Elder Shinoda Parry

Shelom!

This week was very hard, and had some good involved.  I think it all started when I broke a mirror in our apartment last Monday.  Like I needed more bad luck than I already have haha.  Before I begin, I wanna tell you something cool.  I had a feeling about a month ago to write Thomas's brother, Louie, who is in jail.  I got a letter back from him and he was so awesome and loving and nice.  He kept saying over and over again how grateful he was for me and you guys for taking care of Thomas.  I told him when he gets out in August, that he was more than welcome to visit you guys at the house.  He told me several times to thank you for everything.

We had a bad start to Tuesday but it turned into an amazing day.  I just prayed for a better attitude and help and it worked! I was all over the place.  It did help that the ward is taking food to Narita.  He was ten times happier! And I got to also see a cat that weighs about 25 pounds! It was the biggest and fattest cat I have ever seen! It made me laugh out loud.  All the rest of her 5 cats are pretty normal though haha.  And I was in a weird mood for katsu so we rode around looking for katsu for a while.  In fact, I'm eating some right now too hahah.

We had a fun exchange between three companionships.  I stayed with Elder Hilyard (Woods Cross High School), Elder Bardzinski stayed in Numazu with Elder Nelson, a Zone Leader, and Elder Iwata went to Hamamatsu with Elder Hiruta.  We met up the next day at District Meeting and had a way fun time! We just did a family home evening for our meeting and it was way fun.  We played a game and had a short spiritual message and had refreshments.  I was Papa Parry and we had Mama Masuda, haha it was funny. 

Saturday was tough.  We rode about 40 miles on our bikes.  We had planned to meet 9 people and met with none! No one was home! Another fun thing, I had to give a talk yesterday but didn't know until they announced it haha.  I did a nice 10 minute talk on scripture power on the spot.  Boo ya.  Another thing before I forget, next p-day a member is taking us to the water falls at the base of Mt. Fuji, so I will email later that day, sorry, it will be very late for you guys.

Hope you enjoyed your week.  Mine was good, Elder Iwata is actually a really hard comp but he wants to work and be obedient so it's good.  All the Shimai (sisters) in the district asked the gaijin (Americans) what our 'Japanese name' is.  I was proud to say mine is Shinoda haha, so my Japanese name is that haha.

From Elder 'Shinoda' Parry

Evan Gave Himself a Haircut?

 Well Hello!

Sounds like things are going great/not/exciting back home.  I would probably say that's how this week was for me too haha.  Gosh Grandma she can't stay at her house for very long huh? That stinks, really stinks, about Isaac. I guess I could say that my Valentine's day was better.  We had Zone Conference and it was pretty great.  I got to be with President and Sister Baird and Elder Hollister.  It was great and we had a lot of fun.  I got the package, thanks a lot! I gave some of the chocolates to Nishimuro Shimai because it was her birthday.  It was a really fun day.  We have 16 missionaries in this zone and 4 are going home after this transfer, it's crazy.  We had a pretty good time and it was very spiritual as well.  After the conference, Elder Hilyard and I went on an exchange, we got back pretty late so we didn't do much.  We did eat some Mexican with the tortillas you sent! Amazing as always.  The mission home got a new couple so we haven't gotten reimbursed for money in a long time.  So we have been getting by with little money, but I needed a haircut.  So i found some clippers in our apartment and did it myself.  Haha it looks really good! It's a lot  better than the ones I have had in Japan so far. It's really short so I won't have to cut it again for a while.   

So cool story from last p-day.  There is this kimono shop that has always caught my eye.  I went in just to look at the beautiful dresses.  This lady showed me to a side room that had little pieces of kimono for like 400 yen each.  I looked and wanted a bunch.  I picked out four I couldn't decide between.  She and her husband were like "You're missionaires right"? "You come here for two years and teach about your church and learn Japanese right"? I was so surprised, I said that was exactly us.  The guy was like you can have all four for 1000 yen.  Haha it was so cool, they were way nice.  We talked for a good while after.

So I read those baseball articles Dad sent.  Baseball is not baseball in Japan. Someone in my ward said that they play yakkyu and we play baseball haha, I'm so happy I played in America where I could have fun and not get beat all the time.  I did eat crap on my bike again this week.  I couldn't make it over the stupid lip of the curb and just rolled over and rolled for like 10 feet.  I was already not enjoying that day.  In fact, I didn't enjoy a lot after DTM on Friday to Sunday night.  Elder Iwata is starting to get on my nerves bad.  He is extremely oblivious and has absolutely no relationship skills.  He also doesn't even care I'm senior.  He goes behind my back and makes appointments and doesn't tell me.  He does that same stuff throughout the day,  changing appointments and not telling me. Luckily he can't understand any English, so if I'm mad or need it, I call the other missionaries and vent.  It's super hard. I guess he's been this bad before too.

