Week 92: E-mail April 23, 2018. A week of miracles.

This week has been incredible, just like all the weeks of the mission. But we have seen some amazing miracles in our area. I will just name a few.

1. People have been contacting us. I have never had that happen in all my mission. But we have been walking in the street and people will call us over to find out who we are and where is our church. Then one day while we were eating lunch a lady asked us ¨what do I need to do to get a visit from you guys?¨ How awesome!

2. We have really been trying to look for families and people to teach. We felt that we should go by the houses of members and contact around there for new investigators.  The second time we did that the first door we knocked a man let us into his house, told his wife and all his kids (7) to come listen to us. His wife in now reading the Book of Mormon and they want to come to church and be married.

3. The Lord has allowed us to work with many of His Children. We have a less active family who are awesome. The husband told us the thing he most desired in his life was change. He has since come to church, accompanied us, and we have a family night later at his house tonight. His wife has been sharing the gospel with her neighbors. And this week their less active nephew came to church.

4. My companion, he is always so happy to get out of the house to go and contact. He is always positive and is so willing to do the Lord’s work. We are having a blast!

5. The Book of Mormon- I have seen how happy people become by reading the Book of Mormon. And when we do this while explaining the plan of salvation, people want to be baptized, it is a natural consequence. I am so grateful for the power of the Book of Mormon.

Everyday I wake up so so so grateful to be a missionary. I can’t believe that God would trust me so much to participate in His work. I love being an instrument in His Hands. I love being able to proclaim the gospel to whomever I can, to help their lives become free from sin. I know God is real, that He has power to do everything, and that He loves us. He loves every single one of His children and what He most desires is that we come home to Him.

I love you all,

Ever gracious to be a missionary,

Elder Parson

Another part of our area

Our area

Playing Football

Lunch on P-Day

1. our lunch today
2. playing football
3. our area
4. another part of our area — with Alex Parson.

Week 91: E-mail April 16, 2018. New investigator...Anderson

So this email will be real quick, because the hour is almost up...

This week was really awesome.  We had the opportunity to visit many less actives and read the Book of Mormon with them.  I am still amazed by the power of the Book of Mormon;  it really is the best tool along with the Atonement of Jesus Christ to change peoples lives. I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to use it daily to become more like Christ.

Also we witnessed some miracles this week.  We were contacting way late at night and we were able to enter into an old contact's house.  They let us in and the son, Anderson, began to read the Book of Mormon and came with us to church.  The Lord is always preparing people to receive the blessings He has prepared for them.

Love you all,

Elder Parson

Week 89: E-mail April 2, 2018. General Conference...Layton, Utah, to get a Temple.

Well, I know we aren't supposed to scream during General Conference, but I definitely did.  It was amazing! I am so happy that Layton finally has a temple.

 

Our week was awesome!  It was holy week so we were able to visit a lot of members and have family nights.  Also, we had Leadership Council so I was able to see all of my old friends from my group.  It was awesome to be able to hear our Mission President talk.  He explained the importance of always using the Book of Mormon.

It was also amazing to hear General Conference.  I am so happy that we have a Prophet here on the earth to lead and guide us.

Well, I've got to go but I know this gospel is true and that the best is yet to come.

Love

Elder Parson

Friends and Missionaries from the Zone

Elder Parson's MTC (CCM) Group

Elder Sorbonne and Elder Parson

Zone T-shirts

Week 88: March 26, 2018. Paula's baptism.

So this week was amazing! It flew by, just like always. 

To start off this week, it was incredible.  I had exchanges with two of my favorite elders in the Mission, Elder Monson and Elder Sorbonne. It was so much fun.  I have so much respect for these two elders. ME and Elder Monson were together so we had a blast doing exercises together and contacting.  It was super fun.  We started contacting with family history and it was incredible to see how many people were receptive to learn about their ancestors.  It was an awesome activity.

Also, this week we had the baptism of Paula, the granddaughter of Patricia, a recent convert.  It was awesome.  She was super excited to make this covenant with God.  It was also super spiritual when her grandma gave testimony about how much the gospel has changed her home.  I am so grateful to know them.

A miracle that I saw this week was that we had been having a difficult week finding new investigators and I was starting to get stressed.  But I realized that this is the Lord's work.  He will make it progress and I just need to trust that He will help me. And that day, we had 7 investigators at church.  While we were waiting for a lesson, members just brought their friends and had us teach them. We found 4 new investigators that day.  The Lord really makes miracles in this world. 

I love you all.

Elder Parson

Week 87: March 19, 2018. The Temple..."Losing our lives to help others change theirs".

So this week was awesome! We have been super pumped to find news this week and we have been trying to do everything possible. It has been such a blast. 

We have some incredible investigators that have been so kind to us. One of our investigators, Fransisco, took us to the temple this morning. He has really been trying to change the peace in his home and he and his wife are progressing to baptism and their marriage. 

Also we have been having a lot of success looking for old investigators that were investigating a while back but have since stopped investigating. We were able to find an amazing couple that are so receptive to come to church and be baptized. 

The Lord is truly blessing us with miracles in this area.

I had an awesome opportunity to do exchanges at 7:00 on Sunday night. We were really trying to reach our goal of 10 new investigators and I went with a recently returned missionary to contact. We were able to contact for 2 hours and although we didn't find news, it was such a blast to do everything possible to help people. 

That is the best part about this work, losing our lives to help other people to change theirs. 

I love you guys!

Elder Parson

Week 86: March 12, 2018.

Elder Parson's computer malfunctioned and his message was accidentally deleted.

So I had already written my message, but for some reason it just got deleted.  Sorry that this message will be super short.  The coolest part of this week was our investigators. We had 7 investigators come to Church and one of our investigators asked in Church, "How can I have more faith?".  He is trying to stop drinking coffee and has stopped drinking alcohol in the week and it was incredible to see his change. 

Also we had lunch with some investigators that actually lived in US for a few years and they are amazing. I am so grateful that the Lord has allowed me to meet them. 

Have a great week,

Week 85: March 5, 2018. New Companion -- Elder Campos and Visitor Center Activity.

Elder Parson didn't write a group e-mail for a few weeks but we were staying connected through "Google Hangout".  He was working on essays for BYU scholarship applications that were due on March 1st.

He did send this short note today along with a voice recording...

So these past few weeks, I haven't sent an email.  Sorry about that but they have been 3 amazing weeks. 

First off, we were able to have 2 baptisms which were amazing.  

I also received a new companion Elder Campos because Elder Sorbonne was called to be the new Assistant. But we have been having a blast in Ciudad Jardin. This week was great.  We had a giant ward activity called the Visitor Center where we basically visited all the members of Ciudad Jardin inviting them to bring their friends to the activity. On Saturday all day we were just inviting everyone we could to come to the activity and we were able to have some people come into the center. We finished that night so tired but we both felt so happy to have been able to do everything possible so that people can hear the amazing message of the Gospel of Christ. 

That is the best part of the mission, to be a Representative of Christ. 

I love you guys!