Finally...an update

Okay- I KNOW I have been AWFUL about updating Jotty's mission blog and I can't apologize enough. Suffice it to say that I don't like editing like I used to. That said, this post/update is from his letters in November through February. I will update again on Sunday with letters from March and April. Hope you are emailing him or writing via dearelder.com. Updated addresses on the left.-Jan

Still in the MTC-November 1^st, 2011
Mom, those Halloween costumes are amazing! Who is the person with Amry? Yes, I am writing in my journal and taking notes during firesides, don't worry.

You cursed me at one point that I would have a companion like _________ ... can you please lift that? My companion is tone deaf, has terrible table manners, has no sense of humor, and I'm at a loss. I told Miles my problem,  mainly that he is quite content with settling for the lowest standard. He refuses to work together for longer than ten minutes, and resents having to be around me 24/7. He absolutely hates my desire to be an achiever.  I have tried to prepare him for situations that I know will happen in the field, and he just gets mad at me for "playing around" and says I don't know where he comes from. The thing is I do, and I love him, so I want to prepare him for the field so that he won't get stressed or anything. But when I try to talk with him about it, he gets mad at me and walks off, refusing to talk and saying I won't understand. So, can you please take that curse off? I'm losing my mind and the spirit when he does this stuff. I've been able to deal with it, because I remember the revelation given to Joseph Smith that if he bears all his sufferings with patience that he will be given power, in fact I've pretty much been living off of that scripture for the past few weeks.

That's about all I have to say, I'm going to try and send a video of our "hasta ver" right before I fly out, but I may have to wait until I get into the field, I don't know yet.
Please keep praying for our visas
I love you all so much. Con mucho amor de mi corazon,

Elder Parker #2 (and yes, I'm the only Jotty that everyone has met )

November 8
Well that just burns my toast that the post office lost   Miles' stuff, I will definitely pray for his journals to be returned.

I think the prayers have worked, and I have talked with President Lloyd about it. My companion is starting to actually work, lol, he still looks like a stoner, but that I can deal with.

IMPORTANT: we have been told that we are to treat this as our last week, and that our district's visas are on top priority, so there is a possibility that we may go to Mexico next week, go state-side and wait on our visas, or stay here and wait, we're not sure yet, but please keep praying.

I AM focused on the work, please don't worry about that, in fact I use some advice that Richard G. Scott gave us a few weeks ago: ALWAYS carry around a notepad and paper so that you can write down spiritual inspiration. By immediately writing down spiritual promptings, you are showing the Lord that you cherish His advice, and that you want to receive more. Needless to say, I have a TON of stuff written down.

I don't know if Karalea was able to get to tell you, but she LOVED dad's talk in Stake Conference, and she wanted to give you a hug afterwards. Make sure Dad knows how much I love him, and I miss his talks, I might not be able to email him yet again.

My Spanish is improving very well, and in only five weeks, I can speak as well as the district above us who has been here for nine weeks.

You're working in the Elephant Ear booth with Miles? I know you’ll have fun. Let him know that I've found someone here a lot like him, and we can constantly quote Homestar Runner and Monty Python back and forth, we are also going to the same mission, but he's in the district above me. His name is Elder Call.

We had an amazing fast and testimony meeting, and later an awesome fireside where the speaker talked about the Lord's hand in opening doors to other countries. We are so blessed to live in a country with religious freedom. He talked about the church being allowed to stay in Russia and Peru when they started being strict on religion, but our church had such an establishment and such an organization that both times we were one of the few (out of about twenty or so) churches that were allowed to stay in the country. It was amazing.

I promise that I'm focusing on the work, I've been blessed so many times to be able to speak clearly and simply in teaching.  I even gave a lesson in district meeting this last Sunday on Charity, and everyone said that it was amazing. I felt like a Parker, lol (Jacob would get that)

I don't have much time left, make sure that Karen Irsik and Jon Yohn send me their addresses so I can write them back and see if you can get info on Richie and if you can get Jon Roberts to write me.

I'll try to get a video of our "hasta ver" sent soon, maybe it'll be from Mexico, but I'll send it home, they are amazing and incredibly fun.

I've also had ideas for other hymn collaborations, so I think one of the first things I wanna do when I get home ... in two years ... is get with Jeremy and transcribe them to music.

