AUGUST 24, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, as crazy as it sounds, this will be the last time I email as a
missionary, it's crazy how fast time flies by!

We had s good week, we had to push back Pauline's baptism to the 30th
because she sprained her ankle pretty bad. But things are looking good
for it to happen this week.

Mike came to church! And he really enjoyed it, it was the first time
he has been to any type of church in over 50 years.

Tyler is doing great, he came out teaching with us this week and is
still doing really well.

We got to teach Margaret and Neil again, they are awesome, we have to
get them to church but they are reading and have made a lot of
progress.

This upcoming week should be great, we have a lot of appointments with
some people we haven't been able to see in quite a while.

It's pretty crazy to me that 2 years has already gone by. It seems
like yesterday I was walking into the MtC. I have loved my mission,
and have loved all the people I have met. I know that serving a
mission is what the Lord wanted me to do, he has truly used this 2
years to change me into a better person. I am grateful that I was
called to the Pennsylvania Philadelphia mission, it's the greatest
mission on earth and I know it was inspired that I come here. I am
grateful for President Anderson and the inspiration he has had as I
have served here.

My testimony of the Gospel has never been more challenged than it has
on my mission, buts it's also grown more than at any other point of my
life so far. I know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us, and
that love guides everything he does for us, I know that his Son, Jesus
Christ, is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. I know that the
atonement is real, and is available to all who seek it. I know that
Christ's Church was lost, and then restored through the Prophet Joseph
Smith. I know that Christ leads this church today.

It's been such a blessing in my life to be able to serve the Lord for
2 short years. I am so grateful for everyone who has supported me
while I have served, it makes it so much easier.

Thank you for all the love and support, I'll see you all shortly!


Love,
Elder Parker

AUGUST 17, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had a really good week, Tyler was confirmed, and he is doing really well. He started his new job in the Vivint warehouse this week.

Pauline is set for her baptism this Sunday, she is doing really good.

We got to see some new people this week, Margret and Neil. They were meeting with the Elders right before I got here, then dropped off because of their schedule. They are doing good though, they have been reading a good amount from the Book of Mormon, we will be seeing them again this week.

Paul is still doing well, we taught about Joseph Smith and tried to clear up any misconceptions.

We will finally be seeing Mike again this week. He has been doing good reading from the Book of Mormon as well.

We also tracked down Major, and went and visited him in jail. It was a pretty interesting experience. He is surprisingly doing pretty good.

It was a pretty normal week, it’s pretty crazy how fast time flies by, I hope you all have a good week!

Love,
Elder Parker

AUGUST 10, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, it was a pretty awesome week! Got to spend the night in the mission home on Monday and then we went down to the DC Temple Tuesday morning. It was great, it’s been way to long since I have been in the temple. We had a really great time.

We had zone training on Thursday, it went really well. President Sikahema came after with his wife and brought us pizza and talked with us about our meeting. Then after all that our assistants, Elder Kofford and Elder Hansen doubled in. It was lots of fun.

Sunday we had Tyler’s baptism, it went really good! There were a lot of members of the ward involved and there to support Tyler.

That’s pretty much how this week went, thanks for all you do, I love you all! I will send pictures.

Love,

Elder Parker

AUGUST 3, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had a great week. I got to go to Atlantic City again this week on exchanges with Elder Cruz. It was a lot of fun, we played some soccer with some kids, I think I will stick with basketball...

On Friday we had MLC in Broomall, it was really good. We were trained a lot on the morning schedule and our relationships with our companions. The training Elders threw down on sarcasm(They explained that there is never a time that sarcasm is appropriate when teaching the gospel), it was great, even though it was a long day, we got up at 5 and got home at 8.

Saturday we had Tyler and Linda’s wedding, it was pretty simple and went well. They both seem pretty happy together. Then for the rest of the day we helped a lady and her son move stuff to Atlantic City, I have never sweat so much in my life! It was just the 3 of us loading and unloading a Uhaul, we unloaded it to a third floor apartment! It was about 85 degrees outside and 105 inside... It was a good workout.

Church was good this week, some members of the ward bore some powerful testimonies.

Tyler and Linda are doing well, he is still on track for his baptism this coming Sunday.
Pauline is doing great, still coming to church.
Mike is doing good, his schedule was all mixed around this week, so hopefully we can see him this next week.
Brother Eble is doing about the same, now he just gives us veggies from his garden. He is making small progress though.

Today I get to drive for 3 hours to the mission home, then tomorrow we get to go to the temple! Woot! I am super excited.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Parker

JULY 27, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, it’s been a pretty good week. Monday and Tuesday were pretty much spent eating food with people all day while Elder Soon said goodbye and took pictures. It was lots of fun.

Elder Soon ended up back in his first area in West Philly, he was pretty excited. My new companion is Elder Thomas, we served around each other in Reading, we trained at the same time. He is from Provo.

Paul is doing well, we just taught him today, he is still trying to figure out what he needs to do.

Tyler is doing great, they have their wedding this Saturday, so that will be great, but he is still progressing really well towards baptism.