We went bowling Saturday night.  People in Japan can't do sports at all.  I don't try at sports and win by a lot all the time, haha its pretty awesome.  But we have this investigator who has depression problems and doesn't have money to buy food.  I have been praying for weeks to get support from members and get them to want to do missionary work.  Yesterday, they met together and planned who was going to make dinner for him every night for almost a month! I was so happy when I heard.  I think this will bring the ward together and get them to want to help us out more too.  This is the beginning of something great here in FUJI!

I love you all, don't do anything stupid. I know it's fun, but you probably shoudn't.

Elder Evan

Who Knew That Could Happen?

Good morning to you.

This week was a good one with a few stand out points.  First I'll answer questions.  No one from my doki (MTC group) is in my zone. Elder Dinkel just transferred to Nagano zone, Fuji is way different because it is a huge mountain, lots of mountains.  It reminds me of a Japanese version of Bountiful.  Our schedule isn't too different, my new companion is hard in different ways.  He is older and area senior so he tries to take over all the lessons and scheduling.  I guess that's how it is all the time in my situation, gaijin is senior over a native.  It's ok though, he wants to work hard. And I had members that told me about the Super Bowl haha, it was funny having them tell me, they didn't know how to explain some stuff.

We got two new investigators! One was a referral and the other was from eikeiwa (English) class.  It was awesome and they seem to have pretty good interest. One speaks fluent English so I get to do it all in English. My companion can understand a lot but can't speak at all.  Which is funny, because when I talk about him to the other elders in our district we call him Dexter so he can't pick out his name haha.  Speaking of district, I LOVE our district.  I went on an exchange to Numazu with elder Bardzinski, he is from Australia. It was so fun.  I did Tim Tam Slams with an Australian for the first time.  Ee really helped me with some stuff with Elder Iwata and being a new senior in a struggling area.  It was an awesome exchange.

We had sports night! A member in our ward is a principal and lets us use the gym once a month and invite investigators and members and others come and play.  There were like 15 who came.  We had two investigators I hadn't met come.  They are awesome.  Numazu always comes too and they brought their 6'10" investigator from Senegal who is the number 1 or 2 basketball player in all of Japan for high school, he is awesome.  We played basketball and I did alright, but people thought I was like a God.  I love being American haha. We then played volleyball and I gave Elder Hilyard crap the whole time.  Trash talking about Bountiful and Woods Cross haha it was really fun.

After district meeting, we went to a place called Cats Cafe.  You get a meal then an all-you-can- eat parfait bar. It was SO GOOD! I had like five parfaits haha. I figure I can get away with it now because I can't seem to keep weight for too long haha. One of the sisters in our district thought I was Polynesian, so when I said Thomas was my 'adopted' brother, she didn't think twice about it haha. She thought he was my real brother haha, I love having sisters in our district...

Church was nice yesterday.  I gave a 15 minute talk in Japanese, who knew that could happen? I did mess up and say that Thomas was my younger twin.  I always mess up words when I'm in front of a lot of people.  We also sang all seven verses of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.  That is probably my favorite song.  And we tried to do an FF with someone and he said he has no friends.  He was dead serious too but said it in a joking way. Took me off guard.

This week was good, the more and more I get into my mission, the less and less I want it to end, i love it here! I LOVE ALL OF YOU

The Boob

A Room With a View

Hello! First report from the wonderful land of Fuji! Boy was this week quite a different one.  So the shipping company couldn't come get our bags to ship them on Tuesday, so we had to take them to the shipping place almost a mile and a half away.  Remember, three of the four in our apartment transferred, so we had a long, sweaty, trek to the place haha it was fun.  Good thing it cost almost 60 bucks to send my stuff and I ran out of money two hours from Fuji haha. I got to see the whole doki (zone) at the transfer area.  Me, Ashcroft and Ellsworth (Elders from his MTC district) became senior companions.  Ellsworth became a trainer, crazy.  By the way, we saw a Kariya member at the eki (train station) when we went for transfers, she is fluent in English and loves America.  She said that when you guys pick me up and want to come to Kariya we can stay at her place for free.  She has done it for like 20 missionaries and their families. 

