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