Well. It hit 100 degrees. - April 29, 2013

Ha. It's hot. Just emphasized that we really need to go shopping haha. I can't believe how fast my clothes wear out. It's just funny. Unreal.
Oh something that I was thinking about. Remember President Packer's talk in the last General Conference? Remember how near the end of his talk he said, "I am His witness" and there was just a still? That's EXACTLY what happened when Elder Anderson came to visit us. Said the same line - the Spirit floored us into absolute silence in the room. Wow. It's incredible. They truly are called by God to be His witnesses.
All right answers to all the questions:
Thanks for the picture Mom! Hannah looks SO BEAUTIFUL. And no, I don't remember Sister Tambe from camp... but I don't remember a lot of things from before Feb 1, 2012. It's weird.
I have church basically from the same time you do then. I'm out by 3:00 my time (Pacific!). So I could probably do it any time after that.
Wildlife sightings? Peoria is a lot like Prescott - quite a few quails and tons of bunnies!!!!!! Unfortunately, I can't go chasing after them like I did in Prescott - too many people around. I know - sad day haha. That possom story is gross. I would have had the shotgun ready to fire right after you got it after the pool. Okay fine, not really. We were talking the other day to a lady who's super into emergency preparedness. She told us to buy guns and we ended up talking about shooting things (freaked my companion out a little bit). So now my companion knows that we went out and shot those feral hogs all the time in Hochheim. They're gross!
Cutest Mormon Message I saw this week: My Brother Hyrum. SO CUTE. And so true. That's my favorite part about the Mormon Messages. It's just like little uplifting videos. I love that we get Mormon.org time during the week. Really lifts us up and helps us to lift up others as well as we share it with them.
Mom I love Preach My Gospel! You should totally read it.
Every member a missionary! I love it! The singles ward in this area is doing a "come and see" drive where when people ask questions, they try and respond with "come and see". I think this is great because so often I get caught up in giving people all these details they really don't care about when in fact all I needed to do is bring them to a place or environment where they can just see it themselves and learn what the Spirit needs them to know (FHE in the home, mutual, church, missionaries at dinner, etc). It just makes so much more sense. The Spirit will always teach so much better than we can.
Yeah Dad we'll find out how many miles we actually have this week as it's a new month! May is upon us! We might get Sister Barnett a bike today. Maybe. I don't know if I'm up for it haha. And we keep hoping that a bike will just appear out of nowhere. We'll see.
Training is coming along okay. I just need to be better.
Wait - what cars do we actually have anymore? I can't keep track. Didn't you get a new car or something?

Here's the guidance on emails I got from my mission president: 1 - Start making time/schedule arrangements with parents for Mothers Day calls.
A - Remember, your call is to last 30-40 minutes (ask those who were here for Christmas about our recommitment to the authorized time [we had to report in front of our zones how much time we took]). If you have divorced/separated parents, you can make 2 calls, which still total the 30- to 40-minute allowance. No other calls to siblings, grandparents, other family or friends.
B - I'd recommend keeping the call to parents and immediate family. Avoid conference calls. Give appropriate time and attention to talking with parents. If you've got a lot of immediate/extended family at home or others tied in on a conference call, you end up not spending enough time with your parents at first - then you get to the end of your time limit and one of two things happens: you either don't talk to your parents enough or you go over your allotted time to talk to your parents. Plan ahead. Focus on talking with parents. Don't go over.

I know it's strict, but I also know it's for a purpose. He said "avoid conference calls" so as long as I think it's our immediate family, I have no problems with it. I also have no problems with it though if we don't do it. It's definitely your call. That's pretty much where I stand. Haha get it? Your call. I'm so funny.

