Happy December! - November 26, 2012

Haha Sister Pilcher couldn't even make it to Thanksgiving - we've been listening to Christmas music since the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
I bought a basket for my bike last Monday - my back was killing me even just carrying a Book of Mormon, water, and my scriptures. I feel like such a pansy now, but it's okay. And it's a lot harder to balance haha. But no wipeouts yet! Yay!
Oh and President Taylor wanted us to make sure that our families knew about the mission blogs - one is what Sister Taylor puts together from most of our activities and the other is more FAQs and is awesome. Apparently! So we've been at emails for way too long already because all of us got super distracted by the blogs and how awesome they are! anyway here are the sites:
http://www.azphoenixmission.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.azphxmission.blogspot.com
Thanksgiving was good. Our rules were no sports or TV (duh), no visits unless you have an appointment, and dinner appointments had to be less than an hour. Our district got together in the morning for a couple hours and played Risk and a couple card games. Then we went and had lunch at an investigator's house (Carlos who's getting baptized on the 15th!). We went home and napped. That was awesome. Then our ward mission leader and his wife had us over for some Thanksgiving dinner! So we were home by like 6:30 I think and super bored. So we talked to the elders for a while and had scripture wars and pick up line contests (we have like 3 elders going home). Anyway. Slightly less than productive day. Thankfully I wasn't homesick until I saw all the pictures today at emails haha. I didn't eat anything crazy. Yay stateside English-speaking mission!
Sister Pilcher has recovered well. Although on Saturday haha she slept on her neck wrong and couldn't turn to the right so I got to drive the car that day! It was awesome. So nice to actually go the speed limit, feel safe, and have a bit more say on where we're going! And not have to have the phone! I'm feeling okay. I've been taking Vitamin C and drinking extra water.
I don't know how it works in Trenton's mission, but in our mission consecrated housing is like a 3-year contract and they pay the utilities every month I think. In Prescott, the lady we were living with had renewed her contract every time for like 30 years hahaha. So it's not a lot of money that they're given, but it saves the mission SO MUCH money by having them in houses rather than apartments.
Mom you asked about gift cards for Christmas - honestly we don't have much time to eat anywhere haha. So maybe like fast food - like Wendy's or Jack in the Box. It's not a bad idea, but something like Wal-Mart of Ross would be better. As sisters, we usually do okay on food during the month. And I could always use cardigans hint hint. Lightweight or heavier, whatever. Mine are wearing out so fast. But I do have to give credit for my Lone Peak roommates getting me into cardigans. I don't know. Tell people they don't have to give me anything for Christmas.
ALSO WHAT AM I GOING TO DO FOR CHRISTMAS? I'm debating sending a whole bunch of stuff to Hannah, Taylor, and Mom collectively because I have no idea what to get you anymore. I have some clothes/jewelry I've been collecting throughout the mission with y'all in mind (whoops I just gave it away but it's okay). Dad I'm not sure. Hahaha Matt and Elder Parks I have no idea. Oh dear. I'll probably try to send everything super early.
Sister Pilcher is doing well.
I don't want anything for Christmas.
2 more weeks until transfers.
And our zone for some reason has been on a kick about glasses - everyone wants RayBans and were super impressed by mine. I made sure to tell them that my mom and sister mostly picked them out because I was way too stressed out about having to wear glasses full-time and oh yeah leaving on my mission. Just thought you should know that everyone loves my glasses haha. Good pick!
10 Things I'm grateful for:
1. that initial burst of speed and excitement when you first start running
2. letters from the Anderson family - especially how Denise gives me all the facts about life (which is so awesome!) and then Ben gives me his humorous take on the same events and more (hilarious!)
3. how my parents email me every week!!!!!!!!!!
4. the way "Sister Parks" looks in any way and in any place (especially on my nametag)
5. the perception people have of me back home and what kind of a missionary I am - it really helps me want to become that
6. recognizing different ways the Spirit speaks to me and helps me along
7. books!
8. duh my most amazing family of all time
9. no food allergies!
