December 17, 2012

Hey family!! How are you all doing? I am doing just great! Tomorrow I get to go to the temple at 7:30 in the morning! Then we will have a huge meeting with the President and a big lunch and everything. Then that night at 8 we will be going to a members house because their son gets back tomorrow from his mission, so we will dine with them tomorrow.

Wow, I heard about the shooting actually. A family was telling me about it here. It is so sad... But the good thing is that they can live with their families forever. So I want to call on Christmas day. Is that fine? Around what hour is good for you guys? I need to know. I am way excited for this!!

Wow... this week was such a powerful week for me. I will never forget this week. We had a baptism on Wednesday. It is a man, his wife has been a member for around 6 months. He was Catholic and never wanted to be a member of the true church. During the baptismal service, I couldn't stop feeling the spirit. Because I have been working with this brother for 3 months. When he was baptized, by a convert also, I am not joking, the baptism was in slow motion. It was like a dream. I don't know how it was so slow and graceful. But the spirit was so so strong. And I am about to cry right now. When he went under all the way I started crying. And the brother next to me was crying also, because it is his best friend. It was so powerful. Then we had a testimony meeting after while he was getting dressed. His wife gave her testimony, then Enrique, the brother we baptized, gave his testimony. It was so amazing watching those two converts give their testimony. Because they are enduring to the end and doing what is right. Then my companion gave his testimony. I wasn't going to give my testimony before, but I was touched that I should give my testimony. So I gave my testimony after my companion. I started, then couldn't... Because I started crying a ton. I couldn't talk for about 2 minutes, just standing in front of everyone crying. I finally was able to bear my testimony, with the somewhat decent Spanish. I didn't say much, but I bore what I thought I needed to say. Then after the service ended, a brother came up to me, the one who will receive his son from his mission tomorrow. I was sitting in the corner half crying still, just feeling so happy. He came to me and whispered in my ear. In spanish of course "you are amoros. Your little bit of words are powerful. You are a powerful and strong testimony. I love you. I love you. I love you. I will say it again, I usually don't say things twice, then he repeated it again.. Wow that was such a powerful experience also. I was so filled with the spirit. Everyone during my testimony was crying also. Then on Sunday, after church a lady in the ward came up to me. She can speak English. She said I wanted to tell you this after the baptism but I couldn't find you. She said, ''I loved your testimony. You made me cry. I love when missionaries make me feel good. You always make me feel good. You don't know a lot of Spanish but I can still feel your spirit. Thank you so much.'' That was really nice of her.

I had a lot of good blessings this week. A young man in our ward gave me a Jaguar jersey. from their pro soccer team down here. So I received another package. It is a little smaller, not in a box. I don't know if I should open it or not? I also received some letters! We got a microwave and a table and blender in our house. For the first time we have a microwave!!! So I went to the store, bought some popcorn and popped it!! It was so nice to eat some popcorn. Well I hope all is well at home. Let me know how everyone is doing. I love you all so very much! Look for the blessings we have in our life. we have many. And when you can think and be grateful, you will feel the spirit and know that we are loved. Love Elder Parker

December 10, 2012

Hey family!!! Wow, mom that dream is so awesome, I felt the spirit so strong and got tears in my little blue eyes. I love you all. Thank you for the spirit that I can feel through your stories and experiences. Wow, I miss Tanner Butler, he is a really awesome guy. I had some good experiences with him. Thank you for sharing that with me. How is the family doing? I am doing just great here, I have been really happy this month, because of Christmas I guess. I absolutely love this time of the year. I have been listening to those cds like every single morning and night. Not kidding. Thank you so much for the Christmas tree and packages and presents! We took tons of pictures and are loving it. We opened the present last night. It was awesome. We are both really excited! My companion leaves in January, the 7th or something. Every time I listen to the song "We Can Be Together Forever", I think of our family, and almost half of the time I start crying. Because we are so blessed. We have the best and closest family in the whole entire world.

