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This is our ward mission leader and his wife. Coolest WML ever.  Yesterday they fed us the best steaks ever and funeral potatoes for my going away party!  I ate 4 whole steaks and half a pan of potatoes. I would have eaten 5 steaks if I didn't waste stomach room on salad and bread and lemon bars. 

paz fuera! 

Well, ayer fue el bautismo de J---! it was awesome.

The service was at 3 o'clock, right after church, so there were a good amount of members that stayed around to be there! His less active wife and 2 of his active sons came. Elder Clarkson and Elder Moreno made it, and said prayers so it was great to have the original Santa Maria team back.

He will be confirmed next week in sacrament meeting.  There’s no better way to finish out than with a baptism of a part member family with their next goal being getting sealed in the temple!

E--'s baptism is coming up in a couple weeks as well!  And we finally had a break through lesson with E---- this week as we read all of Moroni chapter 8 with him. After studying for him, we decided to be bold and read all about how baptism is for the repentant and those capable of committing sin and the gross error of infant baptism :) The spirit worked on him and he humbly agreed with everything we read. After all this time he finally understood the apostasy and importance of Christ's one true Church! He said: "Wow, I need to start think about changing religions."  E----'s baptism also coming up soon :)

Elder Herrera is so awesome.   He's doing well and I have full confidence in him and his ability to follow the Spirit, work with the members, and take care of the area. He is light years ahead of where I was my first transfer. He could train next transfer and be totally fine. 

There's nowhere else I’d rather be right now.  I’m going to give it all I’ve got and sprint through the finish line.  It’s a weird feeling knowing I’ll be going home next week, but I’m not sad, because I know I have done my best and that even though I will soon be removing my nametag, His name will still be printed in my heart forever. 

For service, we built some retaining walls/planters for a less active member in their back yard.  As we were putting up these big 8 ft posts, Elder Herrera swung around with one and clocked me square in the face. It felt like I got punched by Mike Tyson. I thought I was going to black out.  It was nice to feel some real pain for the first time in a while. Haha.  I was hoping I'd have a sweet black eye to go home with, but to no avail, not even a bruise, just a sore face. Haha.  Elder Herrera felt so bad. 

There ya go, mom, I wrote ya an extra long email, so I don’t have to write one next week! ;)  See y’all next Wednesday! 

Love, Elder Parrish ******

#HurrahForIsrael

#BestTwoYears

  

I tore down this little house with my bare hands. 

After I knocked out all the walls, we just left the 4 corner posts holding it up and pushed her over.  It made a pretty good crash when she came down.  

Elder Hererra helped a little too.

Well folks, I finally got to meet Tommy Muscio! He's probably the nicest guy in the whole world!  I first met him at Catholic Charities where we do service, and we talked for a good 30 minutes all about his adventures back in the day with Grampa and Ken Robertson. It was awesome to hear all about the some of the same stories Grampa used to tell me.  Haha I guess now I know all the Ol' man's crazy stories are true!! 

He and his wife Marianna took us out for some dang good steaks at "The Hitchin Post" in Casmalia on Saturday. 

They had nothing but good things to say about Grandpa and Ken.  He still hunts and said he empties a box of shells every now and then.  They told me a few funny stories about when Scott was a kid, and wanted me to make sure I told Scott and Mama Jeanie hello for them!

J--- passed his baptismal interview this week! He came to church yesterday with his boys and met with Presidente Predazzi afterwards, so everything is looking up with that. We also built a cake for his wife on her birthday! They are the humblest little family ever. I wish I could just give them all my money and everything I have. We take for granted so much all of the day to day things we enjoy.

Presidente Predazzi randomly invited us out to dinner on Friday after the mission conference and we set up some service to help him move into his new house this week.  We had our investigator E--- and his 2 kids attend the branch Carne Asada on Saturday as well as another investigator J----. They had a good time, and we were also able to give a church tour to J----, so they are all progressing well.  

Yesterday we taught 2 restoration lessons.  The first with a family in a small trailer with kids yelling and screaming and distractions all over the place.  It went... not so well.  Even though we did a good job on our end, the family didn’t understand very well at all, and nothing really came of it. The second was with a new investigator named C---. We taught her outside sitting on her patio.  It was peaceful, and there were no distractions (besides a giant talking parrot that occasionally says "hola," "Volleyball," and various other swear words in English and Spanish) but it went amazing.  She just kept asking question after question that led right into the next point of the lesson.  The lack of the Spirit in the first lesson compared to the presence of the Spirit in the second was like night and day.  I’m glad Elder Herrera got to experience that, and learn the importance of creating an environment where the Spirit can testify to their hearts.

