Eric's Mission, Tokyo, Japan

Hey everybody!  How are you all doing?   Wow it has been such a busy week and I don't know where to begin talking about it!  So the picture I sent you today is the lake that is right next to our apartment at night.  I really liked the pretty lights there and I thought that you would enjoy it.  But no, I didn't take it during the typhoon.  That's crazy to hear that we had a tsunami while I was here.  I hadn't even heard about it so thanks for the news.  I did hear that we had an earthquake though, but I slept right through it and I can't believe that I missed it!  My first earthquake and I totally missed it!  So guess what happened this week, the cops pulled me in for questioning again.  That's the 3rd time that has happened and I have no idea what they have against me!  All I was doing was passing our flyers for our free English class and they came over and took my id card and all of my info....

Konnichiwa minasan!  こんにちは   How is everybody doing?  Thank you for all of the emails that you sent me this week, I officially got more than both of my companions combined! lol  and Thank you so much grandma and grandpa Stevens for the care package that you sent me this week!  It was super amazing to have American candy again!  I'd forgotten how sweet it tasted! lol  So thanks!   We are all doing super awesome over here on the opposite side of the world! To answer mom's question, I didn't baptize any of the converts but I did witness for all of them.  We always try to have ward members baptize the converts so that they have an unbreakable tie to the ward.  All the missionaries will leave Japan someday so we just want to make sure that the converts have friends in the church.  The baptisms were so amazing!  F... gave his testimony at the end of the baptism and to end his testimony he said, " I...

Hello Everybody!   Where to begin?  About the pictures I sent, I am in the regular Tokyo mission but we are in the southern border of the mission and since we are in a ex-patriot ward, our area actually goes out of the mission.  So technically I serve in both the south and Tokyo mission.  lol  It felt so weird to leave the mission boundaries yesterday to visit our bishop, but don't worry, we had permission from our president.  And the picture I sent of the building was the south mission home and not our apartment.  I'll take some pictures tonight and send them to you soon.  General Conference was super awesome.  I hope that all the talks pumped you up as much as me!  I loved hearing all the talks about missionary work.  We actually watched conference at a members house the Mandoza's.  They have invited us over for dinner like 3 times in 4 weeks!  They're so awesome and we love their American co...

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 ...

With a population of 13.23 million, Tokyo is a great place to lose oneself in the work of the Lord.    Night contacting   Crowded trains   Urban sprawl   As Jesus Christ said, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."  Matthew 10:39.  Tokyo is a great place to be lost!

    Hello everybody!   It's nice to finally be able to email you from Japan!  First off I'd just like to answer some questions.  I got mom's letter on friday and it was so cool to get a letter!  Thanks a lot!  I am sending a letter out today so hopefully you will receive it in 10ish days.  We can't wait to get your care package because they don't have american candy here at all!  Its terrible. my companions nearly mobbed me when they found out I had some jolly ranchers left over from the flight. lol  Thank you so much for all of your emails.  Its soo good to hear from all of you and I hope that you enjoy reading my emails as much as I enjoy reading yours.  Well now to the good stuff.   Well first off, I was assigned to one of the 2 english speaking areas in all of Japan.  I guess the Lord was reading the last email I sent that said I would miss singing hymns in English. lol At...

  Eric is enjoying learning the Japanese language.  Here is a quick lesson on Japanese. In any given sentence there may be four ways to write in Japanese. 1.  Kanji are characters borrowed from Chinese and cannot be sounded out.      Example: 狗  dog 2.  Hiragana are characters of Japanese origin and can be sounded out. They have a curvy look to them.      Example: こんにちは  hello 3.  Katakana are characters of foreign origin and can be sounded out.  They have a straight line look to them.      Example: イエス·キリスト   Jesus Christ 4. Romaji are characters that are English letters that can be sounded out.       Example:  Dore  which Here is a typical Japanese sentence.  Can you find all of the different characters? 公園で自分の犬を歩いている間、私はハンバーガーを食べています  I am eating a hamburger while walking my dog in the park. It looks eas...