23rd Week in Japan. 2nd Area. Teaching exchanges, visiting less-actives.

9/5/2016

Let's start with pictures this time-- 
Last week, we had teaching exchanges and I got to go out with my Senpai, Sister Alaverenga.  She's a great missionary!!

[ Senpai = Older graduate or Senior, i.e. Sister Alaverenga was at the MTC for part of the time when Sister Parker was there, but left earlier for Japan due to entering at an earlier date than Sister Parker ]

We had a very interesting lesson on Saturday. We went with M_______ Shimai, a member, to an investigator's house and taught there which was pretty good.  We have high hopes for her, O______-San.  And then afterwards, we went up to Hitachi to visit a less-active named F______ Shimai. 

(By the way, in Japanese terms like "Sister, brother, san, etc." go after the name of people.  So my name Sister Parker is, Paakaa Shimai.) とにかく、

M_______ Shimai knew F_______ Shimai well, so when we came, they were talking the whole time, which was great!  First, she greeted us with a big hug and a smile!  She is so tiny,  but very friendly!  She showed us pictures of missionaries that she and her sister dated, while they [the Elders] were still on their mission--Very disobedient. 

[The Elder missionaries are not there to date at that time.  After the mission, after returning home is when they can date and marry, the Elders would've known better.]  It was kind of shocking, although I've heard many things that have happened a long time ago in Japan.  Now we have probably one of the most obedient missions ever.  But, at the time in the early 1980's, some young ladies thought that by dating the missionaries and getting baptized that they would marry the missionaries [not the right reason to get baptized].  I was having a hard time focusing on what they were talking about at first.   Before we left, I said I short prayer for her, which touched her heart.  She asked that we come back again, at anytime.  We shared Alma 18:32 with her:

"32 And Ammon said: Yea, and he looketh down upon all the children of men; and he knows all the thoughts and intents of the heart; for by his hand were they all created from the beginning."

She wants to come to church. I hope we can meet again this week!!

I've learned how important it is to work with the ward. We cannot do the work alone with just two missionaries. We are always asking ourselves, the Elders, our missionary ward leader, our bishop, members, and God daily how we can better strengthen the ward. Everyone is family, everyone is a child of God.  As we are bringing new people who enter into the path of righteousness, the missionaries cannot always be there to support those new members.  They need friends in the ward [congregation].   As we've been doing member-present lessons, it's made a big difference in my understanding of teaching.  

[A member-present lesson is when the missionary brings an active member (i.e. actively attending member) of the church to visit a less-active member, and a lesson is given]

By the way, my hand has healed very quickly from my bicycle accident a few weeks ago.  I had bruises on my legs too, but they are almost gone.

Well, that's it for now,

Sister Kirsten Parker

Sent from the white fields of Japan 🍲🌅

22nd week in Japan. 2nd Area. We Must Be Born Again, and again.

Hello Everyone!

8/29/2016

It takes a lifetime to not even become close to perfect, but this is not enough [by our own efforts] to prepare us to become like God.  In The Institute manual for the New Testament, it talks about John 3:3-5. Being born again is not an event, but a process.

『Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles confirmed that it is a process:

“We were born again when we entered into a covenant relationship with our Savior by being born of water and of the Spirit and by taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ. …

“Latter-day Saints affirm that those who have been born again in this way are spiritually begotten sons and daughters of Jesus Christ (see Mosiah 5:7; 15:9–13; 27:25).  Nevertheless, in order to realize the intended blessings of this born-again status, we must still keep our covenants and endure to the end.  In the meantime, through the grace of God, we have been born again as new creatures with new spiritual parentage and the prospects of a glorious inheritance” (“Have You Been Saved?” Ensign, May 1998, 56).

To be born again requires both our own effort and “divine power,” and for most of us, this happens over time rather than all at once, as Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained:

It was Jesus who stated that entry into the kingdom of God requires that one be born again--born of water and of the Spirit (see John 3:3–5). His teaching about a physical and a spiritual baptism helps us understand that both our own action and the intervention of divine power are needed for this transformative rebirth--for the change from natural man [or natural woman] to saint (see Mosiah 3:19). …

“You may ask, Why doesn’t this mighty change happen more quickly with me? You should remember that the remarkable examples of King Benjamin’s people, Alma, and some others in scripture are just that--remarkable and not typical. For most of us, the changes are more gradual and occur over time. Being born again, unlike our physical birth, is more a process than an event. And engaging in that process is the central purpose of mortality” (“Born Again,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2008, 77–78).』

.....  

