HIIIIIIIIII - June 18, 2012

Hi Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whew I've been waiting a week to say that.
So crazy story. We had helped this one lady in the ward get ready for a funeral and she wrote us thank you notes in the mail. BUT she had our first names on the cards!!!!!! We were super freaked out (in a normal way) because only the elders know our first names, and we haven't shared our first names with any of our members. So we finally asked her and she said they were on the ward directory!!!!! Sure enough - she logged on to the ward directory on lds.org and there's a "Missionary" section now that shows the missionaries serving in your ward and from your ward! So our first names are totally right there available to all our wards! I just went and logged in myself, but I can't look up the wards I'm serving in! But I did get to see myself serving from the Shoal Creek Ward. Cute.
Also, I was watching some mormon.org profiles the other day and I think I found Morty's mission president! Crazy. I think. Because she's going to be serving in the Florida Tampa Mission. It's www.mormon.org/bruce.
It's wabbit season here in Prescott like all the day. I'm trying to catch one. We used to see a lot of wildlife on our morning runs/walks but lately all we see (since it's getting brighter and brighter in the mornings) are lizards (everywhere!!!!!!) and birds. Anyway. But during the day I try and catch rabbits. I've gotten like within 4 feet of one! I was coming up behind it super slow (well not really because we had an appointment) but then it turned around and looked at me right as I was picking up my foot so I had to freeze with one foot off the ground and balance in perfect stillness like a ninja! Then it ran away. Bleh. I still have no idea what I'll do when I catch a wabbit! But I will!
This week I've been working more on putting my whole heart into something. We were talking about it a lot this week and I was trying to think of times that I put my whole heart into anything. I mostly came up blank. So maybe that's another reason I'm out here on a mission.
We're going shopping today I think because we got an email last week about our clothes and we all feel slightly guilty and packed away a couple. And it's getting super hot (okay only like 90s) and we have to figure out what to wear.
Point being - this email is completely useless but it's all I have time for. Love you all so much! The church is TRUE. It changes lives.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sister Parks