Elder Herrera is really doing great.  I am sure he feels like he has a long way to go, but he is a natural teacher and really tries his best to apply everything he is learning. He is very sincere and listens with love. It is fun to see him find joy in the work. It was great to have an investigator at church yesterday and see the satisfaction on his face sitting in Sacrament Meeting. :)

I loved the mission conference with Elder Grow of the Seventy. He reminds me of a mix between Clark's dad, Charlie Bown and Ted Nugent.  I loved the focus on baptizing.  I feel like that was exactly what we needed and exactly what I have needed for a long time.  I loved the tidbit on how it is unacceptable for returned missionaries to go inactive.  That has always blown my mind how that is even possible.  It doesn’t make sense to me at all. I liked Sister Grow’s insight of how if we are unworthy of the Spirit, it can’t perform one of its main roles, which is to bring things back to our remembrance.   So it’s as simple as getting lazy in the small things that allow Satan to throw a wedge in our spiritual development--not reading the Book of Mormon daily, not paying a full tithe, not saying prayers are all relatively small things that over time dam our way and our progression, and eventually we can’t even remember the way we once felt or the things we once knew. There is no way I could ever doubt the many testimonies I have obtained here, and it’s my prayer that I can stay worthy all the days of my life, never giving place for the enemy of my soul.

Love, Elder Parrish

We worked really hard this week, and had a lot of members coming out with us. J---'s baptismal interview was Tuesday at 4... but nobody showed up to give the interview. Haha.  There was a miscommunication with the zone leaders and the Morrobay district leader, so nobody ever showed up. We reviewed the questions, and had a good lesson about temple work, so it turned out good any way. His real interview should happen this week for sure. We are doing everything we can, and are seeing the hand of the Lord in the work, so we feel good about this week.  Of course, it's frustrating when investigators have kept every commitment and done everything they ever said they will do up to that point, we do everything right, daily contact, follow-up, member fellowship, etc, and then they commit again on Friday and Saturday to come to church, we have a ride arranged with a member, I pray harder and more desperately for them to come than I’ve ever prayed for anything else in my life..... and then they don’t come.  It breaks my heart every time, fills me with all sorts of emotion-sorrow, anger, disappointment, confusion and everything else in between.  But I just chuckle, smile, and tell Elder Herrera how great missionary work is and how were gonna have to work even harder next week. :)  And then I pray, take the sacrament, feel the Spirit, and feel better. Haha.  It’s been a seemingly never-ending cycle of my mission, but when I am humble and accept the will of the Lord, my views of the world change and I can see a constant stream of so many tender mercies and successes—like a sister who after 6 months of inactivity is sitting with a smile in front of us in Sacrament Meeting.  Elder Herrera is a champ and is surprising me by taking the lead more and more. All is well with the 12 week program, the district, and there’s nothing better than being a missionary for the true Church of Jesus Christ!

Love, Elder Parrish

Old friends at Transfer Meeting

Fam, 

This week was crazy. I had to give a training to all the District Leaders in Oxnard.  I always pooch my presentations. I prep for them so much and they are always good in my head, and then it all comes out like a jumbled hooblagumbo while I am up there sweating profusely. Oh well. 

We have seen a lot of miracles this week, and it has been so much fun here with Elder Herrera. He’s just so cute and innocent:) Our car broke down coming over the Cachuma Lake Pass in the middle of nowhere on our way home from transfers, so he had a great first day in the mission :):) I was laughing so hard. I have these grimy nasty paper cups that I’ve had since my first area that we use to teach the Restoration.  They were sitting on my desk. They have been on hundreds of gross carpets, floors, tables, grass, dirt, you name it. Over the last couple days, I noticed the stack of cups was getting smaller... Finally, I was like what the heck and found all my cups in the garbage. He's been using them to drink out of, because he thought that’s what they were for! hahaha He was so embarrassed. 


Elder Herrera and Elder Parrish

We have 4 progressing investigators. We were able to get back on track with some really good member present lessons, and Elder Herrera stepped up to the plate and invited 3 people to be baptized like he does it all the time!   2 out of the 3 accepted and we set them with dates. He said he was scared out of his mind, but he just went for it anyway and it was awesome! When I was in Oxnard on Friday for the District Leader training, Elder Herrera was back in Santa Maria with another English Elder and teaching Spanish lessons all by himself to our investigators his 3rd day in the mission! And he did great- followed up, answered Q's, taught the whole Plan of Salvation, extended commitments and everything! I was so proud of him. :)

That’s what it was like when Elder Griffin and I were together in my first area. Every day was a struggle and we had no idea what to do. But despite both being brand new missionaries, we miraculously managed to find, teach, and baptize 2 people with our limited experience and poor Spanish. And I learned a million things. I imagine that’s another reason why Elder Griffin and I became such good friends! He finished this week, crazy to think.

Elder Herrera is really sincere and just wants to do his best.  I see so much good in him and even though our personalities, interests, hobbies are almost exact opposites, I love him to death and we get along great! He’s very humble and like I said, is just getting right in the mix of things inviting people to be baptized, bearing his testimony in Sacrament Meeting, etc.

President Felix read L---'s letter at transfer meeting in front of all the missionaries. That was awesome.  It was all I could do not to cry, haha. It is so cool to think they just up and left and officially joined the Saints in Zion! I can’t express enough gratitude to Heavenly Father. I love being a missionary and love getting to learn and serve with Elder Herrera and see as he catches the same fire.

Love, Elder P


E. Herrera jumping with both feet in the mission!

Acting hard with Elder Clarkson -
Last Monday, we went on a few mile hike with the district above Pismo Beach.
The trail spits us out right at this sweet cave over looking the water.
All I can say is it's gonna be nice to go on hikes by myself again,
and not have to stop and wait every 10 minutes for the hermanas to catch up. 

