Bowling on Pday

We had a breakthrough lesson with our investigator, J---.  We brought our new ward mission leader to a lesson, who has some connections with other job opportunities, and they are working on finding him new employment, because he is sick of not being able to come to church and not being able to get baptized since he works on Sundays. J--- was super excited and fired up about it, and he went in early on Saturday, so he could finish all his cleaning and then came to church on Sunday! :) 

We see a less-active hermana, named Y--- a couple times a week. She has a strong testimony, and loves it when we come share messages, because she is just spiritually thirsty from being away from the church for about 6months now. Every week she has the good intentions of coming to church, but something always "comes up."   On Sunday before church, we went to her house and she let us know that one of the real reasons she hasn’t been coming to church when she says she will is because since she has been inactive she had oral surgery and they removed a bunch of her front teeth, and she just feels embarrassed and doesn’t want to have to talk to anybody without her teeth! I was able to show her some pictures of me without my front tooth and tell her I had to go through that for 3 years of high school! I explained how I felt the same insecurities and self-esteem issues for a while and didn’t like to talk or smile without it, but eventually realized that nobody cared and everyone just thought that it was awesome and made me look way tougher anyway, and I worried all that time for nothing. It helped her realize that that was a pretty lame excuse for not coming to church, and so she went and got ready and came to church for the first time since I’ve been here!  It was awesome! Everyone was so happy to see her :)

We got to do some good service this week helping our branch president move all of his stuff into storage until their new house is finished, and it built some good trust there with him.  We also helped one of our less active members, V--- build a bunch of shelves in his railroad car container he uses for a shed and he came to church on Sunday!

 

Love, Elder Parrish

Going to do service.

We went on a hike on Tuesday up in San Luis Obispo with the zone and with President and Sister Felix.  

We taught a lot of lessons this week, and for sure thought our 2 main investigators would come to church again. Neither of them came, but randomly after the meeting started we looked over and there was a man named Samuel in the foyer that we found that week who just decided to show up for church! We were all excited and of course grateful for the tender mercy that someone actually came to Sacrament Meeting. As we brought him in and sat down, we looked over to the other foyer and there was another one of our investigators named E-- with his 2 kids! We are definitely making progress with our investigators and teaching pool, though.

Elder Clarkson and I are doing well.  We have come out of this week having learned to be a little more humble, submissive, and meek, and are striving to get rid of pride so we can be more unified and have the Spirit more in our companionship. I think there is more i can be doing to serve him and show my love, so those are my goals!

I have been reading the General Conference Ensign a lot lately and just love the Spirit I get from each talk as I re-read them. They all apply perfectly in one way or another to me individually. I just can’t help but feel an overwhelming gratitude for my membership in this church, where we are so blessed to have 15 men who are prophets, seers, and revelators. It is something I will continue to thank God for every day of my life.  I keep thinking of a couple summers ago when we went to the funeral of Brother Jack Hepworth where President Monson conducted.  I realized that day that the Prophet of God, standing just a few feet away from me was just a normal, ordinary man, subject to sickness and pain and sorrow and memory loss and everything else that accompanies old age just like all the rest of us crazy people. But when President Monson testified of the plan of salvation, and of our loving Heavenly Father and of Brother Hepworth’s faithfulness in the church, I realized too that the great God of Israel magnifies those seemingly normal men he calls, and gives them power and authority to do extraordinary things and be his literal mouthpieces on the earth. I have felt him magnify little ole me. There was no doubt in my mind on that summer day that he was the Lord's Prophet in these latter-days, and there is no doubt in my mind today that he continues to be. The same Spirit that touched my heart that day is the Spirit that I feel every time I read the conference talks. I know that President Monson holds all the keys of the Holy Priesthood and leads the true Church of Jesus Christ today.

For service, we almost finished the laundry room addition of Brother C---'s house. right in time before it rained!

Love,

Elder Parrish

Water was freezing!  Colder than baptizing in the Pacific Ocean. (I would know)  So I hurried and dunked her real good, and then she cried for a long time afterwards, cuz it was so cold......  but then she got baptized by fire and the Holy Ghost and wasn't cold anymore :)

It was a privilege to baptize M--- on Saturday. The water was suuuper cold, colder than the ocean baptism even.  It’s funny how there’s always something with the water and the font or something doesn’t quite work out the way it’s supposed to, but the service was very spiritual regardless.  My favorite part was when M--- sang "I Like to Look for Rainbows" with the hermanas right before we went into the water.  Also, getting to hear Elder Clarkson confirm her a member of the Church and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost was amazing.  It was great for the investigators there.

