Happy Birthday Ma! From your biggest fan. Love you! :)

I hope all is well with y’all and I pray for Grompa Parrish and his hip replacement!  Now he’s gonna be able to hike to the top of Cub River with me this fall and slay a giant buck. :):)

We had some great lessons this week. My favorite was teaching the plan of salvation to G---. One of the best Plan lessons I have been part of on my mission. We had it in the church building and drew it up on the chalk board. We kept it super simple and only focused on the first half of the lesson, first going over the true nature of the Godhead, to the pre-earth life, creation, fall, to mortal life and the atonement. I felt the Spirit super strong as we testified of Jesus Christ and the atonement being central to the plan, and then when he came to church the next day the gospel principles lesson was all about the atonement, so it was perfect!  I cant wait to teach the last half of the plan this week!  G--- was a trooper and stayed for all 3 hours of church this time and really liked it. He is solid for baptism on the 16th of May as long as he can keep going strong with his commitments.  :)

We were able to accompany 2 brothers to do their home teaching yesterday.  We have worked with the branch president and Elders Quorum, so all of the messages they are sharing for home teaching  include a focus from Preach My Gospel. This month was Chapter 1, Our Purpose.  So next month will be Chapter 2, etc.   It is working great so far and getting the members to actually start studying Preach My Gospel. On our way walking back to the member's car, we offered a pamphlet to a man getting out of his truck, taught a lesson and got a new investigator who is interested in learning more.  Having the members there made a huge difference, of course, and the members are excited to go back and visit him! 

Elder Clarkson and I had a great week.  It is a little weird not having 3 of us anymore, but we are starting to get back into the groove of just teaching between the 2 of us, but we are doing great and the work is moving forward! 

Yesterday, I had the most powerful sacrament experience of my life. It was awesome. I felt the spirit the strongest I ever have during the sacrament.  After I took the bread, it just overcame me and it just felt so good.  I was so sad and happy at the same time, and the next thing I knew my eyes started leaking.  I can’t explain it, but I just felt wondering awe and immense gratitude for my Savior and the atonement that made the plan of HAPPINESS possible. I know my covenants were renewed, and I can’t wait to renew them again next week. I hope and pray that I can show my love to God this week by keeping my side of the bargain from the sacramental prayers better than ever before.

The service activity was great. We removed a bunch of huge panels from the walls at the food bank 

and scrubbed them down, painted barrels, and built a fence.  Everyone had a good time and made a huge difference for the food bank.

 

Love, Elder Parrish

Transfers last week - See E. Parrish in the upper right corner in the background.

Elder Parrish, Elder Davidson, Elder Bautista, Elder Lee

Sooo... did anybody else have a 2 hr mission wide live concert with David Archuleta, Brook White, and Kendra Lowe last night?.... or just me?...  :)

Haha.  So they called a surprise mission conference yesterday and everybody had to drop everything and drive to Ventura for a "special meeting" and to NOT bring cameras....   We were all expecting President Uchtdorff, because he is supposedly going to be in the area this weekend, or at least a general authority or something, when out of nowhere in walks this short little kid with black hair.... haha.  I may be ashamed to say I recognized him right off the bat - David Archuleta.  Nobody else seemed to recognize him at all until they announced it.... all those years of family bonding time watching American Idol paid off, eh?:) (And Sorry Maddie he's way too short for you.) haha, Brook White too.  They were in the top 5 together...  She lives in the mission in Westlake.  It was kind of a letdown at first, since we were all expecting Elder Uchtdorff.... so when I saw "Brother Archuleta," at first I was just kind of chuckling to myself since we drove over 2 hours and missed a whole Sunday afternoon and evening of proselyting time for a stinkin’ musical performance.... But of course it turned out to be awesome and the Spirit was super strong.   He shared some experiences from American Idol with Brook, how he would bless the sacrament for them every week since they couldn’t go to church and a bunch of other cool stuff.  He talked a lot about his mission in Chile and the difference it has made in his life and just some of his favorite scriptures, and bore his testimony by singing songs after each little story or scripture.  Man, that kid has some pipes, just in case you forgot from American Idol 4 years ago.  He sang:

Come, Come Ye Saints -part in Spanish, which was the best-

Be still my Soul

Amazing Grace -duet with Brooke White

I Believe in Christ

Glorious- the final song on Meet the Mormons. 
              (Go here to see the video: https://youtu.be/GytW_rgr0RM)
 

But it was a really cool meeting, and he’s a really cool and humble guy.  And of course it was funny to watch all of the sisters and hermanas just swooning in their seats being serenaded by his angelic vocal cords, haha.  :)  Check the blog for pictures.  

(Thank you sister Felix for the pictures and for keeping such a great blog at http://thecaliforniaventuramission.blogspot.ca)

David Archuleta, accompanist Kendra Lowe with Pres. & Sis. Felix, Elders Kanenwisher and Atkin.

