We have a lot of things happening for us right now.  We just finished the assignment from our bishop to get 100% accountability on the membership records, and have picked up a lot of new part member families and less active members to teach.  Sacrament Meeting attendance was high enough that we had to open the overflow into the gym again for the 2nd week in a row. Bishop Quezada was pretty pleased with that. Our investigator, L--- came to church again and we had a nice lesson with him yesterday in the home of a member and watched the Prophet of the Restoration movie. The member shared a killer testimony and L---- loved the movie. We had another man come to church named R---, who is in a part member family and the mother has been praying for the longest time for them to start coming back to church, and they came yesterday out of the blue!  We are excited to start working with him.  He was originally found and contacted through our ward soccer night every Tuesday.  I’m getting my soccer skills back, too, by the way :) 

 Elder Griffin is astounding in all aspects.  He is almost as competitive as me :) and a huge Red Sox fan. Someday, I want to be as good of a missionary as him. We have been running around a lot, and have had a lot of crazy things with all of the stuff in the zone, but we couldn’t be happier here in the service of the God of Israel!

L--- feels the spirit and talks about how maravilloso everything is that we teach him, but we’ve been getting a little worried because even though he loves everything it’s hard to know how much is really clicking, because he only has a 4th grade education and can’t read or write very well at all.  I found a scripture this morning in my personal studies that I really liked, though.  It is right before Christ appears in the Americas, and the voice of the Lord speaks out of the darkness and tells them in 3 Nephi 9:20-22 that whoso cometh with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion and were baptized with fire and with the holy ghost, and they Knew It Not....therefore whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God..  That scripture basically gave me a confirmation that even though L---- has no education, can’t read or write, and doesn’t yet understand everything we teach him, it’s ok because those aren’t the qualifications.  He is definitely acting on his faith in Jesus Christ by coming to church, ward activities and keeping all his commitments, and is willing to follow Him as a little child and do everything he asks of him, including repentance and baptism.  He just has a light about him every time we teach him now. 

We started helping a new food pantry through Foodshare that needed new volunteers at the Salvation Army.  It was really fun, and we even had a good gospel conversation with a small Filipino woman who speaks Tagalog.  It just so happens that in one of my last areas I randomly stumbled across a Plan of Salvation pamphlet in Tagalog, and felt prompted to keep it!  I told her about it, and she is really excited to meet us next week so she can read it! 

Oh, and I went to a random church on Friday --Universal Church.   We were invited by one of our investigators.  We happened to be there for a special demon-casting-out service, and we witnessed some pretty sketchy blasphemous stuff!!..   Don’t worry, we left quickly.   I definitely learned what the Spirit does NOT feel like!!!   It really strengthened my testimony that investigators WILL feel the Spirit when they enter our buildings!  The Book is blue and the Church is true!

Love, Elder Parrish

Mission Leader Conference Jan. 2015

Elder Griffin and I had dinner with the Macias family in our ward this week, whose son served in Nicaragua in the same mission as Mitch, and they knew each other pretty well!  It was really awesome to talk to him and hear about my brother as a missionary and some funny stories of their mission.

We have been seeing miracles like crazy as a result of only working with members.  Members are coming out with us who have never come out before. Members are giving us referrals who have never given a referral before.  We have had random people just walking into church, etc.  We received a referral from a member last Monday during FHE for a family of 6, who we passed on to the other elders, and they came to church yesterday and after church said they want to get married and baptized!  It’s definitely not the easy way of doing things, but it’s way better!  Se vale la pena for sure!  A lot of it can be contributed to the assignment we have received from Bishop Quezada to contact every single member on the ward records. Our goal in the ward is to have absolute 100% accountability of all the members in the ward boundaries- in ward council we like to call #CienAlSenor :)  It’s something that not a lot of wards have around here, and I think it was a super inspired step to take from Bishop Quezada. We have just been going straight down the list, contacting them, and inviting them to church explaining all the great things happening in the 5th ward and how there is no better time to be in the church than right now as the Lord is hastening His work!  We have been able to clear out a lot of the old names who have died or moved out years and years ago, and also we have found so many part-member families and less-active members who are open and willing to come back to church! Yesterday we had to open the back partition into the gym because our Sacrament Meeting attendance was so full! 

Lorenzo is our most solid investigator still and he never ceases to amaze me with his faith and childlike humility.   He has felt the spirit and knows he needs to do whatever God wants him to do.

