Estrella Norte

So I can start with the update of how things went and how they are going. Elder Dodd went off to Glendale and Elder Miller went up to Prescott (burr). Elder Jones (Elder Miller's trainee) stayed in the branch and went down to the South (my old area). His new companion is Elder Nelson from New York. He is a stud and looks EXACTLY like Joseph Gordan Leavitt so we get a kick out of that. Elder Fife is indeed my new companion and he is great (I will talk about him more)! I went up to the North where Elder Miller was. He was here six transfers and I am on my sixth. If I stay two more transfers here to fully train Elder Fife (likely) then I will be Surprise King! Haha. Essentially, both companionships doubled into the areas and Elder Jones and I straight-up switched investigators. I am in a car and worry about my weight more than ever haha. I pass the Rangers stadium everytime I go to the church. It looks really fancy. I can't wait to come back and watch games there! We are staying with two other Elders. They are really fun and great missionaries; Elders Bangerter and Elliot. Elder Elliot wants to play pro baseball so he is fun/interesting to talk to. Elder Bangerter went to Bingham. It is a different culture than staying alone. Some days I miss Sun Valley apartments, so it will take some getting used to.

We had a Thanksgiving party on Friday. Lots of Mexican food again. It was good. AND.. five members invited their friends! There were like four nonmember families there!! It was fantastic. We had some great opportunities to help the newcomers understand that we also worship and learn about the Gospel here rather then just eat food and dance. The members are really catching fire I think. The past two weeks here have been something special. There is a huge multi-ward community Christmas party coming up in a few weeks and everyone was challenged to bring a friend to it. That will be exciting. We talked to President Aguirre for a bit yesterday and he was really excited and hopeful about the future. Everyone is doing well in the Branch. We met our first investigators in the area on Friday! The C. family came to the party, futbol the next day, and church the day after. They loved all of it. All four of them came to church and they were SWALLOWED up by the branch. They learned a lot and met everyone. Mario, Hermano Covarubbias, Hermano Soriano, and many others were great friends to them. Ignacio got a calling which was cool and the Sanchez family are new ward missionaries! Other than the C. family we don't really know any of our people. We are kind of blind here (Deja Vu) with the exception of me knowing the members and some investigators and the directions in driving. I miss my bike too haha. Things are going well too. We are starting up all the work together. It is kind of frustrating though. The other Elders are doing the same thing. All the investigators that I had 2-3-4-5 month tabs on are kind of getting shuffled around as the other Elders are getting their feet under them. Maybe the same is happening here. Well, we are doing our best. I trust President and the Spirit in this decision. I am excited.

 

Elder Fife is a great missionary. I am sponging off of his faith, energy, excitement, and obedience. I already have figured out several reasons why I was paired with him and for what I will get to experience and learn. Hopefully I don't selfishly do all the learning and he gets the chance to learn a little from me too. We are working hard together. I have been working on being positive this week. It would be easy to throw my hands in the air and say how negative everything is going and all the hard things that are happening to us. But how horrible would it be if that was his first impression of missionary work? I want him to have fun and enjoy this as we are exploring this new transfer together! We have a few leads in what we can do, so we will build off those and keep getting our feet under us together and if the Lord blesses Estrella Norte like he did with the Sur in the seven months I was there, then I am in for some more fun!

 

Online work is going great too. We are getting our ancient area books digitilized, which is boring and long, but we are finding a lot of people we can visit! It is pretty neat. Facebook is good too. So I think the Spirit has been telling me something this week; MP5 members keep popping up in my suggested friends list. It is happening consistently all of a sudden. So I keep adding them and adding them to the group thing so hopefully people can keep getting excited! Motivation is key. We need to motivate each other to be missionaries. That way obligation isn't involved. I was meaning to ask you--we still do email at the library but even messaging on the ipads for Facebook can get long--could you send a keyboard sometime when you get the chance? It would be a great help and I can pay you back when I get a job haha. Also- can you look for deals on sidebags or see if you find a nice black one for like $20? I am starting to feel left out with everyone getting one and now that I am off bike, backpacks don't have much use. 

 

Suggestion--If anyone asks about online missionary work. My NUMBER ONE suggestion is MORMON.ORG PROFILE! Everyone: get them! Take 25 minutes to make one and use it. It helps make Mormons look normal to those who don't think they are normal and it can really help people see real-life applications of the Gospel. They are so great and I have already used mine a few times online. They are invaluable tools for sharing the Gospel with friends, and even random people too. Family: I commit you all to taking some time this week to make the profiles. They will bless and strengthen your testimony as you realize all that you believe and know to be true and they will bless the lives of many others the Lord is working on preparing right now. Every Mormon should have one.

 

It has been fun! Can you believe how close to coming home I am!?

 

Love, Elder Parry