10. LOVE - mostly being loved and being able to love
This week was fine. We were able to have a pass-off lesson with the zone leaders (so they could take a YSA from us) and it was so neat to be able to see them teach. They're really good. Gave us some things to work on.
And this email might be my shortest one ever! Yay!
Also, sorry that I don't get to respond to your personal email often. Just know that I seriously love them so much and am so grateful for them. I wish I could respond to everything you say because it's all so good! I love each and every one of you. What a great family we have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's great to be able to depend on each other.
I hope this week finds all of you well and wonderful. Keep smiling! And share mormon.org/christmas with everyone hahahahaha
ALL MY LOVE!
Sister Parks

Happy Turkey Day! - November 19, 2012

FAMILY!
Happy Thanksgiving! Isn't it great? Ha everyone was asking us yesterday at church what we were doing for Thanksgiving and we honestly had no idea what we were doing. Nor did we have any mission rules about what was going to happen. So we just said, "Uh we don't know. It'll be great though." So we got a lot of half invitations. These are our rules for Thanksgiving that were texted to us last night - "Thanksgiving standard will be regular AM schedule (exercise, studies), no sports or turkey bowl, no TV or TV sports, visits by appointment only. Dinners no longer than an hour and use time in apartment productively (weekly planning, cleaning apartment, etc)" Ha so it should be great!
Questions: No Dad, it was Elder Paul E. Koelliker of the 70. Although our mission does report to Elder Callister and he comes to talk to President Taylor every so often. Coral was coming along super great. Later in the week we felt like she was holding something back but for some reason we were never able to bring it up. We didn't see her Saturday but she said she was really excited to see us at church the next day and have her baptismal interview. Then on Sunday she didn't show up for either times. We haven't heard back from her. So yeah we're pretty concerned. We're going by today. Yes, we've heard a lot about the new youth teaching curriculum. It sounds so exciting! It'll definitely talk a lot more to be a teacher, but I know it'll be great for the youth! How exciting! Very Preach My Gospel style. Mom, thank you for signing me up for Fisher's wedding announcement. That will be great (slash crazy!) to get. And no, I didn't know about her date, so that's awesome too! Wow. So much is changing. So with greasy spoon style, we had 9 items for dinner (4 food items and 6 utensils/drink/napkin). Each one was coded by the mom, and we wrote down 1-9 and then she gave us options to fill. So like she had coded the silverware (knife, spoon, and fork) as S1, S2, etc. Each course was 3 items. So like for the first course I had put down the codes that ended up being bread, napkin, and spoon whereas Sister Pilcher ended up with spaghetti, ice cream, and salad haha. It was interesting but hard to explain. I'll have to tell you another time.
ALSO MORMON.ORG/CHRISTMAS SHOULD BE ENTIRELY UP AND RUNNING BY NOVEMBER 26TH. UTILIZE IT. THANK YOU.
And the Life of Jesus Christ Bible Videos are the most amazing things. I love them. lds.org/bible-videos

And now BRIEFLY through my week:
Monday: Great. Pday rocks. We were missing some elders at basketball, so I actually played Dad! I totally held my own. And scored some goals! I might play again today. We'll see.
Tuesday: Fine. We had a really great RS activity that night. But then we were super late to our appointment with Coral. But it gave Bishop and his wife some time to get to know her better. Yeah...
Wednesday: Good day. Great lessons with Carlos and Coral.
Thursday: So crazy! Usually we take out like 3 hours in the morning to do our weekly planning on Thursday, but we were so busy that we had to move weekly planning to Saturday. It was mostly so crazy because our two wards overlapped appointments and meal appointments and so yeah. We were a little overbooked. But we had time to practice for our musical number that we were going to sing the same day. Mom I totally held my own on alto. Bam. Thanks. The elders brought a member to play the piano so I could sing.
