Final Call From Matsumoto

December 30, 2012

Well, my letter is going to be short today too. Sorry it's late, you know how transfers are. I'm being ripped away from my love Matsumoto to go to Takaoka.  Takaoka is up next to Kanazawa. I was literally so surprised. I've been in and out of crying all day to be honest. I don't know what to think. I've been here so long and have loved it so much. I really wanted at least one more transfer. My new companion is de Oliveria. He is a young Brazilian in the mission. This should be an interesting area, half the ward is Brazilian and I speak none of that devil language.

So this week went by a lot faster than I wanted. As you know, we went to the Monkey park and had a crazy Christmas day taking cakes all over. The rest of the week kind of blended in together. We froze our knuckles off every night, and it snowed way bad on Friday. We had a huge snowball fight after ping pong night and we spent three hours the next day shoveling snow there.

I gave a talk yesterday in church because they thought it would be my last, which it was. It was fun, Chiaki came and there was a returned missionary there who works with a bunch of people from Bountiful High (Nate Pope, Jordan Hansen).  His name is Matt Palmer. He was a way nice and funny guy.

I wish I weren't leaving, really. I love this place so much, at least I'm not going to a city area. I don't know what's gonna happen, I might have to ride a train by myself tomorrow to Takaoka. And it's the wettest area in Japan. Great, give me cancer now God. I'm excited and sad, I guess you'll know more how it is next week in the email!

Love you all so much,
my final call from Matsumoto,
Elder Parry

Almost Christmas

December 23, 2012

Merry Christmas Eve!

Yes, it is super cold here, but it just started snowing today. It has been super windy (and I HATE the wind), and rainy. It's kind of warm in the day from the sun, then just drops at like 3:00 or 4:00 every day. It makes it super troublesome when we are out all day. But this was a good week! We went to Zenko-ji last Monday with the district. It's a huge temple up in Nagano. It was way fun. I then went on a kokan with Elder Wilcox after in Matsumoto. It was pretty fun. We got our haircut as well. Everyone says I look like an army guy.

We had our appointment cancelled on Tuesday so we visited one of my favorite Filipina members. She told us that she can't feel the spirit of Christmas because she has to work, has no money, and their condition isn't very good. I shared a scripture with her and told her that Christ wasn't born in the best condition and had no money. It was a very special moment. We both had a realization of what Christmas is really about. Of course people talk about the "Spirit of Christmas" when all we need is the "Spirit of Christ". It was a special moment for me.

Eikaiwa (English class) was fun. We had to do it in a way small room and we were all scrunched together. Chiaki came too and everyone seemed to wanna give me a hard time haha it was pretty fun. On Thursday, we went over to Roberto's house and had a big Brazilian dinner then we watched "17 Miracles". It was way fun.

On Friday, we went to Suwa and did a Christmas conference with the zone and the missionaries in the Honbu (mission home). It was a lot of fun. We watched the mission DVD, shared some testimonies, and just had a nice time with everyone. Then on Saturday in all the rain, we biked over an hour to visit the Komatsus. She was doing her calligraphy class and we got to do it with everyone. I was way bad, but she gave me the brush after and we had a really nice lesson with her and her daughter after. That night, we had the big Christmas concert. Over 200 people came for it. And most of them were non-members. Just two hours of our choir singing and special guests playing the flute or doing opera. It was way good, and a member of the Seventy came too and he stayed and came to church.

Ended off the week with a fun dinner at Hiromi's house. It was a good week. I'm excited for Christmas! We are going to a monkey park today for P-day and I'm pretty excited :) All is well here in the Land of the Rising Sun. I'm glad to be spending Christmas here in Matsumoto! I love you all so much! I will Skype from here at about 10:00 in the morning. I don't know what time that is in Utah....

Elder Parry

Pretty Lights/Quiet Week

December 12, 2012

Herro!

I think that if I Skyped you on your Christmas day it would be best. On my Wednesday. I just think that would be easiest and we can get more detailed next week at emails. Sounds like an interesting week. This week was better than the last. It was an interesting week to be honest. I can't really explain too many specific events that happened. This email might not be very long today.

I did an exchange with Elder Ellsworth. It turned out to be one of the best exchanges I have been on. We had a long talk about a lot of things. Something he said that stood out to me was, "the way we end our missions is the way we begin the rest of our lives".  It really stuck to me and I was able to recommit for the last fourth of my mission. To be honest, things are hard considering missionary work lately. I don't understand as much as I feel like I should and just things happening.

I went on an exchange in Suwa with Elder Kobayashi. It was way fun. We ended up coming back to Matsumoto and seeing the illuminations with three of their members. While we were there, I heard a big "Elder Pewee!" and I turned around and saw Chiaki, Karen, Nancy, and their older brother, haha it was a strange coincidence. We all had fun and went out to eat afterwards.