‘Sup folks. I’m staying in Santa Maria and I’ll be training a new greeny!!  I never thought I was going to train.  I was ok with that, because I didn’t want to ruin a greeny by pushing him too hard, and not having enough patience to take care of him all the time, but I’m actually excited out of mind to train! It’s gonna be fun. I already have some good pranks planned with the members.

I’m glad to hear Grompa Parrish is doing better! I miss that old guy. 

On Saturday morning, way before we found out that Elder Perry had passed away, I randomly was thinking about the process of filling the vacancy in the 12 when an apostle dies and was asking Elder Clarkson some questions about the whole process and everything without thinking much of it.  Then in the evening, we were at a baptismal service when we heard that Elder Perry died. It was a shock to hear, but I immediately felt the Spirit super strong. The next day in my studies, I thought of the scripture in Hebrews 9: 16-17 that says a testimony is of no effect until after the death of the testator, or something along those lines, and I read Elder Perry's talk from General Conference one more time. I felt the sweetest spirit as I read his final -now sealed with is death- testimony, his witness of Eternal Families and the Plan of Salvation.  Super Cool!  I have no doubt that Heavenly Father's plan is perfect and that I too can live with my family for all eternity.

For service this week, we spent 3 hours taking a load out to the dump with a less member!

This one’s short, but I sent like a hundred pics, so it’s ok. 

Love,

Elder Parrish

 

Santa Maria pool baptism!

​Elder Griffin and I found V--- back in February. In our first lesson, we found out her dad had died and she had doubts of what happened after death.  We bore testimony of the Plan of Salvation and I remember thinking that she was going to be baptized some day for sure!  Well, that day was last Friday.  President Felix gave Elder Griffin and me permission to go back down to Oxnard for it!!  It was awesome!  Some of my favorite members are from Oxnard.

Look who I saw at the baptism in Oxnard!

Bowling on Pday

We had a breakthrough lesson with our investigator, J---.  We brought our new ward mission leader to a lesson, who has some connections with other job opportunities, and they are working on finding him new employment, because he is sick of not being able to come to church and not being able to get baptized since he works on Sundays. J--- was super excited and fired up about it, and he went in early on Saturday, so he could finish all his cleaning and then came to church on Sunday! :) 

We see a less-active hermana, named Y--- a couple times a week. She has a strong testimony, and loves it when we come share messages, because she is just spiritually thirsty from being away from the church for about 6months now. Every week she has the good intentions of coming to church, but something always "comes up."   On Sunday before church, we went to her house and she let us know that one of the real reasons she hasn’t been coming to church when she says she will is because since she has been inactive she had oral surgery and they removed a bunch of her front teeth, and she just feels embarrassed and doesn’t want to have to talk to anybody without her teeth! I was able to show her some pictures of me without my front tooth and tell her I had to go through that for 3 years of high school! I explained how I felt the same insecurities and self-esteem issues for a while and didn’t like to talk or smile without it, but eventually realized that nobody cared and everyone just thought that it was awesome and made me look way tougher anyway, and I worried all that time for nothing. It helped her realize that that was a pretty lame excuse for not coming to church, and so she went and got ready and came to church for the first time since I’ve been here!  It was awesome! Everyone was so happy to see her :)

We got to do some good service this week helping our branch president move all of his stuff into storage until their new house is finished, and it built some good trust there with him.  We also helped one of our less active members, V--- build a bunch of shelves in his railroad car container he uses for a shed and he came to church on Sunday!

 

Love, Elder Parrish

Going to do service.

We went on a hike on Tuesday up in San Luis Obispo with the zone and with President and Sister Felix.  

We taught a lot of lessons this week, and for sure thought our 2 main investigators would come to church again. Neither of them came, but randomly after the meeting started we looked over and there was a man named Samuel in the foyer that we found that week who just decided to show up for church! We were all excited and of course grateful for the tender mercy that someone actually came to Sacrament Meeting. As we brought him in and sat down, we looked over to the other foyer and there was another one of our investigators named E-- with his 2 kids! We are definitely making progress with our investigators and teaching pool, though.

Elder Clarkson and I are doing well.  We have come out of this week having learned to be a little more humble, submissive, and meek, and are striving to get rid of pride so we can be more unified and have the Spirit more in our companionship. I think there is more i can be doing to serve him and show my love, so those are my goals!

I have been reading the General Conference Ensign a lot lately and just love the Spirit I get from each talk as I re-read them. They all apply perfectly in one way or another to me individually. I just can’t help but feel an overwhelming gratitude for my membership in this church, where we are so blessed to have 15 men who are prophets, seers, and revelators. It is something I will continue to thank God for every day of my life.  I keep thinking of a couple summers ago when we went to the funeral of Brother Jack Hepworth where President Monson conducted.  I realized that day that the Prophet of God, standing just a few feet away from me was just a normal, ordinary man, subject to sickness and pain and sorrow and memory loss and everything else that accompanies old age just like all the rest of us crazy people. But when President Monson testified of the plan of salvation, and of our loving Heavenly Father and of Brother Hepworth’s faithfulness in the church, I realized too that the great God of Israel magnifies those seemingly normal men he calls, and gives them power and authority to do extraordinary things and be his literal mouthpieces on the earth. I have felt him magnify little ole me. There was no doubt in my mind on that summer day that he was the Lord's Prophet in these latter-days, and there is no doubt in my mind today that he continues to be. The same Spirit that touched my heart that day is the Spirit that I feel every time I read the conference talks. I know that President Monson holds all the keys of the Holy Priesthood and leads the true Church of Jesus Christ today.

