Arriving in Ventura

This was the snail mail letter that McKay wrote when he arrived.  We received it today, the 16th, the same day as his first email:


Dear Family, 

Today is Tuesday Sep. 10.  I got to Ventura Yesterday, and we met the mission president and his wife, Sister Castro.  I like President Castro a lot.  In our interview last night, he told me how President Eyring blessed him with the gift of discernment when he was set apart.  Then, he continued to tell me he could see that I was going to do great things and said a ton of things that were crazy specific for me. 

Last night, I stayed at a member's home with another elder from Tooele.  They lived in Ventura and I think it was the nicest house I've ever been in!  It was huge and way fancy, and they all drive Priuses.  Out the back door was a big hill overlooking the ocean right from their house.  We stayed in a separate house right next to them that was on top of their garage.  It was full of Oreos and milk that they told us better not be there in the morning, so that was sweet. 

In the airport, as soon as we got to L.A., Elder Banks and I went straight to Carl's Jr. and ordered Western Bacon Cheeseburgers.  Then, we had a 30 min. flight to Santa Barbara in the tiniest plane that only held like 20 people.  In total, there are 32 new missionaries that got here yesterday and like 7 of us Spanish speakers.

This morning, we are filling out a bunch of paperwork, and then we will receive our assignments and trainer companions and get to work. 

Last week in a Santa Barbara Stake Conference, President Eyring said this was the most obedient mission in the world...So I'm going to have to work really hard!  We have 5 guidelines that I am excited to live by.  We in the Great California Ventura Mission: 1) We are Preach My Gospel Missionaries.  2) We baptize.  3) We obey with exactness.  4) We seek to be trusted more than loved.  5) We teach with power and authority. 

I can't wait to get started!

McKay

Last night in the MTC

Hey! 

We just got set up for our flights, and everything is good to go.  I leave here in the morning at 5 a.m. and my flight leaves at 9:15 a.m.  I have a little bit of laundry to finish up tonight and finish packing, and then I'll be ready to go.  It's crazy to think that by this time tomorrow I could be teaching a real person in real Spanish for real.

We just got out of an awesome devotional from Elder Holland that he gave to the Provo MTC back in January, and it got Elder Mecham and I pretty pumped to go out and get to finally work. Seriously, if it weren't for Elder Mecham being in my district the past 6 weeks, I would have either gone crazy or killed someone.  So I think there was definitely a reason why he and I ended up together.  I was so lucky to have him set an amazing example for me in my MTC experience. 

Anyway, I gotta go take pictures with our district and teachers and then go pack.  Rasten and Alec are coming over to our casa tonight to say goodbyes.  It is like the day before I left all over again. 

Adios!

Semana cinco

¡Hola! 

 

We just got back from the temple, ate lunch, and now we're emailing.  They havent told us anything about being able to call home from the airport, but I do get to email Sunday night before I leave Monday.  The temple today was alot easier than last time. I could understand a lot more and it was tons easier, but they still show the old movie here and everyone wants to see the new one.  Elder Banks and I did those names you sent with Alec, and I'll send them back when I get to California. It took me like 20 minutes talking to the desk trying to get the name cards back. They were trying to keep them.

 

Ugh!  There are so many dove here just chilling on the lawns at the MTC, and I just want to kill one, so I can cook it and eat it.  Maddie´s boots are lookin a little big for her.  (haha.)  [I'm sure this is in response to pictures Mont sent of dove hunting with Maddie and Marshall.]

 

We all can't wait to get out of the MTC and get into the field. The last week just drags, and you dont really learn anything new.  Everyone is ready to go, but yesterday all the hermanas in our district just started bawling, because they don't think they're ready, so we didn't even have class, just so they could all cry and get their feelings out.  I don't know why, because Elder Mecham, Elder Banks, and I  are all stoked to go to work for real.

 

Oh yeah, thanks for the package you sent with Alec.  I got it on Wednesday night.  The umbrella was muchly needed.  When I get to California, I'm going to have to get some new running shoes... mine are completely shredded from playing soccer.

