Staying in Surprise

Dear Family,

 

I will be hanging out with the Surprise buddies for six more weeks! Elder Elliot is getting transferred out of out apartment and Elders Fife and Bangerter are staying. We all kind of guessed it would happen like this so we are doing great. After this transfer it will be nine months for me here, Oh nelly!

 

This week went super great. Going to Mesa was the time of my life! I didn't see any former companions at my conference but it was a really special day. I really enjoyed what Sister Taylor was saying about angels. I got pretty choked up when she talked about guardian angels. Actually, I felt the Spirit really strong as my whole body was tingling then the tingling really converted into a powerful heat. I don't know how to describe it--just that it didn't make me sweat or too hot but it heated up my whole body. Anyway--at that moment I pretty much knew that I have had guardian angels out here--living and past. I know they are all-around me to bear me up. I don't owe it to any specific event other than that moment at conferences and that I just know people are looking out for me on the other side of the veil. It was very special. The Spirit works! The conferences were so awesome. The Mesa Temple was beautiful. The session was really powerful. We got to hug Sister Taylor in the Celestial Room. I felt like we were one big family. I get some major motivation and love kicks whenever I do sessions! I know my Heavenly Father is looking out for me. The Commandments rock. Oh, and I got to drive out to Mesa too! :)

 

The investigators are doing okay. Yesterday Elder Fife and I did splits for the first time so he is getting more opportunities to take the lead. I went with Brother Handley to the Covos. Hermano Covos is a tough man. He wants to know everything before baptism and, like most of the mexican investigators, seems to keep asking questions about stuff we have already taught and repeated. Maybe I am not a great teacher? We read Jacob 4 with him. We were going to teach Word of Wisdom but they just need the BOM in their lives. We both testified of the BOM and the Spirit came strong. It was a good moment to feel the Spirit. That is when I know I am doing my job :) Madai, Genaro, and their 3 kids came to church! Their kids love mutual too! If anything, those kids are keeping the parents coming to church. It is perfect. Hermana Guzman was leaving the chapel and inviting the kids to primary as she went and they jumped and cheered. It was such an OHYEAH moment for us. We had a family night with the Hammond family last night too! They are a couple (RM that went to Peru and Peruvian wife) that started at the Estrella Branch 4 weeks ago. They said they want to be active again and go through the temple. We invited Chilo (invesstigator) to the family night and he brought his brother in law, girlfriend, and two of his kids. It was fantastic. We have been teaching some fun lessons these past few weeks. We taught Hermano Puente's friends on Sunday too! She has come to lots of activities and we shared a Christmas message. We have taught over a dozen Christmas lessons the past week so it has been a lot of fun. People may be busier during the holidays, but the Spirit is touching the hearts of many as they strive to remember the birth of the SAvior. This thursday and Friday we are having two 3-hour tri-ward Christmas parties that are VERY missionary-oriented. We will be singing in Spanish at them and many other things so we are excited. The member-missionary work is really moving forward in the EStrella Branch. The Calendar is serving its purpose. Did I tell you that Jocelyn's two younger sisters will be baptized this Saturday too! I love serving in this branch. I think if I keep saying that though I will serve here all mission! 

 

We had a cool activity in District Meeting this week. We read 2 nephi 31 together and the best way to be able to know how to teach a concept or a principle is to be able to understand it as if you were a 9-year-old. We read it together and all acted like investigators that had never read the BOM before as we went. We all asked basic questions and raised our hands when we didn't understand and taught it to each other. It was a cool experience. Remember that true intelligience is to be able to understand even the most profound of subjects then to break it down so that a nino could understand.

 

All the stuff from home is great. I commend you on the Christmas card. It was very classy. Just wait until I send home my sun-stained clothes! Thank you for all the letters and the packages. I opened the one you sent, and Grandma's too! Christmas in the apartment will be fun. I am sure the new Elder will be fun too. Elder BAngerter has a special assignment with him so it should be a tight-knit group. We will be picking up the other Spanish Elders and Skyping at the Church then bringing them back to play some cards probably. I will probably call between 10 and 2 haha. I will let you know.

