First Week in Matsumoto

June 10, 2012

Hey! Man has this week been crazy but way fun. I'll start off by telling a little about Elder Jessop. He was actually the one who recorded and made those videos you got when I got to Japan. He worked in the mission home for six transfers. He also was Elder Hollister's companion at the MTC. We were already good friends before this happened. I told him at Zone Conference a few weeks ago that I would come to Matsumoto this transfer and kill him and it happened! Haha I think I will have a six-pack at the end of the transfer I have laughed so much.

Transfers were hectic. We always have to meet in Nagoya when you transfer. That's how it works. So we met after a four and a half hour train then I hung out with a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a while. Then I made the three and a half hour train ride up to Matsumoto! Cool stuff! Ashcroft is Zone Leader in Kanazawa Zone and Ellsworth is the AP. Our group is doing pretty good. Elder Dinkel is a District Leader in my zone.  

So Matsumoto is beautiful. Nuf sed. People are amazing and hilarious. My favorites are Nancy, Li, and Hiromi. Nancy is a way funny less-active, Li is an investigator who when asked how praying was said, 'it was great, I had a great feeling, but I woke up and had diarrhea, is that a punishment?' Hahahah then there is Hiromi who is like a little ball of craziness. I love this ward. It is so fun! Everyone knows everyone and is so nice. I love it already.

We have a fun district, biggest one in the mission,10 people. We have the Matsuhashis, they are an old couple in our area, then four sisters (Rogers, Hunt, Yamada, Saito) and then the four elders (me, Jessop, Matson, Olsen), it's way fun. Matson also had Elder Hollister and Kishi as his first two companions. Pretty cool eh?

Trains are weird here, we have to open the doors ourselves and we have to ride them a lot. They go backwards sometimes too. We had to go back to Nagoya on Friday for Zone Leader Council. It was pretty good. It was way stiff in the morning, but it loosened up. It was all in Japanese. It was fun to see Ashcroft and Ellsworth and see how they are and their Japanese.

We made gyoza yesterday. Way good. Really cool story to end this email. There have been this way way nice couple come to Eikaiwa (English class) for a few weeks. They thought they weren't members but found out the mom was baptized 40 years ago and hasn't been much since. She wants to come back and read the Book of Mormon. Her daughter actually became an investigator. But she came to church on Sunday and had a way spiritual time. She went off and talked to a random member and came back and said that he had baptized her 40 years earlier. It was crazy. She was in tears the whole sacrament meeting. It was a way awesome experience.

That's week one of our adventures in Matsumoto! LOVE YOU ALL

Elder Parry

New Zone Leader in Matsumoto!

Man, I looked at those pictures (of Jake's graduation) and thought to myself, didn't I just do that? I can't believe Jake is all graduated and everything. I feel so old now, and I wish I could've been there for Jake. Well, nothing I can really do about that haha. I'm glad it went well. He looked like the boss at graduation. What a stud. Ah, I can't believe how fast time, in general, is going. I swear I just graduated, then just went into the MTC, now I'm a year in and a bit different. We get transfer calls at 10 am. Elder Hollister called me on Saturday and we had a little chat. at the end, he said, well I'll call you on Monday, so I expect something to change here. Neither of us have any idea of what will happen. I felt like I was going to leave this morning. If I leave, you won't miss much, we saw Fuji for the first time in four weeks this morning.

So this week was kind of a drag, but way fun. We saw this bug called a suzumebachi. Which is a wasp about four inches long with a 3-inch wingspan. So scary! We ran like little girls. I guess if you get stung once, you're ok, but twice you die. Then we saw a spider about as big as my hand. Again, we ran like little girls. Haha. We had crazy lightening on Tuesday. We had to go home pretty early and we got soaked. It was the best!

I got to do my fist baptismal interview. It was Watanabe san from Shizuoka. He was a way old, frail, but sweet guy. He admitted to getting arrested in the interview, but when we bore his testimony on repentance, it was so sweet. I knew that he has been forgiven and that he was continuing to repent in his daily life. It was a really cool experience. They have been trying to get him baptized for a while and it happened! He went in for surgery last night and has like a 10% chance of living. Crazy.

Sell we had a fun DTM which was on my year mark so we partied! The Zone Leaders came and we has a water gun fight and did a fhe. It was a lot of fun.  Then went to an all-you-can-eat pizza place. It was good, the pizza had fish eggs, salmon, tuna, corn, and a host of other things on it. Gotta love Japan.  Then we did a cookie party the next day. It was fun, but all the people that told us they would come from Fuji and Numazu didn't show so we grabbed someone random off the street and told them to come it. Pretty funny. Then the best story, we had testimony meeting yesterday. Our ward is full of goofy, and really crazy people. This woman stands up and says that she doesn't want to give her testimony, but she wants to pray. She just prayed during the meeting and it was so weird. She was crying through the whole thing. Again, gotta love Japan!

Transfer calls are soon. A bit nervous. Really nervous. Any predictions?

