Lately, I've liked to go by Zee Zer, short for zerzer salad dressing. I'm rocking some customizable pronouns these days.
Hello everyone! This week was absolutely fantastic and one of the most successful ones we've had since getting to Kiryu, so I'm excited to share some of the experiences I have been able to have. I sometimes forget to share the cultural things of Japan and cool things I experience every day in my emails so I'll try and do better!
Starting off this week we placed ourselves in the city of Maebashi which is about a 2 or so hour train ride north of Tokyo. Tuesday night we ate at the usual Indian curry joint and met a guy from Peru, a girl from Iran, 2 Japanese, and the two workers from Napal, not to mention my companion from Brazil, me from America, and another missionary from Canada, all really cool people with different back stories but all children of God. After resting Tuesday night we hit the ground running in Maebashi with lessons all day. We met with a girl from France, 2 guys from the Philippines, and 2 Japanese guys. We saw success with all of them and ended up in Isesaki that night hopping a late night train back to Kiryu. I'll tell you what, one of my favorite feelings in the world is running around all day without food or any thought outside of trying to help others as best as you can, to hop on the train being exhausted, to then bike home on empty streets to hit the pillow and do it all over again the next day. It is something no amount of money or time or anything can ever compete with.
The next day at eikaiwa one of the members just wanted to watch Tokyo Drift with us for class ๐ We didn't however, he really thinks that's what is planned for this weeks class. Anyways I told you all about Kan San the Chinese guy we meet last week in Ashikaga? We were able to meet with him this week and go to the first school ever built in all of Japan which happens to be in Ashikaga. I seriously lacked at getting good pictures however it was really cool. There was one building built in the year of 1107 and another in 1500 something. The library was ancient. Most the books were before katakana and hiragana which are 2 parts of the Japanese alphabet even existed with a bunch of ancient Kanji so now days even Japanese people have no idea what everything says. We were there with Kan and he is Chinese and he said he didn't even know what anything said. It was really cool and after we were able to to tell him about The Book of Mormon but we didn't have a Chinese copy. I offered him a Japanese one but he said he will wait tell we can find him a Chinese one. Anyways he ended up really wanting to come to church and read the book so we told him about The Book of Mormon app and he has been reading it a lot and loving it! He couldn't come to church due to something he had to do in Sano however he really wants to try and come this week so I'm super excited.
Then on Saturday we were able to meet up with another 3 of our Chinese friends who are all super sweet and speak fluent Japanese so we can communicate. We had a Chinese food making party at an old Japanese lady's house and it was awesome. I've learned how to make a lot of foreign foods since getting to Japan to say the least. Anyways we had a great religious conversation with them all and Ki San wants to be baptized but because of Chinese history for some reason making a promise is really hard for them but I know it is not impossible.
On Sunday, KaGarisan finally came to church and it was so awesome. She loved both the talks and had so many questions and said it was an amazing experience. We are hoping to teach her with a member family this week and put her on date for baptism but we will see. Then right after church we were picked up by some other members who has the returned missionary and they took us to an orchestra which played Bheetoven 5 and it was super cool. This family has, well a good chunk of change, and is well known in the community and well known for being members and having the missionaries with them and they are absolutely humble and blessed for it. After it ended they took us around and introduced us to everyone and did missionary work for us and we got a lot of people's contacts. After they just asked a bunch of highschoolers and people to come to their house to eat and a lot did๐ We were able teach them all about who God and Jesus are and how we can talk to God and receive help through prayer and then teach them all how to pray. It was awesome to see them have a bunch of strangers in their home and then yell out and say we are a Christian family so before we eat let's say a prayer. Awesome experience. We met a jazz drummer who is super sweet and a guy whose dad has a super sweet Skyline, an OG engine swapped Toyota 86, and a crazy sick old Ferrari who said we could come by and see some time.
Anyways after that yesterday we ended up biking 15 miles๐ It was fun but we sadly weren't able to see a lot of success, just a lot of sad people without a spouse or family who can't go back in time to be young again. It's so sad and there are a lot of things that happen here that leads exactly to that state and there are so many sad lonely people here that Satan is just dragging down that path. I see it in 80% of the people here and it is so sad. Japan needs religion, loyal husbands, families and moral systems that keep them away from alcohol, cigarettes, and porn so bad, so we go and find those that will listen and give it our all. We ride bikes along busy roads quite often and I make sure I wave at everyone with a smiling face to show them that we have something that they need. I've been so diligent about it that if I don't wave nowadays every once in a while I'll have someone wave at me and that makes me so happy. The gospel is true, God is right there and is so close sometimes I feel like can almost see him and the Savior standing side by side watching over us. We can repent daily for our mistakes. The atonement is infinitely real, true, and brings us joys. Hold on, trust God's plan and never lose your faith or give up. Read your scriptures every day, pray every morning and night, follow the commandments, repent where it is needed. Forgive those around you and love them with everything you've got. Its true, our master lives and we will stand face to face with him again someday.
- Elder Parker
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