 

I am happy things are going well at home. I haven't been homesick for a while so I am happy out here. I miss a lot of stuff at home and occasionally stuff comes into my head, but I am enjoying it out here. It is going too fast to really long for home too much. I miss you all and wish I could be there for all the band-thieving, car-driving, snow-plowing, and church-goeing fun with the whole family. BUt I know I need to be here and I need to be with President Taylor and I need to be serving. I don't feel obligated about any of this either. I feel like I am on vacation from the world but working hard at the same time. I have seen so many connections as I have learned what Heavenly Father has taught me through members, investigators, missionaries, my studies, experiences, areas, my Patriarchal blessing, President Taylor and so many more things. I love it here.

 

Merry Christmas! Love you all very much!

 

Love,

Elder Jacob Parry

SUPER COLD

This week has been great. We had three meetings this week. I love meetings but I think for the first time in my mission I got kind of sick of them! It threw me off a little, but I learned a lot from them and am excited to apply what I learned. In the first one, we did an obedience activity. Everyone filled out a simple obedience evaluation on note cards and turned in the cards anonymously. For one of the questions President asked how many of us had stayed up after 11:00 in the past week. Elder Brothers (standing up for someone else who had filled out a card that he had) was the only one standing. President asked him why he was up--he gave about the best response he could possibly muster. Then President told us that Elder Brothers was actually standing up for someone else in that room who had been disobedient and he tied that in with the Savior. Think of the Savior standing up for us and being accountable for our wrongs. Our Heavenly Father loves us infinitely but he could not provide mercy if it weren't for His Only Begotten's Atonement. What if the Savior wasn't willing to pay the price or if His Father did take the cup from Him? The fact remains, Christ did perform the Atonement, but what can we do to accept it? To show gratitude and see that we haven't added unnecessary weight to His cross when He carried it. It was powerful. President Taylor also cried twice. It was really powerful and the first time I have seen him do that and testify and talk about experiences he's had in His life with a trembling chin. He is the man. 

 

We had a trainer/trainee meeting too. Very useful! the 12-week program is inspired. Zone meeting was the third one. That one was sketchy! I felt very uncomfortable for part of it. The conversation during the accountability portion deviated to a very "number-dominated" discussion. Missionaries said some things that I disagreed with. Openly too! Success numbers  is not a result of obedience. Our areas are not directly blessed by our obedience or faith as missionaries. If this were so then missionaries would go home and only pay their tithing because they know the Lord will help them make ends meet financially every time! Missionaries would go home and keep the Word of Wisdom so they could train to be star athletes! These are extreme examples, but the fact is that obedience and faith DO NOT BRING INVESTIGATORS, LESSONS, OR BAPTISMS. That is what I have learned. Obedience and faith cultivate within you a love for your Father in Heaven and our Savior, Jesus Christ if you put your Faith in the right things (people) and are obedient for the right reasons! Success as a missionary is based on your COMMITMENT to find, teach, and baptize. I try not to judge unrighteously, but I feel like I see false perspectives on the mission that are going to get people in trouble for after. The meeting helped me to remember to put my faith, hope, love, commitment, obedience, and diligence in the right things. What are our motives? Why are we obedient to the Gospel? Why SHOULD we be? Do we keep the commandments for "blessings" or even actual, heavenly, and deserved blessings, or do we keep them because we are converted and love our Heavenly Father? Sounds like an Alma 5 exam haha.

 

This week... We taught a lesson to a deaf man using the Ipad! It was so LEGIT!!! It was a referral from an investigator of his "inactive/nonmember" family. We knocked (later realizing that we had no idea how he heard us knock on the door; unless he was moved by the Spirit to do so!) and he let us in and sat down with us. We exchanged a conversation together typing on my Ipad. We talked about Heavenly Father; copy and pasting the monthly scripture to the lesson dialogue, asking him questions and receiving answers, and later acting out a bible story (Noah's Ark) with Elder Fife before we left. We had a blast teaching and getting to know Emmanuel. He is a very cool guy. He is a actually already attending church in a deaf ward but he needed a lift that night. Technology rules!