 

I got a haircut last week from a Mexican lady.  They dont mess around.

 

Elder Mecham has been teaching me a thing or two about basketball, as well. It's funny, because we come here and it seems like all the kids from Utah are by far the best athletes. We school everyone in basically every sport. No se, pero esta bien.

 

I've scored some pretty sweet ties in the tie trades we have with other districts.

 

I don't sleep really at all, but its all good.

 

I will send an email Sunday night, i guess, and then the next time you hear from me I will be in California! First thing that Elder Banks and I are going to do is hit an In-n-Out Burger.

 

 

week 4

Mexico City Sunrise

So right now feels like a Saturday morning after a Friday night football game.  I'm so sore.  Yesterday, we got to play soccer for like 3 hours, and it was basically team USA verses Mexico.  All the natives against a bunch of white boys.  All of the Mexicans had on their entire uniforms jerseys, cleats, and all.  They were way cocky, and thought they were going to destroy us, but we actually had a pretty good team and won like 7-2.  All the Mexicans would just go off with all their fancy footwork and crazy moves, so in order to make up for my lack of playing for the past 5 years, I just played way physical, and most of them couldn't take it and shut down.  My soccer is all coming back to me, and it's fun when we get to actually nudge shoulders and play rough for once.   Today, my legs are way sore and shins kill from being kicked by all the Mexicans with their cleats. 

 

Also, Elder Mecham and I  befriended one of the workers, and got him to bring us real live tacos from the city. 

The stuff they give us for lunch every day can get real old real fast, and they try to Americanize everything for us, so its not as good as it could be.  Anyway, he brought us some, and we'll probably get the runs, but they were totally worth it.  I guess I successfully completed a taco deal all in Spanish with a native who doesn't speak any English, so I guess I know enough to get by... and I'm basically a man now- I have to shave like twice a week.  It's really annoying.

 

I heard that Conner Udy is wearing my number 3 this year.  It drives me crazy to think about football.  Rasten and I sit by each other at the devotionals, and just talk about football and wrestling with this other elder from Arizona, Elder Wright.  We all get along really well, and I think he has helped Rasten a lot.  But it sucks to think about football.

 

I saw Alec yesterday when he got here, and talked to him for a while, so that was cool.

"Gringo"

 

My companion, Elder Banks is from Lovell, Wyoming.  He went to a very small school.  He only had 20 kids in his graduating class. a lot like Rich High School where Alec went.  He didn't play any sports in high, but he was the girls' basketball and volleyball team manager and would iron all of their uniforms before every game, so he comes in really handy when I ask if he can iron my shirts for me.  (haha)  He has a lot of hunting stories about bears and mountain lions, though, so that's cool.  He worked on a ranch, and likes to ride dirt bikes and 4-wheelers, so we have a lot of the same stories that way. 

 

We dont get to go to the temple this week, but I am hoping we do again next week.

 

Learning Spanish is going fine.  As far as all the words go, I know a lot of them pretty well, but for every verb there are six ways of saying it, depending on who youre talking about.  Then there are 6 more different ways for each one of those, depending on whether your talking in the present, past, future, infinitive, particíple, commands, questions, and then theres more different endings depending on whether the verb ends in  ar, er, or ir and all of that junk, so it's just hard to keep straight which way means what.  I don't even know any of that present/past participle stuff in English, so I have no clue what they're talking about when they say how it works in Spanish.  Box Elder English teachers didn't teach us much, and Taylor Jones and I just watched the Simpsons every day in Mrs. Thompson's Language Arts class.  Anyway, I end up saying almost everything in just the infinitive form, so it probably comes out something like ´to read you tonight Book of Mormon,' so they probably think we're idiots, but it sounds right to us. 

 

Adios!

Elder Parrish

 

 

 

Note from mom:  I can't stand bad grammar, so I confess to correcting all of his past/present participles, as well as punctuation, spelling, and other grammar errors.  We missionary moms have noticed that these elders write letters like they are texting and don't pay attention to these things at all, but we love the emails and will take them however they come!   

Week 3

3 weeks down, only 101 more to go!  

