November 26, 2012

Dear Family,

  This one may be a little short today because I'm a little sick and not much happened this past week.
For thanksgiving, we successfully avoided eating with Tongans! However we still had 4 dinners so packing it all in was tough but I managed.
  Dad, for your question about housing, the vegetable drink was in my first area, and I was simply moved out to a new area. Missionaries still live there and we share experiences about the vegetable drink. The house that we moved out of, they had their daughter-in-law moving back in with them so we had to leave because of that announcement. The place we live at now is awesome. They're really nice too, they invited us over to their thanksgiving lunch which had 22 PEOPLE in attendance. I also had a 5 year old girl say that she wanted me to be her husband, it was an interesting lunch.
  With Christmas coming up, we're emphasizing a lot about mormon.org/christmas as well like Sister Parks is doing in her area. on Christmas day, we don't work at all. We go visit members or recent converts and spend time with them. In the evening we have a mission conference, and apparently this month we're having 2 members of the 12 coming! It should be a fun day. Taylor, we just received an announcement today that says we can't have tours form the sister missionaries after 5 pm at Temple square for this month. So, we'll go have a tour at 4 and stick around for a little while later! Hahaha  

  Taylor, I'm grateful for
Jesus Christ
hot showers
the scriptures
food
bed
cars
heaters
family
guns
and toothpaste!

Talk to y'all in a month!!!
Love,
Elder Parks

November 19, 2012

Dear Family,

  Well, in case I have my stomach explodes this thursday, I would like to say thanks for all the support and that I love y'all.

  Well, to be honest, I wish I could be there to help put up the siding. I miss building stuff and working with tools!
  So mom, the lady that gave us the vegetable drink was my landlord in west valley, and she's 90 so she's nuts about nutrition. So my companions have been from Bogota Colombia, Mexico City Mexico, Kuntucky, Washington, and North Carolina. And about your comment on my MTC companion, yes he did go to Houston so he probably did talk to that family! Small world.
  Well bad news for the investigators that we have. As for all other spanish people here, they got new jobs and all started working on sundays so none of them came to church and they all fell off date for baptism! Ah well. We're gonna keep working with them anyways. They're prepared its just rough because of what they have to go through in order to survive here.
  So on monday, I had an awesome haircut at sports clips! I got my hair washed and dried and it just felt awesome! Tuesday, the day before we were gonna move out of our house to an apartment, we got a call saying that we had a new house to move in to! Wednesday, we moved into our new basement in another house and spent the entire day moving stuff! Fun fun. Thursday, I had a long baptismal interview for a kid who had many problems with commandments and helped him through it and we also chased someone's dogs. Friday, I did 6 baptismal interviews. Then with one lady, she answered yes to question 4 on the baptismal interview which deals with abortion/homosexual relation/serious crime. So I called the mission presidency to have them do the interview, however what they told me was not what I expected. They said that they couldn't get there in time so they told me to represent THEM and decide if the lady was ready for baptism! So I had to get into details about what this lady had done. It's a sad story that I won't share out of respect for the lady, but she told me of her experience with repentance and how she had changed. It was a moving and intense experience with the Spirit. Saturday, I helped an elder in my district who's been having some trouble. Sunday, the branch had a primary activity. While they were singing a song, one of the kids went up and started playing the organ!!! It was so funny! I just started cracking up on the translating headset. It was a fun meeting.
  Hope y'all are doing well! Have fun with the siding!

Love, Elder Parks

November 12, 2012

Dear Family,

  SNOW!!!!! Man it snowed so much! One of the district leaders in our area wouldn't even drive to exercise in the morning! So when the storm came through we still went out and worked. I left driving up to my comp from N.C, neither of us have experience with driving in the snow. We don't get more mileage in the winter, we keep the same amount each month which is about 1300. I don't even ride a bike now. I still have the one y'all sent and it is hanging in well. We cover about 5 english stakes for our branch, and the area is about the same as the Walnut Creek ward. I work in the Sandy/Draper area.
  My clothes are doing good. My boots are nice and warm, I have socks to spare, the beanie keeps my head warm and dry, gloves keep my hands warm, and my trench coat is warm and sufficient. I think it's safe to say right now that I'm good on clothing.
  For thanksgiving we just go out and work as usual. Only on that day we'll do our best to avoid tongan families. They stuff you and feed you and command you to eat more! It's funny but crazy.
  Also, mom the balloons did work. The helium held up and they came out when I opened it. Thanks for the gifts again.
  So, the worst food that I have had is a drink. It was called a vegetable drink. It consisted of spinach, lettuce, carrots, cauliflower, onions, mozzarella cheese, and boiling hot milk. All of that was blended together. The worst thing ever. Meanwhile, my favorite food has been a soup bowl of possole(I have no idea how to spell it or the ingredients, I'll get back to you on that).
  So on monday, we went to airborn again, a trampoline place and I did my first backflip! On tuesday, I went on an exchange with an english elder and we chopped wood for service! It was fun to swing an axe and split wood. Wednesday, we came in contact with an evil lady who cursed us because we woke up her baby. Thursday we had a lesson with a guy (I'm pretty sure he was high). He wanted to go to church at the big white building (Jordan River Temple) and he went off on that for a while which was funny. Friday we had the blizzard and put 4 people on date for baptism! Saturday we got grounded as a mission from cars because the roads were too bad and spent most of the first half of the day walking before we got the green light to drive. And of sunday my comp slipped on ice and fell on his back, it was funny!
  That's all for now! Love y'all!

Elder Parks    

November 5, 2012

Dear Family,

  So the mission conference was awesome. Got to see a lot of old friends in the temple, and doing a huge session with everyone was awesome. Elder Hinckly spoke to us and gave us a few tips of how we could be better as missionaries. His tips came from his mission journal, his journal as a mission president, and from his father's journal. He also told us that his dad, President Hickley, after sealing his last grandchild in the temple to her spouse, he paused, looked around, and said that sealing all of his children and his grandchildren was perhaps the greatest achievement of his life. Kinda cool, something like that coming from a Prophet. Really gives the impression of just how special temple ordinances are.
  I'm glad y'all are keeping up in the Book of Mormon challenge. I think it's really neat to see so many to be on the same page and all of us learning together. I really enjoyed the section of Alma and Amulek contending with Zezrom. The Spirit of the Lord always has our backs when we are worthy of it. He really does empower us when we're in hostile areas.
  I did complete my voting ballot and got it in the mail.
  So I didn't do so hot on keeping tabs on one thing that happened each day, but here is what I wrote down. On tuesday, transfer day, I was hoping to be released as DL but they didn't change me at all. I'm a DL, with the same comp and in the same area. Hahaha the ZL's laughed at me because I answered the phone asking "Have I been released?!?" Haha it's not that I hate it, I'm just not a fan of having authority. I get prideful.
  Wednesday, was the mission conference which is what I already talked about.
  Thursday, our new member family dogged on my companion for drinking Dr. Pepper. It was funny, they just kept on making fun of him and saying they would go less active because they say he's breaking the word of wisdom.
And that's all I wrote. Haha! I keep on running into these ruts where I'll baptize someone and then have no work. We've been working hard on finding people to teach while I'm still trying to make it around to the other companionships (all of the missionaries in my district are training or being trained). It's rough but I know where my strength is so I'm relying on him.
  Is there anything that y'all want me to change about my letters? Too dull? Boring? Short? I'll do better this week to write down something each day to write about.
  Hasta ver!

