Week Of The Sakura!
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 there! I've never seen so many people line up to look at
flowers.
A cool miracle happened with us and the cherry blossoms this week. We
went to the festival with my good friend T..., I have pics that I will
send. And while we looked at the flowers I told T... what the
symbolism is for the cherry blossoms. He thought it was interesting
but then I related it to the gospel by challenging him to take a new
start with the gospel. Try it again to see if it really is
true. I don't know if it was the magic of the cherry
blossoms or the power or God, probably God, but he agreed! He said that
he is going to start coming to church every week now for awhile to see
if he can feel those good feeling of going to church again and regain
his faith in God! I was so happy for him! The cherry blossom season is
really magical I guess!
Besides that, the week was really slow. School just started up for
all of the investigators who haven't moved to Tokyo so it made them
really hard to meet. Actually to tell you the truth we only were able
to meet with five people last week. It was pretty hard because we
were just straight finding for several days. We found lots of cool people
this week though, so I'm hoping this week is full of more lessons and less finding. I'm sure
the Lord will provide a way for us to teach His prepared people. We just
need to be on the look out for them.
Also, this week I got an unexpected break.
Two days ago I woke up freezing cold and
with a pounding headache. I could barely get out
of bed! But that is normal, so I just manned through it and started
studying as normal. But when it came to companion study, we started
with a song and I discovered that I didn't have a voice at all. It
was gone! (Probably from talking too much this week lol). By this
time my companion was worried because without a voice, that
meant that I couldn't talk so he would have to do all of it. We
practiced a lot of door approaches during the study time and planned for
our lessons so he could handle it with minimal help from me. After
study, the Zone Leaders came in because they noticed that it was very
quite in our room and had me take my temperature. It was 101 which
meant I had to stay home all day because I was contagious. The
mission mom told me that I needed to get lots of rest to get better
for Church because we had 2 really cool people planned to come to Church,
so I took her advice to heart and slept for almost 7 hours
straight. During this time my companion was working really hard and
trying his best to call all of the people in our area book. So this
day was amazing for both of us. It gave me the rest that I needed
after a long hard week and it gave my companion more practice speaking
Japanese and improving his missionary capabilities. I guess the Lord works in
mysterious ways to further his work and this time, he decided to put
me down for a day. Luckily I did get better to go to church. Actually it
was very miraculous, I went to bed that night with a 101 fever and I
woke up with a 97.8 normal temperature. I guess that was God just
telling me that one day rest was enough and I needed to get back to
it. Lol. I'm just glad that sometimes God lets us have a rest
when we are in the most need of it. And don't worry mom and
dad, I am doing great now. All I need now is to get rid of my runny
nose.
Well, I think that's everything for this week. Thanks for all of your
love and prayers for me always. I am really excited to watch General
Conference this week. I will definitely be on the look out for my
favorite talks. Thanks for all of the recommendations on talks! It
sounds like a great one this time. Love you all lots and lots!
Love,
Eric Stevens
Sent from my iPad
Ps we got our new iPad mini 2 last week. They are so fast!!
.jpg)
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 there! I've never seen so many people line up to look at
flowers.
A cool miracle happened with us and the cherry blossoms this week. We
went to the festival with my good friend T..., I have pics that I will
send. And while we looked at the flowers I told T... what the
symbolism is for the cherry blossoms. He thought it was interesting
but then I related it to the gospel by challenging him to take a new
start with the gospel. Try it again to see if it really is
true. I don't know if it was the magic of the cherry
blossoms or the power or God, probably God, but he agreed! He said that
he is going to start coming to church every week now for awhile to see
if he can feel those good feeling of going to church again and regain
his faith in God! I was so happy for him! The cherry blossom season is
really magical I guess!
Besides that, the week was really slow. School just started up for
all of the investigators who haven't moved to Tokyo so it made them
really hard to meet. Actually to tell you the truth we only were able
to meet with five people last week. It was pretty hard because we
were just straight finding for several days. We found lots of cool people
this week though, so I'm hoping this week is full of more lessons and less finding. I'm sure
the Lord will provide a way for us to teach His prepared people. We just
need to be on the look out for them.
Also, this week I got an unexpected break.
Two days ago I woke up freezing cold and
with a pounding headache. I could barely get out
of bed! But that is normal, so I just manned through it and started
studying as normal. But when it came to companion study, we started
with a song and I discovered that I didn't have a voice at all. It
was gone! (Probably from talking too much this week lol). By this
time my companion was worried because without a voice, that
meant that I couldn't talk so he would have to do all of it. We
practiced a lot of door approaches during the study time and planned for
our lessons so he could handle it with minimal help from me. After
study, the Zone Leaders came in because they noticed that it was very
quite in our room and had me take my temperature. It was 101 which
meant I had to stay home all day because I was contagious. The
mission mom told me that I needed to get lots of rest to get better
for Church because we had 2 really cool people planned to come to Church,
so I took her advice to heart and slept for almost 7 hours
straight. During this time my companion was working really hard and
trying his best to call all of the people in our area book. So this
day was amazing for both of us. It gave me the rest that I needed
after a long hard week and it gave my companion more practice speaking
Japanese and improving his missionary capabilities. I guess the Lord works in
mysterious ways to further his work and this time, he decided to put
me down for a day. Luckily I did get better to go to church. Actually it
was very miraculous, I went to bed that night with a 101 fever and I
woke up with a 97.8 normal temperature. I guess that was God just
telling me that one day rest was enough and I needed to get back to
it. Lol. I'm just glad that sometimes God lets us have a rest
when we are in the most need of it. And don't worry mom and
dad, I am doing great now. All I need now is to get rid of my runny
nose.
Well, I think that's everything for this week. Thanks for all of your
love and prayers for me always. I am really excited to watch General
Conference this week. I will definitely be on the look out for my
favorite talks. Thanks for all of the recommendations on talks! It
sounds like a great one this time. Love you all lots and lots!
Love,
Eric Stevens
Sent from my iPad
Ps we got our new iPad mini 2 last week. They are so fast!!
Sakura Festival, Togane, Japan
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