Elder Jake Parry

Elder Jake Parry
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Monday, April 29, 2013

Like a Boss!


April 29, 2013

 

It turns out we have as much email time as we need. We learned that from Sister Taylor at interviews last week. Kind of interesting. That only means I will need to be even more disciplined though! Hope all is going swell in Bountiful. I will tell you a few things about life in El Mirage..
Dear Family,

Arizona is fun! the mission is shaping me every day. I think you would be proud of me :) Like I said, we had quarterly interviews with President last week. They were awesome. I just love seeing President and Sister Taylor every chance I get. They are inspired and so so loving.


I learned a few pretty cool things at interviews. One was when we were all sitting in the Relief Society room and a random guy walked past the door, poked his head in, and said that he wanted to learn more about this church and how could he do that. It kind of made me laugh a little bit in my head. Well, he went to the right place at the right time and a pair of Elders (who are serving in the area that he lives in) got his information and made plans for him later that evening. I was so happy for the man that walked in, but I was almost surprised at how happy I was for those Elders. I was not jealous at all; I was so excited for them to bring this soul unto Christ. Later that day I kind of applied what I learned and made more sense of it. It is up to us to be clean, worthy, and diligent every single day and then we leave the rest to the Lord! We hear a lot to be "instruments" of the Lord; as a member, and especially as a missionary. I figure a physical musical instrument doesn't do anything without the user. That's how we are with the Lord. We need to be worthy of Him using us to do His work. This realization has brought great peace and comfort to me. I do not need to waste time with the what-ifs when I can just do all that I can do and let the Lord use me how He pleases!! Whomever the Lord blesses us with to find, teach, and baptize, sobeit. I will give it my all and find peace that this work is the Lord's work, that this work is much much bigger than I am, and that the Lord is literally down on the Earth working with us as it is said in Jacob 5.

I also learned through my interview with President and by his counsel to me that I need to slow down, be patient, and have a good perspective and scope on my mission. It reminded me of when Brother Muir told me after my farewell that his only worry for me is that I will tire out my companions over these two years haha. But in all seriousness, President was right. I find myself getting so caught up in my day-by-day growth, having every investigator progress, being a perfect missionary every day, and really small and unimportant things like speaking perfect Spanish. I need to relax. I need to remember what Elder Holland said at conference that made everyone laugh: Don't you think the Lord gets pretty impatient working with imperfect people all the time? I need to look at my mission as a whole. President also talked to me about the importance of crossing paths with people at a certain point in their journey to accepting the Gospel. Everyone is at a different point, and if I, by the help of the Spirit, can move everyone I come in contact with along just a little bit, then think of how many "small and simple things" I can do as a missionary! I have found much peace in this also. This applies to everyone though. Don't get caught up in the detail of your lives. Focus on doing one more good thing today than you did yesterday, focus on doing better at one thing than the day before, and do it! Pray one more time than you did yesterday. Just some thoughts I had!

A little about the baptism we had on Saturday.. It went really well. The service was smooth, and very spiritual. None of our investigators showed up which stunk, but the two most important ones took the big step toward the Kingdom of God and I know they won't be turning back! Mario and Glenda Sanchez were baptized and when Hermano Soriano was baptizing Mario, the Spirit filled my body. It sounds cliche but that's exactly how it happened! The Spirit told me that they are ready, and that they will remain. What a blessing it has been to be a part of this. What a joy they are in my life as a missionary already. The only joy that exceeds this as a missionary for me up to this point is finding someone prepared. Finding Hilda in Peoria last transfer, second day of my mission, was pure joy because I got to watch her grow from the start. But she doubted herself and even God a little bit so that ended sad. But Mario and Glenda are strong. and we are going to be over there a lot more because Their daughter, Cassandra, is eight and we did not feel she was fully prepared so we are going to teach her to her baptism by her dad Mario this May 18th! It has been a real treat. I bring her Legos every Thursday we come and we just talk. Very simply we cover the doctrine and talk about the Gospel. Yesterday we were over there talking about Priesthood and she didn't want to forget the word so she wrote it down phonically (Preesthood) and repeated it like 50 times. It was so sweet. We looked at a picture of the first vision and she said "weren't they as bright as the sun?" It was so awesome. She is a neat girl.