Con amor,
Elder Parks

October 29, 2012

Dear Family,

  We baptized the family this past week! The parents chose me to baptize them and my comp baptized the kids! Funny because my comp is like 6'4" and the little girl was about half his height. As a district this past month, with the 3 companionships we baptized 14 people. The zone leaders came up to me today actually and told me that they expect 16 for the month of November. It's ridiculous! People are thinking that I'm actually a good district leader.
  For Halloween, we're actually having dinner at the Jordan River Temple, then we're all having a talk from the Temple Presidency, then we're going to do a session, then we're going to hear from Gordon B. Hickley's son! Then we go home! I'm so pumped.
 Also, thanks for the winter clothing! It was just in time. The snow has melted now and it's kinda warm but I got to use my sweater!
Also, Taylor thanks for the cake! I forgot to mention it last week. But I used the candles I got from mom and shared the cake with my district at the end of district meeting! I lit the candles on my birthday and had a nice birthday because of that. I went to Temple square for the first time last week also. I keep looking for you Taylor but the odds of finding you are pretty slim :(
  I'll send some pictures of some companions that I've had and the baptism we just had.
  I'll write down an event each day for this week again. I forgot it last week so I'll do it again this week so next week's email could be better.
Love y'all
Elder Parks

October 22, 2012

Dear Family,

  Thanks for the birthday boxes! All that winter clothing will come in handy. It hasn't gotten too cold yet for thick clothing but it'll get there.
  I didn't do anything very special for my birthday, but I did have lunch with my first district leader. We both have the same birthday just a year apart so we just had lunch and stuff.
  I wanna talk about this family we are teaching and how prepared they are. This family accepted to be baptized the first lesson. They read the Book of Mormon the first day. When we invited them to repent of their sins, they repented in the closing prayer. The wife straight up told us that she wants to be baptized. The father falsed his sister over the phone about how the mormon religion doesn't worship Jesus. The father called us one morning asking us how he could donate his house in mexico to the missionaries so he could save the church some money. The wife told us that she'll take anything that Satan can throw at her and will still be baptized. The father already invited us to his sealing at this time next year. He also told us that his beach house in mexico is ours whenever we want. IT'S RIDICULOUS!!!!!! So yeah I'm excited for their baptism (the parents and their 2 eligible kids).
  So I'm kinda short on time today, but thank you so much for all the packages and the support from home. I hope that someday I can somehow make it up.

Love,
Elder Parks

October 15, 2012

Dear Family,

  So this past week has been pretty busy! I did 5 baptism interviews this past week for Elders in my district! As a district we are projecting 19 baptisms for this month! That accounts for more than half the zone! We have a family right now who are super prepared! When we were having our lesson with them this past week, the wife told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is true, she knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that she can´t wait to be baptized! I have no clue how some people are so prepared but they somehow are!
  As for an embarrassing story, yesterday at Church, we didn´t have someone that could translate the meeting into english. So they decided to call me up from the stand to do it! Speaking another language, you have your on and off days, and yesterday was a really off day! Then to add insult to injury, an RM was giving a talk but he didn´t speak spanish! So I translated for him and it was horrible! He was quoting scriptures left and right, along with preach my gospel. So yeah it was quite an experience.
  Taylor, we´re going to the temple this week actually so I´ll ask about the plates. However, my mission president said he´d never heard of my theory before so I´m kinda doubting that it´s correct.
  Other than that this week has been kinda uneventful. I liked reading in the book of mormon in 2 Nephi 31. Towards the end of the chapter, Nephi is somehow only talking about going through the Temple. I dont entirely understand it but I´m trying hard to find it all out. Mission President explained it once and my head started hurting.
  Looking forward to mail pick up today! Also, I still haven´t had time to write letters to people so if anyone asks just tell them I´m getting around to it. Also my camera batteries died to I need to buy some more next week before I can send pictures.

Love ya´ll!
Elder Parks

October 8, 2012

Dear Family,

  We watched the saturday morning session of conference in our landlord's house, and we literally started yelling when President Monson changed the ages for missionaries. BYU will never be the same. Plus, it's gonna be weird seeing 19 year old sister missionaries.
  Taylor, 5 temples have Moronis holding gold plates: Jordan River Temple, Washington D.C temple, Seattle Washington, L.A Temple, and Mexico City Temple. A temple patron told me the doctrine behind the temples with gold plates but I gotta ask a Temple president before I believe it. Also, the RM I met had served in Australia and he only said the two words that you said aren't considered swear words in Australia.
  Well, to be honest, I'm not a fan of planning for district meeting. Also as a district leader I need to go on exchanges with the every missionary in my district (there is 6 of us total) during the transfer. The purpose of the transfer in to learn from the District leader, which I find odd for obvious reasons.
  Mom, from District leader I can go anywhere. I can be a zone leader, go back to a junior comp, a senior comp, or a trainer.
  So in our mission, the missionaries who have been out longer are the ones who are allowed to go to conference. However, since we received over 70 missionaries in 18 weeks, I'm classified as a veteran (with 8 months???) so I got to go to Sunday afternoon session! It was awesome to go there again. I saw Brother Bednar, from wells branch but he couldn't hear me calling for him. Also, the Hancock family was sitting 4 rows in front of me but they didn't see me either. However, someone that found me was my awesome MTC teacher!!! He came up behind me and surprised me. It was so cool to see him because he helped me a lot in the MTC. Found out too that he had found a girlfriend and was already engaged, where he wasn't dating anyone 6 months ago when I left. It scares me to think about getting married a year after my mission. Speaking of dating, I've had a few families ask me if I had a girl waiting for me back home. When I say no, they try to set me up with their daughter or cousin... it's kind of awkward. They get this idea that I'm some sort of millionaire who will give them money.
  My favorite talk from conference was President Uchtdorf. He got to fly with the Blue Angels!!! I liked his notion for us to just decide to be happy. I need to work on that, this past week has been kinda rough but we did find some golden investigators! They hate the catholic church, and want their kids to have good morals. Plus they loved conference and want to be baptized! Good stuff is starting to come.
   That's all I got time for now. Hope y'all have a good week!

Love,
Elder Parks

October 1, 2012

Dear Family,

  It's october!!!!!! I only have 1 year and 4 months left and I'm still not fluent in Spanish! I need to work harder.
Please forgive me for not sending pictures recently. I keep forgetting to bring it, but I am using it out in the field. The picture that I'm pointing in, I'm actually pointing at Moroni on top of the Draper Temple. Speaking of Moroni, did you know that only 5 temples in the world feature Moroni holding gold plates? There are also a few where Moroni is holding a scroll. Cool stuff.
  Thanks for the package! I actually went on an exchange with one of the zone leaders this past week, he ate a lot of my candy, the punk. I still have a lot of it though!
  This week in the Book of Mormon, I really liked chapter 21 of 1 Nephi. I remember that Nephi uses the words of Isaiah there because Isaiah is a great prophet for giving hope and encouragement. I think I need to use that one more with our investigators.
  This past week has been rough numbers wise but I'm keeping my hopes up. We don't have anyone that is progressing and we don't have anyone on date for baptism either. My greenie is struggling a bit, I need to actually focus on him more.
  I've really liked the colors recently. It's cool to see Fall creep down the mountains. Plus it's nice to drive around with the windows open during the day. I'm not looking forward to winter though, it's already cold in the mornings for work outs.
  Happy Birthday mom! Sorry we can't be there for it, but know that we'll be thinking of you! I always think of the mothers of the stripling warriors whenever I think of home. We we're raised up by a great mom.
  So this past week, we played tag in a place called the fun zone, we ran around on all these different inflatables and it was SO much fun. This past week I conducted my first district meeting. It was nice, the zone leaders helped me out a lot. The next day (wed) all the district leaders had an awesome training at the mission office from President Miller. He really does care for the leadership and well being of the missionaries. Thursday night we had an interesting conversation with some drunk guys. They asked us for beers in spanish, it was funny. On Friday, I helped out an Elder who was going home. He was a trial missionary who wasn't able to serve for the full 2 transfers he wanted to. We had some one on one time, and I talked to him a lot about how much of an example he is to everyone. He was bullied a lot, he almost committed suicide, his dad considers him a failure because he's not athletic due to a heart condition. I did everything that I could to help comfort him. I'm glad I did too because he really needed it. He told me that I'm the second person who has really ever cared for him in his life. I'm just glad that I could help him out. In church I accidently messed up primary!!! The teacher wanted me to stand behind a board so only my shoes and legs were visible. She then said that there was an important person behind the board. Well then I thought I heard her tell me that I could come out. Turns out, she said something else and I accidently spoiled the surprise. So much for my first sunday in the branch. Haha