Happy Father's Day - June 11, 2012

Right? Isn't Father's Day this Sunday? Bahahahaha I hope Trenton didn't miss it. Anyway. Happy Father's Day! Dad - know that I love you. Hopefully I'll get out a card or something to you!!!!!!!!!!!! Bleh I'm amazing at how there's no time to write letters. At all. I feel so bad for getting so upset at all our elders when they used to not write us.
President and Sister Taylor sent a reminder email to us sisters about our clothes and how we need to be better about what we're wearing. I'm pretty sure that the MTC or something needs to have a clothing store so you can buy clothes when you get there (ok fine they have this little 90s getup that is super lame and way expensive). All I'm saying is that the more they tell us to watch what we're wearing, the more I stress out about it. I'm looking on http://missionary.lds.org/dress-grooming/sister/?lang=eng right now just looking at what I should be wearing. WHERE do they find these clothes?! Anyway. Sorry. Stressed just a little bit. Please pass along the encouragement to my old roommates preparing for missions that they need to have basically those exact outfits and if they're remotely concerned about an article of clothing, buy something new now and don't bring it. I have a couple skits and shirts I should probably send home, including that BEAUTIFUL rose shirt Hannah gave me, but that's because it keeps ripping and I can't stop myself from wearing it unless I actually put it in a box to go ship home.
NOT THAT THIS IS A PLEA FOR MORE CLOTHES. I just need to be comfortable with like 5 outfits rather than be uncomfortable with 8.
UM WHAT IS ARIEL ENGAGED? CLARIFICATION PLEASE. TO BEN? Haha it's times like these that I miss instant communication. I don't know how people back in the day were able to stand it.
Oh and I had a dream last night but I don't remember what it was. What I do remember though is waking up and thinking to myself, "Well. I think I'd like to be an author." So I guess I'm going to be a writer in 18 months when I get back from my mission. Wholly cheese that seems like it's so far away.
So this week. Pretty good! We have some new investigators! We have someone that just moved into our ward from our zone leader's ward who has a baptism date hahaha. We always steal their baptisms from ward boundaries. So funny. So Doug was an interesting answer to our prayers for a baptism in June hahaha. Poor elders.
I'm sending you pictures of my hair. But do you like it? I like it a lot. My parts are always crazy and all over the place because it's so windy in Prescott and it's so short that is goes wherever it wants! Awesome. The only trick now is trying to get it not to deflate so bad by the end of the day. So Sister Falke and I were looking at and comparing all the different types of mousses and gels etc today when we hear this lady behind us say, "Oh my gosh you two have the prettiest curls! Is that natural?!" So yes, dry your tears of joy, Mom. The lady proceeded to tell us how much money she's spent trying to get her hair to look like ours and we both laughed a little because that's exactly what both of our mothers tell us. Pretty crazy.
Oh my gosh it was so funny. Our district and zone leaders had some leadership training meetings this week and picked up our mail from the mission office. Well Bishop Jamison and Brother Pace write me very regularly at that address, so I almost always have mail when they go to pick it up. And so I guess the elders were kind of getting jealous (excuse me for laughing SO HARD right now even as I think about it) because Elder Nelson finally asked, "Do you just get all your mail sent to the mission home?!" (rather than to my real address in Prescott) and I said simply, "No". In fact, I'd just gotten letters from Taylor, Matt, and Lizzie!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway they all were just baffled at how much mail I supposedly get and it was super funny. I guess I'm just very blessed. :) Bleh that was funnier when it happened. As I read over it it just sounds self-absorbed. Oh well. You know my true intentions.
Also guess what?! I'm getting a tan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not kidding. Granted - it's the worst tan I could ever have probably (my feet are darker than my toes, my arms are darker than my shoulders, and my calves are darker than my thighs) but it's TOTALLY HAPPENING. I'm not burning even. Just getting darker. It's the freakiest thing I've ever seen, but my companions tell me it's normal and that most people call it "a tan". It's pretty amazing. And then I realized that by the end of this summer my legs will totally be darker than Trenton's hahahahahahahahahaha. Isn't that funny. Bahaha. Oh and my nose keeps getting darker than the rest of my face. That's annoying haha.