I will finish off talking about mi companero a little bit. He is a blast. He has some great Brazilian dances, songs, and chocolate, he loves his fiance haha, he is obedient, and he knows how to be a great responsible missionary and be fun about it. I am working on being loose. He is helping me with this. I want to balance enjoying my mission while still being exactly obedient. I think this doctrine was lost somewhere in my first transfer. I was a little too stressed. Elder Pollmeier was spectacular and I wouldn't trade the times I had with him, but I am learning how to be happy. A lot of this goes back to what I said about putting my mission into perspective. Anyway, the work is moving on and I am improving every day as long as I remain accountable of my efforts to myself, Elder Cardoso, and the Lord :) Elder Cardoso is great though. He speaks very suave Spanish, all the Spanish people we talk to love him, and he testifies in Spanish LIKE A BOSS (That is something he would say haha). He really does though. Did I tell you about the inactive family that went to Church for the first time in two years the same day as our first Sunday in the branch after we had visited them? Elder Cardoso pushed the Hermano into letting him give him a blessing that he would have the mental strength to ask his boss to let him have Sundays off. That is textbook boldness right there. I am working on boldness. Boldness and love. What does it mean to be wise yet harmless? That scripture is in Alma 18 I believe. It is talking about Ammon. It all has to do with boldness. Elder Cardoso is bold. Now the Estrella branch is happy the Sarmientos are back at church and they know who did it! Well they think it was Elder CArdoso and me, but it was the Spirit and Elder Cardoso! My two senior companions.

Whenever I read Missionary emails before I came I may or may not have gotten tired of only hearing so much spiritual stuff! I testify to you that that is the only way to email! I love being accountable to all you at home by showing you what I have learned and experienced. Keep on keepin'. I love the mail and thoughts of home. Just like all your mail to me, I am sorry I don't say much about what you tell me, I just love my mission too much!

Oh and don't worry about me--it's getting into the 100s here. We got home from church yesterday at 5:00 and walked into our 85 degree air conditioned apartment and it felt sooo good haha.

Love you unconditionally, Elder Parry

Monday, April 22, 2013

A Wedding

As you can see, Jake's email this week was very short.  We are used to long, detailed letters from him.  We are victims of the new relaxed email rules allowing missionaries to email people other than immediate family.  Jake said his inbox was stuffed.  We are hoping Jake's mission president will eventually give them more than the 60 minutes to email that they have had before the rule change. 

April 22, 2013

That is a WILD WEEK. I really enjoyed hearing about it. I wish I could be there to enjoy in all the crazy events. Hopefully Isaac survives until Summer then he is free from the ligaduras of elementary school heck haha.

I wish I could sum up this week in one email :(

We had a very successful wedding! It was fun to see everyone having a good time and to see our top 2 investigators get married and prepared for their baptisms. It will be this Saturday. They and we are very excited.
 



Elder Cardoso is the bomb. I have loved having so much fun with him. He has taught me so much already. Oh and he has pcitures of his girlfriend everywhere, they are getting married as soon as he gets back!

The Spirit is with us. Remember that. We were given that gift upon baptism. Use it! Trust in the Spirit especially when you need it to comfort and guide you. The Spirit comes when you pray for it with faith. I testify to you of this. The Spirit is with us when he are obedient in living the commandments and when we seek it. The Spirit has guided me daily on a mission and there is no reason it can't guide any of you daily.

By the way-- The assistants are doing service at Keith Foulk's house next week. I am very jealous and they rubbed it in to me haha. I went to dinner at Chile's with an inactive family. It was fun, but there was a D-back Yankee game on the TV. It was sooo hard not to look haha. I don't really know why, but it was. and I didn't look, just saw who was playing the first time i looked haha. Oh, and I broke 200 pounds! It is fun eating a lot at members houses. Especially because they want you to. The biking will bring me down soon though.