Rules on answering emails: I can email anyone living outside my mission boundaries. So basically everyone. There's no limit. Tracie emails me, I can email her back. Grandma emails me, I can email her back. Sister Falke in California emails me, I can email her back. The Studingers emailed me!!!!!!!! I was so happy. They both got baptized about a year ago and are preparing to be sealed in the temple either in May or June. I am so psyched. I can even email Sister Vallejo which is good because she let me know about some baptisms that I'll be able to go back and attend. Very exciting! President has made it a lot easier for us to go back to our old areas for baptisms of people we were involved in teaching. So hopefully I'll be able to go back to Phoenix North for Sunday's baptism this Saturday and Charles's baptism on May 11th. Does that answer your question? Tell everyone they are more than welcome to email me - I'm at a public library though so I'll never get more than 2 hours to email everyone back. So it's probably just as safe as writing me because when people write me letters I take weeks/months to respond hahaha. I still need to email Alina, Kyle, Ariel, and Tracie. I definitely have time to read all the emails at least.
TIME FLIES. I can't believe it's May basically. And Hannah's turning 15 right? That's what I thought.
This week was okay. I need to be more obedient. Strangely, it really does eventually make me happier.
I LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH. Look forward to hearing your voices in a couple weeks. I was supposed to see if I could use my voice recorder to email you one of my recordings, but I forgot to actually make a recorder of something other than my journal entry. .And as much as I love y'all, I don't know if you want to hear my journal haha. So I'll work on that for after Mother's Day when you miss my voice again haha. Hopefully the files won't be too big to email.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sister Parks

Here are one of Sister Barnett and I our first Sunday here.
The next one is from DJ's baptism. A priest in the ward who's waiting for his mission call was able to baptism him. Very nice baptism.

okay sorry one more thing!
At church yesterday, the theme in one of wards was "standing in holy places". The experiences shared made me SO GRATEFUL for the friends I had in high school. They definitely respected and supported all of my decisions. There were definitely people that made fun of me for my standards and thought I was weird, but it only helped to emphasize who my real friends were. They stuck by me, even to the point of overprotecting haha. It made all the difference. Aren't friends great?! They have such a huge impact on who we become.
LOVE Y'ALL. HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peoria, Arizona Dad - not Illinois - April 22, 2013

Although that would be hilarious. Get transferred to a different mission... Which will be happening to some of the missionaries here in July. Crazy!
I like how everyone asked what Kamas is in Trenton's email. It's a good question. Set phaser to stun - nice one Dad :)
Haha get this - we called the vehicle coordinator, Elder Rodgers. He asked me who I got the car from (which Elders) and then told me I still had their miles - 1400!!!!!!!!!!! I was so relieved. He laughed and told me they'd probably bump it down next month (obviously) but we're definitely good for this month.
