Missionary Work is HARD

From Parker:

Greetings as a senior companion and all the stresses that go with that!  Yeah Elder O, since he was leaving, gave me a ton of random but usuful stuff like rain coats, supplies, notes, ties, etc.  It was pretty cool. So I good on supplies.

Well Arizona isnt maybe as hard as Denver, but the area I am in, President Toone told me is the hardest place on the mission.  We stuggle even with two extremely awesome companions, to get 10 teaching opportunities to investigators a week.  We teach a lot of less actives as well though.  But as you will hear in my week, some miracles happen even in my very wealthy area.  I guess it is like Ethan being in Arura Colorado.  My guess is they are similar.  and you definitely receive a witness after the trial of your faith

So here is my week.

Monday: We got transfer calls and that was pretty exciting that I got called to be a trainer! I suspect Elder Oblad had a lot to do with it telling president I was ready.  Elder O went home, I really miss him.  I have been blessed with two awesome companions.  Our personalities matched.  Both were extremely obedient to. After emailing we played basketball and chilled at the church for a little bit.  Then did laundry, and cleaned.  We then were in a tri-companionship.  We visited a few people in my area but we spent most of our time in there area.  We had a few lessons.  Kindof tough to cover both areas with no car and just on bikes. 

Tuesday:  Same thing I was with Elder WIlliam's.  We went to another district leaders district meeting and it was kindof boring.  Like I said my companions were both stud teachers to.  We received a referral from this less active guy who later to be found out is freaking crazy.  Once he got our number he keeps asking if he can come over and play chess.  He texts us the Lord's Prayer everynight.  He is very odd.  And his referral didnt turn out either haha.  But we spent most of the day again in there area

Wednesday:  Was on last day as a tri-comp.  Good riddance, 3 people is a crowd and people already get freaked out when 2 people knock on their door.  Three people is like "nope i'm not answering the door go away" haha.  So the members in my ward think I have been out for a little under a year becasue Bishop W didnt want them to find out I was a greenie.  Well he accidently blew my cover when talking in sacrament meeting so now everyone knows, and now they found out I am training somehow and so the members who I LOVE, mess with me saying don't blow it haha.  

Thursday: We had transfers. They changed the way they did it and how we found out our companion.  His name is Elder C.  So here is where the mircale happened.  We got home, started biking and there was this lady walking on the street.  I stopped and said hello.  I asked if there was anything we could do for her and she said no thanks.  we biked off but I had this really strong impression to go give her a card and ask to stop by.  We went back I gave her a card, asked if we could come share a message and she was like yeah in 20 minutes.  So we rushed to find a member to come with us.  Found one.  Went over to her house and there was another gentleman there.  We started teaching both of them and it turns out his uncle is a bishop, his mom is now a member and he wasnt interested but recently had a few things in his life happen one being a friend passing away and he wants to change his life and go back to his roots.  So he wants to be baptized! So him and his girlfriend are on date for November 1st!!! Isnt that crazy we would have never met them If I hadnt had the impression to go back!

Friday: We had weekly planning.  Elder C is a good missionary he just doesnt seem to do anything unless you ask him to.  And then I feel like he kindof gets annoyed a little bit, but he is just to quite to say anything.  In training hour he thinks he already knows everything, and kindof ignores what I am saying.  He was first half trained by zone leaders as well.  But we are getting along better and better.  Just gotta be friendly and obey the rules with exactness.  Speaking of which,  One of our new roommates is our new district leader and he is a complete dud.  He practically promotes disobedience.  He doesnt break the large rules obviously but he just doesnt follow them very well.  Like being up at 6:30 or things like that.  If Elder O saw that he would have a cow!  So I sustain him as my district leader I just think he is kindof a bad influence on some of the other missionaries. He is super cool guy but it is going to be a long transfer 

Saturday:we met with that guy who is now going to be baptized.  He is so solid and cant wait.  The only problem is he is living with his girlfriend who also wants to be baptized so we will have to get that all squared away.  We had an okay day finding people but not much luck.  We got stuck most of the day inside because a giant storm hit and it poured rain like the entire day.  So that really destroyed our plans.  

Sunday: It was crazy! The normal meetings happened Elder C introduced himself to the ward and stuff.  The guy who is going to be baptized came and loved it.  It was the primary program which you know is my favorite sunday ever.  Then after church the stake preisdent called a special meeting.  They are disolving one of the wards in the stake and the K ward is gaining half of those members but is also looking a lot of people to.  it stinks becasue guess who live over in the new ward's boundaries.... The guy we just put on date to be baptized, so guess who doesnt get to teach him anymore....us.... So we literally had this mircale and we now lose him.  But as long as he continues to progress and be baptized, Its alright.  becasue of this we arent exactly sure what ward we are going to be in... we are waiting for President Toone to tell us what he plans to do.  

That was my week training is fun becasue we get to go over the basics again and again which is really what every missionary should focus on.  Elder C is loosening up and it should be alright.  But with all this going on it had made my life a while lot more stressful ahaha

Btw what is Emily's email! I would love to hear from her  more.  How is she doing with school and everything?  That is awesome about you all getting rid of the rental finally ahaha it will be cool to come back and see the new house pretty much finished I would assume.  Tell Mutti and grandpa I love their emails and Sorry I dont have more time to write them back.  Well I gotta go

#I will go and I will do

Love you all!!

Elder Parker Hemsley

From Ethan:

Hey Mum!

All I can say is that I'm glad I have a little bit of time to rest today.  It has been a super up and down week and frankly I'm a little exhausted.  I'm starting to feel like I may not finish my mission here in this ward.  I've been getting the vibe that I may get transferred for my last six weeks.  The worst part is that I kinda hope that happens.  I love this ward and just the people in general here, but its starting to become a real drag.  The work has slowed down heavily, and its just been super difficult for me to keep being the one man companionship here.  Elder A. would be a great guy to be friends with back home, but as a companion goes, hes pretty apathetic to whether we are obedient or not.  I have to force things sometimes, which I hate, but they don't happen otherwise.  All I want is someone to share the load haha :P

On the plus side though, all of these experiences that I've had with good and bad companions have really showed me what I need to look for in a wife haha.  That sounds so weird to say, but its been popping into my head a lot recently. 