Have you gotten an SD card from me yet? It has a ton of pictures and a video of our Hasta Ver. We had three missionaries from our district leaving for their mission in Mexico City Southeast at that time so we went ahead and did our Hasta Ver then; the rest of us are going to Mexico City South.

We did some temple work last week and we also listened to Elder Gavarret of the Seventy. My distrct was chosen to usher at last week's devotional, so we got special seats close to the front; I was within spitting distance of a General Authority lol!

Two days ago, a member of the MTC staff, Richard Heaton, gave a talk on the importance of tithing, and it was fantastic! I never thought anyone could make a talk about that actually interesting, but he did, and I was absorbed in every bit of it! It's amazing how people can underestimate tithing; but think about it this way: it's so important to our Heavenly Father that you can't enter the temple without being a full tithe payer. And in Malachi the Lord says that he will pour out blessings that you will not have room enough to receive it, isn't that a great promise?

Make sure to let everyone know that I may or may not be in Mexico by the end of the week, so just hang in there.

I got the package that mom sent, and I love the calendar, the boiled peanuts reminded me of home and were delicious while everyone else thought they looked gross, and I'm still munching on the puffcorn.  Who helped with the package, though? I got a fart machine in all of that ... which is actually really funny because someone else in our zone got a stuffed platypus that has a whoopie cushion inside of it. What was funnier was they found another elder from another zone and convinced him that it made music when they squeezed it ... so he squeezed it ... and got a cramp from laughing so hard, hahaha!

All in all, it's amazing here and I'm known as the HomeEc Elder because of the sewing skills I learned from Mom.

I wish I could write more, but I might as well send it hand written. I'm about to send a letter with my new mailing address on it since the mission home address has changed, so make sure you get that letter, it should arrive over there soon if you all haven't found out about it yet.

I love you all and I pray for each and every one of you!

Con mucho amor. I love everyone, tengan fe en Jesucristo y gozo en todas aspectas en sus vidas.

November 19

Dad told me that the Nunsense play was successful, I'm glad. Yeah, I know Seth and Allyson Anger. Tell Allyson I said Hi!

It snowed yesterday but it didn't stick that much. I was planning on taking pictures of before and after, but all I got is before…, so yeah, sorry, lol.

I'll be able to make a short  call from the Dallas Airport. Guess what? We found someone with a Trogdor shirt and someone else with a Jellyfish shirt! lol

I have found out from someone that when they say you can have a carry-on and a personal item on the plane, personal item includes backpacks and purses, so I can have the one bag as my carry-on and my backpack as my personal item, so that should make things easier. Although my suitcases are pretty much perfect for the plane, we prepared well- thanks mom. My companion has five huge suitcases for some reason, so I'm gonna try to help him with that.

I've learned that we’ll be in pretty much the safest place in Mexico, so don't worry about that. Also, If you want to guarantee that packages or letters or stuff like that don't get stolen from, put stickers of Mary and Jesus on them, and write a note in Spanish on the inside that says something about stealing from a representative of Jesus Christ. That's what I've been told by both a native Mexican and a returned missionary from there so you might consider it.

I gotta go, running out of time, I love you!!!!!!!!!!!

Mexico City, November 28

My p day is on Monday, and I have no idea when I receive mail but I can email on Mondays. Please tell Karalea that I said THANK YOU!!!!!!! for the emails.

I think I have bad news ... I feel like something’s wrong with my eyes. I was told by someone that if I start getting more ''floaters'' in my eyes or if any start to get bigger that I need to do something ... well within the last week I have found like four more floaters and one of them is getting bigger and bigger, and its freaking me out, so I need to know what to do.

I am loving the days here, and I’m trying so hard to do my best and teach, and I’ve even been able to come up with a few analogies to help explain principles ... but the nights right before I go to bed are terrible. I feel homesick, there’s only me and Elder Velazco in a room and my bed has tons of lumps in it, and I just miss being able to talk to people and know that I’m being understood. I’m not sure exactly why it’s hitting me so hard right now, but I have a favor to ask: I want to know what Ian did at the beginning of his mission. Of course I’d like advice from all my brothers, but I specifically want to know what Ian did. And I want him to tell me himself, don’t just relay the info. Please. You have no idea how happy I was to see 9 new messages in my inbox.

I plan on calling on Christmas, we are on the same time zone as Texas, so that should give you an idea.