 

Saturday was fantastic! You know why? I went on exchanges to ESTRELLA SUR! It felt good to be back home. I was with Robin (Elder Nelson). We realized that we lived about 100 yards away from each other for one semester at BYU and that he was one of 4 non-Budge3200 guests who came to our hall slip'n'slide! Go figure! Him and I get a long well. We will have a boss companionship when we are together one of these days. Anyway, I probably street contacted more that day than I have all transfer since I was back on bike for the day. It was awesome--and SUPER COLD! Very cold. This week has been cold. Right now it is like 56. cold huh? Haha. I honestly feel used to the heat because it wasn't that hot at the end of the summer (accustomed) and now it is very cold. The area was fun though. Elders Jones and Nelson are doing some great things and the Lord is blessing the people in their area in new and different ways. I saw Clemente at the Ward Christmas Party over the weekend. It was the first time in over a month. I hugged that man so hard! That family is still progressing little by little... Until the perfect day! They will get there. I saw Melina again too. I taught the Valadez family, the Torres, Hermana Jenkins' mother, and some others again. It was fun to be back. The Sun Valley Apartments are good too. They have Wifi. That is the new "must" in the mission: wifi. If you have that, your life is fun. We don't have it in the Reems apartment. The other 2 Elders have been trying to get me to ask all our neighbors for their passwords. No luck. One of the Elders is exactly like Richard haha. I wouldn't say they are openly distracting but they may make things hard to get done at times whether on purpose or on accidente haha. By the way- I am going to get a Skype account. We can have a 40-minute call/conversation on Christmas Day. It can't be any longer though. I don't really know when. I can imagine we will just have a couple dinners on Christmas and nothing else. If there is a time that works best for you, just let me know and we can plan ahead. If not, I will just tell you when we have dinners and we can do it in between, before, or after. Elder Fife (feefay) took over the area on Saturday with Elder Jones (very young). Elder Fife did a very good job! I have a lot of confidence and faith in him. He knows how to do things. I need to let him do things rather than doing things myself. I would like to learn more from him than let him learn from me. Sounds selfish huh? Haha. He is doing well and loves being a missionary. Friday at the party we shared a Christmas thought, us 4 together, to all the members and nonmembers (a lot!) it went very well. Elder Fife is fearless and shared wonderful things. The Branch is still fun as ever. I very very much admire President Aguirre. He is such an example of humility to me. He lets everyone teach him. He takes suggestions from us as missionaries as if we were sent from the Stake President or the General Authorities. God sure was thinking when he put him here in this spot with these people. I really feel like we are all working hard together in the rama Estrella. 

 

Christmas conferences this week! I am soooooooooo pumped. It will be good to get my big behind back in the temple! I have heard nothing but 10 star reviews of the Mesa Temple lights. 1 of 5 temples in the world that does lights! I got both packages so far. They are very nice. I love them. I have opened a couple letters and the package. I know that must've taken a lot of time and thought from a lot of people. Thank you all very much. Last night: I got the Santa Beard from Aunt Sara, the hat and glasses from the package, and sang some old songs off of Matt and Celeste's letter and the other Elders filmed it on the Ipad. Elder Bangerter, who has been out 21 months, said it was the most he had laughed his mission. It was a blast. Things are going well and you don't have to worry! Just keep scolding me so I can stay on track :) Love you all very much. The Church is true.

 

Love, Elder Jacob Parry

Thanksgiving

 

 

Dear Family,

 

The cops getting called was kind of a normal thing for J. and C.  and their family. They were investigating the church for three years and J. was finally baptized two months ago. We are still teaching C.. They could not make it to church yesterday because apparently C. robbed a house so they had to go to court. President bringing the invitations was perfect timing. Just more tools in the calendar tool belt for the members!