Pauline was able to make it for most of sacrament meeting, she is doing well, we just trying to solidify a few principles for right now.

I was able to teach Mike this week, because of exchanges and his schedule I was never able to teach him last transfer, but he is doing great! He has been meeting with missionaries for about 2 months and is in Alma 2! He loves everything about the gospel and is just working on getting Sundays off so he can come to church.

Everyone else is doing pretty much the same, it’s been a good week.

I hope you all have a good week! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

JULY 20, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, looks like I will be staying in Linwood for my last six weeks, sadly I will be getting a new companion though. Elder Soon is being transferred.

We had an awesome week, everyone we are teaching is doing super well, I was on exchanges out of the area for Wednesday and Thursday, in Spanish areas both days. It was pretty interesting, I usually just nodded my head and smiled :) haha.

This transfer will be great, we have 3 baptisms lined up with some solid people, and we also have a wedding!

This week is looking to be really good, we have Transfers Wednesday, so tomorrow we have 4 meal appointments. We have a brunch, then lunch with bishop, then dinner at Paul's restaurant, then dinner with Tyler and Linda and sister Jackson. It’s going to be a crazy day.

Not much out of the ordinary really happened this week, pretty much the same old stuff.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

JULY 13, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had a really good week. Tyler is doing well, they are getting lots of things prepared for the wedding and so far he has been soaking up the gospel. Pauline is doing well, we taught the Word of Wisdom and that went really good, we are just working on getting her to church now.

Paul is doing awesome! This whole last week he abstained from alcohol and fasted every day! We will be meeting with him tonight to see how it was and what revelation he received and the direction he wants to go in the future.

We also got back in touch with Mike, we will be setting him with a new baptismal date and hopefully getting him to church this week.

I was also able to go on exchanges to Atlantic City with Elder Hillstead this week. It was tons of fun, even though I seemed to sweat more than ever before! It was crazy. Then I was on exchanges with Elder Harris's golden, Elder Winstanley. We had a great time and it was really good, he is already a great missionary.

We saw Sonny again this week, he is doing good, we had a great lesson about baptism and the priesthood and restoration. It seems like things might be starting to click with him.

We also saw Sister Anderson and her kids. We are going to start being a little bit more bold with some invitations, so hopefully things get moving here in the future.

This week is going to be great. I will be on exchanges in both Spanish areas one from Wednesday to Thursday and the other one from Thursday to Friday. Then we find out about transfers on Friday night. We also have dinners every night this week, which will be great! I am really hoping that Elder Soon stays, it seems we are getting into our groove.

I also gave a talk yesterday. The topic was on the talk of "Choose to Believe" by Elder Whitney of the Seventy. It went pretty good, other than the fact that the two speakers before me left me about 3 minutes... So I scrambled and summarized and bore my testimony, haha. It was fun.


I have been thinking recently of how great it is to have a living prophet today, we don't have to rely wholly on ancient revelation, because we receive it today! I am also grateful for the Book of Mormon and the truths it teaches. Sonny always corrects us when we ask him if he read the Book of Mormon, he tells us "well, I read it, but I didn't study it" I hope we can all take time to "study" the Book of Mormon.

Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder Parker

JULY 6, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had another great week, it was tons of fun to be down here for the 4th of July! Lots of stuff going on with everyone. It seems that this was the vacation spot for the weekend with all of the people that came in from out of town. We probably had almost double at church on Sunday.

We taught Mark this week, he had read the whole book of 1st Nephi in 2 days, he has pretty much fallen of the face of the earth since then though. Hopefully we can get back in touch soon.

Linda and Tyler are doing well, we taught the Word of Wisdom and it went really good, we also did service with Tyler at a members home for a little while.

We taught Paul last night, it was really good. He is going to live the Word of Wisdom this week to try it out. It’s been great to see his progression.

Pauline is doing well, she came to Sunday School this week and then had to leave. But hopefully we can get her there for the sacrament this Sunday.

We had Zone Training this week, it went pretty good. We had a theme of "Learn it, Live it, Share it." We used the talk that I emailed last week to teach about "Learn it" and how the savior prepared for his ministry and how we can prepare for the various things we do. Then we had the STL's(Sister Training Leaders) train on teaching like the Savior. We ended by talking about working with Members in missionary work and had a role play that went pretty good.

Saturday we got to spend a lot of time with Members. We went to the Howell's for a cook out and pretty much the whole ward was there. It was fun. They live in Upper Township and we stayed down there and watched fireworks, it was a lot of fun. Then on the drive home on the bridge we saw Fireworks from Ocean City, Atlantic City, Margate and a few other townships on the coast, it was pretty neat to see. Thankfully we beat all the traffic and made it home in a reasonable time.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!



Love,
Elder Parker

(Left to right)

Back: Me, Elder King, Elder Thompson, Elder Soon, Elder Chapman, Elder

Crane, Elder Hillstead, Elder Gibbons, Elder Harris, Elder Winstanley,

Elder Harren, Elder Winegardner

Front: Sister Ballard, Sister Johnstone, Sister Wilko, Sister Jensen,

Sister Beard, Sister Jolly

JUNE 29, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had a super awesome week! Even though it seems like I blinked and it was gone.

