AUGUST 25, 2014

Dear Family,
Well, as I am sure most of you know, I got a new companion this week.
His name is Elder Pintor. He has been out for 20 months, he came out
with Elder Thomas and Elder Shaw. His last area was Wilkes-bere, which
is up in the Scranton zone. He is from Las Vegas, really awesome
missionary, we are going to tear it up here in South Philly this next
6 weeks.

This week was a great one, I think it looked like I was running around
like a chicken with his head cut off, but it all worked out with the
help of Heavenly Father.

I am not even going to attempt to put out an ordered list of things
that happened, but I'll try to highlight the greatest parts of this
week.

Recently we have been getting a whole bunch of media referrals from
SLC and Mormon.org and we were able to contact one this week. Her name
is Xuan. Yes she is from China and yes I am hoping that she learns
like Susan did. We are currently just trying to teach her over the
phone and Facebook but it looks pretty promising. She has little
religious background but she wants to learn more about Jesus Christ
and why everyone says the "Mormons" are different. Pray that
everything works out with her.

We were also able to see a new less active member this week. His name
is Solomon. He has been a member for about 10 years but hasn't been to
the branch in about 2 years. He wants to come back, but he has always
had a few questions. We resolved those and are going to try to
continue to help him feel comfortable coming back to church.

We were able to see Moe a little bit this week, he wasn't able to make
it to church but he still has a lot of interest. You know they are
honest truth seekers when Satan really works hard on them. Hopefully
things clear up this week and we are able to meet with him and help
him get to church.

We saw the Caramandi's this week. It was pretty good, we talked about
our baptismal covenants and how we can keep them. They are doing well,
Marlene said she would come to church, and Tom pretty defiantly said
no. Well, they both showed up to church! We had 4 less active members
come this week, 2 of which hadn't been while I have been here. It felt
good to see them make some progress.

We had a cool experience while we were doing our home teaching this
week. We were at President Degener's home and before we left we asked
if they knew anyone we could stop by. Well they told us the house a
few doors down had someone move in and they suggested we talk to him,
the name given us was Phillip. Well we walked out the door a few
minutes later and right as the door closes this man walking down the
street call out to us as "Elders", well that’s rare, so we stopped to
talk to him and lo and behold, its Phillip! So we had a quick chat and
now we should be meeting with him. Member miracles!

I wish I could give this week all the justice it deserves in this
letter. There is a lot going on here and The Lord is hastening his
work, I am just trying to keep up. South Philly West, the Promised
Land.

Love you all!
Elder Parker

AUGUST 18, 2014

Dear Family,

Well, where to start. Elder Cottle is being transferred on Tuesday so
I will be getting a new companion. Also, Elder Mansell, my district
leader is leaving and Elder Mask, a spanish Elder. So we will be
getting a whole new district. Really really sad that Elder Cottle is
leaving, one of my favorite companions so far. But I am excited for
the adventures me and my new companion will have here in South Philly.

This week was a crazy busy one here. We had a lot of appointments that
actually happened too!

To start off, we were able to see Moe this week. The first time he was
pretty busy and distracted so we left him with the Restoration
Pamphlet to read through. The next day at our appointment he just
rattled off all these things he loved from what he read. He said he
agreed with it on everything and he even went really in depth about
the priesthood and how other churches don't really talk about it and
now it makes sense as to why they don't. Moe loves to monologue, so
the lesson was much longer than it could have been, but in the end he
accepted a baptismal date for October 16th!

We were also able to follow up with the VanHorns this week, even
though we couldn't have a lesson. Lisa has gone from 4+ cups of coffee
a day to 1 in the mornings! She is so awesome and they are keeping
their commitments.

Our dinner calendar is like 95% full for the month as well, so that is
an awesome change from when I first got here. Yesterday the Jones
family had us over for dinner. It was really really awesome. They have
2 boys, a 3 year old and a 9 month old. They also used to live in Lehi
and Highland so that was a fun connection. Anyway, it was fun and she
is a great cook and made some awesome peach cobbler. Let’s just say it
has been a pretty good week despite Elder Cottle leaving.