The church is true!
Love,
Elder Parks

September 24, 2012

Dear Family,

  Before I proceed, I feel it fair to warn you all about something that has been on my mind a while. In Terminator, Skynet in the company that builds the robots that take over the world. In our world it will be Apple and all the smart phones that will start attacking humans. Just be aware....
  So yes I got transferred again. I am now a DISTRICT LEADER and I'm training a second transfer missionary. I'm working mainly in Sandy in the Cresent 1st branch. Bleh, I have to do call in things and report all these numbers every single night. I also have to lead and plan out district meetings for Tuesdays. Eh I'm just doing whatever I think I should be doing. I have my first training meeting this week on wednesday so I'll know more then. I have my own car now! I'm driving a Ford Fusion, and it's awesome. I miss the Impreza though, it had a sport mode which was really fun to drive in.
  So Mom, usually for spanish assignments we only cover one ward/branch so I only go to one ward each sunday. For english missionaries, they usually go to the ward that has investigators coming to church and usually only stay for the first hour in that ward. However for my branch now, it's backwards. They start with Priesthood/Relief Society, then they go to sunday school then Sacrament at 10:20. It's weird.
  I'm glad y'all are doing the Book of Mormon challenge with me! Something that stuck out to me today was the last few verses in 1 nephi 11. I believe it starts in verse 17 but there was something else there that I couldn't exactly see. So, I'm going to be studying it more.
  The Temple dedication was cool, although President Packer was hard to understand. So what they did here is they has the session being broadcasted to all the Stake Centers here in Salt Lake. So I attended a stake center to watch the session. It was interesting but cool with the dedicatory prayer.
  So the events this week! On monday, a little boy drew a nice picture of me while we were having FHE with them. He didn't give it to me though. Tuesday, I did a session at the Draper Temple! That temple is HUGE. The sealing room has like 72 chairs. Also, after the temple, the zone leaders called me and confirmed my nightmares by telling me that I was going to be a district leader. Wednesday, I learned that I was pretty much white-washing the area which means that my companion and I are starting off the area because nobody stayed in that area from the last companionship, and I was DEAD TIRED. Thursday, I just wrote down that I had no clue as to what I was doing as a District Leader, and on Thursday I conducted my first baptismal interviews for converts wanting to be baptized! It was awesome to see how prepared those people were to receiving the gospel. On friday, the assistants to the president came on an exchange, which was weird. They sent a text out of the blue asking where I was then they came and met up with me. And just on sunday I went to the Temple Dedication.
Love y'all!
Elder Parks

September 17, 2012

Dear Family,
  Haha, I forgot to tell this, so my last house, the landlord wanted to 'accidently' invite Taylor to her house so we could see each other. That landlord was fun, looking back on it.
  Hey something cool! We're getting special tickets to see the Dedication of the Brigham City Temple this sunday! I need to get a handkerchief!
  Well, transfer calls will happen tomorrow. So next week I'll be in a new area probably!
  Also, I haven't really had any time lately to respond to any letters, but I'm making time to respond to them this week or next week.
  I blessed the Sacrament yesterday in Spanish! It was fun! So yeah I'm out of time.
I'll write more next week! I know these letters are lame. I'm committing to write down an experience every day and then write them in these letters. Love y'all!

Elder Parks

September 10, 2012

Dear Family,

  So something interesting happened the other day! We were going to go visit a family the other day and there was a standoff going on between a crazy nut and the police! It was awesome we got to see the entire swat team pull up! Have no clue of the outcome though. Elder Gomez isn't one for having so much fun so he had us leave. I'm still being safe though so don't worry!
  So I've been adjusting to this trio. Elder Toborg doesn't remember much of Austin! It's sad. It's hard to find time to speak up in the lessons with there being 3 of us. Plus, with spanish you need to use more words than when speaking in english so each person needs to take more time.
  We had a special training this past week from a member of the first quorem of the 70 so that was fun. He told us a lot about building faith. I left my study book at home so I don't really have the details at the ready. He also told us a lot about prayer and receiving personal revelation. It was a long training but it was nice.
  Hope y'all are doing ok! Love y'all

Elder Parks

September 3, 2012

Dear Family,

  So President Miller called me Saturday morning and told me that I was needed in Sandy. 6 hours later I was in Sandy. So I'll be spending the rest of this transfer (about 2 weeks) in Sandy. He also told me that I'll be moving to another area in a few weeks to be a district leader....I never wanted authority in the mission! So after being in my area for 5 months, I was called out of there. It stinks that I can't keep training Elder Allen.
  So yeah that's whats going on now. In my last area we were suppose to have a lot of lessons this past week but most of the lessons ended up not happening this week. Many people canceled and the rest just weren't at home. Oh well. I'm starting to get used to people not being there. Being here in Sandy is so much weirder that being in Kearns! The houses are actually nice here. I'm not so sure if I'm really used to it, hopefully I get sent to another poor area as a district leader.
  I'm in a trio now, I'm with Elder Gomez (my last companion) and I'm helping him train Elder Toborg! So yeah I got a piece of training both the people that I knew coming in last transfer.
  We had zone conference this past week. President Miller gave us a lengthy talk about the Book of Mormon. He went about 1 Nephi pretty much explaining how Joseph could not have written it. For example in 1 Nephi 13 (I think) Nephi talks about the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Columbus for sailing to America. That was before the journals of Columbus were found. In his journals, he talks about the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him and prompting him to sail across the ocean. Pretty cool stuff.
  It's hard to talk about stuff about the mission! I'm having a lot of fun but I keep forgetting to write down the fun stuff! I'll keep working on that this week so that I actually have something interesting to write about.

