One Month Mark

July 1, 2011

Konnichiwa!

Well, I guess Jake either slept in or just forgot to come, cuz i didn't see him this morning. O well, Elder Dinkel probably would've been mad.  OK, so here's the deal, let me know when you get back from the family trip and I'll send home the first bunch of journal entries. I was plannin on doing it at the end of each month.  Sound good?  Another thing for mom, the backpack is from Opsgear.  it's a store on Redwood Road in North Salt Lake.  You can just go to their website. It's a sling backpack made by Maxpedition.  Just email me a picture and I'll tell you if it's right. Take money out of my bank account to get it, I wanna get it myself.

So how are things?! That's so exciting that you guys are leaving tomorrow.  I loved hearing from all the siblings.  Sorry I probably won't reply to every letter.  It gets really busy and stressful here and I promise I will do my best.  I love you guys so much! I hope these emails can answer most your questions and tell you how it is.  You guys generally ask the same questions, haha.  I love it here tho.  One month! That's so crazy! I can't believe it haha the next 23 will go pretty fast I can already tell.  The Senpai leave on Monday.  I am soooooo sad! Some of them are my best friends! and none of them are goin' to Nagoya :( Oh well, I know they'll all work hard and do their best to serve the people of their respective areas. 

I've started waking up at six to work out every morning. It's not tough workouts, but I'm hoping to get into better shape and maintain some muscles.  The temple closes all next month. I'm so sad :( hopefully we'll get to clean it up once or twice during a p-day.  Thanks for everything you guys, the letters and packages. They all mean so much to me.  People are jealous of all the love and support I get, til they get some food from the packages haha.  Japanese is comin better, it's still way tough.  But I had a 30 minute interview with Mortensen Shimai and it was a real confidence booster.  She just said to hang in there and she kept telling me that I was on a great pace.  She kept saying I can't learn a language, especially Japanese, in a short 12 weeks.  So I'm just staying tough and working my hardest so that the Lord will help me do whatever he wants me to do in Japan. 

I can't think of any really great stories.  I sent that mid week letter that had some pretty good stories.  After I sent that letter, nothing really stands out.  I did send my SD card, I'll probably send that at the end of each month with my journal entries.  Sound genki?  I added a little video clip, hope you all enjoy! The pictures are all great, I've takin a lot.  There are some great people here.  I can tell you who everyone is if you can't figure it out.  I've been gettin everyone's contact info so that we can find each other when we get back and we can facebook or hang out.  Ok, here's somewhat of a story, Elder Lee's Japanese passport expired, so he almost lost his Japanese citizenship.  He was extremely bummed.  So he got to fly to Colorado for the day and get his passport renewed.  It's kinda funny.  Elder Sonntag gave me a plastic unco so I can play tricks on people.  I put it on Elder Kowalski's pillow and he freaked out haha it was really funny.  Sorry this letter isn't as exciting, you guys will have a great time on the vacation and when you get back, my journal entries will be there! You can all read them.  I've got nothin to hide.  If you guys have any specific questions, just let me know and I'll be sure to write them down. 

Andrus Sensei has been working with the seminars and been in New York, so he's only taught us like twice in the last two weeks.  It's sad, but we've had some fun subs.  I started reading the Japanese Book of Mormon yesterday and marked a few scriptures! Exciting huh?! haha Elder Dinkel gets lots of support from family and friends.  The kids leaving on Monday gave him two suits and he was so grateful.  He doesn't have much.  He's the oldest of 9 and both his parents are high school drop outs.  He also has trouble washing stuff and taking care of his stuff so he's ruined like 3 white shirts and soiled some garments.  It's tough for him.  He might be really arrogant and annoying sometimes, but I still gotta love him and realize that my time with him will end before I even realize it.  Love you all sooooo much. Miss ya. Take care

ki ni shinaide kudasai,

Elder "S.B." Parry

First Pictures From the MTC

I was so happy today to get Evan's camera card in the mail today.  He looks amazing and so happy!

Looks like Greek to me! 

 Studying in the hallway or writing letters.

District picture in front of the Provo Temple.

 It takes a lot of books to learn Japanese.

Classroom

 I think this is the face that says "Japanese is hard"!

P-day in the laundry room.

 This elder was really happy to get homemade cookie dough!

The obligatory map pictures at the MTC.

 Service in the MTC.

