January 7, 2014

Dear Family,

  Sorry for writing on tuesday! We were told on saturday that we would
be having our temple day today and therefore P-Day would be the same
day so...next week I promise it'll be on monday! We're heading to the
Jordan River Temple today which will be fun.
  I did receive the package from home, along with the grey shirt. And
yes mom, I've had so much candy! Aside from boxes from home, the wards
here made bags for the entire mission and the stock pile just built
up! I'm still trying the finish the candy that I got for my birthday!
  Hochheim must have been fun! I was telling a family about how we
celebrated each new years at Hochheim and they thought that it was the
coolest thing ever. Which it really is! Can't wait to go back there.
Did y'all shoot any boar while you were there?
  The work continues here. The 17 year old girl got dropped. She
wasn't keeping commitments nor was she getting help from her mom who
was baptized a few months ago. It also doesn't help that her aunt is
an anti and has been taking her to other churches instead of ours. We
left her with the invitation to read and pray about our message and
call us when she was ready. Oh well. On the plus side the 17 year old
boy that we are teaching is going great. His girlfriend is living with
him and they were sleeping in the same room so we taught the law of
chastity and he accepted it! He is now sleeping on the coach in the
living room! Haha. He is preparing for the 18th of January. The other
family we found last week is out of town and we should be meeting with
them today.
  The Bishop made a new ward mission plan this year. It's an ok plan
but I'm still willing the do it. There isn't a goal set which
hopefully change. What we're gonna do is start visiting all the
members on the ward roster. Going by every single house, we'll ask for
referrals. All the members were instructed a few weeks ago to have
names ready for us and that no family was going to escape the
missionaries. Hopefully that'll show fruit for the future
missionaries. It sounds like a slow process but you never know.
  So yeah that district meeting about goal setting was fun. We did
personal, companion, and district goals. Some of my goals were
directed towards reading the scriptures in spanish and finishing the
old testament in english. I love the scriptures! It's so fun learning
from them! Another goal of mine was to run a 48.2 second 400 m. I
really wanna make the BYU track team. Some of the companion and
district goals pertained to being better teachers and being more
obedient. Haha I forget what they all are which doesn't help me in
reaching them! Haha but it's all written on paper on my desk at home.
  It was a fun week! We spent new years just visiting some families.
Not too much about it.
Hope y'all have a great week! Thanks for all the support.

Love,
Elder Parks