So I met Elder Iwata--weirdest guy in the world.  He is what you call 'KY' in the mission.  It means koki yomenai which is like someone who is completely oblivious to everything.  He was also so surprised to hear I was only one transfer ahead of him.  He talks way fast and doesn't notice when I can't keep up, hence the KY haha. It's ok, he's just a little special.  Got to the apartment and I wanted to cry.  After five hours on the train, I got to the apartment and couldn't see the floor it was so dirty.  There were piles of dust and mold in the whole shower.  So I cleaned up ALL of Wednesday, it had to be done.  It was so awful.  There is still food on the walls so today I'm gonna try to finish it up. 

So some fun stuff, I get to see Fuji right out my window every morning.  The base is like 25 miles away and it is beautiful.  Guess who is teaching Brother Shinoda now? Ashcroft haha, he has called a few times and I'm trying to help him.  Brother Shinoda said he would be baptized if I did it.  So now they're working with his smoking problem and trying to meet Eiji, it's going great! My new district is awesome! there are 8 of us, 4 sisters! First sister district! Haha they are way cool.  My district leader is Australian, and his companion is Elder Hilyard from Woods Cross! Haha so it's a lot of fun and we have a great connection.  On the way back from district meeting, a group of about 10 drunk old guys were passing beers around and eating snacks.  Life is different farther from the city. 

My ward is super goofy.  Someone who grew up in the Mueller Park 4th Ward is in it.  She has lived here for 8 years and said she recognized Ryan's name.  She graduated from Bountiful in 1996.  It's something Suzuki.  So yes, this is the update from beautiful Fuji.  The last elder here was pretty lazy and didn't do a lot of work.  We have nine investigators, one we found on Saturday, so I hope to get this area goin into an example area like Kasugai was! This is the best!

Boob in Fuji,

Elder Parry

Fuji!

So I'm so sorry this is late.  We had a very, very busy and crazy morning.  Let me go over the phone call this morning:

"Elder Parry, this is President Baird. What an honor it is to speak to such a handsome, spiritual man that you are.  The gospel is true, we are brothers in the gospel and working together to further the work.  How can it get better?!?!? Let me tell you how, you are on the move to the most beautiful place in the mission, everyone in the world knows your area.  You are going to....................FUJI!!!  You are with Iwata Choro.  How can things get even better than this? He is OCD about being obedient and you are his senior companion!"

Oh my gosh!!! I am so EXCITED!!!! Senior companion is a little crazy, but Fuji! I get to open my shades every morning to the most beautiful mountain in the world! Elder Momose is the only one who stayed.  Heo is going to Fukuroi and Hiruta is my Zone Leader in Hamamatsu! We are all going to the Shizuoka Zone! so excited!

OK, so since it is late, I'll write a quick note hoping you get it early enough.  This week was awful, Momo slept in until 2:00 almost every day.  But we had stake softball on Saturday!!! Of course I got MVP after two home runs over the fence (I'll send some way sweet pictures) and a couple doubles.  The only time I got out was when I swung at a pitch-out and the outfielder caught it at the fence in right. Haha, it was hilarious.  We did a home run derby after and I got three on three swings.  It was so fun.  We played basketball after and my level of greatness took a landslide drop haha.  Oh ya and for Elder Heo's birthday last week, we had dinner and I smashed a pie in his face after.  It was way fun.

That's really about it this week.  I didn't leave the apartment a lot because Momose slept all day, and I got the MVP, cuz I'm the man.

From the man, in Fuji

Elder Parry

Surprises

January 22, 2012

Well, I guess we all just had a crazy, unexpected week.  This email will be set up differently, as was yours, but I will first say everything that was unexpected, then I will write the normal stuff.

Surprises: President Baird had a leadership training on Tuesday for the trainers, district leaders, and zone leaders.  Turns out the night before they invited three other people, two of which being junior companions still:  Elder Ellsworth and me!  Ya, I was surprised too.  That night we had two elders from Sizuoka Zone stay with us.  One was Elder Berret from my last district, so we were up late talking and having fun.  We went to the leadership training the next day.  It was awesome.  Elder Hollister conducted and said welcome to the top 20 missionaries in the field.  Oh man, going to that makes you wonder what is going to happen next transfer.  It was really awesome though.  Sister Baird said that you had a hilarious Facebook post about towels and using them only when you are clean.  It was a great day completely filled from 9:00 to 5:30 with training and how to become better teachers.  It was a lot of fun.  When we got back, we had two other elders staying with us, so once again, I was up later talking to them and having a good time.  Thursday, I went on an exchange to KASUGAI!  It was great.  I went with Elder Duarte, he is from Brazil and the nicest guy ever.  He is completely fluent in English, only learned it on the mission.  So awesome.  We went and had my favorite burgers at Brother 69.  Then we met with Brother Shinoda! It was awesome