Elder Griffin and i have been working on... SMILING!  Who knew, it actually works.  We have tried to kind of just take a step back, and be humble, and really try to love our missionaries in the zone, and let them know that they are important to us.  We have already seen just an all around better sense of unity and energy in the zone :)

Yesterday, a man named Jesus randomly walked into church. So we proceeded in welcoming him and starting to give him a church tour.  It was obvious he was bothered and upset, and frankly just wasn’t interested in a church tour at the moment.  So we sat down and started talking with him, and he told us his wife just died the night before, literally on Saturday night, and he was devastated.  He was just desperate, looking for something…anything to help.  We tried consoling him and said a prayer with him before the meeting started.  While sitting in Sacrament Meeting, I guess you could say I felt like Ammon-with the king’s servants at the waters of Sebus when the flocks are scattered and the people are all weeping because they know the outcome is going to be fatal.  But Ammon, his heart was swollen with joy, because he saw it as an opportunity to show the power of God and help these people.  So even though this man’s world had just come to an end, my heart was swollen with joy, because we had the opportunity to teach him about the plan of salvation, and share our knowledge that he would see her again.  As I read Alma 40, I felt the spirit testify super strong to me that it was true.   I am so grateful for the great plan of HAPPINESS our Heavenly Father has laid before us :)

Love,

Elder Parrish

The work is moving along for us. In general, with only working with members now, the number of total lessons has taken a hit- which was to be expected but we had more member present lessons this month of December than any other month since the creation of the zone. The percentage of member-present lessons to total number of lessons was over 40%, so we are on a steady incline. We have finally got a list of ALL the members in all of our areas, so now we can get to work on visiting everyone and really uniting the ward in la obra misional and keep track of it in the district. 

A few Mission Leadership Conferences ago with Brother Garmin, we were told that, "We are all going to be Primary Teachers someday... so we'd better start today."  That’s what it’s like teaching our investigator, L-- right now. We go slow, but he hangs on to every word. He's really fun to teach. He came to church again and is really on fire right now.

It was great to be with Elder Griffin for our 2nd Christmas in the mission!! He's a great example to me and has a burning testimony of Jesus Christ.  I opened all my presents a few days before Christmas... so I didn’t get to open squat on Christmas morning.  Everyone in the apartment made fun of me, and just thought it was the funniest thing.

Talking with you all on Christmas didn’t make me trunky or homesick, because this is precisely the place I need to be. I know this, because it is the refiner's fire and that is exactly what I need.  It has shaped me and is continually shaping me every single day.  I love my mission.  I have truly come to know the author and finisher of my faith.  I am trying to be more like Jesus Christ, and though I fail over and over and over and over again, I know he is with me every step of the way and it is all part of the great plan and part of my eternal progression on the quest to exaltation.  I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Doing service for Foodshare every week is awesome, and it’s even better when Elder Smoot is there sorting cans right next to you!  It is quite the party sorting cans and shooting the breeze, while all the other missionaries just think we are crazy hicks from little ole Brigham City!  It is incredible to be serving together in the same mission!  I have seen a huge change in him and it’s so cool.  I hope he sees the same change in me as well.

Love,

Elder Parrish

Mission Christmas Eve Activity

 

I'll keep this email short, because we are going to be talking soon.  Besides... a pictures worth a thousand words!  :)  

A beach baptism at sunset.

I LOVE this family!

The biggest waves I've ever seen!

Elder Parrish and Elder Griffen.

Elder Smoot was my photographer at the baptism.  We are both in Oxnard now!!  We never get to see each other, but since it was an English baptism, he got to come. :))  It was so sweet.  He is sitting next to me in the computer lab emailing right now too. :)))

Elder Parrish and Elder Smoot

This was the happiest day of my life!

We are doing really good. We had 11 member presents this week, most of which were with the youth, but after church yesterday we had a bunch of the adults come up to us and ask if they can come out with us this week, so we are super excited.   President Felix came and announced in Sacrament Meeting that were not allowed to knock doors, only find through members, and that the members have to step up.  I am really happy that I get to stay with Elder Griffin and have our area be the guinea pig of the mission for no more tracting. It’s gonna be sweet. 

Our investigator L--- is doing really well.  He is 33 years old, working in the fields here for the past few years all by himself. He is so childlike and humble. Reading is hard for him and he basically has zero education, so his comprehension is slower, but he is so anxious to learn. I love it. He came to the baptism of D--- on Friday and really liked it. L---- had never seen a baptism performed by immersion before, and the spirit was super strong. He went up to the edge of the font with all the little children during the ordinance and it was really cool to watch L---‘s face light up during it. D----l bore his testimony after the service like he did in Sacrament Meeting, and it was really powerful.  L---- told us that later that night he was thinking about the baptism and said a prayer, promising God that he would get baptized "adentro de 3 meses" !!  So we set a date with him for February 14th, and he wants us to come teach him every day. 

