May 27, 2013

Hey mom and family!! I love you all! How are you all doing? That is so funny that grandpa's car was running the whole entire time, I was laughing out loud when I read it. I feel very grateful that Grandpa and Linda and Dave and Nat went to Lauren's graduation. I wish I could have gone, but I know it was really special and that Lauren was the most beautiful girl there. I can feel the spirit really strong right now. Thanks for everything.

This last week we had a zone conference with the President. He talked about repentance. It was really powerful. He is an amazing man. Like 4 companionships didn't show up forever, they got there late. And he told us, I don't feel good right now, I can't teach you guys because I don't have the spirit. So he said, let's sing hymns to invite the spirit here. He was a little worried because the missionaries hadn't gotten there still. So we sang and after he felt really good. It was amazing. Because the simple things is what brings the spirit. He gave a really good talk and his wife too. I saw Elder Gaytan and he said to say hi to you all. He is awesome, we talked for awhile. After the conference I received the package from you guys and letters!! I loved it. The package was awesome! With Lauren's graduation and letters from the boys and the card from you mom, and of course the treats. I will get to see Elder Gaytan on Wednesday because we will have another zone meeting. So I will give him those things that you sent!! Thanks! :) There is a guy in our ward that reminds me of our neighbor.. Brother Vanderhorst. He looks the same, and acts the same!! hahah

Wow. Has it been raining here like crazy!!! Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday it has rained and it has rained today and will continue raining. It has been really fresh. Not too hot with the rain. I love the rain so much! The roads have been rivers! The water is higher than the tires of the cars in some parts! I love it!! I have been using my umbrella. :) Should I start using my new boots that I have never used? Or I could save them and sell them? My companion and I bought some pizza from dominos, it tasted really good!

So two stories happened this week. One a miracle and another you could call it a blessing.. I will start with the blessing. So Sunday after church we were going to eat with a family from the ward. They couldn't be there but they left the food in their house with the grandma to give it to us. So we went and picked up the food and said thanks. We left and were walking thinking... Where can we eat this food. There wasn't a place where we could eat. So finally we got to this cool looking park and sat on the curb. Thinking oh well this part looks safe. Then just before we said the prayer. Two people came up to us. Like a 25 year old guy with his girlfriend. And they said, do you have a phone to call the police, those guys over there just stole our wallets and cell phones. They were panicked. So we tried helping them, but they left. So we left, which was a blessing they talked to us, because those guys would have robbed us too. We thought we were safe. In fact we passed those guys before we sat down, and they looked suspicious with their backpacks. So that was the blessing. Wow.. it is raining a lot right now!!

Now the miracle...I had splits with the Zone leader on Tuesday. We were on a bus going to a lesson with a recent convert. The driver said is anyone going to issste.? We didn't answer, so he took a different route. Which was a lot further. We finally realized the problem and after 10 minutes we decided we should get off and walk. I paid with 50 pesos and he gave me back 40 pesos. 5 pesos each person. I decided to jump off the step of this huge bus we were in. Which I never jump. I jumped really far, so I thought. When a van wizzed past my face not even an inch. I was in the air when I saw the van and couldn't do anything, but somehow the van didn't hit me. It was a miracle because I jumped hard, but I felt like my feet became magnets and stuck to the ground right before the van hit me. Because I know I jumped further, but it was like a force field that stopped me going any further. It was really scary. And the only thing I could say after to the elder was "Well... I just about died" It was really scary, but I was calm, I know the Lord watched over me. It was weird because that bus stopped in the middle of the street to let us off, I thought we were by the sidewalk like every other time. But it was a miracle. I was really blessed. I love you all. Love, Elder Parker

P.S. Oh, when is memorial day? hahah I can't remember a lot of things. I hope your eye gets better, I will pray for you mom. Remember when I would get home for lunch during school and sing, "have I told you lately that I love you" :)

