DECEMBER 29, 2014

Dear Family and friends,

Well, not too much to report on. It was great to be able to Skype on Thursday.

Not much happened this last week besides Christmas. Haven't been able
to be in contact with Carmen and Iran... Little worried about them,
but the bishops neighbor came to church for the 2nd week in a row,
hopefully we can teach her soon. Markers are doing well, Cherneskys
are doing good.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and a great new year! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

DECEMBER 22, 2014

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas!

This week was really good here in Exeter. We were able to work with the Markers a lot. They are doing awesome! We were able to attend their wedding on Saturday, tons of fun. Their 9 kids though… man, I do not know how they do it.

We also were able to see Carmen and Iran and their daughter Linda. We had a few really great lessons. Linda wants to be baptized on the same day as her parents and they all came to church this Sunday and really enjoyed it.

We were able to see the Cherneskys and celebrate 3 birthdays with them. That was fun.

Not much else has happened. We have our Christmas conference on Wednesday.

Hope you all have a great Christmas! I love you all!


Love,
Elder Parker

DECEMBER 15, 2014

Dear Family,

Well, we had a really good week. We were able to see Carmen and Iran a
lot, they are doing well. We had a really
good lesson with them and our Bishop. We were teaching about
keeping the sabbath day holy, and our bishop related the scripture
from when Christ was performing the atonement and his apostles fell
asleep and he asks "can ye not watch with me one hour." That scripture
really hit home with Iran.

We also have been seeing the Brady Bunch family a lot. Jon the dad,
Eddie who is 10, and Haley who is 11 all have baptismal dates for
January, and they are progressing so fast! It's so great! They
couldn't come to church this week because of his work schedule but he
wanted us to come by so he could hear about it and what the lessons
were on so he wouldn't get behind. They have been reading the Book of
Mormon together and love it. Also, another great thing is that they
are getting married on Saturday by bishop! Woot! It's been pretty last
second, but they are going to surprise all their family at a holiday
party, with the fact they are getting married right then and there, it
should be pretty awesome.

Also, all the missionaries in our Ward are staying for this next 7
week transfer, so excited! Which means Elder Peterson goes home from
this area in 7 weeks. Another strange side note, 3 of my companions
Elder Thomas, Elder Shaw and Elder Pintor all fly home tomorrow! Ah!
It's crazy.

Well, I think that is about all that happened this week. Hope you all
have a good week! Love you!


Love,
Elder Parker

DECEMBER 8, 2014

Dear Family,

Well, it was another good week here in Exeter. The beginning of the
week started off slow, but it picked up near the end. I think I told
you about Jon and Kimmie, a new family that moved into our
area? Kimmie is the only member and they have 9 kids, yes, 9.
Well Jon and the 3 kids who are 8 and up want to get baptized! Woot!
They are all super awesome. We spent a really big chunk of Tuesday
helping Jon move things from his old house. Then they all came to
church. They were all soo quiet, I was impressed.

So we were able to teach them this last week, we also were able to see
the Cherneskys and set their 9 year old with a baptismal date, which
was good. Then we were able to see Carmen and Iran. They are doing
well.They watched the Christmas devotional and enjoyed it and they are looking forward to
the ward Christmas party this week.

That really is about all that happened this week. We had exchanges
which were fun. We have a few meetings this week and we also get
transfer calls this week. Let's hope Elder Roberts and I both stay.

Thank you for all you do! I love you all!


Love,
Elder Parker

DECEMBER 1, 2014

Dear family,

Well, it was a pretty good week. For the most part we have been
working with Carmen, Iran and Linda this week. The holidays are great,
but it seems that some of the people we are working with get really
busy and are unable to meet, But that's alright. Carmen is doing
really well! She came to church again and understood more of it. After
church we had a lesson with her and Iran. We taught the Plan of
Salvation and when we got to the spirit world she went crazy! She had
seen a picture at the church that day where it has Christ in the
middle and two groups of people, one happy and the other sad. She made
the connection with the spirit world and said she would do anything to
be on the happy side. They both accepted baptismal dates for beginning
of January! It still blows their mind that they are learning about God
from two 18 & 19 year old boys. But they are progressing really well.

Also, the sisters in our district, had a part member family of 10 that
they are working with, who moved into our area. We haven't taught them
yet, but they sound really prepared and there are a few who need to be
baptized in the family.

Thanksgiving was great. We went to two members homes with the other
elders. First one was great, lots of people from their family and tons
of food. Then 2 hours later was our Ward mission leaders parent’s. It was
great! Loved it. By then I was pretty full. Then a few hours later we
went to Carmen's and Iran's and Linda's. It was really good, Hispanic
thanksgiving. But I was sooo full! I could barely move! Lol. We had a
good day.

That's about all that happened this week, it was good, don't think
there was anything else. Oh! There was snow! Wednesday we got snow.
Not that much... But they still grounded our cars for the whole day.
Exciting!

Thanks for all you guys do! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Love,
Elder Parker