OCTOBER 13, 2014

Dear Family,
Man, what a crazy awesome week! South Philly is great right now, so
much going on and so many miracles. We saw some really awesome people
this week and we were able to get a lot of members out teaching with
us, which helps a ton. We even added another super solid Chinese
investigator to our teaching pool!

First, we saw Pricilla this week, she is doing well, seems sincere, and has a baptism date for in December, but wasn't able to make it to church and hasn't answered our calls.
Hopefully everything is all right.

We saw Carmen this week and set him with a new baptismal date, for in
December. Lots of struggles but really does want to be baptized, just
need to get him there. He is loving brother Harrison at the lessons,
so that should help a ton in the near future. He also has had some
really good spiritual experiences with a blessing we gave him.

We saw Moe! Finally we saw Moe. He is in the hospital now, which is a
good thing... Now that he is in the hospital for some crazy infection
in a wound in his ankle, (Pictures were narley!) he can't get away
from us! He is stuck in a bed, lol, so we saw him Saturday and had a
great talk about baptism and what he needs to do to get there, he was
pretty excited to get baptized and wants to do it ASAP, he just needs
to be more consistent in meeting with us and actually come to church!
Really cool experience though with him. Sometimes I think that some
people are invincible or have no feelings or things like that, but I
witnessed this really really big built black man break down in tears
because of guilt he feels in his heart. It was such a tender moment
and was great to testify of how baptism and repentance can erase that
guilt. Then next day, Sunday, we took the Harrisons to see him. He was
in really high spirits and we read the Book of Mormon together and
taught about the Plan of Salvation. Moe kept telling the Harrisons how
much we helped build up his spirit and it was great to see him doing so
much better. I have very high hopes for Moe in the near future and
hope to work with him a lot more.

We also saw Thianxu and An Hua! Super awesome lesson. We had sister Su
there translating and then the Clarks. Sister Clark went to Curtis,
the school Thianxu is trying to get into, for the harp. It was such an
awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation. So good! We were able to
answer a lot of their questions and they loved the Clarks. The best
part though was how we could feel what they were talking about in
Chinese even though we didn't understand, I felt that I could follow
the conversation pretty well, which is awesome! The spirit is amazing!
Then at the end we had Thianxu say the prayer, it’s the first prayer he
has ever said! He said it in Chinese but the sprit was so strong!! It
was awesome! Sister Su later told us he was very straight forward and
asked God to tell him if what we have taught him is true. So great for
a first time! Then An Hua came to church and really loved it. They are
both so awesome and are meeting a ton of members. So good!

We are also teaching a new Chinese woman who is a referral from Temple
Square. So I might be too emotionally attached already, because It’s
reminding me a TON of Susan. We meet with her at a park in center city
and she just asks golden questions and is so open to learning. She
wants to know how to deal with sorrow and stress and grief and wants
to know who God is. So great! And she isn't moving back to China soon!
YES!!

Also, we were able to see Meet the Mormons at a Zone Conference this
week, it you have not seen it, go, like right now. It is super
awesome! I was laughing in the first 5 minutes and was inspired by the
end!

God loves you! I love you! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Parker

OCTOBER 6, 2014

Dear Family,

Crazy week here in South Philly, with General Conference we thought it
might be a slower week because of how much time conference takes.
Could we be any more wrong?.... Which is a great thing!

I will try to give a little update on those we have been working with the most.

We were able to see Hua An and Thianxu this week, it was really great!
We taught the great apostasy and the first vision and the Book of
Mormon. They seemed to really understand it and said they would read
the Book of Mormon, they also then attended General Conference for the
Saturday Morning session. Now, we all know that God's hands are in
this work, but it was especially evident this week. The session they
attended happened to be one where for the first time ever a member of
the seventy spoke in his native tongue, cantonese! Even though they
were watching in Mandarin, it was a testimony builder for me! They
loved President Uchtdorfs talk by the way. After the session Thianxu
played the piano with a member of the branch for about 30 mins, I
might send some video of it. So awesome! So Thianxu played a movement
of a song on the spot from memory for about 15 mins! Then the member
played something for about 3 mins, Thianxu asked how he had such great
memory! lol, so funny.


