Dear Family,
Well, this past week as been an overall good week. So I had a good experience happen to me during this week. We went on the Air Force base and visited with one of the members on there. He had an extra Christmas tree and he gave it to us for someone to give. So we decided to bring it to the Claxtons house. We went over there and set it up and Sister Claxton started to cry. She told us that she hadn’t had a Christmas tree for years and it was really special to her. It was such a tender moment that I will never forget. It was awesome!
So on Christmas Eve, I woke up, ready to have a good P-day. My thought process was this: “I mean, come on, I get to talk to my family tomorrow! This will be a good day.” Boy, was I wrong. To sum it all up, I threw up six times! I was so misrable. We went to a members house and I just sat in his recliner all day and only getting up to throw up. Ugh. Luckily, it only lasted a day. The next day, my stomach was sore so I didn’t really eat anything. Christmas Day was a special day because I was able to talk to my family. It was so good to hear from y’all. Thank you for the love and support that y’all give me. I really appreciate it! The prayers are much needed and appreciated!
So, we have been trying to teach Ed Claxton more. We talked to him about baptism and he wants to take it a little slow so yeah. Ugh. I hate slowness but eh, whatever. This coming week we are going to use for finding new investigators. We are kind of running low. We are going to go back to the basics and go tracting. Yay! (He he) I know that the Lord will bless us with new people to teach.
Hope y’all had a great Christmas and hope y’all stayed safe! So P-days are officially on Mondays now, so for those who e-mail, take note of that. Until next week!
Love,
Elder Parker
Monday, December 29, 2008
Kyle's YouTube Movie
Dear Family,
So our Zone made a Christmas movie for Zone Conference and it is now on "YouTube". Go to "http://www.youtube.com" and in the search box, type “Mormon Missionaries Movie” It will be under “Part 1” and “Part 2”. Hope you all enjoy it! Looking forward to speak to some of you on Christmas!
Love,
Elder Parker
PS -
Here are the specific links:
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Nwsl09m08
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5DMPYSOKtA&feature=related
So our Zone made a Christmas movie for Zone Conference and it is now on "YouTube". Go to "http://www.youtube.com" and in the search box, type “Mormon Missionaries Movie” It will be under “Part 1” and “Part 2”. Hope you all enjoy it! Looking forward to speak to some of you on Christmas!
Love,
Elder Parker
PS -
Here are the specific links:
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Nwsl09m08
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5DMPYSOKtA&feature=related
December 17, 2008
Dear Family,
Hello everyone! I hope all is well with everyone. Well, this week was the last week of the transfer. It ended really well. I was very happy.
We talked to the Claxton’s last Friday and gave him and her a Book of Mormon and went over it with them. It was great. Ed Claxton, the guy we are teaching, played the guitar for us. It was awesome. Then, the both showed up for church on Sunday. It was great! Second week in a row. Yeah! We also did some service for them so we are really working for them.
Saturday, we went with the Witts(Senior Couple Missionaries in Jacksonville) and taught Patrick. We finally got him when we were running kind of late after Gabbys lesson. The lesson with Patrick went really well. He had a lot of questions and we tried to answer them the best we could. We ended up staying there for around 2 hours. It was crazy! But, go Witts because they have been struggling. That’s ok though, they are surviving.
Sunday was awesome! I gave a talk on “Becoming a better member missionary” I got a lot of compliments on the talk so that was very nice of the ward. I hope that got the ward excited about missionary work.
So since Sunday night, we have been spending our days with Elder Gift, the zone leader, because his companion, Elder Pratt, became AP (Assistant to the President). He got a new companion, Elder Jensen. He is pretty cool. He is from Minnesota. So we have had some fun together. Luckily, I didn’t get transferred so, I am staying in Jacksonville for Christmas! We have a lot of fun plans next week for Christmas so it should be fun.
I am excited to call y’all on Christmas day! It should be a lot of fun. If you have any questions for me, make sure to write them down so you remember to ask me when I have you on the phone. I have a couple of things to tell you all as well.
Thanks again for the e-mails and letters you all send me. Thank you for the prayers on my behalf, I really appreciate it. They really mean a lot to me. I probably won’t be e-mailing next week due to I will be calling home! Yay!
Oh, before I forget. ***Important Notice*** P-day will now be on Mondays starting January 1, 2009. So when the next year comes around, P-day will be on Monday instead of Wednesday. Thanks again!
Love,
Elder Parker
Hello everyone! I hope all is well with everyone. Well, this week was the last week of the transfer. It ended really well. I was very happy.
We talked to the Claxton’s last Friday and gave him and her a Book of Mormon and went over it with them. It was great. Ed Claxton, the guy we are teaching, played the guitar for us. It was awesome. Then, the both showed up for church on Sunday. It was great! Second week in a row. Yeah! We also did some service for them so we are really working for them.
Saturday, we went with the Witts(Senior Couple Missionaries in Jacksonville) and taught Patrick. We finally got him when we were running kind of late after Gabbys lesson. The lesson with Patrick went really well. He had a lot of questions and we tried to answer them the best we could. We ended up staying there for around 2 hours. It was crazy! But, go Witts because they have been struggling. That’s ok though, they are surviving.
Sunday was awesome! I gave a talk on “Becoming a better member missionary” I got a lot of compliments on the talk so that was very nice of the ward. I hope that got the ward excited about missionary work.
So since Sunday night, we have been spending our days with Elder Gift, the zone leader, because his companion, Elder Pratt, became AP (Assistant to the President). He got a new companion, Elder Jensen. He is pretty cool. He is from Minnesota. So we have had some fun together. Luckily, I didn’t get transferred so, I am staying in Jacksonville for Christmas! We have a lot of fun plans next week for Christmas so it should be fun.
I am excited to call y’all on Christmas day! It should be a lot of fun. If you have any questions for me, make sure to write them down so you remember to ask me when I have you on the phone. I have a couple of things to tell you all as well.
Thanks again for the e-mails and letters you all send me. Thank you for the prayers on my behalf, I really appreciate it. They really mean a lot to me. I probably won’t be e-mailing next week due to I will be calling home! Yay!
Oh, before I forget. ***Important Notice*** P-day will now be on Mondays starting January 1, 2009. So when the next year comes around, P-day will be on Monday instead of Wednesday. Thanks again!
Love,
Elder Parker
December 10, 2008
Dear Family,
Hello, Hello. So time is getting closer in the air. People everywhere are talking about Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to be a missionary during this time because we get to tell them about his restored church on the earth once again!
This was a good past week. We had great lessons with some of our investigators! So last time I talked about a less active that we visited with one of the AP’s. They are called the Claxtons. She is a less-active and her husband is not a member. We are currently teaching her husband and they have us over for dinner every week. It is great! They both came to church last Sunday! She hadn’t been for more than 5 years so it was a big surprise to see them there.
Gabby was also there. She is the 11 year investigator. And she got up and bore her testimony. That is so awesome! I was so proud of her!
Last Saturday, we did some service at the Edwards and we made a big burn pile and burned it. It was a lot of fun. Don’t worry, I was careful! Then later that night we had the ward Christmas party. In my opinion, it was kind of lame but it was fun nonetheless.