We went to sky park the next day and played basketball with the youth and had some fun. We then had a big Christmas BBQ at a less-active's house. It was pretty fun. A lot of people from all over the place and a lot of really nice people.

Well, I told you not too much happened this week. Things are going fine. I am thankful to be here right now at this Christmas season here in Matsumoto. I'm excited to see all of your beautiful faces and tell you how much I love you!

Love, me

Drama Is Never Good

December 9, 2012

Herro,

Sounds like you had a nice week. I think my week picked up for your boringness. This was one crazy week. It started on Monday when we went down to Nagoya to stay the night before Zone Leader Council. I got to eat at Burger King! I'm not a big fan, but it was a big sloppy burger and there are only two places in all of Japan.

Zone Leader Council went pretty well. It was a big discussion and question time for all of us. I had been getting kind of tired of them, but this one was one of the better ones in a long time.

So we went down to Ina on Wednesday because Elder Hiruta had to go to the hospital with one of the elders and translate for him. I went down in the morning with him and just worked with two other elders, then we got on a train and came back up and went straight to Eikaiwa.

Well, I've spent six months telling you guys about drama that goes down in this branch. It has finally got back around to me. I found out about two stories that someone had spread around about me. It was a hard and stressful end of the week. I really had no motivation to meet with anyone and especially talk to that person. But on Friday, we had a really good training meeting and I had an exchange that really helped. It was tough though, some of the things I found out had been brewing up for a few months.

Yesterday, the branch went to the hospital to sing and dance for kids. Someone said I was sick (which I wasn't) and so they wouldn't let me go. So Roberto and I waited for them and we drove around and had a nice talk. He could tell I was stressed out and needed some help. He just talked to me, didn't ask about anything. Exactly what I needed.

Well, Hope to get a better overall week this week. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SAM ON TUESDAY!!! I can't believe he will be the big 15. I hope it's a great day! Halfway done with the transfer and I might be three weeks away from leaving. Who knows. What do you guys wanna do about Skype on Christmas? Love you all so much!

Elder Parry

Getting Cold in Matsumoto

December 2, 2012

Dang all of you....going to Disneyland without me haha. So I got two things to let you know. First, I sent my package to home last Monday and it should get to you about Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Sorry it took so long to send, things just have gotten crazy and busy with dying missionaries and just being a missionary. And now my other thing, it's actually a really big question. I have been talking to Chiaki lately a lot. She really wants to visit America next year because she loved it so much this year. I told her she should come visit Utah and hang out with me. Would it be ok if she came to Utah for like a week and hung out with us? I wanna take her to a bunch of fun places too. We are seriously talking about it. And yesterday, Karen just got a bunch of money from her modeling stuff and asked if she could come too. I told them if they came over the July 24th week, there would be a lot of fun things to do. Is that cool?

Well, this week had a lot. Weeks get more and more filled but they go faster and faster. I have only six months from tomorrow....dang! Well I did an exchange with Elder Rocha from Ina. The Brazilian. It was pretty fun. We went over to Roberto's house and had a bunch of Brazilian food. Then I had an emergency on the way back and couldn't make it back. So we ran into a store and all they had was a squatty potty....shows my luck! Only in an emergency do they only have squattys. It was tough, but I can honestly say I accomplished it for the second time.

We had a bunch of sporty things this week. We went to the batting cages on Tuesday. Oh man, was that so amazing. I still hurt from it, I took like 100 swings in a row and it felt so good. I bit rusty. but it was great. Then on Wednesday, a less active asked us to play soccer with her. So we played before and after Eikaiwa. It was way fun. But it is getting so cold here. It snowed way hard Saturday morning. But we started our ping pong night! We are doing it every Friday night. We had eight youth come, two less actives and three non members. It went way well. I'm excited to get that going too. I think it will help us find some good, young, fun people.

We had a referral from America to help out their siblings in Matsumoto. The girl in the couple is eight months pregnant and their 3-year-old daughter has such a high fever she might have brain damage. Elder Hiruta talked on the phone with her the night before and prayed with her and explained everything. We went on Saturday and explained a little more, then Elder Hiruta gave one of the sweetest blessings I have ever heard. He simply told the girl she was a daughter of God and she came to this earth to two loving parents. The mother and father were crying after. They were a sweet little family. She wants us to come play with the daughter when she gets better and come to church. It was a really sweet experience.

We had dinner at a member's house on Saturday and it was way fun. It was with most of the same people from ping pong night.

This week was good, this next one is SUPER busy. It should be fun too. Things are going great though. I love the people here I am with right now. Pray that I don't leave please. I don't feel like my work here is done quite yet. I love you all so much. I can Skype on Christmas. When would you like to do that? Let me know.