Carr Choro is a linguistics major and a mini uncle michael but a lot more like I am holier than thou mentality and Abarca Choro is just i cant read him he is from texas and all he did before his mission was party and stuff and watch anime for 24/7.  I have seen mckay and colton and they are fine. I played soccer today and it was fun but not that fun cause no one  is even good. My MTC teacher is cool I guess. He tells us stories about Japan. We heard from Bishop Causse and the Provo Temple President and they were both good. I have taken a lot of notes. I am working hard.

 Stevens Choro

September 6, 2015

 Highlights got my license in Japan you can't smile so gave my best mad
face picture. Next is a pic with Hakodate district and finally is my
MTC group that came to Japan with me.  That's about it all the new
missionaries came this week so we were super busy, but me and elder
owada got out and saw some good success this week we visited a NA and
we did some housing and some phone missionary work made 2 appointments
to call and talk about the gospel with people during that time as
well!! But that is the week hope you all have a great week and i will
talk to you all next week!!

                                   My District Group and the group I came with from the MTC

                                                                    
                                                 

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September 4, 2015

[Mom's note: As you know Tristan went into the Provo MTC on Wed., Sept. 2. We received this short email from him today, Friday, Sept. 4th]

Herro Family,

Everything is okay I guess, I havent really ate much I feel like I lost weight but its okay. Have a fun week. I am district leader on day 2. Crazy. Thursday is my P Day bigger email then. Miss you guys so much.... Its hard but I will fight back and do my best to work hard

Elder Stevens

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!!