For service, we almost finished the laundry room addition of Brother C---'s house. right in time before it rained!

Love,

Elder Parrish

Water was freezing!  Colder than baptizing in the Pacific Ocean. (I would know)  So I hurried and dunked her real good, and then she cried for a long time afterwards, cuz it was so cold......  but then she got baptized by fire and the Holy Ghost and wasn't cold anymore :)

It was a privilege to baptize M--- on Saturday. The water was suuuper cold, colder than the ocean baptism even.  It’s funny how there’s always something with the water and the font or something doesn’t quite work out the way it’s supposed to, but the service was very spiritual regardless.  My favorite part was when M--- sang "I Like to Look for Rainbows" with the hermanas right before we went into the water.  Also, getting to hear Elder Clarkson confirm her a member of the Church and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost was amazing.  It was great for the investigators there.

One more quick miracle: We were driving to church yesterday morning and as we passed a certain block I caught a glimpse of a man standing outside his car.  I was sure it was our part member family investigator J---, so we turned around and sure enough he was locked out trying to unlock it with a screw driver and a wire hanger. Luckily, we have plenty of experience with that from back home, so we were able to get it open after a few minutes.  It definitely was no coincidence we drove by right at that exact time! Then, he came to church and with his entire family all there and it was great.  He will be baptized soon.

Elder Clarkson is great.  He has such a desire to improve and overcome.  He is very strict with himself and works hard. He is great at following the Spirit and I’m really glad he got to confirm M--- for the first time in his mission. The Spirit was incredible.

I know the Lord is hastening his work! As i have studied about my purpose throughout my mission, and especially my patriarchal blessing, as well as the Abrahamic covenant, it is so clear as to why we are here on the earth at this time, even more so as the seed of Joseph, be it specifically through Ephraim or Manasseh. We were foreordained to be born through the lineage of Abraham into these tribes with the charge to gather the lost tribes and fulfill the covenants made to the Fathers. We have no reason, no excuse to be lazy or to pass the buck on to somebody else. WE have to do it, because we covenanted before the world was that we would!  It’s simple, but it’s marvelous. And I just love it when we get to catch a glimpse of the members grasping that as well after so much hard work.  I’m seriously so grateful for our new Ward Mission Leader, and the vision he has of the hastening of the work.  I was so happy after our first coordination meeting, I seriously almost started crying.  The branch is in great hands. 

For service this week, we helped a less active member, who is building an addition on the side of his house for a laundry room.  We put up 4 half walls and cut out the windows. This week we will finish her up!

Couldn't be happier!
Love, Elder Parrish

  

CINCO DE MAYO someday ill have facial hair... :'(‏

Familia,

Maddie told me how she helped out at her friend’s baptism last week!  That’s so awesome!   It makes me one proud big brother to see her understanding the principles of the gospel more and more clearly.  She is much better than I was at her age :)  We all can learn from her outgoing missionary attitude!

We got a new ward mission leader!  I really am extremely grateful for our previous WML and all he did for us and his calling.  I have learned a lot from working with him this short time.  I am also pumped out of my mind for our new ward mission leader.  He is great and really excited to serve with us in the hastening of this great and latter-day work!

We were disappointed to not have our investigators G--- and J--- come to church.  We were sure they would after some awesome spiritual lessons with them this week.  We will need to push their baptisms back, but I know that all is in the Lord's hands and I totally trust Him and His timing.  M---'s baptism is this weekend.  I’m excited for it.

We did have a crazy miracle yesterday evening though when our investigator J--- walked in with his wife to the temple fireside! His wife is an active member, and J--- has been talking to missionaries for yearsss, but never has come inside the church building. He came to the fireside last night, and all the members were pretty ecstatic about it!  It was great and an answer to prayers.

The district is doing really well.  I feel a little guilty - I have probably the best district ever!  I seriously never have to worry about any of them.  It’s not just because they are zone leaders/sister training leaders, but honestly Elder Young, Elder Fisher, Hermana Costilla and Hermana Killpack and Elder Clarkson are all stellar, and very motivated missionaries with a deep understanding of their purpose as missionaries.  Where we all have our own stewardships in the district as well, it is awesome to be able to focus on a lot of ministering and leadership principles during district meeting.  Last Thursday, we had an awesome discussion led by the hermanas on the talk "Jesus the Perfect Leader."  They are all great leaders, especially my companion Elder Clarkson.  He would never admit it, but he has such a great influence on everyone he comes in contact with.