 

We just got back from the Mexico City Temple.  It was awesome, but I had no clue what was goin on, but it was still way cool. It was weird, because I had no clue what I was saying, but I actually could do most of it on my own.  The Spanish is coming along I guess.  I can understand a whole lot more than I can actually speak. 

 

Elder Banks are liking each other more and more.  He is awesome and I love him.  When we teach, he still feels like he can't do it in Spanish, but this week I just talked to him and showed him all the promises in the scriptures of the gift of tongues and where if we open our mouths, then they will be filled in the very hour, yea even in the very moment when we need them.  So right before our lesson, I got him to rip up his notes, and we just went in there and taught straight by the spirit and committed "Carlos" to baptism.  Even though they are fake investigators, they're still trained to basically be the hardest on us as they can.  Until that point, we had taught him 3 lessons that went absolutely nowhere, so it was cool, and it got Elder Banks pretty excited and feeling like he does know at least enough spanish to get through a lesson. 

 

I loved driving to the temple this morning.  The streets are so cool and dangerous.  We almost got in like 6 crashes, and all the cops just walk around with AR-15's and shotguns, pointing them around all the time.  I wish they would let us out into the city, so we could talk to all the people in the streets.  

 

We got a new teacher, Hermano Brown, who teaches in the night, and I like him a lot.  He reminds me of Rob King.  He basically gets in our face, and tells us to quit screwin around, because we are here for the Lord.  He won't let us speak any English, only Spanish, and is just a lot stricter than our other teacher, Hermano Sagers, who we have in the morning.  After the first day Hermano Brown taught us, everyone was just like all stressed out, because he pushes us way hard, but I like it.  No more of this sissy stuff.  

Taylor Lancastor just left yesterday, and Taylor Jones, too.  We still have Kyler, Rasten, Landon Anderson, Schuyler Bradley, Morgan McCormick are all here, but we don't really get to see each other except for at meals. 

This is my schedule:

630-wake up

7- breakfast

730- personal study

9-language

12-lunch

1-language

2-(myfavorite part of the day) gym time

3-language program on the on the computers

430-additionsal study

5-daily planning

530 dinner

615- teach investigators

companion study

language

 and more classroom stuff till 930

1015 quiet time

1030 lights out.

 

Some of my shirts got burnt in the dryer, so they have shirts I can buy in the tienda.  That's why I needed my debit pin.

 

The thing I miss the most is being able to look at the stars.  You could see the stars soo good at Deseret, and here it's so smoggy, there is absolutely no starts at all, ever.

 

We have had fish for dinner a couple times, and that always reminds me of home and makes me miss fishing, which made me realize that the archery deer/elk hunt opened last Saturday, so that is depressing too.

 

But all is well!  I'm half way done with the MTC.  My branch president told us that a mission is one year, and five minutes long- the first year takes a year, and the second year takes 5 minutes.  It seems like just the MTC has taken a year, but I'm almost outta here, then I get to go teach for real... where I will realize that I actually don't know Spanish at all.

 

Adios!

 

 

Week 2

 

Elder Parrish scaring his comp, Elder Banks

Hola!

 



It's crazy to think its only been 2 weeks.  It seems like forever.  We still dont get to go to the temple until next week, but we are all looking forward to that.  I dont know really what to say, we just do the same thing all day every day, but it's still awesome.  All of the guys in our district are way tight now and we have a blast.    

 

Elder Mecham

Elder Mecham and I are the best of pals, and we get to sit by Rasten at the devotionals and stuff, so that's cool. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night was the first ever live MTC broadcast.  Elder Richard G. Scott spoke about prayer, and it was played at every MTC all over the world, so that was cool.  He talked about prayer, and how important it is, and how there are 3 main ways our prayers are answered: 1) we feel peace/confidence  2)stupor of thought   3) we feel nothing.  I have found in my life that basically most of the time. I am answered with the 3rd one.  It's not that God isnt giving me an answer, but it's because sometimes we already know the answer and/or He is letting us use our gift of agency, and he trusts us to make the right decision for ourselves.  Even though a lot of times, I wish it could just be a for sure yes or no answer, I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father trusts me enough to let me do it on my own.  I don't know why I've been so blessed in my life.

