The work is moving along for us. In general, with only working with members now, the number of total lessons has taken a hit- which was to be expected but we had more member present lessons this month of December than any other month since the creation of the zone. The percentage of member-present lessons to total number of lessons was over 40%, so we are on a steady incline. We have finally got a list of ALL the members in all of our areas, so now we can get to work on visiting everyone and really uniting the ward in la obra misional and keep track of it in the district. 

A few Mission Leadership Conferences ago with Brother Garmin, we were told that, "We are all going to be Primary Teachers someday... so we'd better start today."  That’s what it’s like teaching our investigator, L-- right now. We go slow, but he hangs on to every word. He's really fun to teach. He came to church again and is really on fire right now.

It was great to be with Elder Griffin for our 2nd Christmas in the mission!! He's a great example to me and has a burning testimony of Jesus Christ.  I opened all my presents a few days before Christmas... so I didn’t get to open squat on Christmas morning.  Everyone in the apartment made fun of me, and just thought it was the funniest thing.

Talking with you all on Christmas didn’t make me trunky or homesick, because this is precisely the place I need to be. I know this, because it is the refiner's fire and that is exactly what I need.  It has shaped me and is continually shaping me every single day.  I love my mission.  I have truly come to know the author and finisher of my faith.  I am trying to be more like Jesus Christ, and though I fail over and over and over and over again, I know he is with me every step of the way and it is all part of the great plan and part of my eternal progression on the quest to exaltation.  I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Doing service for Foodshare every week is awesome, and it’s even better when Elder Smoot is there sorting cans right next to you!  It is quite the party sorting cans and shooting the breeze, while all the other missionaries just think we are crazy hicks from little ole Brigham City!  It is incredible to be serving together in the same mission!  I have seen a huge change in him and it’s so cool.  I hope he sees the same change in me as well.

Love,

Elder Parrish

Mission Christmas Eve Activity

 

I'll keep this email short, because we are going to be talking soon.  Besides... a pictures worth a thousand words!  :)  

A beach baptism at sunset.

I LOVE this family!

The biggest waves I've ever seen!

Elder Parrish and Elder Griffen.

Elder Smoot was my photographer at the baptism.  We are both in Oxnard now!!  We never get to see each other, but since it was an English baptism, he got to come. :))  It was so sweet.  He is sitting next to me in the computer lab emailing right now too. :)))

Elder Parrish and Elder Smoot

This was the happiest day of my life!

We are doing really good. We had 11 member presents this week, most of which were with the youth, but after church yesterday we had a bunch of the adults come up to us and ask if they can come out with us this week, so we are super excited.   President Felix came and announced in Sacrament Meeting that were not allowed to knock doors, only find through members, and that the members have to step up.  I am really happy that I get to stay with Elder Griffin and have our area be the guinea pig of the mission for no more tracting. It’s gonna be sweet. 

Our investigator L--- is doing really well.  He is 33 years old, working in the fields here for the past few years all by himself. He is so childlike and humble. Reading is hard for him and he basically has zero education, so his comprehension is slower, but he is so anxious to learn. I love it. He came to the baptism of D--- on Friday and really liked it. L---- had never seen a baptism performed by immersion before, and the spirit was super strong. He went up to the edge of the font with all the little children during the ordinance and it was really cool to watch L---‘s face light up during it. D----l bore his testimony after the service like he did in Sacrament Meeting, and it was really powerful.  L---- told us that later that night he was thinking about the baptism and said a prayer, promising God that he would get baptized "adentro de 3 meses" !!  So we set a date with him for February 14th, and he wants us to come teach him every day. 

We had 2 investigators at church yesterday, a new investigator named C---, who actually has a granddaughter in the mission field, and the son of a part-member family named F----.  Unfortunately, F--- doesnt seem too interested after yesterday, but C--- is really excited to meet with us this week!

Elder Griffin and I are stoked to stay together this transfer.  We were companions exactly one year ago for the holidays back in Santa Barbara when we were both new missionaries, and it’s incredibly awesome to be experiencing a little de-ja-vu and do it all again!  We are a little more seasoned this time around and a whole lot more comfortable with our Spanish, so we really are loving every second!

