Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Mom, I got your package on Sunday after the other elders hid all my mail from me all week and I shed 2 little tears cuz everyone forgot about me on my birthday... It turns out Elder Bautista and Elder Santos just stole it all.  But it was pretty cool that all the apostles and prophets prepared all that and went through all the trouble of holding that special meeting just for me on my birthday. General Conference was great! And it’s even better when all those prepared and inspired messages get delivered to you on your birthday! It was really special. 

Ok, so I used Ether chapter 3 to prepare.  The brother of Jared climbs an exceedingly high mountain and moltens out of a rock 16 small stones, and he makes sure they were small and clear. Then he hikes with his stones to the top of the mountain and presents them before the Lord.  Because of his faith and all the work he put forth ahead of time, the Lord lights them up with his finger one by one and the veil is removed from his eyes and his faith is turned into knowledge, nothing doubting.

So I challenged myself to molten "16 questions" instead of stones, and I went through the work to make them simple and clear.  I pondered a lot and figuratively "climbed the mountain" to present them before the Lord at conference.  And wouldn’t ya know it, I must have done something right because all I can say is WOW!  I knew it would happen and it did. (I guess they call that faith)  I was amazed that after every session I was able to keep checking off questions and see as they were not only answered, but thoroughly talked about and explained. In some cases, there were even entire talks just expounding and exploring my questions down to every jot and tittle.  The Lord literally did light up my stones one - by – one, all 16.  A veil was removed from my eyes so I could see more clearly, and my testimony is growing line upon line into a more and more sure knowledge. I thank my Father in Heaven for the scriptures and for the ability we have to liken them unto ourselves. I can’t wait for the November Ensign, so I can study them deeper!

We have been working hard and seen a lot of miracles. Even with full days of interviews and General Conference weekend, we still managed to teach 15 other lessons and have good numbers. We set A--- with a baptismal date for the first of November and she is definitely so ready to make that covenant with Heavenly Father. Her only roadblock is that she has to work weekends and can’t make it regularly to church on Sunday.  The elders have fasted with her in the past so she could either get Sundays off or find a new job, but without any luck yet, so we are working really hard with our ward mission leader and bishop to try to find something for her. P-- and D----  have committed to marriage and baptism this month, and both came to Saturday afternoon session of conference and loved it! P-- says he hopes he can remember everything he learned, so we will definitely be reviewing the talks and counseling with him about what he needs to do for his family and future. They are brand new parents and struggling to make ends meet, but P-- desperately wants to come closer to God and find stability in his life. M---, who has a baptismal date for October 25, was so close to coming to conference. We went over between Sunday sessions and she was getting ready to come, so we set up a ride for a member to go pick her up and watch it at their house on TV, but turns out after they picked her up they decided the members decided they wanted to have a BBQ after conference, so they went to the store (Yes, on Sunday) to buy BBQ stuff.   As luck would have it, they spent 2 hours at the store and missed all of conference... so M--- didn’t actually get to see conference, but we did have a good lesson with her in the evening about keeping the Sabbath day holy :)

 Elder Bryson is so great. We are working hard and trying to do everything in our power to be obedient and do what the Lord wants done.  In between every session of conference, we were out teaching appointments and inviting people to come listen.  We skipped a few lunches and dinners this week just so we could teach more.  It’s great and we're lovin’ it.  We are striving to have the Holy Ghost as our senior companion and we definitely saw that in action this week.  On Thursday, after trying to visit someone who wasn’t home, we decided to walk to where we were going next, even though it was pretty far away. After a few blocks, we realized how far it actually was and wondered why in the world we were walking.  There was nobody on the street to talk to, but for some reason we just kept walking.  Right before we got to our destination, we passed 2 women. We offered a card to the first, but she said no and kept walking, but the second stopped and listened. It seemed as though she was just listening to be polite at first, but after a couple minutes, she invited us into her yard to tell her more. We taught her about the restoration. She told us how the day before, she was in an Episcopal church during a meditation period and was just praying and asking God to help her find the truth, somewhere she could settle down and where it felt like home.  She said she wasn’t sure why she listened to us, but thinks it could be her answer!  We testified that it was, left her with some reading homework and set an appointment for this week!  Her name is R--- and we are super excited for her!

 Elder Bryson and I did 8 hours of service this week, nothing too special, but hopefully it will plant seeds for future harvest! 

OH and I got to see the movie, “MEET THE MORMONS” on Friday after President’s interviews.  It was sweet.  I was skeptical at first, but it’s a pretty sweet movie.  I hope it’s not just because I’m a missionary and it’s a good missionary tool.  So ya’all are gonna have to let me know what normal people think about it.  Just make sure you take non-members with you to go see it!  It comes to theatres here on October 10th.... 

