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