Oh and funny story. Sort of. We were driving along the road we live on which is nicknamed 21 Curves. We've seen some javalinas there a couple times, and Sister Falke one night launches into about how sometimes she wonders what it would be like if we actually ran over a javalina (there are no streetlights in Prescott [okay maybe like 5] so only 21 Curves it's very possible for this to happen) and for some reason I told her that it'd be totally fine and she shouldn't worry about it. She proceeded to ask what made me say that, and so I related to her the incident very early in the morning out in Yoakum when Uncle Daryl accidentally ran over and killed 10 feral hogs and how his suburban only had a few dents and blood stains. My companions think our family is crazy. Hahahaha but who would have thought I'd ever be able to tell that story again?! Funny. Oh and I saw little quail chicks this week! SSSSSSooooooooooooo cccccccuuuuuuuuuuttttttttteeeeeee.
So in answer to the questions that I can remember from all of your glorious emails!
1. I'd tell you to edit my emails, but I think that would just stress everyone out a bit. So I'll try and be better about saying "this is for family only" or "don't put this on the blog" and use spellcheck so you don't have to worry too much about me embarrassing myself more than I already do in these haha. But thank you!
3. Out of the Equalized Missionary Fund, each missionary in my mission receives $125 a month. This money is to be used for groceries, grooming items (so hair products, makeup, shampoo, etc), laundry, cleaning supplies (my mission actually supplies most of these), haircuts, and postage for mail to family and others. We can use our personal funds whenever we choose, but like Trenton said, we're encouraged to be super frugal and not buy more than we need. So like I could have used my missionary card for my haircut, but then I wouldn't have had enough money for groceries, so I used my personal card. We have a separate card that pays for gas and car inspections etc. We're reminded often that the funds we use are very sacred. We try and be smart with our money but have room for improvement for sure. Bike repairs, clothes, and pre-existing medical conditions (like my prescriptions) are paid with personal funds. That's another reason why we don't go out to eat very often because it sucks up our missionary funds pretty quickly. Does that help Dad? I wasn't quite sure what your question was.
4. Yes! All those summers playing softball at Mo-Ranch totally paid off. I was super happy.
Also, I saw a really cool house the other day. Well not really. But I thought the siding was cool, and since the people supposedly weren't home, I took the liberty of examining their siding. It looks like they bought it in the normal white color one usually buys, and then they painted it gray without any primer. So it ended up looking like faded wood or something. Anyway it was super cool. I liked it a lot.
I'm eager sometimes to get home and start doing temple work and family history. There are really cool promises with that in my patriarchal blessing. So while I know I shouldn't wish to be going home (especially when I still have quite a few months to go) but sometimes it's exciting to think about the possibilities there!
We have exchanges this week so I get to see Sister Bailey again for a bit! Yay!
Ah the church is so true! I can't imagine going through life without all the wonderful details and truths that come from the restoration. I was thinking about the other day all the effort that goes into one person getting baptized and staying active in the church. In the course of my mission, I'll probably contact thousands of people. Out of those thousands, only a few hundred will actually be interested at all. Out of those remotely interested, only a few will be diligent enough to listen to at least one lesson. Out of those few, even less will continue through the lessons and receive a testimony for themselves that they need to be baptized. Unfortunately, not even all of those people will actually be baptized and stay active. BUT it reminded me of a talk I think given just in the last priesthood session of general conference where I think Bishop Edgley just stated that yes, it's worth it. It's worth it for that one person and for the thousands that they then go and influence. Yes, there's this massive funnel of people over the course of time that we go through to find those that God has prepared to receive all the truths of the gospel and accept them. BUT the funnel can go the other way too as that one person makes those changes in their lives and continues to spread that even just to their family. I think about all the many people that the two elders who participated in Mom and Dad's conversions met, talked with, and taught and how much that has affected so many lives in just one generation. It's amazing! The worth of every single soul is great in the sight of God. This is a very sweet and inspiring work. It truly is the Lord's work. It wouldn't work if it wasn't! I hope that made some sense.
Well I better go and see if I can respond to your personal emails real quick! Love you all so much! Thanks so much for the emails - they are worth so much to me and really make so much of a difference. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sister Parks

