Y--- was baptized and confirmed last Tuesday :)   She is Mong, born in Laos. She grew up during a time of war between Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.  She and her family tried to escape Laos and get to Thailand, but they got caught and put in a training camp. She lived there for 4 1/2 years as a teenager, eating moldy rice and rotten fish every day. They had to sleep in little cubbies lined up like sardines, just like the holocaust victims.  The little kids had to do all the chores and fetch water, because if the young girls went out, the guards would either rape them, or abduct them and take them to wife, so the girls would pretend to be sick and hide under the covers whenever the guards came around. Then one day the family at the front of the camp escaped during broad daylight, so her uncle came in, put on his back pack and said the secret code words "I'm going hunting"  which meant they had to leave immediately, because when the guards found out the other family left, they would start killing people and increase security, so there would never be any more hope of escape.  So they ran. They got into the mountain jungle and walked for 7 days straight night and day, no stopping, no rests. She said they would fall asleep walking and fall to the ground, and they would just smack them to wake them up and tell them to keep going. They would follow the tracks of a water buffalo that one of their friends took with him when he escaped like 6 months before, so that's how they didn't get lost. All they ate was a little bit of rice and bananas they found while walking. There were the bodies of old and young ones that couldn't make it, rotting along the path. Finally they got to the top of this mountain and there was a clearing all the way down the back side down to a river, the Mekong river or something like that, which separates Laos from Thailand.   They literally sprinted all the way down the mountain and swam across the river.  Once on the other side, they knew they were in Thailand and that they were safe from the Laos soldiers, but not safe from thieves on the Thai side, so they walked and walked and walked a few days more and finally reached the refugee camp.  They stayed in the refugee camp for another few years. Every month, Americans and French people would come and choose people to sponsor and pay for them to leave and come to the U.S.  So every month they would apply but never get chosen. Finally, after many months, half of them were sponsored to the U.S. and half were sponsored to France, so her family is still split up between the 2.  She has so many cool stories and has been here for like 30 years now, but long story short, she did  ALL OF THAT^^^   so she could come to California, meet the missionaries last October, and be baptized into the true church of Jesus Christ!  She said when we confirmed her, she felt a super heavy warm heat energy come down upon her and fill her up :)  The church is so true and her family is so supportive!  

 

Don’t be lame members! Invite people to come to church and hear the missionaries!!! 

 Love you all, Elder Parrish.

This week was filled with feeling the Spirit!  Sometimes I can’t believe how often I feel the Holy Ghost.  I have to check myself and make sure that I’m not just getting the goose bumps and chills randomly, and make sure that it truly is a witness of the Spirit.  The conference with Elder Russell M. Nelson was amazing.  Elder Bowen and Garns from the 70 and their wives spoke to us, and then Russell M.  Nelson spoke to us for like 2 hours.  He’s hilarious!  Man, I tell ya, these prophets and apostles just do whatever they want.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a serious meeting or not.  But he is definitely a servant and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He opened it up for questions, and I loved how quickly he knows the answer to every question no matter what, and especially the way he answered the questions.  It stuck out to me that often he would answer the question with another question.  That’s one thing I would like to improve on.  I feel like answering questions with a question is a great way to help others to realize they may already know the answer, and it will have more meaning to them than just redundant facts. 

One cool thing he taught us: What it means to be truly converted -- one word.

Repentance:

In greek is Metanoeao.

Meta- means Change.   

Noeao is related to:

nou's- mind

gnos- knowledge

penume-spirit and air

pneo- breathe.

So you know you’ve truly repented and are truly converted if you have a change in mind, knowledge, spirit, and even the very way you breathe. 

 Stake Conference for Easter Sunday was a treat as well. Brother Bowen is a powerful speaker.  I loved the messages his wife shared in both the mission conference and stake conference, as well.  It was so good to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We had dinner , (Ham :) )last night with Brother David Magnusson, former stake president and scholar in literally every gospel topic ever.  He is one of the most passionate people about the gospel I have ever met.   He is super motivating, and  also buddies with Pres. Uchtdorf.  You meet so many cool people in Cali.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the video, “Because of Him” for Easter.  If not,  you probably don’t have very many friends on Facebook.  Russell M. Nelson told us it will have 10 million views by Easter, and so far it has been seen in 189 different countries and the number one state/province with the most views-you guessed it- California.  We have been asked to show it to everyone.

We have been super busy preparing everything for Y---'s baptism tomorrow. Everything is good to go and we are really excited. We have made daily contact with her, and she seems a little nervous about the water, but really excited too.  She has invited a lot of her friends and family from Fresno to attend the baptism as well.  She attended Stake Conference yesterday and really enjoyed it. We talked with her husband finally yesterday and he is not interested in coming to church or taking the lessons or anything like that, but said he will gladly support her and he is coming to her baptism tomorrow night to support her as well.  We are praying he will feel the spirit at the baptismal service and have the desire to become an eternal family.  I am super grateful to be the one she chose to baptize her. 

Love, Elder P.

 

Well, Y--- has her baptismal interview tomorrow.  Some stuff came up, so she has to be interviewed by one of the mission presidency, so I am a little nervous for that.  Hopefully all will be well, and her baptism is set for the 22nd!

Happy Easter! Maddie and Marshall are lucky I'm not there to whoop them in the easter egg hunt like always.  I hope you all remember why we really celebrate this day.

 

So transfers were last week, and I think I forgot to say...

I'm staying here in Carpinteria for another six weeks, and my new companion is Elder Lopez!  He's from West Jordan and went to Copper Hills High School.  He is a native Spanish speaker, so I'm stoked to speak more Spanish.  He's great, super cool.  He makes fun of me a lot though, because he thinks I'm a straight up hick.  I guaranteed him I grew up in the city, but for some reason he just thinks Brigham is this little town where we all ride our horses to school and our tractors to church. (haha) Here's a picture of him picking some avocados....

 

 

HOLA Familia!

 

This week was crazy cool!  The temple was awesome of course.

One of the General Conference talks that stood out to me was that of Gary A Stevenson. He talked about the Olympic athletes that train years and years and years, their entire lives, for a performance that is over in a couple seconds. Yet, they will remember those couple seconds for the rest of their lives.... ha so that one cut me pretty deep. Wrestling. Years and years of miserable practices, days on end cutting weight, and preparation. all ruined my Senior year.  I can't help but think about it, and wish I could go back every day...I won't ever forget how much that hurt, how one tiny thing had such a huge impact on forever.  I guess it happened for a reason, because now I can look back on it, and see that that was just a small speck compared to Eternal life.  We prepared for who knows how long, since the beginning, to come here to earth and perform for "just a couple of seconds," but our performance will influence the rest of eternity and we will remember it forever.  The same can be applied to the mission.  My whole life has been a preparation for this, and now it's here and it's flying by.  In reality, it is just a "couple of seconds of performance," but I will remember it forever, so I need to be sure I am doing absolutely 100% everything in my power to make my performance pleasing in the eyes of God, so I can be confident in the presence of God, and be able to say without a shadow of a doubt that I gave it my all.  Because the way I feel about wrestling is not how I want to feel about my mission, nor how I want to feel about my earthly experience.

 

At any rate, I hope you enjoyed conference!  it was amazing.  M. Russell Ballard told you all to study Preach My Gospel, and tell me what you learn, so go ahead!

 

Love,

Elder P