My companion is a native of Mexico, but I want to punch Jeremy right now. He told me that Mexicans are laid back in their speech and are easy to understand ... oh they’re relaxed all right; in that they don’t care about speaking clearly,  they slur their words together, and they speak super fast.  I’m having a really hard time understanding them… lol
Please tell everyone to keep praying for me. I don’t like feeling lonely.

Missionaries don’t have apartments here, we have old rundown houses ... well I’m fortunate to live right underneath the ward mission leader, Hermano Gonzalo, and they have a REALLY nice house. Some places have four missionaries to a house, but right now it’s just me and Elder Velazco.

I’m glad Thanksgiving wasn’t stressful for you Mom. Elder Velazco gave me a new tie and tie tack for Thanksgiving day, haha

So I was looking at my passport right before the mission home took it, and I remembered something: In sixth grade we had to do this passport project, and we were supposed to come up with a name, occupation, country of origin, and other stuff like that ... and I put that I was a Preacher from Mexico ... funny huh?

I miss every one of you, and my excitement on the phone was both to get to Mexico and to be able to talk to you all, and I honestly can’t wait to talk to you again.

On my second day out here we met with the Bishop and he said ''Welcome to Mexico! We'd like you to give your testimony this Sunday, can you help organize a musical number? Oh, and we want you to confirm someone a member of the church, also can you play piano?'' and my mind exploded.

There’s a reason why we don’t have bikes, and it’s not because they will get stolen, because rarely do we get stolen from in this mission. No, it’s because it’s so dangerous on the road. Pretty much if you want to drive, you go to the license office and say you want a driver’s license, pay a few pesos, and you got it. So almost no one knows how to drive carefully and traffic laws are pretty much all ignored, so if you get to the crosswalk as a pedestrian and you’re not fast enough, then the car still has right of way.

Yes I have finally had Mexican food, and it is AMAZING!!!!! Pretty much every meal is served with both hot sauce and homemade corn tortillas, and pretty much everything is spicy. I expected the food to be really hot, but I think the Parker genes are kicking in, meaning I love it, haha!

So my trainer companion, Elder Velazco, is a convert, is diligent, hardworking, patient, and was the former zone leader, so I feel blessed to have him as my companion right now.

There’s so much old stuff around here, and if you took out all the bright colors it would make a perfect postapocalyptic city, lol

My companion and I were walking down to a house where an investigator lived and we knocked on the door. No one answered but there was a dog on the other side barking at us. I suddenly remembered a story I heard about some sister missionaries who commanded a rabid dog to go away. I had an idea. I knelt down and said, to the best of my ability, '' Hey, puppy, we need to talk to your owner, can you go get him for us?'' The dog stopped barking, walked away, and ten seconds later the person answered the door. Cool eh?

I was so excited to get to hear from you all, but I think my companion is waiting on me, so I gotta go. Please keep praying for me while I’m out here

December 12, 2011

I have little time, it flies apparently… according to my companion.

Everything is fine here, I just need stamps, lol
I have been informed that I'm allowed to receive email from everyone but I can only email back to family.
Sorry this is all I have time for.
I love you all,

December 19

I found a sister in the ward that speaks English, and I found out that she was born on Fort Rucker, neat, huh?

If you want to know my wellbeing, I sent it to Miles and Dad, and I don't think there's more I can say. I'm feeling like a failure right now. My companion doesn’t like me (or any American) I've tried everything, but nothing seems to work. I feel like I am giving it my all, but it's just not working and I don't know why. Please continue to pray for me.

I love you.

December 31

I don’t have much time, like fifteen minutes, but I’m doing much better. I talked with Elder Velazco a lot lately. He said he was sorry he was treating me hard and that he felt like a bully.

I’m trying to get a package together, not sure when I’ll send it, but it has pictures, souvenirs, and a dog for Karalea, if you can send it to her.

My companion and I want to visit Teotihuacan next p day, which is the Monday after next week. If there is any way you can do it, I would really appreciate some more money in my account, pretty please?

We have four amazing investigators, one which is a witch, lol. But seriously they’re golden, and Elder Velazco says they’re the best he has seen. I also forgot to mention that I baptized my first investigator, Josefina Gomez, 80 something years old, who is also amazing.

Tell everyone else I said thank you for the support, tell Amry I’m sorry that I couldn’t reply, and tell Karalea that she should get a letter soon.

I hope Miles had fun at the dance, Karalea says he was the same person, just freakishly more awesome, lol, so of course he will find someone. He has been promised that if he served faithfully in his mission and continues faithfully in the church, God has someone prepared for him.

