July 5, 2010

Dear Family,

Hello! Happy 4th of July yesterday! I hope that all y’all had a wonderful holiday weekend. Let me tell you about my week.

We are still working with Lisa and we finally got to meet with her on Thursday. She is Jehovah Witness. She has a hard time believing that Jesus Christ is Jehovah so we committed her to pray about it and read part of the Book of Mormon. She is progressing well and hopefully we will be able to set a baptismal date with her soon!

We were working with Gary Begin but he doesn’t seem to be progressing very well. I actually got a call from President Drewes (The mission president) and he told me that we shouldn’t go see him that much anymore because he isn’t progressing at all and he knows him personally. He said that he isn’t ready yet, which is totally understandable. So other missionaries will look him up.

As we have been visiting Big Mama, she has a great grandson that has moved in with her and he is 9 years old. His name is Makaylynn(sp). It is pronounced like that, I know that much. So we are meeting with him on Tuesday for the first time so we are going to strive to set a date with him on that day because he has already been to church and has expressed the desire to be baptized! So we are excited there.

Our weekend was good. We went to a cookout with a whole hog! It was actually pretty good. Everything was good this holiday weekend, despite the fact that I have been coughing for several days. But, don’t worry, I have already talked to Sister Drewes and a doctor who is a member in Jackson who helps me get better, ok mom? I love you!

Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers in my behalf. I love y’all and have a good week.

Love,

Kyle
(Elder Parker)

Pictures Include: (The whole hog BBQ) , (A band that they had, sang gospel, Johnny Cash, etc)

June 29, 2010

Dear Family,

I am doing well! Things are doing good. Sorry I didn’t e-mail yesterday, we had a lot going on and we just ran out of time. Sorry! We had a lot of good things happen to us.

We are going to start working with a part-member family that has a lot of potential, the Kimbrells. We shall see when we meet with them on Thursday

So, we changed our mission goal. It used to be 712 baptisms for the year. But, we decided to change it to 505 baptisms with a 85% retention rate of new converts. We are working on following the council of President Monson of “going to the rescue” of the new converts, part-members, less-actives and non-members. It seems to be working and we are having a lot of success and finding more people to teach.

We have Zone Conference this week, which includes giving my farewell testimony. That will be really weird for me because I am so used to seeing other missionaries giving their testimony and now it will be me. Time has flown by. I don’t believe that I will see y’all in less than a month. I hear that Ryan is coming home already. That is exciting. I hope that he adjusted well back home.

Thank you for your support, love and prayers. I know that you think about me a lot and for that I am grateful. A person couldn’t ask for a nicer family. I am working hard and enjoy doing it. I love y’all and talk to you next week.

Love,

Kyle
(Elder Parker)

June 21, 2010

Dear Family,

I hope all is well with you. I am going to be brief because I am not feeling too hot right now. We went a played Frisbee Golf and about the 4th hole, I needed to cool off and sit down. So, someone came with me to the car and sat in the car with me while I was cooling off. While traveling to the car, I threw up. It was yucky. I think it was because I felt like I had a cold and so I took some Day-quil. Well, I forgot to eat something with it. So I think that is why I threw up. I feel much better now, now that I have food in my belly. So if y’all could, could you pray for me to get better? I would really appreciate it! Now, an update on the week.

So, Lisa Kimbrell, an investigator fell off the face of the earth when we tried to get in contact with her. She had a baptismal date at one time so she was very promising. Well, she came to church on Sunday and introduced herself to me and told us that she wanted to continue the discussions, which is great news! Hopefully, we will be able to set another baptismal date with her this week.

Other than that, we are trying to find more people to teach. That is always the hard part. Thank you for all the prayers and support you are giving me. Thank you and May the Lord bless you!

Love,

Kyle
(Elder Parker)

June 16, 2010

Dear Family,

Sorry, it has taken so long; we had to wait for Elder Peinamalie to get a library card. This past week went well, so let me tell you a little bit about it.

Angela Bishop did get baptized this weekend. I was so happy. She asked Elder Peinamalie to baptized her and me to confirm her. They both went really well. I am so happy for my companion because he has already got 2 baptisms in his first transfer! And he baptized both of them himself! That is great! I know that he is going to be a great missionary.