Anyways, this week finally did what I've been feeling was going to happen.  We officially have dropped all of our investigators, and are starting from the ground up.  Some of these people have been taught for so long, that it finally came down to either progression or drop.  It was kind of a bummer, but I know the Lord can easily provide new people to teach if we work for em. 

Monday was an okay P-day.  Borrowed the F's guitar and chilled at the church watching cheesy movies we found in the library.  Thankfully there are a few missionaries here who would rather do that thank play basketball.  Then we all went and got slurpees.  

We exchanged that evening, and Elder B came with me to my area.  We have both an Elder and a Sister B here in our district haha.  Elder B is way cool.  Totally gonna be a great missionary.  He's only been out for like 4 weeks.  But we had an eventful exchange for sure.  Ate dinner with the D's and their adorable Pugs, and then we went to visit a LA named Brother W.  He's from Sudan.  Nice guy, but he recently went through a divorce in which he lost his kids, which had affected his activity.  Poor guy. 

Tuesday was a CRAZY day.  In a good way for the most part.  We got up and started biking to the Stake center cause we were pretty short on miles.  It took us way longer than I thought it would, and man it almost killed me.  I guess its been a while since I have biked that vigorously.  But a lame thing happened on the way.  I got a flat!  Luckily there was a tire shop nearby that filled me up and gave me enough of a boost to get to the church.  But by the time we were done with DLC's it was flat again.  So the ZL's gave us a ride back.  I fell bad every time they have to do something like that :P  Plus is was super awkward to be so sweaty in the meeting haha.  

Ate lunch and then we debated on whether we wanted to spend the miles to go down to service like we planned.  We ended up deciding to skip it and start working.  We had a potential named Jenelle that we wanted to try, so we went over and they let us in!  They had a lot of people over at their house, but the first one they introduced us to was a dude named Stephen from Ghana.  He was their PASTOR haha.  The dude was a trip.  He motioned for us to sit down and he started teaching a lesson from the scriptures.  He was a pretty nice guy, as was everyone else in the home.  But as he continued, it became apparent that his whole sermon was starting to underhandedly poke at a lot of the things that we believed.  Lots of dumb sectarian dogmas were starting to seep in.  Me and Elder B could totally sense it, but no one else in the home could.  Probably the gift of discernment on our part.  But we just sat there and listened for easily and hour.  Some of the way through, Jenelle noticed that we had been silent the whole time, and asked if we had anything to say.  Stephen shushed her and told her that we could speak when he was done.  That was a little odd.  Then She interrupted again and asked if we had the time to be there that long or if we had other appointments.  Stephen shushed her again and told her "they have time for this."  It was really rude haha.  So we just let him finish and then finally he allowed us to speak for a bit.  I could tell that Elder B was about ready to go into bash mode, which only makes situations like this worse, so I asked if I could bear my testimony.  What then followed was a testimony that I REALLY hope was recorded in heaven.  It was the best, most powerful testimony I have ever borne.  Everyone there could feel it.  I basically got up onto a soap box haha.  I went through the whole first lesson in a 3-5 minute testimony.  Finally the preacher started trying to interrupt, which no one else liked.  But he intervened with the typical sectarian rejections to modern revelation.  I swear they all use the same ones.  You get tired of hearing em after a while.  But then he told me that Joseph Smith was in hell and I would be too if i didn't renounce my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  "I will NEVER renounce my testimony of the Book of Mormon" came the response, and then we walked away.  The coolest thing though was that when we were walking to our car, Jenelle came outside and just thanked us profusely for coming, gave us some water, and asked if she could still get a hold of us with the number we gave her.  She still wanted to talk and still had questions.  That was amazing to me haha.

Ate dinner and then we taught a short lesson to Jose, one of our newest investigators.  It was a good short lesson, but he talks a ton.  Some people don't know how to not talk.  

Finally we taught the first lesson to the S's.  It went really well, although Sister S didn't really give a response to the baptismal invite.  Hopefully she will as the lessons go on.  

Then we had correlation meeting to finish off the night. 

Wednesday morning we went to the church at like 6 so some of the Elders could play basketball for exercise.  I wasn't really too thrilled about it, but everyone else had fun, which was good.  We actually caught a bit of Seminary while we were there haha.  It blows my mind how much more involved their class is.  Ours was just show up, and stay awake.  

Had district meeting, which went well.  I had all of the Greenie's give the bulk of the program haha.  We called it the Greenie Fire District meeting.  I thought it went well.  

Ate lunch, and spent a lot of time trying some potentials.  A few successes but nothing major.  Then we went to our appointment with Ernestine.  I knew this one was the make or break lesson with her.  But when we got there she was on her way out.  Basically she was just about to flake on us.  We talked for a little bit.  Apparently she was ready to take a break for a while.  She talked me up a ton and talked about how much faith I have and how much spirit I posses, and how that really influenced her to strive for a better relationship with God.  But the reason she was done was because something I said in the last lesson offended her apparently.  She was never able to pinpoint what exactly it was, but she told me that she felt like I got angry at her for having questions and that it made her feel "unworthy" or something.  Both Sister F and Elder A thought that was bogus btw.  But the fact of the matter was that we had attempted to teach her for the last three lessons, but they had all been dominated by her inability to stop talking, and her venting all of her personal problems at us.  When we had tried to teach, she usually interrupted and spouted off so many questions that we weren't able to get the lesson back on track.  So in the last lesson, I was bold with her and told her that we were there to help her understand the gospel line upon line.  Questions like "well, doesn't the bible say something about how we shouldn't celebrate holidays like christmas?"  would be answered further down the road.  But apparently that offended her and led her to want to take a break.  But she kept referring to it as something that I DID, which was still heartbreaking for me.  I cried after that visit.  I know she has felt the spirit.  I just hope she can recognize it somewhere further down the road.  

Taught a quick stop by lesson with the Juett family, and then we ate dinner with the Bishop and his family.  Great family with great kids.  We got a text afterwards that said we were really good missionaries, and that we should keep up the good work.  So that was a comfort. 