We had 2 investigators at church yesterday, a new investigator named C---, who actually has a granddaughter in the mission field, and the son of a part-member family named F----.  Unfortunately, F--- doesnt seem too interested after yesterday, but C--- is really excited to meet with us this week!

Elder Griffin and I are stoked to stay together this transfer.  We were companions exactly one year ago for the holidays back in Santa Barbara when we were both new missionaries, and it’s incredibly awesome to be experiencing a little de-ja-vu and do it all again!  We are a little more seasoned this time around and a whole lot more comfortable with our Spanish, so we really are loving every second!

I know how important the Spirit is as a missionary. Last night we were walking to go visit an investigator, and I was just thinking about the stories you always hear about people getting those super strong promptings that come 3 times to them, and then they act on it and some great big miracle happened.  Then, the scripture popped into my head, "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth," and so I said that to God in my head. I said, "This is kind of random, but if you have a prompting to send my way, then let me have it.. I’m ready." As we were waiting for the crosswalk so we could cross the street, I got the thought- “Don’t go to the apartment complex we were heading to.  Don’t do it.  Don’t cross the street.”  So I battled within myself for a couple seconds trying to decide whether or not that was an actual prompting or just me creating my own situation because of the thought process I was having... but right as the crosswalk light came on, I told Elder Griffin, "I don’t know why, but I got a feeling that maybe we shouldn’t go over there."  So we talked it out and decided of course we needed to follow that prompting. As I turned to walk back the way we came, Elder Griffin suggested we take the cross walk the other way, and walk back to the car from that way, so we did.  On the other side, we met and "Shared the Gift" with an awesome humble little family walking who agreed to let us come into their home and share a message about the true meaning of Christmas. Now that’s just a small little miracle, but it’s crazy how none of that would have happened if we crossed the street.  None of that would have happened if i didn’t ask God to give me a prompting.  At the same time, it wouldn’t have happened if I was by myself because I would have turned and walked the way we came, while Elder Griffin was guided to cross to the left and run into the family. Even though I had the best intentions of following what the spirit whispered to me, my companion took it and magnified it, and then came the miracle. Maybe nothing will ever happen out of that street contact, but we learned a little more about being led by the Spirit as we find and teach.

For service, we did 5 hours for Foodshare. Rather than lifting heavy boxes and doing manual labor like we usually do, they had us at a desk doing paperwork and organizing a bunch of their administrative stuff they are backed up on because of the holidays...... it was good, but if nothing else came of it, I learned yet again that I much prefer lifting heavy boxes than doing paperwork. 

I haven’t been able to play sports with members/investigators my entire mission... till last week they changed the rule. :):):) I literally cried tears of joy I was so happy.  We played soccer with the ward on Tuesday. 8 goals later, I scored, I got a big ole sweet black blister on my foot. It was totally worth it.

Love, Elder Parrish******

P.S.  You may remember me telling you about J and L T---- a few weeks ago.  They were the golden English family we found and referred over.  Well, they are getting baptized this Saturday and they asked me and Elder Griffin to be the ones to baptize them!  Pray for them this week! 

We had such an awesome week.  Elder Griffin and I had 10 lessons with members present, and in the zone we had a total of 30 this week.  Around 42% of our total number of lessons were taught with a member present this week, compared to 29% last week, 18% two weeks ago, and 9% at the beginning of the transfer.  We are really proud of the efforts the zone is making to involve the members more and keep raising that number.

One miracle we had with going out with members:  We took out a priest named David.  We tried going by a former investigator’s house, who we had a lesson with.  He actually gave us a referral of one of his neighbors who just moved in, named L----.  We contacted him using a He is the Gift pass-along card and set a return appointment for yesterday.  We took David with us again the for the appointment, and taught Lorenzo about the restoration.  We weren’t sure how into it he was, but after explaining the First Vision, Elder Griffin asked if he believed that God and Jesus Christ could appear to someone today and call him as a prophet.  Lorenzo said yes, and that he believed in miracles.  We talked a little after that about miracles, and he shared with us a dream he had a while ago. , In his dream an angel appeared to him and told him that the Lord was going to send someone to him that would give him “mas entendimiento” about the Bible and learn about his word.  Then he told us that he kind of shrugged off the dream as just a dream, but now he knows that it was true and that we were sent to him to give him the "mas entendimiento" that the angel talked about. We invited him to the Christmas devotional last night and he rode with David and his dad to watch it with us in Camarillo. It was all pretty awesome, especially for David, since it was his first time ever going out with the missionaries,  to have a sweet miracle like that. Now David wants to come out with us all the time :)

Elder Griffin is amazing.  He takes talking with everyone to heart.  We're seeing a lot of miracles and having so much success with the “He is the Gift” initiative. It is so effective!  Everyone wants to talk about Christmas!