I hope all is well. Things are looking up for me, and I’m starting to look forward and not be homesick. I just remember to have a vision of the future and work toward it.

I love you all, and please tell remind everyone to not email videos as I cannot receive them.

January 9, 2012

 The thing about losing my wallet ... not only is my debit card in trouble ... EVERYTHING was in my wallet; license, insurance, even my social security card. Don't think I'm not freakin’ out about it;   I'm having anxiety attacks like every night and I'm sooooo scared that something might happen to my identity. I keep praying…

We baptized someone else, Ivonne Mendoza. She is golden, loves everything about the church, is willing to participate in everything, and is just awesome, even though her husband kicked her out of the house onto the street the day before her baptism. Right now she is living with another member, so I hope everything will be alright with her.

Did I ever mention that the MTC lost my suit for a week? I have it now, but I didn't like that week, lol

Well, we didn't visit Teotihuacan and I probably won't for a while, at least not until I'm secure in the mission and everything, maybe for my one year mark? lol

Make sure you tell Miles one of my favorite quotes ''everything will be ok in the end; if it's not ok, it's not yet the end''. By the way, have you talked personally with anybody at Walmart? They should know you because they know me. Any of the CSMs or Steve should be able to help if there is any job available for Miles, especially since the holidays are winding down.

So,   apparently I now have a reputation amongst other missionaries of being a ''tonto'' and they all laugh at me when something else happens. To be quite honest... I'm losing some of my enthusiasm. I'm hoping it will change soon and that things will get better, but I'm kinda wishing that would happen a lot sooner. Please please PLEASE pray for my wallet or  that nothing bad  will happen to me. I'm not sure if you need to cancel accounts or anything like email or facebook or bank accounts, but do what you need to do.

I'm going to try and talk with other missionaries to see if they have any stamps so I can send that letter to Karalea, so please tell her to be patient, and thank you so much for talking with her and everything,

Funny thing happened…I walked into a home and saw a familiar face on their tv screen ... then another, then another, until the whole NCIS team was right there in front of me. I couldn't help but smile.

 I think I'm starting to get better in teaching and stuff like that, and I know I'm not the worst; someone from my district in the MTC already returned home because of anxiety. All in all, I'm going to TRY to have more positive experiences. Just pray for me like I know you all are.

I love you all, tell everyone I said that.

January 16

About the wallet and everything, thank you so much, I'm not freaking out as much anymore.

Playing piano? Well I’m sorry to say... Elder Velazco won't let me practice, and I couldn't practice in the MTC either, so it's been a while since I played.

I still have not gotten the calendar and stamps you sent. I am sure it is going to take awhile...if it even gets here.

Everything has improved in the last week. Even Elder Velazco said that I worked as hard as he did about a year in, and he was surprised at that. I found out what I was missing, it's what the Cowardly Lion needed through the whole trip to the Wizard, lol. But yeah,   I've started to try to be more like Nephi and my comp loves it.

I just might be able to send a letter or two next week because the zone leader, Elder Carver, said that he could bring a few stamps for me if he remembers.

Could you tell Miles that he's frito? Thanks, lol. But really I appreciate his advice and counsel, just what I wanted from my awesome brother =)

And please tell Dad that I got my umph back.  I love you all and the support you give me constantly.

I don't have much time,  Elder Velazco said only thirty minutes this time for some reason, hopefully I'm getting a new companion soon.

Please tell everyone I love them and they are in my prayers. I love you! Please take care!

January 23

Ok, the thing is I don’t have much time for a lot of things because Elder Velazco and I are getting along very well now, and we have a ton of stuff to do.  I am really sorry to hear that Moni died. He was a good dog.

Tell everyone I said I love them and should be able to send a longer letter next week or sometime soon. I also just now received Karalea’s Christmas package, with a Capt. America t shirt …which I found out that Mexicans seem to love Captain America. I'm sorry for the limited time, but please know that everything is getting better as we speak, I love you all!

January 30

Sorry about last week, hopefully that will change soon because we have transfers next week. I should be getting a new companion.

I got your letter about Miles auditioning for “Sound of Music”, that is HILARIOUS that he used part of Weird Al’s song as his monologue! Very awesome that he was able to blow them away with the song he sang a capella too. I told you he's a better actor. Be sure to introduce him to my friends from past plays.