Mid-transfer week

Hello family!
This email is going to be all over the place because I'm emailing President Taylor at the same time. This week was honestly really hard in a lot of ways, but I'm trying not to dwell because it got a lot better in weird ways this weekend. In fact, you should probably edit it hardcore before you put it on the blog. Thanks again Hannah! Everyone tells me it's awesome still.
Exchanges this past Wednesday were pretty ridiculous. But I got to drive the truck! It was awesome. We had literally nothing planned in our area (at all. No appointments or nothing) so Sister Murdock and I had a lot of prayerful improv to figure out what we were going to do all day long and how we could best spend our time. It was honestly pretty stressful. I felt super inadequate. But I learned a lot. A lot. And it was fun driving the truck so much and being able to spend time with Sister Murdock.
Also I cut off 7 inches of my hair. Roughly. We didn't actually measure it. But then we went right to softball with our zone so I put it up in a ponytail and laughed about how Mom would just be lamenting the fact that I always do that after I get my hair cut. It looks pretty cute. I had split ends out the wahzoo because it's so dry here! It was so nasty. Like that one time I thought I wouldn't cut my hair until it was long enough to donate to Locks of Love... yeah... It hits about my shoulders now instead of like midback so it should be a lot curlier, easier to manage, and hopefully cooler in the hot sun! I'll take a picture this week when my hair's not so crunchy and sweaty.
So this is the start of week 4 of my 3rd transfer! Pretty crazy honestly. I'm worried that I'll struggle a lot when I'm eventually not in a trio (even if that isn't for another 2-3 months) because I've gotten super comfortable in a trio.
Happy birthday Lilly! Btw. I sent her a letter last week or the week before and barely remembered her birthday. Haha it's so impossible to remember birthdays. Oh my gosh. Like even in my district I remembered Elder Keele's birthday and was super proud of myself until the next Friday Elder Brame walks in with a "Birthday Boy" badge on his coat and I had no idea. Embarrassing. I'm sure Dad (and Sister Falke for that matter) would tell me to stop worrying and calm down. There's a ton to remember all the time!
So we played softball today with our zone and I have seriously been freaking out about this since we got the text Wednesday morning about it. Even to the point where I was out in center field (hahahahahahahahahahaha) and we were playing. But I totally held my own! It's totally weird how my concerns are met at times. Anyway.
I have random bug bites on my arms and hands. Sorry not very many - like 10 or so. The ones on my hands looks like ant bites. Weird, ya?
I just got an email from my friend, Lyndsey Morgan and she's going to the San Antonio Mission while she waits for her visa!!!!!! Awesome right?! I'm super excited.
Our district BBQ was interesting haha. It's so funny how we're not really friends with the elders but kind of are. Our zone leaders brought bologna and our district leader was mortified hahahahahaha. I'm pretty sure our zone leaders are getting crazier and crazier. My district consists of really awesome missionaries.
Had another buffalo burger last Tuesday before we drove the hour and 15 minutes to meet Sister Murdock and her companion to do the exchange. I'm telling you - they taste just like hamburger. It's kind of disappointing and yet comforting hahaha.
Oh and I went out to eat for the first time (well at a restaurant)! One of our recent converts, Chris, took us to Olive Garden with his FIANCE!!!!!!! We're so happy. Shea is totally awesome and we love her. And it was actually pretty good because I totally ran out of money last month (well I had $14 left for my last week) so we were happy to be fed.
We ran into a super hardcore anti-Mormon this week which made me feel really dark and dirty (honestly like someone had shoved me in a manure pile and left me there to drown) for like 2 days. Bleh. Mostly people are just upset because they feel that we don't need anything more than the Bible. I just know that God isn't limited to some 1500 pages from thousands of years ago. Since He lives and still loves His children, I think He'd still want to communicate with His children. But that's just me.
So yeah we went all the way through this week with no lessons at all whatsoever (our goals are usually 10-20 lessons a week which is totally possible but just not happening). And then Friday we somehow had 2 and then another like 5 on Saturday. It was really great. Especially because Thursday was super low.
All of our new investigators this week are from the efforts of our elders haha. We're wondering if we should just let them do all the finding and we'll do the teaching. It's interesting how different people respond better to elders and how others respond better to sisters. I'm glad that there are both here in Prescott!
We met with our recent convert, Ashleigh yesterday with one of her visiting teachers (yay visiting teachers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). It was so amazing because when we first met Ashleigh back in March, she would barely talk to us at all and sit there on the couch while her husband did most of the talking. WHOLLY CHEESE WHAT A DIFFERENCE. We love her so much, and she was completely opening up to us and her visiting teacher who she like barely knows. It's so amazing the difference that truth has made in her life. She is so different.
ALSO I meant to tell y'all that I had a super cool impression at zone conference a couple weeks ago. In mortality and particularly as missionaries, we want people to have the blessings of baptism and the Holy Ghost and the accompanying covenants as soon as possible. It changes lives. And then I was thinking about why we let people in the Spirit World wait to receive the same blessings... just saying. We don't make them wait here despite all the distractions and imperfections of mortality, so why do we make them wait in immortality when they have the same needs and no ability to perform the ordinances themselves?
Anyway it's almost 4 and we have a dinner appointment at 5 (yay!!!!!) so I think we're going to go soon. Haha I'm sorry that I have no interesting stories. I think about the things I want to tell you during the week and then totally forget. I promise my life is interesting. Hard. But interesting and fun. I'm grateful and happy to be out here. I feel like I'm growing a lot. I just can't believe how far I still need to grow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's crazy. But awesome in a lot of ways haha.
I hope Hannah's job interview went great! I'm super proud of her.
I love all of you a lot. Miss you a lot! Promise. Thanks for the opportunity to be here!!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sister Parks