Monday we taught Paul in the morning, it’s become our Pday routine to put in numbers then go teach Paul at 10, it’s been nice. He is progressing pretty good, he came to church and is doing good. Then we had dinner at bishops, it was tons of fun.

Tuesday we had our Zone conference with Elder Katcher of the Seventy. It was really good, he focused a lot on working with the ward and individual ward council members. I feel like we finally got some solid action items to help us work better with our units. Then that day we went to the Brough's for dinner, he is the Elders Quorum President, they have 4 little kids, lots of fun.

Wednesday we went on exchanges, so I was here with Elder Gibbons from the Cape May branch. We got to teach Brother Eble, a less active man. It was really good. Then we saw Lee and Tiffany. Tiffany is a returning member and Lee is her nonmember boyfriend, it was a little weird because it was the first time I was meeting them, but it went well. Then later in the night we taught Pauline, she is doing really good. She read the first 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon and accepted a baptism date for in August. We are hoping to get her to church this week.

Friday we taught the Anderson's, it was really awesome! She is a recent convert and her 12 year old daughter is investigating. We almost had to cancel because we couldn't find a man to come with us, but we found one at the last second and then when we got there her non member sister and niece were there! It was a really really good lesson and the spirit was strong. We will be getting to meet with them again in a few weeks! After that we went and had a lesson with the down stairs neighbor of a member. His name is Sonny and he is pretty awesome. Brother Versteg also fed us Friday, we had super good crab cakes. He is awesome, he is also feeding us tonight.

Sunday was so great! We went to church and were talking with a member in the foyer, and this man walked in wearing shorts and a polo with his Wawa coffee, guessing he was a non member we walked over to him and he told us he found the church online, watched a bunch of the churches videos on YouTube and wanted to come to church and get Book of Mormon! So he came to church and stayed all three hours, we taught the restoration during gospel principles and we will be seeing him (Mark) on Wednesday again! It was great! We also had 4 other investigators come to church. We also got to see Major on Sunday and went over Abraham chapter 1, it was an interesting discussion... But it was good, he is a really deep thinker. Then we had dinner with the Subblefields, they are a great family. They moved here from Lancaster and we know a couple of common people from my time in Reading, their kids are great, they love the missionaries. After that we went with another member, Brother Bliss to teach a man I met with Elder Kofford, Vinney. We had an awesome lesson with him and his wife Robin. They live by and know Bishop Bird. It was really good and we will get to see them next Monday night.

We also saw Tyler and Linda this week, they are doing great! No concerns have really come up yet.

This week we get to have Zone Training, so it should be interesting, we have been spending a good chunk of time preparing for that, it should be good! We found a great talk that we are having everyone read beforehand, I'll forward it to you, it’s great!

That’s about all that happened this week that was exciting, I could definitely see the Lord's Hand in this week, it was truly amazing!

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

JUNE 22, 2015

Dear Family,

First, Happy Father's Day! Hope it was great!

We had an awesome week! I really love this area.

This week we went to Ocean City for a little bit to follow up with some people, it's a crazy place! Imagine a vacation city, on an island! It's awesome. This time of year there are tons of people that come to the shore at Ocean City.

We had the assistants double in to our area this week, it went pretty good. I drove with one of them to Cape May, to do a baptismal interview for the Elders down there.

Tyler, who is the fiancé of a member, is doing super well. He has a baptismal date for early August after their wedding. Mike, who we haven't been able to teach because of his work, called us today and really wants to meet with us, his schedule has cleared up so we will see him tomorrow, he also has a baptism date for next month. Then we saw Paul today, he is doing really good. He is also dating a member, he wasn't at church this week, but he is doing really good.

We forgot our meal calendar last week, so it was a little scarce on meals, but Elder Wilson, who just went home came out for a baptism with his dad and they took us out. It was tons of fun to see him. He and Elder Soon and I were in the same district in Milford for a while.

This week is looking to be really really awesome. We have a lot of appointments with solid investigators and members and are being fed almost every night. I am super excited!

Tomorrow we have a zone conference in Cherry Hill, Elder Katcher of the seventy is touring the mission, it should be really good.

Church was really good yesterday, we had a slightly strange meeting for Father's Day, but it's pretty typical East Coast. But for the 2nd and 3rd hour we had a combined meeting to talk about the sabbath day. It was really good, we watched segments from the General a Conference Training that they had in April. I wish I could get the full version of the talks, it was very inspiring.

I also just got a crazy haircut from this man from the Dominican Republic in Atlantic City... It was interesting, looks good though! He barley spoke English, has been here for like 5 months. He shaped me up with a straight razor and then talc powdered my head, he even shaped up my eyebrows with a straight razor. So funny!