We were able to see Pricilla a few times this week, she has been
reading and is progressing well, she didn’t make it to conference
because she was ill, but it seems that she has great desire to do what
is right, which goes a long way.

We saw a less active this week with her none member husband. Her name
is Yen and his name is Froggy, ( not really, it’s a nickname). We had a
great lesson, he is still trying to find if there is a God, but when
we taught simply and related to things he understood he made
meaningful progress. Hopefully we can help her come back and be an
example for her family.

We saw a less active family who we have been working with, they are
super close to coming back to church, they both have health concerns
but we found out they will be moving soon. Which is good, it will be
much better living conditions.

We saw a less active named Sister Dickerson this week, super solid
christan who has had some hard times in her life and is recovering
from cancer. Still not sure what her concern with church is as she
still reads the Book of Mormon and bible frequently. She enjoys deep
doctrine lessons... sigh, this week it was the three kingdoms of glory
and why the bottom two exist. It was fun.

We have started meeting with a less active named Cham, it is actually
Yen's (above) brother. He is super awesome and is making tons of
progress. He brought his girlfriend to our most recent lesson.

We saw a less active named Fortune, he also has had some health
problems recently and really wants to come back to church, hopefully
he can make it out before the weather gets really bad and keeps him
inside all the time. Great man.

We saw Carmen this week, it was about the same as always but this time
we brought Brother Harrison with us. They made a really good
connection and Carmen really liked him. It might be the type of thing
that will eventually help Carmen make the right steps towards
preparing for baptism

We saw Anita, Mary and Arlene this week and taught them about
Conference. It was great. I mean none of them came, but it was still a
good visit. Mary just got out of the hospital and we were able to
check in on her.

So we have been working a ton to try and meet with this woman named
Kimmy. Ever since I have gotten her we have been trying to teach her,
she lives pretty close to us and we have had 1 kinda lesson with her.
Super nice and prepared. Well she came to the church with her fiancé
after the 2nd session on Saturday and we were able to have a lesson.
So get this, we told her to read Helaman chapter 5, specifically verse
12. She lost her Book of Mormon, but sought out lds.org and got to the
scriptures on her phone, then read it to her fiancé who we hadn't ever
taught. They both cried as they read it and felt like they were going
to need to be witness of something. When they told us this, we taught
baptism using Mosiah 18 and D&C 20:37 and taught of being a witness
for God, they both cried as we extended baptismal invitations and they
will be getting baptized on December 14th! They also came to
conference Sunday morning and felt that the apostles were speaking
right to them! They loved it so much and loved all the members of the
branch that they met.

It was such an amazing week here, the last three weeks have been so
awesome! I am looking forward to this week where we will have a zone
conference and we have a bunch of appointments set up.

Thanks for everything you all do! Have a great week! Love you!

Love,
Elder Parker

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

Dear Family,

It was a great week here in South Philly, we saw Thianxu and An Hua a few times. Taught about the life of Jesus Christ the first time, then we waited around for a Comcast guy the second time (to translate) then the third time is when the Su family had them over for dinner and invited us. It was awesome! Good Chinese food and listening to everyone around us speak mandarin is fun. Then Thianxu played songs out of the children's song book, the spirit was really strong the whole time, they should be at general conference this week.

We started teaching a woman named Pricilla this week, she has a baptismal date for in November and she came to church this week. We still have a long ways to go with her, but it looks promising.

Seems like everyone else is still at about the same place, we get to do service this week for a less active, we are washing their cat.... Yay.

Should be a great week with General Conference and all, always a good time of the year.

Forgot to frankly state that both Elder Pintor and I are staying for 6 more weeks. So there it is.

I will now try to put some thoughts I have had recently into text...

I have had some pretty good studies recently, I hope it all makes sense.

