tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14547972547354176262024-03-05T10:47:52.200-08:00Elder Jake ParryArizona Phoenix Mission
Spanish SpeakingBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-56288841458011090102014-12-22T16:39:00.000-08:002014-12-28T16:40:22.875-08:00LAST LETTER FROM PHOENIX: #perfectionpendingWhat a miraculous week. So basically the West Maricopa zone has had a<br />month baptism record of 14 for 37 months and this month, December<br />2014, 18 people made a covenant with God and were baptized. NEW<br />RECORD!!! This weekend 12 people were baptized. We are on pace to<br />tying the mission record, in a month in any zone, next week (19) AND,<br />if we see a BIG MIRACLE, we can do something no zone has done in the<br />Arizona Phoenix Mission before: 20 baptisms in a month. It is<br />definitely possible; we have some ideas. Pray that our faith is<br />sufficient as this next weekend comes around.<br /><br />Angel was confirmed this week, interviewed, and given the Aaronic<br />Priesthood. It was really cool. He is a quick worker! He is excited to<br />share the Gospel with his family in Cuba when they meet again. La Joya<br />was such a blast! The two twins we baptized needed the Holy Ghost too,<br />but their dad is super Mexican so he is late to a lot of important<br />things. Bishop Menchaka was folding up the chair after Angel's<br />confirmation--saying that we will do the confirmations later when<br />their dad, Peregrino, got there--but as he was doing that, Peregrino<br />walked through the double doors and just soared right on up to the<br />stand, out of the blue. It was pretty funny. He cruised right on up<br />past the congregation to do those saving ordinances while finishing to<br />adjust his clothes. The Primary gave us very large Christmas boxes! I<br />got 19 toothbrushes and a bunch of stuff like that. I will probably<br />take a lot of it to college. This ward loves missionaries so much, it<br />is such a blessing to be here with them.<br /><br />Well, I guess I will make a little more purpose to this letter than<br />most others. It has been an extremely awesome ride. I think the past<br />two years are much more easily described as joyful and happy rather<br />than fun. It has been very fulfilling; I couldn't possibly trade it<br />for anything. It hasn't been too tough--I'm looking forward to life's<br />challenges when I get back, with a little experience and a strong<br />foundation to build off of--but it indeed has been downright tough at<br />times. I have made some eternal relationships with some pretty darn<br />awesome people. I loved my first six weeks in Peoria--everything I<br />learned, everyone I met, the people that helped me--but each transfer<br />since has been better and better. I am looking forward to the same<br />kind of pattern in my life. They were probably the best two years so<br />far but I look forward to even more joyful times ahead.<br /><br />I have learned how to apply the Atonement better to my life.<br />I have learned how to live the Doctrine of Christ on a daily basis.<br />I have learned more about myself, who I am and who I can become as I<br />stay strong.<br />I learned that I need to get my butt to the temple more (I learned<br />that before the mission haha).<br />Despite limited written and spoken communication, I feel a much<br />stronger love for all of my family; on both sides of the veil.<br />I have learned that the work is hastening and that, despite our<br />weaknesses, we are all needed.<br />I have learned that there is not a more fulfilling work than trying to<br />be like Christ as we serve and help all others to draw closer to him.<br />I have learned about the strengthening power of the Atonement and how<br />we can be transformed as we strive with faith, enlisting the Lord's<br />help.<br />I haven't learned tidiness yet.<br />But I'm still working on that one and a bunch of others, and I will<br />have them down so well one day. #perfectionpending<br /><br />See you Tuesday.<br /><br />With much love, Elder Jacob ParryBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-21618766633201039392014-12-15T16:30:00.000-08:002014-12-17T16:31:44.567-08:00#whitechristmasDearest Family,<br /><br />Angel got baptized yesterday!!! He is a walking miracle of a<br />conversion. That man embraced the Gospel so very fast. He is our<br />friend from Cuba. He was one of the most prepared people I have been<br />able to teach on the mission, but at the same time, it took some good<br />skilled teaching in order to be able to let the Spirit get to him. So<br />he was a fun challenge. We also can't understand his thick Cuban<br />dialect so that was a challenge. Anyway, he will continue to grow in<br />the Gospel the rest of his life, and bring it back to his family in<br />Cuba! I thought of a part of my Patriarchal Blessing as I talk him<br />with Elder McCuch and imagining his family finding the gospel one day<br />soon too. He was a humble man last night after the baptism. Pretty<br />exciting times.<br /><br />Speaking of exciting, last saturday we did EIGHT BAPTISMAL INTERVIEWS.<br />It was legit. The FAmily of 6 is good to go (and they are getting<br />baptized in a ward with a 4-year convert baptism drought). Next<br />weekend, if all 11 (and they are solid investigators) make it to their<br />baptisms then we will have beat the record by 3 with one week left! I<br />know we can do it (BTW: We were talking to Brother Gonzales about this<br />at Red Lobster two weeks ago and he said 'I don't want to deflate your<br />balloons or anything but according to the mission indicators you will<br />have six baptisms in December.' A few miracles have happened and we are<br />teaching some legit people, so we are going to break the record. I was<br />sharing our projected success with Elder McCuch quietly in Gospel<br />Principles yesterday and he whispered; "Brother Gonzales, you were wrong!"<br />Haha. We are on pace.) #whitechristmas<br /><br />Tomorrow we have Christmas conferences. I am super excited. Our<br />Montana friend is paying for us all to eat at the Old Country Buffett.<br />Should be delicious. I will also be doing a session. That will warm me<br />up for the bi-weekly visits at home.<br /><br />Love elder parry<br /><br />PS: The Galarza family is driving up to Utah for New Years and they said<br />they would take my bike!! Oh Yeah!!! They said they would drop it off<br />at our house haha.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-34267578856262900172014-12-08T20:14:00.000-08:002014-12-14T20:14:28.837-08:00My Favorite Letter Yet (Becky)Dear Family,<br /><br />WOW!! This week was mind-blowing. Seriously. I will tell you why.<br /><br />Monday night we got a call from the beloved Elder Bryant (Assistant)<br />and he said that we were going to go out for lessons with Brother John<br />Gonzales from the Missionary Department for the night. We frantically<br />called a bunch of people so we had appointments the next day for sure<br />haha. It was so cool though. Hermano Gonzales knows his stuff and he<br />really really helped us out. We were coming back from the mission home<br />with him and he told us to pick somewhere to eat. Elder McCuch and I<br />agreed on Subway. He says, "SUBWAY!!! I am going to have to veto that.<br />Sounds sissy." So I proclaimed on impulse; "Red Lobster!!" And he<br />loved the idea, so we dined like gentlemen that evening. It was a<br />blast. All night he was talking with us about the mission; what is<br />going well, what is going bad, key indicators, how the zone is doing,<br />how to get more baptisms, planning, and some very specific things we<br />could apply to our area after he was with us for the night. We<br />actually got quite the chastisement all night. It was very loving and<br />very wise counsel so we didn't take any of it as 'chastisement' as you<br />might think it sounds like when you read the word. He had a lot to<br />say. He had been a Stake President, Mission President, CIA agent, and<br />has worked in the Misionary Dept. It was a privilege and a very rare<br />opportunity to be with him. It was cool. We had a meeting with the<br />Mission leadership the next day. We got lovingly put on the spot for<br />the good and the bad the next day. It was fun. He taught us a lot<br />about precision planning and really using key indicators to help us<br />improve and set our vision high for the future. President Griffin<br />really wants this mission to baptize more and he is really trying to<br />make it happen. Things are going well in the zone and in the La Joya<br />ward in that aspect. This week we FINALLY figured out a problem the<br />ward has been having for years; the Gutierrez twins (members---kindof.<br />I will explain!) have been going to church with their family for 5+<br />years. They are 13 and were baptized, but all proof of the baptism was<br />lost so we are doing the baptism again. Ay ay ay. Obispo Menchaca<br />joked about taking a picture at their baptism with them holding a sign<br />up of the date the ordinance was effectuated so we would have proof<br />haha. So they will be baptized with Angel, our Cuban friend, this<br />Sunday. I am so pumped!!! Things look good. Anyway, John Gonzales, and<br />his friend from the Mission Dept. came and changed the face of the<br />mission in a one-day one 8 hour meeting. I am very sad to have come<br />across this training so close to the end of my service here. I asked<br />him what I could do to apply it after my mission and he said that a<br />promise was given in the Mission Dept. when PMG came out that if any<br />of them mastered Chapter 8 of PMG they would triple their income. I<br />will try to apply it.<br /><br />I drove to the mission home this week with Elder Anderson from our<br />apartment. He has diabetes and feels real sick. It was a fun visit. I<br />got a temple recommend and just soaked up the time with President and<br />Sister Griffin. He is one hilarious President. He is so Montana. They<br />told funny stories of him chewing out missionaries over the phone<br />while Sister Griffin asked for the phone from him to say loving things<br />to them. An new Elder called, sad that his only sister was getting<br />married and he wasn't there, and President said "Quit being a sissy,<br />she got married, she didn't die!" It was hilarious. He is one good<br />mission President and he really trusts me. He is without doubt the<br />most honest person I have ever met. I corrected him in something minor<br />that I noticed through an email last week and he thanked me for it and<br />wished that everyone would just be honest with him because he knows he<br />is trying. It is cool to see the differences in PT and PG<br />#polaropposites<br /><br />This week was just another spectacularly awesome weeks in the books.<br />There is a lot going on. We are still on track to breaking the West<br />Maricopa baptism record this month!!!! 23 on date and we need 15 of<br />them to follow through. Pray for Angel and the rest of the gang this<br />month. OH!! And pray for Anah Toledo. We need to get her MARRIED!! SI<br />SE PUEDE!!! WE CAN DO IT!! We are going to pray like it all depends on<br />God and it would be up to us to allow him to steer her.<br /><br />The very strongest I felt the Spirit this week was in zone meeting. I<br />was leading a discussion on faith and miracles. WOW. My sense of<br />"feeling" was so strong it almost overcame my sight. I felt it so<br />strong. We talked about how powerful our faith can be as it is coupled<br />with diligence to do everything we can. Miracles do happen. A lot of<br />the time, it is up to us. God always has final say, but we need to use<br />our resources and tap into his power. It is not his will that only X<br />number of people are baptized or found in an area or in a mission. His<br />will is that they are all found and baptized. We can make it happen in<br />our prayers and action. I have learned a lot with Elder McCuch about<br />communicating with God all day long through action, word, thoughts,<br />and deed. We can show him a lot through our plans and diligence in<br />carrying out the plans then through confirming all that we do with Him<br />through our prayers. That way He will "consecrate our performance."<br />Two people can do ANYTHING if one of those people is God.<br /><br />Love, Elder ParryBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-80907138518279643422014-12-01T20:24:00.002-08:002014-12-01T20:24:46.702-08:00Thanksgiving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Wuzup family!?<br /><br />Thanksgiving was a blast! We got a new apartment this week and we<br />wanted to take advantage of the free time so we spent the first five<br />hours of the day carrying furniture in the truck across the apartment<br />complex. It was actually really efficient. The new apartment was<br />trashed haha. We have hardwood instead of carpet in the new place<br />because of the toll missionaries have put on the carpet haha. It was a<br />unique thanksgiving activity though for sure! We ate dinner with the<br />Garcia and Toledo families. They were both so awesome. The Garcias run<br />a sushi business so we had delicious Mexican sushi and a lot of the<br />Thanksgiving usuals at both places. The Toledos went all out for us four<br />Elders. They folded some napkins in the shapes of white shirts and<br />ties and they fed us full. Elder McCuch is super healthy so him<br />"falling hard" was fun to see. I am glad they all added you on Facebook<br />
so you could see what we were up to!<br /><br />Alexa and Sebby Toledo got baptized yesterday!!! Like always, it was a<br />very special experience. Anah will be next! All her friends in the<br />ward are working on her too, so she will get there... Once they are<br />married!!!! Ay caray. It was so sweet though. Sebby might have ADD and<br />he is crazy. So things are always interesting. When he got in the<br />water he was freaking out about how cold it was. It was funny. Alexa<br />is very spiritual so she really took the cold water strongly. It was<br />special for the whole Toledo family and Elder McCuch and I have known<br />them the whole time we have been together so it was sweet. I told<br />Elder McCuch that it is great that we can draw so close to such a cool<br />family like theirs, but it is even cooler to do it with a companion<br />you like. And I really think I have drawn closer to him as we have<br />enjoyed so much with other families since we got together. He is a<br />good man.<br /><br />I was reading a lot of family history this week! I was listening to<br />the David Archuleta Christmas album and it brought the Spirit into the<br />apartment really strong. It sparked a bunch of interest so I read the<br />stuff Dad sent about Alvarus Hanks and John Parry. It was so neat! If<br />we just take some effort to learn from and about our ancestors then we<br />would all see and feel the purpose! The Spirit of Elijah is strong. I<br />was inspired by not just the stories of achievement and adventure, but<br />also of their personalities, attributes, and every day behaviors that<br />made them the people that they were. It was fun to hear about the<br />hand-waving tradition of Grandma and Grandpa Parry when we leave their<br />place has lived on. Alvarus was a lot like Grandpa Davis from what the<br />stories read. John's story is inspiring too. I liked reading about<br />(his sister?) who, on her deathbead, told John and someone else about<br />how their religion was a joke and that it couldn't save them! Haha.<br />Great stories. Thanks for being so on top of the family history<br />family!<br /><br />That package was SO AWESOME! I do declare it was the best package of<br />my mission. Thank you very much. I am going to be enjoying it all<br />month long. It will be a lot of fun for the members and investigators<br />I have been working with. I have already given out 5 ties to them. I<br />have plenty more!<br /><br />Love, Elder ParryBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-83701077208626019672014-11-24T15:32:00.005-08:002014-11-24T15:32:53.884-08:00100 New Investigators<div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1416871846585_2611">
Hello Family!<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1416871846585_2613">
