10th Week in Japan, 1st Area. Consecration.

My desk with my Ghibli collection

About your comment about my mission presidency, I do have a great mission presidency. They are all very caring and really in tune with the Spirit. 

Sorry, I don't have a lot of time for emailing.  We actually didn't go grocery shopping or clean today because we got a little lost in Shibuya; temple days are always so busy [temple day was yesterday].

I feel I'm serving with my heart, but there's still things I'm holding back so I'm not serving completely.  But I'm trying to overcome that.  It's mostly just fear and being obedient to the little small things.  I keep messing up but Sister Boden and I are setting goals and making plans for our next transfer [each transfer period is usually 6 weeks].  We are really going to be consecrated missionaries and see miracles!!

Miracle of the week:  We were invited in to an investigator's house.  She's never invited me in before and she's always been too busy to make an appointment.  I remember praying before visiting and really asking Heavenly Father to help her feel the spirit.  We were just going to stop by and share a new bible video told by children and she let us in. We met her inactive daughter who was baptized a year ago.  I really think we will finally get to see progress in her!  She's been an investigator for over a year. We call that an "eien no kyuudōsha."  Eternal investigator.

Until next time, Parker Shimai

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Meaning of consecration:  

What does “consecration” mean?

The word consecration isn’t a commonly used word, but even so, we might have an existing concept about what it means. In religion, the word consecration has been used in relation to the official ordaining of a person to be a preacher, a priest, or a missionary. This use implies consecration is for a special category of people.

But the consecration revealed in the New Testament is for every believer in Christ. It’s not something only for knowledgeable Christians or spiritually mature ones. In fact, as we’ll see, we cannot subjectively know the life of Christ in us or reach spiritual maturity without consecrating ourselves to the Lord. This is because consecration is the basis for every spiritual experience.

So what is consecration? Consecration is our giving ourselves to the Lord to become “a living sacrifice,” as Paul says in Romans 12:1:

“I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.”

In the Old Testament, a sacrifice was something set apart for God by being put on the altar. When people offered that thing to God, it no longer belonged to the one offering it. It belonged to God, for His use and His satisfaction.

Today, when we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, we become a living sacrifice. We give up our own claims on ourselves and put ourselves completely in His hands. Previously, our life was for our use and our satisfaction; now it is for His.

When we present ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice, we’re simply saying, “Lord, I am for You. I’m no longer for myself, the world, or anything else. I am for Your use and Your satisfaction.”    [from http://biblesforamerica.org/what-is-consecration/  ]  

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Temples are dedicated (consecrated) to the service of the Lord, after they are built or when they undergo major remodeling.   This is done by the Presidency of the church.  Usually at this time, the very final cornerstone is laid, and prayers to the Lord are given at this time.  After this, only members of the church who have passed a yearly worthiness interview, may enter beyond the front desk.  This may seem strange, but the Old Testament temple was the same way, where the gentiles could enter only the outer court.  The worthy Israelites had access to most of the temple, but the Holy of Holies was reserved for the High Priest only on the Day of Atonement.  Of course, after Jesus Christ was resurrected, the comforter (Holy Spirit) was sent, and the mandate was given that the gospel go to all the Nations.  Our souls, our bodies, are supposed to be worthy temples for the Spirit to dwell.  However, the physical temple, the consecrated buildings, fulfill a different role, and this role has never gone away.

Here's an evening picture of the new Temple in Sapporo Japan, dated 5/30/2016, by Tomoyuki Miyauchi.  This picture is from the internet (Sister Parker did not go there yesterday--she was at the Tokyo temple.)   Sapporo is in the Hokkaido Prefecture in the north.  Hokkaido is the big northern island.   The Sapporo temple will be dedicated in August 2016.  If you look closely, you can see some Asian influence in the architecture. http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/sapporo/construction/

Sapporo Japan Temple

The other LDS temple in Japan is at the opposite end of the country, in Fukuoka Japan (in the big island in the south). http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/fukuoka/ 

So now there soon will be three operating LDS temples in Japan.

9th Week in Japan -- 1st Area; Overcoming fear

As a missionary, I'm trying my best to overcome my weaknesses and putting everything on the altar (fears, or anything slowing me down from being an instrument in the Lord's hands).  I'm striving daily to be obedient and work hard, but not overwork.  Obedience is about saying, Not my will Lord, but Yours, be done.  I'm running everyday and working out for the full half hour.  I start personal study exactly at 8:00am, so I get the full time allotted for study.  At night, I end prayers by or before 10:30pm so I'm in bed and get the full 8 hours of sleep.  A tired missionary will be less productive and optimistic.  Every thought that I have I'm trying to turn to Jesus Christ and praying always.  I want to be completely clean and pure so that I can see more and more miracles working in myself and in the Japanese people.  

This mission is special.  The people here are special.  I believe by the time I leave my mission or toward the end, baptisms will be more common and the congregational wards will be multiplying and multiplying.  God's work only continues to move forward. (I call it Baptism Boomers. Tokyo mission is the mission of the baptism boomers [like baby boomers in the 1950's... ])   There are many family members here in Japan who need saving. One day Japan will be like Utah (lots of church members).  There are many people in Japan who are sad and hopeless and have no joy in their souls.  It's quite often for people here to not keep in touch with their family.  I'm glad I can email my family every week!   Time goes by so fast for me that it feels almost like I'm writing every other day! 