I know how important the Spirit is as a missionary. Last night we were walking to go visit an investigator, and I was just thinking about the stories you always hear about people getting those super strong promptings that come 3 times to them, and then they act on it and some great big miracle happened.  Then, the scripture popped into my head, "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth," and so I said that to God in my head. I said, "This is kind of random, but if you have a prompting to send my way, then let me have it.. I’m ready." As we were waiting for the crosswalk so we could cross the street, I got the thought- “Don’t go to the apartment complex we were heading to.  Don’t do it.  Don’t cross the street.”  So I battled within myself for a couple seconds trying to decide whether or not that was an actual prompting or just me creating my own situation because of the thought process I was having... but right as the crosswalk light came on, I told Elder Griffin, "I don’t know why, but I got a feeling that maybe we shouldn’t go over there."  So we talked it out and decided of course we needed to follow that prompting. As I turned to walk back the way we came, Elder Griffin suggested we take the cross walk the other way, and walk back to the car from that way, so we did.  On the other side, we met and "Shared the Gift" with an awesome humble little family walking who agreed to let us come into their home and share a message about the true meaning of Christmas. Now that’s just a small little miracle, but it’s crazy how none of that would have happened if we crossed the street.  None of that would have happened if i didn’t ask God to give me a prompting.  At the same time, it wouldn’t have happened if I was by myself because I would have turned and walked the way we came, while Elder Griffin was guided to cross to the left and run into the family. Even though I had the best intentions of following what the spirit whispered to me, my companion took it and magnified it, and then came the miracle. Maybe nothing will ever happen out of that street contact, but we learned a little more about being led by the Spirit as we find and teach.

For service, we did 5 hours for Foodshare. Rather than lifting heavy boxes and doing manual labor like we usually do, they had us at a desk doing paperwork and organizing a bunch of their administrative stuff they are backed up on because of the holidays...... it was good, but if nothing else came of it, I learned yet again that I much prefer lifting heavy boxes than doing paperwork. 

I haven’t been able to play sports with members/investigators my entire mission... till last week they changed the rule. :):):) I literally cried tears of joy I was so happy.  We played soccer with the ward on Tuesday. 8 goals later, I scored, I got a big ole sweet black blister on my foot. It was totally worth it.

Love, Elder Parrish******

P.S.  You may remember me telling you about J and L T---- a few weeks ago.  They were the golden English family we found and referred over.  Well, they are getting baptized this Saturday and they asked me and Elder Griffin to be the ones to baptize them!  Pray for them this week! 

We had such an awesome week.  Elder Griffin and I had 10 lessons with members present, and in the zone we had a total of 30 this week.  Around 42% of our total number of lessons were taught with a member present this week, compared to 29% last week, 18% two weeks ago, and 9% at the beginning of the transfer.  We are really proud of the efforts the zone is making to involve the members more and keep raising that number.

One miracle we had with going out with members:  We took out a priest named David.  We tried going by a former investigator’s house, who we had a lesson with.  He actually gave us a referral of one of his neighbors who just moved in, named L----.  We contacted him using a He is the Gift pass-along card and set a return appointment for yesterday.  We took David with us again the for the appointment, and taught Lorenzo about the restoration.  We weren’t sure how into it he was, but after explaining the First Vision, Elder Griffin asked if he believed that God and Jesus Christ could appear to someone today and call him as a prophet.  Lorenzo said yes, and that he believed in miracles.  We talked a little after that about miracles, and he shared with us a dream he had a while ago. , In his dream an angel appeared to him and told him that the Lord was going to send someone to him that would give him “mas entendimiento” about the Bible and learn about his word.  Then he told us that he kind of shrugged off the dream as just a dream, but now he knows that it was true and that we were sent to him to give him the "mas entendimiento" that the angel talked about. We invited him to the Christmas devotional last night and he rode with David and his dad to watch it with us in Camarillo. It was all pretty awesome, especially for David, since it was his first time ever going out with the missionaries,  to have a sweet miracle like that. Now David wants to come out with us all the time :)

Elder Griffin is amazing.  He takes talking with everyone to heart.  We're seeing a lot of miracles and having so much success with the “He is the Gift” initiative. It is so effective!  Everyone wants to talk about Christmas!

I think about this past General Conference, and I can see the principle of accountability as an underlying topic in basically everything.  I have been pondering about the subject of accountability, and I loved the emphasis in MLC on us as leaders being accountable for our areas. I know that to 'Return and Report" is an eternal principle.  Every time we account for something, it influences our final return and report with Father in Heaven.  I like that. It makes me want to do my best in everything, even the small and insignificant things.  It makes me anxious to be more accountable.  It makes me want to be a better missionary, son, brother, future husband and father, neighbor, etc. it influences everything.

We had a really cool service project with Foodshare's can-drive at the collection on Friday.  Our whole zone and some of the English zone helped by making Christmas trees out of canned food.  We ended up helping with I believe 240 trees, all with over 600 cans each.  It was awesome.  Foodshare loves the LDS missionaries!   We had several opportunities to answer questions and share “He is the Gift.”  There were tons of newspapers and radio and photographer people.  Google it, maybe there will be a picture of me :)

I can’t believe Mitch is 22! I want to wrestle him, and play basketball and every other sport with him again.  I might be able to compete nowadays.

Love,

Elder Parrish