Funny story, we got a referral from the bishop about an hour before the Christmas party. A guy wanted a Book of Mormon but he was being deployed to Iraq in an hour. So we hurried up to where this guy lived. He lived out in the forest in a trailer park. We find his trailer and he answers the door. He has long hair, long beard and a beer in his hand. He tells us to come on in and he told us how the Air force was going to come pick him up in an hour and how he was a bomb technician. It was really weird. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he told us how someone read Jacob to him. So we turned to the Book of Jacob and gave him the book and he pointed to Jacob 1:2. We read it to him (It’s about Jacob writing in the plates or something like that.) and he said “That’s what the air force is going to do with me, isn’t it?” Me and Elder Noorda look at each other and both agreed we needed to get out of there. So we did. He started to follow us out so Elder Noorda told me, “Go, go, go, go, go!” So we got out of there fast. It was funny. Drunk people are very interesting.
I enjoyed the Christmas devotional. That was a lot of fun. I liked the talks.
I hope my family enjoyed the movie that our Zone made. If you want to see it, just talk to my mom and dad.
Thank you for your love and support. I really appreciate it! Thank you for the prayers on my behalf, they really help me continue on! I love and miss all of you!
Love,
Elder Parker
Hello, Hello. So time is getting closer in the air. People everywhere are talking about Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to be a missionary during this time because we get to tell them about his restored church on the earth once again!
This was a good past week. We had great lessons with some of our investigators! So last time I talked about a less active that we visited with one of the AP’s. They are called the Claxtons. She is a less-active and her husband is not a member. We are currently teaching her husband and they have us over for dinner every week. It is great! They both came to church last Sunday! She hadn’t been for more than 5 years so it was a big surprise to see them there.
Gabby was also there. She is the 11 year investigator. And she got up and bore her testimony. That is so awesome! I was so proud of her!
Last Saturday, we did some service at the Edwards and we made a big burn pile and burned it. It was a lot of fun. Don’t worry, I was careful! Then later that night we had the ward Christmas party. In my opinion, it was kind of lame but it was fun nonetheless.
Funny story, we got a referral from the bishop about an hour before the Christmas party. A guy wanted a Book of Mormon but he was being deployed to Iraq in an hour. So we hurried up to where this guy lived. He lived out in the forest in a trailer park. We find his trailer and he answers the door. He has long hair, long beard and a beer in his hand. He tells us to come on in and he told us how the Air force was going to come pick him up in an hour and how he was a bomb technician. It was really weird. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he told us how someone read Jacob to him. So we turned to the Book of Jacob and gave him the book and he pointed to Jacob 1:2. We read it to him (It’s about Jacob writing in the plates or something like that.) and he said “That’s what the air force is going to do with me, isn’t it?” Me and Elder Noorda look at each other and both agreed we needed to get out of there. So we did. He started to follow us out so Elder Noorda told me, “Go, go, go, go, go!” So we got out of there fast. It was funny. Drunk people are very interesting.
I enjoyed the Christmas devotional. That was a lot of fun. I liked the talks.
I hope my family enjoyed the movie that our Zone made. If you want to see it, just talk to my mom and dad.
Thank you for your love and support. I really appreciate it! Thank you for the prayers on my behalf, they really help me continue on! I love and miss all of you!
Love,
Elder Parker
December 4, 2008
Dear Family,
Well, Thanksgiving and stuff like that has come and gone. I hope all went well with Thanksgiving and whatnot. I know I did. In the morning, we went to the Turkey Bowl and played some football. My feet were pretty sore afterwards but we still had a good time. Then we went to Drunita’s house and had some Chitlens. That is pig intestines. They were gross! But now I can say I have had them. Then we went to the Baclawski’s for dinner. We had the traditional thanksgiving dinner. It was awesome. We ate a lot. Then we went to a less-actives house and we had some pie. So overall, it really just felt like a ordinary day. But it was fun!
So this last Tuesday was the “Christmas Zone Conference”! We had a lot of fun. We actually were an hour late. We were following some other missionaries in there car because they had a GPS system. We ended up getting lost and ended up on a dirt road. We eventually found our way to the church but that was so crazy! We watched the Muppet Christmas Carol. We then had some Chili provided by the ward members. It was really good. Then we did our skits. Our skit by far was the best one. We watched it on DVD and I am going to send a copy to you guys so you can see it! We had so much fun. Then we got to open our presents that were given to us by the wards in the mission. It was a bunch of hygiene stuff. That was really nice of them. Then I got to read the letter that Mom, Dad, and Cade sent me. I cried. That was really special to me, thank you very much for that letter!
Now, the reason I didn’t write to you yesterday was because we went out on exchanges with the AP’s (Assistants to the President). We had a really fun time and had really cool miracles happen. The assistant I went with, Elder Corbett, we talked to a less-active lady and she basically told us that she wants to come back to church and we told her how we were going to get her there and she was so excited that she set an appointment with us for dinner tomorrow. So we are really excited for that. Elder Noorda went with the other AP, Elder Alder, and got a new black investigator woman. So yesterday was a good, effective day. So today we are taking our P-day.
This morning though, we had another meeting with Jim Allen. He loves to read the Book of Mormon and Sister Witt gave him a bunch of Ensigns, New Eras, Friends, etc. He was excited about that. Unfortunately, he doesn’t want to meet with us until January because of the Holiday season and how he is so busy with his family and work. But we plan on just dropping by to see how he is doing!
We have been working with a less-active family, the Tadlocks. We are re-teaching the missionary discussions with them so that is really exciting! They are a really cool older couple. They feed us every week now so yeah!
I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it to be true with all of my heart, might, mind and strength! I love to be a missionary and being able to tell people about the restored church. I know it to be true! I love you guys very much. Thanks for your prayers and support. Continue to do so, as I need it! You will receive blessings for doing so! Share the gospel to your friends! I promise as you do so, you will be given what to say to people that may not be of our faith. I love you and keep up the good work!
Love,
Elder Parker
Well, Thanksgiving and stuff like that has come and gone. I hope all went well with Thanksgiving and whatnot. I know I did. In the morning, we went to the Turkey Bowl and played some football. My feet were pretty sore afterwards but we still had a good time. Then we went to Drunita’s house and had some Chitlens. That is pig intestines. They were gross! But now I can say I have had them. Then we went to the Baclawski’s for dinner. We had the traditional thanksgiving dinner. It was awesome. We ate a lot. Then we went to a less-actives house and we had some pie. So overall, it really just felt like a ordinary day. But it was fun!
So this last Tuesday was the “Christmas Zone Conference”! We had a lot of fun. We actually were an hour late. We were following some other missionaries in there car because they had a GPS system. We ended up getting lost and ended up on a dirt road. We eventually found our way to the church but that was so crazy! We watched the Muppet Christmas Carol. We then had some Chili provided by the ward members. It was really good. Then we did our skits. Our skit by far was the best one. We watched it on DVD and I am going to send a copy to you guys so you can see it! We had so much fun. Then we got to open our presents that were given to us by the wards in the mission. It was a bunch of hygiene stuff. That was really nice of them. Then I got to read the letter that Mom, Dad, and Cade sent me. I cried. That was really special to me, thank you very much for that letter!
Now, the reason I didn’t write to you yesterday was because we went out on exchanges with the AP’s (Assistants to the President). We had a really fun time and had really cool miracles happen. The assistant I went with, Elder Corbett, we talked to a less-active lady and she basically told us that she wants to come back to church and we told her how we were going to get her there and she was so excited that she set an appointment with us for dinner tomorrow. So we are really excited for that. Elder Noorda went with the other AP, Elder Alder, and got a new black investigator woman. So yesterday was a good, effective day. So today we are taking our P-day.
This morning though, we had another meeting with Jim Allen. He loves to read the Book of Mormon and Sister Witt gave him a bunch of Ensigns, New Eras, Friends, etc. He was excited about that. Unfortunately, he doesn’t want to meet with us until January because of the Holiday season and how he is so busy with his family and work. But we plan on just dropping by to see how he is doing!
