I did think of a few things to have
in a package... Don't stress over them but... I am taking an Allegra every
morning and it doesn't do a TON, so if you could send me allergy medicine that
would be great. Dad would know what I could use. Basically, I sneeze a lot, my
nose runs, my eyes water and itch, my throat itches, and I get really fatigued
when the symptoms wear off. I am not trying to complain, just telling it how it
is I guess :) I am fine. Just pushing through it! We weeded again this week and
the pollen and dirt and dust was so terrible to me. Horrible. But it has been
fun to overcome my allergies and work through them. Be sure to tell Coach Larry
Wall that his "conquer instead of survive" adage has popped in my
head NUMEROUS times here in Arizona. A lot of what that man has taught me has
popped into my head. Almost daily. Tell him I miss him next time you see him.
That'll probably be the only shout out today haha. But yes, the works of
allergy medicine if you can manage that. I'll let you know if I can think of
something else. Oh yes- Candy is great. Do not send a lot though. Send maybe
one thing of candy. The problem is that I get so hungry here and I am not very
good at budgeting or cooking so I don't have a lot of food; therefore, I eat
whatever. So replacing candy with healthy food (granola bars, dried fruit,
etc.) would greatly help me. Frankly, any food really. I am pretty hungry.
Dear Family, I love you and miss
you. Every day I think of all our fond memories built into 18 and 11/12 years
of my growing up. The good news is that I have been getting better at
controlling my thoughts and focusing on the work and losing myself in it. I
think that mainly comes with time, and it has certainly shown so far. I have so
much to think about here in the mission so I find that I have to focus harder
on what needs to be done. Thanks for the prayers. I pray for y'all too,
nightly.
Hilda is a pretty disappointing
story as of now. Not by any fault of ours, or hers either, we think. We talked
to her Thursday but have not since seen or talked to her once since. We have
tried several times. Just before this disappearance, she had told us that her
husband in jail changed his mind and didn't want her "to be changed"
and get baptized before he got out. So that was an obstacle for us all. She
still expressed desires to change and commit herself to the Lord by being
baptized, but a lot needed to get done. We called the stake guy who speaks
Spanish and is in charge of visiting jail to clear up concerns. We figured he
was the guy for the job. Nothing really came of that yet though--no visit.
Anyway, we haven't seen or talked with Hilda since Thursday. We have called or
knocked on her apartment in total about eight times. Her car is still at the
apartment and her blinds haven't changed position in her apartment. To conclude
this story, we think she went into the jail to try to talk to esposo and got
arrested/deported/detained etc. We don't really know, but we have a hunch she's
not ignoring us, and she and her husband have had papers problems before. So
all in all, the first person I invited to get baptized accepted with a truly
sincere heart and contrite Spirit and had progressed and learned faster than
just about anyone my 15-transfer trainer had taught, may be headed back to
Mexico. It is sad. We're still trying to contact her. But we'll just have to
see. Chances are very good that she'll get baptized somewhere at some time, and
for that I have faith. It was just a disappointing end, maybe end, to my first
investigator.
Investigators are kind of
frustrating right now. None came to church. Jose had to work, Hilda is hiding,
and the S family said they would but ended up not. We are going to talk to them
today. This shouldn't matter a lot, but it is really tough on our
numbers/goals. Zero people went to church and our only baptismal date got
canceled. This is an ambiguous part about missionary work I am working hard to
understand. I don't understand the whole numbers/goals thing completely? It is
not very personal and what if we don't find any investigators to teach and
baptize after doing everything in our effort and faith to find and teach? Am I
making sense? You don't have to try to answer these questions, I am just
bouncing some ideas off. We are doing everything we can, we are not making our
number goals very well because of a few unfortunate events, and we look like
bad missionaries. Success as a missionary is measured on your efforts to find
people to teach the Gospel to and baptize. We do that every single day. I'll
figure out the balance eventually though. Maybe the Lord blesses you with
success and "windfalls" and "it fell upon a day (this story is
in one chapter in Kings-- if you can manage to locate it, I highly recommend
it, it tells a story about 'coincidences' that the Lord blesses us with)"
when we put people's names behind the numbers that we pick. That is all for
that rant haha. Something to think about for everybody I guess.
Happy Birthday Dad and Evan! Sorry I
am still settling into living and figuring out what to do on P days and what
not so, sadly, I have sent nothing for either of them. Love you both and hope
you had great B days. Dad is 35 right? Sounds like your birthday was wild. I
remember last year we didn't have cake until late and two years before was my
first high school baseball game and we went to El Matador real late. Set aside
a day a week for Dad! He deserves so much more! Right!? Love you.
Sounds like your trip was not
everything you wanted to be. Funny, it's been pretty warm every single day here
except for two days when it rained... But you have already been down to St.
George too in the last week. I am not going to be able to keep up with
everything that goes on this Spring. I love hearing about it all so thank you!
I have a million things to say
throughout the week but always seem to forget most of it when the one hour to
share it comes around. Sorry I spent so much time rambling about my Spring
Allergies. Oh! I just thought of a few things.
Elder Pollmeier and I are going
super-over on our miles for the month. It is supposed to be 47 miles a day and
we have gone about 55 so far because our area is HUGE! And our Chilean Obispo
(Bishop) doesn't really do the calling by the book (like most Spanish speakers
down here) so half the ward lives outside the ward boundaries and attends the
Agua Fria ward by invite from Bishop Denoso. The result is a very laid back,
chill, fun, Spanish-speaking ward of friends. They are fairly supportive of
missionary work so that has been good. Oh and by the way, Bishop and
Scoutmaster are the only two callings in a ward where you have to be a legal
citizen to hold. So that is why our bishop is Chilean. You don't find too many
Mexican bishops haha. Anyway, our area is HUGE. Inconveniently huge. So our
miles are high. Elder Pollmeier came up with a great idea to park our car at
the end of the freeway (101) that we take every day and bike there, park our
bikes, and take our car for the day. We haven't done it yet, but it should save
20 miles a day! The hard part is that is twenty miles of bike... We haven't
done it, but we did try it out this morning. It was so hard. We woke up at 5:30
and biked for an hour and a half. I was so tired and my behind is so sore. I
feel like such a wimp! But this is what vintage missionary work has always
looked like to me in my head so I love it haha: sore butt, sweaty, tired,
biking, tired, sore butt, sweaty, sore behind. HAHA. All the above. We haven't
done it in proselyting clothes yet, so that'll be a challenge. I shall let you
know how this experience goes this week as we try it out.
Running out of time. I need to get
better at budgeting this time. I love you all. Caroline: be strong. Realize
that officer is dumb in the long run and in the short run if you don't make it
too haha. But don't have a sour attitude. Support and love everyone around you.
CHARITY. I'll try to write more next time. Let me know what else you would like
to know more about if you see something specific. I think I will be sending a
letter home today too. We'll see.
Love you! Hey did Anquan Boldin go
to the 9ers!? I heard that and it startled me. Go Red Sox.
Love, Elder Parry
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