3rd Week In Japan - 1st Area. The Miracle Shower has Begun...

I am actually happy even though the language is challenging and missionary days are a lot of work.   This is a great time of my life!

Yes, there were several bad earthquakes in the southern part of Japan this past week, it's so sad.   Inquiring minds want to know:  Did I feel the earthquakes?  ---No, I was too far away.  We had a zone conference call that talked about earthquake precautions and our zone leaders talked us through our emergency kits.  Some of the food in our kits is expired, so we will buy more.. but we have plenty of water. They asked us regularly to practice earthquake drills. Sister Riggs and I talked about where we would run to safety around the apartment like if we were showering, sleeping, studying.. I haven't experienced an earthquake yet but I guess they are most common during spring and fall.  Thank you and others for your concern! 

In Japan here, the church wards are like family. Everyone takes care of each other.  I've only seen this ward so far, so I can't say for all wards, but they tend to be really involved in missionary work.  All the kids love missionaries and know the mission president.  We work a lot with the members and try to get them to come with us to lessons.  I've been trying to write down names and something about the person I've met.  Those are good ideas, to not just pass time with people, but get to know them, and then help investigators and members get to know each other too.  There are almost 200 members in the Okegawa ward though so I have a lot to memorize, but I'm getting there.  Last night, we ate at the N________ family's house.  They have a wonderful family with several children!   All meals I've had with members (except for one) have been absolutely delicious!  I played some guitar for them, they had a guitar.  Since coming on my mission, I've been using my talents often.  I've been drawing pictures and singing a lot. It's come back to me fast. 

We have visited members and less-actives from the ward.   I show them my mini photo album and they like looking at the pictures.  We've had 8 meal appointments. This is really rare.  Sister Riggs says that they rarely have meal appointments.  I've heard that the more members like you that the more they want to give to you.  We've been getting a lot of food donations and meals. :).  I am saying this to show that kindness begets kindness.  The social part of missionary work can be powerful.   When people feel loved, and when they feel that others are interested in them, they often will rise to the occasion and do great things.   This is also motivating to myself.  I feel like I want to do more because these people and my mission companion show love to me also.

So my other thoughts are --- What have you learned from a child this week? 

Mosiah 3:19

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

In order to receive entrance into the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children. A child always looks to his or her parent for guidance, help, and strength. They always seek their love. They jump in the arms of their mother or father.  They are willing to do whatever their parents tell them too. We are God's children. He wants us to depend and rely on him and his son Jesus Christ.

My testimony and confidence in the Lord's work has strengthened this week as Sister Riggs and I have followed the direction of the Spirit.  Many miracles have occurred! There are tender mercies everyday.  We've been able to get hold of more potential investigators and less actives.  We've scheduled appointments; They have opened up to us and we are able to see how we can help them progress.  We have one new investigator, as well!  Her name is L______ and she's from Africa.  She has 3 children.  She is such a sweet lady and has desires to go to church and come closer to God.  Life is hard for her, but she is strong.  Sister Riggs and I think she may be a Kinjin (term for golden investigator, one ready to receive the awesomeness of the gospel).  It was amazing talking to her and feeling the Spirit.  We knew exactly what to tell her to help comfort her.

I'm adjusting better to the missionary life. I've realized that I have been more stressed with the language than I thought, but I know I just need to keep enduring and studying as best as I can. This week I'm going to focus on diligence. I don't want to waste any precious time for God's work.
Until next week!! :D

Parker Shimai

p.s. Here's a city scene picture from Omiya.   "Dorothy says:  Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

2nd week in Japan -- 1st area

Hello Again!

I loved General Conference.  We finished it on Saturday.  Elder Uchtdorf's talk and Elder Holland's talks were the best!!!! They are my favorite!  Elder Eyring's was pretty good too. Elder Holland is my most favorite speaker though. 

"The greatest part about the gospel is that you get credit for trying."

How is missionary work going here so far?  

Well, We were talking to a lady on the train today who is in the religion like Takai or something. They believe everyone is the same level and they worship at Fuji.  She was really sweet, we talked about how we too believe everyone is the same in our religion and we are all children of God.  She was kind of like "oh hmm nice, that's cool." Many people aren't interested, but some are. Mostly everyone here is very nice and will talk to you. It's funny getting rejected to hear about the gospel in Japan compared to other places.  They are considerate and will just say "no thank you, I'm not interested."  They'll give funny excuses when we go housing or streeting asking if they would like to hear about a message of Jesus Christ. The responses of rejection we get are pretty reasonable. They'll say something like, 

It's cold, sorry.
I'm holding my dog.
I have a baby.
It's dark outside.
I don't understand.
I'm in a rush.
I'm inside my house.
I'm Japanese.
I'm Buddhist. .. Us: "Oh great! What's your favorite thing about Buddhism?" *person walks away*
Sorry, I live in Japan.
I don't speak English.

