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!)