This week, our recent convert L--- got his temple recommend interview to do baptisms for the dead!  He passed, so he is going with the ward this Saturday to do baptisms! We have been working with another member who is really into geneology, and this week he is going to help him search his family history and he is going to be able to take his own family names to the temple!  We are super excited.  That was part of our zone goals for this transfer as well.

One cool miracle for the week, on Thursday night as we were planning for Friday, we didn’t have any set appointments, and I couldn’t decide what I should study for in my personal study the next day. As we finished up our planning, I just randomly wrote a letter G in my planner, and then for no reason at all I wrote the name Gabriel in the little box for my personal study topic. In the morning, I decided to study Jesus Christ in the Topical Guide.  Anyway, we went through our day on Friday, and everything went normally and then we went out for dinner with a member named O---. He took us to a little taco truck to eat some tacos (delicious). After we ordered and were eating, the member struck up a conversation with the owner of the taco truck and introduced us as missionaries that have changed his life.  The guy in the taco truck said that that he had just commented to his wife (who was making the tacos) that he could feel something about us "muchachos" when we ordered our food.  We didn’t even have the chance to speak because O--- just jumped right in and bore testimony of how that was the Holy Spirit testifying that the work we are doing is true.  He invited him to church and to start meeting with us and everything.  It was pretty exciting, and the man accepted the invitation. I then took the opportunity to bear my testimony of Jesus Christ.  As we were leaving, I asked his name. It was Gabriel, the same name I randomly wrote in the study box of my planner the night before.  Now I know that I studied about Jesus Christ in the topical guide that day, so I could share my testimony with Gabriel.

I finished the Book of Mormon again this last week - in Spanish- so that was awesome.  Afterward, I prayed in Spanish and got an answer that it was true yet again. I love how the Holy Ghost will ALWAYS testify of truth. I know that Moroni's promise is true.  We can get an answer if we ask in faith, with real intent, and it doesn’t matter how many times we have previously asked before, we can always get a confirmation of the truth! :)

We have been teaching the members of our ward the principle of FOLLOWING UP from Preach My Gospel in our dinner messages and challenging them to think about all the invitations or gospel conversations they have had throughout the last several years, and follow up with all those people and re-invite them! We have had a really good response from the members and they all accept to do it!

Love,

Elder Parrish

Dinner appointment

 
We have struggled a little bit starting back at ground zero after L---’s baptism.  We are trying to find new investigators through the members, but the Lord blessed us for our efforts by sending a man named W--- who just decided to come to church yesterday! He apparently helped clean the building sometime a long time ago, and just remembered the warm invitation to attend a service on Sunday, and thought he might give it a try all this time later! 

We have gotten a good start on the new member lessons with L---. The T--- family (recent converts themselves) is having us teach them in their home and it has been great. We planned to teach about the Restoration using paper cups to "build Christ's church," destroy it, and build it up again, in hopes that L---'s little sister would be there and we could get a double whammy.  She wasn’t able to come, so we were about to teach something different, but decided to stick to the game plan anyway. As we went through the steps, we all felt the Spirit. At the end, Elder Griffin asked the mom what it meant to her to have all this restored in her life. She just started crying and bore her testimony that this was the first time she actually understood the Restoration and why it is so important in the Church! She has been a member for just over a year and has been confused about some things, but it finally clicked for her and she was so happy and excited because it finally made sense to her after all this time. It felt so good to hear her say, "Now I KNOW that the Church really is PERFECT." So we know that it was inspired to teach that lesson, even though we prepared it for M--, it was actually for her and God knows exactly what he's doing. :)

Elder Griffin has come to be one of my greatest friends. It’s sad to think we have been together for 3 transfers, and most likely won’t be able to keep our streak going for much longer.  Who knows-maybe we can ;) but I have enjoyed every day and learned so much.

