Hello Everyone!!!

So this week was a pretty good week for the most part. We were able to teach some really good lessons and we were able to help some people know more about the book of mormon. So far everything is going well for the most part. We celebrated my birthday on Friday with Yellow Cake and Chocolate Frosting!!!! Thank you all so much for the Birthday packages!!!! They were Great!!!! I received my packages on Thursday in the afternoon. I got 2 from you all and 1 from Grandma and Grandpa Parks. Thank you all so much for the packages!!! So today the bishop of the ward that I am serving in wants us to come with him to a church building in our area to look at it so we can start a group! We may become a group and me and my companion will be in charge of running the group!! We will see what actually will happen. I will keep you all informed! So every monday I am with Elder Scanlin from the 5th ward!!I see him all the time!! Its so great!! So I hope all is going well at home so far!

Mom, Thank you so much for the packages!!! I will keep my eye out for them all when they arrive!! There is an office couple that works in the mission office that keeps an eye out for my packages so they will watch for them as well. So luckily I was able to receive my packages last thursday but they actually came in on Monday so that is good. I will have to check if any came in today or not. I will watch for all the packages that come in. So you had a gang situation at the hospital??? That is crazy!! I hope non of the staff were harmed in the conflict. Luckily here I dont have to worry about gang activity. Here there is something called "Mob Justice". It is really really bad because they inflict a lot of harm! What happens is if someone catches another person stealing or robbing someone they will scream "He is stealing" or something of that sort and all the sudden all the men in the houses or shacks will surround the one who just stole something and they will close in and start beating the guy up, usually until he cant move any more or unfortunately until they die. It is very very bad!!!! I think that is the reason there is no gang activity and why no one gives us any problems. People always look out for us and if someone attempts to give us trouble or grief someone will come up and ask if we are ok and if the person is bothering us or not. I always have to tell them that everything is ok. Everyone looks out for us here where I am at. No one dares harm us because of that "Mob Justice" thing. It has been something that I have had to get used to. So you all invitedthe missionaries over for dinner??? They are so lucky!!!!! I miss Both yours and Dad's cooking!!! The food just is not the same here in South Africa but it is still good! Well I hope you have a great week!!

Dad, That is really good that you all enjoyed Thanksgiving!! Here we all had lunch for thanksgiving but it was no where close to how it is at home. I was able to get some Yellow cake with Chocolate frosting luckily for my birthday. It was so great!! I enjoyed every bit of it!! So that is funny that none of the decorations are up yet! It is still November so that is understandable. None of the appartments have any decorations so we will have to see how everything goes this christms. I cant believe Christmas is already here!! Time goes by way too fast sometimes!!! I look forward to the phone call home in less than a month!! That will be exciting!!!! So you all fed the missionaries?? That is so great!! I guarantee that they all LOVED that!!! It is so nice when a member feeds us that way we dont have to spend as much money and go to get lunch. So the bishop of the ward here in my area wants to look at a church building in our area and he wants us to go with him! If everything goes well, we will become a group and Both my and my companion will be in charge of running the church services every sunday!! I will have to keep you informed how that will go!! I hope all will go well for that because the people here need a closer place because the other building is really far from the area. We will have to see what happens. So i hope you have had a really good week and I hope you have a great week!!!

Nate, That is crazy that your wisdom teeth are impacted and laying sideways!!! That is so crazy that you are so close to getting your mission papers almost finished!!! That will be cool when everything will be done!!! So you got a traffic ticket???? That is not good!! So far I have been pulled over to the side of the road once and they immediately let us go because everything was in order. I hope all is going well for you so far!!! Tell all the young men (at least the ones who were there when I was there) Hi for me!!! Please also tell the Bishpric and Brother Johnston hi for me!! I hope you have a great week!!!!

Jake, So far everything has been going pretty good for the most part!! My birthday was pretty good as well!! I was able to make my favorite yellow cake and chocolate frosting!!! It was pretty good!!! So here in South Africa there is no such thing as Thanksgiving so for Thanksgiving we had lunch with the other missionaries and it was alright but it was nothing compared to the Thanksgiving feast at home!!! So you went shooting with Dwayne??? That is Awesome!!! Im sure that was fun!! Well I hope all is going well for you at home and have a great week!! Tell the Golders Hi for me!!!