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This week was wild! My last rodeo was on Wednesday and let me tell you how cool it was! It was very anti-climactic haha. It was about and hour shorter than usual (60 minutes exactly). There were 1-2 transfers per zone. I have also decided that I don't know like 80% of the missionaries in the mission now. Time to go I guess!</div>
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This area, and the zone, are absolutely exploding for this upcoming month. I remember writing a letter home about how I was disillusioned about numbers and key indicators. Well, I have learned a lot about them out here and I finally feel like I am getting a grasp on how to use them for our good. We set a goal as a zone to find 100 new investigators in the month of November and we have found 82 so far!!! We need to find 18 by the end of this Sunday and we should be able to do it. Our zone is the highest populated geographical area so we have been going crazy talking with everyone. Elder McCuch and I contacted in a park for an hour yesterday and we talked to 4 families! I was feeling off before we left the car so we prayed to have a little confidence to talk with strangers and it worked! Kind of cool. A New Christmas initiative just started called "He is the Gift." It is very legit. They are doing more NYC advertising and they are "taking over" Youtube for a day on December 7th. Keep your eyes peeled and watch the video when it comes out the day after thanksgiving. Currently, we have 19 people set to be baptized in December. WOW! The West Maricopa record is 14. WE CAN DO IT!!! We are working hard, staying consecrated, making sacrifices, and praying like it all depends on how fervent we pray! I am excited. It should happen. Our area absolutely exploded this week. Sebby and Alexa passed their interview and are very excited for Sunday. I think the entire La Joya ward will be going. They are ward favorites. Yahira, Jennifer, and Angel all accepted to be baptized in December too this past week! Actually 2 of them were yesterday. Angel is from Cuba; he doesn't know anything about Christianity, He hasn't heard about the church, and communication will be limited between him and his family while he is here. HE called his wife and she was very excited to hear about the church and what he is learning here. It is cool to see. I feel like ANgel is bringing back eternal life to his family who have, and forever would, live in darkness if it weren't for him coming here and finding the Gospel. The Restoration makes perfect sense to him. HE is prepared and guided by the Spirit. We really hope he gets baptized the 14th or at least some day in December. Anah (Sebby and Alexa's mom) really wants to get married and should this month! Then she will be baptized. Big things are happening and we are going to do everything we can to see it all happen!</div>
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The La Joya ward is awesome. I am having so much fun in it too. These members are sooo cool.</div>
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Well that might be it for today. I am eating Turkey dinner with the Garcia family (they own a Mexican sushi restaurant) and the Toledo family. Hopefully don't get too stuffed! We are staying super busy so the time is flying. Love you all very much.</div>
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PS it is freezing down here! Have you seen the temperature in the mornings?</div>
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Love, Elder Parry</div>
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Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-14077497520657838422014-11-18T18:33:00.000-08:002014-11-19T18:33:55.794-08:00Phoenix Temple Cultural Celebration & Dedication: Epic!Dear Family,<br /><br />Definitely one of the best weeks of my mission. WOW. It was<br />incredible. I will start with the not-as-cool (but still really cool).<br />Last week we had our first WebEx meeting. It was a revolutionary<br />moment in missionary work! President Griffin, the Assistants, and 16<br />other companionships in the mission met together wherever we had wifi<br />to be in an internet chatroom. We had an hour long meeting and saved<br />much time and miles. It was epic.<br /><br />So.. My last rodeo is tomorrow! Thankfully, I am going to the rodeo<br />and will be coming back to the same area with Elder McCuch. He is only<br />my second companion of 3 transfers and I am most definitely excited<br />for it. He is an incredible example to me and the work that we can get<br />done in 6 weeks to bring souls to Christ and prepare for future<br />reaping. Alexa y Sebby are getting baptized in 2 weeks! We have a few<br />others that are pretty hesitant. Angel (Our friend who is visiting<br />from Cuba) said he moved from 31% sure to 50% sure. He said he got his<br />answer about the Book of Mormon. He is LEGIT. Hermano Carcamo, his<br />friend, is the man. If he doesn't get his endowments before I go, I<br />want to come back and do it with him! This transfer will be WILD!<br />Tomorrow is my last transfer meeting, then Thanksgiving in a week,<br />then the last meeting with PResident and zone meetings, then Christmas<br />Conferences in Mesa again, then Christmas, then the Berrellezas go<br />through the temple, then I come home. All about a week apart from each<br />other. I am very excited for this transfer. Most of all, and this may<br />sound cliche, I am just excited to get to work. There is a lot to do<br />and a lot of potential during the Holiday season. Elder McCuch and I<br />have a lot of momentum having been together for 2 learning the ward<br />together. Yesterday we had a slight wake-up call haha.. We woke up to<br />exercise in FREEZING wheather (55 degrees; who knew that was freezing!<br />haha). It was so cold. Our jog made us super sick so we were inside<br />most of the day for like the first times in our missions. We got<br />better after sleeping, but don't want to have that happen again. It<br />felt very raro! Lots of work to get done. For the second time in a row<br />our zone only transferred one person out of 28. And I thought<br />President Taylor didn't transfer people very often. Speaking of that<br />man. WE SAW HIM AT THE CELEBRATION!!! He is looking good. He gave us<br />all hugs with tears streaming down. President Griffin convinced him to<br />just say hi to all of us #clashofstyles. He said that he is a Branch<br />President in the MTC. I love that man so much. It was good to see him.<br /><br />The Spirit was very very strong at the Cultural Celebration. It<br />definitely fired me and all of us up when we began marching on the<br />track singing Called to Serve. The Sign Language/Be a Light was also<br />very powerful. The strongest impression I got all day was that of<br />happiness for a new temple. I truly felt like I was part of the<br />celebration of a new temple closeby. Even though I am not an Arizona<br />native I felt legitimately part of the group 0f 4300 youth and their<br />leaders. I felt like I have grown close to the wards and people out<br />here that I could legitimately be a part of the celebration. It really<br />was a sweet feeling to be there. We were there like 9 hours practicing<br />and doing a lot of hanging around too. I hung with Elders Fife, Jones,<br />Nelson, Ramos, Miller, a bunch of other missionary friends and I swung<br />by the Estrella, Estrellita, and La Joya ward tents to see all the<br />members. It was such a memorable day. President Uchtdorf had some<br />great things to say to us and all the General Authorities seemed to<br />love it. I was high-fiving every youth I could after the celebration.<br />Needless to say, I was elated all weekend long. The dedication was<br />powerful. So, keep this on the DL, but our Obispo gave Alexa, sebby,<br />and Anah tickets to the dedication. They were probably the only<br />investigators in the mission who ended up seeing it haha. They<br />absolutely loved it. The Prophet spoke. Our Stake President gave a<br />prayer and the Temple President (from our stake) spoke. I think I will<br />move to this stake so they can give me a more permanent calling here<br />haha (by Dec 30 it will be 11 months here). The meeting was very<br />spiritual. They talked about dedicating our lives to the temple. I<br />don't ever need to hear that more than once to know it though! I think<br />I want to get married in this temple. I feel very attached to it,<br />especially the past few weeks.<br /><br />We did temple service! TWICE! It really is quite a blessing to be a<br />part of this whole thing. My appreciation has really grown for those<br />preparing a new temple. There was a lot of work put in; a lot of<br />behind-the-scenes work. Thursday we went up with 8 buddies from the<br />zone to create a platform and put down carpet for the dedication. The<br />platform was up against the edifice so that the Prophet and others<br />could walk right up to the cornerstone and put the mortar in. So we<br />saw the platform we made on TV during the broadcast! That service was<br />a whole lot of fun! The members in charge really trusted us so we just<br />cut carpet, stapled it in, painted, and did random chores on our own<br />together as missionaries. It was fun. Sunday night after the<br />dedication we PUT IN THE FURNITURE! There was a gigantic concrete<br />wharehouse in the basement just stuffed full of very nice temple<br />furniture. We would go to it to grab pieces then we distributed them<br />to the various parts of the temple. My contributions to the Celestial<br />room were a really nice lamp and one really flowery armchair haha. It<br />was truly something I will not forget. I was roaming around the temple<br />for a couple hours, carrying stuff and seeing all the features of it<br />over and over again. That is one exceptionally beautiful temple. We<br />got to sneak in the bride's room. It was very pretty too. The whole<br />weekend was a neat experience. INOLVIDABLE! I am very happy for all<br />the wonderful members of the church here in the Phoenix Valley. They<br />will enjoy very much the blessings of a temple nearby.<br /><br />I love you all! Keep going to the temple!!!<br /><br />Love, Elder Parry<br />Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-36667291486317965632014-11-10T09:54:00.000-08:002014-11-14T09:55:16.311-08:00Momma's Boy :-)Another great week in the work of The Lord! So, don't get me wrong, I<br />
miss you all very, very much. Especially mom, cause I think I am a<br />
momma's boy. But I don't feel like I have been out here that long. I<br />
feel like I should be out here a year longer to have a mission as hard<br />
those of other missionaries in the mission that share their struggles<br />
with me. Anyway, I will be home December 30th. I am excited for my<br />
Christmas present! Can you not put candy in it? I ate ice cream for<br />
the first time today in weeks and it made me sick. I am eating well.<br />
It must be that Montana rancher and his steel-cut oats that is helping<br />
me eat better.<br />
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Life in La Joya is pretty chill. Once again, I was wrong to think that<br />
I wouldn't love another ward as much as I loved the previous wards.<br />
This place is awesome! It might've been my last Sunday in the ward<br />
considering that it is the temple dedication next sunday in place of<br />
the regular service. Saturday is the Cultural Celebration!!! It will<br />
probably be a day I never forget. Should be pretty exciting. Do you<br />
have the broadcast information? If I am one of the lucky ones, I will<br />
be going directly to the temple after the celebration to move<br />
furniture into the building until 2 AM!! I went on exchanges into the<br />
Estrella Ward finally. Can you believe it has been 4 months since I<br />
was serving there!? Anyway, I love it there. I talked to the Berelleza<br />
and Noris families again. Get this, the Berellezas are the legit<br />
Recent convert family we were working with. They have been trying to<br />
get to the temple for like 6 months. They FINALLY got all their<br />
interviews and picked the date: DECEMBER 27th!!! I am Totally going<br />
haha. I am really, really excited. Speaking of saving ordinances,<br />
Alexa and Sebby (the kids of Gerardo and Anah) are REALLY excited to<br />
be baptized. We decided it is not worth it to wait for them to get<br />
married. So we are baptizing the cute little nine-yearolds. It was<br />
such a sweet lesson with Hermano Ruiz last night. He is one of the<br />
most converted men I have ever met. He went with us to the Toledos<br />
(Gerardo and Anah). Alexa said she is so excited to get baptized that<br />
she felt like a "chiva loca" (crazy goat). It was the cutest thing. It<br />
was actually a full house at church today. Many people came. Many<br />
people came that hadn't been in awhile. The Temple does miracles. When<br />
you involve the temple in the work it will work mighty miracles. It<br />
has been instant re-activation for many people who weren't presently<br />
attending. It has been a fun week. Elder Johnson (my roommate and<br />
former companion)'s girlfriend and her sister are getting baptized in<br />
a month!! It was pretty exciting news for us today in emails. I don't<br />
know how she hid from the missionaries in Logan for 19 years of her<br />
life, but oh well. The work is hastening.<br />
<br />
WOW. What a work for you all! I can't say that it would be better for<br />
us that Caroline stays home because blessings will flood into our<br />
family and her posterity because of her decision to serve. She will do<br />
so well. I love her attitude in that little letter I read: something<br />
about not worrying about me, I am happy and not worrying about<br />
anything. That makes me feel like a really chump and baby as I<br />
remember my first week in the MTC hahahaha. That is so vintage<br />
Caroline. She is such a strong person. The Lord is going to put her<br />
with spiritually challenged and emotionally unstable companions her<br />
whole mission because she will help them so much! Sounds like football<br />
has been a whirlwind too. You can never get enough Coach Wall! I can't tell you how often in my mission his cheesy, repetitive, yet very true and inspiring quotes have popped in<br />
my head since I have been out here. Lately I have been hearing a lot<br />
of; "let it all hang out (his always-inspiring line for the last brave<br />
quarter of the day)!"<br />
<br />
This past week I am seeing and feeling the fruits of studying the<br />
doctrine very thoroughly. President Griffin is turning this mission<br />
upside-down in how we do things. We are all focusing really hard on<br />
the doctrine in our studies. He wants us to spend an hour of our 3<br />
studies studying nothing but the lessons and the scriptures listed. He<br />
wants us to take a month a lesson until we have it just locked in. I<br />
have had the best studies of my mission the last week. Him and Elder<br />
Corbridge, and the writers of PMG are right about putting the doctrine<br />
in their exactly how it should be taught (with one exception/trump<br />
card: The guidance of the Spirit). The only sin or mistake we ever<br />
could make is one made because of misunderstanding of the doctrine we<br />
know and strive to live and love.<br />
<br />
I can't really think of anything else. Just feel like chatting with<br />
y'all today. Peace out!<br />
<br />