Hope everyone is doing great! Love y'all

Elder Parks

August 27, 2012

Dear Family,

  I can't believe this month is almost over! The time seems to be going by a lot faster. Seems like only yesterday that I was saying good-bye to my trainer. I have special permission to email him (stamps to Colombia would get expensive). I really miss having him here to help guide me in situations that I didn't know how to handle. He was a zone leader here in the mission for about 75% of his mission (consecutive transfers). And that says a lot because for about the first year and a half of his mission, the Salt Lake City South mission was really bad and disobedient. He had so many situations and experiences. He sent me a message today saying that he was really proud of my for training and giving him his first grandson!
  Sorry for not telling you about meeting the Smith's brother in the temple! There's so many people I talk to everyone just blends together. 
  So we didn't have any baptisms this week but we did find 9 new people to teach! I don't know how we found 9 people but somehow we did! So for us, within the past two weeks we've found 13 new people to teach! We're gonna be working very hard to meet with all of them but it will be hard because all of them can only meet with us in the evenings during the week. Good thing we have a car every other week.
  Is Hilary in a spanish assignment? Why did you ask us both how the language is coming? Hilary, I'm sorry. You write so much! I don't have enough time to read it all!
  That's all I got right now. Besides finding 9 new people this week didn't have many interesting things going on. (Besides the district exercise we do every morning from a makeshift P-90X thing kicking my butt everyday!)
  Hope everyone is doing great! Love y'all!

Elder Parks

August 20, 2012

Dear Family,

  This week went SO WELL. Pablo, the little boy that got hit leg banged up, came to church yesterday and was finally confirmed! Also, we had a baptism earlier this week for a little boy named Fabian. It was a short little service because he wanted it on his birthday. So he was baptized and got confirmed yesterday so we had two confirmations yesterday!  What also made this week good was that my companion and I have been getting along great. He's getting accustomed to missionary life and we're both learning to have fun and laugh during the work. We also found a few families that want us to come back! We'll be meeting with all 3 families within the next 2 days. The ward and the ward mission leader are starting to be more supportive. It's nice to have some support from them.
  So on P-Days, we can go anywhere in the mission (except Park City because we need special permission for that). During the week though, we're confined to our assigned area which for me is about 2 miles wide and 3-4 miles deep. Usually on P-Days, with the time we have left after laundry, shopping and emailing, we either play some board/card games and on rare occasions we have zone activities like going to Airborn (a trampoline arena), or go hiking. Our district is always together for P-Days and usually we all just play games at someone's house or hang out at a church building.
  In our mission, we are allowed to take investigators to Temple Square on special tours. There are some requirements that need to be met first, but that option is available to us. I've tried before with some investigators but haven't been able to do it yet. We're going to try it though in a few weeks with these new families we have started teaching.
  One thing that I did to help me reduce my stress, I added notes to a little card that Taylor gave me shortly before leaving for the MTC. I have written on it some inspiring lines from Apostles and scriptures and it also has everyone's name written on it(Paul,Beth,Matt,Taylor,Hilary,Hannah). It's nice to carry around in my shirt pocket during the day. Gives me reasons to keep going.
  The picture, it looks like we're both mad, but I promise we aren't! Oh and it is me and my district leader in the picture. My greenie wasn't able to attend the baptism, nor did he want to come either because he only taught the kid once. My greenie still has a lot to learn.
  Something funny that happened yesterday, was that a kid asked me if I liked girls. I told him yes, then he proceeded to call me a girl because I liked girls. I thought it was odd, but funny.
  Also, I'm starting to wear out my socks. If I could receive some new black socks it would be nice.

Thanks for everything and for all the support!
Love y'all

Elder Parks

August 13, 2012

Dear Family,

  So yes I am training. I received a new missionary fresh from the MTC, and his name is Elder Allen! He lived in my hall during summer semester at BYU. He is a good missionary. He has a strong desire to serve and to learn as well. I was very happy to have been assigned to him. I saw Elder Toborg and saw that he was assigned to my last companion Elder Gomez. It was funny because all the trainers and new missionaries are in the chapel together and President assigns each companionship from the podium. Elder Toborg and Elder Allen were the last two missionaries to be assigned so I was really nervous about which one I was going to get. So I'm training a brand new missionary in the same area in West Valley. I'm starting to get a little tired of this area. 19 weeks of the same place has been kind of tiring. However, I'll do whatever I'm asked.
  So now the situation is crazy in the mission. We have around 180 missionaries, and of those missionaries, some 90 missionaries have only been out in the field for 3 transfers or less. President told us that we can't afford to mess up, at all.
  The boy that we baptized last week got hit by a car and couldn't come to church yesterday! He only has a bad bruise on his leg but he says it hurts a lot and he couldn't walk very far. He still needs to get confirmed and receive the Holy Ghost.
  Well I didn't know y'all would be that close to me. It kind of stinks that we can't see each other.
  I wish my emails could have more stuff in them! A lot of the things I want to share can only be explained in person, or just by experiencing it for one's self. For example, something I find hilarious here is that I always seem to see homeless people on what look like brand new bikes. When I think about it more, I realize that the bike actually belongs to a kid who I saw riding it the week before. Somehow though, the bike always gets back to the kid. There are many ice cream trucks here that look really shady. The people here are interesting too. I was talking to one guy at a street corner and he asked if I wanted to talk to his friend. When he asked that he put his arm around his 'friend' who was actually an imaginary friend. Then the guy proceeded to ask me if I found a credit car, then he asked me if he could have my personal credit card. The people here are interesting. We also have many Tongan families who never stop giving us food. Another guy goes around selling ice cream in a shopping cart, and I pretty sure people need licenses to do that (right?), meth labs exploding, dogs chasing us only to receive a swift foot to the face, tricked out cars with blaring basses that make it sound like the car is going to fall apart at any moment...it's a fun place!
  We got another baptism scheduled this week! Another person entering into a covenant with God.
  I guess that's all I have for now. I'm starting to write down more moments in the little book Matt and Taylor gave me for Christmas, so next week should be interesting. Oh yeah, we have a car now and we're sharing it every other week with another companionship in the zone. I actually like riding bikes more I think.
  Oh yeah one more question, Matt, how did you have fun on the mission while still being obedient? I'm kind of having a problem right now where I'm not having fun. My Mission President says that I need to loosen up but I don't really know how to do that.

Thanks for the emails! Mom and Hannah, hope you have fun in Utah. Dad tell Bishop Sagers and Brother Aldridge congratulations on their callings. Write y'all next week!

Elder Parks

August 6th, 2012

Dear Family,

  We've been out for just over 6 months! Crazy.
  I'm getting farther ahead in my Spanish reading of the Book of Mormon! Isaiah is sooooo confusing! However it's cool though to continue learning more in another language! It's neat to see just how powerful of a person Jacob was! Some of his teachings are phenomenal.
  We had a baptism yesterday! the english missionaries found him by tracting and handed him over to us. At first we were teaching his uncle, who just complained the entire time that God has never helped him in his life. When we were about to stop teaching that house completely, Pablo told us that he has always wanted to be baptized! So from there on, we taught, he listened, he learned, and yesterday he entered into a covenant with God and was baptized! It was so amazing to finally get a baptism after 5 weeks of working really hard.
  So transfers are this week. Still have no clue as to what is going to happen. I could move, I could train, I could train and move, I could be the new District Leader (hopefully not). I'll write you next week about what happens.
  I'm sad that I missed softball at Mo Ranch! We don't play that many sports here. It's kind of lame at times. Mostly it's just basketball day after day and with my lacking skills in that, there isn't much desire to do that. There is a school nearby though which has monkey bars, so maybe we'll start going there for workouts.
  I should be receiving you packages today, we always get mail after we do our emailing.
  There is some talk that the new President in the Central mission will send Spanish missionaries to cover the other half of our ward. It just really sounds like a bad idea, nor would it make sense because they still have to come to our area each Sunday to come to Church.
  When does school start up for Hannah? Has she been thinking about any colleges yet (I'm sure she gets that a lot)? Do Taylor and Matt know about what school he will be attending to finish up med school?
  I'm a little behind in my letter writing to everyone, so I'll try to send some responses to people this week (the Andersons, President Hollingsworth, Bishop Sagers)
Thanks for all the support! Looking forward to the packages today. Love y'all