Last Monday was a day of blessings. First I got to write you guys. Then we were walking home after we shopped at Walmart and an old investigator gave us a ride to our house which was really nice of him. Then we got free chocobananas from this lady, which she has never done that, and we were talking and she used to live in South Jordan. So we will teach her this week. She is really nice and every time they see me they say, we have chocobananas! Because they know I love them. She is going to teach me how to make them this next week. Then, we were teaching an investigator, which his wife is a member. Recent convert about 6 months. Well, he drinks and stuff, and I have been teaching him on and off for about 3 months. The Saturday before, he said have patience with me. Then we had the lesson on Monday night, we were bearing our testimonies like crazy about faith. Finally, we invited him to be baptized, and he said yes!!!!! Wow. It was a miracle. I have no doubt. It has taken him 6 months to agree to be baptized . And he is as sure as ever that he wants this in his life. Then he fed us dinner afterwards. The whole time after when we left his house, the spirit was with me. I probably felt the spirit for 10 minutes nonstop. Seriously. It wouldn't leave me. I had goosebumps and I just kept on thanking the Lord. He will get baptized this week!!

We were at lunch eating some pizza, which is a first. Haha. And all of a sudden my companion starts laughing. There were two jovenes or young kids with us about 18 and 14. Then we all started laughing. We all couldn't stop laughing for about 10 minutes. My stomach hurt after because we laughed so hard. Everyone was crying. It was so funny and a good memory. There is a family in our ward, the two sons love to fish. They are 14 and 12. We visited their house to give a short lesson and they started showing me all their equipment and how they made all of it. They loved it. I told them i used to fish with my little brothers and dad. They thought that was the coolest thing. Now every time they see me we talk about fishing.

This week went by really fast, and I am loving the mission. Of course, there are hard times, but it is possible. This is nothing compared to what Jesus went through. Thank you for raising me to be the person I am today. I owe it all to mom and dad. You have no idea how much you have influenced my life. Words can't describe it. Thanks for all that you have done. How is the family?

Love Elder Parker

December 3, 2012

Hey family!! How are you all doing? Estoy muy feliz en este tiempo!! Estoy muy animado para navidad!!! Mom, I received the other package on friday! So now I have two. I will open the first one today, because I didn't know if I could or not. Thank you so much!! I am excited to see what is inside. I am so excited for Christmas I absolutely love this time of year. Last night we were able to go watch the Christmas devotional. A family in the ward took us and it was so amazing. My companion is from Mexico. Close to the D.F. He is Elder Cortina. This is his last transfer here! He is excited for Christmas but says his family doesn't do much. I feel bad for him, yesterday I said don't worry we are going to have a wonderful Christmas together! He is so excited. He has had some problems in his family I think, that has affected him a little. His parents aren't members, and sometimes they don't write him on Mondays. I feel bad. But we are having good times together! He is happy with me. Well, guess what, we get to enter the temple on the 18!!!!!! Only the Elders in Tuxtla get to enter. And I am one of those!! The others can't!! We are gong to have a huge dinner and a meeting with the President on this day, and have games and stuff.

This week has been full of many experiences. We have a new zone leader, he is from Cottonwood high school. He is a Tongan and is so awesome. We were talking about football and all our experiences. We can relate to a lot of things. Well, we baptized the 89 year old lady on Monday. It was the most spiritual baptism. All her family were there, about 30 people. Afterwards, there were hugs and kisses. I can see how much love that family had. It was incredible. Everyone was crying and I couldn't help but cry too. She loves when we sing hymns for her, so every day or every other we go to her house and sing her hymns. She loves it so much, and always tries to give me hugs but I can't hahah .

I saw Elder Palmer!! My first zone leader! He came to our church with his parents! It was so awesome to see him, he is going home this Thursday! My companion and the other Elder in our ward went to a meeting friday morning, so they left behind the brand new other companion and me. I was the senior companion and we worked in my area and I was in charge. It was so weird. It was a little hard at times actually. But I am growing every day. I still have a lot of work, but that is normal. Little by little. But anyways at the meeting my companion received a letter from Elder Peterson's companion. So I was able to receive it from Elder Petersen this way. It was awesome, because Elder Petersen is always looking out for me, and we are like brothers. I am loving my area! I got a hair cut today :) I hope everything is going alright at home. The idea of the 12 days of Christmas service is awesome!! I bet you all feel so better after that! I love you all, I can't wait to see you on skype! I am already asking the members who has skype or maybe we can go in the church and do it , if the bishop lets us. I love you all. Love Elder Parker

November 26, 2012

This is a family in our ward. They always are serving others and teaching the gospel. They give us dinner some nights. They are my favorite family here, well one of them. Sorry I am writing so early this morning. We have to because we need to write the president about the baptism.