I also got the calendar and stamps you sent so I will try to send a letter soon, tell Karalea that the SD card she sent was broken when I got it, sorry

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! to you and to Karalea, lol

I also got mail from Heather Warnock and Bro Jones, could you or Miles thank them for me and tell them how I'm doing?  Karalea reminded me that there's no Valentine's day, but she thinks it's zombie day, lol. Please tell her that it's really International Ninja Day ;)

So,  we found this weird lady who claimed that the world will end when she dies. She also claimed that Jesus told her that her husband would be a tall white man with hazel eyes but then she asked to look at my eyes ... apparently I'm the one (insert facepalm) so I gotta be careful right now lol.

Remember me telling you about that we were teaching a witch? Yesenia…seriously, she does the tarot cards and everything. Well I baptized her last week, Saturday. During last week, we visited her and she said she felt really bad, like there was some evil presence around her. We asked if she did anything contrary to the church and she thought for a moment. She had already gotten rid of other pagan stuff but then she remembered that she still had tarot cards. So she pulled them out and gave them to us. WOW!!! We were so happy with this. We tried to burn them when we got to the house, but they didn't burn, just smelled awful. So we put them in a bag and threw them in some random trashcan. The influences of the Spirit and of Satan both can be very powerful.

We just baptized two other investigators, Daniel and Norma. Both are amazing and we're both sure that they will be amazing faithful members of the church.

I'm learning more and more about courage, determination, and love. To be quite honest I think I can do this. Everything is amazing here in Mexico, in the work of the Lord.

I think I'm out of time, I love you all!

February 6, 2012

Yes, I'm still writing in my journal. Yes, we have transfers and my new companion, Elder Flores, is coming tomorrow. Supposedly he is a lot happier and social with people, so I think we will get along pretty well.

I have no idea how the MTC had lost my suit, but my whole district turned in our suits for dry cleaning at the same time and we were told that they would be ready the next day. We went the next day and everyone got theirs back but me.  I went back the next day,   and the next, etc. After a week I told them that that was enough and that I needed my suit, clean or not, because I was leaving shortly. They found it after a day, unclean (sigh), but it's alright now, no worries.

No, I didn’t lose my passport when I lost my wallet…I don't have my passport, the MISSION OFFICE has my passport, lol. There really isn't a 'taxi place' to contact, nor hope in getting my wallet back. I don't think I'll be able to access money or cash a check without identification ... which was all lost with my wallet.

Experience of the week: we were walking in an area where we passed an alley.At the end of the alley was a woman sweeping in front of her house. After walking for a while, I stopped my comp and told him we needed to go back and contact someone. He asked if it was the woman sweeping and I said yes. When we knocked on her door, she not only accepted to hear the gospel, but she invited us in to teach a lesson and she and four of her children accepted baptism right there! The next day we visited them again and they accepted the 25th of February to be baptized! Needless to say we are pretty happy on this end.

This last week has been full of the spirit, and my training has terminated. We believe that I'm ready to go out and serve and teach and do everything.

I'm receiving dearelders letters from you, Carol, and Karalea a lot lately, are you doing it every week?

Please continue to strengthen yourselves in the gospel, and tell everyone that I love them.

Feb 20

You would be so happy if you saw me at meals, because I'm eating tons of fruits and vegetables now, and they're SO GOOD. I never thought that pineapples, pears, cantaloupes, watermelons, granadas, and tons of others could be so good, although that's probably because they’re from Mexico, lol. Speaking of eating, I may come home fat, because everything I've eaten here is some of the best I've ever tasted.

Elder Flores knows a lot of English, and he loves practicing it, so I've heard ''There is a Green Hill Far Away'' tons of times and it just reminds me of when you used it to sing me to sleep.

ATTENTION ALL NONBELIEVERS: THERE IS SNOW IN MEXICO ... it's in the mountains, but still, THERE'S SNOW

Look up a song called ''Savior, Redeemer of my Soul'' it's incredibly beautiful and it's from the movie 17 Miracles, which is also fantastic.

I haven't received the debit card yet, so I'm praying it arrives soon, but have you changed the PIN or anything? Is it activated? Is there money in my account?

I'm having tons of awesome spiritual experiences, even during scripture study and I love it!

We met this guy named Francisco, who is a Catholic who loves learning about other religions, so we were able to talk with him for about an hour and a half.