12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.
-1 Nephi 8:12

5 The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh.

6 And so it is on the other hand. If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness.
-Alma 41:5-6


4 I ought not to harrow up in my desires the firm decree of a just God, for I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction.
-Alma 29:4


9 For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.
-D&C 137:9


By now you have probably put the pieces together, DESIRE. It’s so important that we have righteous desires. I find it interesting though that Lehi says that the fruit was the most desirable, why then would we desire anything else?

Satan desires that we are miserable like he is. (2 Nephi 2:27)

This quote from a talk by Elder Maxwell, (Which I encourage everyone to read) talks about how we can slowly change our desires.


“Do you,” President Young asked, “think that people will obey the truth because it is true, unless they love it? No, they will not” (in Journal of Discourses, 7:55). Thus knowing gospel truths and doctrines is profoundly important, but we must also come to love them. When we love them, they will move us and help our desires and outward works to become more holy.

Each assertion of a righteous desire, each act of service, and each act of worship, however small and incremental, adds to our spiritual momentum. Like Newton’s Second Law, there is a transmitting of acceleration as well as a contagiousness associated with even the small acts of goodness.
“According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts”
http://www.lds.org/ensign/1996/11/according-to-the-desire-of-our-hearts?lang=eng



Thank you for everything you do! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

SEPTEMBER 22, 2014

Dear Family,

Well, it has been a great week here in South Philly, we were pretty

busy this week teaching a lot of different and new people.

All the members we are working with are still doing about the same.

It’s crazy how fast time is going by now, it’s just crazy to think that

October is almost here. Seems like every week goes by faster than the

one before.

Thanks for all that you do! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Parker

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Dear Family,

Another great week here in South Philly! It was a little off the norm
because we had a Mission Tour with Elder Anderson from the seventy. It
was good, he talked about 3 kinds of knowledge. Head - just
information. Heart - things we 'feel', motivates us to act. Soul -
When we act, take things into our life and change.

We also had stake conference this weekend. Hua An and Tianxu An came
to the Sunday meeting and also stayed after for a baptismal service.
It was pretty awesome that it worked out so well.

Well not too much really happened this week other than that, lots of
meetings and traveling to Broomall. It’s been good though, weird to
think that this is week 5 of the transfer already though, and that
October is right around the corner.... So strange. Time flies!

Man, this feels like a short email... So a quote from Brother Gibson
on the ride home from the Saturday Evening Session of Stake
Conference. "If you go your entire life learning one thing a day, you
will die an idiot." It was sooo straight faced as well! Such a funny
man.

I love you all, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Parker

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Dear Family,

This week was soooo amazing! Just thought I would get that out
there... The Lord's hands are in this work and it was very evident
this week here in South Philly. A scripture comes to mind when I have
reflected on this week:

8 For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own
nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he
seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth
counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.

9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I
do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath
commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an
instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and
this is my joy.

10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and
coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do
I remember what the Lord has done

Alma 29:8-10


It started off with what I shared in my last email about Anita's
friends. We have a return appointment with them this week. But that
was just a taste of what this week would bring. We had a pretty good
week going but then on Thursday night our assistants called and wanted
to do a hand off of some investigators they had received a referral
for. So we went with them to contact these two people.

Tinshu is 15 and has been here for 1 month with his father Anwa. They
are both from Beijing and are here so that Tinshu can audition to go
to the Curtis institute for music, the number one music school in the
world. So they live in center city above a Chinese place where they
have very little furniture but they have a baby grand in the living
room where Tinshu practices about 6 hours a day. He is the number 1
piano player in China and turned down lots of schools to come to
Philly. They have friends in China who are members and they sent in
the referral so we could help temporally, they didn't realize it would
come with spiritual assistance as well ;) So we met them on Thursday
night, Tinshu speaks English, kinda.. but Anwa doesn't speak any
English. We decided that it would be really hard to teach without a
translator, so we reached out to a Chinese member of the branch,
Sister Su, and she was able to come to our appointment the next day!
The lesson went pretty well, we were able to get all kinds of info
about Chinese culture and their back story and things like that. Well
Anwa didn't really want us to come by anymore or to come to church
because he thought it would distract his son from music. We couldn't
even do anything because we cannot communicate with him! We bore
testimony and Sister Su persuaded him to come to church on Sunday and
then to go from there.