Also, Atlantic City is like a mini Vegas strip. It's pretty dirty, especially compared to the Alcohol free Ocean City.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Parker

Elder Parker and Elder Soon

JUNE 15, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, I was transferred, and now I am in the Cherry Hill Stake, and I
am at the south End of New Jersey by the shore. The ward I am in is
Linwood, it's awesome! We live in Egg Harbor Township, which is about
15 minutes from Atlantic City and like 20 minutes from Ocean City.
Such a nice area!

My companion is Elder Soon, we served around each other when I was in
Milford and we trained our Goldens at the same time, he goes home the
transfer after me in October. We have been having a blast.

The Zone is pretty awesome, we have some super good missionaries here
right now. Elder Harris, who came out with me is actually training
right now in the zone, it's fun serving around him again.

I have been able to meet a few of the people we are teaching, they are
all super awesome. One of them, Tyler has a baptism date for August,
who is getting married to a returning member. Then we taught Paul this
morning, he is dating a member of the ward, he owns a restaurant in AC
(Atlantic City), he is way awesome! He is doing really good. We have
quite a few people we are teaching who are progressing really well.

The ward is awesome, they take pretty good care of us, our bishop is
great, Bishop Bird. He is pretty much the stereotypical south Jersey
man, whenever he knows where you are going with something he responds
with "ya ya ya" it's pretty funny, ward council was hilarious.

I am loving the Shore and being in south Jersey, it's going to be an
awesome transfer.

My new address is
6825 Old Egg Harbor Rd. Apt. 62B
Egg Harbor Township, NJ
08234

I love you all and hope you have a great week!


Love,
Elder Parker
I failed to mention that I got to teach Michele the day before I
left Exeter. We went just so I could say goodbye and we taught her for
an hour and a half resolving concerns. And it happened to be a lot of
the random crazy stuff Elder Riche and I were studying... It went
super good and she was talking about having me come back out to
baptize her in the future and visiting me if I went to south Jersey,
so hopefully things progress there well, but I think she is going to
come around.

JUNE 8, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, the time has finally come, I will be getting transferred from
the Exeter Ward. Not sure where I will be going, but I will find out
Wednesday morning when we go to transfer meeting. Not sure where I
want to go, but I am pretty excited to see where I will most likely
finish my mission.

Things have gone well, almost all the recent converts came to church
on Sunday. We have had some good chats with them and things are going
better.

It's been pretty hard to say goodbye to the ward, but I feel pretty
good about how I have spent my time here.

Elder Lundberg went home today, it was probably the first time it's
been really hard to say goodbye to a missionary.

Not much else really went on this week, just saying goodbye to members
and people we have been teaching.

Thank you all for everything you do! I Love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

Zone

JUNE 1, 2015

Dear Family,

We had a really good week, we were able to have stake conference this Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday night session was awesome, it was a really big discussion about Council meetings, expect ally Ward councils. Then on Sunday we had our meeting at the high school, Bill walked there again! It was really good. Devin Ramsden from Milford spoke, he has a mission call to Brazil! It was tons of fun to see so many people I know from around the stake. I have spent 8 transfers of my mission in the reading stake.

We are still trying to find people to teach, it's been tough to find people who want to make and keep commitments. But things are picking up.

We had our MLC meeting this week, it was super good! We talked about following up and using the Book of Mormon. Sister Anderson and the STL's did a skit about the Book of Mormon, it was way funny!

We have recently had a fair amount of drama with some of our recent converts. This has been my first area where I have taught so many teenagers, and now the problem is trying to help them get through this drama.

Other than that, it's been a pretty normal week. Just been teaching lots of recent converts and members.

We find out about transfers this Friday, and we are currently spending the day with Elder Lundburg because it's his last Pday before he goes home next Tuesday.

I hope you all have a good week! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

MAY 25, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had a pretty normal week. But a few really awesome things happened.

First, we met this man who is a member but isn't on our roster, his
name is Bill. He wanted to come to
church and refused to let us get him a ride, so we showed up on
Sunday, and he was there! He walked two and a half hours from Reading
to the church, and then walked home! It was awesome! Such a humble
guy.

Another awesome thing that happened was that the Wolfs came to church!
They are both in their 80's and were media referrals about 5 months
ago. We have been teaching them on and off and they came to church and
loved it!

We also had an awesome lesson with Veronica and Kris and Dakoda. They
had 5 friends and neighbors over to hear the lesson on the
restoration and 3 of them agreed to return appointments and are now
reading from the Book of Mormon! How awesome is that?!

Other than that, things have been pretty normal, the whole mission was
cut on miles, so things have been a little tight, we are trying to
have more balanced lessons between member lessons and investigator
lessons. We also have Mission Leadership Council this Friday, so that
should be fun.

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day! I love you all!


Love,
Elder Parker

MAY 18, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had a really good week. Some good things are going on in the
ward and the area, still just trying to build up our teaching pool
though.

This week started off great, we woke up at 4:15 and went fishing with
Elder Lundberg and Elder Stimpson and Brother Leon. It was tons of
fun! Didn't catch much, but we had a really good time.

We also have interviews with president this week. Should be really good.

The Markers are doing good, having some troubles with illness and
such, but they are ensuring well.