May 28, 2012

So it has been an absolutely fascinating week of lots of ups and downs. I'll try not to get too emotional or too apathetic. It's crazy honestly how that happens.
Thanks for the news about Nathan. That was hard.
We have felt pretty aimless this week as we have like 0 progressing investigators and 0 new investigators. This is probably our worst week numbers-wise in my entire mission. So it's just been hard.
It's interesting to see how this trio works. This week especially we've had glimpses of how easily this companionship could topple over into disaster. And that's honestly when we don't have the Spirit with us. We've had a couple of those moments this week as we focus inward and get discouraged. It's totally not okay and we have to correct it quickly. I'm really grateful that God with His infinite knowledge knows that this companionship needs to work and smooths everything over. I honestly laugh to myself and say a prayer of gratitude every time I realize that this companionships actually works. We get horror stories all the time of trios that don't work and we've been together like 3 months now.
This past Thursday we had something called Zone Conference. So up until now I've been to district meetings which are every Friday with my district (so 3 of the companionships in the Prescott area). Then we've had zone meeting which is just with our zone (the 8 companionships in the Prescott area) and sisters specialized training which is the sisters in the mission. Anyway well Zone Conference is multiple zones all together. So we drove the hour and a half down to Deer Valley to have an amazing zone conference. It was an all-day event. Literally like we left at like 7:30 and got back into Prescott for our coordination meetings at 7:00 that night. It was crazy. But amazing! One of the Deer Valley stake presidents spoke to us, as did the building coordinator for the Phoenix Temple, and of course President and Sister Taylor. My zone leaders and a couple other zone leaders led us in specialized training and practice. And we had lunch of course haha. But it was super uplifting despite all the calls to repentance haha. It's amazing how those chastisements come off so inspiring when you know it's motivated by love. Kind of makes us think of what we're doing as missionaries. Oh and also Elders Knobbe and Beck and Sister Murdock were all there from my MTC district! Super cool. Elder Knobbe is already training which is totally ridiculous. I was so surprised because there are a billion elders in the zone (okay just like 170) and Elder Knobbe just finished his own training. We both predicted that he'll be a zone leader in Prescott (so replacing Elder Nelson when he leaves in September) in two transfers when he's done training his greenie.
Oh and then the district blitz! Did I tell you about that? Yeah so our companionship is struggling the most in our district, so this past Saturday our 3-companionship district went to an apartment complex in our area and literally knocked doors and offered to pray with people for 2 hours. I'm pretty sure we only missed like 10 apartments or something. We were super pumped and really excited to bless people's lives and their families. We had 4 great conversations and prayed with 2 people. The elders had similar results. It was a really great experience. And then since we ended at like 8:15 which is when all of us take dinner, the zone leaders had made brownies for Elder Keele's birthday and we sat on the grass and ate brownies together. It was really nice. I just love our elders! It was a really good experience, especially as that morning was AWFUL. Awful.
We're going on exchanges this Wednesday! And guess what?! I'm staying in Prescott by myself! And Sister Murdock (my old roommate!!!!!!!!!) is coming up!!!!!!!!!! So I'm going to drive our truck! It's so crazy. I'm very excited for this opportunity to see how the two of us have grown in different ways. And then later in this transfer (so in the next like 4 weeks) we'll be going on exchanges with Sister Bailey and her companion again!!!!!!!!! Awesome. Exchanges are a really cool time to see how far you've come, how other companionships work, and how you can improve and things that you and your companionship can change.
We're having a district bbq in 2 hours, so we totally have to go and I haven't written President Taylor yet. We're trying to be more obedient and only spending an hour doing emails, but it's REALLY HARD. Especially when all the elders are here because they are so loud and distracting hahaha. And sometimes I want to wait for Trenton's emails but it's okay.
I love all of you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your emails and letters are such a strength to me, and I love hearing about what's going on in your lives. Thanks for the pictures and all the love!
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sister Parks

week of the 100s - May 21, 2012

Trenton - our mission uses u-locks because your bike apparently is never stolen with those. And then for bikes missionaries don't want stolen or scratched up too bad, they wrap them in saran wrap first and then ugly (or cool) duck tape. It supposedly works.
I keep track of how many days I've been on a mission (blah blah blah I know you're not supposed to count, but if I'm counting up without knowing the end goal, I figure it's okay) in my journal and this past week was the 100-day mark! Pretty crazy ya? I know.
Oh and I meant to tell y'all something about Chris' baptism last month: so I neglected to tell you that there was a SWAT team in the church parking lot as we drove up to prepare for his baptism. Apparently there was a hostage situation across the street and down the block. We just thought it was pretty interesting.
Also, is Brady Christensen home? He should be. I ran into his brother a couple times at the MTC. So Vaughn is married and Brady is back. Crazy.
Hey have the broke ground on the Provo Tabernacle temple yet? What are they calling it exactly? Oh my gosh I hope I don't miss that open house too! I'm totally driving down for Phoenix's next October.
Everyone is super fascinated that our trio will be together for 4 and half months. There are a lot of women in our wards that are RMs who all say the same thing about how crazy it is that we all get along and that we're going to be together for at least 3 transfers. We think it's partly because the three of us are super different. And because we know that we have to stay together so we have to get along hahaha. Just kidding. But sort of. Elder Nelson (one of our zone leaders) has this weird analogy that he likes to give about how, evidenced through our hair styles, that the three of us are total opposites and combine to make this crazy awesome companionship.
Not a single sister was transferred in the whole mission this last transfer. I guess they're pretty set and excited for how things are going haha.
I was going to attach some pictures but I forgot to bring my card reader. We climbed the dells in our backyard this morning after our walk for exercise and I got some shots of Sister Bruckman and Sister Falke at the top. It was funny.
So our district still consists of three companionships. Elder Hohman was transferred and Elder Keele (DL) is now with Elder Dunn who actually came out with Sister Bruckman! Pretty neat! Anyway well at district meeting this past Friday we were introducing ourselves and it totally got crazy as we introduced each other and Elder Keele had to rein us back in. I guess it's nice that we get along so well.
We're still looking for more people to teach. Our companionship is struggling the most right now, so the elders (in our district) are coming into our area this Satuday for a couple hours for a district blitz. Apparently that's when companionships either switch areas or all come to one area and do a whole bunch of tracting. So we're all going to this massive apartment complex in our area and all 3 companionships are going to tract the area for 2 hours. Hopefully that will give all of us a lot of opportunity to build our faith, bless people's lives, and perhaps find some people that are ready to change their lives by accepting the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's all in our area which will be a great blessing. We're super excited.
For some reason, I didn't get any pictures that you or Mom sent, Hannah. I'll check again to make sure.
We've been meeting with members a lot this week and have been encouraging them in the things that they're doing. We love our members! As we work with them the work becomes so much happier and encouraging. It's when we as missionaries try to do it on our own that we lament the fact that nothing seems to be working. Love it. Love our members.
Sorry that these emails are super boring. There are still a billion things I'm working on to improve as a missionary. I hope that I've come a long way from where I was 108 days ago.
Love you all so much! Thanks so much for all that you do.
Love love love,
Sister Parks