Thursday was nuts as well.  The night before, we realized that we were plum out of miles for the month.  That was a huge source of stress.  So that morning we went to Wal Mart and bought a new tube for our bikes and a new pump for me.  Sorry I've been spending so much on the card recently.  Its been a tough month.  

Went down to the church, and waited until it was our turn for interviews with President.  Interview days are always crazy.  I enjoyed my interview with President M, and he talked about how we could potentially get more miles for our huge are.  But in the end I kinda felt like he had just breezed right through mine.  I didn't get to talk about a lot of what i needed some guidance with.  Its just nice to have someone to talk to period.  

visited Darwin and Carmen that day just to check up on them.  They're doing good.  Carmen still wants to go back to church but she's not gonna go without Darwin's approval.  Its sad.  But it was good to see em again.  

Ate dinner with the S family.  They made us some really good Tongan food.  Then their son Feleti came with us to go see Jose again, but he bailed.  The rest of the night didn't produce very much success either.

Friday was a crazy day too.  We got rangled into helping a move that was going on in the Zone leaders area.  .  But we were there way longer than we wanted to be.  She didnt have a ton packed.  

We correlated with the Sisters for a little bit that day, and then we planned.  It wasn't super productive.  No one answers their phone, and if they do its really difficult to get someone to commit to an appointment.  Such is the life :P

Saturday we went on exchanges with B ward, so I got to go over there and experience their area.  We also went on a biltz in the Strasbourg ward.  It is super country all the way out there.  Tons of tiny towns.  But it was cool. we found some people for them to teach.  

Had a few appointments that really let me see how great of a missionary Elder R is.  He goes home in three weeks and he's been a zone leader, but man it was cool to just learn from each other seeing as how we both had a ton of experience.  Lots of great conversations.

Sunday was a tad lame.  Tevin bailed on our appointment, Ward council announced that it was no longer required for us to come to the meetings, and they also announced that our Correlations meeting would now just be us, Lucky and our non-existant ward missionaries.  So say good bye to our good relationship with the Ward!  

Church was good even though no one showed.  Sat in on a super cool Q and A between the Bishop and the youth.  Wish our Bishops had done that. 
Visited the R with Brother H after church and then ate dinner with the L family after that.  

Finally we ended with a visit to the N family.  Taught them Part of lesson four and had a good time answering their questions.

Up and down haha.  What else can I say.  

I'm gonna try and upload some pictures real quick so I'm gonna cut this one off.

Love you!

Elder Efan

Parker's 12 week training complete!

Hello Outside world! I am currently in a tri-companionship because Elder Oblad is officially at the mission office and goes home tomorrow!  So for now I am with Elder Williams, and Elder Williams so now everyone until transfers is going to ask why my name isnt Elder Williams haha.  Sorry mom, no I did not get hurt on the bike, it wasnt a bad crash just funny because of the situation!  

We got transfer calls today! I am staying in K Ward, which is great! I love it here, the problem is there isnt much opportunity to teach around here.  Nobody is really interested so our teaching pool is slowly shrinking.  And yes Elder O called it, I am going to be training this next transfer.  I got the call from president this morning saying I will be second half training!!! Which is great because I get to train a new missionary but he isnt completely new so he will already be up to speed on a lot of things! So this is going to be a tough transfer!  I find out who he is on Thursday!!!!!

Monday: We got to go Golfing with Bishop W and President H!  Those two men are freaking awesome.  We only had time to play nine holes and it was blazing hot out but it was great.  I didnt play to well I shot like a 47.  But i was using rental clubs, and havent played in a while.  I did manage to have the low score which was funny. haha We then had a Zone activity where we played basketball and other small games.  We then went and had the F Boys baptismal interview! They passed and everything went well! 

Tueday: It was Elder Os last District meeting, he was super emotional because by that next tuesday he would be home.  We had a few other meetings, and we had to get permission to run to the store like 3 different times because Elder O needed to get certain things before he leaves.  Taking over the area again is going to be tough just because of the lack of a ward mission leader and people are really friendly just dont want anything to do with the gospel especially.  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the LDS community is pretty big in Arizona, not so much around Ahwatukee but people know about it.  We then met with a less active family who was struggling and we managed to get into their home and share a message, hopefully it helped because they said they really dont want anything to do with the church anymore.

Wednesday: We had a few new member move in's to stop by most werent home or they didnt have time to meet.  We did get to eat lunch with one of them and they literally fed us until i felt like buttons were popping off my shirt.  I need to up my workout in the morning or else im going to weigh or at least feel like I weigh 1000 pounds haha.  We got new break pads for Elder Os bike so he can sell it.  Having a companion going home is hard or at least my was it took us as well as the Zone leaders (they had to drive us) out of all our areas a lot.  We got a few names from members to go by so we stopped by and set up times to go by again.  We then had a few lessons later in the evening.  We taught one youth by playing around the world basketball trivia.

Thursday:  Since it was my last week of training we had to watch all the district videos again because that is the last part of the 12 week training program.  So even though I watched them like 498923 times we watched them.  I get to watch them again since I am training.  We then hit the streets.  We met this homeless guy who was super hungry so Elder O and I bought him MacDonalds.  We got a gift card from bishop to eat there and so we used it on this guy.  We talked with him for a little bit, turns out he was still a little drunk and he chooses to be homeless... oh well ahah.  We had a final lesson with the F Boys so they were all set to be baptized!  We met with a couple of less actives later in the day.  Biking really slows things down sometimes, and we always seem to be late because of it haha and it is still extremely hot and humid (because of the storms that missed us but brought the humidity) 

Friday: I Was pretty sweet, I got paired with another companion while elder o got to go to the temple for the last time as a missionary ( so dumb that I didn't get to go! haha).  Then during weekly president called an emergency mission meeting. So the whole mission gathered later that day.  He had a few announcements.  Apparently some missionaries had been sent home for being idiots, so he wanted to talk about obedience, and how proud he is of us but knows we can do better.  He also announced the Elder D. Todd Christopherson would be meeting with just our mission tomorrow!