The former temple president of both Vera Cruz, Mexico and L.A. came to the branch last night to give a fireside about the temple.  Attendance was a little smaller than a normal sacrament meeting, but the spirit was SO strong.   Right from the first hymn we sung all the way to the end, it was tangible.  He shared a lot of personal experiences and stories he and his wife have had serving in the temple. I focused his talk on LIGHT, specifically the light that we need to attain to return to live our Father in Heaven.  I know that the temple is such a great symbol of light for me.  If we need to obtain light, and get as much of it as we possibly can. It’s only logical that a good way to obtain more light would be to go to a place that has a lot of it! And what better place than God's literal house! I love the plan of salvation and the sure knowledge I have of it, because the Holy Spirit has confirmed its truthfulness to me.

Service at Catholic Charities is a blast.  We have made good friends with a lot of the workers.  It is the best charity ever. They are such good people and genuinely good Christians.  P.S. You’ll never guess who does service at Catholic Charities!  TOM MUSCIO!  Ha ha, I haven’t met him yet, but hopefully this week I’ll see him.

Love,

Elder Parrish

Happy Birthday Ma! From your biggest fan. Love you! :)

I hope all is well with y’all and I pray for Grompa Parrish and his hip replacement!  Now he’s gonna be able to hike to the top of Cub River with me this fall and slay a giant buck. :):)

We had some great lessons this week. My favorite was teaching the plan of salvation to G---. One of the best Plan lessons I have been part of on my mission. We had it in the church building and drew it up on the chalk board. We kept it super simple and only focused on the first half of the lesson, first going over the true nature of the Godhead, to the pre-earth life, creation, fall, to mortal life and the atonement. I felt the Spirit super strong as we testified of Jesus Christ and the atonement being central to the plan, and then when he came to church the next day the gospel principles lesson was all about the atonement, so it was perfect!  I cant wait to teach the last half of the plan this week!  G--- was a trooper and stayed for all 3 hours of church this time and really liked it. He is solid for baptism on the 16th of May as long as he can keep going strong with his commitments.  :)

We were able to accompany 2 brothers to do their home teaching yesterday.  We have worked with the branch president and Elders Quorum, so all of the messages they are sharing for home teaching  include a focus from Preach My Gospel. This month was Chapter 1, Our Purpose.  So next month will be Chapter 2, etc.   It is working great so far and getting the members to actually start studying Preach My Gospel. On our way walking back to the member's car, we offered a pamphlet to a man getting out of his truck, taught a lesson and got a new investigator who is interested in learning more.  Having the members there made a huge difference, of course, and the members are excited to go back and visit him! 

Elder Clarkson and I had a great week.  It is a little weird not having 3 of us anymore, but we are starting to get back into the groove of just teaching between the 2 of us, but we are doing great and the work is moving forward! 

Yesterday, I had the most powerful sacrament experience of my life. It was awesome. I felt the spirit the strongest I ever have during the sacrament.  After I took the bread, it just overcame me and it just felt so good.  I was so sad and happy at the same time, and the next thing I knew my eyes started leaking.  I can’t explain it, but I just felt wondering awe and immense gratitude for my Savior and the atonement that made the plan of HAPPINESS possible. I know my covenants were renewed, and I can’t wait to renew them again next week. I hope and pray that I can show my love to God this week by keeping my side of the bargain from the sacramental prayers better than ever before.

The service activity was great. We removed a bunch of huge panels from the walls at the food bank 

and scrubbed them down, painted barrels, and built a fence.  Everyone had a good time and made a huge difference for the food bank.

 

Love, Elder Parrish

Transfers last week - See E. Parrish in the upper right corner in the background.

Elder Parrish, Elder Davidson, Elder Bautista, Elder Lee

Sooo... did anybody else have a 2 hr mission wide live concert with David Archuleta, Brook White, and Kendra Lowe last night?.... or just me?...  :)

Haha.  So they called a surprise mission conference yesterday and everybody had to drop everything and drive to Ventura for a "special meeting" and to NOT bring cameras....   We were all expecting President Uchtdorff, because he is supposedly going to be in the area this weekend, or at least a general authority or something, when out of nowhere in walks this short little kid with black hair.... haha.  I may be ashamed to say I recognized him right off the bat - David Archuleta.  Nobody else seemed to recognize him at all until they announced it.... all those years of family bonding time watching American Idol paid off, eh?:) (And Sorry Maddie he's way too short for you.) haha, Brook White too.  They were in the top 5 together...  She lives in the mission in Westlake.  It was kind of a letdown at first, since we were all expecting Elder Uchtdorff.... so when I saw "Brother Archuleta," at first I was just kind of chuckling to myself since we drove over 2 hours and missed a whole Sunday afternoon and evening of proselyting time for a stinkin’ musical performance.... But of course it turned out to be awesome and the Spirit was super strong.   He shared some experiences from American Idol with Brook, how he would bless the sacrament for them every week since they couldn’t go to church and a bunch of other cool stuff.  He talked a lot about his mission in Chile and the difference it has made in his life and just some of his favorite scriptures, and bore his testimony by singing songs after each little story or scripture.  Man, that kid has some pipes, just in case you forgot from American Idol 4 years ago.  He sang:

Come, Come Ye Saints -part in Spanish, which was the best-

Be still my Soul

Amazing Grace -duet with Brooke White

I Believe in Christ

Glorious- the final song on Meet the Mormons. 
              (Go here to see the video: https://youtu.be/GytW_rgr0RM)
 

But it was a really cool meeting, and he’s a really cool and humble guy.  And of course it was funny to watch all of the sisters and hermanas just swooning in their seats being serenaded by his angelic vocal cords, haha.  :)  Check the blog for pictures.  

