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