The Cherneskys and Veronica and her boys are doing good.

Thank you all for all you do! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Parker

MAY 11, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had a pretty good week. The assistants came and doubled in on
Wednesday and we taught about 10 lessons, then they came to the zone
training we had on Thursday. I would highly recommend studying about
being born again from Mosiah 4 and 5. It was great! Lots of power can
come from understanding that doctrine and having a greater
understanding of the importance of names, especially the name of
Christ.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week, we had a ward activity at
a lake and played some volleyball with the ward, it's pretty difficult
in a shirt and tie! It was great though, all of our recent converts
came.

It was great to chat on Skype! Glad everyone is doing well.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!


Love,
Elder Parker

MAY 4, 2015

Dear Family,

Happy Star Wars Day! We had a pretty good week, it felt like we didn't
get to meet with a lot of people, but it still worked out alright.

We had a MLC meeting on Friday and Elder Perkins of the 70 was there.
It was a really good meeting about being a Full purpose missionary. We
also got to have a good discussion about what it means to be born
again. It was great.

One thing he talked about is how much he doesn't like the word
"motivate". He said that the gospel doesn't "motivate" it "inspires".
It inspires us to do better and to act. I thought it was pretty
profound. We also discussed how we become born again, that it's an
event and a process.

So we get to have our Zone Training this week and the Assistants are
coming and doubling into our area on Wednesday, it should be fun.

I also found out this week that Tianxu, the pianist that we taught in
Philly has a baptism date for June 6th!

Everyone is doing well. Dakoda and Kris should be getting the
Priesthood on Sunday.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Parker

APRIL 27, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, I will kill the tension. I am staying with Elder Riche for 6 more weeks in Exeter! It was really really shocking, but I am way excited.

We got to teach Kevin and his wife Jessica this week, that was really cool, they have 4 kids, ages 7,7,7,6. They are a pretty promising family. He is a less active member, she isn't. But she wants to come to church with everyone and be baptized eventually.

We got a super awesome Media Referral named Mario. He was in Salt Lake last week for a convention, felt like he needed to go to temple square. He had never heard of Mormons, but spent 7 hours with the sisters at the visitor’s center. Then we taught the restoration. We are gonna hand him off to Lundberg because he is YSA age. It will be cool to see him progress.

The markers are doing ok, Kim was in the hospital yesterday, but should be out soon. Jon is looking for work again.

The Cherneskys came to church, as did Veronica and the boys.

Everything seems to be going pretty good so far.

We had a pretty good broadcast stake conference, Elder Anderson spoke, as did Elder Katcher, who will be visiting the mission soon. Elder Hales also spoke.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

APRIL 20, 2015

Dear Family,

We had a pretty good week. Nothing really new to report.

Veronica is doing well, and Dakoda and Kris should be getting the
priesthood in just a few weeks.

The Markers are doing good. Alyssa gave a talk in sacrament and did
really great, it was awesome!

Selena is doing good. She gave a lesson in young woman's. They also
made us Jamaican food for dinner last night. Chris is a funny guy, he
was talking about how the missionaries would always schedule their
lessons with him at around 6 or 7 because they knew they would get
fed.

We are pretty much in the process of refilling our teaching pool right
now. We have a few people that have lots of potential, hopefully we
will be able to make some headway with them this week.

We also get transfer calls this week, so we will find out who is
staying and leaving, I feel like it's a 50/50 chance of me staying of
leaving.

I would like to apologize if you have recently (last 5 weeks) sent me
a letter and I haven't replied. I will repent and try to be better at
that.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

APRIL 13, 2015

Dear Family,

This week was pretty great. We had our Zone Training meeting that we had to present. It went pretty well, it was all about planning. That was where the photo from the Gardners came from.

After we had that meeting I went to Pottsville with Elder Oldroyd on exchanges. Pottsville is about an hour and 20 minutes north of our area. That is where the Gardners are as well. It was a lot of fun.

We also had the baptism of Selena this weekend! It went really well, her father Chris, who is a recent convert was able to baptize her. The turn out from the ward was great.

That was pretty much all that happened this week. We were able to see some less active members and recent converts. Veronica and Kris and Dakoda are doing well. Madison Chernesky is doing well. The Markers are doing well.

I was able to be reminded of the great blessing I have of having a great family. Elder Gardner talks every time and to all the missionaries about how great my Grandpa Parker is and how much he loves him and looks up to him. Sometimes I take those kinds of things for granted.

Thank you all for all you do, I will send some pictures in a little bit. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Parker

Elder Parker and Brother and Sister Gardner from American Fork

Elder Riche, Chris, Selena, Elder Parker

The Zone!

APRIL 6, 2015

Dear Family,

We had a really good week, it was a little different because of lots of meetings and General Conference, but it was good.

Selena is still on for her baptism this Saturday, her Dad who is a recent convert is going to baptize her.

We had Zone Conference on Wednesday, it was really good, we spent a lot of time learning about how to more effectively teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was great.