Friday: 5 hours with Elder Koelliker! Wow. It was one of those, "you're awesome, but here's 1 bijillion more hard things you need to be doing". Kind of rough. But good. We were combined with 3 other zones, including the Prescott Zone so I got to see a lot of missionaries that I know. It's fun knowing so many. It's also hard that so many have left too though. And - this is important - Sister Murdock officially agreed that we're living together at BYU after the mission. So when it comes time to sign up for housing (when is all of this btw? I'm kind of freaking out), you parents get to talk to Katy Murdock's parents in Dallas (Flower Mound? Highland? I don't remember) so we can live together. Then Barbara's baptism was that night and it was really great even though Sister Pilcher was super sick with a cold and about to pass out haha. Then as we were cleaning up after the baptism a youth dance started and I felt so awkward. We cleared out of there fast.
Saturday: Good day. Running around. We are so low on miles but Sister Pilcher is too sick to bike haha.
Sunday: UM SO YEAH. Awful. Coral was totally MIA, Sister Pilcher was still pretty miserably sick, and we lost 2 investigators. Then, I walk into Bethany Home's sacrament meeting and see some weirdly familiar faces - CHRIS AND SHEA STUDINGER FROM PRESCOTT!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember, the ones that got baptized in April? Oh my gosh it was such a happy moment. So I got to sit next to them in sacrament meeting. They had tracked me down through the missionaries up there and kept track of my transfers so that this weekend, when they were in town for a wedding, they knew exactly what building and sacrament service to come to to see me. Wow. It's so nice to loved. I miss them. I'm saving my temple trips next year though so I can go to their sealing in April! Wow. It was great. I mean that was great. Having investigators drop off (3 in a few hours?! Ugh) was hard. But it's all right. Trials are usually a smack in the face because the faith propelling experience that moves you forward is so worth it. I think. Wow. Life is hard ha.
The pictures are of my district before Elder Wheelwright left. The elder with the ridiculous glasses on is Elder Colovich, our district leader. Charles isn't looking in the picture at the baptism, but that's okay. He's getting baptized in January. Also, thanks Mom and Hannah for the curling iron because I used it like every day this week. Don't ask me how I found the time. But I did.
LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH HAPPY THANKSGIVING I LOVE THE GOSPEL AND YOU AND ETERNAL FAMILIES BECAUSE OF THOSE TWO. Yay!
Love, Sister Parks

SWEATER SEASON! - November 12, 2012

Hi. Yes. It has officially dropped below 70 degrees and everyone is freaking out. I am too. I honestly was not aware that the city of Phoenix dropped below 70. I thought that a "mild winter" meant that we didn't have the same temperatures here that we do in Austin. Oh dear. So Austin has "mild winters"? I think I'm becoming a total pansy. But I'm not complaining! I love the cold weather. It just seriously throws me off every time I walk outside haha. I'm pulling out my jackets, cardigans, and sweaters and actually getting to keep them on all day!


Yay this is where I get to answer all your questions!
Taylor: How's the weather? Chilly. Does it get cool at night? Yes. Do you need warmer clothes? Sweaters are nice. But I figure if I survived a winter in Prescott I should technically have enough clothes to last me through this Phoenix chilly season. Ugh so no. My closet is in a constant state of change it seems. Outfits get super boring when you wear them over and over haha. Not complaining though!
Mom: No there was no post it note – you had written it directly on the box so I knew exactly what you were talking about with not calling me fatwood. Thanks for explaining it! The shoes fit all right! With the heel grips I put in them they fit just fine. Thanks! Haha it was weird getting used to wearing even slightly raised heels again. I'm going to have a super hard time going back to my 3-inch heels apparently. Yes, my birthday balloons survived the trip. Haha they were fine. I have no idea if Elder Wheelwright is related to the Wheelwrights in our ward. I AM SO JEALOUS THAT BROTHER SALISBURY ASKED YOU TO SPEAK WITH HIM. Ugh I'm telling you it's on my bucket list. Seriously. Brother Salisbury is not allowed to be released as a high councilor until I have the opportunity to be his opening act. Haha I wish I had time to write a talk for you. You know everything about the youth! I'd just recommend talking about how they need to be prepared! We're going to have a whole bunch more of little 18 and 19-year-old youths taking our their endowments. They need to have testimonies now and be doing everything to gain those testimonies. Oh and Mom our mission is trying to bring in more special musical numbers, so I'm now being asked to sightread Sally DeFord music too... God is really blessing me Mom because some days I totally can't do it and other days I can. It's freaky. Thankfully I only play when our zone rehearses, not for actual mission performances.