We have been working with a less-active family, the Tadlocks. We are re-teaching the missionary discussions with them so that is really exciting! They are a really cool older couple. They feed us every week now so yeah!
I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it to be true with all of my heart, might, mind and strength! I love to be a missionary and being able to tell people about the restored church. I know it to be true! I love you guys very much. Thanks for your prayers and support. Continue to do so, as I need it! You will receive blessings for doing so! Share the gospel to your friends! I promise as you do so, you will be given what to say to people that may not be of our faith. I love you and keep up the good work!
Love,
Elder Parker
Friday, November 28, 2008
November 26, 2008
Dear Family,
I hope all is well with all of you. As you all know, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I hope that all of you have amazing plans and get to spend it with family and friends. You know, this is be an interesting Thanksgiving. It is my first one away from home so I don’t really know what it is like to not have family around during the holidays. I guess I will find out tomorrow. So we have one dinner appointment with the family called the Baclawski’s. They are a great family and we are going with the senior couple, the Witts. So I am pretty excited. It should be fun. We then plan on dropping in on some less-actives to wish them a happy thanksgiving. We also have the turkey bowl tomorrow morning so that should be pretty fun!
So, our zone is making a christmas movie for zone conference next week so I am going to get an extra copy of it and send it home. That should be fun for all of you. I am also planning on sending some christmas postcards home to y’all as well so be looking in the mail in a few days/weeks.
So, we are working with some cool investigators. We are now working with a guy named Ken. He took the first lesson and really felt the spirit, then we came back and watched the Restoration DVD with him. The spirit was strong and told us when church was and he wanted his wife to listen in on the discussions. So I thought that that was pretty neat. I hope all is well with him.
Kimi called us and told us about her situation. She is moving and said that she wants to meet with us again. I thought for sure we lost her but I think we will take it a little slow with her. She is extremely hard to contact. But I am excited and have faith that things will work out.
We went with the Witts to a meeting with Jim Allen and they really clicked. So we are going to continue to meet with him. He told us very bluntly that he doesn’t want to be pushed so we are also going to take it slow with him. He is so golden though. He loves the Book of Mormon. When we give him something to read, he reads it plus more! He is ready to be baptized but like I said, he wants to wait. So we are excited for him!
Well, that’s all that I can think of at the moment. I hope y’all have a great thanksgiving day. Eat a lot of turkey and offer a prayer of thanks to your heavenly father for all that you have. Thank you for the love and support that you continually give me. I appreciate the prayers on my behalf as well. I need them everyday and I am grateful to have family and friends that are willing to do that for me! Happy Thanksgiving! Until next week!
Love,
Elder Parker
I hope all is well with all of you. As you all know, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I hope that all of you have amazing plans and get to spend it with family and friends. You know, this is be an interesting Thanksgiving. It is my first one away from home so I don’t really know what it is like to not have family around during the holidays. I guess I will find out tomorrow. So we have one dinner appointment with the family called the Baclawski’s. They are a great family and we are going with the senior couple, the Witts. So I am pretty excited. It should be fun. We then plan on dropping in on some less-actives to wish them a happy thanksgiving. We also have the turkey bowl tomorrow morning so that should be pretty fun!
So, our zone is making a christmas movie for zone conference next week so I am going to get an extra copy of it and send it home. That should be fun for all of you. I am also planning on sending some christmas postcards home to y’all as well so be looking in the mail in a few days/weeks.
So, we are working with some cool investigators. We are now working with a guy named Ken. He took the first lesson and really felt the spirit, then we came back and watched the Restoration DVD with him. The spirit was strong and told us when church was and he wanted his wife to listen in on the discussions. So I thought that that was pretty neat. I hope all is well with him.
Kimi called us and told us about her situation. She is moving and said that she wants to meet with us again. I thought for sure we lost her but I think we will take it a little slow with her. She is extremely hard to contact. But I am excited and have faith that things will work out.
We went with the Witts to a meeting with Jim Allen and they really clicked. So we are going to continue to meet with him. He told us very bluntly that he doesn’t want to be pushed so we are also going to take it slow with him. He is so golden though. He loves the Book of Mormon. When we give him something to read, he reads it plus more! He is ready to be baptized but like I said, he wants to wait. So we are excited for him!
Well, that’s all that I can think of at the moment. I hope y’all have a great thanksgiving day. Eat a lot of turkey and offer a prayer of thanks to your heavenly father for all that you have. Thank you for the love and support that you continually give me. I appreciate the prayers on my behalf as well. I need them everyday and I am grateful to have family and friends that are willing to do that for me! Happy Thanksgiving! Until next week!
Love,
Elder Parker
Thursday, November 20, 2008
November 19, 2008
Dear Family,
Hello! So, it is starting to get colder here. I just bought some gloves and a hat for the first time so it is definatly starting to get colder. The work here is improving.
We have a couple new investigators and are teaching new people. We have been having some problems with being not being at there appointments but that’s ok. I know that things will definitely start to improve.
We also have been working more with the members and helping them be more missionary minded and the spirit is always strong.
So the main investigators we have now are: Jim Allen, Maurice, Gabby, Joey and Ebony. That is all that I can think of that are progressing. We have all hit a road block on all of them but I pray that they will progress soon. I have faith and I try to stay positive. That is the best I can do.
I would though, would like to share a spiritual experience with y’all. We had a lesson with Maurice yesterday and we talked about Baptism and how he needed to know a lot of information to get baptized. We read the talk entitled, “You know enough” by Neil A. Anderson. That went well and then we helped feel the spirit and we got on our knees and told him to pray about Baptism and ask heavenly father if that is right. When the prayer was finished, we asked him how he felt and he said that his chest was burning. He said that he felt the spirit. We told him it was time to get baptized. The spirit was strong and he said that he still wants to wait. We still don’t know what is holding him back but at least he got his answer! I am so grateful for that. Now, it is only a matter of time.
I am grateful for the many investigators the Lord has blessed me with and I hope that we will be able to baptize some soon!
Me and Elder Noorda are doing ok. We had a talk on Monday about each other and decided that we both need to love each other more. Things have started to improve which is good and I have learned how to have that Christ-like love toward someone you may not like. It’s hard, but it can be done.
I am grateful for the many prayers that I receive from y’all on my behalf. May heavenly father bless you for that. Until Next week!
Love,
Elder Parker
Hello! So, it is starting to get colder here. I just bought some gloves and a hat for the first time so it is definatly starting to get colder. The work here is improving.
We have a couple new investigators and are teaching new people. We have been having some problems with being not being at there appointments but that’s ok. I know that things will definitely start to improve.
We also have been working more with the members and helping them be more missionary minded and the spirit is always strong.
So the main investigators we have now are: Jim Allen, Maurice, Gabby, Joey and Ebony. That is all that I can think of that are progressing. We have all hit a road block on all of them but I pray that they will progress soon. I have faith and I try to stay positive. That is the best I can do.
I would though, would like to share a spiritual experience with y’all. We had a lesson with Maurice yesterday and we talked about Baptism and how he needed to know a lot of information to get baptized. We read the talk entitled, “You know enough” by Neil A. Anderson. That went well and then we helped feel the spirit and we got on our knees and told him to pray about Baptism and ask heavenly father if that is right. When the prayer was finished, we asked him how he felt and he said that his chest was burning. He said that he felt the spirit. We told him it was time to get baptized. The spirit was strong and he said that he still wants to wait. We still don’t know what is holding him back but at least he got his answer! I am so grateful for that. Now, it is only a matter of time.
