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
Friday, November 28, 2008
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
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