This week was pretty cool.  Transfers are today, but my whole district is staying except for Hermana White is going to Oxnard, so I’m excited to stay another transfer here in Filllmore with Elder MacKay. President Castro finishes his mission this week, so there weren’t a lot of changes to make things easier on President Felix.  

 

We had zone meeting with President Castro, and basically had a good-bye testimony meeting, and then took pictures with him after.  Sister Castro said she has a picture of me that she wants to send to you.  Sister Castro reminds me a lot of you, Mom.   She looks like you too, just shorter.  The more I get to know her, the more she is like you, just not as cool of course :)  Last night there was an open house for the Castros in Ventura that we went to.   We rode down with our bishop, so that was great to get to talk to Bishop McKinney on a more personal level, and the open house was great. Literally every single time I have seen President Castro on my mission, he tells me "You look good Elder Parrish, you look really good."   I haven’t been able to figure out if he's talking about my incredibly good looks that I inherited from mom, or if he means it in some other way... I just smile and say thanks either way.  Then he always says that I am a good leader and one of the missionaries they never have to worry about.  He says he knows that wherever I am they don’t need to worry, because they know I am on top of things.  So it feels good that President Castro trusts me, even though I feel like there are a million ways I need to improve.  He has changed my life, and I hope I can pass it on by changing the lives of the people of the Great California Ventura Mission.

We have found 4 new investigators this week who all have great potential.  One in particular was a man named F----. We did service for him and had a great discussion about the restoration and the plan of salvation while shoveling dirt.  I looove digging and sweating.   F----- is a super cool Methodist, who just recently has started going to church a year ago.

We stopped by the R----- family on Friday afternoon, and he said, "Oh good, it’s the elders.  I was just about to call you!" He needed a blessing.  He has been really sick this whole week since Monday, and was just about to call us for a blessing.  I love it when that happens.  Even though it was just a regular name we had in our planners to visit at that time, and we didn’t think it really had any significance, it turned out to be exactly when he needed it. The Spirit knows what he's doing, even if we don’t.

A similar situation happened yesterday after church we had a noche de pelicula with the ward and investigators planned for that afternoon and were on our way, but decided we should stop by C----‘s house on the way. (I wrote about her a couple weeks ago..) C----- opened the door and Ii could just tell something was wrong. I asked if she was ok and she just bursted out in tears crying. She calmed down, and told us that yesterday when she got home from work she didn’t notice her dog, T---  jump in her car. She shut the garage and went in the house and took a nap for an hour. When she came out to go to the beach with the dogs, she found T--- dead in the car from heat exhaustion.  C-----'s dogs are the most important thing in her life.  She loves them and takes care of them just as much as she takes care of her son.  They are part of the family, especially T---. He was a really cool dog, so well-behaved and He knew exactly what you were saying to him all the time, and would respond back with his eyes and barks. She is completely devastated.   It was really hard to see her like that.  There wasn’t anything we could do but comfort her and bear our testimonies.  She asked us to please pray.  Then she thanked us for coming and said she really needed it.   Again, she wasn’t even on our plans and we had other things to do, but for some random reason not apparent to us, we stopped by at precisely the right time.  

This week, I realized how amazing the Holy Ghost is and how important it is that we follow it.  It makes me think back on all the times where we may have missed out on helping someone in need because we weren’t following the spirit, or just too caught up in the numbers game to think of seeing someone when they needed us. It’s so humbling, and just makes me want to be exactly who Heavenly Father wants me to be.

Love, Elder McKay Parrish

 

It was a crazy week!   Last week, my companion, Elder Bautista got emergency transferred to Oxnard, so I was in a “tripan” with Elder Hernandez and Elder Berg.  We made quite the team!

Elder Berg, Parrish, and Hernandez

 Any rate, today I get a new companion, Elder Josh Mackay!!!  Mom met him and went to lunch at his house!  So I’m pumped for that.  I was his district leader when he went home a couple months ago for meniscus surgery (*curse those meniscus'es*) and he and I made plans of all the things he needed to do and not do in order to come back out to the field, and he promised me he would be back.  So now he’s here 2 transfers later and he’s my companion! 

Elder MacKay (middle, back row) made the Ventura missionary moms an awesome Mexican lunch while he was recuperating from surgery.  

