Back To Tokyo, Sad Good Byes, and Birthday Cake!

June 09, 2014

Hello Everyone!

Here is another report coming to you from the middle of a land of
concrete and not much else. I have finally gotten settled into my new
area but I still haven't had time to unpack everything. The apartment
is so much smaller than the last one I was in. Tokyo's going pretty
great but it was a really big shocker when I saw so many foreigners
just like me. I'd forgotten how different it was to dendo gaijin than
it is to dendo nihonjin. I need to hone my gaijin skills again. Things are
a little slow in our area, but Elder Ta'ua and I
have some pretty amazing goals set up so we are going to see a big
change soon.
My companion Elder Ta'ua is pretty sweet. He is transfer 6 so he has
been on his mission for about 9 months already. He likes to joke
around a lot so we get along really well. Actually one time while I
was in the bathroom, he hid himself so when I came out I couldn't find
him at all. I started freaking out looking for him cuz I thought he
had been stolen or something but when I couldn't find him I started
looking for the phone to call the zone leaders for help. Luckily I
found him hiding behind a bookshelf before I found the phone. He's a
funny guy. Looking at his name one would think that he is from
Hawaii, but really he is from Utah. さすがね。(of course) Everyone is
from Utah here.
So I'm a little freaked right now. Why you may ask, well because I am
the oldest serving missionary in my apartment right now. It's freaking
scary man! I haven't been out for over a year but now I am the father
of the apartment as we call it. I am now transfer 7 and serving with
Elder Ta'ua transfer 6, Elder Chugg transfer 5, and Elder Sugimoto
transfer 1. That's right, a brand new Japanese missionary! So I get
to keep up my Japanese while I am in the English ward! The Lord
always provides. But even though I am the Oldest in the apartment,
Elder Ta'ua is the district leader because he has been in Tokyo
1st Ward for awhile so he knows the area and the missionaries better than I
do. Actually I don't know anyone here at all.
So as you know last Sunday we had 50 people in Church in Togane. So
they are writing up a paper on it to give to all of the
other missionaries so that they can know what to do to help with
Church attendance. I was totally okay for the idea until I found out that they
wanted me to write some of it up cuz I was the district leader. It
was taking forever to write up so I decided to send everything to
Elder Young in Australia so that he could write it up cuz he has so
much more free time now. But back to Tokyo, I was worried again
because at first we had no one coming to church with us Saturday
night. To go from 50 to 0 in a week was really depressing to me so we
called like everyone and invited them but they couldn't come at all.
So Sunday came and we were sitting alone. :( But after Sacrament
meeting, we found out that 2 investigators came to church. We set up
another appointment with one of them for this week. The Lord does
always provide.
Now to answer some questions. I do have a canvass side bag that I
wear. I have gotten both of the packages for my birthday. I opened
the one from the family because I wanted to make the cake before I left but I
haven't opened the one from Grandma and Grandpa Stevens yet. I decided
to wait to open the stretchy bands until it was my birthday so I have to
wait 4 more days! The party was great and the cake was amazing!
Everyone loved it but it was also really sad because we ate it the day
before I left after English class, there were tears in my eyes and we
had to take lots of pics. I hate pics! But I will send you some of
the pics when I get some wifi. We don't have it in the apartment.
Well I love you all! Thanks for the FIFA World Cup updates dad. I
hope U.S.A. beats Germany. Have a fun week and I will email you again
soon!

love,
Eric Stevens

ps. make sure that Andrew checks his missionary email. I sent him
something there.