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

NOVEMBER 24, 2014

Dear Family,

Well, another week down in Exeter with Elder Roberts. We had a really
good week, kinda got all the meeting tons of new people out of the way
last week, so we were able to teach a lot and help some people
progress. I feel like this week will be looked back on as a turning
point for this area in the long run, it’s struggled for a while.

We saw Linda and Carmen and Iran several times this week. Iran is
making tons of progress! He has opened up a lot. He didn't make it to
church, but Carmen did. She was kinda wanting to go home after
sacrament, lots of new things, but after all three hours she said she
is looking forward to next week! Yay! Also a man we are working with,
Brother Bruner, a former member, came to sacrament! And the Chernesky
family we are working with also came! Yay again! So for only being
here 2 weeks, we have several investigators come to church, good sign
of things to come.

This week should be another good one, hard to see people with
Thanksgiving. Everyone gets really busy and doesn't have time to meet,
but the plus side is that the week after will be great!

Not really too much to report on. The ward is great and they are
treating us really well. Very missionary minded and they have some
great goals for the future. The other Elders we split the ward with
are great, we get a long really well. Weather has been cold... until
yesterday and today, near 60! But it is supposed to snow on
Wednesday...

Oh! So the church is doing another holiday initiative like they did
for Easter and Mother’s day. It is called 'He is the Gift'. It’s great!
Check out christmas.mormon.org (Yes, I know, thanksgiving hasn't
happened yet, bear with it.) The video was supposed to launch the day
after thanksgiving with the website, but showed up on my gospel
library a few days ago... the website says tomorrow I think... Who
knows! But when you can watch it, share it. It’s gonna be good.

So that’s my early Christmas push... But looking forward to
Thanksgiving, raise your hand if you like 6 dinners in 4 hours! Haha!

Thanks for all you do! Love you all! Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder Parker

NOVEMBER 17, 2014

Dear Family,

Well, it’s been a real crazy couple of days. Not even really sure where
to begin.... Tuesday we had transfers and I found out that I was going
to be doubling into Exeter East with a Golden. Then I went back in a
car with one of the other Elders who was also training to South Philly
and spent the night working in that area, so I got to see the Tomlin's
again and see a few other people and we stayed the night with Elder
Pead and the House. They ended up closing my last area because we just
don't have as many missionaries, we lost 5 total areas this time
around. So Elder Pead and Mackay now cover all of south Philly.

Wednesday we got our Goldens. My new companion is Elder Roberts. Right
out of high school from Paris, Idaho. Loves everything, sports, music,
all that jazz. We get along pretty well. He doesn't really know any
different ;) He is number 6 of 7. 4 older sisters and he is the middle
of the 3 boys. His older brother served a mission and all his sisters
husbands served as well. His younger brother is a junior. His school
was small so he played football and basketball and was in student
council and choir and all kinds of stuff. Lots of talents. He is also
VERY neat and clean! Thank GOODNESS! So nice!

Anyway, so we doubled in, replacing the sisters that were here, Sister
Casey and Sister Bailey. They did a lot of good here and we had a
really good week. It wasn't south Philly good... but I am just going
to have to get over that and put my Newark tracting shoes back on. We
met a ton of people this week though, lots of prepared people. We are
working with several part member and returning member families. It’s
really great to be able to work with them. Special things will happen
here in Exeter over the next 12 weeks!

The Exeter ward is actually really new. It was made when I was in
Milford (Same Stake, opposite sides). So because the ward is new
apparently it’s still trying to figure itself out. Should be fun.
Exeter is right around Reading, we cover a couple townships around
Reading and then a little slice of downtown Reading. We have a really
nice apartment, it’s pretty big, has a washer and dryer, a dishwasher and
some good furniture. We also have a car. Our apartment complex also
has a clubhouse with some computers and an outdoor tennis court and
basketball court and some car care places. It’s pretty stacked.