 

The Jenkins are crazy! I love them though. They came by on Friday night to give me a "present." It was a picture of them in front of the house. I had seen them like three days earlier so it didn't make sense. Apparently, they wanted to go to Flagstaff to see some snow before the holiday then come back. They decided to drive north up to Utah. So they went to Temple Square--no lights, and looked up my address in the white pages--no family. They took a picture and left haha. I asked if they said the same creepy things to all of you that they say to me and they said no because they don't want you to know what they're all about! I said that you wouldn't care haha. They are great.

 

Thanksgiving was fantastic. Kind of hectic and busy--but it was nice. We had dinner with the Matas, Sanchez family, and the Covos family. We had lots and lots of meat and food at both places. I overate big time but it was fun to be with everybody. It was kind of a dinner tour because we took the other Elders with us. We did weekly planning and studies in the morning then we played phase10 for a couple hours at night. The other Elders are so funny so it was great. One leaves this transfer so I will miss him. He is obsessed with baseball and is going to play college when he gets home and he came out to the field with me so we are good friends. He is the one eating the Donut haha. We had two turkey leftover dinners the next day too. EL DIA DE PAVO!

 

The Area is doing fantastic. I still feel like we don't have our feet completely under us, but we are trying to work effectively. We are getting a lot of member help and a lot of member excitement for the holidays, calendar, and other things. I have handed out a few BAM ties in the branch and people keep asking for them but they can't have them yet until they do something missionary! --Thanks Sister Perkins!!--We were expecting four families at church yesterday. The Covos couldn't come, among their friends (two of the other families)-- but Alejandra came and brought her two kids. She loved it. Her kids loved it too. We gave them copies of the Book of Mormon including a kids' copy before they left. They will be baptized soon!

 

I might send more. I will see. Today is busy and trying to send pictures with the Ipad is a pain lol

Christmas Project for the Branch

Dear FAmily, Lots to tell you this week!

 

I got a note from Becky and Ryan! It was totally cool. It made me laugh. I missed them, but it is crazy how close we can be at times!

 

We deployed our Christmas Branch project yesterday! It went seamlessly well. I will try to send you a copy, either in English or Spanish when I get the chance. It is sooooo cool. Elders Fife, Nelson, Jones, and I came up with it. It is a calendar with a little thing to do every day starting the day after Thanksgiving and ending the Sunday after Christmas. It is packed with little things to do daily to build faith in Missionary work, the Savior, and the Church. We put the calendar in a packet and included an explanation page, pamphlets to read and hand out, BAM stickers, pictures of Christ, invitations for the Christmas activities coming up, conference talks, and a bunch of other stuff I am forgetting haha. It was so fun to do. Yesterday morning I was writing every member family's name on the 50 folders. I remembered them all and we didn't miss anyone's name. I have been here too long haha.. Yesterday morning when we were presenting them in Ward Council, President Aguirre read the introduction that he had profread the night before and he started crying when he read "we testify as representatives of Jesus Christ" because he knew what our calling meant. He said that he could not put Christ's name in his direct title like we could. So he endorsed our project very enthusiastically and reverently. The Spirit was very strong in the room for me when he spoke. The Branch seems really excited. It is all set up for them. Luz and Ignacio brought a friend to church yesterday. Hermano P. brought his friend for the third week in a row. The C. family came again and participated in both the Tithing and the WOW lesson. The C. family's friends from working at Sonic came too. We called the Giles Family's friend, Alejandra, and she said she wants to come to church every Sunday and bring her kids and have them go to class and mutual weekly too. She was sick otherwise we would've seen her too. Things are really falling into place. The goal of these folders is to have every member bring a friend to church before Christmas this season. The Elder Ballard challenge. It is going to happen. Did I mention church was fantastic? Aside from handing out 50 missionary packets and a dozen nonmembers coming Hermana Guzman wanted the missionaries to sing in the choir. It was fantastic. I love singing. I wish I were better! Ether 12:27. It was a program so we sang the whole time. This branch is really putting missionaries on a pedestal. Sometimes it is just too much because we are not that special but I have really grown to know what members, especially converts, think about missionaries. For them, missionaries are the first impression for their life-changing conversions. We bore our testimonies at the stand to end the program. Elder Fife spoke from his heart and bore a soft, powerful, well-spanish-said testimony. It was cool. The Spirit was strong during the program.