I loved being able to watch general conference. On Saturday we watched it at the church, for all 3 sessions. Then on Sunday we watched it all at the Framptons. I really loved Elder Pearson’s talk in the Sunday afternoon session. I love how bold he was.

I also got to meet the Gardners! They are an awesome senior couple. He has already adopted me into their family, it has been fun.

It was a pretty calm week, busy though.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!


Love,
Elder Parker

Random rock that we found while doing a u-turn.

MARCH 30, 2015

Dear Family,

We had a really good week! We were able to find 2 new families to teach. One, Bart and his wife Mia, who are from west Africa. They are really awesome. We just stopped by because they were in our area book and they invited us back. When we went back with Brother Cooper later in the week, there was another woman there, and she was a recent convert from the other Reading ward! It was great, she is their niece and it was great having her there for the lesson.

We also got to start teaching a new family, Jessica and Clay, they are from Florida and we asked them if we could share an Easter video with them, we showed them the new Because He Lives video, afterwards they agreed to hear the missionary discussions. It was really cool!

The Markers are doing well. Veronica and Kris and Dakoda are doing well, Dakoda brought 2 friends to church on Sunday.

On Friday we had our Mission Leadership Council meeting in Broomall. It was supposed to be 6 hours long, and it was 8 and half hours... It was a great meeting, but it went a little long. We got a lot of training on planning, and on the new #BecauseHeLives initiative. We got new passalong cards and we had to distribute the cards amongst our Zone. Well... that was about 4 hours of travel on Saturday of delivering cards. It was quite the adventure.

Selena is doing really great, still set for her baptism on the 11th. Her dad, who is a recent convert will be baptizing her.

I am soo excited for General Conference! We will be watching it at the church.

I hope you all have a great week and a great Easter! I love you all!

Watch this video!

http://www.mormon.org/easter

Now share the video!

Love,
Elder Parker

MARCH 23, 2015

Dear Family, 

Well, it’s been a really good week. Elder Roberts was transferred to Easton with Elder Sanchez. It’s just the opposite end of the stake. Elder Riche from Price, Utah is my new companion, pronounced rich. He goes home 6 weeks before me and has spent basically his whole mission in downtown Philly or Camden. We get along super well, it’s been a blast! 

One of the highlights this past week was Friday when the assistants, Elder Watt and Elder Pitt came and doubled into our area. It was a lot of fun. Elder Watt and I taught a wiccan. It was different. Elder Riche and Pitt got to meet this super awesome less active man who wants us to teach his kids and girlfriend. He was a name that bishop put on our home teaching list, no one really knew who they were and when we reported in Ward Council, the bishop’s face was priceless. So awesome! So we will be seeing them on Saturday. 

Veronica, Kris and Dakoda are doing well. They were confirmed on Sunday. It was really cool. The member they asked to do the confirmations wasn't at church, so we just asked them on the spot and Dakoda asked his scout leader to do his, so we called him up from the congregation and this brother did his first confirmation since being reactivated and receiving the Melchizedek priesthood recently. It was sooo cool! 

Selena is still doing well, on track for her baptism on the 11th of April. 

The Markers are doing really well, we are taking advantage of Kim's talents and hobbies that include making homemade cards and are giving thank you and birthday cards to those we are working with, it’s been pretty awesome so far. We have about 25 cards to deliver this week to members who have had birthdays this month. 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Parker

Elder Riche and Elder Parker

MARCH 16, 2015

Dear Family,

Well. It's been a crazy week! Elder Roberts is being transferred and I
will be getting my new companion on Tuesday. Elder Lee is also being
transferred. I also won't be a district leader anymore. Should be
interesting to see how things go down this next transfer, gonna be a
lot of growing.

Veronica and Kris and Dakoda were baptized on Sunday, it was crazy.
There was an accident in front of them on their way here, and they
were almost an hour late. But the turnout from the ward was great and
everything went smooth once it started.

The Markers are doing really well. Jon starts his new job this week.

Selena is doing well. She has been keeping the little commitments,
which is great!

We were finally able to meet with Keisha again and reset her baptism
date for a few months in the future.

We had a really good  ward conference on Sunday, all of our meetings
were awesome.

Well, hopefully you all have a great week. Thanks for all you do!

Love,
Elder Parker

Elder Roberts, Kris, Veronica, Dakoda, Elder Parker, Brother Frampton

MARCH 9, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, it's been a pretty crazy week. We had our typical Thursday zone
training, but it was on Tuesday. All we really did was talk about
mission culture, which was interesting, and then we set up our new
iPads.

We started teaching two really awesome people, the first is Selena,
she is a recent converts daughter who just moved into the ward not too
long ago, I think she is beehive age. She wants to
be baptized so we set her with a date for in April.

The next really awesome person is Trey. He is in his mid 20's and is
attending a local college. He was taught by missionaries about a year
ago and he kinda disappeared. Now he called us up and wants to be
baptized. He told us he can't stop thinking about the need for the
priesthood to be restored! The cool part is they just started the YSA
group in our ward so he fits right in. We found out yesterday though
that the other Exeter missionaries will teach him because they have
been assigned to YSA. It will be fun to hear about his progression.

