FEBRUARY 24, 2014

Dear Family,

This week has been really great. I have seen so many great miracles and tender mercies from my Heavenly Father as I have labored this week with Elder Zolman here in Newark.
This week was awesome, the weather has been warming up and it was really nice the last few days. Today is cold again and it is going to get really cold and snow this week. Also, transfers are next week and we get calls on Friday. Pretty sure I am leaving but crazier things have happened, so who knows!

For a while we have not be able to find solid investigators here in Newark. It has been a struggle and we have trying different things to try to find. On Tuesday of this week we got a media referral from Mormon.org. It was such a spirit booster to get a good referral. It was on an exchange so Elder Zolman went with Elder Dopp to contact her. Her name is Karen and she is in a retirement type home. She has had 4 strokes and can no longer speak. She asked that we explain the difference between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. We were able to set up a return appointment. Later that day we also found 2 other investigators by stopping by potentials and less actives.

So we have new investigators. That's good, now we needed their return appointments to hold. On Thursday we had a really really great weekly planning session. Elder Barker sat in on it and it was really great. We went through every step and went over every individual we have been blessed to work with. After that weekly planning I felt a sense of peace and calm that all of the individuals we were going to be working with would be alright and that they would keep their commitments. It was powerful. Many tender mercies and miracles have followed.

On Friday we were able to meet with a long time investigator. He is progressing, but slowly, which is alright. Our previous lesson he had forgotten to read. This time he had kept all of his commitments, infact he had stayed up until midnight the night before so that he could read his previous reading commitment. It was such a tender mercy to have him keep his commitments.

Saturday was a great day. We were able to meet with 2 of our new investigators. Karen, the one who cannot speak, was a special lesson. It was hard to teach, until that time I do not think I fully realized how much we rely on response to teach. Its hard to sit and have quiet while she types. Its really really hard, and it has taught me patience. It also taught me that I need to teach simply, in such a way that there are no questions.

We were able to go and see Dave and his son and new born baby. It was a great lesson and he agreed to be baptized. We haven't set him with a date yet, but we have another lesson on Saturday in which we will follow up with a date.

On Sunday we were able to teach our other new investigator from Tuesday. He also invited his two sons to sit in. They all participated and I think his sons in particular really liked the lesson. We weren't able to get thought the entire restoration because of time, but they also agreed to let us come back again.

We were blessed to be able to have great people to teach this week, and I know it is because of the time and effort and care that went into our weekly planning.

On Sunday evening we needed to teach one more less active member to reach our goal for the week. We only had about 20 minutes and didn't have any appointments. We stopped by a member, Brother Stewart, who I hadn't met yet. He welcomed us in and we were able to share a Mormon message with him "mountains to climb" he told us that was what he needed to hear and asked us to come back another day and told us he would be at church the next week.

Heavenly Father has blessed us as we have been diligent in our efforts. Not only when we are out and about, but when we are planning nightly and on Thursday.

Love, Elder Parker

FEBRUARY 17, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,
This week has been amazing. Such a great week here in the Newark area.
One of our investigators is Ferriana. She is from Panama and has really accepted our message. We were able to teach her this week with a member of our ward who served his mission in Panama. It was great to see the connection that they had and it really helped her to feel the spirit. In the end she prayed and asked about the message we had shared and she told us she felt good and felt it was true. Such a great spirit was in her home as we taught her.
Another investigator we have is Dan. He is a great man, he has some Word of Wisdom struggles but he knows he needs to change. Ever since we have meet him he has wanted to know how he can forgive himself. We have been giving him things to read in the Book of Mormon and he has read them! Its been great. He is really open to learning and I hope that as we help him with the Word of Wisdom that he will be able to feel the spirit even more in his life.
We have been meeting with a investigator, Brother Manchester since I first got here. Not as often as we meet now, but we still met with him. He has met with missionaries for many years now and has never really made a whole lot of spiritual progress. He has read all of the standard works many times and knows all the church history. He is always reading about the church or things from the church. But he has never really found God. Several weeks ago he told us that he didn't believe in God. We asked him, committed him, to pray every morning and every night to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ. He told us he would, and that he would try to listen for an answer. Well just this last week he told us he believes that God is his Heavenly Father! There was an amazing spirit in his home as we have seen him change and grow in front of us and find his Heavenly Father. Its such a blessing to be able to see such great changes in him. All through the power of prayer and scripture study. His progression is slow, but it is accelerating as he continues to seek the spirit in between our lessons.
I love Newark, and I am so grateful I am able to be serving here with Elder Zolman. He is really helping me to grow as a missionary and is helping me to become a better teacher.
Love, Elder Parker

FEBRUARY 10, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was really great. I feel like I have grown a lot while I have been with Elder Zolman. I have learned a lot about humility and patience, and been able to see the fruits of it this week.

We received a referral from a member to stop by one of her friends. She didn't have an address but she gave us some directions and a street name. We started at one end of the street and started to knock doors asking if it was the family we were looking for. After about 45 minutes and 20 doors, we were about ready to move on and come back another day. We decided that we would knock just 3 more doors. The first one was the home of a woman named Ferriana, she is from Panama and was really open to learn more about the Gospel. We were able to teach her this last week and we have a return appointment for this week. We knocked the next one, and no one answered. The last door we knocked a woman answered, she told us her best friend was a member of the church and then it clicked that we didn't ask her name! We found out that was the woman we were looking for. We offered her some service and she seemed really touched. Even though she wasn't interested at this time in meeting, the spirit was very strong as we spoke with her. Because we were patient and diligent, we were able to find those that Heavenly Father had prepared for us.

A similar experience happened as well. We were knocking some doors around the church building and we ran into a man named Dan. He welcomed us in and we talked to him about the church and invited him to come out to church. He said he would try it. Well he didn't show up, so yesterday we stopped by and talked to him. He felt bad he couldn't make it and told us the one thing he has not been able to find in any church is how to forgive himself. It has been eating at him his entire life, that he couldn't forgive himself. This morning we had revelation as to how to help him. Inviting him to be baptized for the remission of his sins is what he needs. It’s what Heavenly Father wants for him. As we meet with him tonight that is what we plan to talk about, how baptism by the Priesthood, can give him the peace he desires.

I am loving serving with Elder Zolman and I have seen the miracles that happen when we serve with patience and diligence. I love this Gospel and I love seeing others change as they live it.
Love, Elder Parker

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

Hello!
Man this week was interesting. It was a pretty hard week for Elder Zolman and I. Elder Zolman came here on fire! All excited to just go do work. After this week I feel that he has seen the challenges this area has. But we have found some new directions to go in so it should be good!
We had quite a few member meals this last week. One member who has a less active spouse took us out to a place called Pats. Elder Zolman and I ordered stromboli. Holy cow. They convinced us to order the large and it came out on two plates! Needless to say we ate stromboli for the next 4 days lol.
We were able to teach Brother Manchester this week and had a member with us who has been there a few times. Brother Manchester who has met with missionaries for over 6 years finally came the point where he feels he believes more than he ever has before. He is praying every night and morning and is going to study the Book of Mormon. We are sooo excited to see him progress!
We have been able to set up several appointments for the coming week so hopefully it will be a great week of teaching!
That’s really about all that happened this week. Elder Zolman is great, we get along really well and I am able to really be myself and have a good time. We have different opinions often, but we are able to sort things out.

I love you all!

Elder Parker