 

The holidays are going to be fun! We have dinner with the Castros at 4 then with the Matas at 5:00. We are excited. We will go to those dinners then come home and play cards with our roommates! We are looking forward to it all. We just got an email from President Taylor: We are going to see the Mesa lights and doing a session at the temple on the 13th of December. I am so excited. I miss the temple. We are going as 1/3 of the mission, however, none of my past three companions are scheduled with me! Boo. AND..... We are doing Skype for Xmas!! it will still be a 40 minute call so remember that. We can do facetime too I guess. Through facebook or the ipad or something. Well, we will just plan ahead on that. Thanks for all the stuff you have been sending me. It is all useful and nice. Last P-day I ate almost all the chocolate Grandma and Grandpa gave me while we played Phase 10. It was delicious. I used Joyce's money to buy some In 'n Out too! Today after emailing, us four Elders are going to play racquetball with the Jenkins! I am excited.

 

There is a new focus. I am not sure if it is just for the mission or for what the church will start doing everywhere. We got a new "key indicator," or, statistic, this week: Lessons taught to members. So we are going around scheduling visits with members and teaching them lessons from PMG. Elder Perry skyped President Taylor and others a few weeks ago and said that missionaries should be teaching 20 lessons a week. So that is the goal. Our district has the goal to teach 80 lessons this week so we are excited! Lots of work to do. The investigator scene looks good. The Cobos are feeding us three times a week and we have lessons three times a week too. I almost forgot!!! We had a lesson with them on Friday. Mario, Glenda, and Cassandra came. They hadn't read in the LdM so we opened up 3 Nefi 11. WOW. It was a good pick. The Spirit bore powerful witness to everyone, Sanchez family included, missionaries too, of the Book of Mormon. Celia, who is a very serious person, read on while we talked and said the book was very pretty. Hansel, 20 year old guy, got teary-eyed. I was like WHAT THE? But the Spirit was strong so it was no surprise. Madai brought her two kids to church and they seemed to like it. We are finding some new people here and there. Elder Fife and I are working hard and getting rewarded for our obedience (not that new investigators is a reward to us).

 

Elder Fife is still #1 priority. I am working on being more of a sacrifice to him. I need to sacrifice time spent for members, investigators, missionary roommate, my self, my own thoughts and desires, and other things and give of myself freely to him. The immersion is going great because he is learning a lot. I am still working on trusting him too; letting him take the lead in things and believeing in him. It is funny, he does a few, typical new -missionary things. Stuff that I did and that anyone does. He falls asleep at random times and he's just fun to be along with as he gets used to missionary life. He is doing very well and doesn't have any problems unless he is hiding them very well from me. I pray for him every night and strive to help him be the best missionary in the APM! Well I probably forgot the other half of what I wanted to tell you. I'll try to do better next week LOL. PS-Richard and I were wondering if you could call the Roof and make a reservation for when we get back.

 

Love, Elder Parry

Elder Teh

Hello Family,

 

