So I don’t think I've told you much about Santa Maria. First off, it’s just an extension of Mexico with tons of Hispanics, most from Oaxaca.  It smells just like Mexico, too- like there’s a dead badger on every corner, so that’s cool.  We go to this one big apartment complex almost daily, and there’s the usual big group of kids from ages 5-10 that just shout, “Hip hip hooray!” every time we walk in the complex.  (We want to teach them to shout, “Hurrah for Israel” every time, but they don’t understand.)  They just treat us like celebrities and follow us around and hand out cards to everyone we see.  We play soccer and they all count how long I can do handstands.

There’s a huge 27 hole disc golf course here that we play every P-day with the YSA guys.  It’s tons of fun. The other day there was a squirrel chillin’ on a log and I instinctively (swear I didn’t mean to) chucked my Frisbee at it and knocked it into next week. Oh and I skinned a snake, because an investigator asked me how...   

Anyway... :) the work is going great!!  We had a ton of member present lessons this week, which is like manna from heaven in this area, and saw a lot of miracles from it.  We pushed J---'s baptismal date back to May 9th just because Satan doesn’t want him to come to church, so his boss keeps calling him on Sunday mornings to come into work, so we think it’d be best if we wait a bit to make sure he's going to  be committed to keep the Sabbath day holy. 

Oh my goodness, and then we had the sweetest lesson ever yesterday with a new investigator family we found.  J--- and R--- with their 3 kids.  One of them is having surgery on Wednesday, so we went to go give her a blessing yesterday after church.  We brought it up in ward council that morning that we would like a member to accompany us for the blessing, and they assigned a whole family to come do the visit with us. (More manna from heaven.)  So we go with the whole family, who are the same age and have kids all the same ages too.  We gave her the blessing and their families just hit it off great and made instant friends.  We had only taught them the first principle of the first lesson before that since they are new investigators, but just from that little visit and the spirit we felt, they were like, "You guys don’t pray to the Virgin Mary right?... Were gonna take down our Virgin Mary right away!"  We didn’t even say anything about it at all, but it was funny, and hopefully the surgery will go well and there will be plenty more about this family. :)

Another miracle from getting the members cooperation was with G---!  We were able to have him come to a dinner at a member’s home.  They hit it off great as well, and he accepted a baptismal date for May 16th after teaching him about the Restoration! 

So when I think about my mission, I have come to a little conclusion about the atonement.  I think if I was simply required to come on a mission for 2 years only relying on my own strength, a few things would happen.  I have always been rather self-reliant and always enjoy a challenge, so I think I would be able to come, stay for 2 years, and go home, on solely my own physical abilities. I hope that doesn't sound prideful.. I think I would be able to put up with the daily grind of the work and just put my head down and go, day in and day out, waking up and working hard until my time was up. I really think I could.  *BUT* that’s all it would be, going through the motions, depressed or something, and pointlessly just doing it with merely an end… like a never-ending wrestling season with a bad attitude or something.

Where the atonement has comes in, specifically the enabling power of the atonement, is what makes growth possible, progression.  It wouldn’t be possible to be successful without it.  Everything I have learned and achieved on my mission, can only be contributed to the atonement.  It allows the daily grind of waking up, getting out, working all day, talking to everyone,  to be more fun than anything else I have ever done!  Who would have thought!  It provides the convincing power to touch the SOULS of men, rather than just selling a product.  Without it, I would’ve had no growth, no purpose, no impact in others' lives, no success, etc... The Savior’s Atonement is everything, and I am so grateful for it.  It’s hard to explain, but there's nothing else to attribute it to.  Every day, I am becoming better because of it and I hope to continue that change perpetually.

Love,

Elder Parrish