Apparently Evan invented endless ways to kill a fellow Elder's toy monkey.  Great entertainment.

Elder Barton and Elder Parry

Extra Letter!

Fam!

This has been a pretty special weekend so I thought I'd surprise ya with an extra letter!

As I've told you, we had the mission president seminar.  We had a special devotional on Friday.  Elder Bednar spoke to us about being a Preach My Gospel missionary.  It was so awesome.  Elders Bednar, Holland, Ballard, Anderson, Nelson, Scott and Oaks were there.  Me, Ellsworth, and Anderson saw Elder Oaks before with a bloody nose.  He still took time to talk to us.  :-)

Yesterday, Elder Dinkel had an infection in his mouth.  So we got to go to the "real world" and get it fixed.  It took like two hours, then the shuttle forgot about us.  So it was like a four hour trip.  It was nice to leave and benefit from Elder Dinkel's problem.

Two favors:  In the package Friday could you send the Mo Bettah's Teri Sauce?  And do you have like spray stuff that could fix a scratch on glasses  I need some.  If you can't get them IT'S PERFECTLY FINE!

I love you all, I love you Mom,
Your son, and best friend
Elder "S.B." Parry

P.S.  I don't know if I told you about Lotso.  Ashcroft Choro has a little toy monkey.  I stole him and did like 20 different ways to kill him during class.  I did one that made me, Olsen, Parra, Ellsworth and Mortensen Shimai laugh til we cried.  I'll send those pictures soon on the SD.

P.S.S.  Larry Gelwix (Highland Rugby Coach) is a new mission president.  I talked to him yesterday.  So cool, great guy.

Thanks for the cookies.  I gave a few to Elder Lee, it was his birthday.  I have developed a love for hymns.  They are so awesome!  And Ellsworth Choro said I was pretty good at singing!  Sorry this letter is so random and poorly written.

Ai shitte imasu!

And I met my mission president's wife!  She is so awesome and she recognized me!

Note from Sensei

I got another great Facebook message from Evan's language instructor today:

"It's going great! Evan's district is amazing and I can honestly say that they are one the most impressive districts that I have ever taught! Evan and his Japanese are both doing incredible! He's progressing at a perfect rate and pushing himself to improve every day."

July 24, 2011, Entering 4th MTC Week!

Ok, well my email today won't be as good because the freakin' MTC blocked us from using the notebook setting so a lot of my detailed info won't be as good, I apologize.  Well, I've been here in the Provo Penitentiary for just over three weeks.  The senpai just got their travel plans to leave for Japan, which makes me really sad.  It makes me want to leave with them.  I like some of them more than my companion and none of them are goin' to Nagoya, which is a real shame.  Hey maybe you guys can just read my journal entries and you can get good detail there.  Since I don't have much time, I apologize to the siblings for not getting back to each one personally but I love you all!

The MTC is great! There are times, like right now, that I think are really ridiculous.  They have the mission presidents seminar, so all the general authorities are here right now giving devotionals.  We have two tonight and I hope that we get someone cool in them.

 

Dad, I hope everything is goin' great in Colorado.  Sounds like it's a good case for ya tho.  I hope everything goes great. Sacramento (Jimmer)? That's dumb, that makes me angry.  Ha, I have heard that he has been doing a lot better than expected.  I guess that's a good place for him. I know he didn't really wanna stay in Utah.

 

So I came back to my room after gym and there were two new elders in there.  Haha, it was a surprise. They're in our room until July 4.  So it's not too bad, I've actually really liked it.  It gives me a break and an extra breath from Elder Dinkel.  I have learned to be patient with Elder Dinkel. He is going to school in Utah when we get back (George Wythe, in Cedar City--he thinks it's way better than BYU, but it's not even accredited... haha).   I'm sending my SD card next week hopefully. 

It's pretty awesome here tho.  Japanese is way tough, but once I realize I can't learn this language in 12 weeks and just do the best I can, it makes me feel a lot better.  So, by the way, I was talkin' to Andrus Sensei and he said our initial return home date is around May 20th.  I'd be there til June 18 if I asked for an extension.  But hey, I would love it if you guys came and picked me up.  I think we would have so much fun.  I just need to know you guys would be good "mission presidents" haha.