We went on 2 exchanges this week.  First, I went with Elder Barlow. He is doing great as a new District Leader and Trainer! We tried to make Jesus Christ and the Atonement the focus of all our lessons, and in one lesson in particular, there was a time when I got somewhat sidetracked sharing some Bible scriptures with one of our investigators and the lesson just wasn’t really going in the direction we hoped.  Then, Elder Barlow stepped up and bore solid testimony of Jesus Christ and brought the spirit back into the lesson and allowed us to get back on track of what is really most important.

Zone Conference was awesome, and I wrote a lot in my journal. I’m not one to write much in my journal, but I made it count because Pres. Felix committed us to.

Love,

Elder Parrish

Happy Valentine's Day from the Ox 5 boys!! Matching ties from Mama Barlow :)

L--- got baptized !  It’s not possible to have a bad week when you have a baptism! Everything was so great.  It was a really powerful service, and the room was packed. A lot of people had to stand in the hall, because there wasn’t enough chairs!  L--- asked me to confirm him on Sunday, so that was an awesome opportunity. He is doing so well. His wife has started taking the missionary lessons in Xilocuautla Huachinango Puebla Mexico (took me forever to learn how to spell that) and L--- is so excited to introduce his friends and family to the gospel. His little sister has made some friends with the young women in the ward and is a really awesome kid, so she shouldn’t be too far behind with her own baptism, as well. 

The 5th ward is still plugging along.  Everything just keeps moving along and it’s amazing. Two of the recent converts in the ward received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday, and will see more priesthood bearers in the weeks to come!   H--- from Nicaragua is progressing.  We had a good lesson about the plan of salvation with them in the home of the A--- family, and he was pretty blown away by it all, just because it was all new to him. He wanted Bible references for everything, which we were prepared for, and it all went great!  On Friday, we had a solid lesson about the Atonement with H---, and he is reading the Book of Mormon with his wife and mother in law every night and praying for a confirmation that it’s true!  He says he hasn’t gotten an answer yet, but that he’s going to keep praying. He has a lot of questions about plural marriage and the sort, but they are legitimate concerns and he really just wants to understand and not be closed-minded.

Elder Griffin is a champion like always. He was a little under the weather all week with a cough, but worked all day every day and never complains. 

I love the part from Preach My Gospel that says how the Restoration in comparison to the Apostasy is like a diamond that stands out against black velvet.  It is so true.  The brilliant light that the restoration brings destroys all darkness and doubt that existed for so many centuries.  So I have been studying the apostasy a lot lately and pondering quite a bit about how I can teach it better.  I think I just need to be more bold and tell people more straight forward that no other church has the truth other than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that it is the only church authorized of God to perform saving ordinances. I know it’s true, so I shouldn’t hesitate to be more bold about it. 

Love, Elder Parrish

 

We haven’t had much of a P-day.  That’s why I’m emailing so late.  We had to travel to give a girl a blessing, and we all felt the spirit super strong, so it was well worth missing our P-day. :)

This week was amazing - one of the funnest of my mission.  Things were going a little slow for us at the beginning of the week, but the past few days have just been crazy, jam-packed with miracles. We got a referral from Elder and Sister Taylor, the "military relations missionaries" or something like that, for a family in our area, H--- and J---.  They are 34 yrs old and married for about 2 years now with a few month old baby girl. They are both from MANAGUA NICARAGUA. (Tuani no?  If all Nicaraguans are as cool as these guys, I’m stinkin’ jealous of Mitch.)  J---‘s mother is also living with them from Nicaragua. J--- and her mom are both members of the church, but H---, the husband, is not.  He is a naval officer and was raised Jehovah's Witness, but when he decided to join the military at age 19 they kicked him out, so he hasn’t really been active in any church since then.  The referral we got said that we should just focus on J--- and her mom and try to avoid H--- because he was "cold."  So we called, set up an appointment, and went over on Saturday morning with Sister A--- from the ward. We go in, do a little bit of “How to Begin Teaching” from Preach My Gospel, and H--- tells us he only has 30 minutes because he has a lot of homework.  He also made it clear that he only believes in the Bible, and not the Book of Mormon. We asked him if he knew what the Book of Mormon was or where it came from, and he admitted that he knew very little.  So we taught about the restoration, and the Spirit was super strong.  He committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true.  He even said he hopes it is true, so he can know that this church is where the Lord wants him to raise his family.  We invited him to be baptized, and he said yes. He invited us to stay for breakfast, and we had a lot of fun with them! (He forgot all about his 30 minute time limit.) He came to church the next day and heard a super powerful Sacrament Meeting.  There was a bunch of members who went to the temple for the first time this last week, so they shared their experiences from the pulpit.  Harold was very interested and had a lot of Q's for us.  We have an FHE with them tonight in the A--- home.  We are so excited.  He has so much potential to be an amazing member and even a great leader in the church.     