PRESCOTT!!!!!!!!! - May 15, 2012

I'm not being transferred!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But like the rest of my zone is being transferred. There are 8 companionships in our zone. One was transferred last transfer, and the other 6 are all being changed this transfer. Crazy. But we have zone conference next week (multiple zones get together!) so we'll be able to meet all of them pretty soon. Anyway. It was just sad. But I've heard that this is part of the mission life haha.
By the end of this transfer, Sister Falke, Bruckman, and I will have been in a trio for 4 and a half months. That is so crazy and so  not normal. We're happy that it works though.
Okay so is Trenton getting a plaque? If so, do I get a plaque? Oh my gosh please don't let Mom pick my picture. I thought our stake doesn't do plaques... Just saying. This is confusing.
Oh my gosh I can't believe that Adam is home!!!!!!!!! I honestly thought that he'd be in Korea forever. No really. Missions seem like they take forever. The first couple months you're like, "Oh they'll text me back soon" or "they'll show up at the door soon" and then after like 8 months you think they're going to be a missionary who's never going to talk to you again and stay in that country. Like when Ammon and his brothers went and preached to the Lamanites for 14 years. I'm pretty sure that's how missions still work nowadays. So I was super shocked when everyone (and by everyone I mean Shea and Hannah) told me he was home. What?! And that means that Derek and Zach will be getting home soon. Wow. So crazy. Sister Falke made my name out of Chow Mein noodles and I send it to you in honor of Elder Adam Farrell.
So this week.
Well Troy is still having major issues with the Word of Wisdom. I don't know how many times I can tell him that it is possible to stop drinking and smoking!
I don't really know. Our prayers are being answered in the most fascinating of ways. We have chances to testify and share doctrine a lot but are really struggling with actually having people to teach. We've felt recently that we should start working with members more which has been super awesome and productive already, just not in numbers haha.
Also I'm done training which basically means we have one less hour of companionship study every morning. So now our days are normally from 10 am to 9 pm.
We talked to a lot of people this week who believe in reincarnation. Fascinating.
Oh and funny story. Sort of. I was actually pretty bummed. So I bought Mac and Cheese and chili to make in honor of Shea. Well the kitchen is upstairs from our room, so I was walking down the stairs with my mac in this plastic tub that I stupidly didn't put the top on and dropped half of it down the stairs. I had already spent half of my lunch hour making this meal and then dropped half of it! So I was sitting there eating the remainder with Sister Falke trying to cheer me up, I thought about Kimberly Miles Neilson (Nielson?) and how that was one of her quotes freshman year: "You guys - the worst thing happened today [and here's where we thought that she had failed a test or someone had died or something]. I dropped my tub of macaroni." I laughed so hard when I realized that this is exactly what happened to me.
Well I guess that's pretty much it. This week was interesting as always. I was sorry to hear that Trenton had a bad week. Dude had I know he was going to be on the phone for like ever I totally would have gotten on earlier and heard him too. Well maybe not because he would have invaded my 31 minutes that I had with y'all. Whatever. I'm excited to hear your cute little voices. And sorry I feel like we didn't talk about anything important haha. Other than SJ's call to ECUADOR! Crazy.
Also Shea's letter was like the cutest thing ever. I just love her. And Hannah seriously don't tell Tracie anything about me until she starts writing me herself. Adam is home and so her life should be complete. Other than me.
Okay love you all so much! It was great to hear your voices. And I totally didn't cry! Nice.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sister Parks