The Santa Maria Zone with David Archuleta, Kendra Lowe

Well, I would just like to testify of one of the things that the Spirit hit me with from Brother Archuleta last night.  When he sang "Be Still My Soul," I loved the lines "Thru thorny ways, leads to a joyful end.  Be still my soul, thy God doth undertake to guide the future as he has the past."  I think about everything that has ever happened to me in my life that could be considered "a joyful end," and not one of them came without first going through a thorny way.  Everything that is good in this life and the next has a price to pay and we have to be willing to pay it, but it is all worth it.  It is easy to feel the Spirit confirm that truth when we are in a spiritual meeting hearing David Archuleta sing it with his angelic vocal cords, but I don’t know why it seems that we forget that just as easily in the moment of trial and tribulation. We shouldn’t.  There is no reason to ever doubt or ever lose hope.  Just keep on chugging along and put your faith before your fears.  Or in the words Elder Lewis, who recently shared with me from the Doctrine and Covenants, "Be of good cheer, fear not... and see the salvation of God."  So I invite you all to just put your head down and go hard to do whatever God wants you to do, and I know you won’t regret it :) 
(Listen to David singing this song to the Mo Tab here: https://youtu.be/pV3DEtJtho8)

Ha, and I know you probably don’t care about this as much as hearing about good ole Davy, but here is how the rest of our week went!

Santa Maria is doing really, really great.  We had an awesome lesson with part member family, M---.  So far, we have only had lessons with just him and his wife, but on Thursday we invited his 2 sons ages 14 and 11 to come and participate as well.  We taught about testimonies, and then everyone went around and took turns sharing their testimonies. His wife brought the spirit super strong as she shared her experience of the first time the missionaries knocked on her door, and then it was the first time the 2 boys had ever born their testimonies.  The younger one even said he knows the Church is true because he knows that Moses was a prophet.   So they were both very simple but still powerful.  The Spirit was there and it touched J---'s heart. He bore his testimony, as well, that he knows the Church and everything we teach him is true because of the way it makes him feel.  He is so ready for baptism and has a date in May, he just has his job that makes him work on Sundays so we have a little bit more work with that.

We had another awesome lesson with G--- this week and he came to church! We taught the Word of Wisdom and he believes it all is true, but does struggle with alcohol. He committed to live it and he also has a baptismal date in May. 

We taught the C--- family the whole Restoration and they accepted to be baptized once they read the Book of Mormon and know it is true. The procedure with their daughter went really well and they were very grateful for the priesthood blessing we gave her.   These investigators are all doing well, and the members are involved with all of them! So we are very pleased :) we are just trying to keep working hard and maintain it.

"The Triforce"

For this transfer, I am staying here in Santa Maria with Elder Clarkson, and Elder Moreno is going to train in Lompoc.  I am so blessed to have been in the tripan this transfer with Elder Moreno and Elder Clarkson.  I like to call them James and John Zebedee, or in other words- The Sons of Thunder.  They are just pure greatness wherever they go.  Elder Moreno was born to train an excellent missionary in Lompoc, and Elder Clarkson and I are going to do everything we can to keep the snowball rolling with the members here in Santa Maria.

Holy cow this is long!

Love, Elder Parrish

So I don’t think I've told you much about Santa Maria. First off, it’s just an extension of Mexico with tons of Hispanics, most from Oaxaca.  It smells just like Mexico, too- like there’s a dead badger on every corner, so that’s cool.  We go to this one big apartment complex almost daily, and there’s the usual big group of kids from ages 5-10 that just shout, “Hip hip hooray!” every time we walk in the complex.  (We want to teach them to shout, “Hurrah for Israel” every time, but they don’t understand.)  They just treat us like celebrities and follow us around and hand out cards to everyone we see.  We play soccer and they all count how long I can do handstands.

There’s a huge 27 hole disc golf course here that we play every P-day with the YSA guys.  It’s tons of fun. The other day there was a squirrel chillin’ on a log and I instinctively (swear I didn’t mean to) chucked my Frisbee at it and knocked it into next week. Oh and I skinned a snake, because an investigator asked me how...   

Anyway... :) the work is going great!!  We had a ton of member present lessons this week, which is like manna from heaven in this area, and saw a lot of miracles from it.  We pushed J---'s baptismal date back to May 9th just because Satan doesn’t want him to come to church, so his boss keeps calling him on Sunday mornings to come into work, so we think it’d be best if we wait a bit to make sure he's going to  be committed to keep the Sabbath day holy. 