Saturday: Bright and early we were at one of the church buildings as a mission.  Elder Christopherson of the twelve apostles was there. As well as Elder Corbridge of the seventy, and Bishop Davis of the Presiding Bishopric!!!!! We then all got to shake there hands.  I told his where I was from and my name and could barely get the words out haha.  They each spoke pretty much blew our minds.  Elder Christopherson had a Q/A so we got to ask him questions.  He talked a lot about rebellion and threw down not on our mission but missions in general.  So freaking cool.  Then we had the Fs baptism! So seeing a general authority to having a baptism!  It went well.  There were so many little kids there it was kindof hard at times to focus but they got dunked.  These boys were long lasting investigators so many missionaries had tried to get them to church. I thank all the other Elders and Sister who helped prepare them so that we could seal the deal.  

Sunday:  Was a normal sunday Elder O got to speak since he was going home.  We then had this random guy in gospel doctrine who was crazy! He interupted every five seconds and talked about economics, his opinions.  We kept having to say, well lets get back to the lesson haha. After church we cleaned up our area book to make sure if I wasnt staying that the missionaries after us wouldnt be lost on what to do.  We then went to a mission presidents devotional where we get to take investigators and less actives.  It was great President toone as well as other new converts spoke. He talked about the restoration and the need to find out for yourself and have your own testimony. Every time president Toone speaks it bring the whole audience to tears.  A 7 foot giant with the biggest spirit!  

That was my week in a nutshell!  I hope everything is going well back home! I am finally done being trained and now I have to train.  It is going to be interesting.  Just have to work hard to find more people to teach!  

Love, Parker

Monday was okay.  It was Zone P-day, and they ZL's didn't really put a whole lot of effort into this one.  We played capture the flag in on of the nearby parks, but it was pretty boring.  Then I just kinda chilled with a group of missionaries who didn't really wanna play football afterwards.  It was kinda awkward.    

The H family gave us dinner to go that night.  There are so many members of our ward who COULD feed the Elders, but only a few who do.  So that leaves us to eat with a small group of the same members every week.  The Sister's calender always seems to be full though.

Got flaked on by what we thought was a really cool potential investigator that evening, but we did finally get back in with the S's.  We're gonna start teaching them the missionary lessons to get em back to activity again.  Sister S would make a great member of the church.  And that doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility either.     

Tuesday we went over to Joe C's place and smacked him upside the head with the Spirit, but he still won't come to church until the new building opens :P  Thats been everyone's excuse recently.  But the good thing about that was we finally got the open house and dedication date!  It happens on October 25 and 26.  Hopefully I'm here for that, cause that's gonna be a super awesome event to use for missionary work.  

Had DLC's that day, and they unrolled the new zone vision for all of us to talk about.  I thought it was a good plan, but it seemed really difficult to execute.  Plus its difficult to push things like that with some of the Elders in my district.  We'll see how it goes.  

Did some service at a place called Brent's Place that day.  Its just like Ronald McDonald house, only specifically for cancer patients.  It was cool.  We picked a bunch of produce from the community garden.  

Did a bunch of finding that day, and we tried to visit this one former investigator guy named David, but his apartment was so ghetto that we couldn't even open the gate to knock on his door.  

Ate dinner by ourselves, and then we went on a team up with Brother M to go see a potential investigator named Jose.  Elder A found him while we were on exchanges.  But he didn't remember where he was!  So we drove around a bunch and couldn't find him.  We later found out that he was right around the corner from where we were :P So we went with Bro M to the church and correlated a little bit with him before our meeting that evening.

Wednesday was long, but kinda up and down.  We had the temple that morning, which was great.  The Buckley Elders found a lady named Sister W to drive us all down, and she took us to country buffett afterwards haha.  So that was pretty cool.  Its neat to learn some of the symbolism that goes into everything in the temple.  I'm totally just going to LIVE at Deseret book when i get home haha.  Lots of reading that I want to do.  

We had an appointment with a LA named Bryan that day.  He doesn't live in the Ward, he's just staying in a hotel while he's working on a jobsite out here.  But we ran into him at a gas station earlier that week, and he asked if we could come to the hotel and teach him about what he needed to do to prepare himself to baptize his daughter when he gets back.  It was good lesson.  He's a great guy who joined the church about 2 years ago.

While we were there we got a call from the Sisters that J called them and told them he was going to kill himself.  So we went all the way down to his place, and it turns out that he was just hammered.  We talked to him and he just expressed a lot of drunken sorrow for the loss of his son earlier this year.  I felt so bad for him.  He still wants us to teach him, but I don't know how much we can do for him if he's like that when we come over.  Plus he has a ton of sketchy people who live around him and don't help a whole ton.  Trailer parks... 

Visited Ernestine with Sister F.  She's almost on the chopping block honestly.  For that whole lesson she did nothing but talk about how angry she was at God and other people in her life.  Plus she is torn between us and the JW's, which makes it really difficult to get through to her sometimes.  Their Method of teaching is very "this scripture proves we're right" and I think she wants us to do more of that.  Which we wont.  its just becoming more and more hard to get through to her.  But at the end she said that the reason she is still interested in learning is because of my "amazing faith" and how "she see's the savior in my countenance."  That was crazy to hear someone else say.  It felt good to hear that, but it made me worry that the whole reason she is investigating is because she likes ME and not the message.  We'll see what happens.  This week may be the make or break week with her.  

Ate dinner with the T family, and then we went to Bro H's place to team up and go over to Tim P's place.  But Tim cancelled on the way there, and Brother H had forgotten all about it.  But he still came with us to visit the S family.  Crazy family.  They're "Juggalos" as they say it.  Apparently there is a band out there called the Insane Clown Posse who has this ridiculous cult following and the fans are called Juggalos.  Super vulgar, super angry at the world, and they use the ICP as an escape from their own reality.  Its kinda scary to be honest.  But Brother H was perfect for them.  Funny and very friendly with everyone.  

Zone Meeting took up a lot of Thursday.  The ZL's had me conduct the meeting.  It was a super inspirational meeting.  Lots of awesome messages that were sorely needed to get me through the week.  The Spirit really is like a battery charger.  I think its why they have these meeting so often.  We did this one break off role play where one of us played Peter, and one of us played Christ during the last few verses of John 21.  It was super powerful.  We listened to Holland's talk "The First and Great Commandment" and then we put into our own word what Christ was saying to Peter there.  I guess you have to be there.  But the talk is great.  I would recommend it.  