ELDER PARKS IS ALIVE! - May 7, 2012

Oh my gosh I can't tell you how happy I was to get his emails. Wow. I wanted to read his entire emails to my companions, but I realized that was probably annoying, especially when we're trying to get our emails done as fast as we can haha. Trenton this email is super long, so I put all your stuff at the beginning if you don't want to read the whole thing.
This week was semi-fascinating. The mission is so weird. It literally is a mini-life. But I love it!
That was so interesting that Trenton will probably be training on his 3rd transfer.

Trenton - have your companion take pictures of you too! We want to see you! I take pictures of myself all the time hahahahahaha. Okay not really. Do you go on exchanges with English elders? Crazy. Is your mission doing the prayer/blessing door approach?

Oh and I don't want to call when Trenton calls (I want to give you an hour of missionaries rather than just half an hour!) so I'll be calling at like 5:30 your time. I'm pretty certain Arizona is on Pacific time right now, so I'm planning to call right after church at 3:30 my time. It that doesn't work, I'll call at 8:00 my time. Haha I hope I can figure out the conference call thing, but it doesn't sound too difficult haha. I can't believe Mother's Day is this week. I get to hear your cute little voices!

So we just found out this week that "the brethren" have requested that they start transitioning the sisters off bikes into cars. So I'll probably never be in an exclusive biking area my whole mission! In some ways I'm happy (I get to keep my iffy skirts!) but in other ways super sad because now I really have to watch what I eat and will never have a biking experience! Oh well. Did Trenton not buy those cool tire things that you bought for me by proxy? I can't believe he's already had two flat tires.
I meant to talk to you about that too - Dad you didn't say anything about my bike and supplies! What do you think? Also, it's kind of weird because we live in the garage apartment of this old widow and her old son lives in a trailer right next to us. And anyway he works on bikes for a living in the garage connecting to our apartment in a pair of cut off sweat pants that are a little short. He's not active in church hahaha. Anyway so he said we'll have a "bike day" and he'll help me put in my new tires and all of us put on our kickstands. So that's nice. It'll probably be next week though. Fun!
Also with training, I was telling Mom that it's pretty common (at least in my mission) for sisters to be training like right after they finish their own 12-week training because there are so few sisters, but Sister Taylor told us a couple weeks ago that we're not getting any English sisters until Sister Falke leaves in like September! So there's no chance that I'll be training until like my 6th transfer or something, and for all I know we could be in a trio until then too! Crazy yeah? I know.
Oh my gosh so you remember Kyle Pronger, the 12-year-old who was the first person whose baptism I participated in? He passed the sacrament this Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh it was so cool. I totally teared up. I've been super emotional at church lately and can't figure out why.
We've been working really hard on our door approaches because we've not been having much success at all and our district leader is concerned hahaha. So like Friday after our Trainer/Trainee meeting follow-up in Phoenix, we were committed to sharing doctrine rather than being like, "Oh you have a religion already and don't want us to pray with you - how nice! Bye!". So even though we didn't bless any more houses than we have lately, we had such better conversations with people! Now we're committed to sharing doctrine and bolding asking for return appointments. They might as well tell us straight up that they never want to see us again. Actually people tell us that and sometimes we still go by. Like there was this one Polish guy we tracted into at his house who said he wasn't interested (in a super awesome and strong Polish accent). So that was like Thursday. Then Friday we went down to Phoenix for the meeting and at the office the senior missionaries were like, "Oh Prescott sisters you're so far away! Do you need anything?" We said no but then they said they had a Book of Mormon in Polish! Sister Falke's eyes lit up, and we grabbed it and ran out before we could change our minds. Okay not really. But basically. And then we went by again yesterday, and the guy (Roman) just laughed about how we don't give up. But he took the Book of Mormon, and we told him what it was and why it was important. He said to give him a month to read it and we could come back! Awesome. He asked if there were other Latter-day Saints in the area, and we had just tracted the street the other day and were able to tell him that there was a family that had literally just moved in and were members. He told us we'd make good spies. Nice!