Hey, I broke the record for most packages in 3 weeks! I got a solid 12 packages. Yhank you to everyone who contributed!  I went on splits yesterday with Elder Kobayashi (Dad, he said his parents were baptized 25 years ago in Nagoya, two years before he was born. They were baptized by a gaijin) and I prayed so I could talk to him.  We spoke back and forth!  It was great, we talked about our families, home lives, and our favorites.  I said one of my favorite singers was Eminem and he said "Eminem, ai shite imasu".  Haha, it was great.  I taught him to say "what you talkin' 'bout Willis", and he always says it now!

Well, I'm, glad to hear the Yankees decided to turn it up when I was gone! That sucks about Jeter and Pujols.  Andrus sensei is goin' to New York next week and he's way bummed about Jeter being injured.  Thanks Sam for all the sports updates!  You're the man, and tear it up in golf and we'll go when I get back.  Isaac, keep tearin' it up at everything, it's so awesome to hear from ya.  Caroline, it is always a pleasure to hear from you. If this email didn't answer some questions you had, I apologize. Jake, I love ya, keep having fun and don't look back.  You're the big guy now.

I love you all soo much. Sorry this email is shorter and sloppier. They took away a great way to email home.  It's so great to hear from you all.  I hope everything is goin' great! Ki ni shinaide kudasai. I'm in the Lord's hands, and I intend on following his example and hopefully invite others to come unto Christ. 

Gambatte kudasai,

Elder Parry

aka shortBOOB

June 17, 2011

June 17, 2011

So I figured out a new way to write emails and not have a time limit. Haha, ok well Elder Sonntag showed me how, so i can make my letters so much better! I´ll probably write stuff for the email once a day so I can give you better and more detailed letters.

First off mom, I found out a reason why people wear their watches on the bottom of their wrists. People in the military wear them like that so that when they crawl on the ground the sun doesn´t reflect off their watches. Haha, I know it´s random but I remember talking about this with you before my mission. I thought it would be hard to give up TV and my phone, but it´s really not bad! I do miss music a lot, but I know I can make it easily no problem. This is such a great feeling! OK, I promise I will send pictures this next p-day. I'll print out a few and mail them to you and I'll send the whole SD card at the end of the month.

Can you do me a couple favors? Troy wants a copy of my farewell talk, so could you send him a copy? And could you send me blank calendar pages for the next few months? I wanna use them to start logging my workouts and keeping track. I know I will do a lot more if I write everything I do down. Could you also look up a Desert Eagle Military backpack? Elder Sonntag showed me his and it is so awesome! You could mail me a picture and I could tell you if it's the one. it's like a shoulder wrap backpack, and it's smaller in size. I feel like a bum cuz I keep asking for things. Ask Jake if he could send me the list of those scriptures about the women in the Bible. And my friend had the COOLEST tie. It was a Goeffrey Beene paisley tie. I'll send a picture of it (hint hint: red). And whenever you can, could you send me a Japanese Hymn book? I think I have one in one of my boxes, but I know that might be difficult to find.

So wanna hear something funny? I guess BYU is having a bad case of like the Noura(?) virus, so the MTC is on like a total lockdown. We can't shake hands, elbow bumps, or any contact. We have to bow like the Japanese do, fitting eh? Haha i just thought that was funny.

I just remembered that I've talked about a few guys and not really explained who they are. All the guys I'll talk about are Senpei (the district that came before us). Elder Sonntag is from all over. His dad is in the military, he has most recently lived in Tokyo and Hawaii. There are the Munro twins. They're from Australia and goin to different missions in Japan. They are little spaz balls and have way sweet 'stralian accents. They got their calls four weeks before they were supposed to report, crazy huh?! Then there's Elder Everett, Sonntag's comp. He is from North Carolina, went to BYU and had to take finals early to report on April 20. He speaks fluent Japanese, NEVER speaks English. He helps out a lot tho. There are the two Shimai in our zone, Sister Stevensen and Sister Watanabe. They're both way fun and awesome! They always play softball with us and they like to just talk with us.

Well, I think I'm losing weight, I feel great! I might've just broke the chair I was sitting in from leaning back too far....

So about my branch presidency. There´s President Bird. There's Brother Wadsworth, who I really like but his voice is so slow and boring he puts you to sleep. There's Brother Mortensen who I kinda like, but he came to my room and said that I need to be obedient, which I dunno why he would say that to me? There's Brother Robinson, who I LOVE, he studied all our faces and names before he met us and he is just always so happy. So all in all my presidency is pretty cool.