Oh my goodness, and then we had the sweetest lesson ever yesterday with a new investigator family we found.  J--- and R--- with their 3 kids.  One of them is having surgery on Wednesday, so we went to go give her a blessing yesterday after church.  We brought it up in ward council that morning that we would like a member to accompany us for the blessing, and they assigned a whole family to come do the visit with us. (More manna from heaven.)  So we go with the whole family, who are the same age and have kids all the same ages too.  We gave her the blessing and their families just hit it off great and made instant friends.  We had only taught them the first principle of the first lesson before that since they are new investigators, but just from that little visit and the spirit we felt, they were like, "You guys don’t pray to the Virgin Mary right?... Were gonna take down our Virgin Mary right away!"  We didn’t even say anything about it at all, but it was funny, and hopefully the surgery will go well and there will be plenty more about this family. :)

Another miracle from getting the members cooperation was with G---!  We were able to have him come to a dinner at a member’s home.  They hit it off great as well, and he accepted a baptismal date for May 16th after teaching him about the Restoration! 

So when I think about my mission, I have come to a little conclusion about the atonement.  I think if I was simply required to come on a mission for 2 years only relying on my own strength, a few things would happen.  I have always been rather self-reliant and always enjoy a challenge, so I think I would be able to come, stay for 2 years, and go home, on solely my own physical abilities. I hope that doesn't sound prideful.. I think I would be able to put up with the daily grind of the work and just put my head down and go, day in and day out, waking up and working hard until my time was up. I really think I could.  *BUT* that’s all it would be, going through the motions, depressed or something, and pointlessly just doing it with merely an end… like a never-ending wrestling season with a bad attitude or something.

Where the atonement has comes in, specifically the enabling power of the atonement, is what makes growth possible, progression.  It wouldn’t be possible to be successful without it.  Everything I have learned and achieved on my mission, can only be contributed to the atonement.  It allows the daily grind of waking up, getting out, working all day, talking to everyone,  to be more fun than anything else I have ever done!  Who would have thought!  It provides the convincing power to touch the SOULS of men, rather than just selling a product.  Without it, I would’ve had no growth, no purpose, no impact in others' lives, no success, etc... The Savior’s Atonement is everything, and I am so grateful for it.  It’s hard to explain, but there's nothing else to attribute it to.  Every day, I am becoming better because of it and I hope to continue that change perpetually.

Love,

Elder Parrish

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

General Conference.  Santa Vaca!  Conference was shweet!  I cant believe it was my 4th and final conference in the  mission!! It's been cool how all 4 conferences have either been on my birthday or half-birthday in the mission.

I followed the trusty ole pattern from el hermano de Jared of preparing stones and presenting them to the Lord to light up with his finger. I didn't prepare 16 questions this time around, but I still followed the principle.  The Lord never ceases to remove more and more of the veil as we diligently seek and ask. The talk that impacted me most was Elder Holland's talk about the kid getting saved by his brother as he was falling. I don't know why that one was my favorite.  I didn't even have any specific questions that it answered and I can't honestly recall much of it, because I was too into it to take notes... but I definitely remember how I felt and I can't wait to study it shortly!  Conference was the best! I loved how it was all focused on the simple, most important things. 

We made some really good progress this week with our ward mission leader and branch president! We had a good meeting and we all got on the same page. (Preach My Gospel page). These past couple days have been the best so far working with the leadership in the branch. I'm sure there are many good things to come!

My companions are amazing, so Christlike and humble.  I'm striving to be more like them every day. 

Sorry, no time for a solid email.  I  gotta go disc golfing :)

Love, Elder P

Everything that we can control as missionaries is going very well.  We are seeing a lot of miracles and success in our sphere.  However, there are definitely many things in the branch that are out of our control for the time being that are impeding the work here in Santa Maria. Our investigator from a part-member family, J---- is doing great and progressing towards his baptismal date for April 18^th.  We had a little bit of a conflict with some in the branch yesterday.  It turned into a lot of finger pointing, but we just tried to be respectful and still express our concern to work more unified with them.  I have never run into anything quite like this on my mission so far, but we did end on good terms.  We came to the conclusion that the spirit wasn’t there, so we needed to regroup and try again later in the week having fasted and prayed.  

My companions are amazing. Elder Clarkson is so passionate and does everything he can to magnify his calling. Elder Moreno is a Self-Mastered champ. 

I know that the Lord is mindful of us in all moments.  We listened to a talk on our way to the Z---- baptism (which was amazing) by President Eyring about praying for trials and mountains to climb. I was feeling pretty spiritual and gung-ho, so I said a small prayer in my mind telling the Lord that I would like to be able to learn from whatever mountain he wanted me to climb and that I was ready for a trial! And whaddya know, the very next day I got one.  So I definitely know the Lord answers prayers, and praying for trials is one sure way to get an answer!  I think I’m going to keep in mind the idea of asking our investigators to pray for trials so they can know for sure that God answers them! (ha ha!) 

Service has been good.  We translated some documents for Catholic Charities here in Santa Maria, which was really fun!

Love, 

Elder Parrish

Hey Fam!