Did a ton of finding that day, and then had dinner with the F family.  I still love that last name haha.  But none of our appointments ended up panning out that evening :/  But we did get to meet President F's LA brother.  Dude looks like a freaking Rastafarian haha.

Friday was difficult.  Did a lot of finding in the morning, and then we planned for a good amount of the day.  Its nice to have a companion who is so supportive of the things that I think we ought to do, but Elder A is totally a follower.  Not a whole lot of input from his perspective.  At least we don't hate each other.  

Ate dinner with the M's and then went the rest of the night without having a single person open the door :P

Saturday was also pretty difficult.  We had like 7 set appointments that day and we finished having only taught one lesson.  Everyone bailed.  Everyone.  We even had a team up planned with Brother B that night, but the appointment flaked, so we drove around to plan B, C, and D haha.  Great guy who gets how difficult missionary work is sometimes.  

The crowning lowpoint of the week was when we were on our way to go visit the really cool potential investigator named Dave and his family.  As we were walking up to their Apartment building.  They come out of the laundry room and head to their door.  We waved from afar off and he sort of waved back.  Then they went inside.  When we knocked on the door 20 seconds later, no answer.  Lame as Freak.  

But we did get to teach a lesson to Anthony, the F's new adopted son.  He is LA so he needs some refreshers on the Gospel.  That went well, and we had another guitar-hymn singalong afterwards.  The crazy thing was that afterwards they asked if i could play something with just me.  Before I knew it, I was singing Lost Cause by Beck.  And I nailed it.  I've never been able to sing and play at the same time, except until recently.  It blew me away at how i could finally do something that I hadn't been able to do for the longest time.  It was a great feeling.  

Sunday was probably one of the better days in the week.  We found as new investigator that morning named Tevin.  Super cool young guy who really liked the Book of Mormon when he heard it.  So we're gonna start teaching him.  May have a few problems with the word of wisdom though.  He had a brand new Hookah sitting in the corner haha.  At least he wasn't like this one chick that we found who was hot-boxing in her tiny apartment with her 2 year old there.  Eghhhh....

Church was okay.  I get really tired of how disruptive some of the Kids are around here.  But none of our investigators came :(  

Visited Javier again afterwards.  It was a quick visit but he was in tears over how much he wants to quit drinking.  I hope we can help him.  There is another member his age who went through the same thing, so we may try and bring him next time.  

Ate dinner with the crazy J family, and then we taught a lesson to the N family after.  SO MANY KIDS in this ward.  Makes me look forward to the bachelor life haha.

Anyways, that was my week.  

Love you guys!  

Elder Efan 

Another week down! Love my boys!

GOLFING ON P-DAY WITH THE BISHOP!  

The part two was actually week 10! 

But hey! Another week flying by!  It was an average week statistically but a great week in general. 

Monday: After my email got deleted, we got to do a zone activity called Frasketball or something.  Basically you play team handball with a soccer ball into a basketball hoop.  It started out slow but turned out to a lot of fun!  We then utilized my ping pong set and played ping pong for a while!  P-day goes by so fast.  We then suited back up and hit the road!  We decided to focus on part member families this week.  We managed to get into a few peoples homes and teach some lessons but a lot of the time when the non-member spouse answers they don't let us in.  That was the day it decided to pour down rain.  Everything was completely flooded.  

Tuesday:  We had distict meeting.  Elder O gives such great training and brings the spirit in pretty much everything he does.  He gave us each a christ like attribute and to do a journal on it.  It was randomly selected but I got Desire.  So this past week I really worked on being more converted and having a greater desire to talk to everyone! We recived a few names of people to go by and one is this family.  She has 3 sons and really wants them to have a postive male influence on their lives.  We stopped by and talked to them about young men, and they said they would go.  

Wednesday:  We went on exchanges with the Zone leaders.  I took over our area again and we had a pretty good day.  We had a few lessons but For some reason I felt rushed the whole day and the lessons weren't as personal as I wanted them to be.  This past week was the trainee takes control of all situations and the Zl litterally decided to not say a word so I really was on my own.  It was a good day and he evaluated and was said he thought it was great and he really wanted to focus in on having me take control.  But for me it really bummed me out because being the new missionary i am, I wanted everything to go perfect but it is tough sometimes.  

Thursday:  Wasnt near as stressed because the exchange was over.  After we had a lesson with the F Boys who are getting baptized this upcoming saturday! its about freaking time, many missionaries have tried before but we finally got them to do it! We visited some less actives and some people the ward has no clue whether they live there or not and then ate dinner with the Bates familly again... every time we eat their they always ask why I dont like chocolate and why I dont have an accent even though I have told them a thousand times. haha they are very very old...

Friday: was Elder O's last week of planning! He was super bummed, he really really wants to stay.  Friday was a tough day but an interesting day.  So there I was... bikeing down the street.  I stopped said hello to this man on the street.  Said "hey hows it going, is there anything we can...adfjasdfjasdkf" Elder O comes crashing into me.  He was texting while biking haha.  it wasnt to bad of a crash but it did bend up some part of my bike. Soo we were on foot the rest of the day until the Zone Leaders could drive us to a bike shop.   That pretty much killed our plans for the day...

Saturday: We helped some other Elders who were setting up for a baptism becasue they were running late.  Still without bikes, it took us a while to really get anywhere.  We were supposed to have a church tour, and have some people attend the baptism which they all no-showed so we had to leave and walk home.  We then had some crazy lady knock on our door asking if she could borrow a phone. We were like sorry we don't have one on us (of course we did but not allowed to give it out") then she stormed off.  We knew the lady and were kindof freaked out that she knew where we lived haha.  We then had a mission movie night where we bring investigators and less actives to.  It went well we had a few less actives come.  That is almost harder than getting investigators to do anything.  

