Elder Jake Parry

Elder Jake Parry
Arizona Phoenix Mission

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Phoenix Temple Cultural Celebration & Dedication: Epic!

Dear Family,

Definitely one of the best weeks of my mission. WOW. It was
incredible. I will start with the not-as-cool (but still really cool).
Last week we had our first WebEx meeting. It was a revolutionary
moment in missionary work! President Griffin, the Assistants, and 16
other companionships in the mission met together wherever we had wifi
to be in an internet chatroom. We had an hour long meeting and saved
much time and miles. It was epic.

So.. My last rodeo is tomorrow! Thankfully, I am going to the rodeo
and will be coming back to the same area with Elder McCuch. He is only
my second companion of 3 transfers and I am most definitely excited
for it. He is an incredible example to me and the work that we can get
done in 6 weeks to bring souls to Christ and prepare for future
reaping. Alexa y Sebby are getting baptized in 2 weeks! We have a few
others that are pretty hesitant. Angel (Our friend who is visiting
from Cuba) said he moved from 31% sure to 50% sure. He said he got his
answer about the Book of Mormon. He is LEGIT. Hermano Carcamo, his
friend, is the man. If he doesn't get his endowments before I go, I
want to come back and do it with him! This transfer will be WILD!
Tomorrow is my last transfer meeting, then Thanksgiving in a week,
then the last meeting with PResident and zone meetings, then Christmas
Conferences in Mesa again, then Christmas, then the Berrellezas go
through the temple, then I come home. All about a week apart from each
other. I am very excited for this transfer. Most of all, and this may
sound cliche, I am just excited to get to work. There is a lot to do
and a lot of potential during the Holiday season. Elder McCuch and I
have a lot of momentum having been together for 2 learning the ward
together. Yesterday we had a slight wake-up call haha.. We woke up to
exercise in FREEZING wheather (55 degrees; who knew that was freezing!
haha). It was so cold. Our jog made us super sick so we were inside
most of the day for like the first times in our missions. We got
better after sleeping, but don't want to have that happen again. It
felt very raro! Lots of work to get done. For the second time in a row
our zone only transferred one person out of 28. And I thought
President Taylor didn't transfer people very often. Speaking of that
man. WE SAW HIM AT THE CELEBRATION!!! He is looking good. He gave us
all hugs with tears streaming down. President Griffin convinced him to
just say hi to all of us #clashofstyles. He said that he is a Branch
President in the MTC. I love that man so much. It was good to see him.

The Spirit was very very strong at the Cultural Celebration. It
definitely fired me and all of us up when we began marching on the
track singing Called to Serve. The Sign Language/Be a Light was also
very powerful. The strongest impression I got all day was that of
happiness for a new temple. I truly felt like I was part of the
celebration of a new temple closeby. Even though I am not an Arizona
native I felt legitimately part of the group 0f 4300 youth and their
leaders. I felt like I have grown close to the wards and people out
here that I could legitimately be a part of the celebration. It really
was a sweet feeling to be there. We were there like 9 hours practicing
and doing a lot of hanging around too. I hung with Elders Fife, Jones,
Nelson, Ramos, Miller, a bunch of other missionary friends and I swung
by the Estrella, Estrellita, and La Joya ward tents to see all the
members. It was such a memorable day. President Uchtdorf had some
great things to say to us and all the General Authorities seemed to
love it. I was high-fiving every youth I could after the celebration.
Needless to say, I was elated all weekend long. The dedication was
powerful. So, keep this on the DL, but our Obispo gave Alexa, sebby,
and Anah tickets to the dedication. They were probably the only
investigators in the mission who ended up seeing it haha. They
absolutely loved it. The Prophet spoke. Our Stake President gave a
prayer and the Temple President (from our stake) spoke. I think I will
move to this stake so they can give me a more permanent calling here
haha (by Dec 30 it will be 11 months here). The meeting was very
spiritual. They talked about dedicating our lives to the temple. I
don't ever need to hear that more than once to know it though! I think
I want to get married in this temple. I feel very attached to it,
especially the past few weeks.

We did temple service! TWICE! It really is quite a blessing to be a
part of this whole thing. My appreciation has really grown for those
preparing a new temple. There was a lot of work put in; a lot of
behind-the-scenes work. Thursday we went up with 8 buddies from the
zone to create a platform and put down carpet for the dedication. The
platform was up against the edifice so that the Prophet and others
could walk right up to the cornerstone and put the mortar in. So we
saw the platform we made on TV during the broadcast! That service was
a whole lot of fun! The members in charge really trusted us so we just
cut carpet, stapled it in, painted, and did random chores on our own
together as missionaries. It was fun. Sunday night after the
dedication we PUT IN THE FURNITURE! There was a gigantic concrete
wharehouse in the basement just stuffed full of very nice temple
furniture. We would go to it to grab pieces then we distributed them
to the various parts of the temple. My contributions to the Celestial
room were a really nice lamp and one really flowery armchair haha. It
was truly something I will not forget. I was roaming around the temple
for a couple hours, carrying stuff and seeing all the features of it
over and over again. That is one exceptionally beautiful temple. We
got to sneak in the bride's room. It was very pretty too. The whole
weekend was a neat experience. INOLVIDABLE! I am very happy for all
the wonderful members of the church here in the Phoenix Valley. They
will enjoy very much the blessings of a temple nearby.

I love you all! Keep going to the temple!!!

Love, Elder Parry

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