Our zone and district. But it is going to change tomorrow. We will still have Elder Rawlings as our zone leader. The one in the front crouched on his heels.

Pues.... hola familia!!!! We had a baptism!! His name is Enrique he is 62 years. We have been teaching him for about 3 weeks. Then today at 5 o clock we are going to baptize a woman that is 89 years!! She has been a catholic her whole life! The missionaries would always visit her and she would say no! Her son is a member. She is a really strong Catholic. She has the pictures she prays to and everything. Many times they have tried converting her, but she was so strong in her religion. Well, we took her to church yesterday and we opened up the baptisimal font, sang a song, and asked her if she wanted to be baptized. She said yes!! We were going to baptize her right then and there, but her sister said tomorrow. So this morning we were studying and the son called us. Satan is always working against us. Her sister went to her house and convinced her not to be baptized. Because she is also a strong Catholic. So we hung up and started praying. Then right after we ended praying the son called us back. She threw away all her pictures and the photos of the Catholic stuff and wants to get baptized still!! She says, I want to make my own decisions. I know what I must do, this is the right way. So we will baptize her at 5 today. For church, she was ready at 8 o clock in the morning for church, and church doesn't even start until 1. She is the cutest little old lady and she is so excited to get baptized. It is seriously a miracle. She never wanted anything to do with it, then one day she wants to change her whole religion. It is a miracle.

Well, I received a Christmas package and more letters. I haven't opened the package yet because I don't know if I should or not. There was a fair in town. It reminded me of the one at Hurricane. They had a lot of rides and treats and stuff. But we just walked past it. It felt like I was in a dream or something. Seriously. I felt so weird like I was in space or something. Well on Thanksgiving, we ate with a member for lunch and guess what, we ate mashed potatoes! We had so much food, and I was still full by the time I went to bed. So then I had my own little one. We ate the snacks you sent us and took pictures with the mustaches. It was Elder Velazquezs first Thanksgiving. He loved it. Then that night Elder Rawlings, our zone leader, called me and wished me a happy one. He said he forgot until the night, and his companion told him. He is awesome. Well, I guess the President of Mexico came here to Tuxtla. Because there was a new hospital that opened up here, by our house. There were tons and tons of cars and people and video broadcasting people. But we didn't get to see him.

We found out today that I will be staying in my area!!! yaya!!! I am so happy. I will be getting a new companion that is named Cortina or something like that. He is coming from a Tuchtzla place, or however you spell that. This will be his last transfer also. So after the next transfer I will get another companion. Four in four transfers!!! Elder Velazquez is sad to go home but at the same time happy to see his family. I hope all is well at home! I love you all. I am loving it here!! I am picking up on the language a little bit more, but I still have a lot to learn. I guided the baptisimal service with Enrique. I made the announcements and everything. A little scary, but somebody's got to do the work :) I love you all. !!! Love Elder Parker, Spiderman. Once again, a member asked how Spiderman is doing. haha

November 19, 2012

I love you so much mom and family! Thank you so much for the package and the letters. I received more letters this past Monday because an Elder in my district went to the mission home and picked them up for me. I opened the package last Friday. Thank you so much. I enjoyed it. We took some pictures with the glasses on and they are so hilarious. I am glad that you are having good experiences. I dont have a lot of time this week to write. But I will try my best. First off we have had some really amazing experiences that have brought the spirit. First off the Gellegos family. The one in the picture that always help us out . Well, we went one night to sing a hymn for them. Out of nowhere. We got there and the dad said why are you here? I was like, why are you saying this. I was so confused. He kept asking and I thought he wanted us to leave. Then after we sang the song he asked for a blessing and we said sure. Right after the blessing he started crying and his whole family started crying also. He said this is what I needed. Who sent you here? We said no one, he said I have been praying for help and this is exactly what I needed to hear. It was so spiritual and we were instruments in the Lords hands.