Sunday; I FREAKING LOVE KYRENE WARD.  I really hope this ward doesnt spoil me and the rest be downgrades but Kyrene ward is just so awesome.  Church is always great, the people are  awesome.  We had a little scare because the Foote boys didnt come to church so we thought that they wouldnt be able to baptized.  But they ended up coming they were just super late... haha so everything is still a go and their interview is today.  We walked and visited some apartments and street contacted some people.  Our teaching pool is about to dry up so we need to start working on finding.  We got to go to a new member move in party for Kyrene ward and their was food and trivia so it was nice that we were able to go to some of that.  

we did get our bikes today and it only cost me like 8 bucks for the repair so that was good

That was my week!  So far my mission has been freaking tough.  Not a lot happening and have to do the best We can with what we have.  But the first convert in a mission is the missionary and these 3 months have strengthened my testimony immensely.  I am becoming so much more affluent with knowledge of scriptures and testimony.  Miracles are happening, everyday I witness miracles whether it be impressions to knock on that door, or to go over their or to see people share and feel the spirit.  It's awesome

Love Parker

Hey Mum!  and Everyone Else! 

 

Man if I had to sum this whole week up with a few short words, it would be "well, what now?" 

That about characterizes the week haha.  Lots of stuff fell through, and there was more open space in our planner than I thought was possible in this ward.  But the upside was that we were forced to do a ton of finding, which then resulted in actually meeting a lot of new people to teach.  So I wouldn't really say it was a bad week or anything, but it definitely wasn't the kind of week that missionaries have daydreams about. 

The highlight of this week was definitely the Mission Tour that happened on Saturday.  Soooo cool.  Every year the missions in the church are visited and toured by a general authority who then addresses the missionaries and the leadership on all the things that they are doing well, and maybe chastises them a little bit on stuff that they can do better.  This year it was Elder and Sister Larry Lawrence (kind of a redundant name huh?).  They were legit.  Can't wait to see the impact that this is going to have on the mission culture. 

 

P-day was boring last week.  Elder A wants to play basketball at the stake center with the other guys, so that generally leaves me with not a ton to do except try and teach myself how to play piano.  That hasn't been all bad, but it gets old.  I know this shouldn't matter much, but I get a little worried about how that affects the other Elder's opinion of me as a leader.  I don't wanna come across as unfun or anything, but at the same time I'm just not willing to play.  They get too competitive and I have terrible coordination haha

Ate dinner with the S family.  They're cool.  They have a son named Josh who is Autistic.  But he's a pretty funny kid.  Loves video games (shocker) and is still super smart. 

Then afterwards we finally got back in with the S family.  That was kinda strange.  The parents are getting a divorce, but they still live in the same house.  They are civil about it, but they're super open about the fact that Sister Smith having an affair is the reason that they are splitting.  Awkward.  But we taught them about the Atonement and the kind of things it can do for them and their struggles.  They were both super receptive.  I think the kids need it too, cause I cant imagine how they are taking all this.

 

Tuesday was a long day.  We had a DLC meeting at 11 that morning, so that nixed any opportunity for us to go visit some of the people that we had planned on seeing.  But it was a good meeting.  I brought donuts just for fun, but really because I know that one of our Sisters just lost her Grandma and was really torn up about it.  Donuts cheer everyone up haha.  Afterwards we gave both Sister B and Sister G a blessing of comfort.  Our Sisters are really cool.  I really wanna keep up with them after the mission. 

We literally spent the rest of the day contacting potentials and talking to people.  I've found a pretty successful way to do that without coming across like a JW haha.  People are much more receptive if you just start talking to them on the street instead of knocking on their door.  It works a lot better.  So we set up a bunch of appointments that day. 

Ate dinner with the F family, and then we went to correlation.  Our phone bit the dust a few days earlier so we finally got our new one, even if its not that great either.

 

Wednesday I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went to their area with Elder D, while Elder A went with Elder R.  Neither of them knew how to navigate the area so they ran our miles up a ton.  But we had a pretty cool day.  Went to some service in the morning, and then we ate at Atlanta Bread Co.  Then we spent the rest of the day contacting potentials.  Found some cool people.  Ate dinner with their recent convert who's name is Amit.  He's Indian, but he speaks good enough English.  He fed us this really strange Indian dish.  Basically a cereal with rice and lentils that you put yogurt, chutney, and onions on top of.  It was... meh...

Then that night we had a lesson with a guy named J.  It started off as a lesson, but morphed into us playing a Bible trivia game with them.  I DEMOLISHED them haha.  Good thing I know the scriptures pretty well. 

Then we exchanged back.  I brought a lot of cool new ideas to my area.  And Elder A found a new investigator while I was gone!

 

Thursday we did some service at the Crisis center.  Too many of these projects are just becoming a chill out place where all the missionaries go to avoid doing work.  Its a little sad sometimes.  So we left when the rest started showing up. 

We made it our goal to contact every person in the area book, so we just went area by area.  Found some really cool people in an apartment complex, and then we set up a bunch of appointments with some other people who live right by the airport.  Our area goes all the way up there believe it or not haha.

Ate dinner with the P family, and then visited a bunch of LA's but none were home :(

 

Friday was our worst day of the week.  We didn't want to go to the church to plan because no one else was gonna be there, and we didn't want to spend the miles.  But for some reason that made it really difficult to focus on planning.  

Did a lot of LA contacting that day.  Actually got a lot of useful information that we can write in the area book.  Then we ate dinner by ourselves, got flaked on by both Jeff  and the other F family, and gave a card to a couple of interested gas station attendants haha.  That was pretty funny.  We had a rough day so we went looking for a Slurpee, but the first 711 we tried had a broken machine, and then the second one we tried didn't have any that were without food coloring.  But both cashiers asked about the Church and accepted an invite to church!  You never know how the Lord is gonna lead you to people haha.

 

Saturday was a good day.  Mission tour went awesomely, and really pumped me for the last 10 weeks of my mission.  Elder Lawrence was a heavy hitter on obedience, and he chastised our mission for being a little to casual, which is probably true.  Then his wife talked for close to 2 hours on the gathering of Israel and how those who were born into Israel were the most righteous in the Pre-existence.  I don't know how much of that was doctrine versus speculation.  But it was still super fascinating.  Then we got recruited to help our ward clean the building. 

Got flaked on by a couple of people that afternoon, but that led us to find a new investigator, Anthony, and then to street contact a super legit potential named Dave.  Pretty ghetto area though.  Project apartments. 