and he was so happy. I was able to communicate with him more and he took us out for katsudon.  Amazing as always.  Then we met with Tan.  He said it was an answer to his prayer to have us come, we talked with him and helped him build more confidence for work.  He seemed to be really struggling.  It was great to go and try to help him.  That night, of course, up talking for a while.  The next day I went on another exchange, stayed in Kariya with a bean from another area.  We had fun and went to a members house for dinner.  We didn't stay up late that night, I couldn't do it again.  That night Sister Baird called and asked if everything was alright.  I guess someone (hint hint: okasan) expressed some worry over Facebook and she called me right away and made sure everything was alright.  I had been a tiny bit sick, but nothing bad.  Good thing that night I woke up coughing so bad I was crying and couldn't sleep.  I moved my bed and said a prayer and just said help me to get better so I can do Your work and not wake the other missionaries up.  Instantly better.  Haven't coughed since.  AMAZING.

Yesterday in church, it was ward conference.  I was sitting with Brother Mitchell in priesthood and one of the stake guys had spray on hair! So me being me, I wanted to sneak a picture in. I had it set up so great, ready...set......FLASH!  Oh man, the flash went off!  I was so embarrassed.  The Stake President was laughing right behind me for like 10 minutes.  Brother Mitchell was laughing pretty hard too. 

So remember, that was all unexpected.  Here is the normal now:  We had mochi tsuki Saturday! We got to

pound the crap out of rice and make mochi.  Pretty good and fun.  I still hate anko.  Could you send some pictures of my other friends from their blogs? I'd like to see them too.  Gayla said she sends mine to Kevin.  More sleeping from momo this week.  He went to bed at 7:00 one night and didn't wake up before 9:30.  It's super hard and I tried to house this neighborhood but I had absolutely no confidence and just screwed it up.  It's hard.  He doesn't wanna do anything.  He lied and got in a fight with the Bishop yesterday.  They say that your wife gets hotter every time you pray so my wife is gonna be the best looking girl God has seen! I have prayed sooo much!

Well, there's the week of Elder Parry in a nutshell.  Enjoy.  Don't drink the Kool-aid.

Bow chicka wow wow,

Elder Parry

Squatty Potty

January 15, 2012

So this week was full of a ton of stuff.  Not so much teaching, because this was the lowest week of lessons I have had.  Awesome, not.  But let's start with the funny stuff.  I knew this exact thing would happen in this situation:  I'm not near a toilet, I have a strong urge I can't fight off, and I find myself looking at the only possible option: a dirty old squatty potty.  So hence, that was my exact situation.  Did I succeed? Yes, and no poop got on my clothes.  Was it hard? It was sooo hard.  Hope you all are just having a blast thinking about my struggles.  Second, in one of our few lessons this week, I wanted to say 'reiteki na mokyo' which is spiritual goal, but instead, I said 'seiteki na mokyo' which means a sexual goal.  That was a funny face the member made. Haha, you're still laughing huh?

First, in this valentine package, send me a girl....OK, just kidding.  Some member gave us stuff to make Mexican food, but no tortillas, so those would be nice.  And maybe a new tie or something.  I'm sick of the ones I have already.  We had two people come to FHE! People in the ward aren't very helpful and run away from responsibility, which makes things harder.  But it was fun and we played a game and I taught a decent lesson without any sexual innuendo.

We had interviews with the boss this week.  It was awesome.  I got to be with my two favorite people in Nagoya right now:  President Baird and Elder Hollister.  It was great and President Baird and I shared some tears in our interview.  It was a very tender moment.  He said that he can hugely rely on me and he can stick not-so-obedient missionaries with me and trust me to help them out.  Looks like that President Taylor promise is being fulfilled. 

Had dinner with Sefa...best dinner ever! Yaki niku.  He bought so much meat and I just kept eating.  It was so fun.  He hit his car on a railing before on the way too.  Haha it was way fun.  They are having us over for Mexican in the next week too.  I really connected with him at dinner, it was awesome.

So I went on an exchange to Toyota.  My companion is a transfer 3, so I had to take the lead in all the lessons.  I was super blessed.  I couldn't speak or understand perfectly, but I got by and made it work.  I can do this.  I also figured out that when I become a trainer my Japanese will fly free.  It was fun and we made nabe ourselves, pretty good.

We had a curry dinner at the Colberts, an American family.  They're house is the most Japanese house I have been in.   It was built 200 years ago and the floors creek so samurai can be heard coming in, haha way cool.

Before I end, what is my blood type? Why do Japanese people want to know blood type? Tt is super weird.  That's how they base personality.  I love you all so much, thanks for everything!  I got the DVD by the way.

 Elder Parry