Love you, Elder Parrish

Oxnard is amazing! I have heard a lot of good things about Oxnard from past companions and other missionaries, and it is definitely living up to my expectations. It is about 30 degrees cooler than Fillmore, so I’m freezing while everyone else is sweating, but all is well. :)

We are working with a lot of great people and some who are really close to baptism. M---- has a baptismal date for October 25.  We were able to review Doctrine and Covenants 20:37 with her and really establish what is and what isn't necessary to know before baptism. We also had a really good lesson about the temple with her yesterday. It helped her to see the bigger picture as we talked about how baptism is simply the gateway and not merely the end itself. She even attended early morning seminary with one of the young women in the ward on Thursday and Friday and really enjoyed it. She said she wants to start going all the time so she can learn and prepare more for baptism! Her mom has been somewhat closed off to the idea of baptism for her, but she has also been a lot more supportive lately as well. We really feel like we did our job as missionaries with everyone we have taught.  We fought for people the best we could and we were bold with people when it was necessary, and it seemed like the quality of our lessons was really great. We invited at least one person to be baptized every single day this week, and hopefully we can invite even more this week.  That is one of my goals for this month- to invite as many people as possible.

 I am so excited to serve with Elder Bryson. He's such an effective missionary in all aspects of the work. He is very obedient and is a great hard worker. It’s been a lot of fun to get right into the mix of things and learn my new responsibilities as a zone leader. Elder Bryson is really helping me out. It’s so nice to just recommit myself and really refine everything I’ve been doing to be more exactly obedient and more effective teacher. Even though I feel like there are many missionaries who are a lot more qualified and able to receive this assignment than me, I know that as long as I get to work and do my best, relying on the Lord and not on my own strength, everything will turn out fine.  For some reason the Lord blesses me so much! We have seen a lot of miracles this past week! I am so excited to learn everything I can from Elder Bryson. It’s going to be a great transfer serving the Lord and serving the Camarillo Spanish zone!

Something Elder Malm of the 70 said while he was here has constantly been in my mind. He said "Whenever there is change, the Lord is in control." I have been able to see that every day this week.  It’s always tough to leave an area, but I have been so blessed in coming here to Oxnard with Elder Bryson. It seems like everything is flowing perfectly and we have just hit the ground running since the first day. I’ve felt the spirit very powerfully in a lot of our lessons with investigators this week.  One instance was simply when I testified to A--- that even though that was the first time I met her, I knew that she was a choice daughter of God. She just started crying and the spirit hit me so hard with that simple sentence. It was as if the Lord was telling me "I want her, I want her," over and over. So I’m gonna work my butt off until she walks into the font for baptism.

 We were only able to offer one hour of service this week.  It was for a member family who was in the process of moving. They called us and we were able to go right over and start helping them clear the back yard.  We were able to knock it all out in an hour, so the members were really grateful and very impressed with how quickly we got it done.

Love Elder Parrish*****

This week, we had a mission tour with Elder Malm of the Seventy!  I wish I had time to tell you everything I learned... but I don’t, so you better just repent and be better, ok? :) 

Saturday, two girls that the sister missionaries in my district have been teaching got baptized. I did the interview and they asked me to say a prayer at their baptism. The English Santa Paula elders baptized them, so we spent all week teaching them how to say the baptismal prayer in Spanish. it made me feel better about my language abilities for sure. :) They did it pretty good at the baptism though, slowly but surely.  The girls are super cool, super sassy too, so we took a sassy pic. 

Fillmore has been so good to me. I’ve loved every minute serving here.  We had 8 investigators at church yesterday!  And we set the P--- Family with a baptismal date for Oct 18 in between Sunday School and Priesthood! All day at church I was just thinking about what date would be good to set them with later that night after church. Then after Gospel principles, we couldn’t wait any longer, so I asked him what he was thinking about.  He said how much more "precise" this church is than his Catholic Church and the Christian church his sister attends, and how he thinks it’s time to make a "change".  We testified how his "think" can turn into a "know," and that change starts with baptism. We asked if they would follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority of God.  Then they accepted the date of October 18!! No better way to leave Fillmore than by setting a family of 4 with a date :)   I know they are in good hands with Elder Mackay and Elder Moreno.

I’m really going to miss my companion, Elder Mackay. 3 transfers is a great amount of time to become best friends. He has taught me that "more important than speaking, is LISTENING" and that to show love first is always the best idea.