Sorry this is so short I will do better next week!! :( :/

Love you Sam, Isaac, CAroline, Mom, and Dad! Love, Elder Parry

Monday, April 15, 2013

New Area!

April 15, 2013

I loooooved the email you sent! Very entertaining. Clay Buchholz is my man, Jackie Robinson sounds like my kind of movie, and it sounds like everyone is working their behinds off with everything that is going on back at home. Bien hecho! Go Isaac for making it to Millcreek. He will love it. The Communism math though-not so cool. Sounds like you avoided that though. Make sure you are all treating Caroline like a queen. She is doing some really wild and really hard things right now in school and life! Glad to hear things, and baseball, are going well for everyone.

Dear Family,

The past seven days have been very crazy for me! Basically to sum it all up, I left my first area of six weeks--which I was just kind of getting the hang off-- for my new area in Surprise (I'm in El Mirage and Youngtown which is south of Surprise to be exact), to be trained for my second half by a new companion in an area that is not only new to me, but new to Elder Cardoso, AND new to the mission. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that they are making new areas all over to accommodate the influx. I'm positive all missions are doing that. At transfer meeting I went up to President Taylor and asked him if he needed any help preparing, he said no, then he said, "Do you trust the Spirit?" I said something like, yes. Then he said something along the lines of; "the Spirit has called you to another place after just getting settled into your first one. Do you trust the Spirit?" It was pretty neat. President Taylor is an inspired man. I know that I am in good hands with him and Sister Taylor. Now it is time to see what this area has in store for me!

Getting started on the area is hard... There is so much to do, so many people to meet, and just little or no head start on how to do it. It has been good though. Working hard is really the only solution haha. We have received immense help from the other Spanish Elders in the rama (branch) that we are serving in. We split their area. They got Estrella North and we got Estrella South. They have Surprise and north up to Wickenburg which includes many guerros (white people haha) and we have a few square miles of many hispanos. It is awesome. We are on bike. Elder Cardoso has been on a bike for all 13 months of his mission. Every now and then I tell him about something I'm feeling, not to complain, just for fun. I told him my butt hurt. He said that is the first symptom. Then I said my back hurt. "That is the second symptom." Then neck; third symptom. Then I said I was getting very tan. He said "cool, you can start to look like me now." He is very funny. I love being around him and serving with him. He is from Sao Paulo. He just started learning English in the MTC last March. He speaks it very well. It is fun to help him the few times he needs it though. He is dedicated and a good teacher and example to me. We haven't had a whole lot of time to talk or get to know each other though. It kind of makes me sad! We are pretty caught up making sure we're doing everything right though. Planning usually ends around 10:05 because we don't know where to go exactly during the day. So not a lot of time to talk.

It is fun being thrust into a completely new place though! The rama is SO AWESOME! They are dang fired up about missionary work. President Aguierre is ON THE BALL and ahead of the game when it comes to missionary work. When your bishop/branch president is missionary minded the ward/branch is too. It is really showing. Our two companionships had six investigators at church combined and all the testimonies were about Jesus Christ and the Gospel. That is what EVERY testimony should be about. Not sob stories or whatever. But the members looked at the investigators during their testimonies and shared with conviction. Some of the investigators got emotional. And the classes included very basic teachings of the Gospel. Good stuff. Anyway, Mario and Glenda are two investigators that were given to us with baptismal dates for May 11 and they are solid!! Really funny/cool story though: The other Elders dropped the ball and didn't know they weren't married... "for some reason" we brought up marriage in one of our lessons. They were like, nahhh we've been together for 30 years- don't need marriage. We were like, oh no.... But we talked to president at church, he had an interview with them then president came up to me during priesthood and said they are getting married in six days so they can keep their baptismal date. Haha wow! It was neat. Then he got up in Priesthood and R.S. and basically said, they are getting married, come Saturday, bring non-member friends and food. Just one example of our great rama. We need to live up to all this help though. I am kind of feeling the pressure to find people. We will do it though! Yesterday Elder Cardoso and I "happened" to pick the same thing to fast for: To find people in our area to teach that are prepared to be taught. It was cool. I fasted for 24 hours for the first time. I can't believe I hadn't done that before. Embarrassing... but it went well! The fast was awesome though. We contacted A LOT of people. Bike is great. Oh and by the way I am logging how many ounces of peanut butter I eat on my mission. I am not telling you what I am at, but I can't wait to tell you what I get to in the end.