Josh, So that is not good that you have all F's!!!! At least you have the entire quarter to get them all up!! Just do the assignments and turn them in on time and everything will go very well!!! So one piece of advice that I have learned from school and my mission so far is to never give up!! Always put your homework in front of everything else and you cant go wrong!! Keep trying and working hard and you can get really good grades!! I hope this helps and I hope things get better for you and have a great week!!

Alex, That is so great that you all fed the missionaries!! Im sure they all LOVED that!!! So on sundays we start by going to church and then after that we go to one of the members houses and they serve us lunch! We then go and teach people for the rest of the day. I hope you have a great week!

I love you all very much and have a great week!!

- Elder Parks

Hello Everyone!!!!

 

This week has been a really good week for the most part. It was really weird as well. There were a lot of people that kept their appointments but there was a good amount of people that cancelled as well. Yesterday was Stake Conference and it was so different for me because I am used to having it at our stake center but here it was at one of the nearby chapels. It was a little different. So the packages have not arrived yet unfortunately. Is there any chance you have the tracking number for the packages you sent? The numbers will be on the receipt from the post office. So it sounds like all of you have had a good week! So if Goldenwest gives me the money back please feel free to transfer it back into savings or one of your accounts. So yesterday we had a Baptism!! President Renlin of the 70 baptized one of our investigators!! It was so Awesome!!! The seventy are around a lot!! It is so great to be around general authorities of the church!

 

Mom, That is Awesome that you are feeding the missionaries for their zone conference!! I guarantee that they will LOVE IT!! So you all went to Training Table!!!! That is Awesome!!! I will be definately be going to that place when I get home!! So Nate and Maddy will be turning their mission papers in at the same time??? That is Awesome!! I hope they get their calls at the same time!! So Maddy's parents are hooking Nate up for missionary deals?!? Thats Awesome!! Thank you so much for the Birthday Wish!!!! I cant believe that I will be 20 years old this friday!! It feels so weird that I will be going into my 20's!!! Hopefully I will be able to go out for my birthday this week! Unfortunately no one is doing anything for thanksgiving this week so my companion and I will have to come up with something to do for it. Thank you so much for everything!! Thank you so much for the packages by the way!

 

Dad, Thank you so much for the Birthday song and The Birthday Wish!! So I am still in my area for 5 more weeks so I will let you all know when they tell me that I am leaving. It will probably be on the 19th of December. We will have to see what happens. So far my companion and I are doing really well and Things are going good so far!! So we had a baptism yesterday! Her name is Caroline. She was baptized by President Renlin of the area 70! It was a really spiritual experience!! I loved it so much! I hope all is going well for everyone! Thank you so much for the packages by the way!

Nate, That is so AWESOME that you are so close to getting your mission call!! I really look forward to hearing where you are going to go!! I wonder if it will by a different language that you wil be speaking. I wonder if it will be Foreign or in the states. Wherever you go that is where the Lord needs you and you will be a Fantastic missionary!! I hope all goes well and keep me updated on how the papers go!!!

 

Jake, That is Awesome that the dance went well!! It will be weird not being here for my birthday as well!! I hope your week is going well and tell the golders I said Hi!! Sorry I am really short on time!! Have a great week!!

 

Josh, That is really cool that Brother Cooper is in the Bishopric!! That is  also cool that Brother Johnston is back in young mens!! I am really sorry but I am short on time, I hope you have a great week!!!

 

Alex, That is not good that I am missing your play!! If you can video tape it that would be great and I will have to see it when I get home! I hope your week goes really well!!

 

I love you all and Thank you all for the Birthday wishes!! I hope you all have a great week and will you please tell Grandma and Grandpa Parks and Grandpa and Grandma Wright and JoDee and Everyone that wishes my Happy Birthday thank you for me??? Thank you so much and have a great week!!

 

- Elder Parks

Hello Everyone!!!