I am grateful for the many investigators the Lord has blessed me with and I hope that we will be able to baptize some soon!
Me and Elder Noorda are doing ok. We had a talk on Monday about each other and decided that we both need to love each other more. Things have started to improve which is good and I have learned how to have that Christ-like love toward someone you may not like. It’s hard, but it can be done.
I am grateful for the many prayers that I receive from y’all on my behalf. May heavenly father bless you for that. Until Next week!
Love,
Elder Parker
Sunday, November 16, 2008
November 12, 2008
Dear Family,
How is everyone doing? Everything is going ok in J’ville. Nothing really to report here. We are having a little bit of a problem. We are having troubles with people progressing. We have lost contact with a lot of our investigators and can’t seem to get a hold of them. This is a problem because we are losing investigators. It is kind of getting frustrating but I think, hope and pray that things will improve.
My new companion, Elder Noorda, is different than Elder Sellers. I got so used to being around him and now that he isn’t around, I feel like I can’t act the same. His personality is different from mine and lets just say that it will take some time between us. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the guy, its just I am not used to the change quite yet.
We have had good spiritual experiences here as well. We have been working on a new member missionary program with the members. We are trying to get referrals from them and we basically train them on how to share the gospel. The spirit is really strong when we share the messages with them. We also have been working on getting our investigators to pray at the end of the lessons. We totally walked in on some guy and taught him the first lesson and he said the prayer at the end. It is amazing to me how the spirit will work with people.
I am grateful to be one of the servants of the Lord. It is very difficult to be one sometimes but you can’t give up. You got to keep going.
Well, Looks like I got to go. I love all of you and continue to pray for me and for the area! I love you!
Love,
Elder Parker
How is everyone doing? Everything is going ok in J’ville. Nothing really to report here. We are having a little bit of a problem. We are having troubles with people progressing. We have lost contact with a lot of our investigators and can’t seem to get a hold of them. This is a problem because we are losing investigators. It is kind of getting frustrating but I think, hope and pray that things will improve.
My new companion, Elder Noorda, is different than Elder Sellers. I got so used to being around him and now that he isn’t around, I feel like I can’t act the same. His personality is different from mine and lets just say that it will take some time between us. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the guy, its just I am not used to the change quite yet.
We have had good spiritual experiences here as well. We have been working on a new member missionary program with the members. We are trying to get referrals from them and we basically train them on how to share the gospel. The spirit is really strong when we share the messages with them. We also have been working on getting our investigators to pray at the end of the lessons. We totally walked in on some guy and taught him the first lesson and he said the prayer at the end. It is amazing to me how the spirit will work with people.
I am grateful to be one of the servants of the Lord. It is very difficult to be one sometimes but you can’t give up. You got to keep going.
Well, Looks like I got to go. I love all of you and continue to pray for me and for the area! I love you!
Love,
Elder Parker
November 5, 2008 (New companion)
Dear Family and Friends,
Wow, a lot has happened this past week. First of all, Elder Sellers went home. So I now have a new companion. His name is Elder Noorda. He is 23 years old and has been out on his mission for 18 months. He has served in the Army and been to Iraq for a year. Its kind of cool to me to have a companion that has been to Iraq. Another neat thing about him is that he has been in Jacksonville before. It was his first area as a greenie. He is really awesome and laid back but ready to work hard which is good. I am excited to get to know him better.
So, I stayed with the Zone Leaders from Monday to Wednesday and had a couple of spiritual experiences. I met one of their investigators named Billy. He owns a pawn shop and has a lot of problems with drinking and smoking. He comes to church which is really cool. He said that he went to a testimony meeting and listened to a girl that talked about how she went to a youth conference and they asked everyone to give a rose to someone who has really influenced their life in some way or another. Anyway, we follow Billy back to his house because he said he had something for the Zone Leaders and he came out with Elder Pratt’s jacket that he left (Elder Pratt is one of the Zone Leaders) and he said to them. “You guys make me feel like I can make it.” He started to get teary eyed so he went into his truck and drove off. It was a really cool experience for them and me even though I don’t even know the whole situation.
The Situation with my investigators have kind of stayed the same. Nothing new yet.
Before I go, I did want to share a spiritual experience that I had. So me and Elder Sellers stopped by someone’s house to drop off a Bible they ordered. They weren’t there so we start to head toward the car and I see a women across the street. I thought for sure that Elder Sellers was going to talk to her but he just got into the car so I followed. I sat in the car and just stared at her and the spirit said “You need to talk to this lady.” So I told Elder Sellers that I needed to talk to her. I told her who we were and that we had a message to share with her. She said sure and we shared with her and set another appointment for this Saturday. It was such a neat experience and I am very grateful for it.
Anyway, I love you family. Glad to hear all is going well. Talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Parker
Wow, a lot has happened this past week. First of all, Elder Sellers went home. So I now have a new companion. His name is Elder Noorda. He is 23 years old and has been out on his mission for 18 months. He has served in the Army and been to Iraq for a year. Its kind of cool to me to have a companion that has been to Iraq. Another neat thing about him is that he has been in Jacksonville before. It was his first area as a greenie. He is really awesome and laid back but ready to work hard which is good. I am excited to get to know him better.
So, I stayed with the Zone Leaders from Monday to Wednesday and had a couple of spiritual experiences. I met one of their investigators named Billy. He owns a pawn shop and has a lot of problems with drinking and smoking. He comes to church which is really cool. He said that he went to a testimony meeting and listened to a girl that talked about how she went to a youth conference and they asked everyone to give a rose to someone who has really influenced their life in some way or another. Anyway, we follow Billy back to his house because he said he had something for the Zone Leaders and he came out with Elder Pratt’s jacket that he left (Elder Pratt is one of the Zone Leaders) and he said to them. “You guys make me feel like I can make it.” He started to get teary eyed so he went into his truck and drove off. It was a really cool experience for them and me even though I don’t even know the whole situation.
The Situation with my investigators have kind of stayed the same. Nothing new yet.
Before I go, I did want to share a spiritual experience that I had. So me and Elder Sellers stopped by someone’s house to drop off a Bible they ordered. They weren’t there so we start to head toward the car and I see a women across the street. I thought for sure that Elder Sellers was going to talk to her but he just got into the car so I followed. I sat in the car and just stared at her and the spirit said “You need to talk to this lady.” So I told Elder Sellers that I needed to talk to her. I told her who we were and that we had a message to share with her. She said sure and we shared with her and set another appointment for this Saturday. It was such a neat experience and I am very grateful for it.
Anyway, I love you family. Glad to hear all is going well. Talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Parker
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
October 29, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Well, it’s getting chilly in Jacksonville! The humid cold is setting in. I wore my trench coat for the first time yesterday. So this past week was kind of crazy. We had a lot of fun but also a lot of work.
Last Friday was the ward’s “Trunk or Treat”. We had a lot of fun. I dressed up as an FBI agent and Elder Sellers dressed up as a backwards missionary. So we had fun. There was also a chili cook off so we had a lot of chili. It was yummy.
So for this Halloween, we aren’t supposed to proselyte. Apparently, it is too dangerous so we are just going to go over to the Witts that night.
So this is the last week for Elder Sellers and then he goes back home to North Las Vegas, Nevada. He is excited to go home but he is sad because he is going to miss missionary work. It was kind of hard for me this week as well because he had a lot of “trunky” comments so it made me think of home but I got over it. So next time I write, I will be getting a new companion. Let’s hope he is a hard worker! :) I just hope that I stay in Jacksonville.
