APRIL 28, 2014

Dear Family,

This last week was pretty great. We were able to meet with a lot of less active members of the branch this week. Nothing too big really happened there.

We were able to meet with Stephen again, he wasn't doing really good. He had missed church last week and seemed to be spiraling, more on that later.

We met with Charlie. He is doing well, pretty sure we will have to move his baptism back at least a few weeks.

We were not able to meet with the Vorhees. Hopefully we can tomorrow night. Everyone just seems to be getting soo busy!

On Friday we meet with a new investigator named Katlin. She bought us lunch at a diner then politely bashed with us for quite some time. We just ate and nodded our heads after a while. I still don't understand how someone could think you just need to accept Christ as your savior then just sit back.... Blows my mind.

We helped out Bruce on Saturday again. Built some massive planter boxes out of treated 6x6's, it was good to do some service, then he bought us a bunch of organic groceries. He is pretty awesome.

Sunday was pretty awesome. We had a missionary Sunday. So I gave a prayer and Sister Haas gave a prayer, Elder Shaw spoke and so did Sister Menlove. Brother Johnson, the branch mission leader also spoke. They all spoke a lot about having members help the missionaries and it worked. Right after we got 2 referrals.

Stephen came to church on Sunday and he was like a changed man. He just looked better. He realized how much he needs church on Sunday to help him throughout his week and after sacrament said he was going to try and find more people his age to come to church with him! It was awesome!

Well that's pretty much all that went on this week. Love you all!
Elder Parker

Elder Parker and Elder Shaw

APRIL 21, 2014

Dear Family,
This week has been really great, I have a new companion as I am sure many of you know. His name is Elder Shaw. He is a great Elder and we get along really well. It’s crazy taking over an area after just 6 weeks but I haven't died or killed anyone yet.

We taught Charlie and Michelle this week, taught them the stop smoking program. It’s pretty crazy and involves a lot of cinnamon and grapefruit juice. They are still smoking but we are working through it. They also came to church this week! Woot! Charlie got a job driving trucks during the week so we will only be able to teach Michelle in person and then him over Facebook. Hope to keep things going.

Taught the Vorhees this week as well. They are doing well. Didn't make it to church this week but they are reading and praying as a family which is awesome!

We were FINALLY able to contact Scott again. Stopped by and saw him and he is doing well. We are going to start teaching him again this week. We were also able to talk to Cara and Dylan, two kids that want to be baptized but have been really busy. All in all we have 5 people that should be baptized while I am here.

We also got sisters this week in the branch. It’s weird.... They cover Emmaus and Pennsburg and you would think they were celebrities with how the branch oohs and awes over them. Good grief. It’s pretty annoying.

Other than that this week has been great. Elder Shaw and I are going to have a great time. Every time he meets one of our investigators he just says " I love Milford!" it’s pretty fun to see someone be so excited.

Hope you all had a great Easter and have a good week! Love ya!
Elder Parker

APRIL 14, 2014

Dear Family,

Well this week was pretty great, seems to have gone by really really fast.
Monday was Monday...

Tuesday we were able to go look at an apartment for Sister Missionaries in Pennsburg. It was pretty nice. We were also able to teach Charlie and Michelle. They are doing really well. We are teaching the Stop Smoking Program this Tuesday. Which should be fun, since I have never taught it...

Wednesday we split wood at Bruce's for about 4 hours. Always good to do some good manual labor and relieve some stress. We were also able to see brother Moll. Don't know if I have talked to you about him but he is an old WW 2 vet and his hearing is going bad so we have to pretty much yell to him. He hates the government and loves to talk to us about it. Basically our lessons are 50 mins of listening to him complain and curse about the government and his declining health, then we share a gospel message for 10 mins. Lol, he cracks me up sometimes. But anyway, he has never said a prayer with us for some reason or another. But we got him to say the closing prayer this week. It was awesome!

Thursday was good, taught the Vorhees and it was really great. They are doing some remodeling and have been really busy but they still pray every night with their family! They also said they would come to church this week again! Taught the Ambridges as well.

Friday we did a lot of stop bys and random stuff,  then we had dinner at a part member families’ home. She made chicken enchiladas and rice. First Mexican while I have been on my mission. Sooooo good! Also we found out that Elder Eves is being transferred on Tuesday. I have mixed feelings about it.. taking over the area should be lots of fun, I have no idea where anything is, but I am sure with the help of my handy dandy GPS I can figure it out.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty low key. Saw the Bryants and some other members so Elder Eves could take pictures. Steven and the Vorhees came to church, so that was awesome! We secured the apartment for the Sisters who should get here Tuesday or Wednesday. So excited to cut the area in half... It’s just too big!
Haven't talked with Adam  this week.

Also if you haven't heard about the #becauseofhim social media thingy. Here is a link (easter.mormon.org) share it everywhere. Easter is a time we should share our testimonies of Christ.

Love Elder Parker

APRIL 7, 2014

Dear family,

This week was an awesome week! General conference is such an amazing
time of year. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

This week was kind of a quiet week. Still haven't met with Scott.
Charlie and Michelle are doing well. Haven't been able to meet with
the Vorhees either. Seems like they are kind of stuck right now,
hopefully their schedule clears up so we can meet with them this week.

Stephen is doing better, kinda. He got kicked out of the member’s home
he was staying with so we helped him find a one room apartment he
could rent. Not the best environment to help him live the gospel but
he is a lot happier and has a better outlook on life now. He came to
the Priesthood session and felt like it was just speaking right to
him, it was pretty cool. He also came out to the Sunday sessions and
wanted to go tracting with us in between! He wants to spend as much
time as possible with us so that he stays out of trouble. Should be
fun.

Can’t think of too much else that has happened. Hope you all have a
great week and that you all will be able to find answers and
revelation from continuing to study the most recent conference talks.

Love,
Elder Parker