(Thank you sister Felix for the pictures and for keeping such a great blog at http://thecaliforniaventuramission.blogspot.ca)

David Archuleta, accompanist Kendra Lowe with Pres. & Sis. Felix, Elders Kanenwisher and Atkin.

The Santa Maria Zone with David Archuleta, Kendra Lowe

Well, I would just like to testify of one of the things that the Spirit hit me with from Brother Archuleta last night.  When he sang "Be Still My Soul," I loved the lines "Thru thorny ways, leads to a joyful end.  Be still my soul, thy God doth undertake to guide the future as he has the past."  I think about everything that has ever happened to me in my life that could be considered "a joyful end," and not one of them came without first going through a thorny way.  Everything that is good in this life and the next has a price to pay and we have to be willing to pay it, but it is all worth it.  It is easy to feel the Spirit confirm that truth when we are in a spiritual meeting hearing David Archuleta sing it with his angelic vocal cords, but I don’t know why it seems that we forget that just as easily in the moment of trial and tribulation. We shouldn’t.  There is no reason to ever doubt or ever lose hope.  Just keep on chugging along and put your faith before your fears.  Or in the words Elder Lewis, who recently shared with me from the Doctrine and Covenants, "Be of good cheer, fear not... and see the salvation of God."  So I invite you all to just put your head down and go hard to do whatever God wants you to do, and I know you won’t regret it :) 
(Listen to David singing this song to the Mo Tab here: https://youtu.be/pV3DEtJtho8)

Ha, and I know you probably don’t care about this as much as hearing about good ole Davy, but here is how the rest of our week went!

Santa Maria is doing really, really great.  We had an awesome lesson with part member family, M---.  So far, we have only had lessons with just him and his wife, but on Thursday we invited his 2 sons ages 14 and 11 to come and participate as well.  We taught about testimonies, and then everyone went around and took turns sharing their testimonies. His wife brought the spirit super strong as she shared her experience of the first time the missionaries knocked on her door, and then it was the first time the 2 boys had ever born their testimonies.  The younger one even said he knows the Church is true because he knows that Moses was a prophet.   So they were both very simple but still powerful.  The Spirit was there and it touched J---'s heart. He bore his testimony, as well, that he knows the Church and everything we teach him is true because of the way it makes him feel.  He is so ready for baptism and has a date in May, he just has his job that makes him work on Sundays so we have a little bit more work with that.

We had another awesome lesson with G--- this week and he came to church! We taught the Word of Wisdom and he believes it all is true, but does struggle with alcohol. He committed to live it and he also has a baptismal date in May. 

We taught the C--- family the whole Restoration and they accepted to be baptized once they read the Book of Mormon and know it is true. The procedure with their daughter went really well and they were very grateful for the priesthood blessing we gave her.   These investigators are all doing well, and the members are involved with all of them! So we are very pleased :) we are just trying to keep working hard and maintain it.

"The Triforce"

For this transfer, I am staying here in Santa Maria with Elder Clarkson, and Elder Moreno is going to train in Lompoc.  I am so blessed to have been in the tripan this transfer with Elder Moreno and Elder Clarkson.  I like to call them James and John Zebedee, or in other words- The Sons of Thunder.  They are just pure greatness wherever they go.  Elder Moreno was born to train an excellent missionary in Lompoc, and Elder Clarkson and I are going to do everything we can to keep the snowball rolling with the members here in Santa Maria.

Holy cow this is long!

Love, Elder Parrish

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

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

General Conference.  Santa Vaca!  Conference was shweet!  I cant believe it was my 4th and final conference in the  mission!! It's been cool how all 4 conferences have either been on my birthday or half-birthday in the mission.

I followed the trusty ole pattern from el hermano de Jared of preparing stones and presenting them to the Lord to light up with his finger. I didn't prepare 16 questions this time around, but I still followed the principle.  The Lord never ceases to remove more and more of the veil as we diligently seek and ask. The talk that impacted me most was Elder Holland's talk about the kid getting saved by his brother as he was falling. I don't know why that one was my favorite.  I didn't even have any specific questions that it answered and I can't honestly recall much of it, because I was too into it to take notes... but I definitely remember how I felt and I can't wait to study it shortly!  Conference was the best! I loved how it was all focused on the simple, most important things. 

We made some really good progress this week with our ward mission leader and branch president! We had a good meeting and we all got on the same page. (Preach My Gospel page). These past couple days have been the best so far working with the leadership in the branch. I'm sure there are many good things to come!

My companions are amazing, so Christlike and humble.  I'm striving to be more like them every day. 