Love Elder ParryBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-1188174339730824262014-11-03T09:50:00.000-08:002014-11-14T09:51:32.463-08:00More Temple VisitsIt was as splendid week! For Halloween me and 5 other Elders just<br />worked out in our apartment complex haha. I didn't really want to so I<br />just took pictures of all of them. But I am still working out okay. I<br />am running three miles and Hermana Zelaya (missionary) told me today<br />that I look skinnier in the face and I feel skinnier so I am going to<br />keep working on that! Elder McCuch is a ruthless trainer. We went to<br />the temple twice more this week! I got to go at night with Lupita so<br />that was neat. She is the bomb. She asked many many questions and had<br />a memorable experience. I think I went the busiest night of the month.<br />It was a 40 minute line to get on the bus and it was start and stop<br />inside the temple. A lot of people. The Temple President is in our<br />stake and he said that 170,000 people visited it in three weeks. Elder<br />McCuch and I went Saturday morning with our cuban friend, Angel, and<br />the Peruvian member, Carcamo, who feeds us a lot of food. Some<br />miracles really came to past this last weekend so three less-active<br />members came with us too. One of them I had never met before after<br />having passed by her house 8 or 9 times. We just messaged her randomly<br />on facebook and she came the next day! It was a sweet ending to a<br />frustrating three weeks because we organized a lot, but a lot fell<br />through. But a few very wonderful experiences were had at the temple<br />:) We should be hearing plans soon about moving furniture into the<br />building.<br /><br />Stake conference was a blast. I love the West Maricopa zone. It was<br />kind of funny too. I feel like I know half the stake just from<br />exchanges and getting to know the missionaries and their members and<br />investigators. I said hi to a lot of random Spanish and English<br />people. I joked around about how they were going to extend me a stake<br />calling at the conference. They didn't. But they probably will when I<br />move back. It got me excited to maybe getting transferring. I imagine<br />it will happen actually. We will see in 2 weeks! The Temple Dedication<br />is in 13 days and the celebration is in 12! It is coming fast.<br />yesterday for Stake Conference President Uchtdorf and Elder<br />Christofferson spoke to us and 96 other Arizona Stakes by broadcast.<br />We are getting a lot of prophetic instruction lately. They talked a<br />lot about being great parents and families. Elder Christofferson said<br />some cool things about how the Gospel needs to be an interior<br />influence and not an exterior one. President Uchtdorf said he got his<br />endowments taken out at the Mesa Temple! He also talked about the new<br />temple and reminded us that "the temple is not for perfect people; if<br />that were so, not only would no one be able to come in, there wouldn't<br />be anyone on the other side of the door to open it!" Elder Foster of<br />the 70 said that every time we say brother or sister to one another it<br />is testifying to that person of the eternal nature of the family of<br />God and that He is our Father. Good stuff! As always, the Work of<br />Salvation night session was phenomenal. Our stake leaders are very in<br />tune with the Spirit and give very captivating talks. I enjoy this<br />place.<br /><br />So Elder McCuch's and I's hearts were hit hard last night when Anah<br />told us that she won't know if she can be married or not until two<br />months from now because of her citizen stuff. I feel like I have met<br />and worked with so many prepared people out here but this whole<br />marriage mess is changing everything up for the worse! Oh well, I know<br />they will be married and baptized. I just wish we could all have a<br />little more faith! Elder McCuch and I were talking this week; none of<br />us really have faith anymore. People don't take steps into the dark<br />like they used to. We DON'T TRUST GOD. If we had a little more<br />knowledge of what He is like and what He is willing to help us with,<br />or even just a belief in that, or even just a DESIRE to believe, then<br />we would be able to see so many more miracles. Oh well, we all fall<br />short of the glory of God and we are all working on it. Caution:<br />Perfection Pending for all of us. Gerardo is staying very close to the<br />Spirit though and is drawing closer and closer to God.<br /><br />Other than that, our area has had a tough week. A lot of meetings,<br />temple visits, Elder McCuch was a little sick, Halloween and other<br />stuff. It is getting freezing down here! Maybe Elder McCuch and I will<br />bike a little this week. His Dad is doing great by the way. He will be<br />finishing tests soon then he will just be on medication for a bit.<br />Thanks for all the prayers.<br /><br />I love you all! T-minus less-than-24-hours until Caroline is off! I<br />promise it will only be about 8 weeks of having more than one child<br />away from home! Only 7 more emails I will be sending you! Say hi to<br />Troy, Dallin, Alec, and Brit for me too please. And pray that I can<br />make some progression out here, lest I return home the same goof I<br />left out as.<br /><br />Love you! Elder Jacob ParryBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-12171238742565550662014-10-27T09:34:00.000-07:002014-11-14T09:46:44.872-08:00Standoff Lesson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
Another great week!<br />
<br />
Elder McCuch has ran me ragged this week. Literally too! We went on<br />
exchanges and I was biking. The freezing mornings and hot, sunny days,<br />
and some violent allergies made me sick for a couple days. That stunk.<br />
My allergies are bad down here! But please don't worry; I am still<br />
using all the meds you gave me last year. I have been running A LOT<br />
since Elder McCuch got here. We typically run 3 miles 3-4 days a week.<br />
Saturday we ran it in 20:10 and today we ran it in 20:42!!! It is<br />
insane!!! But I am not losing any weight. Probably because a still<br />
load up on frijoles and carne every night. We are running each other<br />
ragged though. I have noticed that it does us well to plan out what we<br />
should do when we have 10-minute drives to do. Haha. Lots to do. I<br />
like it though.<br />
<br />
President Griffin is doing work! He is helping us to become<br />
laser-focused on the doctrine that we teach in the Church. He says<br />
that if we have the 4 lessons locked in and we can teach them just how<br />
they are written using scriptures, then that will be how we find new<br />
people and teach them to baptism. Along with what Elder Corbridge<br />
brought to the mission, he is creating a vision for us to know the<br />
doctrine and become converted to it. It was pretty boss at Transfers<br />
when he repeated to us D&C 11:21 about obtaining the word first. Then<br />
he said "Let's bind the Lord to His promise and make Him put so many<br />
people in our path because He trusts us and because we know the<br />
doctrine so well." If things go as planned, this mission will get a<br />
lot of work done, and just like President Taylor, President Griffin<br />
will go down in history as a LEGEND. This 1-2 punch goes down first in<br />
my all-time 1-2 punches in history (barely ahead of Ortiz-Ramirez).<br />
So, we have put aside Conference talks, Book of Mormon reading,<br />
Patriarchal Blessings, and anything not saturated in doctrine for our<br />
study time and have 30 minutes of personal and 2 1/2 hours of comp<br />
study for practice teaching and studying the doctrine. It is rad!<br />
<br />
The Temple work is still moving forward with great momentum, and<br />
frustration sometimes haha. It is tough getting people up there and it<br />
takes all our efforts sometimes, but it is all worth it! We sent a<br />
couple investigators up this week and went with a less-active lady,<br />
Dora, to help her understand a little more about baptisms for the<br />
dead. It was sweet. We plan on going twice more this next week before<br />
it closes (fingers crossed that Jim follows-through with me and we go;<br />
I told him anytime of any day!!) Tomorrow we are going with our<br />
Peruvian friend and his Cuban friend, Angel. Angel has read first<br />
Nephi. We taught him last week and I mentioned how Nephi began<br />
building the boat in chapter 17. He corrected me and told me it was<br />
18. It was funny. He is doing great. We hope to get a few other people<br />
up to the temple. Last night we had a STANDOFF lesson with Anah and<br />
Gerardo. It was a powerfully fragile evening. Haha I will explain. The<br />
Spirit was very strong. We taught Moroni Chapter 10 Verses 3-5 to help<br />
Anah pray specifically because she is to Cactholic. Then we told them<br />
that we need to take a short break from them. It was one of the<br />
hardest breaks ever made! But it will work. We need them to read a<br />
little more on their own and get the marriage process moved on their<br />
own. We are praying that the Light of Christ can help Anah's lawyer<br />
see it necessary that they get married and the Anah gets a specific<br />
answer to her specific questions. When Gerardo heard what we want to<br />
do he was saying. "I get it, I get it! They are going to see if we can<br />
progress on their own." And they will. We will see them at church<br />
sunday and set something up then. We are by no means done with them.<br />
They will be fine. We got ties from them and Elder McCuch wanted to<br />
get his tie signed by all of them. It sounded so barbaric because it<br />
made us look like we werent coming back haha. So I told them they<br />
would all need to sign mine when I got back. They are fine.<br />
<br />
So be thinking and praying about Anah, her lawyer, and Gerardo! Also I<br />
will be excited to tell you next week about those temple visits and<br />
Saturday night we have Stake Conference again. I am pumped because it<br />
is the Stake Leadership I have worked with for 10 months... And<br />
President and Sister Griffin will come. Who knows, maybe I might just<br />
finally leave this place in 3 weeks!<br />
<br />
Lots of experiences out here about following the Spirit and seeing the<br />
Hand of God directing His very own work that He lets us be a part of.<br />
We are not in the work of salvation as much for the work we give<br />
ourselves, but for the growth we get from participating :) If that<br />
were not the case than the Lord would put robots or some much more<br />
capable group of people to get this work done. I am excited for<br />
Caroline to go out and study about, pray for, expect, recognize, and<br />
experiences miracles every day. In following these steps, we will<br />
become one with God in the work. Like Nephi (Helaman 10) we should be<br />
able to do ANYTHING for the Lord's work according to our faith. It is<br />
strung throughout the standard works that we are to ask God anything<br />
that is righteous, in Christ's name, and it is given to us. Humbly ask<br />
for and expect miracles. Moroni (7:37) tells us that the only time we<br />
aren't seeing them is when we are being "wicked." We were made to work<br />
miracles in the service of God and His children. My faith is growing<br />
out here. At the same time, faith is not grown in seeing miracles, but<br />
in obedience to the Gospel. Obedience, faith, then miracles, then more<br />
miracles. I think that is the formula. Miracles should be a daily<br />
occurrence for us all. I love you all and have been glad to hear so<br />
many good tidings from all of you. Way to beat Highland!!!<br />
<br />
Love, Elder ParryBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-10343426628601878792014-10-20T19:27:00.001-07:002014-11-14T09:43:15.437-08:00The Atonement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
I have been learning a lot about the Doctrine of Christ out here! This<br />
week I learned some cool things about the Atonement that I want to<br />
share. I read 1 Nephi 19:9 where it says that the Lord will [did]<br />
suffer so much for us "because of his loving kindness and his<br />
longsuffering towards the children of men." I think that what Christ<br />
went through was hard not because of the effects of physical pain and<br />
torture as much as it was hard because He loves us and knew that the<br />
pain He was feeling was literally what WE would go through in the form<br />
of temptations, afflictions, physical pain, unfairness, sin, and any<br />
other inequality we experience. Being God, I don't think the Atonement<br />
he performed made Him suffer because of any physical implications, it<br />
was because He loves us. This leads me to something else I learned;<br />
The more you care, the harder it gets. Like I have said before, my<br />
mission has given me a lot of challenges, but nothing that hasn't been<br />
too hard to overcome. In some ways, I have made the mission hard<br />
myself. I noticed this week that on many occasions it is only hard<br />
because I care so much. I (and Elder McCuch) am (are) trying SO HARD<br />
to love, serve, listen to, care about, and sacrifice for others. I<br />
LOVE the feelings I get as I do it. Other than the doctrine I am<br />
learning and the hastening of the work, I have felt the Spirit the<br />
most as I have strived to forget myself, take up my cross, and try to<br />
minister to others. It is downright hard too. I have had to exert<br />
myself harder than I have before (barely more than Brave Quarters<br />
haha) as I have tried to serve others out here. It makes things hard<br />
to work on others' behalf. Sometimes they let you down, sometimes you<br />
let yourself down.<br />
<br />
I am sure the Atonement was a hard burden for the Savior to bear<br />
because He cared so much. The last thing I learned about it this week<br />
(thanks to the Norwegian guy in conference) was that the Atonement is<br />
infinite, it can be used 24/7 and it literally never runs out. If we<br />
commit sins or need a little strengthening then we need to get our<br />
heads out of the bucket and move on instead of dwelling on the past.<br />
The Atonement has already happened. Any extra sinning will not add<br />
more on to the Atonement because it has already been performed. We<br />
should feel godly sorrow so that we are driven to repent! The<br />
Atonement provides never-ending forgiveness and strengthening so we<br />
might as well use it! We could waste the Atonement by sinning with<br />
intentions to make amends and repent (not good), or by not using it.<br />
We might as well use it. I am learning a lot more about these things<br />
as I see it in real life rather than just reading about it!<br />
<br />
The Temple was very Celestial! We went with Anah, Gerardo, Alexa,<br />
Mariana, and Sebastian. Alexa was shaking the hands of EVERY SINGLE<br />
worker in the temple as she walked through. It was way cute. A bunch<br />
of them wanted to hug her back too. They all loved it. The neighbor<br />
they brought loved it too! I know that they will be back in the temple<br />
to be sealed one day. Anah wasn't feeling well spiritually and<br />
emotionally, but Gerardo threw on his white shirt, came alone and<br />
brought the three girls with with him. Never have I seen someone<br />
return to church with such motivation and spirit. Yesterday we taught<br />
a lesson to them. It was powerful. We talked about Anah's mom needing<br />
her temple work done. She asked "Do I need to be baptized for her in<br />
the temple then?" "Yes." "Do I need to be baptized first before I can<br />
do that?" "Yes." "Okay, do I need to be married before I get<br />
baptized?" "Yes." Haha. She is talking to her lawyer today and we will<br />
see what happens. She is just having kind of a hard time letting go of<br />
the traditions her mother raised her with. Gerardo really wants to get<br />
married! It will happen soon. We are finding a lot of other cool<br />
people. This is actually the most alive an area has been in that I<br />
have ever served in. A lot of fun right now with the temple and<br />
everything. A family of 4 that we somehow miraculously sent to the<br />
temple last week came to church yesterday and enjoyed it. We are still<br />
teaching Lupita who has had some pretty spiritual experiences with the<br />
Book of Mormon. She is soo cool. It is a great time to be serving<br />
where we are. This past week was frustrating because we are trying to<br />
get everyone to the temple but it takes SO MUCH coordination. It is<br />
awfully frustrating. Twice we were ready to go but had to cancel right<br />
before because an investigator or our ride cancelled. It hurts to care<br />
so much! We are definitely going to keep trying though with all these<br />
people. Only 14 more days! We have a couple trips planned this week.<br />
Pray for them!<br />
<br />
Meeting with Caroline was so nice. She will make a fantastic<br />
missionary. No doubt about it. I kept getting the impression while we<br />
were talking that she would be a spiritual anchor for her companions,<br />
other missionaries, members, and investigators as their ships of<br />
testimony go through turbulent winds and waves. I say that in the<br />
importance I think it is to try to touch others' lives. Overall, she<br />
will be able to minister to so many others because her own spiritual<br />
foundation is so strong. Go get 'em!<br />
<br />
We are excited to see the prophet and do our dancing and singing in 4<br />
weeks! Look for me on TV 😎<br />