Speaking of cars, we had inspections this Friday and guess who got a perfect car?! That's right! We cheated a little bit. But that's okay. Well Sister Taylor says we didn't because we can get whatever car wash we want, but I still feel a little bad. But it was so funny because Elder Rodgers totally bowed to us. It should be on the blog soon I'd think - you should check it out. I was laughing so hard. So I've officially won every car inspection I've had so far on my mission! Oh yeah!
After car inspections, I had my interview with President. It was so amazing. He told me a lot of things I needed to hear. Definitely strengthened and helped me. He reminded me that I wouldn't be in a new area with a new companion if I couldn't handle it. He said he's been excited for me to train for a while but that I needed the experiences I had in my last area before I could (SO TRUE - my last area and especially the last 2 transfers there changed so much of my missionary work and gave me priceless experiences). So these past couple of days have been loads better. I love President Taylor! Haha isn't if funny how he tells me the same things y'all tell me but it affects me differently? I'm sorry :( You just always think I'm great!
Church was crazy yesterday! We had so many people coming up to us and giving us referrals! I've never seen anything like it! And then DJ had his baptism interview and will get baptized this Saturday. He's a great kid and has been really excited to be baptized but just not able to for a while. These wards are on fire with their own missionary work, particularly in reactivating members. so we're just trying to slide right in to the work they're already doing. Just rocking wards. We are very blessed to be here.
Sister Falke emailed me! Holy cow I miss her so much. I would love for her to come back and be my companion again haha. She taught me so much about missionary work.
Bummer that you've been sick Mom! We'll try to avoid it. It's in the 90s here during the day (gaaaahhhh) so we probably sweat it all out already haha. Still nice in the mornings though, so that's a blessing.
Oh and a hybrid companionship means that it's an English-speaking missionary with a Spanish-speaking missionary. So like when I was in the hybrid trio in Glendale for a few weeks. My companions had been called Spanish-speaking, but they were with me who was called English-speaking. It's something that's happening a lot with all the new missionaries coming in.
I remember Aunt Tara and Uncle Pat's place in Cypress! I told Sister Barnett that.
So yes. This week we tried to be more obedient. I got a ton of advice from President Taylor and he helped me realize all my sources of support and advice so I don't keep it all bottled up and overly stressed. I might have some gray hairs... just kidding! But I might as well haha. So yeah good times. It'll keep getting better.
Sister Barnett seems to be doing well. She is very patient with me. Very cute. A little forgetful haha so that's tough on her sometimes. I'm trying to do a good job and explain everything to her and train her quickly on what we need the most. She seems to be enjoying the mission. I can't believe how heavy of clothes she wears though - she always wears longer sleeves and more layers than I do. Everyone tells her she's going to die soon hahaha. She's fun. She was 19 when the announcement came out and turned 20 right before she reported, so she tells people she's "part of the wave but not a young one" haha. She went to school at BYU-I.
Taylor your new apartment sounds amazing! That service thing is something we should implement more as missionaries too! Just doing it! I'm excited to see the new apartment one day and thanks a lot for the quote - it totally makes sense!
LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH.
Sister Parks