Elder Parry

While we were emailing back and forth with Evan a bit tonight, we learned that he has been transferred to Matsumoto and will be serving as a Zone Leader there.  Matsumoto is a sister city to Salt Lake City and Evan, Craig and Becky spent Christmas Day, 1992 in Matsumoto.

America is the Best

May 27, 2012

First off, did you guys get my journal entries? I sent those a week before Mother's Day. I hope Dad enjoyed that mabodofu, it was a huge pain to send. I HATE Japanese post offices. They are a real pain and just so picky and panicky. Remember last Memorial Day when I was down watching Isaac's games? Crazy. I'm not sure what will happen next week. Something will change in Fuji. I've been told that I might head up to either Matsumoto or Gokiso, which are both zone leader areas. But who knows, I'm not gonna worry about it too much.

This week was literally a roller coaster. We got two new investigators, which was awesome. We found one from the former investigator lists and the other one housing by another investigator's house. That was good. Tomiko isn't progressing much anymore. I swear we can't get a break here. Everytime something looks good and promising, agency kicks in.

We went down to Nagoya! We stayed in Toyota the night before and Elders Bardzinksi and Hilyard were there. It was way fun. Then the next day we had a great Zone Conference. We had the area doctors come which was way cool. I talked to the physical one and got a check-up. Sports are catching up to me and I had quite a few things to fix up--my back, ingrown toenail, and my breathing virus is back (woo).  It's ok, at least I got ways to help all of them. It was a way good Zone Conference though. It was great to see everyone. There were three zones there so I saw a bunch of people that I hadn't seen for a while. It was my short farewell for Elder Hollister. He gave me a box of stuff that had a Captain Moroni figure, a picture that is desired around the mission, some candy, a nice letter, and a special binder only the mission home has, (but now I do too) haha.  I was pretty sad, but I'll be seeing him a lot back at home. 

We had to stay in Hamamatsu that night because we wouldv'e gotten back too late. So that was also fun. That whole trip made the rest of the week way tiring.  But Numazu didn't help out. They had a baptism planned for yesterday and they were going to try to change the date, but I had a strong feeling it needed to happen yesterday. I told them all my thoughts and I got chewed out pretty bad by both. I was getting super angry, but I have learned new ways to handle and work patience out here. They finally agreed, then the night before they told me the inestogator needed permission and had a Word of Wisdom problem. I told them that those were problems that needed to be fixed earlier and he might not be able to get baptized. I got chewed out even more. So bad, that the Zone Leaders and APs called and told them to calm down. Man I hate drama.

Some guy came to church with a huge cross necklace and some pillow wings on his back and said he was the archangel. Then he came and introduced himself to me and said his name was Abraham Lincoln. I straight-up said no to him. He tried to fight back. So I asked him if he had ever been to America, he said he wants to go to the White House in New York. I told him it was in DC, he still tried to fight back. I just simply said 'look, I'm American, don't question what I know'.  I shut up haha, then he told me all the presidents and I just kinda walked away haha. Weirdest guy I have ever met. It all just comes down to AMERICA IS THE BEST!

Well that's my normal/crazy week. I'm glad to hear everything at home is great. I love you all! Thanks a ton for the package, it has everything in there I miss and will make me fat again haha.  I love it!

Love, Elder Parry

A Small Prompting

May 20, 2012

Sounds like an awesome week! Be sure to tell the Holmgrens hi from me too. And also tell Isaac HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! i hope you have a great day. Just think, next year you'll get the Priesthood and I'll be coming home soon. I love you little/big guy. Take care and keep being a stud. I actually had a similar dream as Dad, well except I saw Thomas and Junior sitting in the play room together watching some TV. That was a few weeks back. Does Dad know the name Ishikaza, or Ishikawa, or Ishizawa?  Does that sound familiar? We went to a house last night for dinner and she said told me to look for Dad in a picture.  I found Dad in the picture from his mission. It's a picture of the whole mission. She was a sister missionary, then she came back and worked in the mission home with the Broadheads. Crazy stuff, small world. She worked in Fukutoku for a while too.

Now on to the week. Talk about following the Spirit, I had a feeling we needed to do an exchange on Tuesday, during study so I called the other elders and asked if I could go to their area for an exchange. It happened and I met this way nice Buddhist monk and we talked about the history of the Book of Mormon. I was able to help the other elder out who is going through some changes to become a better missionary. When the Fuji elders called to update, they said they met with three investigators, one we haven't met with for over two months who said he wants to get baptized! They had such an amazing day. The other investigator was way happy and they talked for about an hour. Crazy, just a small feeling during study time.

That 15-year-old girl came back to Eikaiwa. She became a new investigator wooot!.  Haha we visited a Peruvian family in the ward and they invited us in for dinner. Oh man, I envy the elders in South America. I miss that kind of food. Oh well, I would probably still be fat haha.