Then we went to the Wedding of Tim  and Jenny .  She is a LA who is trying to return, and her new husband is a new investigator that we are going to start teaching Wednesday.  He told us he wants to be baptized along with his kids.  So that is a plus!  Can't wait to get that started. 

Ate dinner with the R family, and then we went to our appointment with Javier.  When we got there, he was SMASHED.  Totally gone.  I got a little information out of him about how he felt embarrassed that he hadn't made it to church the last couple weeks, so he started to revert back to his old self.  Which sucked.  Plus he had a bunch of punk kids hanging out with him, also drinking and unloading a bunch of porn out of their car so they can sell it.  It was pretty bad.  Before we left he made me tune his guitar up and jam a little for him.  He was surprised that I could actually play haha.  

Then we taught a lesson to the R family that evening.

 

Sunday was kinda lame.  We went around to remind all of our investigators who had committed to come to church this week.  None of them came.  Even Javier who told us that morning that he would.  So that was a bummer.  But it was the Primary Program that day so I couldn't really stay too sad about it since I was laughing my head off.  The kids in this ward are hilarious.  SOOOO LOUD haha.  They just belted out those primary songs haha.

After church we went over to the F family, but they flaked on us a third week in a row.  They were busy rebuilding the roof of their trailer since their landlord was threatening to evict them. 

Ate dinner with President F and his family.  He's the patriarch of the whole F clan haha.  Hes first counselor in the Stake Presidency.  Super good Tongan food haha.

Afterwards we taught Part 2 of the Plan of Salvation lesson to the N family, and then taught Part one of that same lesson to the J family.  Both went okay.  Its tough to teach the J's 7 year old Elian.  But she gave us haircuts so its all good haha. 

 

Whew.  I'm gonna cut this letter off a little short today so I can go get some of that school stuff done.  I'm gonna call and get permission to fill it all out.  Love you!  Wish me luck cause this next week looks pretty good. 

 

Elder Efan  

Ethan is on the 12 week count down!

Hey Mum!  as well as Dad, Emily, and everyone else!

Needless to say I am very glad that this transfer is over.  Towards the end of it I was just basically rolling with anything and everything that happened to avoid making it any more difficult.  Elder B got transferred yesterday after only six weeks in the area, and I stayed.  I felt bad because of the way our companionship had gone, but in the end I was just glad it was over.  He is a good guy with a lot of difficult stuff that he's working through.  The one thing that cripples him is his lack of patience with other people.  He just can't fathom the idea that other people do things differently than he does.  But its okay, its over.

My new companion's name is Elder A.  I was actually companions with him about a year ago for a couple days when Elder W was having all his trouble.  He's a cool guy!    He may be my last companion!  who knows?  

So one of the interesting things about this week was the fact that a lot of the things that happened just kinda fell into our lap.  I really don't think we worked as hard as our numbers indicated.  Elder B. started stalling a bunch whenever it was time to go out and work.  For example, I waited for almost an hour one day for him to get ready.  We would walk out the door, than he would forget something, and then something else would happen, and then eventually an hour had passed by.  Then other days he wouldn't feel good with various ailments, so that would stall us.  I'm not saying I'm perfect at that kinda stuff either, but it was noticeable that he was just trying to kill time.  But the Lord made up for it.  We taught more lessons than we have since I've been in this area somehow.  We found some new investigators, and we made some significant progress with others.  So really I shouldn't complain.  But there comes a point in your mission where you start to catch the sense of urgency.  You want every minute to be productive.  It doesn't always happen, but you really feel it.  

So P-day was kinda lame last week.  I wanted to try and do something cool for Elder J and Elder S's last P-day.  But in the end J got permission to go downtown and hang, and S had a lot of stuff to do too.  So me and the rest of the missionaries who had nothing to do during P-day all got into the Library and watched a bunch of old Church videos.  We watched one awesome one about Joseph of Egypt.  Pretty sweet.  That is like my favorite story in the Scriptures.  Joseph was unparalleled in just being a boss haha.  

Ate dinner with President Spackman and his family (who turned out to be a bass player haha), and then we visited the P family.  Polynesian family with a daughter who recently married a non-member.  We wanted to see how interested he was.  Not too much right now unfortunately.  

Tuesday was a pretty good day.  We did service in the morning at the Ronald McDonald house.  I love that place.  The spirit is just there for some reason.  It does a lot of good for people who are already going through a really difficult time in the hospital.  I also struck up a sweet conversation with a native American dude who was staying there named Rod.  Gave him a BOM and told him how to get ahold of the missionaries that cover his area up in Montana where he is from.  At the end of the service I fiddled around on a guitar that they had lying around in the lobby next to a piano.  Unbeknownst to me, the receptionist was listening, and when i was done she told me that I should just stay there all day and provide ambiance for the whole place.  She really liked it haha.  

We planned on tracting that day, but Elder B
 stalled us, and by the time we were ready to go, it was time for us to move on and do something else.  So we biked around Montebello and tried to contact a few people.  But the the sky opened up and we got drenched.  So we sought refuge at the F family house, and taught a lesson to Brother F, who is less active.  Polynesians are so hospitable haha.  

After the rain let up, we met with a new investigator named Geo, and taught him the first couple points of the missionary lessons.  Cool guy.  We're going back today.  

We got home from that lesson and we were going to go meet Brother P so he could take us to dinner, but when we got there someone was standing at the door writing a note.  It was Elder B's BROTHER.  He had been passing through town driving a car back to the dealership that he works at, and he stopped by our place to leave a note.  But we ran into him!  So he came to dinner with us.  Turns out he served his mission in Atlanta, IN OUR WARD.  He knew the Bergevins, and the Bartletts and Bishop Wuergler!  Pretty crazy huh?  

Afterwards we taught a lesson to the Jones family, and then went to correlation meeting.

Wednesday was cool.  We had a stake missionary breakfast that morning, and then we had district meeting.  It was good meeting.  We wrapped up our 9 Day Christlike Attribute challenge, and made a list of all the Miracles that we had seen.  It was sweet.  Ate lunch, then we visited the A family , who recently underwent the tragedy of their niece being murdered.  It was crazy to hear about it.  Her and her husband were fighting and he just shot her.  Horrible.  

