Hello everyone!!

This week has been ok. We are still having a hard time getting people to progress and we are having a hard time getting people to come to church. We went out and went knocking on doors. We were able to find 10 new investigators because of it. Out of those 10 we found 5 new families to teach! We are going to help them progress as best as we can. They are all interested so I hope that they will all listen to the spirit as it testifies of the truth to them. I have learned that going on a mission builds you up spiritually big time!! I am loving it out here. Sure times get rough occasionally but it is so rewarding! The amount of time I have been out here has been Great!! I am enjoying every minute of this!! I cant believe that I am coming up on my 7 month mark!! Time goes by way fast!! I have been in my new area for a month and a half already! Things here are great! So here is a cool little thing that happens to us when we go tracting or knocking on doors. When we are walking around the streets people always come up to us and ask us if we are lost! Ha ha it catches me off guard sometimes but it gives us a chance to share with them what we do. Another thing that people do is they yell "Molungu!" which means "white guys" in Zhulu. It is funny because everyone stares at us and they all yell it too and they usually ask us if we are lost. This is one of the ways that we meet people and share with them the gospel. So far it has been really good here!

So Mom, That is not good that Alta played so ruff!!! That is not good that Bingham didnt play so well either. At least they got to play on the University of Utah's Field! That must have been really cool for them to do that! That is crazy that school is already starting! Time goes by way too fast!! It is crazy because I am coming up on my 7 month mark! Things are getting better and better as the weeks go by. So sorry I have been using my goldenwest account a lot lately! I am preparing to send a package home to you guys because Dad's birthday is coming up! I am going to send some really cool stuff home so I hope they will reach you guys! That is cool that Jake gave a talk about how my mission is going so far!! Im sorry I havent been sending any cool stories home to you all lately! I will do my best to share more experiences so if any of you have to give a report on me you will have more information. That is Awesome that the Wright Family Reunion was last week!! It sounds like everyone is doing well!! Im sorry we werent able to get the word out to everyone about me leaving! We will have to invite everyone to my homecoming! Right now I am ok with everything so please tell your friend thank you so much for the help!

Dad, That is Awesome that President Monson said that about the new missionaries in the Salt Lake area!! I look forward to hearing about how that goes for the kingdom of God!! Im sure there will be Many blessed because of that! The work is moving forward and the Kingdom of God is getting bigger and bigger! I look forward to the day when almost all the countries have missionaries in them!! That will be really cool!! So your birthday is coming up! Sorry I have been pulling so much money out of my account!! I have been preparing to send a package home for your birthday! I am send something really cool in it!! I hope it will get there next week or so. I will individually wrap or package your gift so if you want you can open it on your birthday or you can open it right when you receive it. I hope all is going well with Grandpa Parks!! I have a name tag for him but I need their home address!! I am going to send it to our house instead so will you give it to Grandpa for me?? If you could do that for me that would be great!! That quote from Sister Ames is a really good quote!! I may post that on my wall in my apartment! I hope all is going well at home!!

Nate, That is not good that the people in Nate's apartment are crack heads!! I cant tell you how many people I have run into here that are doing the same thing! I know how you feel! That is Awesome that you have started college already!! I hope all will go well and I know that if you work hard and you study hard you will succeed and get far in your schooling!! Just remember that you are a future missionary so do your best!! I hope all goes well and I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Jake, That is Awesome that you got to play on The University of Utah's Field!!! I wish I was able to walk onto that field!! That is Awesome that you gave a talk on my mission so far!! Im sorry I havent revealed or have given you any cool experiences for that!! I will do my best to share more experiences!!! I hope all goes well and have a wonderful week!!

Josh, That is not good that you guys lost your game!!! That is really Awesome that you scored a 70 yard touchdown!!!! Congratulations on that! That is crazy that school is already starting!! I hope all goes well and work hard!

Alex, That is cool that you all went up to the reunion!! I hope that went well!! That is way cool that you are in the D.A.R.E program!! I remember when I did that! That was so fun! In fact I still have my dare shirt. I will have to show it to you when I get home in a year and a half. I hope you have a wonderful week!!