This is literally the worst rejection I could get in Japan.. So far.  Being a missionary is great!  I've seen so many things and my love for these people keeps growing.  I know I need to be patient with finding investigators, as the Lord is patient with me and my mistake-full self.

Constantly, my companion and I are looking for people to teach who are looking for truth in their life, those who are ready to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some questions we approach people with are like if they're interested in what we have to say or have any interest in hearing more about Jesus Christ, our religion, etc. 

We are going to reach out to youth more. Our mission is a pilot program and are going to start teaching a tutoring English class.  In order to get into high school, students have to take an English conversation and interactive test (Eiken). Our mission president believes this will really build the church up, it will keep the church alive, since there are many older people here in Japan.

Kodomo eikawa. English class for kids. They're so cute!! Today was my first. It was hard to take a picture with all of them.

Asian people were originally Christian I believe. Japanese and Koreans both incorporate Chinese characters in their writing. The kanji appeared about 4000BC or something?  Many of their characters point to the Laws of Moses and Jesus Christ and prophesies. 禁じる (kinjiru) is the verb to prohibit. If you see these two symbols 木, this means Ki or tree, but can also represent a person ( 2 people). 示す (shimesu) means to show.  Both of these kanji (示 and 木) make this 禁.. This meaning relates to God and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith in a forest, revealing and showing to him the truth, prohibiting him to join none of the other churches, as a marvelous work was about to come forth.

We had a busy day today. There was some visiting members on Sunday, a family of Americans, who we spent the day with today.  We were riding the train for a while and we tried on kimonos!

We did a lot of sightseeing today! Lots of walking and I tried Japanese ramen today, hand-made noodles.  Still can't believe how delicious the food is here and simple!  So the food isn't too expensive, it's only some fresh foods that are overpriced, we make curry often, and it has apples, eggplants, radish, potato, sweet potato, something green I think, onions, and meat. The fruit is kind of expensive but we just buy the apples in bulk and the bananas aren't too expensive. We ate strawberries and melon at a members house.  I asked my companion if we could ask some people with home gardens to buy food from them and she says we could probably do that.  Maybe we could find a farmers market too! That would be cool. They have really good candy here, too.  Ha,ha, there's this chocolate called Black thunder. It's like a Twix, Kit Kat, and a chocolate biscuit in one.

So they eat a lot of raw eggs here and they are orange. You can actually eat Japanese raw eggs and not get sick. I eat it with Nato (fermented beans). It's super healthy. And these eggs taste soooo good. It's like there's melted cheese inside of them.

Here's another picture of something we saw on our P-Day outing to Kawagoiya.  [I'm not sure what it is, but it looks interesting.]

Love, Parker Shimai

For those who love music - 2nd week in Japan

Kirsten:  "There's this amazing song from the Japanese hymn book that we don't have in English. It's called, 'Waiting for the Reapers.'  During WWII, all missionaries were taken out of Japan, and the members wrote this song I believe."   [Since this song was found previous to WWII, I think what occurred was that the Japanese church members translated the song and adapted it to their hymn book.]

from books.google.com

Latter-Day Saints' Sunday School Hymn Book: The Word Companion of the Deseret Sunday School Song Book,

5th Edition, 1903.

No. 21 (page 30)  

                 VERSE 1

Waiting for the reapers' sickles,

Waves the whitened harvest field;

Harbingers of love and mercy,

Forward go and bind the sheaves.

Go, ye lab'rers, bold with courage,        [laborers]

Reap the golden-headed grain --

Ripened fields all waiting, waiting,

Since the Son of God was slain.

                  CHORUS 

Seize the torch, the torch, and wave it;

Zion's heralds loud proclaim;

Hallelujah! swell the chorus,

Jesus Christ our Lord shall reign.

                  VERSE 2

Waiting for the morrow's dawning,

Work ye while 'tis called today,

Lo, the harvest time now coming,

Jesus calls, make no delay.

Gather in the spacious garner

Seed-time harvest ushers in;

Wake the song, millennial glory

Dawns upon a world of sin.

(Sorry I couldn't get the hymn in any bigger)

(K-Mom here:  I looked for this song on You Tube and couldn't find it.   If anybody hears a "calling" and can find this hymn on You Tube, or even better, perform it in English or Japanese, and upload it, I'd love it!  I can fax it full size /the Japanese version/ since I have a paper copy.   Just email me at the email from which you get your weekly letter from me.)

First Week in Japan -- First Area in Japan

Sister Parker & Sister Riggs in front of a Shinto gate (the red structure) ("torii" in Japanese)

Hello Everybody!

So I am here in my new area, Okegawa, Japan, with my new companion, Sister Riggs!!!   Sister Riggs is from Idaho, She's so humble and has that mission fire.   As you see, I also got a new name tag which is the same as before, except it is 100% in Japanese now.