Elder Parks


Trenton then sent us another email later in the day and he wrote,

Oh yeah, I just got called and I'm training... :)

July 30th, 2012

Dear Family,

  So this week I made a new friend with a little dog named Oreo! He's an awesome dog.
  Anyway. Dad, honestly the advice we give people about getting divorce is we just ask them about their current relationships with the people, and we just encourage them to action. If they truly want to follow Jesus Christ, then they'll either move out, or get married by a Bishop who does the marriage for free!
  We do work with people who don't have papers, but we don't really worry about that. If the problem gets really bad, then there are some senior couples that we refer to that can help out more than we can.
  The 12 year old we are teaching is going alright. He is hard to meet with but has come to church 3 times now which makes him eligible for baptism. We now just need to teach him!
  We started teaching a lady this week who is going through some rough times. She has very little money and is actually living with a guy that is helping her out right now. They don't have enough money to pay rent and are facing a court date because they haven't been able to pay it yet. Her child was born with brain disabilities her medical bills are rising. Her sister is a member and likes her example. So as a result, she has no more options and is turning to us for help, and she's coming to the right source too!
  With people that aren't progressing, we mark it down that they aren't moving along on the teaching records. It's there on record for future missionaries to read, and they can choose when to go visit them again. There is no set time limit as to when you go visit them again.
 In our zone, numbers are apparently 'everything' but my trainer (who was a zone leader for 16 straight months) taught me differently. Even when Elder Ballard came, he told us that if we can pray to God and honestly say we gave it our all, then we are successful. I follow the advice of Elder Ballard and my trainer in regards to numbers.
  Taylor, I haven't seen sunsets! Usually in the evenings we're in lessons and aren't out much. However, even in this area the trees are huge! I'm racing to the top of a hill to get a good picture only to arrive like 5 minutes late...triste :(  I did see the red sun a few days ago, it was neat.
  Hope y'all are doing alright! Thanks for all the advice y'all sent and wish I could respond to it all but I'm out of time now so I'll write more next week!

Love, Elder Parks

July 23, 2012

Dear Family,

  My spanish is coming along well. I'm getting a lot better at pronunciation but I'm still working on memorizing words. I'm forcing myself to always have an hour of language study everyday which is actually helping a lot. Also, I finished to Book of Mormon challenge a few weeks ago in english, so now I'm reading it in spanish! I'm in 2 Nephi 9. Isaiah is hard in english, he makes no sense in spanish!
  Elder Gomez has been studying English since he was in first grade so he too is fluent in both languages and doesn't often find a problem in speaking. The issue we usually clash on is that he can't believe that I'm not understanding what is going on in conversations. He had forgotten what it's like to learn a new language. He kind of understands now.
  Not much to write about this week. Numbers were very low this week. The area has kind of slowed down to a halt. We are contacting a lot of people that simply aren't interested. Mainly we are just visiting less actives. Matt how did you handle less actives? I remember you saying that less actives were your favorite people to visit. We have one boy who will hopefully be baptized this coming Sunday.
  We had interviews this week with the mission president. He told me the reason why I'm with my companion. He told me that I need to learn how to lead. I see his point. I knew nothing about leading when this transfer started. Now I'm pretty good at leading an area! President is smart.
  Learned some fun stuff this week. Got to go to the Jordan River Temple. We also talked with a guy that paints the inside of temple for a living. He gave us some cool gospel lessons to ponder.
  If you all see something that you think could go in the blog, you can put it there. Simply put, there just isn't much to write about. I'll make more of an effort next week. :)

Con amor,
Elder Parks

July 16, 2012

Dear Family,
 
  So I've been doing good recently. I had a very good companionship inventory with him. From talking with my leaders, apparently my companion has had many problems with his pride in the past few months. And, according to President's Messages, this Elder was sent to me to be corrected....crazy. He very humbly talked about his pride with me and ask me for ways that I could help. We are getting along well and this is looking to be a good exchange.
  Glad y'all saw my terrible picture on the mission blog! Yes I have a very nice neck line tan thanks to all the collard shirts. I do have sunscreen, I AM using it, and also I'm fine without sunglasses.
  This week was sad and happy. That couple that we were teaching that only needed to get divorce papers, well they moved to a different area so now we can't teach them anymore. It's sad but it's OK! As long as they get baptized it's cool! Now, we have an elect 12 year-old! Despite getting 3 hours of sleep before church, he still came! And he read 10 chapters by himself in the Book of Mormon! We're excited with his progress.
  Yeah other than that, it was an uneventful week. We dropped 6 people this week because they just weren't progressing. In time they'll be ready, perhaps they're just waiting for a different missionary.
  Oh and by the way, the meth lab explosion, the news says it was a BBQ accident. FALSE! The police wouldn't make a crime scene out of that, nor would they arrest two people who both tried to run away, plus a BBQ accident wouldn't leave a massive hole on the second floor of the apartment complex.
  Oh yeah, I heard yesterday from our landlord something interesting. Her sister had stake conference down in St. George and Elder Bednar was the speaker. During his talk, Elder Bednar said that something big was coming in November...not sure how accurate that is or whether it pertains to the elections or not but I thought it would be fun to put this it.
Sorry this one is short. This area is starting to get old and a little boring. Need to spice it up a bit.

Con amor,
Elder Parks

July 9, 2012

Dear Family,

  So this past week we had a lockdown where we got to have barbecue, have a short meeting, and then got to watch movies or play games etc. I watched Cars 2 with my district leader and (sadly to you all) I loved it! It was the most fun, action packed movie I've seen in months! Haha for obvious reasons.
  Is there a second Saints and Soldiers?!?!? I've heard some rumors...Also, has Batman come out yet?
  I'm glad y'all are having amazing vacations. Perhaps we can have some more when I'm home....?
  Taylor, what is Farmers Market like??? I've always wanted to go. Is the food selection very good?
  My companion is good. He has some flaws but I'm learning how to manage him.
  Thanks for the shirts! I got them last week and it was really nice to be in short sleeves all this week. Also, Taylor and Matt, thanks for the letters a few weeks back. Your notes and thoughts helped me get through a lot.
  Sorry but for the time being everything is going good for me! I don't need anyone to shop for things for me or anything but if I do need stuff I'll be sure to write. Keep the fun summer news coming! It's fun to read about it and see the pictures too!
  I finally got some letters in the mail to people this week in the ward to they should be getting them sometime soon.