Sorry, no time for a solid email.  I  gotta go disc golfing :)

Love, Elder P

Everything that we can control as missionaries is going very well.  We are seeing a lot of miracles and success in our sphere.  However, there are definitely many things in the branch that are out of our control for the time being that are impeding the work here in Santa Maria. Our investigator from a part-member family, J---- is doing great and progressing towards his baptismal date for April 18^th.  We had a little bit of a conflict with some in the branch yesterday.  It turned into a lot of finger pointing, but we just tried to be respectful and still express our concern to work more unified with them.  I have never run into anything quite like this on my mission so far, but we did end on good terms.  We came to the conclusion that the spirit wasn’t there, so we needed to regroup and try again later in the week having fasted and prayed.  

My companions are amazing. Elder Clarkson is so passionate and does everything he can to magnify his calling. Elder Moreno is a Self-Mastered champ. 

I know that the Lord is mindful of us in all moments.  We listened to a talk on our way to the Z---- baptism (which was amazing) by President Eyring about praying for trials and mountains to climb. I was feeling pretty spiritual and gung-ho, so I said a small prayer in my mind telling the Lord that I would like to be able to learn from whatever mountain he wanted me to climb and that I was ready for a trial! And whaddya know, the very next day I got one.  So I definitely know the Lord answers prayers, and praying for trials is one sure way to get an answer!  I think I’m going to keep in mind the idea of asking our investigators to pray for trials so they can know for sure that God answers them! (ha ha!) 

Service has been good.  We translated some documents for Catholic Charities here in Santa Maria, which was really fun!

Love, 

Elder Parrish

Hey Fam!

Santa Maria has a lot of potential! We had an awesome week.  We set the husband of a part member family with a really solid baptismal date for the 18th of April.  We taught him obedience, laws of the land, baptism, and tithing.  He has been taught everything, and now we just need to review the baptismal interview questions with him and see what else we need to review. He made a huge sacrifice yesterday to come to church by going in to work super early on Saturday, working all day and all night to be able to come home Sunday morning and then come to church Sunday afternoon on basically no sleep, but he loved it.  We were all super pumped about that and he is doing great.  We are making good progress on visiting all the members, teaching them the doctrine of Hastening the work, and helping everyone fulfill their HomeTeaching assignments. We are working hard, staying optimistic and seeing a lot of great things!

Elder Moreno and Elder Clarkson are great for me. I feel like we are doing extremely well, obedient, talking with everyone, seeing miracles, having fun, and we have stellar study sessions. Of course there's always room for improvement but we are being the best missionaries we can be!  Elder Clarkson is from Spokane, Washington.  Elder Moreno is from Nevada, but his family will be moving to Utah as soon as he gets home.  He is a convert of three years now.  He is going to be my roommate at Snow!

I am just happy to be called of God and of a living prophet. I love being a missionary, and cherish my time to give all of my heart, might, mind, and strength to Him. As I have been preparing for General Conference coming up (in 2 weeks!! I can’t wait), I have been going over my notes from the previous 3 conferences of my mission. Elder MacKay's mom sent me a nice organized little notebook where all of the apostles have their own section, so I have been studying my notes by apostle and it has been really cool to notice the style of each apostle and patterns and similar warnings they repeat in so many of their talks.  There is no doubt in my mind they are men called of God and that the Lord is no stranger to his servants.

Love,

Elder Parrish

So, I’m here in the Santa Maria Branch as District Leader on an assignment  from President Felix. Basically, this is their last chance.  If they don’t step it up this transfer, we are pulling out all the missionaries and leaving the branch on their own.  It’s pretty crazy.  There is just an extremely poor understanding of the gospel in general.  It’s not even missionary work that is the problem.  So President has stacked it this transfer with Elder Moreno and me ( We’ve both been Zone Leaders for a long time) Elder Clarkson, Hermana Costilla, and Hermana Killpack (the traveling sister trainers) as kind of a last resort effort to save it.  We all have only a couple months left, so we got our own little dream team up here and we're goin’ hard.   So far, so good! We've met with a lot of the leadership of the branch this week, and told ‘em straight up that we are not tracting or door knocking, and only focusing on the members to strengthen them and help them.  For the most part, they seem pretty behind us and willing to give it a try.   The Branch President Predazzi is great, and we have set goals with him to contact everyone on the member directory to have 100% accountability in the branch.  One of the things we have decided to focus on, which wasn’t as big of an emphasis in Oxnard, is Home Teaching. It’s like nobody has even heard of it up here.  We think it will be the best tool to get everything going and earn trust with the members.  We were able to take out one member to a lesson, and taught an awesome lesson on the Restoration to a guy named D----. The spirit was definitely in the room and he is keeping his commitments, so poco a poco he will come around. 

Santa Maria District

The district is great!  President Felix inspired me at transfers with a quote about, “There being a hush down every hall and corridor in heaven when we say we were in the dispensation of President Monson." That was kind of our theme for district meeting last week.  We talked about reconnecting to the pre-earth life and our potential to godhood, studying our patriarchal blessings and using that as motivation to be everything the Lord wants for us this transfer, and also using that to recognize the god-like potential of the members as well, and having the faith that they have every eternal capability to participate in gathering Israel.  It was a good meeting.