May 20, 2013

Hey mom!! I love you!! I sent off some letters today to you guys :) I am doing good! My talk went really well, I was a little nervous in fact, but I think that is good. I was talking with my companino about how much time we had. 10 minutes each to give a talk. I was telling him that before the mission that would be so much time, but here it is not enough time to talk about everthing that I would want to say. It is amazing how I can now talk a lot longer than before. I talked about the talk from the May 2012 Ensign from the talk by bishop Edgley or something. It is in the priesthood session. I read the story of the young lady that was less active. I talked about how we can help the members come back to the church and we can help them with their problems. I also talked a little bit about elder M Russell Ballards talk from 2000 in the Ensign that says that the members are the key of missionary work. There are a lot of less active members here! So I hope I animated the members to help those less actives.


This week was good, a little hard at times. But I am learning a lot. We are doing everything possible to find more people to teach. We are searching new and different ways to find people. We are forcing ourselves to go out of our comfort zones even a little bit more. It will work :) I am glad that dad's talk went well. He is great on giving talks! I am so proud of Mitchell and his talk and him wanting to serve a mission. He has always been a great kid. That makes me really excited. I miss Mccrae, too. The mission is so amazing. I am so glad I came out here!! I am serving the Lord!!!! :) I got an email from Mike Mangum. He is one of my best friends. He is such a good kid. I loved spending time with him in high school. I can't believe that Lauren is already graduating! It seems like I was just there last week. It is so crazy how time flies. I seriously can't believe it. Oh.. I was thinkiing of Sister Choate --I can't remember how you spell it. But I sure do miss her. I loved going to her house after church to give her the sacrament. One of the best memories I have had. She is so amazing. If you can contact her or something and tell her I miss her and send her my greetings. I made a list of how the gospel has helped me and my family this morning in my studies. It was a long list of like 40 things, but I could have given so much more. It was amazing how we are so blessed with this gospel. We have another lesson with the Stake President and a family he is going to invite at 7pm. Wish us luck! I am so excited to teach them. The Stake President is awesome, really excited with the missionary work. The ward is really small here. 58 people came to church this week. Years ago there used to be 150 members, but they all moved or are less members. We are going to get to that number again, that is my goal :) I love you all. Bye :)

May 13, 2013 From Corinna

What a great Mothers Day this was!! We got to hear from our 2 wonderful missionaries!! First we got a phone call from Sister Parker and we got to talk to her for awhile. We even sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" in English and then she sang it back to us in Spanish. We all had tears in our eyes by the end of it, then towards the end of her phone call we got a skype from our other amazing missionary--Elder Parker!! So for the last of Sister Parkers phone call, and the beginning of Elder Parkers skype, we all got to talk to each other at the same time!! Before Sister Parker had to leave, we got to hear an exchange in Spanish between her and Elder Parker!! It was absolutely amazing and their Spanish was incredible. We could only understand a few words, but were just so enthralled and excited to hear them speak to each other in Spanish, that we just listened to their exchange in amazement. We didn't want it to end. They even had such an incredible accent. Nathan said they sounded just like Mexicans. He recorded some of their conversation and listens to it over and over. It is so neat, how just a little while back, neither of them knew much Spanish, and now to see how much they have grown and learned in the short amount of time that they have been out in the field. When Sister Parker was about to hang up, we were all in tears because we could feel of their wonderful spirits and are so proud of their hard work and growth and desire to serve others. We are so grateful for our missionaries and for the choice they have made to be hands for the Lord and to move this amazing Gospel along!!! We know it can be difficult to be away from home, and to be in other countries and different cultures, but we know the rewards far outweigh the hard times. And they both say they love their missions!! What a blessing!! We know they are where they are supposed to be at this time, and we couldn't be happier for them and for those they are serving. (We have always loved the song "Feliz Navidad" at Christmas time, even before they were called to Spanish speaking missions, so we made up our own words to it and attempted to sing it to them in Spanish. We must have done ok because they understood most of it... at least they got a good laugh out of it. Josh played the guitar and we wore sombreros and fake mustaches. This is what we sang... "Feliz dia...Feliz dia....Feliz dia....de su familia eterna. Llegamos a saber de nuestros misioneros, tenemos que saber de nuestros misioneros, tenemos que saber de nuestros misioneros....quien amamos mucho!!! Here it is in English for those of us that don't know Spanish:) "Happy day...Happy day....Happy day... from your eternal family!....We get to hear from our missionaries, we get to hear from our missionaries, we get to hear from our missionaries....who we love very much!!!) We do love our missionaries very much! They bring so many blessings to our lives and others:) Love, their mom (Corinna)