 L---'s little sister arrived from Mexico, and is starting the lessons as well! She is excited to come to his baptism on Friday and all is in order for that!  There are so many other cool things happening right now.  One is that our recent convert, J--- T---  got the priesthood yesterday and will be baptizing his son soon!!  It is the best feeling in the world to see our converts totally rock-solid in the church. There are many other miracles that are impossible to fit in this letter!

Elder Griffin and I are loving life right now.  We had to give an hour long presentation in Mission Leader Conference, which was awful (#suckatpublicspeaking),  but we are seriously stupid-giddy about member missionary work right now.  This is the most fun I have had on my mission and I truly know it’s because of the way we are working, that it’s the way the Lord wants us to work, so he is blessing us for our efforts.  It is as simple as that, and working with Elder Griffin just makes the whole experience that much better. 

Love, Elder Parrish

Sister Felix shared these pictures from Mission Leadership Conference in her blog, as well as the following information about the California Ventura mission:

"We now have 105 English speaking Elders,  30 Spanish speaking Elders, 37 English speaking Sisters, and 32 Spanish speaking Sisters. We have 204 young missionaries. Our numbers are going down. We enjoy serving now with 4 senior couples."

The Zone Leaders

Singing Called to Serve

Communication activity

The highlight of the week was watching The Testaments with L--- with another family in their home. After the movie, we had a super spiritual testimony meeting with the members. L--- just stayed and hung out with them for a while after we left.   It has been so awesome to see all of the members step up and fellowship him.  They all love him. He seriously has over 10 fellowshippers!  We can’t fit them all in the "member fellowship" box on the progress record every week! His little sister just got here yesterday from Mexico, so we are super excited to start teaching her, as well and baptize her shortly after L---!

 It has been fun to brainstorm with Elder Griffin again this transfer as we came up with zone goals and prepared for MLC.  It is always interesting to me the process of receiving revelation or guidance from the Spirit with these things.  It seems like it’s always necessary for us to struggle to collaborate a bunch of ideas and nothing seems to be really very good.  Then right when we think we just about have what we want to do, all of a sudden we get a totally non-related thought that we feel is from the Spirit, and so we decide to take things a completely different direction.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just get those thoughts first right off the bat?  Ha, I guess some people can.  For some reason, for us, it always requires filtering through all the wrong things/ideas first, before the Lord finally blesses us with what he wants. It’s probably our own pride or something, but I am grateful Heavenly Father always lets it turn out alright in the end and for Elder Griffin's patience and diligence.  Here is what we came up with for zone goals this transfer:

1- Work together with the ward council to help one RC/LA do baptisms for the dead for the first time.

2- Work together with the ward council to ordain one prospective brother to the priesthood.

3- POWERHOURs with members! 

Yesterday during the 3rd hour of church, we had a combined lesson with Bishop Quezada because he wanted to address some matters with the ward.  This last week, a brother from another ward committed suicide.  Bishop really just focused on and taught the doctrine of the atonement of Jesus Christ (using Alma 7:11-12) to the ward.  The Spirit was super strong.  