One more quick miracle: We were driving to church yesterday morning and as we passed a certain block I caught a glimpse of a man standing outside his car.  I was sure it was our part member family investigator J---, so we turned around and sure enough he was locked out trying to unlock it with a screw driver and a wire hanger. Luckily, we have plenty of experience with that from back home, so we were able to get it open after a few minutes.  It definitely was no coincidence we drove by right at that exact time! Then, he came to church and with his entire family all there and it was great.  He will be baptized soon.

Elder Clarkson is great.  He has such a desire to improve and overcome.  He is very strict with himself and works hard. He is great at following the Spirit and I’m really glad he got to confirm M--- for the first time in his mission. The Spirit was incredible.

I know the Lord is hastening his work! As i have studied about my purpose throughout my mission, and especially my patriarchal blessing, as well as the Abrahamic covenant, it is so clear as to why we are here on the earth at this time, even more so as the seed of Joseph, be it specifically through Ephraim or Manasseh. We were foreordained to be born through the lineage of Abraham into these tribes with the charge to gather the lost tribes and fulfill the covenants made to the Fathers. We have no reason, no excuse to be lazy or to pass the buck on to somebody else. WE have to do it, because we covenanted before the world was that we would!  It’s simple, but it’s marvelous. And I just love it when we get to catch a glimpse of the members grasping that as well after so much hard work.  I’m seriously so grateful for our new Ward Mission Leader, and the vision he has of the hastening of the work.  I was so happy after our first coordination meeting, I seriously almost started crying.  The branch is in great hands. 

For service this week, we helped a less active member, who is building an addition on the side of his house for a laundry room.  We put up 4 half walls and cut out the windows. This week we will finish her up!

Couldn't be happier!
Love, Elder Parrish

  

CINCO DE MAYO someday ill have facial hair... :'(‏

Familia,

Maddie told me how she helped out at her friend’s baptism last week!  That’s so awesome!   It makes me one proud big brother to see her understanding the principles of the gospel more and more clearly.  She is much better than I was at her age :)  We all can learn from her outgoing missionary attitude!

We got a new ward mission leader!  I really am extremely grateful for our previous WML and all he did for us and his calling.  I have learned a lot from working with him this short time.  I am also pumped out of my mind for our new ward mission leader.  He is great and really excited to serve with us in the hastening of this great and latter-day work!

We were disappointed to not have our investigators G--- and J--- come to church.  We were sure they would after some awesome spiritual lessons with them this week.  We will need to push their baptisms back, but I know that all is in the Lord's hands and I totally trust Him and His timing.  M---'s baptism is this weekend.  I’m excited for it.

We did have a crazy miracle yesterday evening though when our investigator J--- walked in with his wife to the temple fireside! His wife is an active member, and J--- has been talking to missionaries for yearsss, but never has come inside the church building. He came to the fireside last night, and all the members were pretty ecstatic about it!  It was great and an answer to prayers.

The district is doing really well.  I feel a little guilty - I have probably the best district ever!  I seriously never have to worry about any of them.  It’s not just because they are zone leaders/sister training leaders, but honestly Elder Young, Elder Fisher, Hermana Costilla and Hermana Killpack and Elder Clarkson are all stellar, and very motivated missionaries with a deep understanding of their purpose as missionaries.  Where we all have our own stewardships in the district as well, it is awesome to be able to focus on a lot of ministering and leadership principles during district meeting.  Last Thursday, we had an awesome discussion led by the hermanas on the talk "Jesus the Perfect Leader."  They are all great leaders, especially my companion Elder Clarkson.  He would never admit it, but he has such a great influence on everyone he comes in contact with.

The former temple president of both Vera Cruz, Mexico and L.A. came to the branch last night to give a fireside about the temple.  Attendance was a little smaller than a normal sacrament meeting, but the spirit was SO strong.   Right from the first hymn we sung all the way to the end, it was tangible.  He shared a lot of personal experiences and stories he and his wife have had serving in the temple. I focused his talk on LIGHT, specifically the light that we need to attain to return to live our Father in Heaven.  I know that the temple is such a great symbol of light for me.  If we need to obtain light, and get as much of it as we possibly can. It’s only logical that a good way to obtain more light would be to go to a place that has a lot of it! And what better place than God's literal house! I love the plan of salvation and the sure knowledge I have of it, because the Holy Spirit has confirmed its truthfulness to me.

Service at Catholic Charities is a blast.  We have made good friends with a lot of the workers.  It is the best charity ever. They are such good people and genuinely good Christians.  P.S. You’ll never guess who does service at Catholic Charities!  TOM MUSCIO!  Ha ha, I haven’t met him yet, but hopefully this week I’ll see him.

Love,

Elder Parrish

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