I feel like there are a million more things to say but I can't think of any. I know the Holy Ghost is real. I can talk about this. On Thursday we were taking our lunch break and I was sitting at the table thinking about all that laid ahead, all that needed to be done, and how it all needed to be done. I kind of let myself get a little overwhelmed again, which is not good. Right then though, The Spirit poured down my body. I am not going to say anything cliche about how it felt, It's just one of those things you know when you're feeling it. I knew it was the Spirit telling me I am going to be okay and that I wouldn't have been called here, placed here, and given these challenges if I couldn't do them. I know right then and there that things would work out. It'll take work. But I know we can do it. I hadn't prayed, fasted, or even thought of positive thoughts, but I am obedient and diligent and know that I have the Spirit because of that. So the Spirit could bear witness to me that I can do it. Si Puedo!

I love you all. I don't know if you take advice or scripture suggestions from an un-experienced teenager nearing three months in the mission but I thought of something:

                You sound super super busy. I have been thinking- amongst all the running in and out of the house, changing into uniforms, driving down to the school, doing homework, preparing for tests, and fulfilling church callings and all else I believe there is an added importance in FHE and Family Prayer. It is something I have seen with families in my mission already. Do everything you can to have these two things. As a family we NEED the protection and strength with these two things. We cannot go without it. Helaman 5:12! Be ready for when things get hard. Things get harder when things get busier.

Love, Elder Parry

PS I just want you to know that I know the S family will be baptized. I have already seen several little miracles with them--miracles that are hard to recognize if you're not paying attention, but miracles that happen because they are prepared to hear the Gospel and the Lord is not going to let little things stop that from happening. There is a sister threesome in my apartment now (a trainer, trainee and a regular missionary, kind of crazy haha), and I know they'll be able to do it. But frankly, it doesn't matter which missionaries. I was very lucky to have found them through a member referral with Elder Pollmeier and taught them. But they will be baptized and I will see them again one day. I miss them, but was happy to have been a part of their progress.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Conference

April 8, 2013

So this week has been a little wild already to this point. Elder Pollmeier left yesterday at 4:00. It was really weird to send a missionary off to home, especially from my position haha. He is a great missionary and will go on to do great things. He has taught me so much. One thing that I got out of conference kind of as the theme for the five sessions is our identity. We are literal children of our Heavenly Father and he loves us for who we are. I have applied that to myself as a missionary. He knows me, my strengths, weaknesses, desires, and actions, and he puts you in the place and with the companion, and with the investigators that you have been prepared for you. The more I understand what my mission means to me and the Lord and what I want it to mean to me and the Lord I receive added confidence, strength and motivation in all that I do to improve. I love this work, but at times I feel very inadequate. My confidence is certainly building though. I have accepted that this work is a whole lot bigger than me or any of us and that the work is done in the Lord's way and the Lord's time no matter what I do. So I am going to give it my all in everything. Elder Nelson said that the Lord's work began to hasten with the seven words that began it: "This is my Beloved Son, Hear Him!" How cool is that! I am honored to be a missionary at this time. Every morning I excite myself about all the opportunities I have as a missionary. I never want to forget the importance of my calling while I am out here.