We were able to go to the Washington DC temple on Saturday with Jon and Alyssa. It
was great! The spirit in the temple feels so strong when it's been so
long since you have been. It was an awesome feeling! The temple was
really busy, so Elder Roberts and I didn't participate in the
baptisms, but it was great to see Jon and Alyssa enjoy the temple so
much.

Sunday was interesting. Veronica and Kris and Dakoda woke up with the
flu, so we have postponed their baptism until next Sunday at the same
time.

We also will be getting transfer calls this week, odds are I am
leaving, but we will see what happens.

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


Love,
Elder Parker

MARCH 2, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, it was a great week. Felt like it was a weird mix of long and quick...

Veronica(mom), Dakoda(11), and Kris(16), friends of the Chernesky’s, are still set for their baptism this next Sunday. We are pretty set to go to the temple with the Markers on Saturday. It should be awesome! So I might be emailing on Saturday or Monday, not sure how it’s all going to work. But if I don't email at all, don't worry.

This weekend was great, we played basketball and we helped Carmen and Iran move, gave them blessings and then we helped Veronica fix the pipes under her trailer. Then on Sunday we got a bunch of snow and freezing rain. All the other wards cancelled besides ours. This is 3 weeks straight that wards have cancelled church in our building.

We are going to start teaching Selena this week, a recent convert’s daughter that moved into our ward recently. So it should work out to be a good week.

Hope you all have a good day! Love you all!


Love,

Elder Parker

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, it’s been a pretty awesome week! Everyone we are teaching is doing well. They cancelled church again, because of the weather. It wasn't that bad though.

The Markers are doing awesome, we kinda tore a huge hole in the ceiling to help move in some furniture... That was fun.

Finally got in touch with Michele, just some casual conversation, but at least we can stay in touch now.

Carmen and Iran will be moving this weekend to NYC, we are hoping to stay in touch and they will still be meeting with the missionaries. It’s been amazing to see the changes in them over the last few weeks and to see how the Gospel has changed them. They are completely different people now.


Probably the biggest part of this last week was yesterday. Elder Evans of the 1st quorum of the seventy and Elder Allen of the 5th quorum of the seventy spoke to our entire mission. It was all about missionary work in the digital age and our digital devices. It was an inspiring meeting and was the first time in at least 5 years the whole mission has been in the same place. It’s going to be an interesting few months as we go through a few changes. They talked a lot about how this is not only to help with missionary work but to prepare us for the rest of our lives. They talked about how the best filter we have is ourselves and that we need to be ready for our post mission digital lives. It all just made a ton of sense and was a reminder to me that we are led by Prophets and Apostles today!

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Parker

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had a really good week. Alyssa's baptism went really well,
other than the water being super hot, so we had to dump in bags of
ice... Haha. It was great. The next day, Sunday, was -27*... Yep
negative 27. It was crazy cold.

Overall we had a pretty chill week, nothing to crazy. It's been really
cold and snowing occasionally.

We found out that we will be having a mission conference next week on
Monday, we have two 70's coming and for the first time ever the whole
mission will be in one place for it. Not sure what it will be about or
anything, we don't know too much. So I will be emailing on Tuesday
next week.

Hope you all have a good week! Love you all!

Elder Parker

Elder Roberts, Bishop Stapley, Alyssa, Elder Parker

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Dear Family and friends,

Well, we had a really good week. Alyssa is doing really well and is still on track for her baptism this Saturday. The Markers are doing really well in general, Jon starts his new job this week and both him and Kim got callings and Jon blessed the sacrament! It was great.

Pretty much everyone we are working with made it to church, we are getting to the point where we might have to start opening the curtain because there isn't enough room for people.

Oh, Elder Lee's new companion is Elder Lundburg! He was my zone leader for a while when I was in Milford. It’s been fun having him in the ward.

Carmen and Iran are doing really well! They are pretty close to baptism, they just have to get some things sorted out so they can get married.

Also, Michele dropped us this week, Sister Stapley told us she had been watching some things about the temple on YouTube, but Michele called right before our lesson and told us she didn't want to meet anymore... pretty sure she was just overwhelmed with info and has a lot of questions. Hopefully Bishop and his wife can keep in touch and she will want to meet still in a little while. Feels like a part of my heart was removed... it’s been pretty hard.

But other than that this week was awesome!

Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

FEBRUARY 2, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow…
And Elder Parker and Elder Roberts get to stay for 6 more weeks! So we will have spent 3 transfers together.

This week was great. Everyone is doing really well. Jon got the priesthood and they visited the DC temple visitor’s center. Alyssa is set to get baptized on the 14th of this month. He also got a full time job and gets all Sundays off now! They are doing super well! His other daughter, Haley Marie is staying with him on the weekends and bore her testimony on Sunday. She also wants to get baptized so we are looking at the 14th of March with her.