Thanks for all the support! Love y'all

Elder Parks

July 2, 2012

Dear Family,

 So this past week we had transfers and I had to say goodbye to my trainer and received Elder Gomez from Mexico. We have both been out the same time (MTC and all). He's gonna take some getting use to but hopefully, next transfer I can train someone that I know who is arriving here from BYU and he is speaking Spanish as well so the odds are in my favor!
  For the 4th of July we are having a lock down mission conference. We go to an institute building at 5 in normal clothes (!!!!!!) and we have an hour long talk with a guest speaker. After the talk we can play sports or watch some movies that they have set up (Disney Movies!!!!) Haha apparently last lockdown they showed Cars 2 and all the missionaries were really into it and then they stopped the movie 20 minutes before it ends, so half the mission ended on the cliff hanger part of the movie (is that even the right term?). Anyway so this mission conference should be fun.
 Hannah I'm glad you had a great week at EFY. I'm sorry I don't have enough time to respond to everything you learned, but I want to address the atonement. Like you recently, I've been having a rough time in the mission field and one way that I'm getting through it is by the atonement of Jesus Christ. The atonement has a lot of power to it and when we come to better understand it (like you have recently done) we learn just how far the atonement can carry us through life. Not even just this life but the atonement carries us all the way through eternity. I agree, it's amazing and incomprehensible to realize just how much love Jesus has for us.
  Something else that happened this week, we had a meth lab explode in our area! Cool right??? In Buena Vista apartments the complex exploded around 2 PM (We went in the area mom). We saw the aftermath of it around 6. Nobody was killed I think, and 2 men were arrested. Haha and it was really hot there as well so me and my companion got Popsicles from an ice cream truck and ate them while watching everything. As we were eating a cop walked past us, looked at us, said we were geniuses and he then ran off to go get something from the ice cream truck. It is sad though because 8 families were removed from their house. It's still a wonder to me that people do drugs, they mess up so many lives.
  Last P-Day we went to visit some recent converts of my companions. We also drove by this place King Benjamin's Court. Utah is weird. Every street is the name of a Book of Mormon character. I'll send you two pictures. Also I'm sending a picture of my trainer the night before we said goodbye and also I'm sending a picture of the meth lab explosion.
  Thanks for all the support. Recently it's been tough but the support today has really helped. I love y'all.

Elder Parks

June 25, 2012

Dear Family,

  How is everyone doing? It's been pretty warm here on bikes, and since the wind here apparently never stops blowing, this past week was tiring! My trainer leaves in a few days and I never got an email today so that means I won't train next transfer! Yay! So today for P-Day, we got the car from our District Leader and we spent the day visiting a lot of the people that he taught. It was so much fun just visiting his converts, I can't even imagine what it will be like for me when I'm at the end of my mission and can visit my converts. Oh well, can't think about that now still got about 19 months to go!
  New mission starts up soon. Lots of movement going on with the final preparations with the mission but I'm still going to remain here in the South Mission.
  Yesterday we had stake conference and our Mission President was there and spot-lighted us as missionaries which was cool! I never knew that Mission Presidents spoke at Stake Conferences.
  The couple we had on date fell off date...their divorce didn't come through last week and they probably can't do it again this week since the husband works all week and they're moving to another house this weekend (it's in the same area so we can still teach them). However, it's all still good. They are the elect and they will be baptized.
  Oh, and we do have an In-n-out! It's in Jordan Landing which is outside our zone but we can go there on P-Days so it's cool!
  Mom, you said "muchos amor" great try! It was close, since the word 'amor' has no 's' the mucho will not have an 's' as well. So, "mucho amor"

 Thank you for everything, I love y'all a lot!

Elder Parks

June 18, 2012

The weeks tend to be going by faster now. This week especially since
we had a lot of meetings this past week. While two meetings were the
regular training meetings, the other meeting was a special one because
our guest speaker was Elder Ballard! It was cool because Elder Scott
was suppose to come but got sick so Elder Ballard came in his place.
He talked a lot about dealing with hardships through the mission. He
gave us some advice on what he usually does when times get tough for
him. He remembers the atonement of Christ, His suffering in the
garden, and the pain He went through on the cross. He mentioned that
doing so always gives him strength and he promised it would help us
during our missions/lives too. Another subject he talked about was
missionaries being called to Utah. He told us how missions started
here. It all started when nobody could answer President Kimball's
question as to why there weren't any missionaries here in Utah! Haha
so yeah with the new missions forming here in a few weeks there will
be 800 missionaries in the Salt Lake City area. Elder Ballard told us
that were are special missionaries because we have to bring a lot of
inactives back into the Church in order to strengthen Zion in Salt
Lake. Our mission president also said that while Elder Ballard was
walking out, he wouldn't stop talking about how well and obedient we
looked so our mission president was very proud of us.
  With this week being filled with meetings, we didn't exactly find
many new people to teach. However, with this young couple we are
teaching, the divorce papers are finally coming through! We are
helping them prepare for their wedding and baptism this coming
weekend!
  I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting yesterday in spanish! I
went for about 8 minutes talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Everyone told me that I have very good pronunciation and many say that
I don't even have an american accent in spanish (for me that is a HUGE
accomplishment!).

Elder Parks

June 11th, 2012

Dear Family,

  Well, not much to report on this week. With the loss of some progressing investigators and some baptisms, we've been looking a lot recently for new investigators. We must have talked to over 100 people this week and didn't have very much success. We knocked many doors, talked to a lot of former investigators and contacted many people. My companion though told me that when this has happened in the past, the next transfer in that area will usually be very fruitful. So there is hope! Oh and news regarding next transfer, my zone leaders told me to memorize the area and learn Spanish fast....I'm 99.999999999% sure that I will be training.
  Mom, I'm good on everything in my apartment. The landlord gives us everything we need and more.
 We do have sister missionaries they just aren't in our district. Our district leader covers half of our Spanish ward (one English stake) and the sister missionaries cover the other half of our area. So we sent referrals to both companionships.
  Had an interesting experience yesterday with a Hindu lady. She was gather grass clippings (???) in her yard when we tried talking to her. As we approached her, she ran into her house and looked at us through the partly opened door. This process repeated for about 15 minutes before we left.

Thanks for all you're doing and all the support. Love y'all

Elder Parks

June 4th, 2012

Dear Family,

  First off, MY ROOM!!! It's so clean!  That's funny how the two years that I'm not there is when it's going to be the cleanest. Oh well, thanks for not throwing anything away.
  So Dad, at least it's a car! The Tongan assignment had the car first so the breaks are actually shot to heck but it works fine and gets us around on P-Day.
  With the bike, I do have a lock and the bike is holding up fine. The only exciting moment on the bike was the story a few weeks back was chasing that one kid around on a bike because we thought he was a north missionary.
  In regards to the hiking pictures, we don't have very many missionaries from other countries here. A few come from Spain, Colombia, Mexico, and Mongolia but the vast majority are from the States.
  Thanks for the letters about Nathan. That was really sad news.
  The problem with our landlord is that she thinks it's her obligation to feed us. Our landlords aren't suppose to feed us daily like she does. Somehow, news actually got to the Stake Presidency that she was feeding us all the time (we haven't told anyone) so the stake presidency is actually gonna call her some time this week and talk to her about it. Her food is off and on but it's just the fact that she doesn't like that we have to be obedient to the schedule. She likes feeding us according to her time which interferes on our study and planning time. Oh well, it'll be resolved soon. And don't worry mom, I'm doing just fine!
  Sorry this email isn't very interesting, it was a boring week. We've got a lot of potentials this week though so next email will be interesting.
Love y'all!

Elder Parks

May 21, 2012

Dear Family,

So this week has gone by already, everything is starting to pick up
speed. We have another baptism this saturday and hopefully that one
goes better than the last. Last week's baptism...well it was great
that the boy (Michael) got baptized. However, his step dad was a huge
problem. The step dad cancelled numerous appointments, pushed back
Michael's baptismal date twice, forces Michael to attend an english
ward where: 1) Michael doesn't understand anything because he doesn't
speak english, 2) there are no youth (no deacons, teachers, or
priests) 3) and hardly anyone speaks spanish in that ward. The entire
thing was frustrating too, because the step dad wouldn't let us
baptize Michael, nor be witnesses at the baptism, nor confer Michael.
The confirmation was given in broken spanish. And now, the ward won't
let us visit Michael anymore. I know that's part of fellowshipping but
the ward mission leader is now teaching Michael and my spanish is
better than his. So yeah, don't get me wrong, I am very happy that
Michael was baptized. It was just an annoying situation. So yes
baptisms will be the best after this.

