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
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