Heiro

 Hey Everyone! This week was awesome and filled with spiritual experiences. I don't have much time today but to start of this week we were able to go to Maebashi and Utsunomiya for exchanges which were really good. Those Elders are good people and are making an effect in the wards they are in and to the people they teach. 

In between exchanges on Thursday we met with a lady from the Philippines with 2 of our members. It was the first time meeting her and it went really well. Her husband passed away recently and she loves God. She took everything we said with an open heart. We originally met with her to teach her Japanese but she said she cares more about the religious stuff than the Japanese stuff and wants to come to church. We will meet with her this next week as well. 

Then on Sunday Gazel and Kagari came to church and after we were able to go to a members home with them and I think it was really good for them to see how members live and to feel the spirit which resides in a covenant keeping home. Yesterday we went back to see some of the people we found out near Hosoya Station and all 5 of them sat around us as we shared the Gospel with them. They all are in a tuff spot right now and need it and are determined on coming to church next week. It has been such a blessing to see the gospel change people's life throughout my whole mission and especially recently. No one is perfect but the power of living the Gospel or in other words taking everything Jesus Christ has taught us and applying it to our lives has an undistinguishable effect on someone's heart, mind, physical, and of course spiritual things. And to teach that when we fail, the Savior is by our side that we need not worry I mean it just doesn't get better then that. 

Tell next time- Elder Parker 

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Email from President Deshler to Bishop Daniel

 12 Aug 2023 

Dear Bishop Daniel,

This letter is to inform you that effective 1 Sep 2023, Elder Isaac Parker will complete his missionary service in the Japan Tokyo North Mission.

Elder Parker has served with all his heart, might, mind and strength. He has focused on his purpose as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves the Japanese people and desires their salvation. He is by all measures a successful missionary.

Through his hard work, reliance on the Spirit, and showing of Christ-like love, many members and non-members alike have come to better know our Savior and His doctrine. We are thankful for the opportunity to have served with Elder Parker and trust that you will put him to work soon and encourage his lifelong commitment to living the Gospel.

Your Stake President will also receive notice of his release. May the Lord bless you as you continue to serve in this great work of salvation.

Sincerely,

President & Sister Deshler

Japan Tokyo North Mission

4th of July?

 Hey Everyone, what's up! 

This week was great and filled with fun and spiritual things. For example, my companion ate a very poisonous plant that we thought looked cool and his mouth is still recovering. Also when I was on the train, I looked over to see these girls sitting next to me giggling and terrified at the same time starring at a wasp flying into the window on the other side. Below the window was a row of seats that was filled with people and sometimes the wasp would drop down by their necks and fly back up. However, at one point the wasp left the window and started flying around and everyone started freaking out so I grabbed my Book of Mormon out of my backpack and stood up and started swinging. Boom, I pinned the sucker against the window but it crawled out so I smacked the window another like 5 times and got it. It was really funny and I caught the eyes of just about everyone on the train hahaha. 

Anyway, this week had lots of things I will never forget so please feel free to read! Starting off with exchanges with the APs. We were able to meet the sweetest family ever who recently converted whose names are Carlos and Luisa and then their kids too. They have so much faith and have their eyes straight on getting sealed in the temple. After that we were able to go Ota and street like crazy. Elder Black's just naturally a sales guy who is gifted in some regard and knows how to tickle people the right way if that makes sense so it was fun to learn from him and we were able to see lots of success. 

On Thursday we set out to a place in our area I had never been to before off of Hoyosa Station trying to find a referral we got from the Filipinos. We ended up not getting to meet her but got a phone call from her and are invited to a BBQ next week. But before we even went more than a 2 minute walk from the station there was this red apartment with 2 doors open and we went over and talked to them and met the sweetest people ever. There is about 8 of them and they are all family. They are from India but Christian and the most open people ever. We sat in their humble apartment and scheduled a time to come back a couple days later. 

The next day we had a festival in Kiryu! It's officially festival season in Japan which is so much fun because the festivals when I first got to Japan are some of my fondest memories of Japan. We had so much fun and met so many good people. Please check out the pictures! And then on Saturday, the next day, we had a fireworks festival in Ashikaga that was huge! We went with Ki and his friend Hakusan and it was awesome! We had like 4 people walk up to us and ask to take pictures with us and someone even asked me to marry them. We thought we should start telling people we are Christian idols from America hahaha. Met some good people and it has been so refreshing to see some young people in Japan hanging out with their friends on summer break. Granted most of them have to get drunk to get out of there shell but it has been quite lively this week which was so nice.