Now, lets get an update on the investigators:
1. Kimi – So we finally contacted Kimi and she has a cell phone that none of the missionaries knew about so we tired that but it is disconnected. Her home phone works now but she is ignoring our calls. I think she is avoiding us but I think that we will be able to contact her in the near future. Lets hope and pray!
2. Joey and Amber – So we taught a lesson with Joey and Amber (sort of). She had to leave about half way in the lesson so it was only Joey. We have an appointment with him tonight and I think we are going to set a baptismal date with him. We will see how it goes.
3. Jimmy Baldwin and Judy – So when we went to our appointment on Saturday with him, he dogged. He called us instead and said that he would come to church. He didn’t so we dropped by his house last night and he was there. He had no shirt on so it was gross. :) But I am not sure how interested he is anymore. He has a testimony but his girlfriend Judy wants to keep going to her church and his family is still giving him a hard time about the “mormon” church.
4. Gabby (Patrick and Lori) – We have another appoint with Patrick on Saturday and Gabby is still learning. I am hoping that we can soften Patrick’s heart to the point where he will let Gabby be baptized and maybe even get him baptized. Only time will tell.
5. Maurice – We are going to start re-teaching him the lessons. We have a feeling that he is starting to lose interest so, we got to get him excited about it again.
6. Jimmy Allen and Family- We still haven’t had the first discussion with him just visits. It’s kind of frustrating because he keeps rescheduling. We will get him eventually
7. Eddie – We contacted him and have taught him twice. Read quiet guy but really nice. Smokes a lot but we are going to his house tonight and watching the restoration. It should be great!
Well, that’s my week for you. Next week, I could get transferred to a new area! Probably not, but with President Drewes, anything can happen. I will for sure get a new companion though, so I will send you more information when it comes.
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. I am praying for all of you as well! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Parker
Well, it’s getting chilly in Jacksonville! The humid cold is setting in. I wore my trench coat for the first time yesterday. So this past week was kind of crazy. We had a lot of fun but also a lot of work.
Last Friday was the ward’s “Trunk or Treat”. We had a lot of fun. I dressed up as an FBI agent and Elder Sellers dressed up as a backwards missionary. So we had fun. There was also a chili cook off so we had a lot of chili. It was yummy.
So for this Halloween, we aren’t supposed to proselyte. Apparently, it is too dangerous so we are just going to go over to the Witts that night.
So this is the last week for Elder Sellers and then he goes back home to North Las Vegas, Nevada. He is excited to go home but he is sad because he is going to miss missionary work. It was kind of hard for me this week as well because he had a lot of “trunky” comments so it made me think of home but I got over it. So next time I write, I will be getting a new companion. Let’s hope he is a hard worker! :) I just hope that I stay in Jacksonville.
Now, lets get an update on the investigators:
1. Kimi – So we finally contacted Kimi and she has a cell phone that none of the missionaries knew about so we tired that but it is disconnected. Her home phone works now but she is ignoring our calls. I think she is avoiding us but I think that we will be able to contact her in the near future. Lets hope and pray!
2. Joey and Amber – So we taught a lesson with Joey and Amber (sort of). She had to leave about half way in the lesson so it was only Joey. We have an appointment with him tonight and I think we are going to set a baptismal date with him. We will see how it goes.
3. Jimmy Baldwin and Judy – So when we went to our appointment on Saturday with him, he dogged. He called us instead and said that he would come to church. He didn’t so we dropped by his house last night and he was there. He had no shirt on so it was gross. :) But I am not sure how interested he is anymore. He has a testimony but his girlfriend Judy wants to keep going to her church and his family is still giving him a hard time about the “mormon” church.
4. Gabby (Patrick and Lori) – We have another appoint with Patrick on Saturday and Gabby is still learning. I am hoping that we can soften Patrick’s heart to the point where he will let Gabby be baptized and maybe even get him baptized. Only time will tell.
5. Maurice – We are going to start re-teaching him the lessons. We have a feeling that he is starting to lose interest so, we got to get him excited about it again.
6. Jimmy Allen and Family- We still haven’t had the first discussion with him just visits. It’s kind of frustrating because he keeps rescheduling. We will get him eventually
7. Eddie – We contacted him and have taught him twice. Read quiet guy but really nice. Smokes a lot but we are going to his house tonight and watching the restoration. It should be great!
Well, that’s my week for you. Next week, I could get transferred to a new area! Probably not, but with President Drewes, anything can happen. I will for sure get a new companion though, so I will send you more information when it comes.
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. I am praying for all of you as well! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Parker
Thursday, October 23, 2008
October 22, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Once again, I am here in "J-ville". Where else would I be? Everything is going good. For some reason though, this week went really slow. It was our bike week this last week and I hadn't ridden a bike for the last 6 weeks so my butt was pretty sore. :) Thats ok though, it felt good to ride a bike again.
This past week we had interviews with the President. That went well and he says that we are doing good its just that we need to increase our lessons with a member. That is always hard because members have there own lifes that they have to live but I think that we can do it.
Saturday was the air show. It was a lot of fun. We went with the senior couple, Elder and Sister Witt. It was really cool to see all the different kind of planes. We had some investigators going and they said that they had a lot of fun. Sister Witt was funny because she wanted to go everywhere they were giving away free stuff so we too got a bunch of knick-knacks from the Army and Air-force. We saw the Blue-angels. We never saw them fly because we left early but we saw them flying around when we went tracting. They are super loud.
Now for the update on our investigators:
1. Kimi - We kind of lost contact with her. Her phone stopped working and we haven't been able to see her since. She called us once at night and told us that her 2 uncles just died so she has been having a really rough time. We are still praying for her and we aren't going to set a date with her until she stops smoking. But who knows how long that will take.
2. Joey and Amber - We finished teaching the plan of salvation and Amber took a lot of notes. She thinks that it is interesting but she is still very skeptical. Funny story about that lesson though. So we were calling around the night before trying to find a member to go with us and we call someone who we thought was an Active member and he says yes. His name was bro. Elliott. We get in his car and we see a bunch of cigerettes. Me and Elder Sellers look at each other and wonder. Later in the lesson, Brother Elliott tells Amber and Joey that he hasn't been to church in a year. So we found out that he was a Less-active member! Thats ok though. The lesson still went great and Brother Elliott said he needed it more than them so yeah. Who knows, maybe we will re-activate someone on accident.
3. Jimmy Baldwin and Judy - Jimmy got antied by his family pretty hard. He told us that he didn't want to meet with us again but when we were doing service for a thrift store, we saw him and set up an appointment to see him this saturday. I really hope that we don't lose him.
4. Gabby (Patrick and Lori) - Well, we had a the first lesson about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He liked it but he has trouble with the God head and he knows his Bible really well. We have another lesson with him on
5. Maurice - Still reading scriptures with him. Hasn't gotten an answer yet but he will eventually.
6. Jimmy Allen and Family- He keeps re-scheduling his appointments because some family issues come up so he needs to meet with us soon and get baptized because he is ready.
We have a few other people that we are teaching here and there but nothing big. We are hoping to get some progressing investigators soon because as you can see, we are kind of running low. I have been out 3 months now. It kind of hard to believe. It sure doesn't seem like like it has been that long. It has left like a couple of weeks. Time flys when you are having fun. But that isn't good because a missionary's time is valuable.
We are also starting a member lesson program to train members to be a full time member missionary or a full time finder. It should work out pretty well.
This Friday we have the annual Trunk-or-treat at the church. We are having a chili cook-off, games and stuff! It should be a lot of fun.
Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts. They are keeping me going! I really appreciate it! I love you all and God bless all of you!