Michele is doing really really well. She has invited all her friends and family to her baptism on the 29th and had one send her some anti in an email. She told us she has received her answer and isn't going to let anyone get in her way of getting baptized. We got to meet her husband this week, he is really awesome. Not interested in the gospel right now, but he supports his her.

Veronica and Dakota are doing really good, they didn't make it to church this week. But they are looking forward to their baptism on the 7th of March.

We also got to meet with a part member family and his soon to be wife wants to get baptized! Keshla is really awesome. So that should be on the 8th of March. They also have the cutest little 2 week old baby boy.

We should have a pretty great coming transfer. Hopefully we can get down to the temple with the Markers to do baptisms as well.

The massive snow storm pretty much missed us. Well…completely missed us.

Elder Petersen is going home today... crazy! We are going bowling today with a couple of missionaries in the area, so that will be fun.

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

Elder Parker

JANUARY 26, 2015

Dear family and friends,

This week was awesome. The Markers baptism went great! There was a lot of good turn out from the ward and they got confirmed yesterday.

The Markers also have a goal to go to the temple to do baptisms once a month until they can get sealed as a family in a year. We also set Alyssa with a baptism date for the 14th of next month!

We saw Michelle this week, she is doing so well! Probably the most prepared person I have ever taught. She is set to be baptized on the 28th of next month and is so excited! It’s great to have the bishop’s family as her friend as well.

We are teaching a friend of the Chernesky family as well and we set her, the mom, and her son with a baptism date for the 7th of March.

Things have been, and will be going really well here in this area for the next little while. I really hope I can stay for 6 more weeks… We will see.

Nothing too exciting has happened other than the baptisms, we have a "Huge" Winter Storm that is kinda on its way/ here already, SO we have our cars grounded starting today at 12, good thing we have a club house! Woot! They say we could get up to like 24 inches… who knows though.

Well, I hope you all have a good week, I love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker

Jon, Haley and Eddie Marker with Elder Parker, Elder Roberts and Bishop Stapley

JANUARY 19, 2015

Dear Family,

Had an awesome week! First off, Madison was baptized on Saturday and then confirmed on Sunday. The baptism went well, even if the programs got printed upside down… But we had about 10 non-members at the baptism and several want to now be baptized.

The Markers are set for their baptism this weekend. They have been asking about going and doing baptisms for the dead and having callings. Hopefully I will still be here and can go to the temple to do baptisms with them.

We started teaching Michelle, the bishop’s neighbor. She is awesome! She has come to church about 4 times now and is soaking up everything she hears. We will be extending a baptism date to her this week.

We also are going to be teaching family that has moved in with Madison's family.  She and her son have been talking about being baptized now.

Things are continuing to go really well here, the Lord is hastening his work.

I hope you all had a great week! Thank you for all the letters and packages and birthday wishes!

Love,
Elder Parker

JANUARY 12, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,
Well, it was a really good week here. We have seen a lot of miracles.

We got to teach the Cherneskys and finish the teaching Maddison, so she is set for her baptism on Saturday! Woot! We are pretty excited. They also have a friend that moved in and she and her 11 year old son were asking questions about the church and wanted copies of the Book of Mormon. So we will be teaching them as we continue teaching Maddison.

We also got to see the Markers a few times. Jon is still going strong, hasn't smoked in 12 days! Still working on getting him a new job so he can come to church every week, but he is on track for baptism in 2 weeks with Eddie and Haley. Another awesome thing is that his daughter is going to be staying with him on the weekends from Philly and she wants to get baptized as well and Alyssa seems to be getting more open to the idea. Hopefully things go well this week and we can get Alyssa involved in the lessons.

We had several investigators come to church, one of which was the Bishop’s neighbor and she brought her mother. We got to set up an appointment for tomorrow and will be teaching her in Bishop’s home. So awesome!

Carmen and Iran are doing about the same.

The Birthday was good, spent some time with the Markers and they made me Cupcakes and Fudge. They are awesome, some of my favorite people from the mission.

Thank you all for the Packages and the letters. I love you all!

Oh I got an email back from Tianxu! He said it took so long because he has been busy and his dad doesn’t read English, lol. He is still doing well.

Hope you all have a great week! Love you!
Elder Parker

JANUARY 5, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, we had a much better week than the one before. We have been able
to see Carmen and Iran a few times, we reset their date for the 31st.
Carmen made it to church and Iran will be there this week. We were
able to see them with bishop and his wife which went really well.

The Markers came to church! All of them. It was great. Last week we
started on Jon’s resume and his family tree. We were able to find a ton
of names, we will be helping him with that again this week. Hopefully
his schedule works out and they will still be baptized on the 24th. He
hasn't smoked since the new year! That family is awesome.

We are going to be teaching the bishops neighbor soon. She has come a
few times to church and we gave her a Book of Mormon last week. She
wants to meet with us, we are pretty excited.

Maddison is still on for her baptism on the 17th. The way we have
things layed out right now we should have a baptismal service the last
three weeks of the month, it'll be great.

New Years was good, we were on exchanges so I was with Elder Lee.

Not much else happened this week. Thanks for all that you all do! I
love you all!

Love,
Elder Parker