Peoria Welcomes You - April 15, 2013

Very true. Peoria has been welcoming.
Peoria is northwest of Phoenix North where I was.
My last area was sort of split. They used to cover two wards - North Mountain and Bethany Home. They added another set of missionaries to cover North Mountain exclusively and then gave Sister Vallejo another English ward - Moon Valley - that they took away from the Spanish elders. So now there are 3 districts in Phoenix North. I was so devastated to not still be in the zone that I almost didn't notice when President Taylor called our names to serve in Peoria.
So yes, I'm in Peoria now. My companion's name (as I'm sure you've seen on the blog) is Sister Barnett. She's from Cypress, Texas.
We took over two wards in the Peoria Stake from Elder Beck (who I served with in the MTC) and his companion. We live in a converted garage apartment adjoining their house. The elders didn't leave it a total wreck, so that was nice.
And I had to pay a dollar to use the computer in this public library since I didn't have any mail proving that I lived there. Just a hint ;)
We're driving a Chevy Cruze now. Still got a great turning radius, and it's a beautiful dark blue like the Suburban was. We need to call the office today and see how many miles we have, because we're already over 500 (from what the elders who had the car before us did) and our area is only like 3 miles by 3 miles. So... I don't know what to tell Elder Rodgers, the vehicle coordinator. .And I keep getting lost. And my companion doesn't have a bike yet (thank you Dad for getting me one before I got here). We'll see.
Transfer meeting was very interesting again. I don't know why President thinks I can train. I'm having great difficulties in a new area with a new companion. I'm just trying to take an hour at a time. Or 10 minutes at a time. Whichever's easiest. But anyway. Something interesting that happened at transfer meeting was that we had just finished introducing all the new missionaries and sitting down when President stands up and starts to talk. I don't remember what he said, but basically he got down to showing us something. He asked all of us missionaries who have been out longer than a day to stand up if we'd ever felt alone, that the work was too hard, that we were inadequate, that nothing seemed to be working out, that we weren't sure what else we could do, etc. All of us were standing. It was a pretty emotional couple of minutes. President then just assured us that when we feel alone, we can know that we never actually are.
After transfer meeting, we ran around the parking lot talking to people and trying to track down a car, area books, the phone for our area, etc. It was really hard to say bye to my last zone. Really hard. We finally got it all together and our zone leaders helped us move into our new place. We met the old couple we're living with, and he took us around a tour of the place. We have like every type of grapefruit tree in our backyard. Literally. We sat down and looked at the area books, called our bishops and ward mission leaders so we could meet with them that night, and basically just tried to get things figured out. We did a bit of grocery shopping and ate too because, understandably, the elders hadn't left us much.
Something that has been really neat about this area, though, is how much everyone loves Elder Beck. They were all really sad to hear that he'd left, so thankfully the novelty of having sisters in the area rather than elders will hold off their sorrow for a while. But it got me thinking about the last couple of days in the MTC - we were all really nervous to head out to the field. I think Trenton will remember the breakdown I had right in the middle of the cafeteria actually when I said bye to him and started crying in front of everyone. Not appropriate. But anyway, Elder Beck seemed more down than the rest of us. He just wasn't sure that he'd be able to be a missionary, if he'd made the right decision, if he was going to be successful at all. Typical, but hard to watch with him. He really seemed to consider calling it all off. So, a little over a year later, it's amazing to come into his area and see just how much incredible work he's done. All the members have raved about him so far. He has become a marvelous missionary.
Our church building is the same layout as the Pflugerville building. That's weird. Someone asked me if I knew Richard Jamison since I was from Austin haha. Which I did! Sort of. Apparently he and the younger Brother Jamison had served together in Zimbabwe (please check the spelling on that one). There are tons of connections everywhere. The wards are very missionary-minded - they have multiple guests at church every week and are really excited to have us here. There was an incredible baptism in one of our wards this past weekend that Elder Beck was able to come back for. Very spiritual. We have a few people already to teach (what a blessing!) and have some more potentials we need to look into. We're just trying to get the hang of things.
Bishop McNeil in my last area bought me a digital video recorder as my going-away present. I've been recording into it as my journal entry every night. It's been really neat because I get so much more out of it. Now I need to remember to write in my real journal too just in case something happens to it. That's been really nice.
I'm going to email President Taylor now. Lots to do today (mostly cleaning and sleeping - I can't believe how tired I am).
LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH. Missed you a lot at church yesterday, but then the thought came to mind of how much Heavenly Father misses all of His family too and what a joy it is to be part of bringing them back to Him.
Have a great week.
Love, Sister Parks