<br />
Love, Elder ParryBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-85447303376497518632014-10-13T19:20:00.000-07:002014-10-20T19:21:35.820-07:00Buzz in the AirAll week there has been a crazy-cool buzz in the air because the<br />
temple opened!!! It is the best time to be a missionary. More than<br />
anything, it is the best time to be a MEMBER of this great church and<br />
Kingdom of God. It is becoming so easy to contact people. They know<br />
about Meet the Mormons, they have heard about the temple. There are so<br />
many missionaries in this area that we are getting seen often! It is<br />
cool. We contacted our Walmart cashier. We showed him the card of the<br />
temple and he started asking a bunch of questions and asking if he<br />
could go. This place is BUZZING! Friday, the day it opened, I was just<br />
feeling the Spirit all day thinking about the temple. I am excited to<br />
go in a few hours! I have so much to tell you about the temple. There<br />
are a lot of people going! Saturday was a wreck, but a bunch of<br />
miracles turned things around. After a lot of coordinating and praying<br />
6 people we were teaching made it to the temple with Hermana Galarza.<br />
We couldn't go because it was too late, but we sent them off! One of<br />
the lady's sons, who is 7, said that he felt something really warm run<br />
up his arms then his mom heard him say, "God is really close." La Joya<br />
is on fire too. Everyone is inviting their friends to the open house<br />
and we are even seeing some new faces at church. The lady that found<br />
Gerardo and Anah took her cousin to the temple and he told us at<br />
church that he wants to be baptized. So we sent the Tuscon<br />
missionaries to him! Oh my goodness Gerardo bore his testimony this<br />
week! He got up there with his chest puffed out (he is a body builder)<br />
and just stood majestically at the pulpit, soaking up the limelight.<br />
He bore a powerful testimony about how he knows the church is true<br />
even after 14 years of inactivity. Then he bore his testimony in the<br />
name of our Heavenly Father. Then he forgot to say amen before pulling<br />
away, so he walked back to say it. Then the meeting ended. Haha. It<br />
was epic. We are going to the temple with them in about an hour! And<br />
Anah is inviting two of her friends. We sent up a temple trip last<br />
night for a couple of investigators for thursday and the Barrio<br />
Estrella friend that is giving us a ride is inviting three of her<br />
friends. We are trying to set another up for thursday afternoon for<br />
Lupita. She came to church finally and the doctrine of baptisms for<br />
the dead really caught her attention so she said she wants to go. It<br />
really is amazing me how alive it is over here. Great place to be.<br />
Like Coach Wall always said "Great day to be a [missionary]!"<br />
<br />
Leo Becerra got baptized yesterday!!!!!!! He is Jessica Patino's<br />
boyfriend who Elder Ramos and I met in February. I had a lot of fun<br />
teaching him with Elders Ramos and Castro. I have fond memories of<br />
watching April conference with them, of sending Elder Ramos off to the<br />
Gilbert temple with them, and of praying with him and Jessica in the<br />
chapel of the new Tolleson Building. He had the biggest smile on<br />
yesterday at the baptism. He was SO HAPPY. It was a sweet sight and a<br />
wonderful day for such a great family. Once again, good to be back<br />
with Barrio Estrella.<br />
<br />
We had a meeting with President Waldron yesterday. I was with 8 of my<br />
great missionary friends and President Juchau. So a year ago President<br />
Waldron and the missionaries didn't have a good relationship but now,<br />
it is very strong! We had five minutes left in the meeting but PW<br />
wanted to talk a little doctrine so he expounded the Atonement to us<br />
from the book of Mosiah for 30 minutes. We are getting JUSTSERVE<br />
started real soon and 140 of the APM valley missionaries will be<br />
painting houses in two weeks.<br />
<br />
I went on an exchange with Elder Castro last week. I didn;t realize<br />
how much I loved him until I was 13 weeks with other companions and<br />
back with him for a day. He has really grown the past two transfers<br />
and is even more loving. I learned a lot from him in such a short<br />
time. I have plans to go to his homecoming soon and make it to his<br />
wedding to when he has it. He needs some support and friends in life<br />
and I am excited to be one of his friends.<br />
<br />
Man, if I had more time I would tell you more about all the great<br />
things going on and how I feel the Spirit every single day. This place<br />
is bumping. I love La Joya, I love Elder McCuch, I loooooooooove it<br />
out here. Great day to be a member of the Lord's Kingdom here on<br />
earth.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-66105062533625828562014-10-07T19:17:00.000-07:002014-10-20T19:18:22.511-07:00Not Transferred!Not transferred!!!<br /><br />I might be stuck here until the end. That sounds negative though;<br />Elder McCuch is one of my favorite companions. I have grown to love<br />this ward the more I have worked with them. President Griffin actually<br />called us yesterday morning to give us the entire scoop and because he<br />couldn't hold it in haha. His style is so different! He continues to<br />prove himself a loose cannon haha. He turned 11 zones into 14 zones<br />and I think he is splitting up every zone leader companionship but us<br />to do it. Our zone is now the biggest in the mission! Only one person<br />changed. It was Elder Reid. I got to the zone with him in the same car<br />9 months ago and we lived together for 6 of those months. He is one of<br />my best friends out here. He is way cool. I am pumped though.<br />President has a lot of trust in us. And there are 7 people being<br />trained in the zone so I feel like Grandpa Parry among all these<br />younglings haha. President Griffin is definitely inspired though. I<br />have not doubted that so far.<br /><br />Enough with the laundry business. This week was fabulous! It is weird<br />to think that I am nearing single-digit weeks. But there is still a<br />lot of work to get done! I feel like everything we are doing out here<br />is speeding up and accelerating. It is hard to keep the pace with what<br />is going on haha. The Sisters in the APM are in the Temple 36 hours a<br />week starting last week. Everyone in the mission is playing with the<br />new apps we have and making all these electronic tools to use for<br />proselyting. It is giving me a headache haha. WE WATCHED MEET THE<br />MORMONS!!! It was EPIC. Very inspiring. I predict (actually guarantee)<br />that mom will cry! Heck, I cried. It was so good! We actually have it<br />on our ipad too #APM. It had some wonderful messages. Very well-made<br />movie. The church is doing a lot of cool things right now.<br /><br />Gerardo and Anah came to 2 conference sessions and enjoyed them very<br />much. We had dinner with them after. Gerardo listens to Lds.org on his<br />headphones at work. Anah was feeling sad one day about her mom dying<br />so she searched on the internet for "Spanish Catholic movies" and it<br />came up with The Other Side of Heaven. So she watched it and cried<br />even more when she found out it was a Mormon movie. They are moving<br />but want to find a home within La Joya because they have made so many<br />friends. They are doing great, they just aren't married which is<br />starting to worry me a little...<br /><br />Conference was wonderful. We watched all 5 sessions at the stake<br />center. After the Sunday morning session, we had a luncheon with the<br />La Joya AND the Estrella Hermanos! It was greaet! It was a reunion!!!<br />(Elder McCuch served in Estrella Tambien). I hate 9 tostadas of<br />seviche mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 🍤🍤🍤🍤🍤 I got a lot out of conference and<br />could go on about it. But I won't. The biggest learning I had was that<br />of making decisions. Elders Christofferson, Scott, Godoy, and Ballard<br />all shared talks about that which I loved. My two favorite talks were<br />both President Uchtdorf's!!!! "Is it I?" and the one about finding<br />truth from God. The latter was something that I have been studying for<br />the last month off and on. I can't wait for it to come in print/ipad.<br /><br />It was Gerardo's, Elder Anderson's, and Elder McCuch's Dad's Birthday<br />all on thursday! We had a lot of partying. We pushed E. Anderson's<br />face in cake a bunch, ate seviche with Gerardo, and Elder McCuch<br />called his Dad. He is doing fine! The first week of treatment went<br />really well!!! Only like 3 weeks more. :D<br /><br />Love you, Keep the faith, Endure to the endowment every week with a<br />renewel in the temple :D<br /><br />Love, Elder ParryBeckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-87395564156910841492014-09-29T19:08:00.000-07:002014-10-20T19:13:39.023-07:00JustServe<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413856726472_4241">Helloo Family!!!<br /><br />So, Gerardo, Anah, Mariana, Sebastian, and Alexa have most definitely rebounded from their setback. Everyone in the ward has been inviting them for Family Home Evenings (Noches de Hogar) and everyone wants to visit them! This may not be that uncommon for a lot of people to experience, but it has been so cool for Elder McCuch and me to see such great growth so we are having a lot of fun :) We went to the temple with them and the Morales family <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow">Saturday night</a>. It was a blast. We saw a lot of good all-star resources-for-producing-the-spirit haha. They came to church late. The two girls were actually crying because they really wanted to participate in the Primary program. It was kind of sad. But they came to an Estrella Baptism that night and Alexa said she really wants to get baptized. It was fun to see a bunch of Estrella friends, members and missionaries, again. I kind of paused for a moment at the baptism to look around and see all the wonderful people I have met and worked with. I was also talking with Hermano Morales, who is a spiritual GIANT, on the way home from Mesa. It was cool to hear how enormous and how rapid the Hispanic church has grown here in Phoenix. He was the counselor (along with Bishop Cid of Estrella) to Bishop Zayas (former counselor in the APM) less than 20 years ago when there were only two Spanish wards in the city. Now there are over a dozen. It is so cool to learn about!!! It has been really fun for me (as you might have gathered from introducing who the Bishopric was 20 years ago) to get to know great families and leaders in the church all over the valley. I have truly been blessed to serve in 4 outstanding units out here and to get to know and work with such a sacrificing people. Hermano Morales said this is partly due to the way the Hispanic races have baby explosions in their families haha. He said that the only commandment they really stay fully committed to is the one to multiply and replenish the earth. Haha. I have been blessed to have been sent down here and I don't take it for granted! There is a lot to learn from the members down here and even more work to be done alongside with them.<br /><br />I mentioned last week and several times in my emails that the work is hastening. More arrows to the quivers! This week, in a meeting with President Frost of the 70 and a bunch of other dudes in pinstripe suits, JustServe was kicked off in the Phoenix valley!! It is the 4th city (Denver, San Diego, and one other place) in the church to get it going. They said that because of the high number of Mormons here it is testing grounds here in Phoenix for what they will need to do with the resource in Utah when it gets started there soon. It is SO COOL!!!!! The church has put a lot of money into it somehow, and from some of the things we have been told, it is flawless. Basically, members in their stakes look locally within their boundaries for service opportunities. Them, along with any other people interested in service, post the opportunities on the website, then members and missionaries just hop on the website and go do service! We wear helpinghands shirts and we cannot proselyte. It is a very powerful way for great people, members, nonmembers, prepared nonmembers, to get together and strive to be Christlike. It can be up to 2.5 hours a day of service. It has increased missionary morale and decreased anxiety dramatically too. It will be so cool. Elder Frost bore testimony to close the meeting on how it will be pivotal for us to be in partnership with interfaith groups and other church organizations through JustServe as we near the final days and religious freedom because one of the most precious things we could fight for. I got the chills all through the meeting hearing stuff like this. The work is hastening!<br /><br />I hope it hastens quick too because it sounds like it will get going for the missionary force in the valley by <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow">December 7th</a> haha. But all 140 missionaries in the valley are already signed up to paint 6 houses <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow">on October 25th</a> in one of my old areas! It all may not sound that cool, but it is, and it is a sign of the times! Tomorrow we have a meeting with President Griffin. I wasn't excited for the last 2 but I really am for this one because I anticipate PG will be pulling all his "cats out of the hat" and we can see what he and the brethren are up to. #DC8873 It will be cool.<br /><br />I DOUBT that anything will change in 8 days when I write you again. I am 80% it will stay the same. Who knows though... PG is a #loosecannon. We will see. Elder McCuch is one of the most Christlike people I know and has helped me more than he knows so I am hoping the Spirit lets me squeeze some more time out of Elder Nomad (McCuch). Then again, the "boss" companionships I have been a part of have always been pretty fleeting because they're just too rough on Satan haha.<br /><br />The studying is going great too! I continue to learn a lot. Today I read Section 84 and learned about how the Lord wants to be our friend and about how if we stay faithful to the power and authority He has given us we can inherit all that He has. And why be any other way? He is a perfectly loving, fair, giving being so He would want to let us enjoy all that He enjoys. Only His justice will keep Him from giving all of His children all of that stuff--so we have to prove we are worthy. It is important that we create a stronger relationship with Him as we have conversations in prayer. We need to learn to trust Him and trust ourselves. Get excited for conference! Bring an inspired question or two. I will be thinking of you all when I see all those white, Utah Mormons on TV. Love you! Happy Birthday Caroline! I have been thinking about you all day and how much fun and growth you are going to have on your mission.<br /><br />Love, Elder Parry<br /></span>Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-41331903653630919692014-09-22T19:03:00.000-07:002014-10-20T19:06:28.091-07:00Familes are EternalMAAAN! I have decided I have been slothful of telling you about some<br />things going over in the APM and my part of the vineyard so I will see<br />how this goes.<br /><br />Well, we went to the temple on Saturday with Mario, Glenda, and<br />Cassandra, and another family I visited in Surprise got sealed at the<br />same time too. It was one of the sweetest experiences I have ever been<br />a part of. Mario, Glenda, and Hermana Hammond (other family that went<br />through) had really smooth endowment sessions. They were really<br />comfortable because they are so spiritually mature. They were all<br />emotional in the Celestial room. We then went to the sealing room to<br />do both sealings. I saw A LOT of Estrellita there. It was the best. I<br />had a blast with all them again. Mario is still fun as ever. He wants<br />me to go over and eat again soon, but I told him I couldn't until I<br />get home so we will need to stop by! Anyway--I wasn't<br />overly-emotional, other than feeling the Spirit strong all<br />morning--UNTIL Mario and Glenda were sealed and Cassandra came in all<br />dressed in white and the officiator asked her who they were (pointing<br />at Mario and Glenda) and she said "mis papas" and then the 3 got<br />sealed and had "un abrazo familiar" (family hug). I totally lost it<br />for those 3 minutes. The Spirit was exceptionally strong. IT was funny<br />too because the entire room was crying hard core when Cassandra came<br />in. Man, I thought I died and went to Heaven! We thought of Gerardo<br />and Anah in the Celestial room with their 3 kids sometime soon too.