Elder Teh and the mission tour was awesome! I learned so much. He broke down the story of Ammon for all of us. I had never thought before that turning down the marriage of the King's daughter would most definitely mean death, but King Lamoni spared him!Also- Ammon could've said yes to Marraige, and remained on his mission, but come home to a mansion every night! It is all different when you put it through the good-better-best filter and beside that- Ammon was converted. How converted are we to our own personal life missions? What would it take to pull us of course for even a little bit? Are we willing to stay the course? He also talked about staying out of the "current." A lot of good missionaries/Latter-Day Saints ride the current. It just kind of takes you where it goes, and we let it take us sometimes! If we are not actively changing and improving than we are falling into the current! There is no such thing as the plateau. It is much easier to lose spiritual knowledge than it is to gain it. The way to gain it is through experience! I have learned that out here. Studying is important but we have to apply and do. That is why I love our Mission Statement: "We love and live the Book of Mormon!" I took that to heart last week and made a BOM application journal. I am reading a random chapter at a time and then writing an application page of the chapter. I have 11 chapters done! I hope to finish before the mission ends (it is sneaking up on me! Haha). Elder Teh was a really neat person. He was a very sweet and spiritual guy. It was a pleasure to learn from him. By the way- the day you will be flying out I will be in a meeting with all the Spanish missionaries in the mission to talk about all our #Hispanicprobs--that will be fun. Did I tell you that Elder Cardoso got sent to Flagstaff and he got switched over to English-speaking? It will be more great growth for him,. Anyways, probably won't see him soon haha. The weather is great here but for some reason it is still really warm some days. I feel like Winter won't really come until January then it will be back to the heat I miss! Bike was such a blast. It used to be so that Sisters weren't on bike in the valley (at least in our mission), but so many are coming in that some are going straight into bike areas. I bet Katelyn is excited for the Gilbert temple! Biggest temple in 17 years!

 

We taught the C. family a little bit more this week. We had a little setback when Hermana C. said that she didn't like the church service. Hermano sure comforted us though! He said that she just needs to come on time next time and be more involved in the classes. The only person I can compare Silvio C. to is Mario. They are like twins. Silvio is so excited and so into everything Mormon now. Just like Mario! He loves us and everything we teach him so he wants us over every Monday Wednesday and Saturday night! Tonight we are going over with Mario and Glenda S. and Silvio and Celia are making sure all their three kids and son-in-law will be there. Full house Pressure is on! I love teaching under pressure! I feel the Spirit stronger that way. They are awesome. We taught the Plan of Salvation and Temple Marriage to them last week and the 20-year-old son got SO EXCITED when we talked about the Open houses coming up. It was cool! I wasn't expecting it. They will be going. We hope to have a baptismal date for hopefully 4 or all 5 of them soon. We had dinner with them yesterday. Baby Shower. Here on my mission when Non-member mexicans have parties and invite lots of friends and family and the missionaries and make lots of food and meat it means... Contacting!!! Food is the best way to these people's hearts at times so I just eat lots of food and get to know people and then offer to have a prayer with their families. We got three families' contact info yesterday there! It was key. Silvio was talking us up to all his friends and family. He is basically Mormon.

 

Elder Fife is doing great. I have realized that every missionary is different and that--even though we have great things like the Adjusting to MissionaryLife booklet, the 12-week Program, and PMG--each missionary needs to be TRAINED differently too. I decided this week, as a trainer, that the best way for Elder Fife to be trained is by immersion! It is exactly what Elder Pollmeier did for me and it turned out to be exactly what I needed. Elder Fife knows a lot and he has the willingness to learn, change, and do his best. I am working on helping him to learn from his own actions and experiences. He has a lot of faith and excitement. I want him to be able to learn from himself. I believe that will make him the best missionary he can possibly be. I am doing a lot less teaching and a lot more pushing him into situations. Or, giving him opportunities to act and take the lead. So I am pulling out the famed Pollmeier question; "I don't know, what do you think?" and "Sure, I will support you (in response to questions of 'should I' or 'can I')." I think it is helping us both! I will not let him get into embarassing or disobedient situations and I can lead and step in of course but I think this is the best learning. Through it I am learning patience, humility and trust in my companion. That is exactly what I need! I am working on being fine with his decisions and ideas and not so set on my own. Can somebody say marriage prep!? Speaking of that, I have seen a lot of parallels between the mission and life since I have come out here. Side note- I don't think there is any other Mission President in the world that is so focused on our personal conversion and what we can be capable of doing after the mission rather than all the 'success' we are acheiving on the mission than PResident Taylor. He is the best of the best. Ask President Eyring how good he is! (I bet he says best of the best). The connections though: I see them daily! The other day I thought of everything that needed to be done out of the 5 or 6 responsibilites/stewardships I had and wondered why I couldn't just do what I wanted and do my best at it and not sign up for all the challenges and responsilbities I have. Then I relaized that I didn't sign up for any of it myself, it was given by the Lord, and that this is probably exactly how Dad, Mom, and Saints everywhere feel all the time! the missionary life is the new normal rest of the life!

