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