NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Dear Family,
Well another week has past. The time is going by faster and faster. On Sunday we had Rex's baptism! It was really great. A lot of the ward showed up to support him. After his baptism, he bore his testimony and I could tell that he knew he was making the right choice. Other than the baptism, this week has been kind of quiet. It’s been hard to get a hold of people and it might be because of the up-coming holiday. The weather has been getting really cold. It was like 30 degrees yesterday and a pretty strong breeze. Luckily we were inside :) Zone Conference was really great. We talked about teaching by the spirit and how we can have the spirit with us. Usually we have 45 min to an hour lessons with people. Now we are trying to be in and out in 20 minutes with the lesson being less than 10. Crazy huh?! It’s sooo cool though! We are trying to use pictures more and cut out all the fluff. It’s interesting because now we teach more like we did in the MTC.  When I came to the mission field we added other stuff; now we are back to what it was like in the MTC.

Cool experience. I was on exchanges with my favorite missionary (Elder Readhead) and we were in his area. We were tracting in an apartment compound. So there were buildings that each held 12 different apartments. Well they were all supposed to be locked. But we got into a lot of them because the locks were broken. We didn't really have a lot of success, but on our last one, we got in and met a boy who was 18 years old. We asked him if he wanted to hear a message about Jesus Christ. He said yes, we were unprepared and rambled through half of the restoration then gave him a Book of Mormon and set a return appointment. Cool thing is when we went out, we found out the door actually locks... somehow we got in though. So Cool!  Hopefully he keeps his appointment, his name is Sayvon. Really cool kid.

Hope everything is going well at home! Love you all!
Love, Elder Parker

                                          Elder Thomas, Rex, Elder Parker

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Dear Family,
This week has been really good. We have been focused on building our teaching pool and found 4 new investigators this week! It’s not always easy and for some reason people often don't show up for appointments. We taught Rex 2 times this week. We have finished teaching him and he is ready to be baptized this Sunday Nov. 24th. Elder Thomas is going to do the baptism and I am doing the confirmation the following week. I am soo nervous. I have only given 1 blessing and I always feel like what I say needs to be powerful and worded really well. I have been pondering and praying a lot about what I should include in his blessing. It will be a learning experience.
The New Castle West Elders (Elders Sanchez and Readhead) had another baptism this Sunday! Our district has had over 10 baptisms while I have been here! It’s been crazy.
We had a really cool experience on Saturday. We were doing our weekly planning and got a random text from a number we didn't know that said, "why mormonism?" We started to message him back and eventually found out that he is a former investigator that we have no record of. He lives in our area with his wife and 4 kids and was about to be baptized in January of 2010. He got our number from a pass along card that fell out of one of our investigator's doors... So cool! He says he isn't interested in converting, but I know the spirit can be a powerful tool of conversion.
Something I have learned so far is how I want to be when I get home, what the missionaries really want from members, and how much a ride to save miles means. Little things that members do for missionaries really mean a lot.
The work is progressing and many miracles happen every day. I love you all so much, thank you for your thoughts, cards, packages and prayers. It means the world to me. I am blessed to know you all.
Love, Elder Parker

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Dear Family,
Well this week was a little rough, but the work is still going good. It is starting to get really cold, the high is around 40 tomorrow, and the sun goes down around the time we eat dinner, so the tracting we usually end up doing around 7-9 at night can get pretty chilly. Elder Thomas is always cold though, haha. He wears his winter coat in the apartment and I sweat!
Well I missed our only lesson of the week, which was with Rex, because I was on exchanges with Elder Goates, one of our zone leaders. It was really good. We had zone training this last week and have zone conference in about 2 weeks.
We have been talking with Susan on Facebook a lot and she is going to try to go to church in China. She is going to try and go to Hong Kong to get baptized as well! Hopefully the new tools we get will help us to keep in contact with her. Susan is going to do great things. We decided she is just waiting to be baptized so her and her husband can do it at the same time! lol.
We have been really trying to build our teaching pool recently, hopefully the people we have met will let us come back and teach them. We are having an issue though, with our area being so small. When Elder Thomas came into the area and opened it, the sisters proposed the split. The sister’s area is twice the size of ours and has most of the members in it... But we are working with what we have. I am hoping this week that we can meet all of our goals and find more people! It’s frustrating to have to find people and not have success. I feel like we are working hard, but at the end of the week our numbers don't really show it. But we are here to invite,and people have agency. The work is hastening though, the ward theme is missionary work and we are fasting for missionary work as a ward in December. I have noticed a great change in the ward as they have "caught the wave" of missionary work. Hope everything continues to go well at home.
Love, Elder Parker

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Dear Family,
This week has been really great, we just had transfers and we have a new Sister. Her name is Sister Palmer, from Centerville Utah. She was in marching band so I will have to ask her more about that.
We have been really trying to gain the trust of our ward members out here. Because we are some of the first Elders in this area, they aren't really used to having missionaries. No one would feed us, and it was hard to get members to appointments sometimes. But something has happened and we have a bunch of meal appointments and members who are willing to come with us to appointments almost any time of the day. I love working with the ward here, they are all so amazing.
When I first got here, we met with a less active member. I didn't think much of it at the time but I felt connected with him and talked about video games for a sec (I use that card a little bit lol). But between then and now, the sisters and home teachers can't get a hold of his family and they haven't been to church and are really struggling. So we decided we would try to call him. He answered and we met with him and had a good discussion, then before we left he asked us when we could come back. Not that the home teachers or sisters had done anything wrong, but I felt like it testified of why becoming friends with members, less actives and investigators is so important. They need to like you.
Rex has been progressing really well. He has a baptism date for Nov. 24th. Has read like 25 chapters in the Book of Mormon, which is really good.
We met a man named Mohammed, he is probably 23 or something like that, but he was really interested in talking about our faith. He says he is Muslim, but based on what he tells us he believes, he isn't Muslim. He has just soaked up everything we tell him. We taught him the restoration and talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, he was pumped to read it and learn for himself that it is true. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would be if he got an answer. Dec 1st is his date. He has a lot of free time so we can meet with him often which is good.
Susan has met the Elders and Sisters in Portland. She also met the Mission President out there and a member from Beijing. She is really enjoying it, but we have no idea how it’s going or what the baptism plans are. It’s in the Lords hands now.
This last Wednesday during our weekly conference call, President Anderson announced that every missionary would receive an iPad before December. We will have digital area books and have access to all the gospel library tools. Also every companionship will be getting an iPhone. We will be able to use these to talk to investigators and less actives over Skype or face time. We are going to be having an Elder who is over the tech for missionaries visit all of the missionaries this month and teach us more about how we will use them. President said something about extending online teaching beyond Facebook and that we will have dedicated time every day to talk to people from all over the world. We will be the first mission to use this technology. It’s exciting to think of the possibilities that come with this. I am sure we will be learning more about it this transfer. We have a zone conference this transfer as well as 2 zone training's. I have a feeling that we will be focusing a lot on digital finding and teaching.
The work is progressing, and it is being hastened. The gospel will reach all the corners of the earth, whether it is in person or digitally. I am looking forward to the new week and all the opportunities to share the gospel.
Love, Elder Parker