Thanks for the packages! As for the donuts, they were edible :) Thanks
for the additional food as well. Everybody here says I'm too skinny
and wants to get me fat! "Oh Elder Parks, esta muy flaco!"  (you are
very skinny). It's rediculous and it doesn't help me for the goals I
have after my mission. Moving on from that, the tires fit and thank
you very much for them because my back tire blew the day before I
recieved the packages. Everything is good though now!
Spanish is coming along. I'm doing good with the listening part but
it's still been very hard to speak. In time though, I'm actually
getting to frustrated with the language. Sometimes it's really hard to
calm down...

Interesting story this week. While about to leave a stake center, we
saw someone in a white shirt and tie bike past us with a helmet on. We
thought he was a solo missionary from the north mission. We got a
delayed start as we attempted to chase him down and catch in. We got
stopped by a stoplight so we started to lag. We persued, and followed
him to a stake center where we found out that he was in high school
and was going to a chior rehersal at church....problem solved but it
was fun!

Well this just in, we got a car!!! Now I'm gonna gain 40 pounds! Just
kidding, we're only gonna use in on sunday, P-Day, and zone workouts
(we play dodgeball! It's so much fun). Oh by the way, Taylor we only
go by Chik-fil-a but there is an In-n-out in Jordan landing and we go
there every other P-Day so we may go by there soon.

We have some investigators but we need more. Right now the problems we
have that are preventing baptisms are marriages and divorces and
possiblities of being deported. Never thought I would have to talk
about this stuff when I'm 19 years old. As for tracting, we don't do
much door to door (unless I'm on an exchange with the english elders).
We do a lot of door contacting though so we're not always just
teaching. With transfers, this is the beginning of the 2nd week of the
2nd transfer.

Well, I have pictures of the partial lunar eclipse that happened
yesterday, and a Chilean hotdog! (It has bacon, hotdog, cheese,
guacamole, hot sauce, and tomatoes).

Hope y'all have a good week!

Elder Parks

P.S we're going on a zone hike so next week I'll have more pictures!

Pictures

The two pictures include my bike (a lot of people say it's a sweet
bike which means it could be gone in a few weeks hahaha) and the other
picture is just an MTC picture of me being a jedi and flipping over
someone...no big deal
-Elder Parks

May 7th

Dear Family,

Well I read all your emails, and just to save on time I'm gonna just
write one long email. Is that ok? Please let me know if y'all want
individual responses because I can do that too.

Taylor, I don't have Sugarhouse in my mission. Sorry about that. As
for In-n-out I haven't seen one here yet HOWEVER we do have many
Chik-fil-a's here and all the CFA's give missionaries 50% off! It's
awesome (I'm not getting fat, I have yet to gain 5 pounds). Speaking
of discounts, skull candy is centered in park city or something like
that (the good headphones company). Missionaries there get a 75%
discount and because of that the mission only allows missionaries who
are about to go home to go out there to purchase stuff. Hopefull the
mission president at the end of my mission has that same rule. So
right now the area I'm serving in is just a single spanish ward that
goes from Taylorsville to West Valley City. They area is pretty
scetchy but it's a lot of fun! So the area I'm in right now I'm at the
corner of my mission and I will remain in my mission after July 1st.
The weird thing is, is that my ward will be divided in half between
the south and the central mission (so for teaching I will have special
permission to teach in both mission areas). The area I'm in will be
the south mission, 2 blocks east will be the central mission, 2 blocks
west will be the west mission and a few blocks north will be the north
mission. I'm truly serving at the edge of everything. The way the
division will work regarding missionaries, is that 70 missionaries are
going from the south (my) mission to the central (new) mission. This
is the scary part. The division will leave about 130 missionaries here
in the south, with around 60+ missionaries coming in the next 2
transfers. So yeah, the odds of me training my 3rd transfer are
extremlely high. Scary huh? How has the testing gone for Matt? If he
does very well, what schools will he be looking at?

Let's see interesting things going on the mission...we have our first
baptism this saturday! Also, we have 10 people on date so these next
few months will be busy. Hm...I had another flat tire this week, this
time it was the back tire. Everything is ok though thanks to bandaids.

So times up for me! I will hear y'all on sunday!

Elder Parks

Email from April 30, 2012

Dear Family,

  Well to answer questions, the area I'm covering right now is only
one spanish ward (we don't attend to any english wards or
investigators). It is difficult to go on exchanges and have yet to do
so. I'm serving in a relatively poor area. Most of the members of the
ward are working a lot just to pay rent. Therefore, we always come up
a little short on our 'lesson with a member present,' nevertheless,
we're working very hard. Our total lessons each week keep building and
building.
  As for ward councils, I participate very little. The language is
still very hard to grasp from native speakers. In spanish, there are
many different words for one meaning in english, and to go along with
that, the ward I'm in has many different dialects from nearly all the
South American countries and they all seem to have their own meanings
for other words. It's like english in Britain compared to english in
America.
  I am recieving those mass emails that Hilary sends out. Did y'all
get my email last week?
  We haven't recieved any news on calling home yet but I've copied the
numbers you sent dad and I'll update y'all as soon as I can.
  Other news about my mission, I forgot to mention this last week but
a few days after recieving my bike, I rode through some grass that
aparently has thorns in it! So I had 3 holes in my front tire. It's
all better now though! Thanks for the tips on the bandaids. The tire
has been holding for almost 3 weeks now. Don't worry I'll get a new
tire soon.
  All of our investigators are moving forward in the lessons. We
gained 3 more this week so hopefully they're the elect we are looking
for. While April was hard and we didn't have any baptisms, May is
going to be very busy if everything works out.
  Had my first two Bible bashing lessons with a Jehovah's Witness!
What a waste of time. Despite proving her wrong about adding stuff to
the scriptures, prophets, and revelation she refused to thing she was
wrong. She kept going on to new topics and she lost the previous one.
We walked out of the lesson when she kept going. While it may have
been a waste of time, I did learn that I do have a very strong
testimony of this Gospel and I learned that when my back is against a
wall, and can still stand up for what I believe. It was a good
learning experience!
  Another story, while contacting referrals, a lady who answered the
door told her daughter to "send us to hell" hahaha it was funny!
  One of our investigators came to church yesterday! We also met with
him and his family yesterday after church and he said that while he
was at church he felt that baptism is a great thing to do and that it
brings great blessings too! He's gonna get baptized. I think that's
all the news now.
  Ok so I attached some more pictures. Dad I found bucket of bolts.
The one where I'm right behind a chain-link fence, I'm on a very TALL
walkway over the highway and biking over it is scary. Oh yeah, on the
walkway I can also see downtown Salt Lake so hi Taylor and Matt! The
rest of the pictures are just where I serve and one picture with a
Texas edition F-150.
  Hope y'all are doing great! Take care.

Elder Parks

(Trenton took this picture because it most likely reminded him
of our Subaru my dad used to have for a very long time! They look identical!)

