Week 15: Dad email

Hello! It is awesome I am staying in Yelm. I like it here. It is a good place. The matching sweaters was totally an accident. It was funny. Matt came to church yesterday! For the first time in 4 months. I was super surprised to see him there. It was awesome. That is the less active that plays Magic. He was baptized like 2 years ago in a kiddie pool on a military base. It would be hard to do in a kiddie pool. He said they had to do it twice. He still doesn't know a lot so we have been reteaching him lessons and reading the scriptures and trying to get his girlfriend involved. He is an awesome guy. He used his sick leave to come to church! How cool is that? And he volunteered to sit in at seminary as seminary security!

I am doing my best. Starting November 1st I can listen to Christmas music!

Love and miss you as well, 

Nathan

Week 15: Yelm part 3

Hello all! This week was a lot of fun! The McKenna elders moved out this week so we helped them put furniture and a bunch of other supplies in their new apartment! It is a lot quieter around our apartment now haha, but it is nice to have a little space again.

This week was also the primary program! That sure motivated people to come to church! We had 2 families who we are working with come and 3 less active members came, some of which hadn't been in over 5 years. It was amazing to see the spirit (and silliness) that the little kids bring as they are singing about the gospel. It was amazing and all the people that came said they would come again next week!

This week is transfers as well! I will be staying in Yelm for at least another 6 weeks but I will be getting a new companion, Elder Monson. From what I have heard he has spent the last 7 transfers (almost a year) in Eatonville which is like Yelm, just 2 times bigger boundaries and no main town. He seems like a cool guy so I am excited!

Anyways, that is all for this week,

Till next time!

Elder Parker

1) A pumpkin that made me laugh more than it should have.

2) Me and my companion with Matt and Natayla, people we have been teaching for a while now.

3) Us and the McKenna elders trying to be cool. (We are spelling Yelm with our fingers)

Mission interviews

Week 14: Dad email

Mission conference was awesome! It was cool to see all 180 of us in one place. It was a great talk.

The turkey would taste good! However, it is kept as a pet haha. She taught it how to play soccer and it would kick the ball around and then chase it and kick it again. It was funny, although it was kind of scary. It was a lot of bird moving around haha.

Week 14: Hannah's email

There is this one girl named black Stephanie. She is famous here for bashing missionaries. It's so funny. I was walking down the street and she saw us out her window and came out her back door and tried to talk to us. She asked us to recite the 10 commandments in order and a bunch of other stuff and gave us anti literature that was hilarious to read. There is so much stuff they think we believe but don't. There was another guy that told me that because I was born, I was a murderer and killed Jesus. That was funny too.

Week 14: Mom email

The rain keeps getting pushed further and further back. The rain jacket that dad gave me is awesome and my shoes I brought are surprisingly waterproof. I walked through puddles last week and my feet stayed dry. I do kind of want boots to keep my feet warm however. The thermal garments still haven't come yet though which is sad. I've decided gloves might be something I want. My fingers freeze at night when I have to hold my flashlight out. Winter is cold haha! I guess I haven't ever really lived where it is cold. There is a missionary going home next week that says he has some gloves that I can have so I think I will be okay for now.

I really miss my southern food haha. I have had a couple people make me chicken and waffles though and that was awesome! There's a family here that loves to make new things and always challenges us to pick something new. I haven't made the biscuits yet. I just bought baking powder today though so I'll be making some shortly.

Week 14: Mission Tour

Hello all!

This week was fun as always. The highlight of it all however was when Elder Whiting, a member of the 70 came and spoke to us. It was really cool! The entire mission gathered together in a chapel in Tacoma and basically filled every pew. He talked a lot about serving with our heart, might, mind and strength. He said that most of us serve with our might and strength but we should try and serve more with our heart and mind as well. He told us to do all we can to continually seek guidance from the Holy Ghost instead of relying on ourselves. It was a really cool talk. He talked for like 2.5 hours too, without a script! Which I thought was pretty impressive. After that, the whole mission had lunch together. It was awesome to see people I knew from the MTC and who had gotten transferred out of my zone last transfer.

The work out in Yelm is picking up pace as well! We have found several people interested by knocking and have received a bunch of referrals from members and other missionaries. It is super cool that we have gotten to know the ward well enough for them to trust us with the people around them. That is always the hardest part about referrals.

Anyways, that's all for now! Have a good week!

Love

Elder Parker

Pictures!

1) the sunset while I was out knocking!

2) a turkey that was wandering out in a ladies yard we were doing service for.

Emma email

My companion and I don't have a lot in common. He is a very uhh...flamboayant man at times but one of the people I am living with is literally exactly me. He listens to the same music, plays games and we are just weird. Here he is with a giant piece of grass haha.