I think about this past General Conference, and I can see the principle of accountability as an underlying topic in basically everything.  I have been pondering about the subject of accountability, and I loved the emphasis in MLC on us as leaders being accountable for our areas. I know that to 'Return and Report" is an eternal principle.  Every time we account for something, it influences our final return and report with Father in Heaven.  I like that. It makes me want to do my best in everything, even the small and insignificant things.  It makes me anxious to be more accountable.  It makes me want to be a better missionary, son, brother, future husband and father, neighbor, etc. it influences everything.

We had a really cool service project with Foodshare's can-drive at the collection on Friday.  Our whole zone and some of the English zone helped by making Christmas trees out of canned food.  We ended up helping with I believe 240 trees, all with over 600 cans each.  It was awesome.  Foodshare loves the LDS missionaries!   We had several opportunities to answer questions and share “He is the Gift.”  There were tons of newspapers and radio and photographer people.  Google it, maybe there will be a picture of me :)

I can’t believe Mitch is 22! I want to wrestle him, and play basketball and every other sport with him again.  I might be able to compete nowadays.

Love,

Elder Parrish

Two weeks ago, we got a referral from the mormon.org website. I’ve gotten like 50 of these throughout my mission, and have never gotten a single solid investigator out of so far, so we didn’t think too much about it... but of course we go to contact it anyway and turns out they lived just down the street from us. Their names are J--- and L--- with their two sons, ages 7 and 10.  We knock, the husband comes out, looks at us, and says, "My wife must have made an appointment with you guys.  Let me go get her."  They invite us in and we sit on the couch and start talking. They are Catholic, but have gone to several different churches looking for the truth.  She told us she has a friend who is an inactive member of the church, so they are already pretty familiar with the church, and that she managed to somehow borrow a copy of the Book of Mormon and start reading.  She said, "It just keeps pulling me back!  I can’t explain it, but I love it!"  She went on to explain how she has been praying and trying to contact the missionaries for several months now.  She always tries to flag them down on their bikes, but they always just waved and rode on by, eventually she found the website and put in all her info!  

We did some "how to begin teaching," just like Preach My Gospel says.  It was the best experience on how to begin teaching and establishing expectations I have had on my mission so far.  We explained how we like to begin and end each lesson with a prayer, suggesting that we would offer the opening, and we would like one of them to offer the closing. I prayed, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for letting us be here in the home of the ---- family. Please let us feel of your love as we talk about your gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  (One of the things we learned from the brethren from the missionary department who came to our Missionary Leadership Conference two weeks ago is how we should pray with investigators- so simply that they are 100% positive they will be able to offer it at the end.)  It was amazing how powerful the shortest prayer I’ve ever said was. We continued the lesson to answer their questions, explain the Book of Mormon, testify, and invite them to be baptized- which they anxiously accepted and invited us back last Friday for a BBQ.

The BBQ was awesome, and they are the funniest people in the world!  We were laughing our heads off.  We answered a lot more of their questions about what they had read from the first 10 or so chapters in the Book of Mormon and L--- told us she’s been praying all week and already knows this is what she needs to fill the missing gap in her life.  We taught about the restoration and they just soaked everything in. They committed to come to church (which was Stake Conference in Camarillo.) We went to set them with a baptismal date, and they said, "as soon as possible, just not this Sunday, because there's going to be so many people at Stake Conference!"   We set them for the 20th of December.  Because they speak English, we let them know how the English elders would be coming to teach them next time, and how we would introduce them tomorrow at church. Then L--- started crying, saying how she wants us to teach them because she prayed for months and months to be able to talk to us and we finally showed up at the perfect time and everything feels so RIGHT even though they have only talked to us once.  It was obviously bittersweet because this is seriously what I have been fasting and praying for my ENTIRE mission-to find teach and baptize a family that will undoubtedly be sealed in the temple.  We expressed our love for them as well and how much we enjoyed teaching them, but tried to explain that the other elders are awesome and how it was best if they continued to be taught by English elders.  Even though they were crying, she just agreed and said whatever it takes, we know this is where God wants us to be.

 Two days later they came to conference, and we introduced them to Elder Gregory and Elder Gerrard, and they set up an appointment for later in the week.  They loved Stake Conference, and are literally the most prepared and elect family in the world!!  It is so awesome and we are so excited for Elder Gregory and Elder Gerrard to teach and baptize them!   Now we just have to find someone like them that speaks Spanish!!

Love,

Elder Parrish