Current Happenings and The Flight

How are things there? I got to Japan safe and sound, everything here is super cool and even though I still cant understand anything I love it! The plane ride here was long and very boring but I slept a bunch and caught up on my rest. The area I'm going to be in for the next 12 weeks
(supposedly) is called Iwamizawa and my trainer's name is Elder Tamashiro. He`s from Hawaii and is fun to hang with and talk to and is a really hard worker. How is everything there? Was Christmas good? I had a great Christmas I talked to mom and dad, gave a talk in church and then went to dinner at the Branch Presidents house. All in all a pretty good day with missionary work mixed in.

The rule is I'm not supposed to send emails to anyone not related to me just so everyone knows, yeah. We don't have any investigators at the moment so that means that we do a lot of tracting and such. (The reason we have no investigators is because of Christmas and New Years) So all of our appointments are set for about a month from now.

So I suppose I should do a run through of the trip to Japan. So first we get on a little island hopper from salt lake to Portland. And of course they spread everyone out so I sit next to this awesome lady and we start talking. Her name is Cindy Blake and she is the mother of the Blake that plays for the Lakers so that was way cool. I introduced the Book of Mormon and gave her a pass-a-long card and we talked for the entire two hour flight.

So our group gets to Portland and we have just enough time to call home and grab a bite to eat before we get on our delta flight across the
pacific. I sat in between Elders Rindlisbacher and Turley both of whom are awesome but we were in the VERY BACK of the plane but it was kinda nice. We all just slept and studied the entire way there and so we get to Narita airport in Japan and I walk off the plane and the rest of my travel team had left me. So much, not cool, was going on. So I stuck with the Tokyo and Sendai missionaries through immigration and low and behold there is the rest of my travel team waiting around the conveyor belt for their luggage. So now reunited and with out luggage we head through customs saying goodbye to all the people that we've just spent the last 2 and 1\2 months with and off we go... to the wrong terminal! (someone gave us bad directions) so we book it back to the terminal that we started at and make it to our flight just in time (PS, everything that could have gone wrong in between our flights without us actually missing it, did) so now we`re on the plane to take us to Sapporo and I konk out. We land in Sapporo and our mission president, his wife and the assistants are all waiting to greet us. We stopped and got some ramen(which was delicious) and took off for the mission home. I got my companion and now I'm in the coldest, snowiest place in all of japan. I'll take pics and send them home. But yeah I love and miss everyone.

Love, Parker

IN JAPAN!

Dear mom and dad,

We spent the night in the mission home (in sapporo) last night and had ramen (real ramen) i'm rather in heaven how cool is this?! My new companion is Tamashiro Choro. He's from Hawaii and i'm the second person he's trained. I'm crazy excited!

So now that that is out of the way. I cant wait to hear from you! No I havent been getting Stevens emails so if you could forward those to me that would be awesome. Im so happy I cant begin to describe it. I love you both very much and will tell you all about what's going on and will take lots of pictures for ya'll. Tell everyone I love them and give them a big hug. And i'll know my address by then. I got to go. Big winks all around.
Love, Parker

Where's Wald....Elder Sims!

One chapter closing and another one opens

Sorry I didn't write yesterday, our P-day was moved to today. WE SHOULD BE GETTING INTO PORTLAND AROUND 9:30 AND LEAVING AROUND11:30 SO OUR CALL WILL BE BETWEEN THEN. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW OUR CHRISTMAS CALL IS GOING TO WORK. I'LL FIND OUT WHEN I GET THERE. Ok now that thats done with I have had a great time here in the MTC and it finally feels like were getting out of here we had an "akashi kai" (testimony meeting) durring our last class and it was so awesome to see the change that happened to us while here. Im going to miss all the elders that I have come to know and love since being here and i hope to see them all again. How is everyone doing? i got some cool news that Dillion ludlow is going to Japan too! thats 3 going to japan from TO4 alone! the cake was great! It definitely made my day. When I get my new address i'll send it to you for mary to put on the blog. also when you get my address could you send my SLR camera with the battery charger? For P-day only i promise. Im going to start doing a video log of myself and send it to you when i fill up the card. im so excited i cant even begin to describe it! and im 20! Im no longer a teenager. Im old. Remember I want pictures of you, the car, my primary class and pictures of anyone else who reads my blog who wants to send me their picture. Thanks everyone who's rooting for me i really appreciate it. Keep sending your prayers,(I need em) haha this is the end of my MTC stay and the beggining of my Japan stay. I love you all and please write/email me. This has been the best experience I think I have ever had and have grown so much. I would encourage anyone who is debating going on a mission to do so. you wont regret it.
Love, Elder Sims/Sims Choro

Pre-Leave

So yeah I leave Monday morning and get there Tuesday night. Crazy stuff. I miss you. Tell me about the stuff that I might care about. And wow the blog got 200+ views? Thats crazy! I'll write you in a couple days when I get to Japan. Do people comment on the blog? Is that even possible? Stay happy and all that jazz. And tell me about life.
Love, Sims Choro

This week on "The Mission"

