The Broadcast was awesome! If anything, I felt the Spirit the whole time during all the videos, clips, talks, and testimonies. My favorite part about it: there was nothing big/new. No distracting announcement to make the headlines. They talked about how to improve member-missionary work through the Bishop, WML, and the Ward Council. Every talk was awesome! There was a very strong Spirit of the hastening of the work as five apostles and the Prophet all shared thoughts. Make sure you go home and watch it when you get the chance! And keep in mind that even in the MP5th there are several missionary opportunities! The heavens rejoice equally both when one accepts the Gospel for the first time and when one comes back to the fold. AND there are several around us who are not active in their TESTIMONY of the Gospel. Help them understand the four easy-to-live principles! Also--have an open mind to the broadcast in what it can teach you in general. Out of the whole two hours, the part that stook out to me the very most was when Elder Nelson was talking about LOVE. That talk was an answer to my prayers because I am having trouble with love out here in the field. Everything we do needs to be out of love. We need to love everyone. I need to love the investigators, members, and other missionaries and see them through the eyes of God. We need to be bold in all that we do, but it HAS to be out of love. It's something that I really feel like I can't do right now! I am learning how though. I am learning that if you love the Savior, have confidence that your message can help others, and see what others can potentially become then it is easier. Elder Nelson advised us not to worry about offending our neighbors or friends with an invitation to learn more about the Gospel; he promised that if we do it out of love for them then they won't be offended. It was a powerful promise to all the nervous members and missionaries out doing missionary work.
So the line between what members and missionaries do should have been completely erased last night! I am looking forward to building off the added energy to missionary work. Elders Cardoso, Hughes, Miller, and I are praying every day for the Rama. Hopefully the broadcast got some of our members excited. For me it was something else that got me excited to return home and be a missionary there. Haha. Is that bad?
Elder Cardoso and I are really hoping we have one more transfer in us together here in the Estrella Branch (we'll find out next Tuesday). For us, the work has REALLY moved forward. We have been so busy. We proselyted through our dinners and lunches several times this week. We are finally getting regular meetings with our investigators and we are continuing to find more to teach! On Thursday we planned to knock doors for about ten minutes (our first time knocking doors together) at a piece of an apartment complex that Elder Cardoso felt good about. Do you know where this story is going? Haha. Well the first door we knocked--Now do you know where it is going?--Haha--The first door we knocked the lady offered us water and said she was baptized 16 years ago and her three kids hadn't been baptized. We invited her to church and set an appointment to come back. It was a perfect example of how the Lord guides His missionaries. On Friday our member dinner canceled and the member, Cesar Zayas, felt bad so he said he would bring something by. He brought like $30 worth of food from Red Robin. It was a dream come true. There was mayonnaise on the burgers, which Elder Cardoso is allergic to, so I had two American burgers. It was the first time in months! It was nice to be back to some real restaurant burgers! HAha. Oh and did I tell you that Cesar moved to this Branch from the Ward I was serving in before? It was good to see him again. One more non-spiritual experience- We set up a lunch with a member and a dinner with an investigator on Saturday and ate a few pounds of carne asada at both places. At dinner we left at 9:20 because the lesson hadn't ended. We biked three miles in ten minutes to get home before 9:30. It was awful. The meat somehow stayed in my stomach--but my stomach and legs were so shocked that I couldn't walk the rest of the night haha.
We have been busy though! It has been awesome to have so many lessons and even have invited some members to come along with us. We are still teaching Omar, Maria, Clemente, Valerie, the C. family, Jose, Rene, and some others. Did I tell you about Rene? He came to church again, went to the broadcast, and has been reading the Gospel Principles Book. We are trying to set an appointment with him and have spent the least time with him out of everyone and he is progressing the fastest. Haha. Really cool. As for Clemente--It is a long process with him right now. We have regular lessons but he has a hard time reading the Book of Mormon on his own and coming to church with his family. I feel like he is so close to not caring anymore... but I KNOW there's still some fire left in him. We are praying so hard for him. He needs to faithfully read and pray sincerely in order to know the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. He needs to do his part and I KNOW he will get an answer. He prayed last lesson--very sincerely--to know if this was the right path for him. No distinct answer. He needs to faithfully continue. I know he'll be fine. It is taking work though.
I don't know what else to talk about.. I read Mormon 9 this morning. It surprised me greatly the amount I had missed from that chapter in my unfocused reading of it before. Moroni talks about principles of all four missionary lessons and what he says about prophets in verses 7-10 and the resurrection right after that is very powerful. Read Moroni's stuff. He's the man.
The Arizona Phoenix Mission is the most obedient mission there is and I am honored to be a part of it! I have learned, in the recent weeks, one of the reasons of me being called here and that is because of the high level of obedience. It has been cool to discover that as I have served here and strived to be more obedient each day. Whether I see obvious blessings from my obedience or not, it doesn't matter because I know they come and that I enjoy them every day because of the level of obedience Elder Cardoso and I strive to maintain.
Be sure to tell Grandma Parry thank you for all the letters. I really love and appreciate them. They are proof that length does not matter, because I get excited every Friday to receive those and hear how things are from Grandma's perspective. Thank you :)
Sounds like Japan is a blast so far! I am jealous you got to go in the Tokyo Temple, visit Evan and Dad's old friends, and watch the tuna auction. And the story of Dad going to the Dodgers game made me laugh. both accounts of the story haha. As we cross the bridge from El Mirage into Youngtown every night there is a TV-billboard that posts D-backs scores so I see them often. Go D-Backs!
Still here. A Missionary. I am really working on Love right now. Like I mentioned above. Let me know if you have any tips. I am really working on being a happy, loving servant of the Lord. Love you all so much! That much I do know :D
Love, Elder Parry
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