So since Elder Pollmeier left I have been hanging out with the Zone leaders for a couple days. It is REEEALLY fun. It is stress-free because I am just tagging along haha. I have a tougher road ahead because I will have a new second half trainer in an area that he knows nothing of and that I know a little of. But I am excited for the challenge! Anyway, the Zone Leaders are a blast and teaching the Gospel in English is a refreshing break. One of them is 6'6 and tends to get off focus just a little bit. I love him! His name is Elder D and he is an exact replica of Dallin hahahaha. He has made me laugh so much just cause he reminds me of him. So that has been nice. They are great Elders so I have had a lot of fun learning from them too. Tomorrow is transfers and I will be going to meet my new trainer and find out where my new apartment will be. It is going to be a pain to pack today, but such is life I guess.

Conference was fantastic. I watched all 10 hours intently at the stake center. With the Exception of Priesthood, there were only about 10 or 12 missionaries and no members watching the sessions haha. So we spread out and enjoyed the sessions by ourselves spiritually. For obvious reasons, I haven't ever gotten this much out of conference. It was so phenomenal. I prepared three questions for the weekend and they were all answered pretty well! I really wanted to have a favorite talk this time that wasn't Elder Hollands.... but... I don't think I did have a different favorite haha. His blew me away! Faith is my favorite subject and it reminded me of my favorite chapter Moroni 7. Never forget that what we know as Latter Day Saints ALWAYS trumps what we don't. You stand your ground against the Devil. Most importantly, you stand your ground against your own doubts! That is how Satan brings us down. Don't forget that you are a child of our Heavenly Father and that we have innumerable potential as Gods. Take those leaps of faith and don't think about the bad that could happen. Anyway, that's what I got mainly out of that. Phenomenal. I also really loved the Prophet's talk on Obedience, The Repentance talk (3rd talk first session), L. Tom Perry's fiery talk, Presidents Uchtdorf and Eyring's talks in Priesthood and I really really enjoyed Elder Beck's talk in Priesthood on ministering. Homegrown hero!

Sounds like the baseball has been a blast! Crazy antics in Canada and a refreshing start to the season. The 14 year old in the S family has given me a couple updates: One of the Uptons has 5 homers in 5 games? Red Sox won 13-0 one day I heard about that! Not much else though haha. That 13-seed made it to the final 4!? Crazy. Thanks for the updates. I hope the trip was awesome. And Kari got baptized! That is so so neat. Who baptized her? I figured you would say since that was basically the problem all along haha. That is neat. Wish I could've been there. Be sure to update me on both my Grandmas and their strong fights. And Old Man Evan and his fight too haha.

The work is great in Arizona. Last night I split off from the zone leaders for a lesson with the S family. It has been impossible to schedule time with them so we finally taught the Restoration (Elder P was gone and I asked a couple other Elders serving in my ward to accompany me, so it was basically my first lesson taught which I lead--in Spanish--and it went well! The other two bailed me out just a little, but the family understood and had sincere desires to be baptized!) and they do want to get baptized. We couldn't get a date because the mom wants to see a little more about the church. I am not worried though. They are SOOO REady. I asked the 12 year old if he wants to and he said "Yes I want to get baptized, I don't really care about the date, I just want to do it." The best part is they haven't been to church yet and they have these great desires. They are going to have so many friends in the Spanish ward. Last week a member of the bishopric went over with me and my exchange companion. I had the prompting to offer a healing blessing to the 12-year old because he broke his leg covering second base when someone slid in to him on a steal (ouch). He was going to have surgery the next day. Hermano Quintero from the bishopric gave the blessing. It was powerful. The next day he went in for surgery and they said his leg has healed so well... he didn't need surgery. What a coincidence right? Hahahah No. They have a testimony of the priesthood and its healing power now too. I have seen so many miracles with this family already. Yesterday we were just teaching the Mom at the beginning which was very sad. Then Ohman finished his bath and hobbled in with his broken leg, and Israel woke up from his 6 hour nap for 'some reason.' At first we didn't know if we could go over because we could not find a member for a Monday night lesson and we needed an older male in the room or we couldn't enter. For 'some reason' she had visiting family who she didn't really want there in another room. So we passed in. Miracles. They are small and very often missed. I am fortunately in-tune with the Spirit here on my mission and have looked for and seen the hand of God in the small things.