We have like 5 recent converts that we're still working with but haven't been seeing much success with in one of our wards. So at our coordination meeting, we took the names to them with specific help that we needed. And Sunday we saw the ward just going to work, and those things that the recent converts were lacking were starting to be taken care of! The Prongers were at church (and Kyle passed the sacrament!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), Ashleigh's husband was there and was not acting like a 19-year-old (he was acting old btw). Anyway. It was just awesome. Rock on ward members! It's amazing how apparent it is that every member is a missionary and that this work is entirely impossible without the help of ward members.
Hello? Nobody has suggestions on how to get the Prongers to go back to the temple? We want their family to be sealed!
Our investigator Troy is having serious issues with keeping the Word of Wisdom. He's been smoking since he was 8. He was off alcohol and drugs for a while but has gone back to drinking a bit. And he can't go without coffee (WHOLLY CHEESE I will NEVER ever listen to anyone who tries to tell me that coffee in all its forms is not addictive. Good night it's ridiculous). So we're trying to work with him. He just needs good activities and good friends to replace these things with. It's hard.
Bleh I love our elders in our zone so much. I've been thinking about that a lot lately because elders are not supposed to be your friends. Well like you're just supposed to maintain like that respect that all missionaries should have for each other. Because we're all servants of Christ. But then it's super annoying because the elders can be all buddy-buddy with each other and as sisters we're kind of this off-limit issue. I mean we all are "friends" as much as possible, but it's not really supposed to work like that. Haha I think I just miss my little brother and I especially miss my guy friends since I see my elders as that. I didn't think I'd have such a problem with that on the mission! But it's cool. And I understand why it's necessary to the work. It was funny because I brought up issues like that in my interview with President Taylor a couple weeks ago, and he responses were usually (okay always) along the lines of "You'll find the balance, Sister Parks. You know when it's inappropriate." DO I PRESIDENT TAYLOR?! REALLY?! Okay fine it was actually strangely beneficial and slightly comforting. But there are just some things that have to be in a mission! Haha it was funny. And just interesting overall.
This past Saturday was Cinco de Mayo so the whole mission was required to be in their apartments at 6:00 pm. In Prescott we were laughing so hard because NOBODY celebrated it, but in the valley I'm sure it was kind of an issue with some crazy parties going on. Anyway. It was nice to have that bit of extra time though to clean the apartment and have a slightly longer meal than usual.
We'll be having training this week (well tomorrow actually) on prospective elders and then we get to train our ward leadership on it! The rest of our district already knows about it because they're leaders and were inviting to the stake training meeting, so they'll be teaching us tomorrow. I think prospective elders is this idea where we have a list of all those adult male members who have the Aaronic Priesthood but don't have the Melchizedek for one reason or another. And then we go in and see how they can increase their capacity for good by receiving the higher priesthood! Oh my gosh the priesthood is so amazing. I LOVE IT. I seriously tear up every time a baby is blessed. And then I teared up while the sacrament was passed this Sunday too. Goodnight I'm a mess. Anyway this is super ridiculously long. Thanks for all the emails! I love all of you bunches and oats.
Oh hahahaha one more thing (I hope). Sara Jolley has been amazing in writing me, but I totally haven't written her back yet! In fact, I even sent a letter to Devin Sabin who never wrote me but sent it to her address since I didn't know his! Haha I'm awful. Anyway but it was funny because in the letter I got from her this week, she sent stamps in it as well which is something we always joked about doing to our missionaries that weren't writing us! I'm totally writing her when we get home from emails! Poor kid. She just put in her paperwork though! Pretty sweet! So check Facebook in a couple weeks and see where she's going!
Okay sorry I can't believe how long this was. I LOVE ALL OF YOU SO MUCH IT'S TOTALLY RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME. And because of the restored sealing power of the priesthood, I have the knowledge that all of you are stuck with me for eternity! Oh my gosh isn't that the coolest news ever?! I know.
I promise I'm growing in maturity. My emails are not evidence of this though hahahaha.
TALK TO YOU SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE TIMES A BILLION AND FIVE
Sister Parks