Yesterday at church, we taught the primary class of M----.  He is ten years old.  His dad and brother are members, but his two sisters and mom are not.  He has been coming to church every week for about 6 months or more now, and has an amazing understanding of the gospel already, probably more than I did when I was 8. A few weeks ago, he expressed his desire to be baptized, but wanted to wait until he was 12, so he could learn more.  That seemed interesting to me and pretty mature for his age as well, but we encouraged him that he was ready and invited him to pray to know when he should be baptized.   Yesterday, we taught the plan of salvation to his class of 8-10 year olds. We drew it up really big on the chalk board and emphasized the gospel of Jesus Christ, discussing the things we need to do in this life in order to make it to the celestial kingdom. Long story short, at the end of the class he said he wanted to get baptized on Saturday July 5^th!  So we talked with his dad afterward, and he seemed really pleased with his son’s decision. We feel like his baptism will be a great step in his mom's progression,  and an opportunity for her to feel the spirit and get her answer, as well as their other 2 daughters.

We had three lessons with L----.  She’s awesome.  She is the nicest lady ever.  We had 3 lessons with her ​this week. We taught the Law of Chastity on Tuesday, helped her make a quit smoking plan from Preach My Gospel on Friday, and taught about tithes and offerings on Saturday. She accepted everything so readily and is an amazing woman.  She just has a pretty rough family background at home right now that adds a lot of stress.  I’m sad I won’t be able to continue meeting with her regularly, since she is on the other side of Fillmore, and today we will be going back to the regular division with Elder Mackay's arrival.

We have lessons quite frequently with a less active member named L-----.  Every scripture or message we share with her has been something that she thought about or had questions to just the day before. It is such a small and simple tender mercy of the lord, but a great testimony strengthener to me that there are no coincidences and God knows exactly what he has in store for his Children.

Love,

Elder Parrish

 

Yesterday at church, we had investigator come to church with her husband and kids.  I can tell she doesn’t really feel comfortable at church, because her knowledge of the gospel is pretty limited, so she is shy.  One of the problems is she has been going to Gospel Doctrine class ever since she started coming with her husband and it all just goes right over her head, so we worked with the ward council to have a Gospel Principles class for her instead and that should be starting next week. She has been reading in the Book of Mormon and keeping all of her commitments.

Our investigator, A--- got in a car wreck last week, so we didn’t have much chance to teach him, but we did have a good talk with his mom as we were doing service for her in her yard, and then she took us out to dinner.  She noted how different we were, and how unique it was for two young men like us to be doing service for 2 years, sacrificing everything a guy loves to do.  I mentioned how even though I thought the same thing and was intimidated by the sacrifice at first, right now I am the happiest I have ever been my whole entire life. She said she didn’t get how that was possible. I brought up the difference between true joy vs. pleasure, and how all the things that  I thought made me happy before my mission really didn’t bring happiness at all, just temporary ways to ease my mind. But that through living the gospel and studying the scriptures, I now know that true happiness only comes from one place – God, who loves us and is more than willing to give it to us, but first we have to trust him. She went on to talk about her struggle her entire life to try to grow closer to God. She has prayed and attended many different churches (including ours) trying to feel/get an answer that God does exist, but has never-not once- felt the Spirit in all her life. That was followed by many of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard.   

That lesson hit me pretty hard, I almost cried. For no apparent reason, here I am- born in the church, with everything I’ve ever needed.  I have literally been blessed with a virtually perfect life.  idk why.  I don’t deserve it. idk why we are so blessed.  It seemed very peculiar to me, because she is a great and Christlike person, the nicest lady ever.  I would think she would have had plenty of times where she felt heaven's aid or had spiritual experiences, but she hasn’t- so she doesn’t believe God is with us anymore like he was in the Bible.   I have done a lot of thinking and studying to find out what we can do to help her feel the Spirit.  I have been studying in Preach My Gospel and the scriptures about the personage of the Holy Ghost, the differences between the Light of Christ vs. the power of the Holy Ghost vs. the Gift of the Holy Ghost, vs. the sealing power of the Holy Spirit of Promise, etc... so It’s still a work in progress, but if anyone deserves to feel God's love, it’s her.

We had an INCREDIBLE lesson with R--- last night and he accepted a baptism date for the 28 of June!  The Spirit was so strong when we taught the plan of salvation, and he understood how everything was so perfect - how agency and the fall was necessary, how the plan would be useless without a savior, and the mercy and justice of God. He prayed for us at the end, and said, "Please help me to know this is true, so I can follow thy will and obtain el reino celestial con mis hermanos."  It was so sincere, and the Spirit was so strong! I almost cried.  That’s twice I almost cried this week.  I’m gettin’ soft.

So Elder Bautista is getting emergengy transfered to Oxnard today, so now I am in a tripan with Elder Berg and Elder Hernandez here in Fillmore.  I’ll miss Elder Bautista.

Love, Elder Parrish