Saturday was a bust.  We rode our bikes like 45 kilometers and no one was home. We did meet with Tomiko and had a way good lesson about Moroni's promise. She then came to church and had a not so good lesson. She just chatted for an hour and a half and couldn't pay attention. It's tough, finally when something good happens, something else has to happen. Dang you Satan. I just realized that my ward has the goofiest people in the world. We made a list of goofy people and made the president and all his minions. Haha.

Well that was my week. Pretty good. We also found another new investigator, Chinese, way nice. Pretty awesome. It's about time. I get to go to Nagoya this week for Zone Conference. I get to stay in Toyota for the night with Elders Hilyard and Bardzinski. Then I get to see Elder Hollister for the last time. Dang. Carry on.

Elder Parry

Skyping for Mother's Day

We skyped with Elder Parry today for Mother's Day.  It was so much fun to SEE him and ask him questions, but so sad to say good-bye.  We had a roomful of people at G-Dawg's.  It was a great day.

Bonus Mother's Day Letter

May 15, 2012
Mother's Day

            So I know I just  talked to you guys not too long ago, but I thought I would zip over a quick e-mail and let you know about the week that was.  I had a really good exchange with a newer elder in Numazu.  We visited like seven people, but only one was home.  But we had a lot of good chat time with each other.  He is a great missionary who just wants to work and let the Lord take care of what is at home.  He has a sister with terminal cancer and he kept asking me how I dealt with similar situations.  It was a way deep and good exchange. 

            I told you about the crazy girl in eikaiwa (English class).  That was interesting.  Eldr Schade's bike also broke so we had to walk about an hour to get to our apartment.  It sucked.  We did a piggy back ride while I rode the bike for a little bit.  Haha, it was funny.  Then we visited a harmonica teacher that was referred to us.  He has over 500 harmonicas and has some really crazy looking ones.  I gave Elder Schade a look like hwas a loser.  He was super awkward too and it just didn't work out. 

            We had a fun BBQ.  There were Japanese, Americans, Russians, French, and Brazilians there.  It was quite the group of people.  It was way fun.  We handed out a bunch of pamphlets and eikaiwa pass along cards.  The food was all way good too. 

            Church was interesting.  I gave a pretty solid talk on mothers.  i think I will mail it home and Dad can translate it for you mom.  Then we had this way greasy looking guy come in.  He was really creep looking.  He said his name was Abraham Lincoln and he was the 16th President of the United States.  He had a huge American flag shirt to.  He was creeping on one of the handicapped members too.  Kind of gross.  So yes that's Japan for you in a nutshell.  We had some fun.  We had some frustrating times.  But hey, it was all good.  Roses don't come by much on the mission, but they stand out a lot more than the poop being thrown by Satan's monkeys.

With love from Japan,

Boobzilla

Golden Week

May 6, 2012

Good morning from Fuji! Sounds like it was a great week. I'm really glad to hear how everything went. Sounds like sports is sports. The usual, which I love. I went on an exchange with Elder VanCampen, the Zone Leader, this week. Everyone in the mission, including President and Sister Baird, get us mixed up all the time. We decided that just sitting down and watching a sports game and having nothing to worry about was one of the things we missed the most. Okay, here are the goods on Mother's Day. We will Skpe. It's not hard at all, please don't make it more difficult than it has to be. Get on a computer, get on skype.com or click on the icon on the computer, login, and just wait until I call you at around 9:00 this time. Shoot, sorry I don't know what time that is in Utah.  I will log onto MINE and call you.  I WILL CALL YOU from a members house. If it all fails, which it shouldn't, call my cell phone.  Please don't make this harder than it is. I know Caroline made an account. Just log on and wait for my call at 9:00.

As for the week, it was short and tough, in terms of missionary work. We had sports night and went to two matsuris (festivals). they were all pretty fun. I am so bad at badminton and basketball. I'm not even athletic anymore. It's kind of sad. It was Golden Week in Japan. No one is home and everyone has days off.  I hate holidays in Japan. People told us while housing that it was Golden Week and to not bother them. It kind of stunk. We went to two matsuris which were pretty fun. I had a cream covered banana and some cherry blossom shrimp. It was fun to see the culture of Japan like that. But because of Golden Week, we had pretty much no luck with work. No one was ever home and even the members in the ward were being way tough. The ward mission leader told us to go away and then when I asked him for a small favor he just laughed at me. I was ready to blow up yesterday at church until our investigator finally came and had a way good experience. She said she wants to study more about Nephi and said she will join when she can get an answer. Finally, something good happened. My bike also went down this week. The back wheel had seven holes in it. I think some dumb high school or junior high kids poked holes because they thought it would be funny.

So yes, that was the week of mine here in Fuji. I don't know what will happen at transfers. To be honest I wouldn't be bothered if I left. It might have beautiful scenery and a cool place, but when you have a hard time working with members and investigators, it just puts a damper on everything. I just became District Leader, so I think I will stay longer. Who knows, we will see. Just send the package whenever. I don't care when. I tried sending a package home of some stuff and mabotofu but it cost over $100. Japan is ridiculous sometimes. I hope y'all are lovin' home and life. Things are good, all is well, and God is still good.

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