It’s so beautiful to me that no matter how many times I hear or learn or study about the atonement, I can feel the Spirit every time.  It never gets old, it never gets boring.  It’s the single greatest and most important aspect of the gospel.

For service, we helped a member clean out and organize their shed.  She was expecting it to take like 2 hours and we did it in about 20 minutes.  So this week, she says she has a real project for us cleaning out a toy-hauler trailer they have packed with odds and ends of construction stuff.

Love,

Elder Parrish

Sup Familia, Los quiero mucho!

Area: we had some good member present lessons this week with some part-member families. L---- also doing great and super excited for his upcoming baptism on the 14th. We have been trying to get out of our normal routines of visiting the same members all the time in our area, and began to visit some of the others who tend to fly under the radar and have already established some good relationships with them. One of which is Hermana C---. old lady from the jungle of Mexico. We helped her prepare and eat some of the doves that she raises in her backyard. It was a lot of fun and now she loves us! The YM/YW in our ward had an activity, where they invited friends and played some sports, and then had ice cream sundaes, learning about how each part of the ice cream sundae represented a different aspect of praying to our Heavenly Father. Hermana Costilla and Hermana Shepherd were the brains behind it all, and it was a great activity. A lot of the youth brought their friends! 2 of them we were able to give church tours to after the activity and are now new investigators. One will be passed off to the English elders, but the other is a really cool kid named M---.  He is 16, Catholic, and has a lot of great questions about a lot of stuff he sees in his church that has been changed throughout the years or that he doesn’t agree with.  He has a lot of potential. He is the friend of D---, who helped us find and teach L----!  It’s awesome to see him catch the missionary drive to share the gospel!

Companion: I’m so excited to get to stay here in the Oxnard 5th ward with Elder Griffin again!! We both are pretty stoked about it.  I am so thankful for the chance to work in this ward with my awesome companion Elder Griffin. It's really changed my whole outlook of my mission and I’ve learned so much here.  And of course Bishop Quezada is just the best! 

Testimonio: Bishop Quezada shared a lot of really cool stuff with us about the atonement yesterday during the 3rd hour of church. So in my studies, I decided to go into a little deeper with the scripture Alma 7:11-12. Of course the atonement is for overcoming sins, but verses 11-12 talk about a whole lot of stuff that Jesus Christ did for us even before he took upon himself the sins of the world in vs13. Pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, death, and infirmities are all part of what he "went forth to suffer."  I went to my dictionary and looked up the word 'INFIRMITIES.'  It means: 
-of poor or deteriorated vitality
-feeble
-weakness of mind
-weakness of will
-weakness of character
-irresolute (to sway, to waiver, to hesitate)
-not solid or stable
-insecurities
-frailty
-disease or malady
-personal falings.
These are all the things he took upon him, so he could be filled with mercy and know how to "succor" us. I looked up succor in the dictionary too.  It comes from the Latin: SUCURRERE, with the roots from SUB- up and CURRERE- to run. and SUCURRESE- to help. so the root meaning behind the word 'succor' is literally "To Run Up To Help" 

Jesus went through all of our pain, affliction, temptation, sickness, infirmities, with everything that that entails, so he could know EXACTLY how we feel and RUN UP TO HELP us. Not even walk, but to Run to our relief!  I love that. The power that we have available to us from the Creator of the universe is infinite.  We should all feel on top of the world because of Him and His atonement. He is right there beside us as long as we choose to repent, not just repent of our sins, but accepting the enabling power available to us to overcome all of those^^^^^ things and achieve our greatest desires.

We’ve been working with the youth a lot lately, and sometimes they just don’t get it!! Then again, I didn’t really get it when I was that age either, so I guess it all works out eventually. (haha)  I think the atonement is the single most important thing the youth don’t understand.  Sure, they know how to answer the questions in Sunday School, but they don’t really use it!

Service:  We helped Hermana C--- prepare yummy doves to eat (heart, intestine, and all) as well as 2 hours for Foodshare.

Love, Elder Parrish

    

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