THE TRANSFERRED TRAINER - April 9, 2013

Yes family. It has happened. I keep expecting to wake up from this bizarre change of circumstances.
President Taylor called me Saturday night and asked me to be a trainer. Right when I finally accepted that I would never train. I'm ridiculously nervous. He also said that I might have to leave my area as well (which normally doesn't happen - the trainer should stay in the area but with all the billion sisters coming in President has to do a lot of rearranging) so yeah. This morning we got the text confirming that. We were all together as a zone and had lunch right then together. I've only cried twice today. I'm so nervous. It's just unreal.
BUT then we got a call from the Assistants telling us to bring the Area Book for one of our wards which means that our area is 99% sure being split (as in the sisters here will only cover one ward instead of two). So I might just be going to transfer meeting to get a brand new missionary and find out that I'm only covering one of the wards I'm covering now. But I still have to pack my stuff... So we're not sure. Who knows?! We'll find out tomorrow. We'll have a meeting tomorrow before transfers where all the trainers and trainees will meet each other and be assigned. I just won't know where I'm going! Crazy.
Oh bleh life is so crazy. I'm just overwhelmed. Just feel grossly inadequate as always. I loved what was said in conference though about how we imperfect people are all God has to work with, but He deals with it anyway haha. But it's so true. I have definitely felt that on my mission. We are so inadequate for God's purposes, and He could easily do it all Himself, but He doesn't. He allows us the opportunity to participate in His work and feel the incredible blessings that come from that. It's amazing.
Look in this paragraph for all the parallels between training and parenting - it's ridiculous but amazing. Yesterday Sister Vallejo and I went to the meeting for new trainers. President Taylor talked a lot about the importance of our calling as trainers and what an impact we would have on our new missionaries. It was very daunting, but I couldn't get my own trainer, Sister Falke, out of my head the whole time. I realized even more than ever what an amazing trainer she was and how blessed I was able to have her. They said that as trainers, we're preparing our missionaries for the worst day of their mission. I realized how, when I felt so dark and alone in Glendale, I clung to the habits and attitudes Sister Falke had instilled in me, and those carried me through each day. I knew how to rely on heaven because of her example. In the middle of the meeting, I was really just struck and overcome in realizing that I still want to be the missionary that I know Sister Falke envisioned me becoming. Her influence has molded all of my missionary work and who I am as a missionary. I want to be half as amazing for my new missionary as she was for me. But yeah they talked a lot about how we're training these missionaries so that they can be prepared to train new missionaries in three months. We lead by example and let them go out and experiment (think teaching a kid how to ride a bike). It's just incredible.
Oh Dad - the Liberians we're teaching are all friends. Some are related. It's so funny. Last night we were coordinating with our ward mission leader, and he said, "Okay. 1609 West Glendale" and we just started laughing because they all live in the same complex and none of them have cars. It's hilarious. They have such great intent. It's going to be great to see how the ward will be able to grow in charity with the opportunities they'll have to serve these families.
Got emails from Hermana Jolley, Hermana Morgan, Sister Murdock, Tracie, and Alina. This new email policy is such a wonderful blessing.
And Dad thanks for talking to the mission office :) You're a dear!
Also, fun missionary experience that I forgot to tell y'all about: we went bowling a few weeks ago as a zone. The elders all put names from the Book of Mormon for their names which was so funny. And then we're going to pay for our games and the guy's like, "Where did you come up with all these names?" So in a very natural way, Elder Vaoga was able to explain the Book of Mormon, testify of it, and then give him a mormon.org card and commit him to look up more about it. It was awesome! What missionary opportunities have come to you since Trenton and I became Elder and Sister Parks?
All right well I better go. I need to email President soon :)
I LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH. Can't wait to tell you all about my new missionary (she's going to be great!)!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sister Parks

April 1, 2013

WHAT A TRIP - March 25, 2013

Seriously this week has been insane.
But to answer all your questions and comments first:
Yes, Dad, we're allowed more time to email now. I'm not sure how that works for missionaries that use public libraries, but oh well. We're very blessed to have use of the family history center here.
So the Easter Pageant: We went up Tuesday at like 3:00 with the Deer Valley sisters (Follett and Turner). As sister missionaries, we got to park in handicapped parking (oh yeah!!! and yes, Dad, I drove all the way there). We looked around the Visitor's Center there at the Mesa Temple for a while and then had some training from the Mesa sisters. They have like a secret room where they have food and lockers and stuff! It's crazy!!! Being a temple sister would be so fun, but that's okay. It was fun to pretend for a night. Tuesday was just the dress rehearsals, so there weren't a ton of people there and we got to watch it in both English and Spanish. We were basically told to smile, smile, smile, and invite people to check out the Visitor's Center while they waited for the show to start. There weren't a whole lot of people in our sector, so we didn't do a whole lot. We didn't get home until like 10:40 though. Wow. The pageant was good! It was neat to actually see some of the pictures I've seen of it before in real life. They go through like the whole story of Christ. Very nice. I thought of Lizzie Fotheringham Williams during like all the dance numbers. We're going this Friday with our ward and some investigators and then will go again this Saturday to help out (on its last night!!! should be crazy!!!). Very exciting.
Taylor that sounds so exciting about your new apartment. I breathed a huge sigh of relief to know that you're staying in that area hahaha.
Mom the pictures of the saris are so cool! Beautiful!
And um also on Tuesday I received an anonymous (?) package from the ward with A LOT of gift cards... Please thank the ward. I'm not quite sure how. It was just ridiculously amazing. My companion and I were on Cloud 9.
Also Dad - I've decided that you and Sister Vallejo would get along really well. Actually she'd just get along with our family really well.
Bleh there's just so much to talk about - so much happened this week.

Monday: Went shopping at Kohl's. Awesome. Got 2 shirts and a jacket (thank you Aunt Kathleen!!!)

