伝説剣はあなたの指が切るをご注意ください

 After a lot of hard work, some blood, tears, and a lot of praying, I think I have officially mastered and figured out how to take a nap while riding a bike! Honestly, Its been great. Unless we are taking an early train somewhere, every morning after personal study at 10 AM we leave the apartment and I get to take a nap as we go somewhere and then I just wake my couscous brain up again and am good to go. I tried it while driving once but ran into my mom who I was following with my car🤷 so maybe it's a biking only thing but I'd give it try. 

This week was fantastic let me tell you! On Thursday we really wanted to find someone to teach so we hit the streets at 12 in the most downtown area in Kiryu and we were talking to everyone experimenting different things (自転車を乗ってるおばさんにストープしてくださいと) and what not when I look over at the stop light and saw this guy and he looked over to us and talks to us and asks us what where doing. As always I reply with the うろうろしてる (aimlessly wandering around) which makes them laugh 100% of he time and we were able to teach him the full restoration on the street and hopefully will meet with him again. It was sweet and after we found a shop with clothes all from America which are pretty popular here and found a Sturgis bike rally hoodie. Now that blew my mind, I never thought I would see that in Japan. Anyways I've talked about Sunagasan before but yesterday was my companion's birthday and we leveraged that with an invitation to come to church and he did. Haha I was really worried the members would be scared of him as there are too many things at this point pointing to him being Yakuza or he's got some sort of interesting stuff going on haha. However it could just be that he's running an underground pickle business. I think he was scared at first but at the end helped us give cake to a bunch kids which was good. After, we told him we were going to go to the library to study and was like that's dumb In Japanese. He wanted to eat lunch with us in our apartment but we can't do that and I'm trying to keep were we live outside of his noggin. However, after eating we were able to learn some stuff and teach him a lesson. Then on Monday we ventured almost all the way to Maebashi on bike and we saw two guys playing soccer so I used my companion and was like he's from Brazil 😱 If there was a crowd it would have gone wild. Well turns out just cause your from Brazil doesn't mean you can play soccer cause it looked like he had never touched a soccer ball before. We talked with them, left, studied for a bit, and then they text us to come back so we did and ended up riding like absolute gangsters helmets and all on bikes going to some ramen shop and talking about anime as that was both of their apparently number 1 hobby haha. We tried to relate it to God as best as we could. 

That covers quite a review of some things! Thanks.

Language update -

Like a fish graciously flopping his scales in the air I burst out the door every day and get humbled. However, I have seen a lot of progress and feel comfortable in most situations. I can teach the lessons and talk to people just fine in almost all the conversations we get ourselves into but still have a long long way to go. I have pretty high goals and am working really hard to achieve them everyday. Studying harder then ever before. I feel I understand all grammar at this point. The thing that stumps me is words. There are still so many I need to know and is tuff but I am learning a lot every day and I feel like I can just start to see a light at the end of the tunnel. That light being me achieving my goals before I go home. And I will mention my goals are very very high with the language haha. Anyways please pray for me to have the gift of tongues. This is a hard language that takes most missionaries in Japan up to their 18 month mark to really feel fully comfortable in every situation and I don't have that time. I am working so hard to get there and need your prays. I will mention though that this time of my mission I think I can say I know the gift of tongues is true but it doesn't come easily. Self worthiness, obedience, and lots of self put in work are all a part of it. However when I am in a time where maybe a word has slipped my mind I never worry. Because within a half second period my brain realizes I have forgot something, then that there is no reason that the gift of tongues will not help and to not worry, and then the word comes every single time which has been very cool to see.  And for everyone who has been praying for me up until now, thank you. Because I know I would not nearly be where I am now without your faithful prayers. 

For people that know Japanese things and learned the language in his modern era which is probably not a lot of people.

N5-N1 Verbs, and katakana words are scheduled to be fully memorized by end of next transfer. After that working back through N3, 2, and 1 words will take more time than I have. Yellow book and all useful blue book grammar is good to go for the most part. However I am sure out of nowhere some random things concerning grammar may pop up in the future.

Thanks for reading, caring, and helping!

Until next time - パーカー長老はバイバイと申します！

写真だ！

Fala meus mano, tudo em cima?

 You know I'm reaching that stage in life where I get home and lay on the ground and "wfhh, wow I'm getting old" and then struggle just a little bit getting up again. Its quite a transition period and I'll be honest it's hitting a little younger then I was hoping for but at least I can still put on my socks without falling over 80% of the time! 