So I've gotten a lot of letters from family members, and I wanna apologize that I probably won't write back to everyone, but I wanna say thank you and I love you all! Thanks Grandma, G-Dogg, Matt, Celeste, Andrea, Sean, Sara, and anyone else who has written me! I do wanna personally say I love ya Blake!

That was awesome to hear about you baseball games. Gambatte Kudasai (good luck) big guy!  So funny story, I was in the bathroom yesterday and there was this Elder from my zone who was in my ward at BYU. He had like half a paper towel to dry his hands off and I grabbed like three (cuz I actually wanted my hands to get dry) and he looked at me and called me a tree killer. Elder Anderson was behind me and said "the tree is already dead". Haha that made me so happy. Another funny story was Elder Carmac told Elder Ashcroft he could run for an hour, so during gym they started running, he passed out after 7 minutes. Haha.

Thats really funny to hear about Isaac having to make the baseball diamond a strip club. People are just jealous of the best. That's how it always is, I would know, haha. As a missionary, I have realized I was immature about some feelings I had towards some people. Jake my boy, make me proud, never fail to do a prank! That kid sounds like a cry baby momma´s boy. I´m sooo glad Voltron is having a smile on his face. He loves some pizza. Good boy. Go Mavs haha and go bruins! Thanks for all the stuff! You guys are awesome.

So today is the day for newbies to come in! I saw Elder ¨Double D¨Dubois, Elder Naegle, Elder Hutchings, Elder Brock, and Sister Murray! it was great to see all of them to come in with smiling faces! I like being a ¨more experienced¨ Elder. It´s great being here tho.

So yesterday, we were playing softball and there were these annoying missionaries goin to the Philippines. They were annoying and saying derogatory words. They told Elder Dinkel that if he said one more word they were gonna take him out. So our district left and on my way by, I said, ¨hope you guys are proud by the way you´ve acted. Hope you guys can call yourselves representatives of the Lord.¨ It was bad.

I just watched Lisa Adachi´s video profile on Mormon.org, if you have 4 minutes to spare, I´d watch it. It´s a really awesome video with a great message. This is exactly what we are out here to do, bless the lives of others and put a smile on someone´s face.

Dad, do you know Leo Parra? And you baptized a Kobayashi family right?

I´m really glad to hear that Ty is doin well, send him my love and that he is in my prayers constantly. I know that he might not be in the ideal situation he wants, but I know that he is exactly where he needs to be to serve the Lord, I couldn´t be happier for him. Hey one more favor, could you send me that green and white paisley tie that's mine? Paisley is a hot commodity around here.

Hey Dad, I just wanted to say I love you, and thanks for your great example. Happy Father's Day! I love ya so much, thanks for all the letters and support you have given me. I am truly lucky and blessed. Thanks Craigory! And thanks to my siblings, I love you all too so much. Thanks for the examples you are too me. I love you guys and mom so much. Take care of her, she is the best thing you guys have in your lives.

Over and out,
Elder Parry

P.S. Post my blog on my Facebook

Update From Inside the Workings of the MTC

We are lucky to know Evan's language instructor.  Audrus Sensi used to be in our ward.  He's nice enough to let us ask once in awhile how Evan is doing with Japanese.  Today I got a great update: 

"He's doing really well! This past Saturday he went to the TRC which is where missionaries practice things that they have learned about including teaching and language skills. The first 15 minutes were in Japanese and Evan met with, introduced himself, got to know, and explained his purpose as a missionary as well as set up a return appointment with an "investigator" all in Japanese! I wasn't there for that but my team teacher said that everyone did really well! After the 15 minute portion, they went back and taught the investigator lessson 1 on the restoration in English (which I was also told that everyone did great!). We're starting to speed things up a little bit with the language this week in class, but so far so good! I mentioned this before but the district he is in is really amazing! They have a strong desire to work hard, be obedient, and learn the language. My opinion is probably biased, but out of the 6 districts we have in the MTC that are going to Japan, Evans district is by far the best group when it comes to hard work and diligence.

And then in response to my question about whether he was homesick or was he happy?

"Yes he does! He seems very happy! He isn't showing any signs of homesickness. I have 1 on 1 interviews with the missionaries and Evan told me that he is doing great. Everyone in the district loves him and they have already become really good friends."

Good news!