June 24, 2013

Dear Family,

  The training meeting yesterday was amazing. The cool thing is, the majority of the talks that were given and the doctrine they shared, has all been taught by our mission to the wards here! The Brethren are backing us up and it feels awesome! I liked the part where President Packer said that he knows the Lord. We all know what he means.
  As for some of those new announcements about using more technology and keeping buildings open and such, we haven't received so much news or training for that yet. We don't know if we'll be doing that even. So far, what has been done in our mission is they've done some trial runs of smaller visitors centers that are part of a stake center and missionaries are there to help people that come in. Nothing new really announced yet but with our new president coming in this thursday, we'll be seeing a lot of changes I'm sure.
  So for my area, I cover 1 spanish branch that covers the city of Riverton and Bluffdale. That area also compromises 7 english stakes and add up to about 62 english wards. However, we only teach spanish for the spanish branch.
  This is an honest question...what is a banister???? How does that replace a fireplace? Mom and Dad, please don't move to Utah! We need to keep our roots in Texas! Thats where we all need to end up! Oh yeah dad, I was at walmart and saw some of the new dell laptops! They look good and would look great in my room. My long awaited graduation present...this is how I see it playing out: Approaching my desk, and box with DELL on it is resting on the desk. I take off the tape, all excited and open the box to find it EMPTY! Eh that's probably what you'll do haha
  We had pretty much 2 mission conferences this past week including the training broadcast. We all did a mission temple trip to the Jordan River Temple and then we had a mission conference where President Miller and his wife spoke to us, kinda like departing testimonies. They also brought the mission doctor who gave a really good talk about the atonement and how it carries us through our missions by Christ who is the master healer. Then yesterday we had the other mission conference after the training and they again spake some departing words and then we all shook their hands and gave hugs to them and all that. When I shook their hands, I asked if I could still visit then in california after my mission and report on my last 7 months, and they said they would be very upset and disappointed if I didn't visit! So I guess I'll make a road trip to Orange County when I get back to BYU! It's really hard to see them go.
  Yesterday at church, our 17-year-old investigator came to church! We also had a random non-member come to church with his returning wife! If he keeps coming (he lives outside our area) we'll start teaching him!
  That's what happened this past week. It's kinda sad but it'll be neat to have new beginnings for the mission.
  Take care! Love y'all!

Elder Parks