DECEMBER 30, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,
With Christmas being this last week, I feel like it really helped us get into a lot of less active member’s homes. We were blessed to be able to teach so many great members of the ward this week. Even though we don't have very many investigators, I have felt success teaching less active families.
On Monday night we decided that we would go down into the very bottom corner of our area. Because it is so far away we don't usually go down there. But we felt prompted to so we did. We found a few less actives that we hadn't met and decided to stop by them. The first less active family that we stopped by was really nice, they were really busy and didn't have time to have us in, but they gave us their updated number and told us to come by after the holidays. It was great to be able to meet this family and make some progress with them. After we talked to a few of their neighbors we went to a less active couple’s home. Every time we talk to our ward leaders about who is on their minds, this family comes up. We stopped by not knowing what to expect. We knew that they were having trouble having children before they stopped coming, but we weren't really sure how welcoming they would be. When they answered the door they let us right in. They were very happy to see us and we were a little shocked by their hospitality. They were throwing together cookies and things for us to take with us and we were talking about how they have been. It was great. We shared the new bible video on the nativity with them. A special spirit was in the room as we discussed the Savior’s birth. I have never felt the spirit so strongly in that kind of setting. We had caught them at an interesting time, they were just about to call their families to tell them that they were expecting a child, and here we were talking to them about the Savior’s birth. It was humbling to see the Lord’s hand in this work. Something so simple like just deciding that we should stop by, turned into a very spiritual experience for everyone there. It was the beginning to a great week of working with less active members of our ward.

I was able to be on exchanges with Elder Readhead in our area this week. I felt the power of exchanges when we were able to follow the spirit and teach 4 lessons in one night where we didn't have appointments scheduled. I am starting to realize that I need to seek more spiritual promptings in planning and not just when I am out working in our area. I feel greatly blessed to be able to work in this ward and this area.

This is going to one of my most memorable Christmas's I have ever had, not because of the generous gifts I received, but because of the many miracles and blessings that happened this week, the many great people that I have been able to work with and the powerful spiritual experiences that I have been a part of. What a blessing it is to be able to be a missionary this time of year!

Love, Elder Parker

DECEMBER 23, 2013

This week has been really good. We have been pretty busy and have welcomed a new senior couple to our district, Elder and Sister McArthur. They are specifically helping the New Castle ward family with financial stuff and helping them get better jobs and education. They are great missionaries.

It’s been a fairly slow week as far as investigators and lessons go. We were dropped by one of our investigators and the other didn't hold his appointment. We found 5 new investigators. The Dunsmore family we have been working with brought a friend to church who is also going to come next week. Hopefully we can teach him soon.
Susan emailed me back. I shared a link to the nativity that she watched. She has gotten the info for the church in China and said she is going to go next week!
The weather has been pretty strange lately. Saturday and Sunday it was 70! Today it’s about 60 and it’s raining pretty hard. It feels really weird to not have snow at Christmas time. We have quite a few meal appointments this week. We are going to Bishop Fails house on Christmas eve. We are going to the Rodriguez family's house on Christmas and we are also going to the Brandt’s and we will be skyping home. As a District we are going to be caroling tomorrow at the mall which should be fun.

That’s about all we did last week. Thank you to everyone for the letters, cards and packages. If I don't respond this week, I will next week! I love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Love, Elder Parker

DECEMBER 16, 2013

Dear Family,
This week has been really great. For the past couple of weeks we have been trying to work with the less actives in our ward. I think we have enough members to make a stake if everyone would come! It’s crazy. We have been meeting with the Dunsmore family a lot recently, they have come to church now for the last 2 weeks and we meet with them twice a week. They are an amazing family and they are excited to prepare to go to the temple. We have been trying to meet some new less actives. We stopped by a home on Saturday night; the Tozers. Brother Tozer came out and told us he wasn't a member anymore, he was catholic. Not really interested. Then last night we got a call from a sister Tozer. She was asleep when we stopped by and apologized that he didn't let us in. She had no idea there was even a church in Newark and she has lived there for 5 years! She is going to call us today to set up a time when we can come over for dinner.
We have had this thing going on while I have been here that anytime we go on an exchange, nothing good happens in our area. Appointments fall through or investigators drop us. Things like that. This exchange was different. Elder Barker came to our area with me and of course I was nervous. I always feel like I don't know the area well enough. We taught a lesson to a less active in our ward and then to a new investigator. We had a member with us and we had a few minutes so we stopped by a less active that we hadn't seen in a long time. She answered the door and let us in. We invited her to the Christmas party and she came!
The next day we had no appointments in the morning. We stopped by 2 less actives and they both let us in to teach them. It was amazing. At our Christmas party later that night, we had several less active members come including the Woolseys who we haven't seen in weeks. There was also a sister who is deaf that I have never met (she might be teaching a sign language class, soo cool). We had a lot of less actives there and an investigator, Max. He is young single adult age though so we need to hand him off to the other Elders. Overall this week was really good. I was excited to get a package from Grandma and Grandpa Parker! I just got a box right before I left the apartment from Aunt Karen. Everything has been going really well. The new Elders in our district are great, we also got a senior couple in our district this week, I haven't met them but they are in the new castle ward. I love you all! Thank you for all of your love and support!