Everyone, what is up! Groovin, movin, bet you never losin. This week was fantastic but wow today I gotta tell ya'll. I went and got a haircut and at first it seemed normal. Told the guy to give me the normal Japanese boy haircut that everyone has and we proceed to talking. Everything was going well when BAM, all of the sudden man drops me back and start rubbing shampoo in my hair. At first I was a little startled as I had never had this before but anyways he rinses it out and proceeds to spray steam in my face as he nearly choked me out with like 4 hot towels. Gave me a 45min shave that I will give it too him my face is baby smooth. After that he proceeds to do my eyebrows and it was then when I decided to just fully commit and enjoy it haha. After the eyebrows he whips out baby scissors and sticks them up my nose cuts all them hairs and after went and lined me up in my ears. It was crazy. He also stopped and gave me a massage half way through which I will add it was a strange message. He was kinda like yelling things and breathing quite intensely but it was awesome. It was the closest I have felt to one of those crazy Chinese lady messages you see on TV. 

We also had a lesson this morning as Sumaga coached us in skating which was super fun. 

Earlier in the week we went to Oyama for Zone Conference which was actually really good. Mr. President and the AP's put a lot of thought into it and it turned out very well. I was surprised. After, there I was as usual, the only responsible one who knows when the train leaves trying to get everyone to go. Haha you should of seen the look on people's faces as 4 Brazilians, a Canadian, and 3 Americans come running through the station at full speed wearing ties and white shirts, but we made it as the doors were closing and proceeded to talk to just about everyone on the train. Haha. 

On Sunday we saw an amazing miracle. There is a member from the Philippines who is 26 and super cool. After church his ride came so he tried to say good bye but luckily our awesome bishop asked him to invite his ride inside. So he leaves and bishop turns to me like if they come in idk what to do so you got it right. Haha we ended up giving her a church tour and a Book of Mormon and she said that she is going to come with the member soon. Turns out she works with the member and they are just friends as of now. But one day for preparation for when they want to get married in the  temple we can hopefully baptize her! The cool thing about this all is I was sitting there thinking oh man this member has got to be embarrassed. Here he is with his friend that we are bombarding with stuff and he is probably scared this could hurt their friendship. However, there was so much good that came from it and it didn't hurt a fly. So please don't be shy to invite your friends, neighbors, or even strangers to come see a worship house of the Lord.

Anyways, after church we went to Oizumi and had a fun conversation with an awesome family. Sadly they ended up not being to interested but it was good. However on the way home my companion accidentally left his phone on the train. Well luckily he doesn't live in Brazil anymore and retrieving it would be doable. It ended up leading us on quite the hunt yesterday. However, we managed to get it and only pay for about 1/8th of the actual trainage that we road so it worked out. And after that we had our first DCS meeting here and it turned out to be very productive so that was good!

That's all for this week.
Until next Time 🤝  
-Elder Parker
パーちゃん
喜んでね！

Zone Conference Facebook post by President Cook

 Zone Conferences February 2023! We learned so many things together: Christlike attributes; putting on the whole armor of God; being on the Lord's errand; accountability; and teaching buki. Buki 武器 means warrior tool or weapon in Japanese. Our AP's Shoryu Tsuchiya Chorou, Ethan Inouye Chorou, Ron Kerry Nelson, Mark-Jana Staples, gavin.millsap.18, and Tsuchiya Chorou's family all helped to cut out hundreds of pieces so each missionary could have their own teaching buki set!

A big shout out to Katelin Monson Shimai, Hannah Taylor Shimai, and Levi Rasmussen for the beautiful artwork and tutorials!

The trees roots reach water but what does the rocks reach😲

 Evening everyone! This week has just been amazing and I'm loving every second of it! We have been so busy and I have very little time this P day but there is just so many connections and experiences I wish I could convey. However I'll try my best. I'll start with today. On Sunday night while biking home along the river I saw someone skate boarding so we of course stopped and he was super sweet. We talked for like 30 minutes and taught everything there is to know about missionary work. Anyways this morning we ended up meeting with him at 9 and it was a blast. We taught him about the book of Mormon and word of wisdom! And can I just tell you how good it felt on Sunday night after talking to him. We found someone that wasn't busy because we were church people and I knew he would meet with us. I was so excited and then this morning cherries the cake. Anyways after that we were with members till late and ate way to much food and we went to a strawberry field and I hate 82 strawberries in 10 minutes then had to pee so bad like 4 times, it was crazy. Then on Thursday we went to a bug museum with Kagari San our investigator and she ended up reading a bunch of the Book of Mormon and had so many questions and I couldn't keep up and my Japanese is terrible but the spirit helped a lot and it all worked out. Then on Thursday we had a super fun qyouza making party and I will add that they were all nonmembers which was so good and we got a bunch of contacts from. We got invited by someone that has been taught by missionaries for the past 7 years but is Chinese so, like all the Chinese I've met here, he wants to basically be a member but doesn't want to make a promise, that being baptism, which is kind of unfortunate but we will keep trying. Anyways met some awesome people there. Then on Sunday we had another lesson with this totally socially awkward girl and her dad who took a bunch of pictures of us for free and spoke the most broken hard to understand Japanese I ever heard. I stood no chance. As if I just started yodeling and then asked you what I just said.ね  Then on Monday we went to the Brazil of Mexico aka Oizumi and I didn't understand a thing all day while my comp went around and worked with members. Haha at one point a little Japanese lady bumped into me and says something in Portuguese I was like are you kidding me you are even Japanese. I was ready to leave lets just say haha. But we eat at a Casa Blanca in Japan haha it was crazy. That's all I have time for and you may not understand my dying English but keep the faith! And I appreciate the prays and can feel and see them so thank you.