Well, just as I thought it couldn´t get any weirder, it did. Someone called me Chuck Norris. hahah We were in the street and he said hey Chuck Norris come over here. Of course he was drunk. hahha

I watched a Mormon message that is really spiritual. It is called "The Will of God" it is new. You should watch it. Wow, we had another spiritual experience. We showed up to our investigators house. She is our strongest one right now. She started saying how the Catholics came and visited her and she said how she was going to start going with them again. And all this stuff. I was devastated. We were both like, why?! So then we started the lesson and read a bunch of scriptures and bore our testimonies like crazy. Then we asked her to say the closing prayer. I was praying and praying inside for her to feel the spirit, but she wasn´t feeling it at all. Then all of a sudden in her prayer she started crying so much, and it took her along time to finish. We then said this is the spirit that lets you know the truth of all things. It was incredible. One of the most powerful lessons I have had in the mission field so far. Oh, for Christmas we can skype each other so just to be safe, you can probably create your account right now so you know how to use it and everything. I love you all so much!! I am doing fine, don´t worry about me at all. I love you.
Love Elder Parker, Spiderman, Chuck Norris, Gringo or Guero.

November 12, 2012

I am totally fine!! We did feel an aftershock one day this week. It was the weirdest thing I have ever been in. My companion and I were practicing a lesson in our house and all of a sudden the tables started shaking and everything was moving. It felt like we were on a ride in Disneyland or something, it was actually really fun. But at the time yes, I was really scared. Because it was my first time being in one since I can remember. We ran outside so we would be safe to not have anything fall on us. Then after about 3 minutes we went back in. It wasn't that bad here at all. It was actually neat to have an experience like that.

Yes, I got all the letters and the package. I opened the package last Tuesday when I got it and it said wait, so I think I will open it tonight. The only thing is I can't remember when Thanksgiving is hahaha. I think it is like the third Thursday or something. Being here, I am forgetting so many things back in the U.S.A. For example,this morning my companion wanted me to pray in English with him. So I started to and during the whole thing I was struggling, I would accidently say words in Spanish. It was so funny. Today we did something really fun. We went to central. There are tons and tons of stores there. We bought a few gifts and just explored. We took a few pictures and I will try to send some. It was fun to see all the people and stores with tons of stuff. Tell Grandpa and Linda and Memaw thanks for the letters. I loved them. I already have made grandpas puzzle that he gave me it is on my table. And I loved grandmas letters with the inspiring quotes.

Lauren, I feel so bad of what happened to you in tennis. But Lauren, I can tell that you have grown. You are so strong already, you have a great spirit about you. During the letter when I was reading it I felt the spirit throughout the whole letter. Well.. I received tons of letters that day, like 25 or something like that. I got a few letters from some girls and from Zach Jensen. Thank you so much for the letters, I loved reading them. Thanks Nat for the letters and for doing my blog. Thanks Nathan and Josh for the letters. I loved hearing about football and your parties. Thanks mom and dad also for the letters. I really do enjoy them. When I was at the Zone meeting on Tuesday was when I got my letters. The Zone leaders were handing out letters and they would say Elder Parker Elder Parker Elder Parker because like all the mail was mine, and the rest of the missionaries were like, are you serious? They were surprised. Then my companion said after 10 or so months you won't have as many as this anymore. hahah it was funny and everyone started laughing. He is so funny. He leaves home in like 2 weeks. The other night I heard the song "We are Young". I like that song. |I also got Courts letter. It was so nice to get it. I hope she is doing alright with her change.

The other night also , 4 cop trucks sped past us in a dangerous part of our area. They had mililtary men in the back with machine guns. And 3 cop cars followed after them. i guess this area, well part of this area is pretty dangerous. All the people were scared and stuff. But we are totally fine, we won't get hurt because we are on the Lords side. It is fun to see all the different stuff here in Mexico. Sometimes it is so weird to think that I am actually in Mexico. I love you all so much. how is everyone doing? we had a man come to church with us this week. We found him last week and he read 20 chapters of the Book of Mormon in the first day. I hope he is a escohido. A chosen one. Well right now...3 more cop cars just passed by our building with swat and machine guns. My companion says, our area, isn't it great? Ha ha