DECEMBER 9, 2013 -TRANSFERS

Dear Friends and Family,
This week has been crazy. Wednesday we had an exchange with Elder Stuki and Elder Stark. Elder Stuki came to our area with me and we had a good time. We have a little bit of a personality clash and he was really loud, but it was good. We found out some information about our investigators and it really stressed me out. Pray for Rex. Also pray for Mike H., our amazing story from last week. He texted us and told us he didn't want to meet with us and wouldn't respond to our messages. It was a hard day.
We had zone training on Thursday. We talked about testifying when we teach. How every sentence we say should carry our testimony in it. Then we had a really cool lesson about the atonement. We went into the gym and the zone leaders pulled out donuts. They asked who wanted one. Of course everyone raised their hand. They called out an Elder to come get his. Then they asked if Elder Sanchez would do ten push-ups so that this Elder could have his donut. He did them and the Elder got his donut. Then they called out another missionary and repeated. They did this for all the missionaries. Eventually people started saying they didn't want a donut. So they asked Elder Sanchez to do ten push-ups for them to have a donut they don't want. As we continued on we could tell that it was getting hard for Elder Sanchez to keep doing all the push-ups. Eventually everyone was doing them with him to help him along. In the end, he did around 280 push-ups. We talked about how the atonement is there for all of us. How we need to accept it because Christ did it. It was a powerful experience that I will never forget.
Later that day we had another exchange. Elder Sanchez came to our area with me and we taught some good lessons. It was stressful to be in an area that only I know, without Elder Thomas. It shows me how much work I still have to do to be ready to take over an area.
Thursday Mike texted us and told us he would still meet with us! It was so exciting! We are going to meet with him sometime this week. Sunday we had an investigator come to church named Max. He kinda fell asleep during parts of church but it was good and he wants to come back. We haven't really met with him yet. Sister Galagos came to church for the first time since I have been here (she is a less active we are working with). The Dunsmore family also came to church (also a less active family we have been working a lot with) so sacrament was great! They cancelled the rest of church because there were 3 inches of snow outside! It was a pretty crazy storm. It took us an hour and a half to get to our apartment 3 miles away because it was mostly up hill and the roads were closed. We went out to try and shovel people’s driveways but we don't have any shovels and no one would let us help. So it was frustrating but we meet some good people. We went to the church that night and watched the Christmas Devotional. I really enjoyed it.
Tomorrow are transfers and we found out that Elder Thomas and I are both staying here in Newark! We were both so shocked we yelled when we found out. This is the longest Elder Thomas has stayed in one area.
That’s all for this week.
Love ya!
Elder Parker

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Dear Family,
On Sunday we were scheduled to have Rex's confirmation. They called us about a half hour before church and told us they wouldn't be able to make it. We were devastated. Honestly I was slightly relieved because I was so worried about the confirmation. We got to church and told the Bishop, he told us we could do it next week. We sat down and it was about to start, when surprise! There was Rex! We went on with the confirmation. I know that the only way I was able to give the confirmation was by the spirit. I felt inadequacy for giving a blessing. Heavenly Father answered my prayers, when a few members later in the day told me that they appreciated the blessing and the spirit they felt. They said they could hear my testimony in it. That's what I wanted, and it was comforting.
On Sunday we were stopping by some less active members and we kinda burned through our plans and we didn't have much success. We walked back to the car and we were about to go home for dinner when a man came up to our window and asked if we were looking for a Mike H---. We had no idea who Mike H--- was. He told us that he was Mike H--- and he wanted to hear about our church. We got out of the car and went into his house. He told us that he has spent a lot of time seeking out religion. He said he felt like Christianity was what he needed. He also said that he doesn't like to do things halfway and that's why he liked our faith so much, because we live what we believe. He told us he had some Mormon friends and he called someone at the Wilmington building and they were supposed to call us. So he looked out his window and saw us and thought we looked like "good Mormons". As we taught the Restoration using the pamphlet, he kept telling us he was getting "chills." We explained the Holy Ghost to him and he was excited. He told us that everything made sense. He committed to be baptized on the 5th of January, but said he wants to do it as soon as possible. The spirit was so strong in his home. We were in and out in about 25 minutes. This experience strengthened my testimony of fasting and that Heavenly Father does work in mysterious ways.
Love,
Elder Parker