<br />Man, it was a beautiful imagination! :D<br /><br />Well, all in all, I became very much more converted to the fact that<br />families can be eternal. That moment in the sealing room during the<br />ordinances I had not the slimmest sliver of a doubt that it is true. I<br />was completely reassured that families can be together forever. It was<br />such a wonderful testimony builder for me. Death isn't the end at all.<br /><br />The mission tour was phenomenal. I wish I would've heard it like 20<br />months ago too haha. It was a combo of mind-opening and mind-blowing!<br />He talked to us for 4 hours about how to improve our teaching<br />basically. We talked about "The Most Important Thing" and about how<br />that is what we need to teach every single lesson and contact to. It<br />is basically receiving the Restored Gospel. He added in that we need<br />to help others see that NOW (i.e. in this life) we can receive a<br />remission of sins, the Holy Ghost as a guide, and power from God<br />through the Gospel. He said that just about EVERY disobedience,<br />mistake, or sin happens because of misunderstanding of doctrine. We<br />read that if we commit adultery then our souls are destroyed or<br />something harsh like that. Well, if we understood doctrine we wouldn't<br />do "stupid" things like that (The General Authorities that have been<br />teaching us say words like that it is funny haha). He told us that any<br />disagreement in the church or in our lessons happens because doctrine<br />is misunderstood. President Griffin has been teaching us A LOT about<br />preserving doctrine and teaching it the right way lately. I feel like<br />the Church is doing a follow-up on PMG lately; we have it to guide us<br />rather than memorizing lessons, but maybe the church is seeing that<br />missionaries are straying from the meat of the doctrine too much. Kind<br />of interesting. Anyway, Elder Corbridge seems strict and rigid, but he<br />knows the scriptures like a boss and it was cool to be with him. He<br />said that the Sermon on the Mount is actually not an eclectic group of<br />fun Ghandi teachings, but rather a Chiasm-style-written sermon with<br />one single overall thesis: "By your fruits ye shall know them." Kind<br />of interesting, read it with that overarching thesis in mind. He was<br />very insightful.<br /><br />So, The Phoenix Temple!!!! We are really getting close!!!!!! This week<br />we began Sign Language practice!!!!! We are singing "Called to Serve"<br />and " Keepers of His Light" in the celebration and for the second song<br />we are doing two minutes of sign language. I am pretty sure it will be<br />the spiritually strongest night of my mission to be singing with 280<br />missionaries in front of the temple just a short month before I go<br />home. So we have that, conference the week before, Meet the Mormons<br />hits theaters the day the PHX temple opens, then the holidays, then I<br />am home 😳 To fill you in on everything between this: we went on<br />exchanges with Elder Bryant this week and the only commitment he left<br />with us was to be cool and calm and accepting with everything<br />President Griffin wants to do in the coming 2 transfers. He said that<br />we are going to really start to see his "vision unfold." He also said<br />that he has no idea where President Griffin is getting all this cats<br />pulled out of the same hat haha. So yeah, PG is a little bit of a<br />loose cannon. Don't get me wrong, he is very inspired and what he is<br />teaching is working (both general authorities that have come repeated<br />lessons that he has already taught us), but things will keep changing.<br />It will be exciting! This mission has grown quite a bit since he has<br />got here. We are excited. Last week we got three new apps "Pages,<br />Numbers, and Dropbox." I know they might seem a lot lamer to you than<br />Temple Run or Angry Birds, but for missionary work these additions<br />will change the work. It will start by making us more organized and<br />efficient :) I already started with "Pages" by making business cards<br />with my name, picture, Mormon.org account, a scripture, and my<br />facebook name too. Fun missionary work 😅 If anything that I mentioned<br />didn't get you thinking that the work is really hastening, then you<br />need to wakeup and stop sleeping through the Restoration!!!! #DC8873<br /><br />Anah and Gerardo had a mini-setback this week. They didn't come to<br />church or the baptism that the Estrella ward had right after so we<br />called them. Gerardo said that Anah had been getting A LOT of<br />opposition from her sister. She felt super bad, couldn't sleep, and<br />even got physically sick so they didn't come. Gerardo was completely<br />fine, but Anah was a little rattled. Her mom died recently so now she<br />feels like she has no blood family. Bottom line: Satan definitely gets<br />down to business when good things are about to happen. The closer we<br />get to making covenants and getting back on the path the harder and<br />harder el gran chamuko tries to get people miserable. My testimony of<br />Priesthood Ordinances and of the truthfulness of this work has grown<br />immensely on the mission just from seeing how hard Satan works on<br />people. Seeing the opposition is enough for me to know that this work<br />is true. Also, I know that our Heavenly Father lets these things<br />happen (like Job) to measure our strength. Gerardo and Anah will be<br />fine. They are getting stronger and stronger. Sunday night, Hermano<br />Cid, Elder McCuch and I went by and expounded scriptures with them for<br />about an hour. The Spirit was strong.<br /><br />Life has been exceptionally great out here. Aside from all those big<br />events, all my studies this week have been super spiritual. I am<br />reading the Book of Mormon while studying only the Strengthening Power<br />of the Atonement and I am pulling a lot out of it. I am in Mosiah<br />right now and have actually got more from this book than any other so<br />far. Something I learned today in chapter 26 is that we are powered<br />from on high when we can forgive others. We have no right to pass<br />judgments because the Savior is the only one to have experienced it<br />all, so we must forgive all to be able to be forgiven of all. It is a<br />good thing to study. Well, sorry I wrote a lot, it has been kind of a<br />boring P-Day. This week we will be biking a little bit! We are going<br />to the Mesa Temple with Anah, Gerardo, and the Morales family. It will<br />be a great week. Time is flying with Elder McCuch. We can't believe<br />that transfers are in 14 days!!!😁 Good stuff, love you all!<br />Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-71717626539680669992014-09-15T19:44:00.000-07:002014-09-17T19:44:33.029-07:00Doctrine of ChristDear Family,<br /><br />President Griffin came and did interviews with West Maricopa this<br />week. They were awesome! He is hitting VIRTUE hard in all his<br />interviews. That is definitely what we need as a mission. He is<br />working on making sure we have a steady, spiritual foundation so we<br />can help others. He is talking about things like making sure our 3<br />hour studies have ample breaks, we are eating healthy (he said that as<br />long as the mission wants to eat his "steel cut oats" he won't stop<br />buying them for us), we have more miles in our cars (President Taylor<br />kept a 20,000 mile breathing room each month, and PG just distributed<br />all of them), and stuff like that. Style changes!<br /><br />We had a Spanish training meeting! It was a blast. I got to see all my<br />buds. Elders Miller, Nelson, Ramos, Giron, Jones, Fife, Munoz, Salas,<br />Cordero, and a bunch of Hermanas! It was a good group, like always. I<br />love the Spanish missionary culture out here. We have a pretty<br />tight-knit group.<br /><br />La Joya is doing well. Our Bishop came to church yesterday. He spoke<br />about a few experiences that he has had as a member in the church<br />about seeing his church leaders make dumb mistakes between Sundays and<br />how they still shouldn't be criticized. He has been having a tough<br />time coming to church because of work. But he is a great guy. Gerardo,<br />Anah, Mariana, Alexa, and Sebastian came to church yesterday. The eggs<br />are doing well in this basket! I am not worried. They cancelled the<br />lesson on Saturday because they all needed to go shopping to buy nice<br />church clothes. They all came in super cute clothes! The first thing<br />the 3 kids do after Sacrament ends is come find Elder McCuch and I,<br />run over to us, and shake our hands with big ole smiles! We have been<br />talking to them A LOT lately about temples and having an eternal<br />family. They understand that baptism is how they will get there so we<br />set a tentative date for baptism for October 18th. They are so cool. I<br />am not worried at all. Even if they don't get baptized for 6 months,<br />they are still on track and will be an eternal family. After thousands<br />of people talked to, taught, and contacted, it really does make the<br />ONE that much sweeter.<br /><br />I want to bear my testimony on the Doctrine of Christ a little bit<br />today. Elder McCuch and I are seeing it applied every single day.<br />Elder Nistler asked me what I had learned about it after on exchange<br />with him this weekend and I told him that I had been thinking about<br />all the reasons as to why our Savior would choose to perform the<br />Atonement for us. First and foremost, it was out of His perfect love<br />for the Father and for us, but also, I think it was because He knew<br />how hard life would be and is for each and every one of us because of<br />the Fall. He knew exactly everything that we would pass through and He<br />knew that we would need His help. I bet He imagined that as he<br />suffered in agony for all of us; how individually hard it must've been<br />for each of us. He knew that the only way to help us would be to have<br />went through it before. I am eternally indebted to Him for what He<br />did. I guess the mission is a good start, but it won't quite add up to<br />all the work there is after the mission!<br /><br />So something that I have learned being with Elder McCuch is how<br />insanely fun it is to work to uplift others! I love it. Everyone needs<br />uplifting :) I am working on helping everyone we see and work with see<br />how they can improve then be inspired by the Spirit to do it! You can<br />do it!<br /><br />Going to the Temple this week!!!!!!!!!!! :D<br /><br />Love, Elder Parry<br /><br />PS--We are going to the Temple this coming Saturday with Glenda and<br />Mario. I bet I see a lot of people from Rama Estrella and some<br />missionary friends so I am excited.<br /><br />Granola bars and salsa please would be great! Also-- anything healthy<br />like dried fruit, nuts etc. Love you.<br /><br />I am ecstatic about that BYU roommate lineup. Thanks for all that you<br />are doing to get that setup. I might take the "menace to society"<br />route, chill with my homies for 5 years and not get married after all!Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-84767593101628342622014-09-08T19:40:00.000-07:002014-09-17T19:42:03.210-07:00Wettest Day in Phoenix History<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hola Familia--<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1411005590279_15343">
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This week was kind of insane. I am happy it is over! But it went well :) Just long. First off, yesterday Hermana Galarza invited us over for dinner and she said that she had a "Surprise" for us. They are friends with a lot of members over in that area (perks of serving in Spanish!) so when we walked in the door we saw Mario y Glenda Sanchez and the Bustillos family from Rama Estrella! It was a blast! Mario brought one of my favorite foods that I ate over there with him to eat with us yesterday. It was Manta Ray and I ate 8 tacos so they were delicious. But it was most absolutely wonderful because Mario and Glenda said they are GOING THROUGH THE TEMPLE ON SEP 20!!!! Finally. The time came. They have been facing many, many trials as of late. But they are ready and staying strong. Elder McCuch and I will be going with them next saturday :) </div>
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All leadership/conversion problems aside, Barrio La Joya is a pretty boss missionary ward. We had a bunch of fun this week going out with members and Gerardo, Anah, Sebastian, Mariana, and Lexa all came to church on Sunday and they were swallowed up by wardmembers talking to them. The ward is loving getting to know them. We have a Family night about the temple and eternal families (we need to get them married!) tonight with Hermano Morales so we will be seeing some progression soon. They are one of the coolest families I have ever taught. We will keep meeting with them! </div>
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A member at the stake center here just told us that it is the official #1 wettest day in Phoenix history! Kind of exciting huh? I took some pictures of the flooded Walmart parking lot this morning and I will try to get one of the baseball field too; it legitimately looks like a giant pond. Anyway, it canceled the zone kickball game :( haha. Please don't worry mom, I am fine. Everyone is fine. Just wet.</div>
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The reason this week was so long was because we had 3 meetings and a bunch of other "stuff" that we just had to do. I absolutely love President Griffin and the things he is doing here in the mission. He is doing an excellent job. He is following the Spirit and leading is in what we need to do. Something that is very exhausting about it is that he is really emphasizing governing ourselves and so it is leaving a lot of chore kind of things that we are going to do as missionaries rather than having the Assistants, Mission President, or the office staff do. Tomorrow we are inspecting cars! Yay. </div>
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So I am super exhausted, but that is okay, I have so much left in the tank! Things are picking up in our area and I am really loving all the missionaries in the great West Maricopa Zone. It is a blast here. </div>
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I know that the Doctrine of Christ is the best way to live our lives! I am seeing the small and simple fruits of living it add up each day making me who I am and helping me become a better person. I know that the Lord trusts and loves us for who we are, and even though we are never perfect out here in this life, he accepts us for our weaknesses and all. I know that we are His friends too and that He wants us to be happy. I am happy :D</div>
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Love, Elder Jacob Parry </div>
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Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-1122990486814248572014-09-01T19:28:00.000-07:002014-09-17T19:36:02.975-07:00New (Last?) Companion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I kept the same subject line because it was fast over here too! Super long days, but fast week. The transfers/training ended at like 1:00 and we were running around all over our part of the Phoenix vineyard delivering bikes, missionaries, and luggage until like 5:30. Paradoxically, it went by fast because we had to hurry our behinds with everything that we had! I don't know why you thought I was getting transferred? Elder Dart went home early and left me home in my area for 8 days so I knew that I had to stay. Anyways, Elder McCuch is my new companion! He is from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania (cerca de Philadelphia), so he will be fun to visit after the mission! He thinks he is going to BYU which is cool because I like him a lot. He is super cool. He graduated in 2010. He eats super healthy, which is encouraging me to eat better too which has been helpful, and he works out A LOT. He is a pretty big guy. He has been following me around all mission haha. He was trained in Agua Fria (where I was trained), came to Surprise to be with Elder Fife when I left, and just got transferred from Barrio Estrella where he was with Elder Castro. Small Spanish mission huh? Haha. He has actually had 8 different areas. He is pretty tired of getting switched around. He hopes he stays. I hope we are companions for the rest of my mission. He is really helping me. He goes home one transfer after I do. I am sorry if a lot of this bores you, it is really interesting to me as I reflect on the week. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Elder McCuch wants to play baseball at BYU when he gets back so we have talked about that a bunch! I told him that my 3 brothers are basically pro.</div>