 

Adios!

Elder Parrish 

We made a ping pong table!

 

Spaghetti--with hot dogs, potatoes, and peas!

 

Note from Mom: Some of our friends also have missionaries in the MTC, and we have been gathering details from them.  Here are some facts we have learned from them:

 

There are 10 missionaries in their district, 6 elders and 4 sisters.  Then, they are in a branch of 4 districts.  They have a branch president, named President Rosales, who has 2 counselors.

 

Even though there are some dormitories at the Mexico MTC, there are also many little houses.  Elder Parrish is in a house with 5 bedrooms, 3 of which are being used, with 4 elders to a room.  Their house holds all 6 of the elders in their district, plus 6 elders in another district.  Every night, their house sings a hymn with all 12 of the elders in their house, and they say it is awesome to sing the hymns in Espanol, especially Called to Serve."

 

The food is interesting.  Breakfast is not so good, but they have cereal.  For lunch, they have great authentic Mexican food, like all you can eat tacos.  Dinner can be weird when they try to do American food.  (See above photo of the spaghetti with hot dogs, potatoes, and peas.)

 

Everything is done in Spanish.  They have one class in the morning that is in English about the gospel, but the rest is in Spanish.  They are teaching 2 lessons a day to fake investigators, one in the morning and one in the evening.

 

Sundays are a little different from the other days.   On Sunday, they have Priesthood Meeting, district meeting, Sacrament Meeting with their branch, lunch, a devotional, dinner, another devotional, then study time, and then they watch a church movie.  (no naps) 

 

Here is a link to a video about the first group of missionaries in this MTC in Mexico City.

 

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/video-first-missionaries-complete-training-new-mexico-training-center

 

First week in the MTC

I love Mexico and the MTC  (or CCM, Centro de Capacitaciones Misoneros) is awesome. I wish we were allowed in the city, but I guess we're in like the most dangerous part, so we only leave when we go to the temple. The temple is closed this week, though, so we didn't get to go.

 

My companion is Elder Banks from Wyoming. He's going to Ventura as well, and had the exact same thing happen to him with the Rancho Cucamonga change. He likes to hunt and fish.  We have taught three lessons so far to a fake investigator and they are all in Spanish, so its tough.  I am basically fluent in casual conversation and can bear my testimony and pray in Spanish. but all the gospel terms and stuff are weird, so that's gonna take a while.

 

President and Sister Pratt

My Pday is on Wednesday.  The food is awesome--unlimited tacos and stuff like that.  Tuesday nights are pizza nights, too, so that's cool.  The mission president of the MTC is President Pratt.  He used to be a member of the Severnty and was a lawyer for the Church in foreign real estate, so he has been a part of building every single temple in South America.  He is pretty awesome.
 

Kyler Mecham is in my casa and district, so he and I have so much fun. I think I would've gone crazy by now if it weren't for Elder Mecham. No one in our district is athletic at all, so its nice to have someone to play sports with. We had gym time on Friday for the first time, and I have never been more giddy in my life. I can't explain it, but it makes the day so much easier being able to go play basketball or soccer for an hour. I think I have rediscovered my passion for soccer too.

 

Me, Taylor Lancaster, Kyler Mecham, Schuyler Bradley, Taylor Jones, and Rasten Yeates are all here, so its pretty awesome.  A bunch of the guys from my house are football players from Syracuse, Fremont, and West Jordan, and one of them played at Dixie with Britton Gunter and Rylee Reeves, so its nice to be able to talk about home.  Basically everywhere I go, there is someone I know or they know about me from wrestling, so its kind of crazy.

 

It feels like I have been gone for six months.  The days are so long.  It rains every night at 6, and then there are dogs barking and gunshots all night long, so I don't really sleep.  I have never felt the Spirit so strong in all my life, though. I love singing the hymns in Spanish, even though I have no clue what we are saying.  It's such a cool environment, and it seems like my testimony doubles everyday! 

 

I love you all.   Adios!