May 13, 2013

Hey mom!!! How are you all doing!! I am doing great today! It was so good to talk to you all of you yesterday! It was also really amazing how I got to talk to Courtney also, and in Spanish. Her accent is perfect. I loved seeing you all. You all look so good and have changed looks a little. I can't believe Lauren graduates next Thursday, that time went by so fast!! I loved talking to all of you, it was amazing. I had my companion Elder Macias film parts of it too, so I have it on my camera! He was like, you have such an incredible family. He really liked you guys. He is turning 19. I also got to talk with his family on Friday. Thanks for the package that you sent. I saw Elder Gaytan last week in the zone meeting. He said to tell the family hi, and he asked for the address to send more letters. I gave him some jerkey. Don't worry about sending more small Preach my Gospels, I think most of the missionaries will get them from the President. Thank you so much. =)
I hope you had a great mother's day! I sure enjoyed last night. It was great. I sure do love my family, I am really blessed. I feel a little bad about not talking a lot with Nathan, I realized that last night. I sure do love him. He was always my best friend at the house. We would always play games and he would spend time with me all the time. I miss that. I miss you all, but I am happy =) I can't wait to get back and have more memories together. But as for now, I am making my own memories. =) I can't believe that Court only has 5 more months!! Will you guys visit her? I love you all. Bye =) love, Elder Parker

We have a lesson with the Stake President at 7:30 tonight and there will be 5 investigators there. I also give a talk, like dad, on Sunday. I am excited! I did tell the family thanks that let me skype from their house. They have a big house, oh, and they gave us a ton of food to take home last night. It was a blessing:) It's a cool house we live in now. The house is nicer. I like the area, we don't have to walk as much as my last area. And there is pavement everywhere.

May 6, 2013

Hey how is everyone doing? I am doing really good!! We are now in the new area... My second area, and my second area that I have opened.. meaning, we are both new to the area again. I thought for sure I would have a companion that would already be here. But my companion and I got here together, the two of us new. We didn't know anything about the area. We didn't have any investigators, only 1 and we didn't know any of the members. It was quite an experience. We got here not knowing anything. But now we know a little bit. My companion is named Elder Macias. He is from Culiacan Mexico. Where Jordan Prince is serving. He has 6 months in the mission. He was in Tonala before with Elder Petersen. He is a really obedient Elder. He teaches really well, and we seem to get along well. So that is nice. We are both expecting big things in these couple of months. We have big goals even though we don't know anything about the area. The house is nicer than my last house! I am like 30 minutes from my house. But we are in the middle of the city here. The people are a lot different and there is a little more money in the area. In some houses. We are renting a house, well upstairs. It has running water. The shower is apart of the house, in the back patio. This house reminds me that I am in the cabin or something. It is really weird. But I like the house a lot. It's just a house with a little room to study a room to sleep in and a kitchen and a little bathroom outside. It is a little bit more fresh the weather in this area. But the ward is so small. There were only 42 people that showed up. In my last ward there were like 150. It is a really small ward. I am learning a lot about this area, and it has been quite fun living in another house and a new area. I really like my last area, i think more than this one. The members were better and more quiet during the day and night. But i like this area too, I will learn to love it. We only have one fan, so I have been a little hot in the night, I wake up sweating. But I will be fine. It is like 85 degrees at 6 in the morning here. At least that is what the alarm clock says. I am happy and healthly. :) i am excited for skype. I can do it the 10 11 0r 12 of May. Whatever day you want!!!! I love you all. Love Elder Parker