Mission Conference with Elder Scott D. Whiting

Surprise text

We are the Haywood family. We have the blessing of feeding both your songs every Wednesday! They are both such great Elders. We love them for their efforts and testimonies. You did a great job. They are nice young men. We have had three go out ourselves so we understand the need to have them taken care of. All our love.

Week 13: Mom email

I'm working my way through the Old Testament right now and that is an adventure! It is very interesting. There are so many details about like animal sacrifice and stuff. I can't wait to get into the latter part of it where it talks about our day and stuff.

You prepared me just fine haha. I can iron my shirts (some missionaries out here have VERY wrinkled shirts), do my laundry, fold my clothes, pump my own gas, follow a recipe (speaking of, can I get our biscuit recipe?) and I am on top of my budget which is a rarity out here. I can make my own doctor appointment and I know how to pop our hood (something my companion didn't know how to do).

It is crazy to think that when Rylan and Daniel hit the field I will be in my 6ish month mark! I got the deck. It ends up with me saying some funny sentences. It's been a blast playing. We play a lot of board games here every night during decomp before bed. It's awesome.

It has started raining. However, I have heard it is supposed to be a fairly dry winter this year so that's good.

Our mission president challenged us to reread the Book of Mormon highlighting every time it references Jesus. It has been really cool so far. I'm not even that far yet either! I'm doing it in the regular blue one. I want to have a collection of them with all the different things highlighted, like one with Jesus highlighted, one with everything about truth highlighted, one with tender mercies highlighted and so forth. It would be awesome.

I taught gospel essential last week! That was fun. I had never taught a lesson like that before. I think it went well. It made me nervous. Luckily the manual was on gospel library so I just used that. Out here I'll teach on the fly regularly.

We might have to have the Cambodian missionaries here come down to the Buddhist temple and translate for us! We have them, Samoan and Spanish missionaries here.

Love, 

Nathan

Week 13: Buddha?

Hello all! This week has been pretty fun! One day while we were out knocking we ran into this lady that told us about the local Buddhist temple and said if the gates are open it is open to the public and invited us to come! So a few days later as the 4 of us (the McKenna elders are still living with us) drove by and saw that the gates were open we decided to go! It was really cool in there. There were statues everywhere of like lizard things and a giant Buddha in golden robes. It was really cool. Nobody who worked there spoke English though sadly so we couldn't learn what any of the stuff meant. The whole place spoke Cambodian, which made picking the right bathroom hard! They were doing some yard work while we were there and it was cool to see monks in full orange robes and sandals with leafblowers cleaning the sidewalks. Everyone was super nice, definitely a cool experience. I've also been teaching a few families regularly still and they seem to be progressing rather quickly. The work out here in Yelm has started picking up all of the sudden. It's really cool. We have gotten 3 referrals from people in the ward and missionaries in other areas have found people who live out here as well. It is really cool to see all the hard work making an impact in so many people's lives. It continually blows my mind! Anyways, that's all for this week. I hope all of you had an awesome week as well!

Love 

Elder Parker

 A giant Buddha (taller than me) on somebody's front porch.

 The sun setting on Ranier in one of my few neighborhoods! (It looked closer in person).

A headstone of somebody at a cemetery I ended up finding while out knocking. The temple caught me off guard. It was really cool to see out here.

Week 13: Dad email

Hello! All is well. It's been cold here. I don't think I need a coat, or at least not yet. My sweater/rain jacket combo is working really nice so far.

I got the missionary deck! It's hilarious. It works great. All the enchantments are great. I love giving my trusty companion a blessing. It's awesome. It's been winning too! Apparently an 8/9 flying true believer is a force to be reckoned with. I've pulled off that combo too! It's awesome. Everyone gets a kick out of it. Thank you!!

I am still living with 4 missionaries. It's been a lot of fun. Transfers are the day before Halloween. I can't go to the ward party sadly because it is during 5-7s and I have to knock. However we don't proselyte Halloween night or Thanksgiving so we are going to go and buy Settlers of Catan today at the lgs to play on our days we can't go out and at night. So that should be fun, along with Magic.

Love, 

Nathan

Week 12: Mom email

Do you know if I can order garments online? I want to get thermal ones. It is getting cold haha. Right now my sweater is working though. We will see how long that lasts. Wearing it with my green raincoat might work too.

I have an Arabic Book of Mormon coming my way, that should be really awesome! Hopefully I can still read it.

We were at the house of the mother of 4 last night. She was super sad she missed church yesterday (her phone broke and didn't see our general conference message). She's had a rough week. Her cousin committed suicide a few days ago and she was shaken up about it. She told us every time she tries to grow closer to God something like that happens. But, as she keeps praying things get better. We shared Helaman 5:12 with her and she really wants to come to church next Sunday. Her faith is really impressive to see. We will probably teach her again sometime this week.