Greetings on Earth Day - April 23, 2012

Dear Family,

  Sorry for not being more descriptive during my emails. I'm not like Hilary, I usually don't really know what to write about.
  Had to drop a baptismal date this sunday because the Mom got upset with us because she believed we would come by to teach her son 2 hours before our scheduled appointment. It's frustrating because the boy speaks spanish, but his parents send him to an english ward where he doesn't learn anything and there is no way to get him to come to the spanish ward. Even if we get him baptized, we won't get the baptism because he's going to an english ward. The step-dad is a member who got rebaptized a little while back (he was excommunicated for some reason). So thats the situation with one of our baptisms. Another couple finally got their divorce papers and are set to be married and baptized within 3 weeks! The trio (Eduardo, Laura, Gabriel) is now on date! This trio didn't have a job but last week the mother found a job! They aren't prideful and they saw the job as a blessing from God and are now more receptive to us!
  So thanks for the camera. I'll send some pictures with this email.
  So I haven't met anyone here that has come from Texas. However, Elder Toborg and my friend Elder Allen from BYU both report to this mission field August 8th! Don't know if they'll be in the Central mission though. I need to explain that, so the new mission the Central mission is taking a chunk of our mission. Right now I am serving in an area that will be surrounded by the central mission, the west mission, and the north mission. The Spanish ward I serve in will actually be divided between the missions when the split occurs. I'm pretty sure that I will remain in the South Mission but I won't know for sure until they organize the mission.
  For bike riding, I do have a helmet (an elder had an extra one), I do have my gloves, and we don't bike when it gets really cold, we walk.
  Thanks for getting some pictures of home. It was good to see my pomegranet tree doing well.
  Things here are going smoothly. Teaching a lot, getting rejected a lot, having a lot of people drop appointments. It's all fun. My legs are getting strong from biking up hills and such.
  Do y'all have any other questions? Sorry I'm short on time and have to write the President. He is so cool by the way! I'm sad though because I only get him for half my mission.
  I don't have many pictures right now. I'll take some more and send more next week.
  Love y'all!

Elder Parks

Letter from March 25, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

I was given all the Spanish Missionary material my first day. PMG (Preach My Gospel), pamphlets, etc. My Spanish is coming along very well. While I'm not fluent yet, it is very exciting to see how far I've come. We speak Spanish as often as we can.

We haven't received our Conference schedule yet. Only the choir here gets to go and I wasn't selected to go. The weird thing is, this Friday we're supposed to have field training day, which is just classes all day long. With that on Friday, our P-Day should be moved to Saturday. However, Conference is Saturday so we have no clue when P-Day will be. Also, I report to the field April 4th, so my next P-Day may be in a few weeks so sorry if you don't hear from me.

At 6:00 am on April 4th, I'll be taken by an MTC bus and dropped off at my mission home. That's all I know of right now. The address for the home is

Elder Trenton William Parks

Utah Salt Lake City South Mission

8060 S 615 E

Sandy, UT 84070

This goes into effect April 4th.

Well, I won't argue with a new bike. Thanks for that.

We had Elder Oaks come this past week. He gave a great talk on Sacrament and keeping the Spirit with us all the time.

Well I have to finish. Les amo mucho! Hasta luego.

Con amor, su hijo,

Elder Parks

Letter from March 16, 2012

The MTC is actually really cool. I've never been this excited before about learning about the Gospel. All the promises it holds, the blessings, the everything! I used to think we have too much study time, now there isn't enough! I'm learning a lot about Christ and how I can be like Him.

I had a cool experience in a lesson a few days ago. We were being filmed and I'll get to that later. We were teaching the law of chastity and it was awkward for half the lesson. The investigator was committed to baptism already and he made it known that he has broken the law multiple times with his girlfriend (it's a situation, not real). After that, he went on to say that he didn't think he could be baptized. Then, I changed. Images flooded to my mind, words came out of my mouth easily in Spanish. I taught about Christ, His atonement, and repentance. Everything flowed so smoothly as I received revelation and allowed the Spirit to work through me. After I was done, the investigator, Julio, asked if I really believed what I said. I responded: "Si, yo creo...no, yo no creo. Yo se." (Yes, I believe. No, I don't believe. I know). That sealed it. It was one of the coolest experiences ever.

In other news, my spanish is improving greatly. Each Sunday the Branch Presidency picks 2 missionaries to give talks. The talks are short but should be planned before hand. Well, I was selected to give a talk on repentance, in Spanish, and I forgot to plan. However, with a quick prayer, I was able to give a full 5-minute talk in Spanish! I know, I will prepare better next time, but it was still cool. Also, I had my first dream in Spanish! It's cool to see how far I've come. Oh! I met 3 native Spanish speakers who are going to Salt Lake City South! We all leave the same day! Finally met people going with me.

So, my schedule is very packed. Each day is different and once I'm done with the MTC I'll send back the entire schedule.

Sorry I don't have much to say. MTC gets repetitive, but it'll get more interesting in the field. Hope to hear back soon! Love y'all and see y'all soon.

Love,

Elder Parks

Letter from March 9, 2012

The temple walks on Sunday are only cancelled if there's a blizzard outside. As of yet we've only had one Sunday where the Temple walk was cancelled. All my clothes are holding up.

Sorry, I keep meaning to give you an example of a typical day. Here is the schedule for Wednesday.

Arise and prepare - 6:30

District study - 7-7:40

Breakfast - 7:40

Personal study time - 8:10

Classroom Instruction - 9:15-12:15

Lunch - 12:15

TALL (Computer language trainer thing) - 1-2

Gym - 2:15-3:05

Language Study - 4-5

Dinner - 5:15

Classroom instruction - 6-9

Daily planning session - 9-9:30

Personal time/companionship prayer - 9:30-10:15

Quiet time - 10:15

Lights out - 10:30

It's rough and it's only by aid from the Lord that I'm getting through this. I think that can be said for all missionaries.

Trenton's Letter to Me

This is an expert from Trenton's snail mail to me, Hannah:

Sorry it's taken me so long to write but I've been very busy and had a very short time to write.

My companion likes to talk a lot and I live with another missionary, Elder Waldorf, he's from the McNeil Ward. The spanish is coming along slowly but I'm learning well. Evidence is that whenever I want to write or talk, I'm doing each half spanish half english. The schedule here is nearly solid work from 6:30-10:30. Some days we spend 6 solid hours in classroom study but it's fun though! I have excellent teachers who gives POWERFUL lessons. Both for language lessons and gospel lessons.

-Elder Parks

Remember, if you want to email Trenton or send him snail mail, look at the previous blog entry for all that information!

-Hannah

MTC Address

Hello everybody! This is Trenton's younger sister, Hannah. I will be maintaining this blog for Trenton along with my sister, Taylor.

As for right now, if you like to contact him, you can easily send him a letter through www.dearelder.com

Whatever you write on dearelder will be printed out and put in his box in the MTC the next day. He only has a certain day of the week (for him it's Friday) that he can write everybody, so he may or may not be able to respond as fast as you like.

Or you can also email him at trenton.parks@myldsmail.net and he can check and look at that whenever his P-Day comes around.

Elder Trenton William Parks

MTC Mailbox #200

UT - SLCS 0404

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604-1793

That is his address for snail mail, but you'll need his MTC Mailbox for dearelder. Trenton will be in the MTC for about 3 months. He's estimated to leave April 4th. When he's given his new address in Salt Lake, I will update the blog so you all can be aware.

If you have any questions, you can leave a comment below or you can contact me on Facebook! Thanks so much!

-Hannah