Yesterday at church, we had investigator come to church with her husband and kids.  I can tell she doesn’t really feel comfortable at church, because her knowledge of the gospel is pretty limited, so she is shy.  One of the problems is she has been going to Gospel Doctrine class ever since she started coming with her husband and it all just goes right over her head, so we worked with the ward council to have a Gospel Principles class for her instead and that should be starting next week. She has been reading in the Book of Mormon and keeping all of her commitments.

Our investigator, A--- got in a car wreck last week, so we didn’t have much chance to teach him, but we did have a good talk with his mom as we were doing service for her in her yard, and then she took us out to dinner.  She noted how different we were, and how unique it was for two young men like us to be doing service for 2 years, sacrificing everything a guy loves to do.  I mentioned how even though I thought the same thing and was intimidated by the sacrifice at first, right now I am the happiest I have ever been my whole entire life. She said she didn’t get how that was possible. I brought up the difference between true joy vs. pleasure, and how all the things that  I thought made me happy before my mission really didn’t bring happiness at all, just temporary ways to ease my mind. But that through living the gospel and studying the scriptures, I now know that true happiness only comes from one place – God, who loves us and is more than willing to give it to us, but first we have to trust him. She went on to talk about her struggle her entire life to try to grow closer to God. She has prayed and attended many different churches (including ours) trying to feel/get an answer that God does exist, but has never-not once- felt the Spirit in all her life. That was followed by many of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard.   

That lesson hit me pretty hard, I almost cried. For no apparent reason, here I am- born in the church, with everything I’ve ever needed.  I have literally been blessed with a virtually perfect life.  idk why.  I don’t deserve it. idk why we are so blessed.  It seemed very peculiar to me, because she is a great and Christlike person, the nicest lady ever.  I would think she would have had plenty of times where she felt heaven's aid or had spiritual experiences, but she hasn’t- so she doesn’t believe God is with us anymore like he was in the Bible.   I have done a lot of thinking and studying to find out what we can do to help her feel the Spirit.  I have been studying in Preach My Gospel and the scriptures about the personage of the Holy Ghost, the differences between the Light of Christ vs. the power of the Holy Ghost vs. the Gift of the Holy Ghost, vs. the sealing power of the Holy Spirit of Promise, etc... so It’s still a work in progress, but if anyone deserves to feel God's love, it’s her.

We had an INCREDIBLE lesson with R--- last night and he accepted a baptism date for the 28 of June!  The Spirit was so strong when we taught the plan of salvation, and he understood how everything was so perfect - how agency and the fall was necessary, how the plan would be useless without a savior, and the mercy and justice of God. He prayed for us at the end, and said, "Please help me to know this is true, so I can follow thy will and obtain el reino celestial con mis hermanos."  It was so sincere, and the Spirit was so strong! I almost cried.  That’s twice I almost cried this week.  I’m gettin’ soft.

So Elder Bautista is getting emergengy transfered to Oxnard today, so now I am in a tripan with Elder Berg and Elder Hernandez here in Fillmore.  I’ll miss Elder Bautista.

Love, Elder Parrish

Fillmore

Fillmore is cool, but super small. We cover Piru, as well, which is even tinier.  It feels like I'm doing missionary work in Corrine.  There's nothing but sagebrush and coyotes. :)  The mountains remind me of Utah, too.  Plus, I've seen deer here too! :)

 

My district is cool.  I'm in a car, and have a "sick" apartment: 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, 2 stories, washer and dryer, dish washer and everything.  So that's cool.  The ward seems pretty misionary oriented, too, so I'm excited.

 

Elder Bautista is awesome. 

 

We hit it off from the start.  We don't really know too many people yet, and we don't have too much work anyway yet, but we found a new investigator who accepted baptism and has a lot of potential, so pray for him.  

 

Love,

Elder P

I had a great week.  It was the hottest of my mission so far- in the 90's all week. Elder Lopez and I also taught the most lessons I have on my mission so far.

We also did a ton of service.  We went up to Brother S's ranch to help our investigator who works for him.  We were moving a bunch of branches, and that's where I ran into that rattle snake. (haha)  Elder Lopez has never even seen a snake.  He was so scared. 

This is Cornhole.

I also got to play some cornhole with our investigators, D and his mom. Now they love us! :)  His mom says I look like Patrick Swazey from some dancing movie.... so she wanted to be on my team...not to mention I throw cornholes 90 percent of the time, so we win every time no prob.

