Eric's Mission, Tokyo, Japan

Hey Everyone! Well guess what, it's that time again to say goodbye to another area. Yep that's right, we had our transfer calls and I am leaving the rolling hills and the rice fields of Togane to head into the concrete jungle of Tokyo.  I was called to serve in the Senzokuike Ward which is the Japanese Ward that is in the same church building that the English speaking 2nd Ward goes to.  It's very ironic because the 2nd Ward was my first area that I served in and the missionaries from there and Senzokuike live in the same apartment.  So technically I am going back to my first area, but to speak Japanese instead of English. So I will be finishing my mission serving in the same place I served when I first began.  It's funny how things work like that.  I will be working with a new missionary.  He is from Canada and is a transfer 3, so I get to follow up train again.  For the past three transfers I've been working with transfer 3 mission...

Hey Everyone! You'll never guess what we did today.  We had our temple pday in Tokyo. Afterwards, my friends from our district and I decided to go on an adventure.  I haven't really done too much touristy stuff in Japan so we decided to go all out.  We took a day trip to Odaiba.  It's a little man-made island that used to be a huge military base but it was recently turned into the biggest tourist hotspot in Japan.  You should look it up!  We went to a really cool mall and visited a trick art museum.  For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a museum where all the art is 3-D so you can take pictures of yourself inside the picture.  I usually don't like taking pictures, but I made an exception for this because it was so neat.  I have them all on my camera so I have to transfer them to the iPad before I send them, but I'll make sure to get those to you asap.  While we were at the museum we saw Legolan...

Hello Everyone! How has your week been?  I've heard that there was a ton of rain last week.  We had quite a bit as well so I guess we are in the same boat.  But you know what they say, April showers being May flowers.  I wonder if they have pretty flowers in May over here or if they are all gone with the cherry blossoms.  This week wasn't very eventful lesson or teaching wise, actually it was one of the  slowest weeks on my mission, but we still had lots of fun and had a great spiritually uplifting session of General  Conference.  We had to take an hour and a half train ride to get to the conference so it was really hard to get investigators there to watch it.  We watched it with everyone in mind though, so the next time we meet them we will be sure to show them our favorite talks.  What was up with all the talks about getting married?  It was so awkward for me because I was sitting right next to the sister missionar...

Hey Everyone! How was your week?  Mine was pretty fancy not ganna lie!  It all started with a wonderful sign of Spring, the cherry blossoms!  They started blooming a couple weeks ago but this week they were out in full force!  Do you know what the cherry blossoms symbolize?  I didn't either until this week.  The cherry blossoms always bloom when the good spring weather is about to start.  I guess sorta like groundhog's day except more accurate.  So when they bloom it symbolizes the start of a new year.  Or a new beginning if you will.  They also have another meaning though.  The Sakura blossoms only last for a week before they die and turn into green leaves.  So to the Japanese people this means that you need to enjoy all good things while you can because they won't last.  And the Japanese people certainly did enjoy the cherry blossoms before they faded away.  The festival was jam packed while I was the...