I highly recommend going on the Gospel library app and following along with the Book of Mormon study manual as you read, especially if there is something you don't understand.

The Bible is wonderful and it has laid the foundation for many things, but the Book of Mormon is unique because it wonderfully explains over and over again how the conversion (or born again) process occurs within the human spirit, and what kinds of things block that process.   There are other sublime teachings too.  We need all the scriptures so that we might have a full understanding of God's words, and so that the scriptures might be One in our hands.   This is similar to what is described in Ezekiel 37, that the Stick of Judah and the Stick of Ephraim would be joined together, one in our hand - vs. 17.

You can find information about the Gospel library app here:

https://www.lds.org/pages/mobileapps?lang=eng     or in the Application section of your mobile phone.

Other study helps for the scriptures are here:

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/study-helps?lang=eng

As for the missionary work,...

One miracle that happened last week was with a less-active/recent convert, M_____.  She's from another near-by country in Asia.  We fasted for her because she was having a really hard time because of her exhausting work schedule.    So we fasted for her on Sunday.  Then Friday, we went to her house and she really opened up to us.  She has such a strong testimony of Jesus Christ.  She always prays and she finds happiness in the Jesus Christ's gospel.  She has other employment lined up and then will be able come to church!!  It was such a miracle that she opened up to us about her feelings and what was in her heart.  We were going to teach about *Patriarchal Blessings and help her prepare to get one, but we learned that she was previously preparing to go to the temple and she really wants to go so we changed our lesson to talk about preparing to attend the temple, and it was very good!  She's going to go to the temple with her friend sometime soon!

[* A Patriarchal Blessing, is a blessing given by the laying on of hands on the head of the recipient.  Inspired words of counsel are given, in prayer format.   The Israelite tribal lineage is given by inspiration, either natural lineage or by spiritual adoption in to that tribe.  Yes, not all Israelites by lineage are Jews.   Ten of the tribes were scattered into the nations, and their descendants are now all over the world. ]

Speaking of the temple, yesterday was temple day in Tokyo.

Here's a picture of Sister Madsen and I on the temple grounds.

Sister Kirsten Parker

P.s. There's been a few [milder] typhoons but they are fun! There's been no danger so far! :)

Sent from the white fields of Japan 🍲🌅

Bonus post: Video or slideshow of Sapporo Japan temple open house

For those who are curious about the new LDS Japanese temple in Sapporo,...


Sorry, it won't let me save and embed the Video, so you have to go to the link instead.

Click here: http://www.ldschurch.jp/events/sapporo-temple/video

Just a note:  This is a Japanese (LDS Church official) webpage.  If you got Google Chrome, you can go to the URL bar, look on the far right, and there is a little symbol next to the star.  Click on that and it will translate the page for you.  You might need to go into  your settings to add a language, or it might automatically detect it and do that for you.   However, you can just click on the video too and skip all the language issues (which aren't necessary to watching the video). 

(picture from www.mormonnewsroom.com)

There's a temple slideshow if you prefer that over the video:Click here: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/sapporo-japan-temple-to-open-for-public-tours 



Here are a few facts about the new temple in Sapporo (from http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/sapporo-japan-temple-to-open-for-public-tours):

Following the public open house, the temple will be formally dedicated on Sunday, August 21, 2016, in three dedicatory sessions. The day before, youth of the Church in the temple area will perform in a cultural celebration honoring Japan’s history as well as the history of the Church in the country.

The temple is located at 1-6-1 Ooyachi-Nishi, Atsubetsu-ku Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido, Japan.

The 48,480-square-foot Sapporo Japan Temple sits on 9.8 acres with the statue of the angel Moroni on top of its single spire. The temple will serve more than 8,000 Latter-day Saints who live on the island of Hokkaido and in Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of the main island of Honshu.

The Sapporo Japan Temple is the Church’s third temple in Japan and, when dedicated, becomes the 151st operating temple worldwide. The two other temples in Japan are located in Tokyo(dedicated in 1980) and Fukuoka (dedicated in 2000).

Here's another article following up about the dedication which occurred on August 21, 2016  https://www.lds.org/church/news/sapporo-japan-temple-is-a-fulfillment-of-repeated-prophecy?lang=eng&_r=1&cid=HP_MO_22-8-2016_dCN_fEVT_xLIDyL2-4_