Transfer calls didn’t come on Monday so that means that I will spend the rest of my mission in Jackson, Tennessee. I am so happy about that. I sure do love it here and I plan on working very hard this transfer as it is my last.

Other than that, now that this baptism happened, we got to get some more things going again. Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers you are giving me in my behalf. May the Lord bless you!

Love,

Kyle
(Elder Parker)

June 7, 2010

Dear Family,

Hello y'all. Time is sure flying fast. I will be home before you know it. I am super excited, scared, etc. I will miss being a missionary so I am cherishing my time I have left and working hard.

Update on Angela. We had a good meeting with her. There is a CD out here among the missionaries and its about a guy named Bill Carpenter who had opposition from his parents. She listened to it and seemed to enjoy it. This week, she is still planning on getting baptized this Saturday. We are trying to set up a meeting with a guy in the ward who had opposition from his parents so that will be good.

We are still working with Gary but no real update with him. Shane, we plan on meeting with him this week.

This is the last week of this transfer. Transfer calls will be next Monday. I hope that I don't get transferred! I want to stay here my last transfer in Jackson. I think I will because I am training someone and they don't like to separate that soon.

I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the miracles that it can do. I am grateful for the Atonement and how we can be forgiven of our sins.

Thank you for all the love, support, and prayers on my behalf. I love y'all!

Love,

Kyle
(Elder Parker)

June 2, 2010

Dear Family,

It is already June! Next month I am home. That is super weird. The time is flying by so fast, I am getting whiplash when I look back at the time that has pasted. Things are going good. Let me give you an update.

Due to Memorial day, I couldn’t e-mail you on Monday. Blast holidays on your mission. That also means that you don’t get any mail which is also a bummer. I realized what it is like to train a greenie. He got 7 letters from home, 4 of them from his girlfriend. Unfair! But, we live in a world where lots of things are unfair. Oh well, we just move on and are happy about it. :) We did have hamburgers and chips on Memorial Day. Yay!

Angela Bishop is progressing well. She is going out of town this week so she is going to read while she is gone and do a lot of praying and fasting on how she should approach her parents when it comes to telling them that she is joining the church. We continue to pray for her because she really wants to be baptized on the 12th.

On Saturday, we taught a guy named Shane. He seems really interested in the gospel but I question his sexually preference. He asked a lot of “Gay” questions but I don’t know. I will not judge him and I will definitely follow the spirit in this situation. I thought it was funny when he asked if me and my companion were married to each other.

Gary Begin is still working on stopping Coffee. We are trying an experiment on Friday where he is going to go without Coffee for a whole Day and write down the good things and bad things that happen to him during the day and what blessing he received after trying the experiment. Hopefully, everything will go as planned.

That is pretty much an update on what is going on here in Jackson. I love you so much and thank you for your support. I am really enjoying the pictures of Logan. Congrats to Chad and Cindy for making a nephew for me to come home to. Thank you. Talk to you next week.

Love,

Kyle
(Elder Parker)

May 24, 2010

Dear Family,

Hello and greeting from Jackson. I hope that all y’all are doing well. I have less than 2 months left. That is so crazy! Things in Jackson are doing quite well so let me give you a little update.

Jeremy Weathers, a man who got baptized two weeks ago finally made it to church this last Sunday and was able to get confirmed, which is great. So it is finally official.

A referral was given to us by a family named the Van Weys in Jackson. The referrals name is Angela Bishop. She is so ready to accept the gospel. Apparently, she had taken the missionary discussions in the past but for whatever reason, she stopped. She has a baptismal date for June 12. Her family is very against joining this church but the Van Weys are using her has a helper around the house. Pray for her as I hope that her family will at least soften up to her decision to be baptized.

We had Zone Conference. It was good. We talked about attitude. The interview with President was also a good one. I felt like good friends with him and he is happy with me.

I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the blessings that not only bless my life but the blessings of others. I love y’all and hope that you have a good week. Love ya!

Love,

Kyle
(Elder Parker)