Dad: Yes my biking shorts were a very good investment. I might need another pair because I came out with one but they're definitely too short, so the ones I have now Sister Bailey left me when she went home. I honestly think I'm doing okay. I always think I need more clothes but that is probably incorrect. Haha. Thanksgiving I think we'll just be eating at a member's home and going in at 6... so yeah. We don't have any plans right now haha. Yeah we heard that we're literally doubling the number of sisters in our mission come late January/early February (whenever the next transfer is). So everyone will be training probably. Looks like I'll finally get to be senior companion hahaha. Oh dear. I agree with Elder Parks - responsibility is not my forte. I think I haven't had much responsibility yet because I get prideful too. I'm power hungry! Hahahahaha. Well sort of. Then I get responsibility like being a solo sister on my Spanish-ish assignment and I just go into panic stress mode. God has to work very slowly with me. That is very obvious.

MONDAY: New investigator named Coral! She's great. Super prepared and showed up out of nowhere with her boyfriend. Owns a beauty salon. Might be giving us a spa day today... we'll see. Very interesting. I honestly don't know how this keeps happening to us but we'll be super grateful for all these ridiculously prepared people that keep showing up out of nowhere.
TUESDAY: Was fine. Oh and my ballot came on election day. Wow. It was sad haha because obviously I wasn't able to vote. Just a day late!
WEDNESDAY: We taught Coral again. That was nice. Then we got to go and bear our testimonies about the Personal Progress program to one of our ward's Young Women groups. That was super great. I hadn't really considered what an impact Personal Progress had on me developing my own personal habits of prayer and scripture study. I learned a lot and my testimony grew significantly from it! Amazing. Hello inspiration!
THURSDAY: We went on splits that night so I was with our new assistant ward mission leader and his wife. We were teaching a woman named Sara who has so many doubts it's sad. She's had great spiritual experiences that have helped her to know that God is there but then she starts doubting it! I don't know why. Also, children have randomly started loving me since I became a missionary and can't hold them... Children did not like me before my mission when I could hold them. Just saying. It's interesting.
FRIDAY: We had a meeting with our whole zone! Love it! We thought it was only going from 2:30 to 4:30 but turns out it was from 2:00 to 5:00 and we stayed an extra 30 minutes to learn Sally DeFord's SATB version of "Come Thou Fount" which we're singing this week when Elder Kolliker (probably butchering his name) comes to see us. Elder Hastings, Elder Wainwright, and I all took turns trying to play it and trying to learn our singing parts too haha. It was funny. I told Elder Fagersten I'd try to learn it so I could play it when we practice again this week. But yeah zone meeting was really good. We have good zone leaders and great elders in our zone. That night we had dinner with a family and they did it "greasy spoon" style where the meal was coded and so whatever you put in was what you had for that course. I did pretty well and had a utensil and food for every course, but Sister Pilcher had spaghetti, ice cream, and salad her first course with no silverware haha.  It was funny to watch. Not sure I'd recommend that for when y'all feed the missionaries, but it was fun. After that we met up with Hermanas Folsom and Holmes in the Phoenix Stake (right now I'm serving in the Phoenix North Stake) for exchanges. Isn't that cool?! President announced in August that we're going to start like every quarter or so going on exchanges with Spanish sisters which is so great. Sister Pilcher went with Sister Holmes back to their area and I stayed here with Hermana Folsom.
so then on SATURDAY: I was the "exchange conductor" and led the exchange in my area. Thankfully we had a super busy day. Hermana Folsom is really great! Turns out that we entered the MTC the same date, but since she learned Spanish I never met her and she came out into the field a transfer after me. But we'll go home together come next August. And she's a triplet. Crazy. We had a couple interesting lessons that day with people that I honestly couldn't discern their intentions and then went to a baby shower for a bit. Almost had a joint lesson with the Spanish elders (the mother is a LA in our ward and her father is a LA in their ward) but of course the family wasn't there for our lesson. I'm telling you - every time we have an opportunity to teach with the Spanish elders it doesn't work out haha. That night Barbara had her baptism interview with Elder Colovich and is good for baptism this Friday! We're excited for her. Her husband Charles needs to stop smoking and then he'll get baptized too. Hermana Folsom and I got to attend part of the adult session of stake conference, and then we left early so I could drive her back and get my regular companion back. I love exchanges. I always learn a lot.