Tuesday: Had an appointment with a lovely woman named Sarah in the morning. She's very sweet. Suffers with short-term memory loss, though, so it's always interesting to see what she actually remembers from week to week. She has a really strong desire to know the truth and is very spiritual. Then at 3:00 we met up with the other sisters and headed down to the temple. Our district leader, Elder Brothers, let us borrow his GPS which uses the Mr. T voice. So thankfully I never got lost because he totally would yell at you! Anyway but yeah GPSs nowadays are kind of freaky - like it always knew what the speed limit was and if I was in a camera-monitored zone and my speed and showed me pictures of what the upcoming intersection was going to look like. Creepy! But helpful. It was my first time going to the Visitor's Center, and we watched a great video about eternal families. Very beautiful. The pageant was fun.

Wednesday: Sister Vallejo, with our ward mission leader, get along way too well, so our coordination meetings with our ward missionaries are sometimes less than reverent. But that was fun. Wednesday was weird. We taught Grant who decided to move his baptism date back to the 14th of April so that his family can be there. Excellent!

Thursday: We left for Sisters Specialized Training! We met up with everyone and carpooled down to the Mesa Temple to do a session. So beautiful. There is such a peaceful feeling there. Definitely got a lot of inspiration as to how I can improve. Then we walked over to a park and had lunch there and had some training about not gossiping, relationships with elders, what we want to be remembered for, and more. We got home a little after 5, had coordination with our other ward, and then went on splits to teach the Tso family and Charles. Charles we've been teaching for a while. He was pretty agitated when I walked in, but I didn't ask why. We had planned to talk to him basically about what he wants from us. So I just tried to go by the Spirit, and we had a really great lesson. When Sister Vallejo rejoined us for the end of the lesson, Charles shared that at the beginning of the lesson he was planning on telling us to stop coming by, but he felt the Spirit really strong as I was able to just focus on him and he really wants to be baptized. He just has to stop smoking. That was very fulfilling. I definitely feel like I'm here to help Charles. And then Sister Vallejo was able to commit the Tso kids to baptism! We are teaching such golden people. It's ridiculous.

Friday: District meeting! Bomb! Since we have 4 Spanish elders in our district now, they always do practice teaching together so they can do it in Spanish which means that we the sisters are always stuck with the zone leaders. Pressure! Well today we were teaching something I've never taught before: teaching someone how to pray and why we use formal language in prayer. I seriously had never thought about teaching that. So we dove right in, and the Spirit was very sweetly there and helped us to realize why we use proper pronouns when we pray. Oh but awkward moment - the Spanish elders came back into the room so we could discuss how it went but we were still in the middle of teaching so I just kept talking and finished my sentence in like absolute silence as 5 elders stood behind me just watching. Scary. Anyway. Our elder are out of money so we just went to Taco Bell again afterward. Elder Brothers said he didn't want me spending my newfound gift cards on the district. Nice. We tried contacting a lot of people after that. Had a lesson with Bijonn that night - he is very prepared and has had so many special experiences.

Saturday: WOW! So our stake conference was this week and we had a member of the Quorum of the 70 there. He flew in from Ghana at like midnight Friday night and had a meeting with us at 9:00 the next morning. Crazy. His name is Robert C. Gay - he gave the talk last General Conference about what would you sell your soul for? Very good, although I was a little intimidated by it at first. Anyway. It was a special meeting for just us, the full-time missionaries, our ward mission leaders, our bishop, and of course our stake presidency and President Taylor. Sister Vallejo and I were the only two women in that whole room. Crazy! He gave us a lot of great insight - I took a lot of notes. Definitely gave us a lot of ideas on how to work better with our ward.

Sunday: Stake conference. Amazing. President and Sister Taylor spoke along with our stake presidency and Elder Gay. President Taylor had us all stand up and introduced us. He got so chocked up and everyone was so impressed that he knew all of our names, but we just though, "Duh. He better know our names. He's our family right now." Anyway. Very good. We talked about how there might be 14 full-time missionaries in the stake but that how technically we have like 4500 missionaries in the stake because everyone is a missionary. Elder Brothers interviewed Bijonn for his baptism - he's set to go! He's getting baptized this Saturday and then we'll head down after that to help with the Easter Pageant again.