John 14:26
Love,
Elder Parker
Once again, I am here in "J-ville". Where else would I be? Everything is going good. For some reason though, this week went really slow. It was our bike week this last week and I hadn't ridden a bike for the last 6 weeks so my butt was pretty sore. :) Thats ok though, it felt good to ride a bike again.
This past week we had interviews with the President. That went well and he says that we are doing good its just that we need to increase our lessons with a member. That is always hard because members have there own lifes that they have to live but I think that we can do it.
Saturday was the air show. It was a lot of fun. We went with the senior couple, Elder and Sister Witt. It was really cool to see all the different kind of planes. We had some investigators going and they said that they had a lot of fun. Sister Witt was funny because she wanted to go everywhere they were giving away free stuff so we too got a bunch of knick-knacks from the Army and Air-force. We saw the Blue-angels. We never saw them fly because we left early but we saw them flying around when we went tracting. They are super loud.
Now for the update on our investigators:
1. Kimi - We kind of lost contact with her. Her phone stopped working and we haven't been able to see her since. She called us once at night and told us that her 2 uncles just died so she has been having a really rough time. We are still praying for her and we aren't going to set a date with her until she stops smoking. But who knows how long that will take.
2. Joey and Amber - We finished teaching the plan of salvation and Amber took a lot of notes. She thinks that it is interesting but she is still very skeptical. Funny story about that lesson though. So we were calling around the night before trying to find a member to go with us and we call someone who we thought was an Active member and he says yes. His name was bro. Elliott. We get in his car and we see a bunch of cigerettes. Me and Elder Sellers look at each other and wonder. Later in the lesson, Brother Elliott tells Amber and Joey that he hasn't been to church in a year. So we found out that he was a Less-active member! Thats ok though. The lesson still went great and Brother Elliott said he needed it more than them so yeah. Who knows, maybe we will re-activate someone on accident.
3. Jimmy Baldwin and Judy - Jimmy got antied by his family pretty hard. He told us that he didn't want to meet with us again but when we were doing service for a thrift store, we saw him and set up an appointment to see him this saturday. I really hope that we don't lose him.
4. Gabby (Patrick and Lori) - Well, we had a the first lesson about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He liked it but he has trouble with the God head and he knows his Bible really well. We have another lesson with him on
5. Maurice - Still reading scriptures with him. Hasn't gotten an answer yet but he will eventually.
6. Jimmy Allen and Family- He keeps re-scheduling his appointments because some family issues come up so he needs to meet with us soon and get baptized because he is ready.
We have a few other people that we are teaching here and there but nothing big. We are hoping to get some progressing investigators soon because as you can see, we are kind of running low. I have been out 3 months now. It kind of hard to believe. It sure doesn't seem like like it has been that long. It has left like a couple of weeks. Time flys when you are having fun. But that isn't good because a missionary's time is valuable.
We are also starting a member lesson program to train members to be a full time member missionary or a full time finder. It should work out pretty well.
This Friday we have the annual Trunk-or-treat at the church. We are having a chili cook-off, games and stuff! It should be a lot of fun.
Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts. They are keeping me going! I really appreciate it! I love you all and God bless all of you!
John 14:26
Love,
Elder Parker
Sunday, October 19, 2008
October 15, 2008
Dear Family,
Hello again from Jacksonville, Arkansas! Things in Jacksonville are going great. The weather is hot and it rains sometimes but it is mostly just humid. I heard in Utah that it is snowing! That is crazy! While you guys are freezing, I am dying of heat!
Well, things are progessing here. Let just explain what has been happening during the week and then the investigators. Last Thursday, we hung out with a member that was in the Marines. He took us to the air force base on our P-day and showed us around. I took a lot of good pictures of the airplanes flying and taking off and a movie. Lee was his name. He is now back home in Oakanawa, Japan with his family. He missed them a lot so I am glad that he got to see them again.
Saturday we did a exchange with the Zone leaders. I was with Elder Pratt all day. We got a lot done and saw a lot of our investigators we haven't seen yet and set appointments which was really good. Elder Pratt is related to Parley P. Pratt. He is his great, great, great, great grandfather, but I don't really know how many greats. Did you know that the "P" in Parley P. Pratt is "Parker". I know, I thought that was pretty awesome!
Sunday, we went to Elder and Sister Witts fireside that they had. They were missionaries at the humanitarian center for a while so they showed us a powerpoint presentation of it. It was great! There is a lot of things the church is doing that I didn't know about.
Monday was family home evening at the Edwards and we did conversion stories. Then we did a role play of a lesson with an investigator. I was the investigator and I did my southern voice for everyone and we had a lot of laughs. It was great.
This week was also our bike week. We haven't biked in about 6 weeks so I was kind of out of shape and my butt hurts too. Ugh! We also tracted a street called "Parker St" so I took a picture of that. Unfortunately, no one was interested.
Now to my investigators:
1. Kimi - We had to move her baptism date to the 25th because she is still having a problem with smoking. We are praying for her and she fasted this last sunday with us and came to church so that was great! We are sure she can make her date but it is really up to her!
2. Joey and Amber - They were taught before by the missionaries. Elder Pratt and I stopped by on him on Saturday. Elder Pratt knew them because he used to be in my area before I came to it. We taught him last night about the plan of salvation and he loves it. They both got into the lesson and everything went great!
3. Jimmy Baldwin and Judy - We taught Jimmy and Judy again. We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about faith and repentance. I thought that it went really well and Judy may be back on board.
4. Gabby - Well, we had our usual lesson with Gabby. Patrick (her father) was there and he kind of stood in the lesson. We were talking about the articles of faith and then he said "Whats that". It evenually got into a whole discussion about the first lesson and we set up an appointment with Patrick! We hope that it will go well and who knows, maybe he will get baptized as well!
5. Maurice - Still reading scriptures with him. Hasn't gotten an answer yet but he will evenually.
6. Jimmy Allen and Family- Well, Jimmy came to Sacrament this Sunday. We weren't expecting him so that was great. He talked to the bishop afterwards and said. "I have been looking for people like you guys all my life!" He is awesome! We have an appointment tomorrow with him and his family. It will be awesome!
Well, That was my week. I hope everyone has had a great week as well! This weekend is the air show at the air force base. We are planning on going to that with some investigators and maybe even find new ones. It will be great! Thank you for the thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Elder Parker
Hello again from Jacksonville, Arkansas! Things in Jacksonville are going great. The weather is hot and it rains sometimes but it is mostly just humid. I heard in Utah that it is snowing! That is crazy! While you guys are freezing, I am dying of heat!
Well, things are progessing here. Let just explain what has been happening during the week and then the investigators. Last Thursday, we hung out with a member that was in the Marines. He took us to the air force base on our P-day and showed us around. I took a lot of good pictures of the airplanes flying and taking off and a movie. Lee was his name. He is now back home in Oakanawa, Japan with his family. He missed them a lot so I am glad that he got to see them again.
Saturday we did a exchange with the Zone leaders. I was with Elder Pratt all day. We got a lot done and saw a lot of our investigators we haven't seen yet and set appointments which was really good. Elder Pratt is related to Parley P. Pratt. He is his great, great, great, great grandfather, but I don't really know how many greats. Did you know that the "P" in Parley P. Pratt is "Parker". I know, I thought that was pretty awesome!
Sunday, we went to Elder and Sister Witts fireside that they had. They were missionaries at the humanitarian center for a while so they showed us a powerpoint presentation of it. It was great! There is a lot of things the church is doing that I didn't know about.