So I got to mow a lawn this week in my shirt and tie :) of one of  our very Catholic investigators who is currently at the hospital waiting on a heart transplant. This simple service that we have done for him while he is gone, has led to him and his wife seeking out the missionaries and receiving priesthood blessings from them!  What a miracle! 

Oh and L--, the one who was inactive for 15 years and was desperate 3 months ago and then me and Elder MacKay knocked on the door and have been working with her.  She credits us with saving her life.  Ya, she got her patriarchal blessing yesterday!!!!!!!

Oh, and I’m getting transferred if you didn’t get that part yet. I’m going to Oxnard in an all Spanish ward as a zone leader.  My companion is Elder Bryson, my old district leader back in Carpenteria before I replaced him.  I am super excited to finally have a senior companion for the first time in like a year, so I can learn how to be a good missionary and stop ruining all my junior companions :)

Love, Elder Parrish ******

ate this delicious bbq's pig ear this week. way better than chicharones.‏

Men at Work

All is well here in Fillmore. We moved apartments just across town.  I had yet another awesome week with Elder MacKay. We have grown a lot together. I am really grateful for him.  I would trust him with my life. We've had a lot of lows and a lot of highs (lots of sores and bruises as well) every single day if you can believe it,  but i would not want to have spent them with anyone else.  Saturday was our Fillmore Ward Open House/ Chili Cook-off.  There has been a ton of time and effort the last 3 transfers that we have spent planning, preparing, weekly follow ups and assignments, passing out flyers, spreading the word, exciting the members, etc.. even talks in sacrament meeting! Basically it was like planning our 14th ward Valentine dinner fundraiser thingy all by ourselves.. but it was really neat and rewarding to get to see how successful it was.  According to what we counted, we had at least 29 non-members there!! It was a really good turn out.  Every one loved it and a lot of people brought their friends. Elder MacKay and I were the judges, as well as an investigator from Santa Paula, so we ate a lot of chili!   

We were able to give tours to a lot of our investigators that came, including C--- and her whole family! We have been teaching C---- for a couple months now, but have never gotten her to come to church and have never gotten the chance to talk to the whole family- until they all came to the open house. So we were able to eat with her and her family, and then afterwards give them a church tour and introduce them to the bishopric. In the chapel, we had "I'm a Mormon" clips playing from mormon.org and the whole family sat in there and watched several of them, as most people just walked in and out, not really paying too much attention. and then to top it all off, yesterday they came to church and absolutely loved it! They want to come again next week and we have an appointment with them on Tuesday evening.

    

F--, who we do service for every week is the one who basically did everything to get the mormon.org videos playing in the chapel for us!  so he brought his wife and grandson to the open house and we gave them a tour as well.  Like always, he was asking a lot of questions and was very pleased to see how well his video and the whole event turned out, because he knows how much time we spent putting it together and how much he contributed as well. They found a couple members who they already knew, but had no idea were members of the church, so it's exciting to finally have some fellowship established with him and his wife.

B--- was not able to make it to the open house or church yesterday because he was pretty sick this weekend, but he is still reading the Book of Mormon and progressing.  Yesterday he texted us and said he really missed coming to church. He met us in Santa Paula on Thursday (which was a miracle in itself that he was able to travel that far) and when we showed him the baptismal font, the spirit was super strong! We asked him, if he felt it and he said yes.  Then we taught the plan of salvation on the chalk board and it went really good.  He has a pretty good understanding of the gospel.  Then last night as we were leaving he asked us "Wait, How did you know i could feel something when we were at the baptism room?" We just smiled, testified of the Holy Ghost, and assigned him some homework to go and study about the Holy Ghost. We are very hopeful that he will choose to be baptized very soon.  

Love, Elder Parrish ******

Zone Conference

Mission Cars

We found a family!  I have been waiting my whole mission to find a really solid family where everyone is interested. For some reason, most of my investigators to this point in my mission have just been individuals. It's C-- and G-- and their 14 year old daughter. C-- is a mail-carrier in Ventura but she lives in Fillmore. Elder Carter and I actually found her while we were on exchanges in Ventura! She told us she lived in Fillmore, and set an appt. for us to visit her and her family. After the first lesson on Monday, they invited us back for dinner on Thursday and we were able to follow up on their reading in the Book of Mormon and answer all of their questions. It went really well and the whole family has committed to read the Book of Mormon.  She said she thinks it was fate that she just happened to run into a Fillmore missionary on her route in Ventura. She is really awesome with a way cool fam.  It turns out mailmen are people too! Who knew?

Elder Parrish  :)

My "ancestors:" Elder Trujillo, my trainer; Elder Griffin, follow up trainer; and Elder Barnett who was Elder Trujillo's follow up trainer.