Thank you (mom ordered thermal garments to have sent to my apartment)! 

Well, my time is just about up. Thank you so much!! I'll talk to you next week.

Love, 

Nathan

Week 12: Need for Speed

Hello all! This week has been pretty normal to be honest, not a lot of craziness went down. I knocked on doors and taught a few lessons. It's been awesome to see people progress and grow a lot in such a short amount of time. 

There was one funny thing that happened though. Me and my companion were out knocking doors on a particularly desolate road and all of the sudden heard a loud noise coming towards us. We turn and look and all of a sudden a guy on a riding lawnmower cames out of the woods, drives past us, serpentines down the road for a long while and then drives his lawnmower back into the woods. It was really strange haha. Then later we found his house and he had like little hills and ramps and was driving over and going off them on his lawnmower. We tried to talk to him but he wouldn't acknowledge our existence and just kept racing. It was definitely an experience to say the least!

General conference was also this weekend! That was really cool. I watched all 4 sessions at 4 different places and got to sit in with a bunch of different families and got to know the ward better. It is funny to see the different conference styles. One family we went to was like, all in church clothes and was very formal (I think maybe because we were there) and another was having a barbeque in their pajamas and all the kids had brought their mattresses to the living room to sit on and color and stuff. Both were really good experiences. Conference had a lot of really good messages this time as well, especially about hardships coming to good people and how as we fight through them we become stronger and more faithful because of them. It is amazing to see that in my life as well as in the people I work with. 

Anyways, that's all for this week!

Till next time,

Elder Parker

Ps, this dog is more fur than dog.

Week 12: Dad email

I wish the guy on the lawnmower would have stopped! It would have been funny. It was really strange. I was very confused.

Conference was awesome. It was fun to spend it with members instead of at the church building.

Two hours of church will be interesting. I was talking to a lady who remembered when it was changed to 3 hours. It's weird to think that there are gunna be people that will never have experienced 3 hour church soon. Like people that we work with, it's a lot easier for them to come to 2 than it is for 3. I'm curious to see how many people will do the home study thing. Hopefully, it works out. I guess we will have to wait and see!

Seeing the doctor was an adventure. It was quite the process getting into the urologist with trying to get a referral and whatnot. The doctor there tho was a member and she was super excited to have missionaries. She wrote about us in her journal!

Love,

Nafen

Emma Email

Things are good out here. I'm doing good. I'm happy and I'm having a blast. The world is full of so many amazing people, and I have the privilege of getting to knock on their door. The kidney stone is gone. I'm used to walking around, talking is getting easier and I'm learning so much about the gospel. It's amazing.

No more stone!

Hello Sister Parker. This is sister Kevan the mission nurse in Tacoma Washington. Your son has all four limbs connected to his body including his head so nope this is not an emergency call. I want to put you at ease right away. I have some good news. He went to the urologist yesterday and they did an x-ray and they did not visualize any stone so he had passed the stone and it squeaked out for sure. The doctor before said, "with a stone that size you're going to feel it when you pass it," but he didn't. So good news, he is stone free! I hope you have a good day. I love your son bunches. He says hello and that he loves both of you very much. If you have any questions, feel free to call me.

Week 11: Mom email

I have been cold but today I get to go to the mall, so I am intending to buy a sweater. I have barely spent any personal money. I can't access my Well's Fargo account is the problem. I can use my check card for personal things like clothing and stuff. The Owen's sent me $40 a while ago. It was awesome! I used part of it to help pay for a lady's groceries when her card got denied! I have a separate card that gets refilled once a month for food and stuff.

I thought you might appreciate how much milk the 4 of us go through hahaha. Two of the missionaries here eat like nothing but protein shakes haha.

We have been playing Risk at night and it's been a blast. I'm bad at it, but it's fun and pretty simple. I study every morning on that couch. It's pretty nice.

Love 

Nathan

Week 11: Goats!

Hello everyone! This week was a fun week! We had a lot of awesome things happen. For starters, we knocked on the door of one house that was in the middle of nowhere, and like 10 goats just ran around the corner and surrounded us. It was really funny. There were ducks and pigs there too. It was very strange.

Another super cool thing happened while we were knocking too! We found this lady who invited us in. We taught her a little bit, came back the next day, and then she came to church! It was crazy to see how open and accepting she was and how the message was exactly what she needed at that moment in time. Hopefully she will continue to progress, along with her 4 children. Anyways, that's about all for this week. Things out here are going pretty good. 

Till next time

Elder Parker