Visit to the Police Station

Hey,

First of all I'd like to apologize for not being able to email you last Monday.  We had to go shopping for my bike and for groceries and then we got pulled in for questioning by the police so I had like 0 time for emailing.  I feel really bad about it so Ill try to make this letter super awesome! 

First of all, thank you so much for all of the letters that I have received.  I've gotten like 6 and all of my companions are super jealous, especially about the package with lots of goodies in it!  It always makes me feel so loved to get them so thanks a bunch!  Have you gotten any of the pictures that I sent you the past 2 weeks?  Ill try to send them again because I guess you didn't get them last week.

Well its been raining everyday here for the past few weeks and all of my clothes are pretty wet.  I also found out that all of my ties that I brought are 100% silk so Ill have to buy some new ones so that they don't get too ruined.  And good news, I found some toilet paper at the store the other day!  And of course I bought some!  It's pink and smells like flowers.  Sorry, that was just a random fact of the day. lol 

 

So about the police thing.  I'm sure that you'd love to know a little more about that.  We were on our way to the grocery store and we stopped by the police station to ask them for directions on how to get there.  We pull up and the policeman comes out and asks us to show him our gaijin cards (foreigner) as we call them.  Well since I don't know Japanese very well, I didn't know what he was asking and I didn't get out my card so they thought I didn't have it.  So they pulled me into the station and started to question me to figure out if I was really here legally or not.  After a while my companions stopped laughing and told me that I needed to show them my gaijin card.  After that they apologized a lot and they let us go to the store.  It was a very interesting experience.  But that's not all.  We were driving to a members house to have dinner with them and to teach a lesson to someone named B...and B...got pulled over by the cops for questioning.  We had to turn around so that my companions could interpret for him.  And while we were there, they made us show them our cards again!  Luckily I knew what they were asking for this time so I didn't have to go in for more questioning.  But B... had forgotten his card at home so they had to drive him in a cop car to an even bigger police station and detain him until they could prove that he was there legally.  And of course because he was in jail we didn't get to teach him a lesson.  But he got out and he decided that that was a sign from God and he is now getting baptized on the 20th of October.  So I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways. lol 

So on the baptism front. We have 5 people with baptism dates right now which is super exciting.  The ward is so happy and they are having an "Invite a friend to Church day" on the 20th because we have 3 baptisms scheduled that day.  They are even going to cancel the last hour of church so that there will have enough time for the baptisms before the other ward starts.  Its going to be soo cool to be there for that.

 

I hope that you all enjoyed general conference this weekend.  In Japan we don't get to watch conference until next weekend because they have to translate it for all of the Japanese people in that time I guess.  Actually I don't know why we have to wait but yeah that's the way it is.  I'm so excited to be able to see the talks and Ill try very hard not to fall asleep like I usually do. lol

I did finally get my bike the other day and I've figured out that its impossible to have nice polished shoes while riding a bike!  Its actually pretty scary sometimes because there are just so many people on the sidewalks and streets and we always have to dodge them all the time!

 

Keep up the good work and be safe!  I love you and miss you all so much!  I am so glad to have the chance to have known all of you for such an amazing 19 years.  I love and miss you a lot!  Keep in touch!  I love you again!

 

Elder Stevens