And then SUNDAY: was so awesome. Our stake conference was a broadcast from Salt Lake. Elder Holland and President Eyring spoke. It was so good. They talked a lot about missionary work and how members need to be more involved. Yes! It was very sweet because Elder Holland talked about how we feel sending our sons and daughters out into the field and how we want them to be successful so as such we should help our missionaries (other people's sons and daughters) that have been sent to us here. He talked about how these times are different with increased suspicions, dangers, offense at invasion of privacy, and gated communities. He asked the 95 stakes in Arizona that he was addressing how we can possibly send missionaries to places we ourselves wouldn't take them. It was so great. We missionaries were like, "THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!" He talked about his apostalic calling and said of him and the other apostles that "what we have always said, we really do know" and bore testimony about the Godhead and the Restoration. It was beautiful. He talked about how there's a greater urgency in the world and how we need to be more, do more, and go farther. He said near the end of his talk about missionaries that "we want them to be successful, so be prepared because they're coming in great numbers". It's true! We have no idea how it's going to work with all the missionaries we're going to be getting next year. Then President Eyring spoke about being a wise optimist. It was so great! He quoted the scripture in D&C 71 I think it is about how no weapon formed thee shall prosper and how that is our heritage. Our faith in Jesus Christ allows us to be optimists. He then talked about how exciting it will be with all these missionaries coming home younger from their missions and how they'll be on fire and fearless and spread that to their children. Finally, President Kimball's vision of "every member a missionary" will come true! It was exciting. Wow. So good. Everything after that was not as exciting haha.
And now it's Monday and my email of course is very long again. You should see if you can watch or listen to the stake conference! It was so good. So good. President Eyring and Elder Holland weren't the only speakers, but they were the best in my opinion. I feel very blessed to be here in Arizona at this time and having the opportunity to talk to so many different types of people. I feel that I'm being prepared to constantly be a missionary the rest of my life and never having an reservations in talking to anyone about the happiest part of my life. Arizona is preparing for something big - I'm not sure what. But it's going to have 6 temples soon. Our ward leaders and us as missionaries have been having a lot more meetings lately with people of great importance in the church. It's exciting to be a part of.
I'd say this email is way too long so I'll go. LOVE Y'ALL LOTS.
As always, Sister Parks
P.S. Can someone get me the mission address for Sara Jolley? She should be in Ecuador by now. I think. Morty wrote me from Tampa! Little Sister Mortensen. And I haven't heard from Hermana Shea Moon yet, but I'll probably write her soon. When is Brittany Fisher getting married?

Hello! - November 5, 2012

Well folks haha it's been another interesting week. I think missionary work brings the greatest joy only because it brings the greatest hardships too.
Mom what in the world is "fat wood"? It was written all over the shoe box that had one of my presents in it (p.s. as a side note, I totally thought for a moment that you'd sent me tacos from H-E-B for my birthday and I was super confused until I saw the box was already open and there was a shirt inside hahaha) and all you wrote to explain it was, "Not you Hil!"
Dad: Yes, when it's transfer week, my Pday is Tuesday, not Monday. Sorry for forgetting to warn you! The next round of transfers isn't until December. Pavel didn't show up for our appointment :( and he didn't come to church. Why do people lie to us?! I don't get it. We'll try and see him again this week because the gospel in his life would be AMAZING. Ugh no I never got my voting ballot. I am so sad. We got mail from the office twice this week but it still wasn't there. My favorite meal this past week... Sister Pilcher made this awesome chicken/broccoli/potato stew/chowder thing in our crock pot. It was awesome. Normally we're in members' homes for dinner like 6 days a week (I know - it's awesome) but this week we had one! Crazy. That is super odd. With our two wards though we have a plethora of people signing up to feed us. This week was just really weird for some reason.