 

This past week has been HECKTIC!!! The birthday money that you gave me, I had to use it to fuel up our car because the credit card wasnt working. Luckily I will be reimbursed for that but the other time I tried to pull money out the ATM charged my account but never dispensed the money. I went to the bank trying to get that money but they told me that I have to call Golden West. The money I tried to get out was 1000 Rand or $114.85. Hopefully I will be able to call Goldenwest so that I can get that money. So the mission is starting to change a little bit. The MTC stay for the future missionaries will be shortened by a week so they will be in the MTC for only 2 weeks instead of 3. That effects the mission big time because now we have accomidate for the change by changing our transfer cyles back 2 weeks. Because of this I actually will be coming home 2 weeks earlier than normal now. I will go home the beginning of February 2014 instead of the end. Things have been crazy here lately!! We have had a lot of good lessons and have had some really spiritual experiences. I am loving it here and things have been going really well!! So we went to the temple last thursday and it was a great experience!! I loved every minute of it! So we went to the distribution center next to the temple and I bought a book that teaches me how to play the piano and how to read music! I am excited because so far it has been going really good so far! Hopefully I will be able to play my mission song on grandma's piano when I get home! That would be Awesome!!!!

 

Mom, That is Awesome that Dillon came home from his mission already!!! That is Wonderful!! So I found out that I am not being transferred after all!! I will be here till Christmas at least! So feel free to send anything right now because I will be here for another 6 weeks. That is crazy that Dillon had a hard time speaking English!! That is really cool that he knows Portguese!! Hopefully I will be able to learn how to speak another language here from Africa!! There are so many languages here so I will take some time! So for the Holidays I was told by the other missionaries that the mission usually does something for all the missionaries that are near the mission home. Luckily I will be one of those missionaries. I will probably be transferred right before Christmas. We will have to see what happens. So I should be ok on shirts. I have a ton left still that are sitting in my suitcase. So far all my cloths are doing really well. I only have had to sow a coulple of pockets and thats about it. so far it has been good. Thank you so much for the packages! I will keep my eye out for them!! they might come today, we will see. I am going to the office today to get reimbursed for the fuel problem with the car.

 

Dad, That is crazy that it is snowing right now!!! I am not used to not seeing snow in November! So far here it has been really HOT!! It is crazy how diverse the temperatures are on the two sides of the world! So Brother Cooper was put in the bishopric?!?! Thats Awesome!! He is perfect for the job!! He will do great! Its crazy how quickly the second coming may really be coming!! Things here have been really crazy for this country! There are some bad issues that they are dealing with but it is slowly trying to get better! This last week has been a crazy week! The credit card for the car not working to the huge spiritual experiences that have happened! We were able to teach some really cool lessons to some of the families that we were teaching! I hope they will start getting more interested soon!

 

Nate, That is great that you are loving being an elder!! It is so great that you are experiencing some great things right now with the Melchezidec Priesthood!! That is crazy that you guys got so much snow!!! Thats Awesome!!! SO that is Awesome that you, mom and Dad are getting an SKS!!!! Thats Exciting!! You will have to let me know how that goes! I hope all is going well at work for you and I hope school is going well for you as well!!! Take care and have a great week!

 

Jake, That is not good that you guys didnt do so great in the semi finals! Hopefully next week will be a better week! Thank you by the way for the Happy birthday wish! I hope that I will get the package from you guys soon!! That is Awesome that you and Erica will still go to one of the dances!! That will be fun! I hope you have a great week and take care!

 

Josh, That is Awesome that Halo 4 came out!! I hope that you guys are not fighting over the Xbox! I look forward to playing that when I get home! That is crazy that you guys got so much snow!! I hope you have a great week!

 

Alex, I hope everything is going well for you at school!! I hope you have a great week and take care!!

 

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!!!

- Elder Parks

Hello Everyone!!