Okay this is the longest email of all time. I love y'all so much. This week should be totally amazing.
Talk to you later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love, Sister Parks

P.S. I met a sister in Mesa who is from the Oak Hill Stake and knew Jerica! Crazy!

it's getting hot... - March 18, 2013

Anyway. Tomorrow night we're headed down to Mesa to help with the Easter Pageant. So exciting! We'll be there again Wednesday night with our ward, Thursday for our mission's Sisters Training (so all the sisters in the mission will be doing a session together!!!!!!!!), and then on Saturday night again to help out. SO AMAZING. The temple is a beautiful, sacred place, and we're so blessed to have one so close.
I taught Sister Vallejo how to make guacamole this week. She was embarrassed to see how easy it was haha.
And for the first time on my mission, I'm getting a new Bishop! All of our ward appointments were cancelled yesterday and then the stake presidency was in our sacrament meeting and then yeah... wow! We loved our Bishop, but it's exciting to have a new one called. So yeah we'll see how that goes.
Oh and last night we met with a 24-year-old young man who said he didn't want us to come back because we're too attractive... Sister Vallejo and I were laughing so hard in the car. Poor guy. We'll have the ward continue to fellowship him and reach out. Interesting.
Sara Jolley's dad just started forwarded me her emails for some reason! How did he know how much I was thinking about her this week?! REVELATION PEOPLE. The heavens are not closed.
Also, this week we were teaching Sunday about the law of chastity. Yeah - I don't know how you teach a 9-year-old the law of chastity either. So finally I asked, "Sunday - do you think it's good to have slumber parties with girls?" Yeah I was stooping pretty low... He replied, "No" to which I delved, "why?" His response just proved how terrible we were hahaha, "Because I don't want makeup put on my face." LOL GOSH. I think we finally got our point across. Hopefully he shouldn't have to worry about it too much as a 9-year-old, but we keep reminding him and going over everything we've taught so he'll be prepared for life. We're working slowly on his mom too which will make a world of difference. United families make all the difference.
Ah your spring break sounded so fun! I'm SO HAPPY you were able to go to the temple. Wow. I actually teared up when I read that. No big deal.
 Haha good luck with the sari's. That is so crazy that Chris is getting married.
And haha Mom I laughed so hard in your email when you reminded Trenton that you've converted his bedroom into your sewing room hahahahaha. I love you.
Dad, it's true - sisters are not supposed to be in biking areas. That means every set of sisters in our mission has a car. However, we are still not allowed to go over the number of miles that are allotted to our car every month. So our car and area has 950 miles a month, but Sister Bruckman's last area only had 300 miles. So they had to be on bike every day and just use the car at night. So yes, we are very blessed to have so many miles. Especially as the weather is getting warmer ahhh!!!!!!!!
Hannah - my companion has me listen to other music from lds.org/youth the music section. There's this singer who sounds like Taylor Swift to me (so like I want to rip off my ears when I'm listening to her but yet can't stop listening). Her name is Debra Fotheringham. My favorite song right now though is "He Knows Me Better" by Jenessa Buttars. SO GOOD. Listen to it. https://www.lds.org/youth/music?lang=eng#d
Okay I think I'm done for this week. We are struggling with focus and desire and faith, so we're trying to think of ways to increase our desire. Any suggestions? It's also known as the "missionary fire" haha but I feel like I have always struggled to feel the fire of missionary work. I get too caught up in all the things I'm doing wrong. Anyway. How did you do it Matt? (P.S. Isn't it SO COOL that you're my brother-in-law?! Oh my gosh I get psyched out every time. love it)
I LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH. What a blessing it was this week to hear from more people because of being able to email more people. Now I should do it with my extended family hahaha.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sister Parks (soon to be a temple sister this week hahaha)