Well I think my time is almost up. I love you all so much. How is the weather there? I feel so blessed. I am still healthy. Knock on wood. But I am in a good area with decent food and stuff. Once I go to a small village is when I will have a higher chance of getting sick. We had a meeting with the president yesterday and all the bishops and stake presidents. Our mission is going to get 100 new missions by March. We will have about 250 missions in this mission. That is a ton of missionaries. If you have a chance look up on google earth Torre de Chiapas in Tuxtla Gutierrez Mexico. It is by our church somewhat, like 8 minutes away. I guess it is really famous. It is really really tall. Like the tallest building here in Chiapas. It will give you an idea of where I am at. My area is Bosque. I live in Las Torres. My road is Tapachula and my house number is 39. So if it works on google earth or not you can get an idea of where I am at. Our proselyting areas are Las Torres, La Floresta, La Patria Nueva and Gabriela Gutierrez, and Evolucion Politica and a few smaller areas. Vida Mejor is in our ward also, but the other missions have that seccion, that secion is above our area. I love you all so much. Adios familia!! gracias por las cartas y por la paqueta. Estoy muy agradecido por su ayuda y por sus testimonios en el solomente iglesia verdadera en la tierra. Con mucho amor y con mucho hombre araña hahah chiste Love Elder Parker or Peter Parker because every single person here calls me Spiderman.

November 5, 2012

Hola familia feliz!!! Como estan? Wow, this week has gone by so super fast! It was a really really good week though!! We had the chance to hear from Elder Johnson from the 70!! It was so spiritual. He talked about how we are children of God. I know for sure we are his children. I also got to see all my old district there except for Elder Petersen. It was nice to talk to Elder Jones and Elder Stevenson and Taggart, Prudhomme, Gooden, and Bassett. We all had a good time, we are seriously the closest group there is in the whole mission. Same with the MTC when we were there. I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday, I once again started crying. I can´t help it , it just comes.
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So this week we have worked even harder. We had 20 lessons with a member present. It is such a high number. The zone goal is like 12. Enrique, the guy that visited Hurricane, we taught his family for the first time. It was so spiritual and they said they would go to church. During church we passed by before and they weren´t there. I was so sad. We got to the church and none of our invetigators were there. It was depressing. But then a matrimonio came walking in and it was incredible. Then there were two others that walked in with member families. We were then sitting listening to testimonios. We had a feeling to go outiside where there was service for the cell phone. All of a sudden one investigator called and said I am waiting out by the gate. We ran, seriously ran, and she said I have been waiting here for 20 minutes. It was such a spiritual experience. She said after that she felt contento and was very pleased for the church. We have a lesson with her this week. I hope she will get baptized, she is catholic like all the people here, but I have faith. The family of Enrique, like I was saying, we stopped by Sunday night and asked why they didn´t come. They had an emergencia and had to drive to his sisters house cause she was really sick. So all is well with them. I was worried at first. I believe they are golden, but we will see.


After one night, we were going home with a member family. We said, oh man.. the hamburger store is closed. Because there are people that offer us hamburgers but we never have time. Then we got to our house and were planning, there was a knock at the door. It was the man with two hamburgers. It was such a happy time. We both were screaming with joy. It was the first time I have actually screamed in Mexico. hahaha
I saw a man with a Yellowstone shirt on, I asked if he has been to Yellowstone, he was like, no. Hahah he just found it probably, who knows. I also saw a shirt that said rocking in the USA. This week was full of many wonderful experiences. We have a meeting with the zone tomorrow, so I should get the mail and everything. We are going to try and get these two married tomorrow early in the morning so we can baptize them. Brother Cali Mayor, the one in the picture that is really small and old, bore his testimony about me. He said the first time he saw me when I entered his house, we gave him a blessing and gave him a short lesson , he said it strengthened his faith so much and he will never forget it. He loves me. And I love him too so much. I might give him a tie or something, because he only has one tie. I love you all so much!!!! Love Elder Parker-- Peter Parker, that is.
P.S. Guess what? Now we get to keep the 1300 por each month. Before we only got to keep 900 and the other for transportation, but now we get to keep all 1300.
P.P.S. On a funny note- my companion said the dogs go wow wow and roosters go kikiriki. ha ha