Santa Maria has a lot of potential! We had an awesome week.  We set the husband of a part member family with a really solid baptismal date for the 18th of April.  We taught him obedience, laws of the land, baptism, and tithing.  He has been taught everything, and now we just need to review the baptismal interview questions with him and see what else we need to review. He made a huge sacrifice yesterday to come to church by going in to work super early on Saturday, working all day and all night to be able to come home Sunday morning and then come to church Sunday afternoon on basically no sleep, but he loved it.  We were all super pumped about that and he is doing great.  We are making good progress on visiting all the members, teaching them the doctrine of Hastening the work, and helping everyone fulfill their HomeTeaching assignments. We are working hard, staying optimistic and seeing a lot of great things!

Elder Moreno and Elder Clarkson are great for me. I feel like we are doing extremely well, obedient, talking with everyone, seeing miracles, having fun, and we have stellar study sessions. Of course there's always room for improvement but we are being the best missionaries we can be!  Elder Clarkson is from Spokane, Washington.  Elder Moreno is from Nevada, but his family will be moving to Utah as soon as he gets home.  He is a convert of three years now.  He is going to be my roommate at Snow!

I am just happy to be called of God and of a living prophet. I love being a missionary, and cherish my time to give all of my heart, might, mind, and strength to Him. As I have been preparing for General Conference coming up (in 2 weeks!! I can’t wait), I have been going over my notes from the previous 3 conferences of my mission. Elder MacKay's mom sent me a nice organized little notebook where all of the apostles have their own section, so I have been studying my notes by apostle and it has been really cool to notice the style of each apostle and patterns and similar warnings they repeat in so many of their talks.  There is no doubt in my mind they are men called of God and that the Lord is no stranger to his servants.

Love,

Elder Parrish

So, I’m here in the Santa Maria Branch as District Leader on an assignment  from President Felix. Basically, this is their last chance.  If they don’t step it up this transfer, we are pulling out all the missionaries and leaving the branch on their own.  It’s pretty crazy.  There is just an extremely poor understanding of the gospel in general.  It’s not even missionary work that is the problem.  So President has stacked it this transfer with Elder Moreno and me ( We’ve both been Zone Leaders for a long time) Elder Clarkson, Hermana Costilla, and Hermana Killpack (the traveling sister trainers) as kind of a last resort effort to save it.  We all have only a couple months left, so we got our own little dream team up here and we're goin’ hard.   So far, so good! We've met with a lot of the leadership of the branch this week, and told ‘em straight up that we are not tracting or door knocking, and only focusing on the members to strengthen them and help them.  For the most part, they seem pretty behind us and willing to give it a try.   The Branch President Predazzi is great, and we have set goals with him to contact everyone on the member directory to have 100% accountability in the branch.  One of the things we have decided to focus on, which wasn’t as big of an emphasis in Oxnard, is Home Teaching. It’s like nobody has even heard of it up here.  We think it will be the best tool to get everything going and earn trust with the members.  We were able to take out one member to a lesson, and taught an awesome lesson on the Restoration to a guy named D----. The spirit was definitely in the room and he is keeping his commitments, so poco a poco he will come around. 

Santa Maria District

The district is great!  President Felix inspired me at transfers with a quote about, “There being a hush down every hall and corridor in heaven when we say we were in the dispensation of President Monson." That was kind of our theme for district meeting last week.  We talked about reconnecting to the pre-earth life and our potential to godhood, studying our patriarchal blessings and using that as motivation to be everything the Lord wants for us this transfer, and also using that to recognize the god-like potential of the members as well, and having the faith that they have every eternal capability to participate in gathering Israel.  It was a good meeting.

My companions are amazing!!!! Elder Moreno is a stud. He's a bold and powerful teacher, cool, calm and collected always! Elder Clarkson is such a motivated missionary, and always desiring to improve. He just has a natural way of talking to people and getting them to talk and open up.  So far our unity has been good, and it has been a ton of fun!  Companion study is sweet, and we always learn a bunch from each other.

I have enjoyed studying about covenants this week in an effort to better understand mine, and help others begin to make their own. In reading Deuteronomy (I think it was chapters 27-33), it was really cool to see how the Lord set up his covenant and charged Israel to keep it through Moses.  There are a lot of cool fulfilled latter-day prophecies in there and also LOTS of curses and penalties for breaking covenants.  I know that keeping our covenants give us blessings and power, and that breaking our covenants brings not only lack of blessings but also very specific and bad things. It is important that investigators understand that as well as they prep for the baptismal covenant.  It also made me think about one of our primary responsibilities as missionaries- "to warn people of the consequences of sin."  I know I can do a better job of crying repentance and condemning sin, and want to work on that as well this transfer.

Love, Elder Parrish

From these internet photos, Santa Maria looks like a nice city with vineyards, hills, and beautiful coastline!