Ate dinner with the Mata'eles, and then we visited Werra with Brother Hess.  Because B doesnt want to do Comp study with me, he never knows whats going to happen in the lessons.  So I do most of the talking.  We put her on date for the 20th, but idk if she will make it.  Her comprehension is pretty low.  But she wants to be baptized!

Thursday was pretty good too.  Service at the Crisis center in the morning, DLC's in the afternoon, and then we visited Ernestine and her family.  We had a lesson prepared, but we spent the majority of the time talking about ways she can help her rebellious teenage daughter.  So the sisters have started teaching her, and we still teach Ernestine.  She is so cool.  She can totally go the distance if she keeps it up.  We just gotta get her to church.  

Ate dinner with the Neilsons, and then we got bailed on again by Tryphena :P  I dunno what to do about her.  

In the evening we visited the Hess family, and ended up visiting till it was time to go home.  Another example of stalling on the part of my Comp.  Oh well.  They're awesome.  

Friday was Planning day.  We taught Jeff again that day too.  He's way closer than he has ever been.  We explained how he will be able to recognize his answer, and taught him how to be more sincere in his prayers.  He grew up catholic so he's just used to the recited prayer thing haha.  

Then we planned for most of the rest of the day, and I interviewed one of the sister's Investigators for baptism.  His name was Chris and he was super legit.  Very prepared.  

Saturday was a good day too.  We tried to contact a bunch of potentials, and ended up running into a guy named Walter who reminded me sooo much of Dad.  He builds furniture out of old Drum sets.  Its pretty cool.

Ate lunch, went to Chris' baptism, and then we ate dinner with the Sanft family.  Another Polynesian family!

Afterwards we had a lesson with Javier.  Great guy.  He could potentially be baptized as well.  Gotta get him to church.  

Then that night we had transfer doctrine meeting.  We learned where everyone was going.  Most people in my district stayed the same.  Took some pictures with some missionaries who were going home.  

Then Sunday was pretty laid back.  We both spoke in sacrament meeting, and man was I proud of my talk haha.  Everyone seemed to love it a lot.  I spoke about gratitude and drew heavily from President Uchtdorf's talk in April. 

Got bailed on by the Fellows family, and then we ate Dinner with Brother Nau and his friend Isac.  They're super chill as well.  Good hawaiian food too haha.  

Spent the rest of the day at the Mata'eles looking for Elder B's Oakleys that he lost.   

Okay well thats my week.  I gotta go soon.  Love all of you!  Hope this week is as good as this past one!  

Elder Efan 

And for Parker - he had to do a quick email from his IPAD  

Tough week.

Pretty much all of our investigators bailed on us this week so it was
tough to even get a lesson in! We street contact a lot and give them
our number but never seem to get calls, but no worries that's
missionary work for ya! Ahwatukee is super tough area. Since the
dynamics are either extremely rich or extremely poor and unfortunately
neither are humble haha.
I don't have much time because for Labor Day Elder Brown and sister
Brown are having the entire zone over for a Labor Day barbecue. He is
the vehicle coordinator and she is the referal manager. So that should
be really awesome! So I will have to give the very brief version even
more than what I usually send.


Monday:was just a normal p-day. Went shopping played basketball and
stuff like that. At six is when pday ends so we had a lesson with a
part member family which was really good and then visited some less
actives and talked with them. Not too much happened that day :/

Tuesday: had the normal new missionary and district meetings. Elder
O gives great district meetings they are super powerful and are
extremely helpful. It is crazy to think that he is actually older than
Ethan haha. He leaves in like 3 weeks, he does a good job of not
thinking about it but everyone else loves to remind him. Then we went
and got a prescription for elder O which was way out of our area
so it took a lot of time but he needed it so it couldn't wait.  We ate
with the older bates family again. They feed us so much, and he always
loves to beat me with his cane when he walks by haha. I showed them
the picture book that you sent me haha

Wednesday: little success. We were supposed to have like lessons all
day but one by one they all cancelled.  So that meant we were in the
sun all day because instead of teaching we were trying to find haha.
We manage to meet with less actives but getting ahold of investigators
especially during the day, is tough.

Thursday: we had a mission conference! With elder Swizzer of the 70.
President Toone spoke for a bit on humility which is crazy because he
is the most humble person I have ever met. Makes you really think
inside how can I be more humble haha. Then Elder Swizzer gave
training and about dealing with people and not numbers. He tore apart
the district videos and critiqued them so much I would be so scared to
have him critique me in a lesson haha. It was so awesome and it was my
first of many!

Friday: was probably our toughest day. Nobody home, nobody interested
and hot and sweaty!  Usually I don't mention it in the letters but
usually talk to tons of people on the street and do quick lessons like
that but nobody even gave us a glance haha. President Hartman the
elders quorum president took us to long horns which was awesome. He
actually had to take a call so it was awkward being two missionaries
eating long horns by ourselves haha. But it was delicious

Saturday: Saturday sure is moving day. we went and helped this less
active family move and we blessed there home. They are really
interesting let's just put it like that haha... Then we had to get
going for a lesson which of course fell through and then later that
night came with the elders quorum to help move the rest of the less
actives furniture.  We did have a really awesome talk with a Christian
dude named Cody. Super religious and talked about his out of body
experience. But he is a born again who doesn't want to do anything but
say he is saved.

Sunday: we had church like normal guess what... Our lessons fell
through all except one haha.  The adversary has decided to make our
lives and our work much tougher.  I also got to be Amulek In a role
play that Bishop totally threw me on the spot in front of combined
relief society and elders/high priest haha. Then elder Oblad had a
meeting with president Toone to pass of the family proclamation. If
you can memorize it and recite it to him then you get some kind of
award!  after that elder O

me and the zone leaders got to chill
with president Toone for like 30 min and just talk and joke around for
a little bit! The ZLs said that never happens cuz he is always super
busy! President Toone is so awesome!


Well that was my week! I actually for more typed than I thought I
would! But I have to get going because we about to go to the barbecue!
 It was a tough week which means working even harder can only lead to
better week! Sounds like Emily is doing well! Keep up the good work
young padawan!  I miss having my appendige always on my right! Haha
let me how all the moving goes to!

Love you all
Elder Hemsley