I hope all goes well at home and you all have a wonderful week!! I love you all!!!
- Elder Parks

So this week has been really busy!! We taught a lot of lessons to the investigators and we were able to find some really good people. It is hard right now because no one has money to get to church so everyone is struggling to get there. I hope to have some cool experiences soon to share with you all about any good investigators. There is one cool story though that I can share. This is a guy from the area right next to ours. His name is Professor Nllovu. One day he was moving into one of his houses and the past owners left some stuff behind. One of the things they left behind was a "Teaching of the Presidents: David O McKay manual. He said that as he read it he knew it was true and he then looked up our church and he came to church all by himself. The missionaries at the time had no idea who this guy was until he showed up to sacrament meeting one day. When the missionaries taught him, he told them that he knew that this church was true and He then progressed very quickly to baptism. When he told the rest of us his story he told us that the missionaries only taught him 20% and the teachings of the presidents of the church: David O McKay taught him 80%. It is incredible what a simple manual can do for someone like this man, Professor Nllovu.He now has the Aaronic Priesthood and he baptized his best friend the week after he got the priesthood.  When I heard of this story I was greatly impressed with how someone can be converted by anything that testifies of the truth. Anything can happen.

So Mom, That is crazy that Morgan is getting married!!!! Who is she getting married to??? That is so great that she is getting married. That is funny that Nate and Dad were the topic in the lesson. I loved being in Gospel Doctrine class when Sister Loader was teaching because she is a really good teacher! So this week I went to a lion and rhino park and got some really cool pictures!!! I was also able to go and pet a Cheetah!!!!! I will send a picture and a video of me doing that! It was so fun to go with all the missionaries and go to that park and have a good time. I was able to see all kinds of animals and I even saw that most venomous snake in the world! It was the Black Mamba. It was in a giant glass container and I was able to look at it and get a picture. Well I hope all is going well at home and My cloths and everything else is doing really good right now. I have saved most of my stuff for my one year mark so that everything will last me my whole mission. By the way the reason I didn't email yesterday was because I ran out of time because the lion park took all day long. When ever I cant email on Mondays, I will definitely email on Tuesday.

So Dad, Things here are going well!! I went to the lion park yesterday and It was great! I was able to get some really good pictures and I was able to even pet a Cheetah!! It was so Awesome! If you and mom come here to South Africa to pick me up I will definitely take you both there and you can see a lot of animals. I will be sending some pictures home soon. I will let you know when I do so so you can keep an eye out for them in the mail. That is Awesome that you and Alex are going to the Rec. center to exercise! I really wish we could go to a gym to exercise but we dont have the time to do so. I need to loose some weight because I am now at 182 pounds. I have gained weight and it is definitely not easy to loose weight here on a mission. I will have to let you all know how it goes. By the way has my tax return came in the mail yet? I was going to ask you about that last week but I forgot? I hope it will come soon!  I hope all is going well at home!

So Nate, That is Awesome that things are going well with you and Maddi (I think I spelled her name wrong, sorry). All I have to say is remember who you are and who you stand for because here on my mission I have seen a good number of teens getting themselves into trouble and they pay for it. I trust you though so im not worried. You are the next future Elder Parks so please keep that in mind. That is Awesome that you were able to lift so much weight!! I could never do that! So I went to the lion park yesterday! I will have to send some really cool pictures home so you and everyone else can look at them! I hope all goes well and have a great week!

So Jake, I hope that your temple trip with Ericha goes well!! That will be really cool to go and do!! What a better date than going to the temple! I will tell you the same thing I told Nate, Remember who you are and who you stand for. You are the future Elder Parks so stay clean and worthy of that sacred calling! I trust you as well so im not too worried. Have a great week and work hard!

So Josh, That is Awesome that football is going so welll!! The A2 team huh?? That is FANTASTIC!!!!! Congratulations on that! I know that if you work hard, you will be able to get wherever you want to go. Take care and have a great week!!

So Alex, I hope that all is going well!! That is cool that you and Dad are going to the Rec. Center all the time. I wish I had time to do that. I went to a lion park yesterday and I have some really cool pictures to show you all!! I was able to pet a Cheetah!!! I will send them and I hope you all have a great week!!

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