 

This week has been a really good week! We were able to teach some really good and spiritual lessons to our families! I hope that they will want to come unto Christ and be baptized soon! So we have been getting some crazy weather lately! It has been crazy how the weather has been lately! That is crazy that the Hurricane effected NY so bad!! The members here have been going crazy because they all think that the storm affected you guys! I usually have to assure them that you all are safe because you all are in Utah. A lot of the people here dont realize how big the US really is. They all think that it is smaller than it really is. So I may be leaving my area soon! I cant believe how fast things have gone by! I may be leaving on the 13th of November! I will let you know next Monday if I am staying or if I am going. So far everything is going good!

 

Mom, That is good that Halloween was nice!! Im sure that was a great night! Here in South Africa there is no such thing as Halloween or Thanksgiving so no one did anything. I made Sugar cookies with orange frosting for halloween and thats about it. So how is Barb going with her teachings from the missionaries?? Is it going well or has she stopped seeing the missionaries? So that is Awesome that you all went out for Josh's Birthday! That is funny that the new chapter in life has come (the one about all of us having Girlfriends over). I cant believe that I am turning 20 soon! Crazy! I cant believe how fast time has flown by! So I am happy that the jerseys that Josh and Alex got fit them! I wasnt sure about the size but I am happy that they are enjoying them! The team on those jerseys is a HUGE team here in the area that I am serving in! The Pirates are a HIT! So that is funny that Jeremy has his memorized oatmeal cookie recipe!! We are definately keeping the tradition! So you can still send a christmas package to the same address that you have sent the last packages to! My address will stay the same the entire mission unless I am sent to Botswana. If I am sent there I will give you the address to that part of the mission. So thank you so much for the money and the package!!! I hope you have a great week and take care!!!

 

Dad, So this week has been a great week!! This last week there was some good rain storms! It has been cold but now today it is HOT!! So I hear you redid the storage room and finished the closet in the workout room! That is Awesome!! I wish I was able to help you with that but Im sure I will be able to help in some way when I get home! I cant believe how fast time has gone by!! If you blink, time just flies right past you! I am already coming up on my 4 1/2 month mark in my area meaning I may be transferred to a new area next week! I will have to let you know! So I want to thank you for all the things you have taught me about cars and maintaining them!! It has helped me a lot!! The Mechanic that is in charge of our cars is never available so I have to fix the small minor things that come up! Thank you so much Dad!!!! So how has work been lately? The police in America and The police here in South Africa are so different!! There is police that only does crime and cant give tickets to people and there is police that is only for patroling the roads. It is so crazy because police that can pull you over cant do it with their car! They have to stand in the middle of the road and flag you over to the side of the road! It is so crazy! They do police roadblocks all the time! They make the road go to one lane and they inspect ALL of the cars that pass by and flag you to the side of the road if something is questionable! IT is so crazy! So I hope all is going well for you at work and as well at home!!! Take care and have a great week!!!

 

Nate, That is so great that you got the Melchezidec Priesthood!!!! That is Awesome that you got to participate in giving Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Melissa a blessing!!! So Dad had you annoint? AWESOME!!!!! I love giving blessings! They are so full of Spiritual power!!! Just wait until you give the blessing! That will be really cool for you!! I hope all is going well for you at home!! I look forward to hear how the call letter goes!! Im sure you will receive that soon!! I hope you have a great week and take care!!!

 

Jake, That is not good that Erica got pinned by a car!!!!! I witnessed someone get pinned by two vans here in my area once!! The guy was not happy! I hope Erica is ok and I hope all gets better for her soon!! Tell her and her family I said Hi!! I hope all is going well for you at home and I hope school is going well! Tell Bekah Tobler and AlessA Loader I said hi will you? Thank you so much!! Take care and have a great week!!\

 

Josh, I hope you enjoyed your birthday!!! That is so Awesome that you received the office of a teacher!! Thats Awesome!!! I hope school is going well for you right now!! That is Awesome that you went hunting for Coyotes!! Im sure if you go again you will enjoy it!! I hope you have a great week and take care!!

 

Alex, That is Awesome that you enjoyed hanging out with the cousins!! I hope all is going well for you so far!! Take care and have a great week!!

 

I love you all very much and I hope you all have a great week!!

- Elder Parks