B----'s baptism is being pushed back a couple weeks, due to some minor health details, but his baptismal interview is this upcoming Sunday. He really wants to get baptized and has such a strong testimony of the Gospel and its fruits. The baptismal service will be held around 5 o'clock pm in 2 -3 weeks.  He has not chosen who is going to do the baptism as of yet.  He came to church yesterday for the 4th time and stayed for all 3 hours and loved it again, even though he was very sick to his stomach.  

This week has been great. Zone conference was amazing and really helped me to come to solutions on a lot of things I have been pondering lately, especially about how I can be a better companion.  We also got right to work with our "JustServe" program, and were able to find time to do a bunch of service this week.

We have seen progress in a lot of our investigators this week. S--- came to church with M--- and D--- yesterday. along with J---- and B----, we had 5 total at church. All four of us missionaries here in Fillmore spoke in Sacrament Meeting, as well. We had our choice on topics between missionary work and the atonement, or missionary work and service. I chose the atonement, and talked about how because of the atonement we as members can overcome our fears of doing missionary work.  I used the example of Peter overcoming his fears.  The whole meeting was very spiritual and a lot of the members complimented all 4 of us missionaries.

I was also able to go on exchanges with the zone leaders in Ventura with Elder Carter. He is from Flower Mound, Texas.  It was an amazing day with many miracles. Elder Carter is a powerhouse example to me in all aspects of the work. I learned a lot, and am very grateful for the opportunity to exchange with him. Ventura was awesome. I want to serve there so bad someday.  We taught so many lessons and talked to so many people.  

Summary: pretty normal week. occupied with studies, district needs, investigators, knocking doors, gay guys coming out of the closet to me telling me they love me, giving a blessing to a girl while she was having a seizure and then all a sudden she wakes up and tries to kiss me, stopping drug deals, saving marriages, playing croquet, and stuff..... ya know, just the usual here in Cali.

We had 7 investigators at church yesterday!  Top 10 best weeks.  B---- came again for all three hours. He absolutely loves it, and is still progressing well. He came on Wednesday evening to the family history center and worked with Sister P---- to find some of his ancestors in Mexico, and she committed him to fill out the rest of the family tree sheet she gave him and come back again next week!  She is awesome. So B---- is doing well and is excited/nervous for his baptism coming up in 2 weeks.

E--- and her 2 daughters came to church. They fed us dinner last week as well and are practically already members for how active they have been in the church the past year. Baptism will happen and in the time of the Lord.

J---- made it to church with his girlfriend, who is a member of the church. He has attended church several times. He is in and out of town every couple weeks so we were able to make an appointment with him later this week.  He has plans of getting baptized in October.

L----, who has completely changed her life around the last couple months, was crying after Sacrament Meeting, because we have done so much to help her and got her a ride that she really needed.  So I went over to say “como estas,” and then WHAM, I got tackled against the wall and she hugged the living daylights out of me right in front of everyone.  Then, there was nothing Elder MacKay could do but stand there and take it - stiff as a board - as she slammed into him next.  Everybody just laughed, and the bishop gave us a thumbs up.

So we were helping L--- with her book and also going over the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price as she is preparing to take the temple prep classes starting in two weeks. Her daughter N--- has noticed the change in her mom and out of the blue became interested. We committed N--- on Saturday to come to just Sacrament Meeting of church the next day.  Right after Sacrament Meeting, the young women embraced her and got her to stay for Sunday School too!  Last night, she said she enjoyed it and wants to stay for all 3 hours when she comes in two weeks.  She also said she doesn’t like to read the scriptures, but loves to read poetry, so we had her open up to a random page in the book of Psalms and read.  It was Psalms 23, I believe.  She loved it, and said she wants to read more.  Now that she sees the scriptures aren’t as boring as she thought, we can introduce our master converter: The Book of Mormon!  

  
L--- came to church, as well, yesterday. He has came twice now with his friend and stayed for all 3 hours. From last week to yesterday, we noticed how much more he was reading and participating in class. He works on the ranch that is run by Brother F---, and works with some other members of the ward. We set up an appointment with him this week in the home of a member, so we are really excited for that.

We have an awesome district.  I love serving with them. We did a blitz with the zone leaders in Santa Paula on Wednesday to find Spanish investigators for the hermanas, and it went really well.  There were tons of latinos in the street picking up their kids from school. We gave them quite a few referrals, so hopefully some of them will be solid. 

Love,

Elder Parrish
******

 

Lake Piru, where B--- hopes to be baptized.