Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Mom, I got your package
on Sunday after the other elders hid all my mail from me all week and I shed 2
little tears cuz everyone forgot about me on my birthday... It turns out Elder
Bautista and Elder Santos just stole it all.
But it was pretty cool that all the apostles and prophets prepared all
that and went through all the trouble of holding that special meeting just for
me on my birthday. General Conference was great! And it’s even better when
all those prepared and inspired messages get delivered to you on your birthday!
It was really special.
Ok, so I used Ether chapter 3 to prepare. The brother
of Jared climbs an exceedingly high mountain and moltens out of a rock 16 small
stones, and he makes sure they were small and clear. Then he hikes with his
stones to the top of the mountain and presents them before the Lord. Because of his faith and all the work he put
forth ahead of time, the Lord lights them up with his finger one by one and the
veil is removed from his eyes and his faith is turned into knowledge, nothing
doubting.
So I challenged myself to molten "16 questions" instead of stones, and I went through the work to make them simple and clear. I pondered a lot and figuratively "climbed the mountain" to present them before the Lord at conference. And wouldn’t ya know it, I must have done something right because all I can say is WOW! I knew it would happen and it did. (I guess they call that faith) I was amazed that after every session I was able to keep checking off questions and see as they were not only answered, but thoroughly talked about and explained. In some cases, there were even entire talks just expounding and exploring my questions down to every jot and tittle. The Lord literally did light up my stones one - by – one, all 16. A veil was removed from my eyes so I could see more clearly, and my testimony is growing line upon line into a more and more sure knowledge. I thank my Father in Heaven for the scriptures and for the ability we have to liken them unto ourselves. I can’t wait for the November Ensign, so I can study them deeper!
We have been working hard and seen a lot of miracles. Even with full days of interviews and General Conference weekend, we still managed to teach 15 other lessons and have good numbers. We set A--- with a baptismal date for the first of November and she is definitely so ready to make that covenant with Heavenly Father. Her only roadblock is that she has to work weekends and can’t make it regularly to church on Sunday. The elders have fasted with her in the past so she could either get Sundays off or find a new job, but without any luck yet, so we are working really hard with our ward mission leader and bishop to try to find something for her. P-- and D---- have committed to marriage and baptism this month, and both came to Saturday afternoon session of conference and loved it! P-- says he hopes he can remember everything he learned, so we will definitely be reviewing the talks and counseling with him about what he needs to do for his family and future. They are brand new parents and struggling to make ends meet, but P-- desperately wants to come closer to God and find stability in his life. M---, who has a baptismal date for October 25, was so close to coming to conference. We went over between Sunday sessions and she was getting ready to come, so we set up a ride for a member to go pick her up and watch it at their house on TV, but turns out after they picked her up they decided the members decided they wanted to have a BBQ after conference, so they went to the store (Yes, on Sunday) to buy BBQ stuff. As luck would have it, they spent 2 hours at the store and missed all of conference... so M--- didn’t actually get to see conference, but we did have a good lesson with her in the evening about keeping the Sabbath day holy :)
Elder Bryson is so great. We are working hard and trying to do everything in our power to be obedient and do what the Lord wants done. In between every session of conference, we were out teaching appointments and inviting people to come listen. We skipped a few lunches and dinners this week just so we could teach more. It’s great and we're lovin’ it. We are striving to have the Holy Ghost as our senior companion and we definitely saw that in action this week. On Thursday, after trying to visit someone who wasn’t home, we decided to walk to where we were going next, even though it was pretty far away. After a few blocks, we realized how far it actually was and wondered why in the world we were walking. There was nobody on the street to talk to, but for some reason we just kept walking. Right before we got to our destination, we passed 2 women. We offered a card to the first, but she said no and kept walking, but the second stopped and listened. It seemed as though she was just listening to be polite at first, but after a couple minutes, she invited us into her yard to tell her more. We taught her about the restoration. She told us how the day before, she was in an Episcopal church during a meditation period and was just praying and asking God to help her find the truth, somewhere she could settle down and where it felt like home. She said she wasn’t sure why she listened to us, but thinks it could be her answer! We testified that it was, left her with some reading homework and set an appointment for this week! Her name is R--- and we are super excited for her!