I am getting transfered tomorow to Fillmore with Elder Juan Bautista.   Yup, his name is Elder "John the Baptist," people.  We're gonna convert the whole world.  He'll dunk them and I'll confirm them.   Filllmore is in the Ventura zone... so I'm finally leaving Santa Barbara :(  but thats ok.  I'm stoked to go tear it up in Ventura with another Spanish companion. 

Elder Parrish.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo, everyone!  We’re having a district Cinco de Mayo fiesta today.  My district has been pretty sweet this transfer.  There’s just 6 of us, so we’re super tight.  Elder Barlow and Elder Moreno are in my old area in Santa Barbara, so it’s nice to know all the people they talk about and I can help them.   Elder Moreno is a convert of a year when he came out, and is super solid. He knows a ton for only being out a year.  The hermanas are the sister training leaders, so they are never even in their area, because they do exchanges all over the mission, but still somehow they manage to have a ton of progressing investigators and a lot of people at church every week.  I’m not sure how that works.  Maybe someday I’ll be as good as a sister missionary....

We have been doing a lot of service with Y--.  Behind our church, there is a community garden, so we’re helping her plant a garden back there.  We started with just a field of 6 ft high weeds.   And remember she’s from Laos with no motors or anything... so we take out all the weeds with shovels and continue to till the entire field one turn of a shovel at a time.... and then she followed us and picked out every single tiny blade of grass and weed in the whole thing by hand... She’s the real deal. All the members love her.

I’ve been studying in the topical guide under Jesus Christ once a week. There are 54 topics under Jesus Christ, so by doing it once a week in about a year I should have a pretty extensive study of the Savior.  It’s my favorite day of the week for studies for sure.  I’ve been in the church and have known and learned about Jesus Christ my entire life, but it amazes me how much I still have to learn/am learning everyday about my Savior and Heavenly Father.

I think of the prodigal son's return. What was going through his mind right before he goes back home. Undoubtedly, he probably had a little script of some sort, planning out what he was going to say to his father, how he would try to explain himself... I know I’ve made hundreds of those explanations in my mind of what to say to Dad or teachers when I was in trouble....hundreds, probably thousands :)  Sometimes, I’d plan to say the things I thought would get me in the least amount of trouble... you know, bend it in a way that would sound best to his ears. Most of the time, it worked on teachers and the principal, and most of the time it did not work with Dad... but that’s beside the point.  When the prodigal son returns, he doesn’t even have a chance to speak. His father just embraces him and holds him. It doesn’t matter what the son did or why he did it. The father is just so happy he is home safe, he doesn’t care about anything else. 

 

And then I think of the parable of the lost sheep.  The Lord is not concerned with how the sheep got lost or why they left the flock in the first place. The scriptures don’t allude to the reasons why, simply because these details are not important.  All the savior cares about is getting the lost sheep back.

I like to think that is how our Father in Heaven feels when we choose to repent. If He truly has perfect love like we say He does, then as long as we are truly honest and deeply sincere, then He will forgive us, embrace us, and just hold us.  There is no need for prepared scripts, no need for excuses, just a broken heart and a contrite spirit. :)   

 

Y--- was baptized and confirmed last Tuesday :)   She is Mong, born in Laos. She grew up during a time of war between Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.  She and her family tried to escape Laos and get to Thailand, but they got caught and put in a training camp. She lived there for 4 1/2 years as a teenager, eating moldy rice and rotten fish every day. They had to sleep in little cubbies lined up like sardines, just like the holocaust victims.  The little kids had to do all the chores and fetch water, because if the young girls went out, the guards would either rape them, or abduct them and take them to wife, so the girls would pretend to be sick and hide under the covers whenever the guards came around. Then one day the family at the front of the camp escaped during broad daylight, so her uncle came in, put on his back pack and said the secret code words "I'm going hunting"  which meant they had to leave immediately, because when the guards found out the other family left, they would start killing people and increase security, so there would never be any more hope of escape.  So they ran. They got into the mountain jungle and walked for 7 days straight night and day, no stopping, no rests. She said they would fall asleep walking and fall to the ground, and they would just smack them to wake them up and tell them to keep going. They would follow the tracks of a water buffalo that one of their friends took with him when he escaped like 6 months before, so that's how they didn't get lost. All they ate was a little bit of rice and bananas they found while walking. There were the bodies of old and young ones that couldn't make it, rotting along the path. Finally they got to the top of this mountain and there was a clearing all the way down the back side down to a river, the Mekong river or something like that, which separates Laos from Thailand.   They literally sprinted all the way down the mountain and swam across the river.  Once on the other side, they knew they were in Thailand and that they were safe from the Laos soldiers, but not safe from thieves on the Thai side, so they walked and walked and walked a few days more and finally reached the refugee camp.  They stayed in the refugee camp for another few years. Every month, Americans and French people would come and choose people to sponsor and pay for them to leave and come to the U.S.  So every month they would apply but never get chosen. Finally, after many months, half of them were sponsored to the U.S. and half were sponsored to France, so her family is still split up between the 2.  She has so many cool stories and has been here for like 30 years now, but long story short, she did  ALL OF THAT^^^   so she could come to California, meet the missionaries last October, and be baptized into the true church of Jesus Christ!  She said when we confirmed her, she felt a super heavy warm heat energy come down upon her and fill her up :)  The church is so true and her family is so supportive!  