So now for the week's report!
TUESDAY: Pday is the greatest thing ever. Not really but it's pretty awesome. I took a nap. I love naps. Then that night we had dinner with our ward mission leader and then the weekly missionary coordination meeting which went well. Lots of involvement and we just got a new assistant ward mission leader. Then we had an appointment with Quiah. We had some members with us, and we kind of forgot that Quiah's apartment complex has a lot of cockroaches. A lot of cockroaches. They were like on the couches with us. Our members were really distracted hahahaha. But it was a good lesson! Quiah is very prepared and has so many good questions and intentions. His lesson on Thursday was at the church hahaha.
WEDNESDAY: Tuesday and Wednesday were both bike days because we're totally out of miles. Thankfully we're going to the chiropractor today. Yay for state-side missions!!!! Anyway but being on bike is awesome. It's super tiring, but it gets you pumped for the work in a great way. And thankfully I have bike shorts because I cannot keep my skirts down. Wow. I've seriously tried every method I can think of and every skirt I have. Impossible. Sister Pilcher has been encouraging me to take the lead in biking (like I go in front of her haha and she expects me to know where I'm going - it generally works!) but it's also good because I've had a couple almost wipe outs haha. The first one I did some maneuvering around a palm tree and garbage can and almost lost my balance on the grass and the second time I tried to press the crosswalk button, but I didn't slow down enough. So I safely dismounted and watched my bike fall over a foot away from me. Then, classic Hilary, I raised my fists high in the air like I did it on purpose just for all the cars driving past us at the intersection. Riding bikes is so fun though! Oh and then we stayed inside for Halloween and were super bored. I think I watched every church video we own. And we went to bed like an hour early. But I'm glad we had to go in at 6 because around 4 there were some really sketchy people riding their bikes around town like us except they had creepy masks on haha. Can you see why I'm not a huge fan of big cities? Smaller places you can escape the craze a bit more.
THURSDAY: We did some tracting (door-to-door) in a really pretty neighborhood. We didn't have much success at all, but people were very cordial and a little more honest about how uninterested they were in hearing our message. Oh well. But hey in Phoenix they have this crazy concept of "winter grass". I think it's rye grass, and they replace their nasty summer grass around this time of the year and let me tell you winter grass is gorgeous. Kind of creepily gorgeous because it's super green and super thick. I always want to touch it. It looks fake but it so soft! Anyway. Creepy moments from Sister Parks done. Later that night we had two appointments with Quiah and Barbara that both went really well. Fun!
FRIDAY: District meeting and district lunch! I love our district. Our zone leaders were a little moody but that's okay. Our new Spanish elder, Elder Scott, seems pretty cool. We might all be lying to him currently though because we're pretending that Elder Laititi is the district leader, not Elder Colovich... yeah we're missionaries and have no entertainment. It's okay. We're going to see how long we can keep it going. So Elder Laititi conducted district meeting. Oh and Mom you'll be happy to know that with our Spanish elder, Elder Wheelwright, transferred, I'm now the only person in our zone (so like the 12 missionaries in the Phoenix North Stake) that plays the piano. So I'll always be playing at meetings now haha. Oh and I learned a hymn the night before (87 - God is Love) for Josh's baptism Saturday morning because we forgot to find a pianist. Fun! Anyway. Then Friday night our appointment with Pavel fell through, so we went with our ward mission leader over to an investigator that we've had a really hard time getting in contact with. Well they were home and his wife was really sick, so our ward mission leader was able to give a blessing and we got to talk to him and overall it was just great. He was really touched that we've always been there for him and said he'd be at church on Sunday. Which he was!
SATURDAY: Crazy day. We were running all over the place but nothing was really working. Also, a couple homeless people came in while we were eating lunch at this Mexican place. One of them was apparently Mormon and they asked us for money. I don't know. It was a really weird situation. We felt really weird about it. I don't know. Maybe I'll tell you about it another time. I just have a hard time of being able to balance that concept of that we're all beggars and that we need to help people according to their wants, not their needs (isn't that what it says in King Benjamin's speech in Mosiah?). We took Barbara to a baptism in our district leader's ward which was really great. She was happy to see how her own baptism will be on the 17th and is excited.