So they came to church! It was a little bit of a crazy fast and
testimony meeting, but Sister Su translated all 3 hours for Anwa and
they both really loved church. Tinshu loved the music at church and was
able to go to young mens and exchanged numbers with the Young Men’s
President, who just returned from a trip to Beijing! After the
meetings, we talked with them and Sister Su for a little bit and
Anwa's concerns changed from taking up time to being able to honor
baptismal covenants once he returns to China! What a change 3 hours of
the spirit makes! Now we have a return appointment and they want to
keep coming because they have some friends in the branch.


13 Yea, and that same God did establish his church among them; yea,
and that same God hath called me by a holy calling, to preach the word
unto this people, and hath given me much success, in the which my joy
is full.

Alma 29:13


I can say that right now my joy is pretty full. It’s overwhelming
sometimes to look back and see all that Heavenly Father has done for
me and those we are working with.

I hope everyone takes every moment they can to allow our Heavenly
Father to work miracles through them for those around us, you might be
surprised by what could happen.

Have a great week everyone! I love you, God loves you!

love,
Elder Parker

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,
This week has been so crazy! I am not even sure how I can write this
letter to express all the thoughts I am having at this time, Agh! So
crazy to think that I am already at my year mark... I have just been
having all these flash backs to previous parts of my mission and it’s
scaring me! Never really thought I would be here at this point in my
mission the way I am. I have just been looking back and seeing all
that has changed, it’s really weird. In the beginning I was just trying
to survive the mission and to make it through and while I am still
doing that to some extent, now I feel really different. It’s hard to
explain, but I am sure you see it.

Well this week has just been so awesome! If you would have asked me
yesterday I would have said it was slow, but man it’s so great that
P-day was moved to today. Monday - Sunday really was pretty rough
though... Highlights were an awesome day of doing service at the
Ronald McDonald house and prepping a ton of Christmas lights for them.
Also going to a wedding for a branch member and one of the East Elders
investigators, it was a TON of fun! So much awesome.

Monday was just such an amazing day though, it really just trumps all
of last week. We had a branch picnic for Labor Day and it was a lot of
fun. It’s great to be able to get to know the members all a little bit
better and have some fun with them. Then we had a lesson with Anita
(Less active), Mary (Less active), Arlene (Investigator), as well as
two of Anita's non member friends, Britton and Tramell. Brother
Harrison, who is a recent convert of about 2 years and just got
married and moved out here from California, was with us. The spirit
was so strong in the lesson! It was so amazing to just see the way the
spirit touched Britton and Tramell. They both accepted copies of the
Book of Mormon and said they would read it together and pray about it.
Then Brother Harrison took us out to dinner real quick and we had a
lesson with the Tomlins. They introduced us to one of their friends
who came in during sacrament on Sunday then left before it ended.
Turns out she is pretty interested in coming next week as well and is
going to bring her two kids.

As I have been able to sit back and ponder on this last 8 days or so
and really the last year, I have really seen a lot, one scripture that
stands out is this:

12 And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when
they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they
bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble
themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord,
because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them.

13 And it came to pass that they went forth upon the face of the land,
and began to till the earth.

Ether 6:12-13


I have seen so many tender mercies as I have served. Newark, Milford
and Philly did not feel like the "Promised Land" when I got here, but
as I have seen the tender mercies of The Lord, I know this is where I am
needed and that he is preparing the way before me. When we humble our
selves The Lord raises us up to where he needs us to be, the only
thing that gets in the way is our own pride.

17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest
thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou
knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

John 21:17

Any time I feel like I can’t do it any more or that I have done enough,
this scripture has come into my mind and I have to ask myself, How
much to I love my Savior? Does he know? Do I show my love? That's what
helps me to continue on some days.

Thank you all for all the love and support you have given me! I love
you all so much!

Love,
Elder Parker