The work has been really good. We split the ward with Elder Peterson
and his 6 week old companion Elder Lee. They are awesome. I replaced
Elder Peterson when I went into Newark, so we have had some fun
stories to tell each other. We have a lot of single sisters we are
working with and I was afraid it would be hard to keep that up, but we have
been able to get some members out with us and haven't had to cancel
any appointments yet! Yay!

We had Stake conference Sunday, I actually went 6 months ago when I
was in Milford, so that was fun. Got to see the Houses from Milford
and both Brother Johnson's. It was great. Saw lots of familiar faces.
President Katcher from the seventy was there, it was a great meeting.
He was the one who spoke at conference this last time about being
swept out in the riptide on the beach. I heard that Brother Moll is
doing ok, he kinda shut down to the missionaries, but a few members
are still visiting regularly.

It has been one of the most difficult weeks of my mission, training is
hard. He is looking to me for answers and guidance and I have no idea
where I am! It’s nuts! Ah! I just have to take a few deep breaths every
once in a while and pray I don't lead this Elder astray. We have had
some good fun though, it still blows my mind to think I was there at
one point, feels like it wasn't too long ago... man.

Well, if it seems that I am scattered and lost, I pretty much am! Bear
with me! Thank you all for all you do and for your prayers! I have
felt them, especially this week! Keep it up!

Also, my new address is 230 Aldridge Ct, Reading Pennsylvania 19606.


Love,
Elder Parker

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

Dear Family,

Well, good news and bad news. Good news is I have a lot of pictures to
send. Bad news it’s because I am getting transferred, worse news, so is
Elder Pintor. It’s been really hard to say goodbye to the people in
this area. I feel that I still have so much left to do here, just
hoping and praying that our replacements care about the people here as
much as I do. It was hard to explain to the An's that we had to leave.
Mr. An in his broken english told me that he felt terrible inside,
that he didn't want me to leave because I was his friend. I now have 3
people to someday see in Beijing.

Other than transfer calls, it’s been a pretty uneventful week. We had a
record number of appointments fall through, but we enjoyed doing
service at Ronald McDonald House this week. We also participated in a
Heart Walk down by the stadiums with the two zones north of us. It was
fun, really really cold, but fun to see so many missionaries.

Oh almost forgot. The street in front of us exploded this last week!
The water main broke and there was water everywhere! They are still in
the process of repairing it. There is a ginormous hole, I will send
some pictures of it. It has been fun to see how these Philly Water
Department workers are, it’s entertaining during our lunch breaks.

Anyway, thank you for all you guys do! Hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Parker

The An's

The District:)

Mary, Anita and Arlene

Broken Water Line on Our Street

The An's and the Su's

Harrisons

Chan's

Tep Family

Tomlin's

Moe

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

Dear Family,

Had a great week here again. We had a lot of stuff fall through this
week but we had a lot of miracles with those we were able to see.

We were able to see the An's and taught them about baptism, they had
such a great understanding of it from reading 2 Nephi 31 before hand
and they had some great questions. We invited them to be baptized and
they didn't accept it, it wasn't really any concern. They feel that
it is so important and they want to make sure they can keep the
covenants they make for their entire life. It was great to see them
understand the significance of baptism.

Then another great thing this week was church. The An's both came and
loved it and Thianxu received a little more instruction for playing
the organ for sacrament next week. He is going to do great! We also
were able to get them gospel principles in simplified Chinese which
helped them understand a lot more of the lesson.

Moe also came to church! It was awesome, I was sitting with the An's
near the front of the chapel and I saw Moe go up to bear his
testimony. I was so nervous he was going to say something crazy! But
he got up and bore simple testimony of how the blue book (Book of
Mormon) has changed his life and how much he loves the missionaries.
It was awesome! He got to meet a ton of members and just kept telling
us he couldn't stop smiling. It's great to see him make some bigger
strides towards baptism.