Alright so on Sunday we went to Oizumi for church expecting to meet our friend from Peru named Carlos but it didn't end up working out. However after we met up with Bishop and visited some less actives. We then headed back to Hoyosa to see our Indian friends. They sat us inside and said okay please tell us haha, so we jumped into the restoration and gave them Book of Mormons and they were so interested in reading it. It was awesome because I haven't seen people like this since the states. The son whose name is Abel asked great questions and the Dad as well. They instantly accepted that this was a record of Jesus Christ that not all the world has and that everyone should read it. Then right after that on the other side of the eki like a 30 second walk was a house of 4 friends that live together who are from Sri Lanka but they are all Christian and were so interested in coming to church. We just stayed a little bit but gave them Book of Mormons and they have a car and plan on coming this Sunday to church with us. Then we left and talked to a lot of people going to the festival which was a blast and then had a Book of Mormon study night with Ki and Ooki Kyoudai which was very spirit filled.

The Book of Mormon is true, the church and gospel of Christ has been restored and Christ lives and loves us and will support us through all hard ships of life, if we let him.

- Elder Parker

今週の写真なので見たらいいじゃん

You wanna see these!

Paaaaaaaaaiin, in the back yard

Yo, Hello everyone! Welcome back to my weekly email. Things have been so good here and we are working really hard. A lot of stuff happened this week, so ill try and give you a glimpse of it! 

Starting off in Tokyo at the first MLC with the new president. It was really good and equally intense, but we had some good discussion and inspired questions asked. I think President Deshler will bring some good things to this mission. After returning from Tokyo we were able to get some food with Ki and his non member friend named Hakusan whom we are going to start trying to work with and teach. He is pretty sweet and from China.  

From Thursday we really jumped into it, setting goals linked with real people and plans to achieve them every morning, then reviewing them midway through the day and then again reviewing and seeing how we can do better before we go to bed. We have been working smart and diligently. Anyways we went to a library to study Thursday morning but it was closed so instead we decided to go to see will, who is the Canadian that owns a coffee shop here and we were able to teach him about the restoration and build a good relationship with him so that was good. Then we had some good finding. We went to a train station and I played the piano for 3 grandma's and they had interest in Christianity and we gave them church information and a Book of Mormon which was pretty rare and cool. 

On Friday we had no plans and nothing scheduled so we decided to go to Ashikaga and visit members. It was terrible. It was at least a feel of 110 out with not a cloud in the sky which was good but the bad part was that every single member address there is dead. We learned the lesson to ask members about people we are gonna visit before visiting haha. We were able to meet a couple cool people though and especially on the train back when we met Shingo and 2 girls from Austria who were in Japan working for Cosplay that needed help with there train. I saw Shingo and said I gotta talk to him walking through the gate and my comp was like we gotta talk to those girls that look helpless so I went to Shingo and then they ended up coming and asking us for help but It was fun cause Shingo just chilled with us for like 20 minutes and is super sweet. Anyways on Saturday we planned a bunch for ZC and then went on a hike with Ki and Hakusan and then did a little BBQ thing at the church. We gave Hakusan a Book of Mormon in Chinese and it was sweet. He just accepts everything.

On Sunday Kazu came to church and we had a really good discussion with him about a lot of things and answered some of his questions. He understands it but still isn't sure if it is true or not. However later that night we ran into a pocket of foreigners and got 4 different poeples contacts so that was nice being that we only had about 30 minutes to find in this little store. But after that we went and met with some Buddhists that preached to us the stupidest things ever. "If you don't say this chant you will die from world War 3" type stuff and I think they believed in evolution. Anyways that was kinda a waste of time but after we had a good Book of Mormon study night and Bishop Matsunuma and his whole family can to support which was great.

Then yesterday we went out with the sickest Philippinos ever haha. I love the people of the Philippines. They are so humble, kind, and just good people. We gave them all Book of Mormons and had a really good time together and 2 of them we had never met before. Anyways it was a pretty good week and we also got 4 solid referrals of foreigners which is gonna be really good.

I've made it from 1Nephi to Mosiah since last time and it's so good, so don't forget to read and keep the faith! 

-Elder Parker 

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