SUNDAY: was crazy church as always. Lots of meetings. Lots of people we still don't know but we're working on it! :)
Elder Paul Kolikker (I'm probably butchering that spelling) is coming to visit our mission in a couple weeks. He's from the 70. Apparently they'll be meeting with us as multiple zones and they might come visit our apartments. Weird right? A member of the Quorum of the 70 could be inspecting my apartment for cleanliness. Random. But it'll be very good. All of us are supposed to prepare a talk on a Preach My Gospel subject because he's going to call on some of us to give it. Wow! We're having lots of great opportunities in our mission right now!
Today will be good. We're happy to have miles again. And this email is ridiculously long so I'm going to go. Boy.
The gospel is true!
I love y'all so much. And Mom and Dad - thank you for writing me every week. Apparently that is a rarity in my district at least, and your emails really help me for the rest of my week. It really does mean a lot.
LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sister Parks

HIIIIIIIIIII - October 30, 2012

Hello my darling family!
We're sitting here in the family history center waiting for the text to tell us if we're being transferred or not. Yay.
Let's see. Happy early Halloween! We have to be in at 6.
MONDAY: GOT MY BIRTHDAY PACKAGE. IT WAS AWESOME. I OPENED A PRESENT A DAY. It's all so cute!!!!!! Thank you!!!!!!! We were expecting to have a lesson with James to discuss his baptism on Saturday or Friday and it ended up being a pizza party. It was super uncomfortable. But we managed to go over the baptism questions with him and set an appointment for Tuesday.
TUESDAY: Tuesday was crazy. We were biking and ran into this guy who was clearing dead trees. We offered to help and called the Spanish elders to come over and help us too. Turned out the guy was super needy and rude so we left after some hard labor moving giant tree limbs and truck sections. Sad. That night though we had coordination (this is the meeting led by the ward mission leader that we have weekly where we make specific plans on how we're going to help those we're working with) and two lessons. We had to be very blunt with James and dispell some false doctrine that he believed. So that was interesting.
I'M NOT BEING TRANSFERRED. So.... Ha. Yeah. Please pray for me.
WEDNESDAY: We met with our young ward mission leader in the other ward and started developing a ward mission plan. It's nice to see him taking his responsibilities more seriously and realizing there's more to it. We stopped by the Spanish elders' apartment because they had our mail and we had Elder Anderson's voting ballot. Anyway we went a different way than we normally do and knocked on a door that was opened by a half-naked Mexican man... yeah... awkward. It was pretty funny though  - we had a good laugh.
THURSDAY: Dinner with our Bishop which was good. James had his interview with President Taylor for baptism. We were on bike all day because we're completely out of miles. It was funny.
FRIDAY: District meeting was awesome as usual. Then we had lunch together at a district. A member happened to be there and paid for our meal! It was so sweet. Then James was baptized that night. There were a ton of people there, including President and Sister Taylor. The Spirit was really strong, and Sister Pilcher and I gave a presentation on the Atonement. A lovely baptism.
SATURDAY: Service project at 7 in the morning. We got to wear the Mormon Helping Hands vests! I was so excited. We were cleaning up a golf course and it was super hard work. We were totally drained haha. The Spanish elders sang happy birthday to me in Spanish. There was a wedding that night for Angela and Josh at the church right after the Halloween party, so everyone was in costume.
SUNDAY: Josh was baptized at 8 am. Very nice too. There was a surprisingly large amount of people there, so that was wonderful. Lots of meetings.
YESTERDAY: Bikes. We met a really cool guy named Pavel from Poland. He was a sociology major! We talked for a super long time outside his house near where our bikes were parked. Then we went home for lunch and Sister Pilcher fell asleep during it and then she woke up and started getting sick. So we stayed home for a bit while she kept getting sick. It was gross.
Ha I have no idea what to talk about. I got a really sweet letter and card from Grandma. That was nice.
It's good to get your emails. Thank you very much. Love y'all a ton!
Love, Sister Parks