Other than that, it is VERY hard to find Spanish speaking people who are ready to hear the Gospel. My heart goes out to Elders Green and Elwood speaking Spanish in the Northeast states haha. That would be tough. We basically meet Americans each day who are more or less interested, but we call in their names and suppose that they will be reaped by the English missionaries. So Finding is hard. One thing we are trying soon is visiting all the English members in the stake, having prayers with them, and then getting them to point out Spanish neighbors! It should work. It's the best finding idea we have right now. The other missionaries are pretty funny- They all agreed that the big revelation for this conference would be to ban tracting haha. It isn't very effective even though people look at it as vintage missionary work. I love it! I have only done it for about 5 or 6 hours all transfer but it was fun. It doesn't work though. You can really gain a testimony of the Gospel as you get rejected at the door and see and hear all kinds of mean things haha.

I love being a missionary. I am grateful for the opportunity and growth I have seen. I amaze myself when I think about the person I can become in two years. It is time to live up and surpass potential! Sense of Urgency!

Love you all and pray for you. Thanks for your love and prayers in return.

Love, Elder Parry

Monday, April 1, 2013

We Made Miles!

April 1, 2013

And indeed it is! It is a sunny time of the year and I am enjoying the very pleasant weather. I am proud to say that we have only reached 95 degrees a couple times and it hasn't been too bad. I heard it gets a little warmer so we'll see how that goes haha. But right now it is beautiful and the sunsets are all they are cracked up to be!

Your very important question: no news on new email time limit. I would love an extra 30 minutes, but right now it is 60 minutes. I'll keep you updated. Only time to email you and President Taylor for now.

Guess what--We made miles this month!!! 1396/1400 for March. Those four miles are called breathing room haha. It wasn't a very spiritual endeavor for Elder Pollmeier and I but we have made the commitment to stay exactly obedient and even when it seemed impossible (3/4 the way through the month we had averaged 56 miles per day and for the last few days we could only average 28) we were able to change plans and recommit ourselves to achieving something hard. It took a lot of biking for us the last two weeks. It was fun and the weather is nice and we got to contact SOOO MANY people. That was my favorite part. People are put in your path when you are an obedient and hard working servant of the Lord. We have already been ordained to be that, but the calling is conditional, in my opinion, on how you treat it. And so, the Lord has rewarded us with running into people all over our area. For the most part, because just about all of them speak English, and many are very disinterested, I will not see what becomes of them, but the least I can do is plant a seed or help them feel the Spirit. And even if only 1/100 people you contact were placed in your path for a reason it is all worth it for that one you can bear testimony of the Restoration to. So anyway, on our long bike rides we have stopped many times to contact someone. I am very surprised at how shy I am on my mission so far. I am also surprised at how much I need to get out of my shell and say the things I should. I am working hard on that every day. The Lord blesses those who open their mouth with the words to say and the Spirit to testify of those words. This doesn't just apply to missionaries though! If anything, be examples of obedience, love, and humility to everyone around you. That is the easiest ways to plant seeds of the blessing of the Church in others and to also live a happy and successful life for yourself! One of the things I have noticed in my short time in the mission so far (Dad sent me a letter saying that I was 1/12 of the way done. WHHHAAAT? That kind of weirded me out a bit. I feel like it is the first significant checkpoint I've gotten too--by the numbers--but there is still a lot I need to do, learn, and a lot I haven't done. So it worried me just a little too. I need to work hard to reaching my potential here with my last 22 months, and then some more.) is how much the mission is motivating me to do so many things after my mission. Never in my Gospel, and of course, have nine kids haha. It is one of my dreams. But seriously. The Mission is an MTC for your life, and I am living it. I still have a lot of work to do and a long way to go, but this perspective has helped me understand the importance of this mission for the rest of my mortal service to My Heavenly Father.

