Elder Griffin and I had dinner with the Macias family in our ward this week, whose son served in Nicaragua in the same mission as Mitch, and they knew each other pretty well!  It was really awesome to talk to him and hear about my brother as a missionary and some funny stories of their mission.

We have been seeing miracles like crazy as a result of only working with members.  Members are coming out with us who have never come out before. Members are giving us referrals who have never given a referral before.  We have had random people just walking into church, etc.  We received a referral from a member last Monday during FHE for a family of 6, who we passed on to the other elders, and they came to church yesterday and after church said they want to get married and baptized!  It’s definitely not the easy way of doing things, but it’s way better!  Se vale la pena for sure!  A lot of it can be contributed to the assignment we have received from Bishop Quezada to contact every single member on the ward records. Our goal in the ward is to have absolute 100% accountability of all the members in the ward boundaries- in ward council we like to call #CienAlSenor :)  It’s something that not a lot of wards have around here, and I think it was a super inspired step to take from Bishop Quezada. We have just been going straight down the list, contacting them, and inviting them to church explaining all the great things happening in the 5th ward and how there is no better time to be in the church than right now as the Lord is hastening His work!  We have been able to clear out a lot of the old names who have died or moved out years and years ago, and also we have found so many part-member families and less-active members who are open and willing to come back to church! Yesterday we had to open the back partition into the gym because our Sacrament Meeting attendance was so full! 

Lorenzo is our most solid investigator still and he never ceases to amaze me with his faith and childlike humility.   He has felt the spirit and knows he needs to do whatever God wants him to do.

Elder Griffin and i have been working on... SMILING!  Who knew, it actually works.  We have tried to kind of just take a step back, and be humble, and really try to love our missionaries in the zone, and let them know that they are important to us.  We have already seen just an all around better sense of unity and energy in the zone :)

Yesterday, a man named Jesus randomly walked into church. So we proceeded in welcoming him and starting to give him a church tour.  It was obvious he was bothered and upset, and frankly just wasn’t interested in a church tour at the moment.  So we sat down and started talking with him, and he told us his wife just died the night before, literally on Saturday night, and he was devastated.  He was just desperate, looking for something…anything to help.  We tried consoling him and said a prayer with him before the meeting started.  While sitting in Sacrament Meeting, I guess you could say I felt like Ammon-with the king’s servants at the waters of Sebus when the flocks are scattered and the people are all weeping because they know the outcome is going to be fatal.  But Ammon, his heart was swollen with joy, because he saw it as an opportunity to show the power of God and help these people.  So even though this man’s world had just come to an end, my heart was swollen with joy, because we had the opportunity to teach him about the plan of salvation, and share our knowledge that he would see her again.  As I read Alma 40, I felt the spirit testify super strong to me that it was true.   I am so grateful for the great plan of HAPPINESS our Heavenly Father has laid before us :)

Love,

Elder Parrish