So really cool thing happened! Elder Yamashita who spoke at conference (in Oct) right before i left came and spoke to us. Just the japanese missionaries and bore his testimony to us with his wife. later that day he also spoke at devotional to the entire MTC but it was so special being able to shake his hand and talk to him for a few minutes. :) the natives got here this week and we've spent alot of time getting to know them and practice our Japanese with native speakers :) I'm having a great time but i can't wait to get out of the MTC and go over to japan, i got the package with the hoodie and shirt and the care package with all the snacks. thanks. it really means alot to me :) and i feel terrible about asking this but could you please send me my school backpack? the grey and black one with the 2 clips on the back?its much bigger than the backpack i have and I'm going to need it for the books and such that i need to take with me. we get to be hosts this wed, bringing new missionaries into the MTC and helping show them to their classes. I'm super excited! my zone and district are doing great. everyone is getting along well. oh, I'm district leader now, and will be in charge of all the elders in my class until we all leave for japan. kind of an intimidating task but i suppose I'm kind of used to it. how are all the animals doing? and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! sorry it's a little late... how are you doing in school? did you do well on your super difficult test? i hope so. how are the cars doing? you haven't hurt my mustang anymore have you? hahaha. i can't wait to get to japan. I'm ready for it. even though i don't know the language and im scared to death i cant wait :) tell the primary kids that i love and miss teaching them each Sunday. tell me about life. love you all.
Love, Parker/Sims Choro

Continuing On

So, cool thing happened this week. our class was chosen out of the entire MTC to be the representitives for the MTC and be the example district for a white house dignitary i honestly cant remember his name but he is incharge of corresponding with all the religions in the US and such, young guy. 31 i think. also the really cool part was that Elder Hinkley (pres. Hinkleys' son and wife came too :) SUPER AWESOME EXPERIENCE!
on the down side one of our brothers went home yesterday, so from a super high to a super low so now im the senior companion of the only elder tripanionship on the zone. its almost scary when one day one of the beds are just empty... but he'll be back. he's not the kind of guy to just quit.
the under classmen got here and alot of them have a buch of japanese background and they are further along than i am and its they're second day. kinda discourageing but at the same time its all good. whats happening at home? how the whole masters thing going? mom you should write me more than just "write me i miss you" because i want to know whats going on over there and in the world. i'm kinda cut off from all news of any sort. i miss yall but time is going so fast here. its like the days are weeks but the weeks are days. its a crazy feeling. only 4 weeks till we ship out to Sapporo. :) super excited. :) languare is coming.
i love you guys, write me back please.
Love, Parker.

Halloween Time Update

I love the MTC its wesome here (the stress is basically gone). I found Phil!!! and Bradly! Phil is studying Portugese on the floor below me and Brad is on the other side of the building but he's on the same floor as me :). Its so cool seeing them again. Phil and I are leaving the same day (I think) apparently all the guys here are under the impression that i'm some cool popular guy. Maybe they'll see the loser inside me but until then its kinda fun having that image. Japanese is still way difficult but things are starting to click now :) Can't wait to hear from you again!

Love,
Elder Sims

Pushing Forward

Dear mom/dad/anyone else who reads this
how are you guys? i got those lyrics thanks dad. i memorized them. hahaha im becomeing an ipod human. (its a youtube video. "ipod human" look it up) so how are things at home doing? dad says he's gonna go in for his masters and then the missionaries are moving in dec 1st? lots of crazy stuff. sounds exciting! we're still learning japanese. all the missionaries that were here left las week and this comming wednesday we get our kohai (under classmen) and we become senpai (upper classmen). my district is the example district but it doesnt feel like we are. probably because we're always studying and not paying attention to the other choro/shimaitachi (choro = elder) (shimai = sister) (tachi = put on the end of a noun to make it plural). i've definately been feeling a little homesick but onle 22 1/2 months to go so its not that bad. i have a feeling that by the time i do have to come home, im not going to want to leave. there are so many elders here from all over the world its amazing! all going to diffirent places around the world and learning diffirent languages some even learning english. yet we all have one purpose in mind. i've seen steven a few times and even had sunday icecream with him. ( i picked up a couple russian words too) its fun to trade stories anytime. and call eachother tools in our respective languages. i've been working out a bunch and my muscles are in some serious pain but it feels good to be in shape. how is everything? tell me about your lives! someone said something about something happenening to some elders down in texas (any news?) please forward this over to mary so she can throw it up on the blog. is she keeping up with it at all? Oh! we started teaching eachother. so we each have a character that we play and we get taught twice a week along with teaching our other "investigators" so we now have a total of 4 investigators that we teach every week multiple times a week. its fun but some of our investigators are kinda tough (the other elders) but we'll deal with it. i love you guys
Love, Elder Sims

P.S. thank you so much for the care package :)

Well Howdy!

So yeah, I'm here at the MTC and we only get the computer once a week. Please send a copy of this letter to Mary so that she can put my email on my blog. How are you guys holding up? I miss you both terribly. My companion is Elder Wilson or Wilson Choro. He's really on top of things and keeps me on task, because I get distracted easily (as you know.) Japanese is frustrating but its coming along and even though I keep getting frustrated about it because I’m not a master already I know it'll come in time. We gave our first lesson yesterday in ALL Japanese! It was a mess but we got through it and felt ok about it afterwards. Our entire district (our class) did bad and that made me feel better about it:) how are you guys holding up? Wilson Choro became out district leader, which makes me the assistant to him. I love my district and what I’m doing here. I love you guys very much :)
Love, Your Son,
Elder Sims