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So last week in the crazy 3-missionary 3-area week we found a family: Gerardo, Ana, Alexa, Mariana, and Sebastian. I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but they are probably the most legitimate family I have had the blessing of teaching and visiting on my whole mission. They are SOOOO COOOL. I already love them a lot. Alexa and Mariana are 8 and 6 and they came to church in cute matching white dresses and Gerardo and Ana loved it too! Gerardo was baptized 14 years ago but wants to come back. Ana cried in the second hour because her mom just barely died. Elder McCuch and I were talking, if they, as well as anyone else, need to be prepared before they find the church, then there is no better time in their lives for them to embrace the Gospel. I guess we will see how it goes. They are soaking in what we are teaching. Elder McCuch and I have felt the Spirit and had a lot of fun preparing to teach them! They have outstanding member support (dysfunctional ward, but they are all converts so they love missionary work!). My only fear (and it is a very little one) is that we put all or hope, love, and eggs in one basket and then the basket breaks. They are just too cool for it not to work out! I think it will though. Ana said that she would be baptized and we are going to the Mesa temple to see the stuff soon. The Spirit is definitely in the works with them. Pure and complete guidance to this family! </div>
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It has been a wild week. This next week is wild too. Tomorrow we have the nerdy meeting that I don't really like (council meeting), then wednesday we have my FAVORITE meeting! Mission leadership meeting. It will be the bomb. It is a bigger group and a lot of my friends will be there. Then thursday we have to plan and then friday is a meeting for our zone. All this stuff just makes us have to work harder in the less time we have to proselyte. I love this area! Like every area I have been in. I love it. I have loved each one of my companions too. #spoiled. It has been an easy mission in a lot of aspects. I keep getting the Spiritual impression that the mission wasn't meant to be super hard for me. Maybe I am not working hard enough? I don't think so. I feel that life will be harder for me in other phases. It has and will continue to be a fantastic two years (in what feels like 6 months). This past week was wild too. Lots of driving around. </div>
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<br clear="none" />This is a boss companionship. At least for me and my work-style. We are following the Spirit to trey and serve others and we write 20 things on our to-do list every day and come home at the end of the night with almost every single thing crossed off. I know Mom likes that kind of thing. Hey, you have got to find joy in different kinds of things in the mission haha. We are teaching and working well together too. And I am eating healthier haha. We ran three miles Saturday morning and I wanted to die haha. If I actively try, I could lose a lot of weight with him! #215lbs.</div>
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Transfers were great. President Griffin is receiving some good revelation for us! He wants us to relax, take breaks, take some time after meetings to actually talk rather then to run away to work, and to plan better, more effectively, and more calmly. It is cool to see how I have changed in that way in my mission too. President Griffin would definitely not be okay with Elder Pollmeier's work ethic haha. It was good though. 3 Bountiful missionaries came in. One graduated from WX just barely. Elder Tevin Byington came in. They sent him up north haha. Elder Oliphant came in! I don't know if you know him, I faintly remember him. He has a sister my age and they used to live in the condos. They currently live in the wheeler's basement. Small world. </div>
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Well I can't really remember if anything else happened this week! Something probably did. Love you! Elder Parry </div>
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-12421584102508616142014-08-26T20:17:00.000-07:002014-08-29T20:18:28.939-07:00Transfers!Dear Family,<br />
<br />
It is all agreed in our apartment that this past week was verrrrrry<br />
looooooong. It was a blast, but we were all running our own areas for<br />
8 days. I feel like each day was 36 hours. We did an okay job at<br />
having members coming out with us each night so we could have splits,<br />
and we were together during the day visiting people from all three<br />
areas. We taught a lot this week. There were a lot of people to visit<br />
in the areas so that was fun :) Elders Yoxtheimer and Johnson are a<br />
blast. We had a companionship theme song in the car, and Elder's<br />
Yoxtheimer car was temporary so it had unlimited miles and we used it<br />
a lot! We saved a lot of miles for the frontier 😂 Anyway, there were<br />
just a lot of fun things that happened this week that I had never<br />
experienced before in the mission. Elder Dart left 6 shirts so now I<br />
have 13 white shirts!!!! Haha. It is my first tripanionship and it was pretty fun. Way to exhausting to be longer than 8 days, but fun while it lasted. The coolest part; the<br />
Lord blessed all three areas with miracles this week. Elder Yox had a<br />
baptism in his ward on Saturday for Anna Tarango. I had the privilege<br />
of baptizing her. She is PREPARED. One of the coolest girls I have met<br />
out here in the mission. It has been unforgettable to see people like<br />
her embrace the Gospel and make the Baptismal covenant with the end<br />
goals of the temple and the eternities in mind. We found 6 new<br />
investigators last week in La Joya Norte as a part of our miracles. 3<br />
of them are Gerardo's wife, Ana, and their 3 kids. This family is SO<br />
COOL! We gave a blessing to Hermana Lupita's friend (Ana) and she felt<br />
the Spirit. That night, Gerardo told her that he is Mormon (less<br />
active for a long time). She was like WHAT!? We need to go to church!<br />
So the parents and the three kids; Mariana, Sebastian, and Alexa will<br />
come to church :) Pure miracles brought us to them. The areas are fun<br />
though. La Joya is the toughest ward I have served in, but it is all<br />
good, the next missionary coming should be good. I think it is Elder<br />
McCuch, but I am not sure. Whoever it is, if he is with me for 3<br />
transfers, then he will be my last 😳. We shall see tomorrow. Elders<br />
Yoxtheimer and Johnson are training in their areas. They will do<br />
great. We will figure it all out tomorrow. I wouldn't go as far as to<br />
say that President Griffin is off his rocker, but he is definitely<br />
different than President T. THE WHOLE MISSION is going to the meeting<br />
tomorrow for extra training. We will probably all get lunch too and<br />
not be gone until like 5 ay caray. His style is so interesting. He is<br />
very inspired though. I didn't get the chance to talk to him this<br />
week, but we will be seeing him more in the coming weeks.<br />
<br />
I learned a lot of interesting things this week. We taught someone who<br />
is less-active, Mari, yesterday and she wants to come back to church<br />
more than anything but she says that SHE CAN'T. Something always comes<br />
up. She said that it is so hard for her to go to church, but she wants<br />
to and she is trying. For the majority of my mission, I would be<br />
pretty frustrated and just tell her a bunch of reasons why she needs<br />
to go. I am trying to be more empathetic though, and it is SO HARD to<br />
put myself in others' shoes. It is so hard! I have realized that it<br />
really can be hard to make it back to church. I don't know the other<br />
side of things and I may have a norrow-minded perspective. I am just<br />
not sure. I know that Christ knows them and what they go through so I<br />
need to help them trust in Him, and I know that being inspired by God<br />
through the Spirit to return or to come to church is the best thing<br />
that could happen so I rely on that too. But I feel like I am coming<br />
to understand just how hard things may be in real-life. We have<br />
"strong" and "active" members missing church 2 out of 3 weeks for<br />
work, not having a car, not being ready on time, etc. etc. These<br />
people are counselors in quorums and Young mens' presidents. We visit<br />
them and tell them why they need to go to church and it may not come<br />
off as loving to them, but we do our best. It is hard for these<br />
people! Only God can decide who is giving their best efforts to go<br />
despite all the opposition, but we need to go and show the LOVE so<br />
that they can feel God's love. I don't know how hard it is for these<br />
people, I don't even know how hard life is in general because mine was<br />
so easy before the mission! I realized that too; life was pretty swell<br />
for me growing up. The future looks swell too, but ya never know. I<br />
have this false pretext that everything will come out smelling like a<br />
rose if I just keep living like I did before the mission but who<br />
knows! It has been good for me to take a step back this week and be<br />
real with myself about how the rest of my life will be. The challenges<br />
and mountains to climb that we have are what help us to grow and to<br />
become, so I guess they will be good! So I know they will come, I just<br />
don't want to spend 2 years judging others for their poor (or what I<br />
judge as poor) efforts and then get home, live life, and realize that<br />
they were really having a hard time. There is nothing trunky about<br />
this either; but I have also been trying to learn how to apply all<br />
this stuff I am learning. A simple question makes me look at anything<br />
on the mission differently; "how would this look to me after the<br />
mission?" Because it is true, we all know how and when to study the<br />
scriptures, to bear testimony, to go to church, and to do the right<br />
thing in general, but if we don't know how it will fit in when we get<br />
home, we are going to get home and have trouble applying! And we would<br />
waste some time and make some mistakes as we try to "get used" to<br />
normal life. I think I will just take President and Sister Taylor's<br />
advice and choose now to be weird and to stay that way :) I hope that<br />
all made sense... I learned a lot about life!<br />
<br />
I had a Baptismal Interview this weekend. It was TOUGH. The boy wasn't<br />
showing a lot of excitement. He is kind of rebellious too. I couldn't<br />
decide the whole interview whether he should pass or not. I was<br />
praying and trying to discern the whole time, but nothing. I took a<br />
little extra time in the closing prayer as I sought for an answer from<br />
the Spirit. Nothing. I think nothing, but I went with the answer that<br />
I thought was best and I followed through confidently with it. He<br />
wasn't ready to be baptized. I learned a little there about how the<br />
Lord answers our prayers. It was tough because I never got a "real"<br />
answer. But I think the Lord trusted me enough to let me make the<br />
decision I felt to be right. Whole new meaning to the scripture that<br />
the Lord says that He will "consecrate our performance."<br />
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Well, I think there was a lot more I wanted to say. But I forgo<br />
<br />
Love, Elder Parry<br />
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Oh yeah, mentioning to you about the weather this week isn't worth<br />
more than 2 minutes of typing for me. I was in the rain for about 20<br />
minutes and there were puddles in the gutters for a couple days.<br />
Nothing special at all. Overall, this summer has been very wimpy in<br />
heat.Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-23056206440364931542014-08-18T20:14:00.000-07:002014-08-29T20:14:16.905-07:00Covering Three Areas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This week was wild!
So on wednesday we actually went to the airport to drop off Elder
McFarland who had to go home early for medical reasons. Let me tell
you, it was one WEIRD experience being in the airport (see photo).
Elder Dart was pretty chill though. It had been a while since I was
there and I will be back there probably before I even know it. Now his
companion, Elder Yoxtheimer, Elder Johnson, and I are left here to
cover THREE areas until transfers on Wednesday. It is going to be
stressful, but we will manage somehow. We are trying to all go out
with members during the night to visit people in our own areas. It
will be some lonely work over the next eight days, but we will be
together as a tri-panionship at nights, and we are working with the La
Joya Hermanos and the Spirit so we will be all right :) I am sitting
on the yellow couch in our apartment next to Elders Arave and Dart.
They get picked up in 20 minutes and will be eating bien rico tonight
with Mr. Steak man. They will be great. Elder Arave is going to Weber
and Elder Dart is going to USU. I actually got an email from Elder
Cardoso for the first time and he is currently at LDSBC--working to
make it in to the Y. You should try to meet him somehow! He said he
will see me at my homecoming. It is a ways away but I am excited to
see all these great friends at home and go to the temple with them and
such! There is still a lot of work to do out here. I have actually set
some goals for this new transfer and one is to dig a little deeper
into the energy I have; see what more I can pull out.
We had a meeting with Elder Foster of the Seventy this week and
President Griffin gave us zone conferences on thursday. Basically, I
love President Griffin. He is extremely inspired and exactly what our
mission needs. My testimony has grown that President Taylor was
perfect for the time he was here for this mission and now President
Griffin can do some new things. PG is not strict at all. He wants us
to use all the resources we have (cars, miles, food money, P-day time
etc.) so he is allowing us to "govern ourselves" in a lot of things.
President Taylor hit us hard with obedience so we were ready to
receive freedoms and allowances with PG. He has a lot of trust in us.
Elder Foster gave a great class on saturday! We talked about seeing
others for what they can become and inspiring them to become that. We
talked about a lot of things that have helped me to know how I can
better inspire and love others. Being a leader has probably been one
of the funnest things I have done out in the mission. Not as much
leadership assignments as the opportunities I have had here and there
to be there for someone when they need it. A lot of what Elder Foster
said President Griffin had already gone over, and a lot of that still
I felt like I was trying to apply as I look for others to serve and
look to help others draw closer to their Savior, their Father, and the
Spirit. It is all a work in progress though.
We had a great experience on Wednesday. Elder Dart and I were doing
facebook on the couch in the Stake Center foyer. A teenager walked up
to the door and asked what church this is. She then asked for Holy
water because she was too sinful to bless her own. We said a prayer
with her and called the YSA sisters. They were 30 seconds away from
the building at the time and they gave the lady a church tour. It was
a miracle. It is fun to see and recognize the miracles that we see
every day. The whole valley is getting pumped for the PHX temple open
house! I have already invited a few friends in the valley and plan to
invite a couple more so I would like to ask your help to reserve a few
tickets September the 29th because they are going to go FAST!