 

Are you helping people get Mormon.org profiles? You didn't need to launch any campaign in doing it, but if people ask or are looking for something to do, encourage them to make theirs! Has the family made those profiles? They are fun and easy to make. Do it for FHE the Monday you get back from Hawaii! Or take a 3 hour break from the pool and beach to do it in the Hotel room hahaha just kidding. But try it!

 

Life is treating me well! We are having a lot of fun in Surprise and Elders Jones, Fife, and Nelson, and I came up with a HUGE idea for the holidays for the Branch. It will be big. We have high expectations and a whole lot of faith. We are so pumped. At least I am haha. We will be preparing it all this week so that each member has it this Sunday. I will tell you what it is and how it goes next week :)

 

Thanks for the bag and keyboard! I understand that those are pretty expensive and took great sacrifices from you but I want you to know that they will be very useful for the 14 months I have left and more time even after the mission (what if we keep the Ipads!?) They are really great so thank you. The keyboard draws much envy too. Eso no es bueno. But I like it a lot thanks. I am doing great and don't think I need anything else right now. Three dinners set up so far for Thanksgiving so don't worry about Elder Parry (Jake)!

 

Love, Elder Parry

Estrella Norte

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Love, Elder Parry

Going On Nine Months in the Same Ward

 

Dear Family:

 

So today has already been super wild. For the third time in a row for me, somewhere along the communication lines the information of my transfer status gets mixed up!! Elder Dodd packed, then unpacked, and we were just told that he should pack. It sounds like he will be going. As for ME: I got the training call on Saturday! It is going to be crazy to turn around and do it again. I am super excited to meet the new Elder and begin it all over again because I loved the last 12 weeks! I am excited to grow even more for this time that I have ahead of me. I have been praying for the new missionary the past few days--I know we will have a great time and do work. Currently, I am packing my clothes, but will be staying in the zone. Or in other words, I am moving apartments to the Estrella NORTH area. Elder Miller is getting transferred and his companion is going to Estrella Sur. Basically, we are both going into new areas [Elder Jones and I (Estrella North and Estrella South)] with new companions, but in the same Estrella Branch we have been serving in. So we are both "shotgunning"-- as some would call it--areas that didn't need to be, but will be because of the direction of the Spirit! I will be in car with my trainee and Elder Jones will be in the area where I have been for seven months with his new companion on bike. We are excited! Confused too. I have full faith and confidence in President Taylor and in the Spirit. I have no problems at all. I guessed--though am not disappointed--that I would be leaving for another part. But I have learned that things are very unpredictable. There are a lot of unique logistics that President Taylor is dealing with. He has a surplus of Spanish Missionaries, and of missionaries in general, so his mind is probably as mixed up as this information that is not really getting to us haha. I have all trust in him though. I guess we will find out for sure tomorrow everything, but this is looking to be what will turn out! I'm pumped.