 Okegawa is about 27 miles northwest of Tokyo.    There are about 75,000 inhabitants occupying about 10 square miles.  It is in the Saitama Prefecture.   A prefecture is a local governmental area and roughly corresponds to what we think of as, a county.   Each one of those prefectures is then in a bigger region.  In the map below, there are 9 regions.  Think of a region as a little bit like a state, but the region is just a geographical area, not a political area.   The prefecture I am in, is in the light green region of the map just below:

A torii (the Shinto gate behind me in the picture at the top) is considered  a passage from the profane, to the sacred.  On a map, it marks the places where there is a Shinto shrine, or sometimes a Buddhist temple, or even a marker for a dedicatory spot of gratitude and offerings for good fortune received (such as a business man saying "thank you" to diety, "Inari Okami").  

There is a meaning though to these gates to those who possess a Christian - Hebrew understanding of very ancient Japanese cultural things:   "All Shinto shrines have a red gate before you enter.   This is the symbol of the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.   When the Angel of Destruction came in the night in Egypt to take the life of the firstborn son of each family, it did not enter the homes that had lamb's blood on the door frames.   This is the same symbol.   There are many symbols in temples and traditions that Japanese people follow that resemble Jesus Christ's teachings!"  (Exodus 11 and 12)

For those who are interested, you can read up more on the Japanese - Israelite ancient connection:

http://www2.biglobe.ne.jp/~remnant/isracame.htm      There are probably other articles too.  This is just one.

As for my trip, it was really long, going on very little sleep the night before at the MTC (I went to bed at midnight and got up just before 3am).  Gratefully, they fed me good airplane food! There were snacks, dinner and breakfast,  I liked it.  Complimentary pillows and blanket, earphones, and a sleeping mask.  I couldn't see the ocean though, I was in a middle row far away from the windows. It was a nice flight,  I talked to some people about the church.  However, the last part of the plane ride (the landing) made me feel kind of sick.  For the next few days I felt a little bit nauseous, but I slept really well at night and still do.  I go out like a light.  The futon beds are really comfortable and everyone is so nice!   As we were driving from the airport, everything was like a dream, there's nature everywhere and it's beauuuuuutifuuuuuullllll. So beautiful!  And the buildings are like from a cartoon.  Since I was sleepy and a little nauseous, it felt like a dream kind of, haha.  It didn't feel like I left Utah yet though.  I slept at the Nagano's house with Sister Burke.   The Naganos fed us really yummy food and the next day we got our iPads and our new companion.  We took the train, got off a few trains and walked to Okegawa,  I think this place has the biggest ward in Tokyo mission (over 200 members).  I haven't been on a bus yet.

My companion, Sister Riggs, is so caring and considerate.  She's been slowly introducing Japanese food to me and so far I love it all!  She cooks simply, but it's really tasty. We ate at a members house for the first time yesterday and it was delicious!  We sit on the floor in people's homes.   Some people have said that my Japanese is good.  I don't know... maybe they are just being nice. 

Here's a funny video about my trying Natto for the first time.  

"Nattō (なっとう or 納豆 ^?) is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans, fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto.  Some eat it as a breakfast food. It is served with soy sauce, karashi mustard and welsh onion.  Nattō may be an acquired taste because of its powerful smell, strong flavor, and slimy texture."  (from Wikipedia)

I haven't done a lot of proselyting because transfer week is kind of crazy. I got my bike and stuff and it's nice. It was raining a little today. The weather was perfect when I got here. 

Here are a couple more photos:

BEAUTIFUL NATURE!

First Full day in the Japan Tokyo Mission (after getting some sleep)

Arriving Missionaries, their new companions, and President and Sister Nagano.  Notice that Sister Parker's former MTC companion, Sister Burke, is in the bright blue shirt.   Sister Pearson (also a former MTC companion) went to a different Japan mission in the north and is thus obviously not seen in this photo.

Sister Kirsten Parker, companion Sister Riggs, and President and Sister Nagano

March 25, 2016 -- Last Days at the MTC, Easter Message

These are my last days at the MTC.  Next week I will be in Japan.   I'm so excited!   I have already done some packing.  

In this past choir:

It was a powerful experience.. So during choir, Brother Eggett, the choir director, always tells spiritual stories with the song that we practice. We were singing Lead Kindly Light (hymn # 97) and the story behind it is really neat. The lyrics are written by John Henry Newman.  He was sailing on the sea for a while and the ocean was calm for a while but the waves were very big so the boat would move up and down constantly. John Henry Newman had malaria and so he though he was going to die from his malaria being effected by the motion. Days had passed and fog rolled in and it was dark and gloomy. He was convinced he would die. He didn't want to, however. All his life he was prideful and followed his own ways instead of God. 