Another awesome but unrelated day was Thursday. After district meeting
we celebrated Elder Beatty's birthday. With a piñata! Lol.

Also, Thursday night, we had a branch Halloween party, it was unlike
anything I have ever been to. They did a dance and we couldn't really
participate so we wheeled the ping pong table into the other room and
played a bunch of members. Elder Pead beat about every member there
that wanted to play, and I waited till his ego was over inflated and
dethroned him. It was a bunch of fun though.

That's about all the news for this week. Thank you all for everything
you do! Love you!

Elder Parker

OCTOBER 27, 2014

Dear Family,

Another great week here in South Philly, we were able to stay really
busy and help a lot of the people we are working with start to
progress. I’ll just give a run down on how the people we are working
with are doing.

Mary, Anita, and Arlene are doing well. We amped up our
visits this week trying to help Arlene overcome her concerns with
baptism. She is progressing now and has been reading and praying and
we seem to have gotten to the root of her concern. She also came to
church this week for the first time in a long time!

An Hua and Thianxu - Both of them are doing so well! We saw them this
week on Thursday with Sister Su and the Clarks. We taught about faith and
repentance. They had read 2 Nephi 31 beforehand and understood it
perfectly. The Su's also had us and the An's over for dinner on Sunday.
It was so much fun! The An's had spaghetti for the first time, and we had
Red Hair Balls for the first time. Such a weird fruit... I will send pictures that
Elder Pintor took.  Mr. An told a story about the weirdest food he has heard of.
So we are just sitting there listening, it’s in Chinese, and then he squealed!
Everyone laughed and he kept going and did it again! Then a third time.
So sister Su translated and it was about how people would eat newborn mice.
It’s called the 3 scream. They scream once when you put it in the bowl, twice

when you pinch it with chop sticks, and a third time when you chew it! Lol, so funny!

That’s about it for people we are really working with. Small progress
with people like Fortune, Moe, Kimmy, Chris, the Tomlins, Caramandi's,
Xuan, Froggy, and the VanHorns.

Thanks for all you do! Hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Parker

South Philly Elders at the Ronald McDonald House:)

OCTOBER 20, 2014

Dear Family,

It was a pretty great week here. We were able to see a lot of our
investigators with members and more of them are progressing now. We
are now teaching the Tomlins cousin, Kesha, who has a baptism date as
well. We also had dinner with a part member family. Lilly is a member
but her husband John isn't. He is an awesome guy! Even though he isn't
super interested in the gospel, it’s great to be around him. We both
have similar interests. :)

So we helped (tried) An Hua to find internet for his apartment. We
ended up standing in the AT&T store for about 45 mins and then the
Verizon store for about an hour. So crazy to try to translate
haha..... it was comical. Might be more of that this week. It’s fun to
be with Mr. An. Speaking of which, the lesson this week was great, Mr.
An said the closing prayer, so awesome. Mr. An also came to church!
And he presented a great way to do 2 good things. Thianxu has to do 25
hours of service every year and they don't know of anywhere else
except the church that he could do it. So we are going to have him
help with a food drive, help clean the church, and play the piano for
various things during the 3 hour block, Which means.... he has to come
to church! It’s a round about way of getting him there, but it will
work.

Wayne Tomlin came with us to see Mary, Anita and Arlene. It was great,
he is an awesome member with a strong testimony.

I had exchanges this week with our Zone Leaders. I went to their area
which is in south west Philly. Man, is it a different world! First, we
took the wrong bus to get there... and ended up spending around an
hour at the airport..... ya. Then we finally got back and took a
trolly to our first appointment. Everyone they teach is an African,
not African American, but African immigrant. Its sooo hard to
understand what they are saying, but they are pretty solid
investigators. It’s just crazy to me how different it can be less than
10 miles away.

I think that is about all that happened this week. It was a great
week, lots of little miracles and tender mercies.

Thank you for all you do! Love you!

Love,
Elder Parker