Monday was family home evening at the Edwards and we did conversion stories. Then we did a role play of a lesson with an investigator. I was the investigator and I did my southern voice for everyone and we had a lot of laughs. It was great.
This week was also our bike week. We haven't biked in about 6 weeks so I was kind of out of shape and my butt hurts too. Ugh! We also tracted a street called "Parker St" so I took a picture of that. Unfortunately, no one was interested.
Now to my investigators:
1. Kimi - We had to move her baptism date to the 25th because she is still having a problem with smoking. We are praying for her and she fasted this last sunday with us and came to church so that was great! We are sure she can make her date but it is really up to her!
2. Joey and Amber - They were taught before by the missionaries. Elder Pratt and I stopped by on him on Saturday. Elder Pratt knew them because he used to be in my area before I came to it. We taught him last night about the plan of salvation and he loves it. They both got into the lesson and everything went great!
3. Jimmy Baldwin and Judy - We taught Jimmy and Judy again. We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about faith and repentance. I thought that it went really well and Judy may be back on board.
4. Gabby - Well, we had our usual lesson with Gabby. Patrick (her father) was there and he kind of stood in the lesson. We were talking about the articles of faith and then he said "Whats that". It evenually got into a whole discussion about the first lesson and we set up an appointment with Patrick! We hope that it will go well and who knows, maybe he will get baptized as well!
5. Maurice - Still reading scriptures with him. Hasn't gotten an answer yet but he will evenually.
6. Jimmy Allen and Family- Well, Jimmy came to Sacrament this Sunday. We weren't expecting him so that was great. He talked to the bishop afterwards and said. "I have been looking for people like you guys all my life!" He is awesome! We have an appointment tomorrow with him and his family. It will be awesome!
Well, That was my week. I hope everyone has had a great week as well! This weekend is the air show at the air force base. We are planning on going to that with some investigators and maybe even find new ones. It will be great! Thank you for the thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Elder Parker
Thursday, October 9, 2008
October 9, 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
How is everyone doing? I am doing great out here in J-ville Arkansas! I am loving it. We have still been busy this week. A lot has happened so let me explain. This weekend was conference. It was great. We had 5 investigators come. Kimi and Jimmy Baldwin came and 3 new others they just came out of the blue but I will explain about those in a minute. I really needed to hear some of the things that the general authorities said which was really good.
We had family home evening this week with the Edwards. We watched "Emma Smith - My Story". It was a good and interesting movie. Joseph and Emma went through a lot together for this church. Brother Edwards has a sword that is in his house that he showed me. He said that sword was given to him by his great grandfather. His great grandfather was helping Joseph Smith when he was being taken away to Chartage Jail. Joseph Smith gave the sword to his great grandfather and said "You might need this to protect yourself." So I thought that that was pretty cool so I took a picture of me holding the sword that Joseph Smith had touched! Pretty awesome!
We have a Senior couple that works with us as well. They are the Witts. They come from Brigham City, Utah. They have been out as long has I have and they are so trunky. They miss home so much but they work nonetheless. They are a great couple though, they have treated us very nicely and they like us a lot. I love the Witts.
This week was also Zone Conference so that is why I am e-mailing on Thursday, instead of Wednesday this week. We learned a lot about faith and finding people. So that is really good. I needed that as well!
Now, an update on some of my investigators:
1. Kimi - She is still trying to quit smoking so we gave her a lesson on the "Armor of God" in Eph. in the Bible. We also gave her a blessing and her kids thought that it was weird/cool. Her son came up to me and asked if I could bless him with the ability to have super-human strength and to fly. I told him that blessings don't work that way and laughed. One of the older boys tried to record us giving a blessing and we aren't sure if he succeeded or not. If he did, lets not hope that I am on youtube.
2. John - Unfortunately, We have dropped him because he called us and said that he wanted to stay at his uncles church because "that is where he is supposed to be." We as missionaries can only do so much.
3. Jimmy Baldwin - We kind of found out that Judy isn't really interested because she isn't at the lessons anymore. We still need to figure out what her deal is. We are still teaching him the basics but I don't think he quite understands all of them yet so we are working on that so he does understand.
4. Gabby - We had a chat with her mother. She has a couple of warrents for her arrest she told us for not going to court for accidents and what not. She said that she can't go to church because she doesn't want to but she wants Gabby to learn more before she gets baptized. It is only a matter of time before she comes around.
5. Maurice - Still reading scriptures with him. Still hoping that he will get an answer about his baptism date.
6. Destiny and Ebony - We invited them to conference and there Less-active mother kind of got mad at us because she didn't think that they would like it or sit through it and that we didn't tell her anything about it. We thought she knew but apparently not. We just have to go see them again to see what there deal is.
7. Whitney- She met with us wondering why we stopped visiting with her. I guess she didn't get the point that we dropped her. She said that she found the right church and is now going to that.
8. Jimmy Allen and Family- This family just showed up to conference on Saturday morning. We talked with them and set up an appointment. We went and talked to Jimmy. We found out that he has read 3/4 of the Book of Mormon before we even met him. His older son is Mormon and introduced it to him. He told us that his soul hungers for more and that when he reads the book of mormon, it fills that hunger. I think this is going to be the first time that I am going to say that he is "golden". We are so excited to teach him more! I will keep you updated!
Well, that is my busy week. I am having a great time. Trying to stay motivated can be hard but I am doing it! I really appricate all of your prayers and thoughts in my behalf. I guess I have a website now which is kind of cool. Talk to my dad for more info. God bless you all!
Love,
Elder Parker
How is everyone doing? I am doing great out here in J-ville Arkansas! I am loving it. We have still been busy this week. A lot has happened so let me explain. This weekend was conference. It was great. We had 5 investigators come. Kimi and Jimmy Baldwin came and 3 new others they just came out of the blue but I will explain about those in a minute. I really needed to hear some of the things that the general authorities said which was really good.
We had family home evening this week with the Edwards. We watched "Emma Smith - My Story". It was a good and interesting movie. Joseph and Emma went through a lot together for this church. Brother Edwards has a sword that is in his house that he showed me. He said that sword was given to him by his great grandfather. His great grandfather was helping Joseph Smith when he was being taken away to Chartage Jail. Joseph Smith gave the sword to his great grandfather and said "You might need this to protect yourself." So I thought that that was pretty cool so I took a picture of me holding the sword that Joseph Smith had touched! Pretty awesome!
We have a Senior couple that works with us as well. They are the Witts. They come from Brigham City, Utah. They have been out as long has I have and they are so trunky. They miss home so much but they work nonetheless. They are a great couple though, they have treated us very nicely and they like us a lot. I love the Witts.
This week was also Zone Conference so that is why I am e-mailing on Thursday, instead of Wednesday this week. We learned a lot about faith and finding people. So that is really good. I needed that as well!
Now, an update on some of my investigators:
1. Kimi - She is still trying to quit smoking so we gave her a lesson on the "Armor of God" in Eph. in the Bible. We also gave her a blessing and her kids thought that it was weird/cool. Her son came up to me and asked if I could bless him with the ability to have super-human strength and to fly. I told him that blessings don't work that way and laughed. One of the older boys tried to record us giving a blessing and we aren't sure if he succeeded or not. If he did, lets not hope that I am on youtube.
2. John - Unfortunately, We have dropped him because he called us and said that he wanted to stay at his uncles church because "that is where he is supposed to be." We as missionaries can only do so much.
3. Jimmy Baldwin - We kind of found out that Judy isn't really interested because she isn't at the lessons anymore. We still need to figure out what her deal is. We are still teaching him the basics but I don't think he quite understands all of them yet so we are working on that so he does understand.