"If God can save me from dying then I will follow him the rest of my life." He felt he should write down this commitment, so he grabbed a paper and pen and this is what he wrote:

"Lead, kindly Light, amid th'encircling gloom;

Lead thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home;

Lead thou me on!

Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene--one step enough for me.

 I was not ever thus, nor pray'd that thou

Shouldst lead me on. 

I loved to choose and see my path; but now,

Lead thou me on!

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,

Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years.

So long thy pow'r hath blest me, sure it still

Will lead me on

O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till

The night is gone.

And with the morn those angel faces smile,

Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!"

My mom gave me an Easter message which I will share with you:

  

  

    

    

    

NEW LIFE IS ABUNDANTLY BIRTHING -- THE SUN BEGINS TO SHINE AND THE GRASS IS TURNING GREEN 

HE IS RISEN!

THE BEST PART OF EASTER IS CHRIST'S PROMISE TO THE RIGHTEOUS FAITHFUL:  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.   John 6:47    The word "verily" means [truely, it is true].    Baptism by immersion is a symbol of this promise, that the righteous faithful will be raised from the dead and return to the Father.

In the last few years, I spent more time trying to understand the atonement.  I could not understand why God the Father would require His perfect Son to give his life  -- after all, he didn't deserve it.   Doesn't that seem cruel?   When I was younger, any time there was a short video about Jesus, by the time they got to the part where he was crucified, I would turn my eyes away and try to block out the sound in my mind, for several minutes.   I just didn't want to face that part.  With time, age-experience, and study, I have come to realize that Christ had to die for several reasons.

1.  God the Father is just; he is the Creator of a perfect creation.  We messed up His creation, as well as ourselves.  Justice says that you just don't let the guilty go free without no punishment of some kind.   Otherwise, we would never learn from our mistakes and deliberate wrong actions.   We do pay part of the price.   We do in fact, suffer and die.  We are not capable of paying the full price though of what we have done to this world and to ourselves, and continue to do everyday when wrong is done.  Having become unclean and imperfect, we cannot go to where the Father is.   We could not bear his presence.  Had we had the full weight of the price, we would be completely turned over to Satan because we had followed him.    However, out of love, there had to be a way made possible for us to return to our Heavenly Father.  Jesus Christ made that possible.   

The terms were, that we would have to turn away from the Adversary, and from our own carnal desires, and turn towards Him.  We would have to repent (and continue repenting throughout our life, seeking to perfect ourselves).   We would also have to have Faith in Him and become like Him, through the assistance of the Holy Spirit.   We would also have to forgive others, but still support righteous principles.   We would have to be peacemakers.  We would have to keep His commandments, and also share the gospel with others.

2.  Jesus Christ also had to die in order to descend below all evil, in order to spiritually fight it and overcome it.   If we could see it, we would realize that our sinful thoughts and actions have real effects which can't just be wished away.  He fought against spiritual evil.  Jesus has the Keys of Death and Hell and he started the process of setting us Free.    Had he not come when he did, our outcome would be different and there would've been no chance for us humans.   The weight of our spiritual and physical corruption would crush us.   Our planet and we all, would die eventually.  Jesus' atonement was eternal, because it corrected present, past, and future.  We were not strong enough to make a full atonement for ourselves and everyone we affect.   Jesus Christ was strong enough.   When he was done fighting Satan, he said, "It is finished" and he departed his tortured body and went to the Spirit realm.   There was a great earthquake then and the veil of the temple in Jerusalem was torn.

3.  Jesus Christ didn't come just to vanquish the Roman emperor as many of his people wanted him to do as Messiah.   Jesus came to vanquish the enemy of all enemies, Satan, who is the source of all corruption, suffering, blood, and horror on this earth.

4.  Jesus Christ came to prove his love.   He proved by giving his life like a lamb, over to torture and death by Satan as well as by the Roman soldiers, that he eternally loves us.   Everything that he did, qualifies him to be our world leader, Savior, Redeemer, and friend when he returns soon with power and with glory.  The marks and his loving spirit will prove it is the same person that we have heard about for over 2000 years.

Time for me to go dear daughter.   I hope you feel the appreciation of the promises that Jesus Christ gave to you when you were baptized in His Name.

45th day at the MTC - Origami dresses to deal with the stresses ;-)

               

               

The new missionaries ("Kohai") arrived, and they are all so awesome!  We have 7 sisters ("Shimai") and 4 Elders ("Choro").  We decorated the Sisters' doors with hearts and origami dresses that we folded. 

Decorating the doors may seem like a small gesture, but it is by small and simple means, sometimes, that we show love towards one another, in letting others know that they are wanted and appreciated.

Romans 12: 10   Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly [and sisterly] love; 

Love, Parker Shimai