Well we shall see how this week goes. It will probably be crazy. Every
week has been though. It is Elder Johnson's birthday this friday and
we are eating Peruvian buffet so that will be exciting. Yesterday we
had goodbye Sopes for dinner, a meat-fest at the Waldo's (The waldos
that you met that own the taco shack actually live in La Joya so we
went there to pig out), and a gigantic El Salvadorian Omelette this
morning for breakfast. I am gaining weight and going to the bathroom a
lot haha. If I were to make a guess as to how my mission will end I
think that my companion that I meet on Wednesday is the last one. It
could be Elder Miller, Taylor, Salas, or someone else. We shall see!
It may not sound like I am having a lot of spiritual experiences out
here but I am having A LOT. Every day. I love them. They sustain me,
and they inspire me to have many more when I return home and have
different roles and responsibilities. I love it out here. I still hope
to learn LOTs lots more.<br />
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Love, Elder Parry
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-51332380614378043492014-08-11T19:58:00.000-07:002014-08-29T19:59:35.871-07:00Short Letter :-(Dear Family,
This week was great. Barrio La Joya was funny yesterday. They
announced a few times about Elders Arave and Dart leaving and about
how elders Johnson and I will need members to help us in our areas. It
was Elders Dart and Arave's birthdays this week! It is Elder Johnson's
next week so Barrio La Joya threw a huge party for one of our dinners.
We had a lot of cake and Mexican food and a lot of fun company.
Hermana Menendez made a big cake and for the 3 birthday guys they
yelled; "Mordida! Mordida!" which means "bite bite!" And so the three
birthday guys bit into it. Elder Dart did it first and Elder Arave did
it last and nothing happened to them. Elder Johnson, however, had his
face pushed into the cake by Hermana Clemente. It was so hilarious. He
had cake all over his face and there was a face imprint in the cake.
Haha.
I am having so much fun out here. We are still working hard too! It is
hard to believe there will be life after the mission because of my
life for the past two years. Elder Dart and I have had some deep talks
as we have driven around because he is getting ready to move on. It
has been a cool transfer. Just so you know, this is one of the first
times in the mission I haven't written ya'll first and it sure goes to
show. I will write this email first next week.. It will be next monday
before we all know it :D Love, Elder Parry. Sam don't die at
two-a-days, I still need to come home and beat you up!
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-75107431644261853712014-08-04T19:54:00.000-07:002014-08-29T20:00:54.083-07:00It's August!It is August! This time last year I had already had 4 companions. It is going by fast, right? A lot of cool things happened this week. Saturday we had it planned to go to the Mesa Temple Visitors' Center with a couple investigators, some members, and some returning members. It kind of got destroyed in our face so we didn't go and that stunk. #nocommitmentproblems. The Spirit was at work though! An Elder called us the afternoon that we didn't go and he wanted to come over and talk because he was thinking about going home. We did a split the rest of the day with that companionship to be able to talk to both and shake things up from the regular routine for them. It worked out very well! I went with Elder Yoxtheimer and Elder McFarland went with Elder Dart. It was just what we all needed. It is cool to see the Spirit working through the situation. I have loved being with other missionaries and trying to help them see what they can achieve. I have been working hard on "the triangle" that President taught us before he left. It has to do with helping others create a strong relationship with the Godhead so that I can put myself out of business. O sea, making sure people aren't attached to me or other little things of little importance, but rather that they grow to depend on God. I am working hard on that. I am trying not to get to close with the members of this ward. I want it to be the ward out of the 4 I serve in that I have the least strong relationships with the members. It involves a lot of trying to motivate and inspire through the spirit and celebrating the good they are doing and helping them discover for themselves ways they can repent. A common byproduct of this is loving the missionaries that helped; I just do my best to tell them that it was all them and that they are drawing close to God in the process :) I am trying that with missionaries and members. It worked this week! We are working on getting these members converted because that is a problem in La Joya; so we went and taught a strong member Galarza family the First a Vision and talked about some things they could do while we felt the Spirit strong. It went great and we challenged them to bear testimony in sacrament meeting so they could grow and so the rest of the barrio could get animated about the work of salvation! The mom, dad, and daughter went up and shared their conversion stories and how they feel about missionary work. #trueconversion. I love working with these members. I have definitely grown in love for this people down here. I will never forget how I feel for this people. The nonmembers are a little harder to love, but these saints down here are FAITHFUL. It has been a process. I read a journal entry from last year about loving the people and I feel so happy for how much I love them now.
Elders Dart and Arave are holding strong. Elder Arave is from Layton so I am telling him to visit you too! They are so solid. No trunkiness. Puro Trabajo. They are actually great companions for me and very excellent leaders. I love being around them. I am honored to be with them at the end of their service. They will do great things. I have been reflecting a lot with Elder Arave too because he took me on my first exchange and we have served in the same wards all mission. We have a lot in common and we have already decided to be bros after the mission! I have too many bros now and no time to hangout with them haha. I will have to put off marriage a little I guess, but I am super excited to get married! I will be engaged before the end of the semester! Haha just kidding no rush. Am I your baby my whole life mom or do I get to spread my wings? Haha jk. Elder Dart is a boss though. Him and Arave have helped and taught me quite a bit actually. I am certainly soaking in this time I have to learn and follow until I am back to a little more leading at this next transfer :-/ I will be the oldest serving in La Joya, in the apartment, the second oldest elder in the zone, the oldest Spanish in the mission, and elder fife will be out a year. Ay caray.
I am hooked to one of the videos on my iPad. I practically have it memorized in Spanish. It is the Elder Christofferson one on the will of god. I feel the Spirit exceptionally strong every time it watch it and I watch it several times a week. It is very powerful for me. I am not exactly sure why. I don't feel like I have had a mountain to climb or a drastic change that I have had to adapt to, in fact, I see that happening a lot to missionaries around me with their families and situations and I feel like I am ministering to a few of them. I surely have been blessed with a great and faithful family. But I feel like I have understood the will of God for me up until now in my life. I have grown to agree with it, but I haven't had an huge challenges with adjusting to it. Anyway, the message is very strong for me. I would just want The Lord to know that I am totally willing to do what he needs done and to accept it. I think that is why the message is so powerful to me. I pray often expressing my acceptance of His will and, more than anything, willingness to do what needs to be done. I love it because it makes me feel like a true instrument in His hands. I will keep doing it. I hope to encounter a mountain to climb or some kind of challenge to face that can shape me. It's what I'm looking for :-) pray that I can have the right challenges and the sufficient faith to endure and conquer it. It will help me!
Love, Elder Parry
PS--->Hermano Carcamo told us last night that he is in charge of La Joya's participation in the PHX Temple cultural celebration. He is excited but super confused because he doesn't know what to do. We had stake correlation Sunday too and President Griffin came and told us what we will be doing for the temple. The sisters will be doing tours, playing movies, and getting their faces seen (I asked president Griffin if we were pretty enough to do that and he said of course not). Elders will be......... The FIRST people (along with the workers) in the temple after it is dedicated to carry the furniture in to furnish the whole place!! I am pumped. We will be in white and everything. The whole mission will be singing at the cultural celebration too. Called to Serve and one other song. It will be so sweet. I bet President Eyring will come too. He always goes to those! Hermano Carcamo said he's pretty sure the open house will be no earlier than in two months and no later than in 3 months! So November or October :)Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-79143834264784908352014-07-28T17:27:00.000-07:002014-08-03T17:27:24.360-07:00ExchangesLook, the Phoenix Temple Open House will be announced by the First
Presidency and everybody will know at the exact same time. It will be
a headline on LDS.org and you won't miss it. The time period will be
short because the neighbors heard how many people came to the Gilbert
open house and they got grumpy. Lame. I don't know if we are doing
anything in the open house but I would highly recommend calling the
mission office to figure out what to do. From what it sounds like, it
is basically done, they are just waiting for better weather.
I got your package! It is so rad! Thanks. The Chile pepper pillowcases
are actually my favorites that you have given me. Elder Dart and I
began using those from Day 1! I knew you think I would love them and
you were right. Thanks for the food too. I have a lot of food in this
apartment now haha.
The interview with President Griffin was so fun! We got to go to the
mission home (it was only my fourth time) and eat lunch with him and
Sister Griffin. They are the sweetest, stress-free, excited, calm,
ready to lead us out, and their testimonies are on solid ground.
President Griffin is so funny and very loving. I didn't think I could
get closer with anyone after President Taylor but this won't be a
problem. PG is actually super cattle-ranch style too. It is funny he
says stuff like "s'many" instead of "so many" and stuff like that. He
owns a lot of land in Montana and he said that the church owns the
most ranch land in the world out of any other institution. The first
interview was me, Elder Dart, and him. He was talking up Elders Dart
and Andrus (before me; just went home) to me and telling me what great
shoes they have to fill which is true and it is really cool to be a
part of that group. He kept poking fun at Elder Dart that he is going
home soon. Elder Dart is way cool because he is not trunky at all and
he won't be. Very honorable. Reminds me of my trainer. He also tells
me that he doesn't have feelings. So I working on getting deep into
his feelings haha. In that interview President Griffin talked about
all the people in the zone. Great insights. In the personal interview
PG talked about Virtue using the scriptures and personal experience.
It was powerful. It is good for every missionary to have. His style is
very different. PT got on the same page with us by sending us texts 3
times a week, writing us every week, and posting on facebook
(journalism) and PG gets on the same page with us by trying to have
40-minute interviews in the Mission home with the whole mission,
telling us to stay after meetings a little bit so we can talk and be
of assistance to others, and by visiting us. Both great styles.
I went on 2 exchanges this week. I actually ran into some HUGE
miracles in both days. Elder Weiler is really cool. I lead out the
area so I really didn't know what I was doing. We met for the exchange
at the football stadium which is kind of cool because every time I
watch the Super Bowl in Glendale for the rest of my life I can say
that I met there in the parking lot for exchanges haha. We had a lot
of fun though and Elder Weiler is a smart guy. He isn't trunky either.
Great mission. I have a funny picture of him reading Dad's letter; he
brought it to us from the office and was wearing his own Yankees shirt
that night he was looking at all the pictures of you guys. I went with
Elder Osai on exchanges in his area. I was on bike and actually burned
my arms hard core because it hadn't been that hot for me on bike since
august. I enjoyed it. We talked to probably 15 people on the streets
(people don't normally leave their AC to go outside here). It was
sweet. Elder Osai is from HAwaii and has been out one month. It was
the first time leading his area out and he did a fantastic job. Very
great job. He got lots of confidence from it.
La Joya is an interesting place. We are working on really getting the
members converted! It is tough. They have a lot of marriage problems
so the last two sundays we have talked about Chastity, marriage,
divorce, temple sealings etc. in all 3 hours. That, along with Evan
maybe getting married (Really!? Man that is crazy), and Elders Dart
and Arave going home soon has focused me on marriage this past week! I
am so excited. I have been thinking about it so much that Elder Dart
keeps telling me that I need to wait at least 6 months to get married
even though he doesn't think I will be able to. I want to get married
so bad, but I think I will be okay because I don't have any potential
investigators to go home to haha. Start at ground one. See what people
you can bring to the aeropuerto! Anyway, I love La Joya. Barrio
Estrella was phenomenal. Elder DArt did a baptismal interview
yesterday so we went back and visited for a bit. Didn't realize how
much I missed them until I saw them again. Great people. These two
wards are very different though.
I wish I made more time to write because I learned so much this week
and we had a lot of great lessons, learnings, contacts, and events
that I would love to tell you about. I don't really remember what I
did yesterday though so I am all over the place. The whole week was
good and I am always thinking about all of you and what you are up to
day-in and day-out. I can't wait to come home and groove with you all
and show you some cool tricks I have learned out here and learn from
what you are all up to! I am cheering for Evan and Sophie. If she has
any sisters, you can tell them my address!!! Love you all. Keep up the
good work.
Love you, Elder Parry
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-32834724826112555972014-07-21T18:21:00.000-07:002014-07-27T18:22:47.809-07:00Graveyard ShiftDear Family,
The week one gets transferred is always the longest week (even though
it is typically the shortest between P-days) because there always is a
lot to do. This transfer, area, companionship, ward, zone all seem to
be off to a fantastic and fun start and the theme for the transfer
will be "graveyard shift." I will tell you why. First of all, saying
goodbye to all the Estrella friends was AWESOME, basically because I
have had so much fun with them and felt so much love towards them. I
took some great pictures with some great people. I wish I could've
seen all. Pero ni modo esta bien. Elder Castro scheduled 2 lessons
with less-active families that night so we went and visited them. We
started the rounds of visiting at 8:15 so we had to blitz! Needless to
say, The Lord helped us see everyone :) Last night I was at the stake
center and ran into a bunch of Estrella members so we are still pretty
close.
Yes I came to La Joya. It is good here. After having served here a bit
(granted this is only a one-week impression) I would opinion that
Barrio Estrella is the strongest Spanish ward in the mission because
La Joya got the weaker half when the two wards split not too long ago.
But the work is moving forward very well and I love the ward. Elders'
Quorum was full of some goons (I felt like we were in Deacons' quorum
haha). Hermano R. was using the wrong teaching manual, putting
Starburst wrappers in peoples' ears (including my own), and doing
anything but participating until he got too tired and fell asleep. His
neighbor filmed him sleeping. Bishop Menchaka came yesterday for the
first time in 4 weeks. Apparently he is gone to Indiana for work so
much that he only makes it once a month. Anyway, don't jump to
conclusions about the ward. I love it and the members are strong. I am
excited to meet more. I have made friends with Hermanos Ruiz, Carcamo,
Gaunte, Morales, Marquina, Galarza, Tienda, Grady, and a few others.
Great families. We are teaching a few people. One is Reynaldo (people
call him "Champion"). He is legit! He came to church and loved it and
we read the Book of Mormon with him last night with Hermano Tienda. He
is progressing strong and we have high expectations for him. We got
into a less-active brother (Hermano Reveles)'s house for the first
time in 6 months so we will continue there.