A little something on my personal studying: I came into the field with the desires to improve my study habits since they have never been consistently good for me in my life. I am happy to say that I have seen such awesome and amazing growth! I can testify to you that any studying--no matter the length--that begins and ends with a sincere prayer of real intent--is guided by the Spirit. You may not exactly feel it every time, but just have faith that it is. The Spirit will guide you to find what applies to you and what will apply to your day that day. Pay attention to what you study, write something--if not just one thing--down as directed by the Spirit and see it come up in your day. I will share a small experience of mine: I was doing morning personal study. Chapter 4 of PMG (the best one). and I came across some verses of understanding the Spirit. The first 5 of 2 Nephi 32 are so perfect to understanding the Spirit simply. First off, Nephi says something like 'after you commit to enduring to the end after baptism is that everything? Of course not. You have been given the Spirit to guide and teach you. Use it. Take advantage of it. Feast upon the words of Christ." And that's not just scriptures. That is receiving revelation from the Spirit. Anyway, I came across these verses and immediately Jose popped in my mind. He still has doubts. He has been catholic his whole life and has the education of a 3rd grader. So he doesn't want to change to Mormonism so quick after so long and he doesn't understand the scriptures or the Spirit. So we read verses 4 and 5 and taught him that he will learn by the Spirit after we are given it upon confirmation. We took Obispo Denoso (who hasn't been with the missionaries for a lesson in eight months until I asked him in Spanish!!-- so he came with us. He really trusts us too) who is our big gun of the ward, and tried to resolve his doubts this way. The Spirit was so strong and he said he'd pray again. So we will be setting a date with him next lesson after his prayer is answered. Such is the power of Spirit-guided scripture studying. I wish I would've been doing this before my mission.

Thank you so much for the package! There is a lot in there that I will be eating. All of it actually. I already tried the rice with some chicken and the sauce. Very very good and pretty easy. Today I am getting stuff for meat loaf so thank you for that. We have been getting fed pretty well this past week though. Elder Pollmeier leaving soon and having excellent relationships with ward members has their perks for not only being a great example of something I need to do, but also goodbye dinners. I had seven tacos of Seviche at one house. Seviche is like a salad with crab and salmon in it. It was sooo good. Also, for Easter we were invited to another feast at Obispo's. That is where we eat three pounds of meat every time we go haha. It was sooo good. I had a few thousand calories of Chilean awesomeness for the holiday. Homemade cheesecake at the end.

Right now, as a missionary, I am working on not being dependent. Not being dependent on Elder Pollmeier and his wisdom and experience, the investigators for being able to learn the concepts on their own, on the Spirit to be able to testify through me every time I speak, the members to following through on the help that we need, and the prayers that are offered on the missionaries' behalf all over the world. These are all great things and I know the Lord didn't send us out here to do it alone, but I need to learn how to push myself and learn for myself through the Spirit. Elder Pollmeier is a fantastic trainer in this way. He is so smart and experienced as a missionary, member, and person, but I need to learn things for myself. He is such a help in this way. I will ask him a question about the language, the investigators, teaching, or anything in the mission and he will say "what do you think?" Frustrated, I will come up with an answer. He then says "Ok sounds good." I reluctantly accept his answer which is supposed to help me learn for myself. It shows a great deal of humility in himself not to tell me everything he knows and patience and trust in me that I can learn on my own. This has helped me in leaps and bounds. My growth can hit expontential growth. He has taught me how to fish! Anyway, food for thought.

I love you all. Thanks for the advice and prayers and thoughts on my behalf. Thanks for the emails and news you are sending me. This is basically the only thing I send out of the state of Arizona each week so tell everyone I love them and appreciate their support and wish I could reply to them or contact them individually. I pray for you all--Evan and Grandma and the whole family too.

Love, Elder Jacob Parry