Well, it’s hot here.... 90s.. We went down to Ventura for interviews
with the mission president this week, and it’s like 20 degrees cooler by the
beach. President and Sister Felix are awesome, though!!!!!! I love them.
We had a really good week. B---- is showing really good
progress. He is 29, and has an awesome desire to come to church, but has been
so sick that for the last 4-5 years he hardly leaves the house. Just walking around his house tires him out
and he has to rest, so we have been walking with him almost every day to build
up his stamina. He can only make it to the end of the street before he has to
rest and we can walk back. We teach him as we walk, and then we teach him when
we get back to the house as well. This
week, we taught about church, the word of wisdom, the restoration, the
priesthood and baptism. Bernardo loves
what we teach, is already living the word of wisdom, and accepted baptism, but
is hesitant to set a date, just because he doesn’t know when his health will be
good enough that he would be able to attend church and everything else that
goes along with baptism. He has great faith, though, and read the first 17
chapters of the Book of Mormon this week!
He’s so cool and humble. I feel
so bad for him. He can’t even leave his
house. He just has to lay down all day
every day. Another testimony builder of
the word of wisdom. So we are really
excited for him to get better through the gospel and through faith. Also his sister, C--- is reading in the Book
of Mormon, as well, and his mother C--- sits in on the lessons too.
We did some more service for F--- this week. All I do is dig! We are digging post
holes... which I have some experience, thanks to the back fence I built....
:) but not regular post holes.... massive 4 foot deep post holes. We needed to dig 4... I dug 3 and I dug
this huge trench, as well, in the time it took Elder MacKay to dig one hole :) (haha) Elder MacKay gets so mad, cuz I can dig
faster than him. :) We were able to discuss the Bible and some Biblical
prophecies, including Ezekiel 37, which F--- found really interesting and was
excited to look into the "sticks" of Judah and Joseph/Ephraim some
more. |
| Ditch I dug, along with 3 monster holes |
We also had another really good lesson with R--- and M---
this week. They are the ones from Fillmore,
Utah. They have been totally inactive
for the past 40 years, but still continue to read the Book of Mormon and the Ensign,
and watch conference and do everything they are supposed to do, menos que
asistir a la iglesia. We taught about
geneology and family history work, and had a member present who helped them set
up familysearch.org accounts, and taught them how to index. They showed us some of their family history,
including a book that has all of the pioneer settlement stories of their
families, and we even found some Parrishes in the book! It’s amazing how much the gospel ties us all
together.
L--- is another less active member we have been working with,
who just a couple months ago was very against the church, and now she has come
to church twice in a row. Yesterday she
stayed for all 3 hours! Her dad is Brother R----, who I have made pretty good
friends with. He’s like 70, but were pretty tight. He always just talks about hunting stories and
makes fun of Jehova’s Witnesses. There
are tons of Jehovah’s Witnesses here.
I never even knew who they were until my mission. We’ve had a few opportunities to talk to them
when they knock our apartment door :) I found I REALLY love to “Bible
bash”.... I usually do pretty good at avoiding it, but that doesn’t mean I
still don’t want to!
Elder MacKay’s mom sends me more mail than I have gotten my
whole mission from my own family.... :)
Love,
Elder Parrish
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| Lake Piru |
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