Morning everyone. Aha.... hope you all are doing well. Thanks to my favorite senior couple here it looks like the fish is officially out of water. I am in the coolest country ever, Japan! I had the best transfer to end out my time in the ND mission and will never forget my time spent there.
This will be a super long email because there has just been so much insanely sick stuff. So, my strategy will be to split it by days.
Wednesday: A brisk dark morning in Bismarck North Dakota where 10 missionaries including myself left for the airport at something like 4 in the morning. We arrived at the airport and met up with another 10 missionaries going home from the NDBM. We boarded a plane going to Dallas Texas and your boy fell asleep 😴 and didn't wake up till the wheels hit the ground. Next a bunch of super capable 19 year olds navigated the airport and made it to our next flight which was heading for Japan! The fact that I was going to Japan still had not hit yet until I stepped onto that huge plane and everyone was speaking Japanese haha. I sat down in the middle of two people and fell asleep. After the most uncomfortable sleep of my life I woke up to both of the people next to me watching anime and I thought to myself, yeah I guess this is really it haha I'm going. After 14 hours the plane landed and we frantically shuffled through all of the airport stuff and made it out to the front which at this time was about 3pm on Thursday.
Thursday: At this time we waited in the airport for a good 45 min for the other people to arrive and then we all went and loaded onto a bus and took a 25 min ride through Tokyo to the Tokyo Temple! This bus ride was the sickest thing ever! I was just trying to soak in everything haha. I saw this one dude with a pro ping pong paddle strapped to his forearm. And then I remember sitting there and looking in one of the cars and seeing RHD and going ohhhh yooo I forgot that it existed. Then I realized that Japanese people really run like movies show it, but the thing I noticed the most was how clean everything was! It was so nice and amazed me that for the population it really didn't seem like there were that many people out and about or at least of what you would imagine it to be. Anyways we got there and had dinner and hung out for a bit and then got back on the bus after dark and went to this bouji hotel in Tokyo where we stayed for the night. The toilet had so many buttons I didn't know what to do so I just started pressing them and we won't talk about what happened next. It was a rather startling experience.
Friday: The next morning we met in the lobby at 7AM sharp and headed back to the temple and church building where we took some photos, went through orientation on how not to be an American, got some stuff and then found out who our comps would be and our area. This was so much fun cause I know about 8 missionaries in this mission from my last mission and my MTC district so it was so good to see them again here for transfers. Alright now to find out who are comps where we all sat in the gym and on the screen they revieled the two people after the drum roll and two grey boxes with question marks on them frantically floating on the screen. My comp is, haha, my MTC comp who has been in Japan for only 6 weeks haha. We were so excited and still are to be comps again. A little later in the day we departed and went our separate ways. Me and Elder Bingham left and walked down to the train station and took two trains to NARITA, which is my area! It is in the Chiba zone and is the coolest place I have ever been. We then went to the apartment to eat a bunch of rice because all we have right now is like 40 pounds of rice haha and then I passed out.
Saturday: To be frankly honest I can not remember much of this day but I am sure it was awesome! Because I can't remember it I will share some other information instead. The people here are so awesome. I cannot describe it. Everyone is so polite and respectful and amazing to talk to.
I live in a split level you will see in a video I took, I got a heated toilet seat too.
Sunday: This was the best day ever! Members are so insanely sweet. We had an investigator with us and a member comes up to us and tells him that we are angels and to do everything we say haha. He agreed to go all the way to Chiba for a stake conference next week as well! He is the coolest guy ever and speaks Chinese, Japanese and very broken English to me hahaha. His first time hearing about Jesus Christ was 3 weeks ago tho so he needs to get a good understanding before we baptize him. Also at church I gave a self introduction which was pretty bad and I got corrected by a member afterwards because I accidently said I know that Jesus Christ is waking up, haha. After church we gave the sacrament to someone and I got in a tiny car and then that night we did some streeting etc..
Monday: This was the best day because my jet lag kind of wore off! In this mission we need to be out from at least 4 to 8 which is the best hours of the day! President told us that this is a beautiful country and to go and see it and spread the gospel as you do so. Yesterday we biked and walked around town and just talked to people. Japanese people when they stop and talk to you are so engaged and super nice to talk to. Although I can't indulge in full conversation yet I throw in a line here or there when I can and with only a couple days am understand a whole lot more. Sadly when we bring up the gospel and such people aren't super interested but we have found a couple with life questions and 1 that we are meeting with tonight!
Today: Right now we are about to go to Narita Shinshoji temple so pictures of that will be next week and then after that a lesson at 6. Today we will be out and about talking to the nihonjin
Thanks for reading my long email I hope I was able to share but a sliver of what I have been able to experience in it.
Until next time - Elder Parker
写真-
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