 

The rest of the week was good. Very good. Halloween day the Surprise Zone was digitilized! We had a four hour meeting about the new crazy iPad minis we got. This is so different. It is so so different. It will take getting used to. Man I don't know where to start!!! Supposedly, those who have them now who aren't going home for a relatively long time (like me) can take them home at the end of the mission. The missionaries before us turn them back in and the ones behind us and here on out will need to buy them upon receiving a mission call. Supposedly. All in all, we are doing Facebook in the apartments, basically anytime in the day and we are planning our days and reporting lessons and weekly key indicators in the iPad. The perks are outstanding! I have been watching 2-3 conference talks a day!! This week--this is funny--I practiced language study for a half hour talking to Siri in Spanish hahaha. It was great. The Gospel Library has EVERYTHING in it for both languages. So I use that for a lot of things. I plan to kick against the pricks for as long as I can in a few aspects- I will still be writing notes in my notebook for meetings, I CANNOT STAND pulling that out to get someone's information on the street or in their homes so I will be carrying around a planner to do that, and I need to use real scriptures and mark them. I am not ready to move on there. I read PMG with the iPad and do all sorts of cool things on it. It is crazy. They are the newest technology. The church is trusting us with quite a bit here. The Hastening continues!!!

 

Yesterday- I had one of the most powerful spiritual experiences of my mission. I may have said it a lot haha; they just keep building off each other. I went to the Mission office in Glendale after the trainer meeting with Elders Miller, Davies, Hancock, and Mason [By the way, I had a blast with them all yesterday. They are all fun and great elders and Elder Davies was my first zone leader (The one who reminds me exactly of Butters) and we talked and had a good time!] and I realized that Elder Dodd and I needed English BOMs. I grabbed two and left with the crew. As Elder Dodd and I were getting ready to leave I threw one in my backpack. For the FIRST TIME in over two transfers I was carrying an English copy of the BOM in my backpack. We stopped by an English street contact and he was finally home. He had questions so we wanted to stop by to answer some before we passed him off to the sisters. He had questions about the "new scriptures" that we have. We caught him on day five of his 10-day fast and we taught him the whole restoration! Seamlessly!!! It was spectacular. He is a religious studier so he knew exactly what happened during the time of the apostasy and all that. He committed himself to reading the introduction and praying about the BOM. He has ALL the signs of being prepared by the Lord. He is good to go. He is honestly and might I add diligently seeking the truth. He is actively seeking it and ready to accept it. He will get an answer. No doubt. The craziest part was the Spirit that hit Elder Dodd and me. I could never for as long as I live deny the Spirit that we felt (at the exact same moment too). And I have always wanted to feel it strong like that. And I did! After we finished up apostasy as I introduced the Joseph Smith story; immediately the spirit hit me. It started in my brow and moved into my whole body. I hadn't really said much. But it got stronger as we got farther into the story. Elder Dodd felt it too. We felt the exact Spirit when I said to Rex that the reason we have the Book of Mormon is because God knew what would happen to the Bible and He knew He would need to bring us the Gospel to us in its fullness. That is the bottom line. So it hit us again there! I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. Therefore, I believe EVERYTHING that has stemmed from that Spring Morning. I know the Book of Mormon was given to us to clear up a lot of confusion that the world is dealing with. If I ever denied the testimony that I have which was strengthened so powerfully yesterday that would be, to me, denying the Holy Ghost. For me, that is how real that was and how real and foundationed my testimony is. It stops just short of a knowledge for me. We went back and got the other English Book of Mormon and gave it to Jocelyn's sister who wants to read it. It was a solid day of going 2-for-2 on the office BOMs :)

 

I will try to think of what else happened this week.... The iPads are wild. They are frustrating and I am trying to get used to them. I am leaving my 7-month Sun Valley apartments :( That place is my second home behind Bountiful! I am super excited to train and looking forward to the new challenge and plan to work harder with this fella. I have had very very fruitful studies this past week. I started a Book Of Mormon application journal so I am learning so much more about why Mormon writes this things for us today. Who would've known you could apply the first two chapters of Helaman to today! Give it a try, interesting stuff. My mind is all over the place--try to remember more next week!

Love, Elder Parry

PS  We have the Mission tour next week so I am pumped for that Elder Teh of the General Authorities will be here. We get to go to a session at the Mesa Temple in about a month too!! Sounds like home is going great. I can only imagine how fun the day was for Mom by herself in CA :) Go Red Sox!!