My companions are amazing!!!! Elder Moreno is a stud. He's a bold and powerful teacher, cool, calm and collected always! Elder Clarkson is such a motivated missionary, and always desiring to improve. He just has a natural way of talking to people and getting them to talk and open up.  So far our unity has been good, and it has been a ton of fun!  Companion study is sweet, and we always learn a bunch from each other.

I have enjoyed studying about covenants this week in an effort to better understand mine, and help others begin to make their own. In reading Deuteronomy (I think it was chapters 27-33), it was really cool to see how the Lord set up his covenant and charged Israel to keep it through Moses.  There are a lot of cool fulfilled latter-day prophecies in there and also LOTS of curses and penalties for breaking covenants.  I know that keeping our covenants give us blessings and power, and that breaking our covenants brings not only lack of blessings but also very specific and bad things. It is important that investigators understand that as well as they prep for the baptismal covenant.  It also made me think about one of our primary responsibilities as missionaries- "to warn people of the consequences of sin."  I know I can do a better job of crying repentance and condemning sin, and want to work on that as well this transfer.

Love, Elder Parrish

From these internet photos, Santa Maria looks like a nice city with vineyards, hills, and beautiful coastline!

'Sup fam!

The past four transfers here in the Oxnard 5th Ward have seriously been the best of my entire mission. As is normal with I think most areas, we saw a lot of miracles right towards the end of the trransfer as one of us is about to leave it. That's ok, though, because it is in excellent hands with Elder Griffin and Elder Cavazos!  One of my favorite families just had 3 of their non-member relatives from Mexico come and move in with them. They came to the futbol night on Tuesday and will start meeting with the missionaries this week! We had one lesson with one of them. As we were talking, we found out her dad had recently passed away and she has some doubts whether or not she will see him again. It was so awesome to be able to testify of the Plan of Salvation, and promise her that she will. It's the best when you meet people with real questions and their souls are searching for solace. It makes the gospel fun as we have the chance to watch it fill the gaps in people's lives that can't be filled any other way.  Missionary work is fun! :)

Our recent convert, J--- got to use his priesthood for the first time when he baptized his 8 year old son on Saturday! That was super neat. They are moving to Utah here shortly, which is too bad because the 1st ward needs them!

This week, we took L--- to search his family history so he could take his own family names to do baptisms at the temple. They werent able to find anyone because L--- only knew the names and not the dates, but he was still able to go to Los Angeles on Saturday and do Baptisms for the Dead for the first time! He LOVED it. He was just giddy when he told us about it the next day at church! At church, they also sustained him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and he was ordained after church! Our converts from a year ago when I was with Elder Griffin in Santa Barbara are now inactive and never made much progress in the church, so it feels great have gotten to go for round two here in Oxnard and to see all our converts here sticking it out, getting the priesthood and going to the temple! That's what it's all about:)

I sure will miss my brother Elder Griffin. I'm super grateful for the 5 transfers we have been companions here on the mission and everything he has taught me.  It was nice of him to be born in March, so we could finish out with a bang by going to the temple! It was awesome to go and just ask Bishop Quezada tons of questions about the Gospel the whole way! And the empanadas were great too :)   I'm super excited to go to Santa Maria and work in the branch up there with Elder Moreno and Elder Clarkson in a Tri-pan! I've always wanted to serve with both of them.

Halfway between LA and San Fran.

I know that members and missionaries need to work together!!  I am so blessed to have been able to be a part of the Ox 5 no tracting!  It has changed my mission.  I know that the Lord is hastening His work and all the miracles we have seen in the 5th ward is evidence of that! This last month of February, our ward (and entire zone) taught the most member-present lessons in the history of the zone and also the most less active/recent convert lessons as well.  We have shrunk the percentage gap of working with members and exactly what was supposed to happen is happening.  We had 6 baptisms in the zone this transfer, 3 from each ward and plenty more coming in the near future! We feel our zone goals were really effective too, as 4 recent converts now have the priesthood and 2 have already been to do baptisms for the dead!  It's a leap of faith to not tract, and only work through the members, but its worth it.  When the members catch the vision, it's all worth it.

I'm not sure if I ever really explained the details to you guys of no tracting, but here are the basic principles that got us started. There are a lot more that I don't have time to explain :)

-Regardless of how hard missionaries work, the Lord won't bless the ward with new converts if they're not ready to receive them and not taking care of the ones they already have (less actives and stuff).

-100% accountability of everyone in the ward.  No more focus-15.... focus on everyone.  Missionaries are teaching the lessons to every single member in the ward list, active or inactive.

-By focusing ALL of our time on working with members, teaching them Preach My Gospel, studying the lessons for Sunday School with them, helping them prepare classes, mutual, home teaching, service, etc. to make sure the ward is in order, by theory we prove ourselves to the Lord and he will then trust us enough to bring new souls to us who would have been found otherwise by tracting.

Missionary work in utah is definitely different because everyone in the ward lives within 2 blocks of the chapel, but that doesn't mean you can't focus harder on the less actives/partmember families! 

Out of time. Bye. Love, Elder Parrish