 

Don’t be lame members! Invite people to come to church and hear the missionaries!!! 

 Love you all, Elder Parrish.

This week was filled with feeling the Spirit!  Sometimes I can’t believe how often I feel the Holy Ghost.  I have to check myself and make sure that I’m not just getting the goose bumps and chills randomly, and make sure that it truly is a witness of the Spirit.  The conference with Elder Russell M. Nelson was amazing.  Elder Bowen and Garns from the 70 and their wives spoke to us, and then Russell M.  Nelson spoke to us for like 2 hours.  He’s hilarious!  Man, I tell ya, these prophets and apostles just do whatever they want.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a serious meeting or not.  But he is definitely a servant and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He opened it up for questions, and I loved how quickly he knows the answer to every question no matter what, and especially the way he answered the questions.  It stuck out to me that often he would answer the question with another question.  That’s one thing I would like to improve on.  I feel like answering questions with a question is a great way to help others to realize they may already know the answer, and it will have more meaning to them than just redundant facts. 

One cool thing he taught us: What it means to be truly converted -- one word.

Repentance:

In greek is Metanoeao.

Meta- means Change.   

Noeao is related to:

nou's- mind

gnos- knowledge

penume-spirit and air

pneo- breathe.

So you know you’ve truly repented and are truly converted if you have a change in mind, knowledge, spirit, and even the very way you breathe. 

 Stake Conference for Easter Sunday was a treat as well. Brother Bowen is a powerful speaker.  I loved the messages his wife shared in both the mission conference and stake conference, as well.  It was so good to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We had dinner , (Ham :) )last night with Brother David Magnusson, former stake president and scholar in literally every gospel topic ever.  He is one of the most passionate people about the gospel I have ever met.   He is super motivating, and  also buddies with Pres. Uchtdorf.  You meet so many cool people in Cali.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the video, “Because of Him” for Easter.  If not,  you probably don’t have very many friends on Facebook.  Russell M. Nelson told us it will have 10 million views by Easter, and so far it has been seen in 189 different countries and the number one state/province with the most views-you guessed it- California.  We have been asked to show it to everyone.

We have been super busy preparing everything for Y---'s baptism tomorrow. Everything is good to go and we are really excited. We have made daily contact with her, and she seems a little nervous about the water, but really excited too.  She has invited a lot of her friends and family from Fresno to attend the baptism as well.  She attended Stake Conference yesterday and really enjoyed it. We talked with her husband finally yesterday and he is not interested in coming to church or taking the lessons or anything like that, but said he will gladly support her and he is coming to her baptism tomorrow night to support her as well.  We are praying he will feel the spirit at the baptismal service and have the desire to become an eternal family.  I am super grateful to be the one she chose to baptize her. 

Love, Elder P.

 

Well, Y--- has her baptismal interview tomorrow.  Some stuff came up, so she has to be interviewed by one of the mission presidency, so I am a little nervous for that.  Hopefully all will be well, and her baptism is set for the 22nd!

Happy Easter! Maddie and Marshall are lucky I'm not there to whoop them in the easter egg hunt like always.  I hope you all remember why we really celebrate this day.

 

So transfers were last week, and I think I forgot to say...

I'm staying here in Carpinteria for another six weeks, and my new companion is Elder Lopez!  He's from West Jordan and went to Copper Hills High School.  He is a native Spanish speaker, so I'm stoked to speak more Spanish.  He's great, super cool.  He makes fun of me a lot though, because he thinks I'm a straight up hick.  I guaranteed him I grew up in the city, but for some reason he just thinks Brigham is this little town where we all ride our horses to school and our tractors to church. (haha) Here's a picture of him picking some avocados....