Well I hope you all have a great week! Love ya!

Love,
Elder Parker

AUGUST 11, 2014

Dear Family,

This week was really awesome! Even though we only taught a total of 5
lessons, it was a blast! Monday was good. Tuesday was good, we saw
Carmen, still struggling, but he is making small steps in the right
direction. Then we traveled to the mission office and started the
busiest week of my mission.

Wednesday we had to get up at about 5:15 and drove with the Assistants
to Nazareth Pennsylvania for the first zone conference. Tons of fun,
Elder Toilolo  and Elder Terry, the Assistants, are awesome. Had a ton
of fun being with them this last week. The iPad training was really
minimal and Elder Cottle did it. I helped out with inspecting cars and
various other tasks throughout the week. Spending a bunch of time with
Elder Jones, the Senior missionary in charge of cars, was a lot of
fun.

Most of zone conferences consisted of getting up really really early,
getting to bed really late, then repeating the process. It was fun to
be able to see all of the mission and the missionaries though. I saw all
of my past companions and had fun talking to them about everything
that has happened since I last saw them. I got to spend a bunch of time
talking with President and Sister Anderson which was good. They are
such awesome people.

We got back on Saturday night and did our weekly planning.

Sunday was great! Every week it seems that we have many new faces at
church. This week was no different. Also we had like 6 people sign up to
feed us this month, we have faired much better than the other Elders
as far as meal appointments for the month, it’s a blessing :) Then we
saw as less active, Fortune, with Brother Gibson. Took him the
sacrament and taught a short lesson. Then we saw Carman. His eyes have
been bad so he hasn't read, but he is going to try to read more this week.
Then we saw Moe! He is sooo awesome! He is going to come to church
this next week with his daughter, we set up an appointment with him
for Wednesday and he is really excited. He still has been reading from
the Book of Mormon and has been reading it to his kids as a bed time
story at night! How awesome is that! Pretty pumped to see him at
church this week.

That’s the gist of what happened this week, it was a ton of fun, really
fast and was a great booster for the next couple of months. Hope you
all have a great week!

love,
Elder Parker

AUGUST 4, 2014

Dear Family,

This week was great! Lots going on, it went by really really fast though!

Found out on Monday that we will be going to all the Zone Conferences
this week, so I will get to see all of the mission. Elder Cottle will
be doing some iPad training, we think. So Wednesday we will be in
Nazareth Pennsylvania, Thursday in Dover Delaware, Friday in Broomall,
Saturday in New Jersey. Should be a blast!

It was a good week. Saw the Tomlins. Saw the Caramandi's and a few
others. A few events really stick out though.

So Monday, we are shopping and get a text from a less active recent
convert, never really taught him. He asked us to come over and so we
set up an appointment for Tuesday. So when we saw them, (his wife is a
former investigator, who on the teaching record says is not
interested) we found out his wife really wants them to get back in
church and that her only hold up is coffee! We were short on time so
we set up another appointment for Saturday. On Saturday we had a great
lesson on the restoration. She probably said she knows the church is
true about 10 times! Still hung up on coffee, but when we mentioned
substitutes, she was all over that. She doesn't want a baptism date
yet, but she will be baptized soon.

The other thing that stands out. We haven't been able to contact Moe
in a while. So Friday, we finished lunch and decided to walk to the
post office to get the package Grandma and Grandpa sent and we ran right
into Moe. He told us he has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and
feels the spirit really strong! He asked us when he could come to church
(got sick though :( ) and said he knows the book is true! Super
awesome! Hopefully we can start teaching him soon.

Also found out on Facebook that Brother Calcroft, a member from Philly
passed away last week. Pretty young guy two little kids. He was stung
by a bee and went into shock, then died. Pretty sad....

Well, it was a great week and I really can't give it all justice.
South Philly is awesome and it's a great blessing to be here with
Elder Cottle. Best area in the best mission!

Love ya all!

Love,
Elder Parker