Elder Bryson and I did 8 hours of service this week, nothing too special, but hopefully it will plant seeds for future harvest!
So I challenged myself to molten "16 questions" instead of stones, and I went through the work to make them simple and clear. I pondered a lot and figuratively "climbed the mountain" to present them before the Lord at conference. And wouldn’t ya know it, I must have done something right because all I can say is WOW! I knew it would happen and it did. (I guess they call that faith) I was amazed that after every session I was able to keep checking off questions and see as they were not only answered, but thoroughly talked about and explained. In some cases, there were even entire talks just expounding and exploring my questions down to every jot and tittle. The Lord literally did light up my stones one - by – one, all 16. A veil was removed from my eyes so I could see more clearly, and my testimony is growing line upon line into a more and more sure knowledge. I thank my Father in Heaven for the scriptures and for the ability we have to liken them unto ourselves. I can’t wait for the November Ensign, so I can study them deeper!
We have been working hard and seen a lot of miracles. Even with full days of interviews and General Conference weekend, we still managed to teach 15 other lessons and have good numbers. We set A--- with a baptismal date for the first of November and she is definitely so ready to make that covenant with Heavenly Father. Her only roadblock is that she has to work weekends and can’t make it regularly to church on Sunday. The elders have fasted with her in the past so she could either get Sundays off or find a new job, but without any luck yet, so we are working really hard with our ward mission leader and bishop to try to find something for her. P-- and D---- have committed to marriage and baptism this month, and both came to Saturday afternoon session of conference and loved it! P-- says he hopes he can remember everything he learned, so we will definitely be reviewing the talks and counseling with him about what he needs to do for his family and future. They are brand new parents and struggling to make ends meet, but P-- desperately wants to come closer to God and find stability in his life. M---, who has a baptismal date for October 25, was so close to coming to conference. We went over between Sunday sessions and she was getting ready to come, so we set up a ride for a member to go pick her up and watch it at their house on TV, but turns out after they picked her up they decided the members decided they wanted to have a BBQ after conference, so they went to the store (Yes, on Sunday) to buy BBQ stuff. As luck would have it, they spent 2 hours at the store and missed all of conference... so M--- didn’t actually get to see conference, but we did have a good lesson with her in the evening about keeping the Sabbath day holy :)
Elder Bryson is so great. We are working hard and trying to do everything in our power to be obedient and do what the Lord wants done. In between every session of conference, we were out teaching appointments and inviting people to come listen. We skipped a few lunches and dinners this week just so we could teach more. It’s great and we're lovin’ it. We are striving to have the Holy Ghost as our senior companion and we definitely saw that in action this week. On Thursday, after trying to visit someone who wasn’t home, we decided to walk to where we were going next, even though it was pretty far away. After a few blocks, we realized how far it actually was and wondered why in the world we were walking. There was nobody on the street to talk to, but for some reason we just kept walking. Right before we got to our destination, we passed 2 women. We offered a card to the first, but she said no and kept walking, but the second stopped and listened. It seemed as though she was just listening to be polite at first, but after a couple minutes, she invited us into her yard to tell her more. We taught her about the restoration. She told us how the day before, she was in an Episcopal church during a meditation period and was just praying and asking God to help her find the truth, somewhere she could settle down and where it felt like home. She said she wasn’t sure why she listened to us, but thinks it could be her answer! We testified that it was, left her with some reading homework and set an appointment for this week! Her name is R--- and we are super excited for her!
Elder Bryson and I did 8 hours of service this week, nothing too special, but hopefully it will plant seeds for future harvest!
OH and I got to see the movie, “MEET THE MORMONS” on Friday
after President’s interviews. It was
sweet. I was skeptical at first, but it’s
a pretty sweet movie. I hope it’s not just
because I’m a missionary and it’s a good missionary tool. So ya’all are
gonna have to let me know what normal people think about it. Just make
sure you take non-members with you to go see it! It comes to theatres
here on October 10th....
Love you, Elder Parrish