As for the graveyard shift, I will just cut to the chase; Elder Dart
goes home in FOUR WEEKS along with my roommate Elder Arave. They are
getting a head start on school so they go home 8 days BEFORE
transfers! Ay-caray! To make a long story longer, any mission and ward
responsibilities I am learning right now I will have to take over solo
in about 4 weeks. In fact, Elder Johnson will be my companion for
those 8 days and we will just happily suffer together. Elder Johnson
is Elder Arave's companion. He has been out 10 months and is a strong
person, but we are both pretty clueless about these leader
responsibilities. However, I am excited for the challenge, and am
paying really close attention to detail. Tonight I have an exchange
with Elder Weiler here in this area (they threw me under the bus
early, but that is okay because Elder Dart has been super nice to me
by scheduling a lot of set appointments for tomorrow :). Thursday we
are going to the Mission Home so that President Griffin can get to
know us a lot better for 40 minutes each. I am excited for that
because I would love to be around and learn from him more. So I am
getting thrown into the mix of things quick! It was never something I
wanted but I am here where The Lord calls me. Speaking of that,
transfers were great. Mainly because my testimony of President Griffin
and Taylor following the Spirit is like a perfect knowledge now. It is
fascinating to me to see Pres. Griffin make what I would think are the
EXACT same changes that President Taylor would have done. In fact, I
felt like I saw changes very similar when Barrio Estrella changed all
the leadership. I have concluded that this style is the style of the
Spirit and that all these leaders are following it. It was a cool
testimony-builder for me. Sometime when I have more time, I would like
to share the specifics that I have observed with how this style works.
It is cool! I know President Griffin followed the Spirit. So I guess
to cap it off, I am in the same zone. I am the oldest in the zone
along with Elders Dart and Reid (like Surprise). I still see Elder
Castro and my old district often enough. There is still a
crazy-awesome trio of Hermanas in that District. One of the Estrella
hermanas got transferred with me to La Joya haha. You might recognize
Elder Arave's name. I went on my first exchange with him 18 months
ago. I love him and we are having so much fun. We talk about Elder
Pollmeier, Agua Fria, he served with Elder Ramos in Barrio Estrella,
He lived with Elder Cardoso, so we have a lot to talk about. Elder
Dart is the bomb too. He is bold and very thorough when it comes to
getting things done. We have taught really well together this week. He
is from Logan, UT (Mountaincrest HS) and is going to UTAH STATE in
like 4 weeks ay caray. I kind of hope that I don't finish my mission
here (I have my pre-conceived plan/dream that I would like to fulfill
my last 4 transfers haha; we will see if it happens; probably not),
but I would say 50/50 that I will.
I am learning a lot out here. President Griffin has already dropped a
few memorable quotes. He told us that they are things that we "might
want to push our pencils to doing" (He is style Montana-farmboy haha):
"Increased worthiness combined with hard work," and "teach someone to
enable them to learn. Show someone to enable them to do." Well,
sometimes I feel like things are wrapping up here in the mission, but
I know what it is that I must do and I am sticking to it to the end of
the service out here! I am excited and know there are a bunch more
people out there that still need to be talked to. You are all doing a
great job. Work hard, pray hard and keep being obedient :D
Love, Elder Parry
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-50500478875763579002014-07-15T17:30:00.000-07:002014-07-18T17:30:41.755-07:00Transferred to La Joya, ZL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiddkuRySsdgROhwHIbwK_XlsYsPx3r4tbvL_yXVt1w-iv24IA4Wp8ohoKhqfMEF-kPWeBd0MHoCm4RFum9f1hvt_RYbXx8isftXce1POpda7lzfVJ2lsf0wvWFMY_csmk3ohmYefXkKJIV/s1600/image+(1).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiddkuRySsdgROhwHIbwK_XlsYsPx3r4tbvL_yXVt1w-iv24IA4Wp8ohoKhqfMEF-kPWeBd0MHoCm4RFum9f1hvt_RYbXx8isftXce1POpda7lzfVJ2lsf0wvWFMY_csmk3ohmYefXkKJIV/s320/image+(1).jpeg" /></a></div>
Dear Family,
This week was wild. Have I said that about every week? We went to the
Mesa Temple visitor's center on Saturday with the ward missionaries,
the Hermana misioneras, and Mariana y Ernesto. It was a very special
experience! We watched an hour long video on the Book of Mormon then
saw all the exhibits and got tours from the Visitor Center Hermana
missionaries (It looks as if the Spirit only sends pretty Hermanas to
serve there). Ernesto is still being kind of tough. He said that he
really can't focus on marriage or baptism for the next three months
because he has a lot to clear up. Mariana is still staying very
strong. She looked at the Temple, sighed, and said that she wants to
go inside very bad. I love her. She is such a neat person. I felt the
Spirit very distinctly when I saw a statue of Christ and the quote
behind Him about our "yoke being light." Very special.
We really don't have a lot to say about President Griffin since last
work, or since he came for that matter. He is super busy and really
trying to get comfortable. To sum it up; other than a few things he
invited us to study on our own when we had interviews, he has just
carried on everything President Taylor style. So far transfers are the
same and we will have a meeting tomorrow (thank goodness!). He hasn't
written us weekly emails. Either he is busy or it is style not to
write us(?) I am not bothered. President Griffin is the man. I look
forward to how he guides this mission. One thing I do know is that he
is following the Spirit.
Friday was one of the most spiritually powerful days of my mission!
Elder Castro challenged me and said it was probably the most I had
felt the Spirit with a Mexican in my life. I laughed and told him that
he was right. Hermano Barrera and Hermana Luz Vega said that they came
to their senses and will be returning to church. It was a brief scare,
but the Spirit has helped them to realize what is best. We had a
powerful conversation too. Hermana lamented about having found the
Gospel 70 years into her life and they both shared how they thought we
were lucky. We told them that God chose and reserved them too. We just
have different roles #BookofAbraham. That same night Leo said he would
be baptized. We knocked down (by we I mean IT WAS ALL THE SPIRIT) two
of his doubts: not knowing everything, and not having a solid sign
yet. We watched a video where Uchtdorf challenges us not to retard our
Spiritual growth by waiting for a sign like Saul did. The Spirit was
very strong. Earlier that day we had District meeting. We talked about
receiving revelation through prayer. One of the Hermanas, Hermana
Stanley, began to ask more questions and bring up more doubts. We
split into practice teaching and she began to get really emotional.
One of her companions got emotional too. Hermana Stanley is a 6-year
convert and her family stopped going to church while she has been out
here. It sounded hard for her. Anyway, Elders McMillan and Reid (my
roommates) began to help her with her doubts and the Spirit just
filled up. It was a REAL practice teach. It was me, Hermanas Stanley,
Turner, and Dayton (the Trio) and Alma and Amulek (Reid and Mcmillan).
I have lived with Elder Reid for 6 months and for the first time I saw
him get emotional as he read the Conversation between God and Enoc in
Moses 7. It was powerful. Hermana Dayton went home today. It was kind
of crazy for me because we were in the mission home together and we
served here in the ward together for 6 months. She is an outstanding
missionary! I have loved learning from her and all the Hermanas in
this District. I counted; I have served with 9 different ones here in
the ward! I don't want to sound cheesy or anything--and despite what
most Elders say--I LOVE working with these sisters. I am going to miss
this district. There is a lot to learn from all these missionaries and
it is fun to build a strong and appropriate relationship with them.
I love this ward. I love Elder Castro. I am excited for whatever
challenges there are (La Joya--my next ward--'s Bishop goes to church
once a month because of work). I can't believe it has been 6 months
since I got here. I feel like I didn;t so enough! I have learned a
lot. I know that God is proud of me. I am happy to be doing what I am
doing. My testimony is strengthening and my conversion is deepening. I
have made a lot of great friends. I feel like I am at kind of a
mission milestone right now; The Hermanas I came out with just went
home and I have 4 solid transfers left. I haven't had a set of 4
transfers at any point of my mission that didn't go by fast!
Love, Elder Parry
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1454797254735417626.post-13980313805512441802014-07-07T17:09:00.000-07:002014-07-18T17:09:53.258-07:00Saying Hello to the GriffinsHello Family!
We had an awesome week of meeting the Griffins! We had very brief
interviews and I was first! He asked me what he could do to be a good
President to me. I told him that I just like to do things how they are
supposed to be done so a little chastising and productive criticism is
what would help. He then agreed and said that things need to change if
we are going to be able to keep up with the Hastening of the Work. I
was really happy to hear from him. He came from the MTC (after having
heard from all 15 Apostles), with MUCHAS GANAS to hasten the work. He
has caught the vision, and I am excited to see what he does because I
have been working hard all my mission and I know that the work needs
to be hastened more, but I can never feel like I know exactly how. He
also asked me how long I have left and when I told him he said, "Oh
that's great. We have plenty of time to work together. We will get
some work done." That was fun! He also told me in the interview that
his number one purpose is to be here for me (the missionaries), and
that he is here to help. I love him already. Sister Griffin is great
too. They seem much more soft-spoken than the Taylors. They definitely
aren't as energetic or confident as they were. The transition is kind
of funny because we sent home someone with SO MUCH experience, and
confidence and leadership in the field for someone fresh and new. I am
excited to work with them. We will see if the Spirit tells him to
transfer me next week. Can you believe we already have them!? I wanted
to share one of the last things that President Taylor said before
leaving because I think it sums him up in a great nutshell. I was with
Elder Soper yesterday (friend from the zone; going home next week). He
had a going-home meeting with him and a few other missionaries and
President rhetorically asked: "do you feel like your mission has been
accepted by The Lord?" And then after a silence he said; "once you
have said yes, you can leave and get back to your areas." That is how
President is. He was super focused on enhancing success in bringing
people unto Christ, improving effectiveness, and making great leaders
in the church, but always in the end, he focused on how the Doctrine
of Christ makes us happy and about how The Lord is proud of everything
we are doing regardless of the results. I love President and Sister
T!!
We actually met them on the 4th! It was fun because all 29 of us were
wearing red, white, and blue! Not as cool as being in the Big Apple
but I won't forget this Fourth of July! Speaking of not forgetting, I
was having flashbacks to my first night (4th of July) with Elder
Miller last year when I was on the balcony watching fireworks. No
fireworks this year! I just wrote in my journal for two hours, soaked
my toe because I am fixing an in-grown toenail, ate donuts, laughed
with the other three missionaries, watched my FAVORITE movie (Mountain
of The Lord), and went to bed early.
The next morning we went to the Mesa Temple! It was a blast. We went
with the Sepulveda family and a bunch of other friends from the ward.
Josue Sepulveda leaves on his mission in a month so he went through
for the first time! It was super special. I went with an inspired
question and got a bunch of answers so that was nice too. Josue really
enjoyed it and he comes from a very strong family (with fewer than 2
years in the Church). It is definitely one of the strongest families I
have come to know out here in the valley. It is cool to see such a new
family volunteering for everything, offering prayers and participating
in several meetings, going to the temple regularly, serving as leaders
in the ward, and sending kids on missions. Hermano Sepulveda had his
first week as WML with us. He is doing a great job. He is very humble
and ready to learn so us 7 missionaries have kind of taken him under
our wing. We are working together. It was his third time to the temple
since he works a lot. It was funny because Josue had Hermano Martinez
as his escort and Hermano Sepulveda told Elder Castro and I to be his
escort because he was still kind of lost haha. He is doing well
though. We went out for a couple lessons with Hermano Soto this week.
That was really cool because he opened up with us! He has had time
away from the temple and he wants to make it back. He is a sweet guy
and had a genuine testimony. Then he bore his testimony at church
yesterday about how great he felt in the lessons. The members of this
ward and this culture are so faithful and so dedicated!
I had my first Haboob here in the valley after being here 17 months.
It was kind of crazy. One of the first times in my mission going into
a woman's house without there being a man inside. We weren't going to
go in until she told us to turn around we saw a wave of dirt steaming
towards us haha. We also watched a 50 minute talk from the MTC by
Elder Bednar in District meeting. I am sure Evan remembers it:
"Turning outward: the Character of Christ." It was epic. Elder Bednar
is my hero.
The last thing I will share is from an experience we had this week
with Hermano Barerra. It was bad. I felt terrible. Basically, He and
his neighbor are really put off by their relationship with the Bishop
and just flat-out told us that they are going to need to go inactive
for a bit. They said that their testimonies of the Restored Gospel are
unwavering, but they just cannot go and be around him anymore. It was
tough. Hermano Barrera has been one of my biggest heroes in my
mission. It broke my heart. I learned a lot from the experience. We
all have agency and NO ONE is freely active the rest of your life.
What I mean is that inactivity can happen to anyone. It is a scary
thought. It is scary because we know the consequences and we know what
we miss out on if we aren't active. You just never know! I never
thought this would happen to him. I was doing a lot of thinking this
week about people casually missing church. It is starting to really
bug me. We don't make a covenant upon baptism to go to church when it
is convenient. That is ridiculous. We are going to miss Sundays
because of whatever the reason is. But people are just going to Mexico
on the weekends, being too tired, or having VISITORS OVER!? That is
just about the worst possible member-missionary work you could do;
staying home to attend to visitors. I have been working for a long
time about holding the Lord's standard up unapologetically. I think I
am making some good strides :) Our (this can apply to members to in
many instances!) job isn't to be friends, allow disobedience, and help
people justify. Our job is to hold the Lord's expectations high, just
how he is, and inspire people to make the right decision. We don't
decide if that offends them or not. That is their decision. It doesn't
matter how mad it makes people if it is God's standard! I know this
sounds kind of harsh, but I promise it is being applied with love! I
have learned a lot about finding this balance. We tried this twice
last night with some members and I think it worked. As for Hermano
Barerra, we were frank with him because we love him and he is our
friend, and his actions are unacceptable. I felt the Spirit as we
talked about his temple covenants. I know we handled it out we should
have. I know those covenants are sacred. I know that The Lord is able
to work through us as his instruments. I feel a strong trust with him.
I am excited to see what is next in store!
Love, Elder Parry
Beckyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07318506521251215679noreply@blogger.com0