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!