Until next time- Elder Parker

Facebook Post by President Cook

 JTNM weekly devotional! Today we focused on our missionary standards and shared many, mighty miracles!

#amazingmissionaries

#lifelongdisciples

#weinvite

Oi tudo bem ne ！や、三つ言語が話せるね印象的でわないが、I love kiryu

 What's up everyone. This week has been awesome! After not seeing someone smile or the sun for nearly 7 weeks I have broken loose of the thick heavy chains of Tsuruoka and escaped to Kiryu of Gunmaken, and let me tell it is beautiful. I love this area so much already and hope to stay awhile. My companion right now is Elder Holando. It has been a humbling experience and I love him so much. This is his third transfer after coming straight from Brazil. He is learning English and Japanese and giving it his all. He converted to the Church 2 years ago and is still the only member in his whole family and is coming from not the best circumstances back home. I have so much love and charity for him. We both want to see a baptism in this area so bad and have the faith to do so, so please pray for us to find the one. Let me tell you, not only us but many other missionaries, the mission president, and this ward are ready to see a baptism in Kiryu. Last transfer there were no missionaries here but they needed missionaries so it kind of feels like we are opening in a sense and we are determined there are some kinjin(Golden Inv.) here to find. So there is a lot to be done here, included cleaning up the area and getting this organized and there is a lot of people to contact and run through and setting up a DCS meeting with the ward and an eikaiwa class and activatings to do. We arrived Thursday night and a member with a family picked us up and let me tell you it made me so happy to see a family! It was amazing. Anyways they picked us up and took us straight to Yakinikuking 😂 After, the dad and mom were like you guys probably don't have groceries right and went to the store and bought us so much food! I was in shock. They were so nice and happy and not shy and quiet. It was awesome. Then on Sunday we met the ward and everyone was jumping out of their seats that we were there haha. It was awesome. Bishop is a good guy and is hilarious and we are going over to his house tonight for dinner so I am really excited. All the members just want to help and come to lessons.

Alright so let me tell you what we have been up to-

Since getting to Kiryu we haven't had bikes but we have had like 6 hours a day with perfect weather so I have felt like a missionary of old and it's been a absolute blast! Not very effective but good. We have just been exploring the area on foot all day every day knocking some doors here and there, talking to everyone we pass, and stopping in some shops to talk to the owners. Its crazy how effective walking actually is for a way of travel. We will return home and I'll look through the valley and realize we rapped around nearly the whole thing! I mean sure it took all day but really that's not to bad. Anyways, we found a couple people that gave us contact information and a nice Canadian that married a Japanese girl and is now living in Kiryu and owns a coffee shop. He said we can come by and chat sometime so that's sweet! Anyways, the area isn't crazy full with people everywhere and can have some slow movement but we are so determined to have God place that 1 person in our path and am giving him plenty of opportunities to do so. Besides the explorer Kiryu finding we have awesome ZLs who are just fantastic and one of them was able to try and kind of cover this area last transfer and he has been giving us a bunch of information and we were able to meet with someone named Kagarisan who lives in our area and we will be teaching from now on. There is also a place called Oyazumi in our area which is like a little Brazil and we have a full family there that wants to come to church and learn about Jesus so there is huge potential there as well as numbers of unbaptized children in this ward and the days end so fast I feel there just isn't enough time to do everything haha. Anyways the zone I am in amazing as well. Everyone just wants to see some miracle and are working hard to do so. 

Well, I think that gives a little bit of a rap on what I've been up to and what is to come. Thank you for the prayers! 

写真だね、見てみてくるね！

  最近外に伝道だけをよくしてるのですべての今週の写真はほとんど妙境の写真だけだ