January 14, 2013

Dear Family,

  The entire mission got flue shots this morning! Haha some missionaries were freaking out! President Miller said that he couldn't wait for the Tongans to get there a get scared to death. Sure enough, some of the Tongans and other islanders came in. One of them, who is the strongest and biggest missionary in the mission (he was a former gang member in Samoa and was involved in several fights) was scared to death of the needles!!!! It was so funny to see.
  My leg isn't being bothered or anything like that Dad. I don't have any pain anymore on my left leg.
  So with shopping, I usually go to Walmart. What I'm really talking about is after my mission. I really don't know how to make any unique meals or anything like that. I'm living off macn cheese and microwave meals and jello (which right now I am fine with since I don't have time to cook) but I don't want to be like that after my mission. I want to be a good cook! I'm managing my budget well so money isn't much of an issue. Just the fact of selecting things that I could make and have them be cheap but good-tasting meals.
  With the storm coming through this past weekend, our cars were grounded and we were told to walk! Once, they told us to ground our cars at 6:15, we had a lesson that was 8 miles away and I had an interview to do at the same time. So we had to cancel the lesson and I did the interview! It's a bummer that we didn't get the lesson in but we got it re-scheduled so its ok.
  Mom, tips for sharing the Gospel, I would first recommend praying for opportunities to share the gospel! Keeping the Church magazines on the table for the parents of your piano students is great! If they read it, talk to them about it. Invite them out to church. Invite them to mormon.org, or even a visit from the missionaries! Always carry a Book of Mormon with you so that you'll always be reminded to be looking for opportunities to share the Gospel. As we give effort, the Lord will recognize it and will reward us with opportunities to share it! Keeping that in my mind during my mission has helped me a lot. Although there is a number attached to how many souls I've led into the waters of baptism, I don't have a number concerning the number of seeds I have helped plant in many others. I hope that at judgement I'll get to learn how many others I helped.
  I also think you should try learning spanish! That would be fun! We could practice when I get home. You could get a simple grammar book, study it and get the basics down. Then you could buy a Spanish Book of Mormon and read it out loud right next to the English version. That has helped me immensely.
  I love y'all. Stay safe!

Elder Parks