I can't wait to tell you all the wonderful experiences I have learning from Jesus Christ after my mission!  It's kind of hard to write it all out in one email, haha! 

I know it's a big sacrifice, but everything will be okay, if it doesn't feel like it is now.  God constantly watches over his children and he doesn't forget the faithful ones.  Always look to Heavenly Father, in every action, thought, and deed. When your whole heart sacrifices willingly, whatever the loss is, Heavenly Father gives back 100 fold blessings.   I am grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord.  

One thing I've learned, and am continuing to learn on my mission is that when you put the Lord first, He puts you first.  You find the fastest and most happiest joy in Jesus Christ, in His ways.  You can truly change into a brand new person: Into the potential being that God wants for you.  Small changes of mind, can cause great changes of heart. 

Alma 37:

6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

..These things confound the wise.  Miracles confound the wise.  The simpleness and boldness of what true disciples of Jesus Christ preach and teach confound the wise.  See also Acts 4:10-13

Thank you for sharing your new wisdom of the references between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Is it okay if I send you a talk by President Uchtdorf? It's really good, there's a story in there of two Elders.  I read the talk today.  It also mentioned about Peter and his fear and him overcoming it and becoming one of the most faithful disciples to Jesus Christ.  It's really amazing and very insightful. 

[ This talk, given by President Uchtdorf (2nd Counselor in the church Presidency) in June 2014, to the new mission presidents (so you won't find it in the Ensign archives), is called, "Fear Not, I am With Thee."   If you wish to have a transcript of this talk, please email a request to kirstenparkermission@gmail.com ].

So, Sister Riggs as I mentioned earlier got a sudden change in assignment and now is in a different location than I.   I have a new companion, Sister B______ who is great-- She's a really good organizer (this is not my forte, so this is helpful to me).

When Sister Riggs left, we wanted to have a district lunch (district of 4 people だけ) so we got ramen and it was SOOOO GOOD!! It has meat and thick noodles and spices and veggies and other delicious Japan goodies.

Here's a picture: 

  

Ramen lunch with the District

That's it for now.  Sincerely,  Parker, Shimai

8th Week in Japan, 1st Area. The Spirit can fill in the gaps.

When faith, work and endurance is the message,...

James 2: 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

When work is done, the message from Christ is:  Matthew 11: 

28 ¶Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Hello Everybody!

A New investigator and new potential investigator this week!! WOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! Obedience to the Lord is paying off :D

It is true what you mentioned about Japan.  Often Japanese people may say "Ah Bukyō."  Which means I'm Buddhist.  I could ask them what their favorite teaching is and they wouldn't know, they just claim the religion because their parents were that.  Sister Riggs got that often.  I felt impressed to go back and stop this mom that we biked past and she wasn't interested.  I had a thought pop in my head that was something like, "Sometimes you follow the Spirit and get rejected to get the right timing to meet the right person."  The next lady we stopped was interested in our message. We exchanged numbers and have talked on the phone! :)

That's a good idea about the index card with a scripture or positive thought written on it!  I do hand out chirashi [flyers] to people that aren't interested if they'll take it. I don't have as much email time today. We had other stuff to do like with an investigator and grocery shopping.  My comp is waiting for me.  I'll try to email more next week I'm so sorry!!!

This week has been great, but a bit different.   Since I've become area Senpai [Senior, a position of more responsibility], my Japanese is already noticeably improving and I can understand a bit better.  I was worried before about doing things right, but Sister Nagano [The Mission President's wife] called at the beginning of the week and comforted me.  Sometimes, I feel like I have the memory of a goldfish [probably due to having to remember so much right now, brain overload].  I give about 80% credit of my memory to the Spirit.  The Spirit has really lead Sister B______ [new companion] and me where we needed to go.

Even though I got lost sometimes [the Japanese address system can be a challenge], the timing of finding people was perfect. We were going to a member's house to give a gift to a young woman and I couldn't remember what apartment it was they lived in.  We walked a little further by the doors and there was the member we needed to talk to outside!  She just got home and her daughter was home.

We also were going to visit our investigator, and again, I couldn't remember the apartment number.  I was checking doors and double-checking and I couldn't remember where she lived.  But then we saw her on her bike.  She just arrived home and we were able to talk to her and invite her to read her scriptures!

We have a list of less-actives that we want to visit.  None of them were home this week.  We dropped a birthday card off at a less-active's house, I___ Shimai [Sister I____].   After we left, there was a lady I felt we needed to talk to that we passed.  She wasn't interested in our message. I remember thinking as we were turning around on our bikes to go speak to that lady, "sometimes the Spirit tells us to speak to people, even when they aren't interested in our message, so we can have the right timing to meet the next person who God has prepared."  The next lady we talked to spoke English. Her name is S______! She goes to a Japanese Christian church and was interested in our message. We exchanged phone numbers and will be meeting soon!! 

Take care,   Parker Shimai

Sent from my iPad

A thank you to Google translate:  https://translate.google.com/   It's a handy tool when you need it!

Here's a webpage with some typical gospel vocabulary words in Japanese:

http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/for-LDS-Missionaries.cfm    It also has audio.

The most important gospel word in Japanese, is, Jesus Christ  [ Iesu Kirisuto ], because he is our Savior [ Sukuinushi ]

Cultural note:  Parking lots in Japan, filled with bicycles too, not just cars

Mt. Fuji, image from a Google search