4. Gabby - We had a chat with her mother. She has a couple of warrents for her arrest she told us for not going to court for accidents and what not. She said that she can't go to church because she doesn't want to but she wants Gabby to learn more before she gets baptized. It is only a matter of time before she comes around.
5. Maurice - Still reading scriptures with him. Still hoping that he will get an answer about his baptism date.
6. Destiny and Ebony - We invited them to conference and there Less-active mother kind of got mad at us because she didn't think that they would like it or sit through it and that we didn't tell her anything about it. We thought she knew but apparently not. We just have to go see them again to see what there deal is.
7. Whitney- She met with us wondering why we stopped visiting with her. I guess she didn't get the point that we dropped her. She said that she found the right church and is now going to that.
8. Jimmy Allen and Family- This family just showed up to conference on Saturday morning. We talked with them and set up an appointment. We went and talked to Jimmy. We found out that he has read 3/4 of the Book of Mormon before we even met him. His older son is Mormon and introduced it to him. He told us that his soul hungers for more and that when he reads the book of mormon, it fills that hunger. I think this is going to be the first time that I am going to say that he is "golden". We are so excited to teach him more! I will keep you updated!
Well, that is my busy week. I am having a great time. Trying to stay motivated can be hard but I am doing it! I really appricate all of your prayers and thoughts in my behalf. I guess I have a website now which is kind of cool. Talk to my dad for more info. God bless you all!
Love,
Elder Parker
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
October 1, 2008
Dear Family,
Here I am reporting from Jacksonville, Arkansas. So much has happened in such a short amount of time. I have decided that I am not a big fan of whitewashing areas. It was nice to have the same companion but when we got to the area, we had no idea what was going on. We have like 5 or 6 investigators and it is crazy to try and keep up with all of them. I think that the president is truly inspired with his choices when he transfers but it is very different then the norm.
The first couple of days was just to meet the investigators and find out where the church is and what not. We have been trying to get to know the members and I think that that is going well. This area is the opposite of my last area. We have really good investigators but we don't have such a good ward. The ward doesn't have very many members and there are like a million Less-actives in the area. We are trying to visit with all of the less-actives and trying to find out what there deal is. One got mad at us for visiting there house and said that they would call the police if we visit there house again. Ugh, why did LA's have to be rude? Who knows but don't worry, we get that kind of stuff all the time.
So we have several investigators and I will try and talk about each one of them.
1. Kimi - She is a big black woman and she is committed to baptism on the 28th of October. She has a problem with the word of wisdom but I think that she will get over that problem.
2. John - He was a referral from one of the members, Sister Hampton. He really seems like a "golden" investigator but he has to start to read and pray to get him over the top. Lessons have been going really well.
3. Jimmy and Judy - They live in a trailer park and they are not married. (We just found this out....) They are a big couple so we really don't think that it will be a problem. They said they haven't got married because of the money issue but i think if we can get the bishop to marry them then it should be a problem. He is committed to baptism on the 28th as well.
4. Gabby - She is a 9 year old girl and daughter of a less-active member. She is really smart but her parents don't want her to be baptized until she is ready. We have taught her pretty much everything so we need to explain to the parents that we have taught her everything we know and that she is ready for baptism.
5. Maurice- He is 11 years old and black. We read from the Book of Mormon with him twice a week. He is really smart when it comes to the Book of Mormon. We are asking him to pray about being baptized but I feel like he wants to wait until he has finished reading the Book of Mormon. I hope it doesn't come to that because he is only on Jacob 5. Ugh!
6. Destiny and Ebony - One is 8 the other is 11. They are hard to keep there interest but i think that they will get baptized. Only a matter of time.
7. Whitney- We have dropped her because anytime we gave her a challenge or committment, she never did it. So we told her that we as missionaries can do only so much so we told her to give us a call when she is ready.
So that is most of them. Yesterday, we had like 7 appointments so we were busy all day. It was awesome and crazy!
We also had family home evening with the Edwards. They are an awesome couple and they open there family home evening to everyone including investigators so that is really cool.
I am excited for conference this weekend. I feel like they haven't talked to us for a while. It is kind of cool to tell investigators that the prophet of the world is speaking this weekend so that sparks peoples interest. I am excited for this and we will see how it goes.
I love missionary work and I love to see the change that it brings into peoples lives. I am very grateful for the prayers and thoughts that you guys give me. I hope Ryan is doing well. I will put him in my prayers as well. My family, be safe, I love all of you and thanks again for all that you do for me.
Love,
Elder Parker
Dear Family,
Here I am reporting from Jacksonville, Arkansas. So much has happened in such a short amount of time. I have decided that I am not a big fan of whitewashing areas. It was nice to have the same companion but when we got to the area, we had no idea what was going on. We have like 5 or 6 investigators and it is crazy to try and keep up with all of them. I think that the president is truly inspired with his choices when he transfers but it is very different then the norm.
The first couple of days was just to meet the investigators and find out where the church is and what not. We have been trying to get to know the members and I think that that is going well. This area is the opposite of my last area. We have really good investigators but we don't have such a good ward. The ward doesn't have very many members and there are like a million Less-actives in the area. We are trying to visit with all of the less-actives and trying to find out what there deal is. One got mad at us for visiting there house and said that they would call the police if we visit there house again. Ugh, why did LA's have to be rude? Who knows but don't worry, we get that kind of stuff all the time.
So we have several investigators and I will try and talk about each one of them.
1. Kimi - She is a big black woman and she is committed to baptism on the 28th of October. She has a problem with the word of wisdom but I think that she will get over that problem.
2. John - He was a referral from one of the members, Sister Hampton. He really seems like a "golden" investigator but he has to start to read and pray to get him over the top. Lessons have been going really well.
3. Jimmy and Judy - They live in a trailer park and they are not married. (We just found this out....) They are a big couple so we really don't think that it will be a problem. They said they haven't got married because of the money issue but i think if we can get the bishop to marry them then it should be a problem. He is committed to baptism on the 28th as well.
4. Gabby - She is a 9 year old girl and daughter of a less-active member. She is really smart but her parents don't want her to be baptized until she is ready. We have taught her pretty much everything so we need to explain to the parents that we have taught her everything we know and that she is ready for baptism.
5. Maurice- He is 11 years old and black. We read from the Book of Mormon with him twice a week. He is really smart when it comes to the Book of Mormon. We are asking him to pray about being baptized but I feel like he wants to wait until he has finished reading the Book of Mormon. I hope it doesn't come to that because he is only on Jacob 5. Ugh!
6. Destiny and Ebony - One is 8 the other is 11. They are hard to keep there interest but i think that they will get baptized. Only a matter of time.
7. Whitney- We have dropped her because anytime we gave her a challenge or committment, she never did it. So we told her that we as missionaries can do only so much so we told her to give us a call when she is ready.
So that is most of them. Yesterday, we had like 7 appointments so we were busy all day. It was awesome and crazy!
We also had family home evening with the Edwards. They are an awesome couple and they open there family home evening to everyone including investigators so that is really cool.
I am excited for conference this weekend. I feel like they haven't talked to us for a while. It is kind of cool to tell investigators that the prophet of the world is speaking this weekend so that sparks peoples interest. I am excited for this and we will see how it goes.
I love missionary work and I love to see the change that it brings into peoples lives. I am very grateful for the prayers and thoughts that you guys give me. I hope Ryan is doing well. I will put him in my prayers as well. My family, be safe, I love all of you and thanks again for all that you do for me.
Love,
Elder Parker
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