LOL, yes- I have to put a TON of stuff to make my hair stay down, but it's starting to stick in that position.

I love you and sorry if this isn't much. I'm a man of few words ... and a terrible memory, lol

18 Oct 2011

Mom and Dad,

 Everyone's has been surprised to know that I'm from Alabama, apparently I don't have anything close to a redneck accent. In fact I was in the bookstore here and the cashier asked where I was from. I said Alabama and she said, "Really?" to which I responded, "Yes, Ma'am," and she laughed and said she never would have been able to tell until I said "Ma'am", hahaha.

So My P-Day is on Tuesday, which also happens to be MTC fireside day, so I get to go to the temple and immediately hear from a general authority :) Last week we got to hear from Sister Beck, the General Relief Society President, and she gave a very good talk about struggling to get missionaries in Brazil. I loved it. So far we've been told that a lot of apostles have been visiting lately, so I might get to write home about them :)

Conserning my leave date, we've been told that we're leaving on the 14th of November or thereabouts. From what  I know, the pilot program is  that we get fewer weeks in the MTC, so we can send out more missionaries, plus we have stretched the limit on housing...some rooms have 6 Elders. There is also a lot of construction going on, we have no idea what for though.

In regards to Dad's questions;  there are eight people in my district, five of which are going to Mexico City south, and three going to Mexico City southeast. There are four elders in my room, and there are four sisters in my zone. Our zone leaders, Elders Stevens and Leiva, are really awesome and the whole zone really is awesome and hilarious to be around ... when the Utah guys aren't being dark that is. Apparently my whole district is doing very well in Spanish, we're pretty much learning both the Predicad Mi Evangelio and Espanol at the same time. I've been able to learn and retain a TON of Spanish, so I'm glad about that.

When you see Jeremy or Jacob or anyone else that can speak Spanish, tell them this joke: How many stars are in the sky? Sin Cuenta. Now, cincuenta is the word for fifty, but sin cuenta means "without number", so they may get a kick out of that.

I would love to get a lot of  "dearelder" mail from everyone, although if  my friends send me some, maybe make sure they give me their address so I can write them back? So far, everyone in my district has gotten like five letters each day, and I'm sitting at my desk reading the same ones over and over, so I'm really glad to get new mail :) .

I'm so jealous that in Alabama the cold weather is setting in. For some reason, it's become pretty hot here for a few days, and I'm getting impatient for snow, lol.

My Branch President, President Lloyd, is amazing, and he reminds me of Grandpa Meservy in just about every way. He also tells me that I'm the one elder who pretty much always smiles, and he loves my smile, so I'm guessing I'm smiling a lot more than I used to :)

Regarding pictures, I'm not sure what I'm going to do right now, I've actually been told that if you put stickers of Mother Mary and Jesus on the envelopes, that they won't get stolen from, haha, but I'll see what I can do. I'm gonna try to send an SD card back so that you can get a video off of it.  I want to try to video my district's "hasta ver," where everyone in the zone sings "God be with you til we meet again" in Spanish at the top of their lungs.

I'm running out of time, I'll try to email as much as I can next week.

I love you so much, let everyone know I love them!

con mucho amor,
Elder Parker ... #2

25 Oct, 2011

Mom and Dad,
Okay, I only have fifteen minutes to respond.

When I say they are "dark", I mean they will sometimes joke about things that shouldn't be joked about, like women. Not dirty jokes, unkind to be sure. I was able to silence them at one time-- they were joking about women, then asked me if I had any jokes. I responded, "No, I prefer not to joke about God's most precious and beautiful creations; the "mothers of all living." There were about ten minutes of silence and I hope they acknowledged my beliefs concerning that. Someone just looked over and read my email and remarked that they know that those jokes are dark, but that they're still funny. I disagree. Bro. growth told me that not all those in the MTC are there for the right reason so I guess it is back to: "no one is perfect", and "it takes all kinds".

 Richard G. Scott came to our fireside last week. I was very much impressed with his topic: he exhorted us, as soon as we were released from our mission, to find and marry our eternal spouse, and to not let anything get in the way of starting our eternal sacred families. After all, that's part of what we preach, that we are part of an eternal family and that our goal is the temple, so why should we wait to go to the temple with our future companions?

Last thing: I have heard two songs and fallen in love with them. The first one was just sung at the fireside on Sunday, I think it's titled something like "I know what I have Seen" I think it's about the testimony of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. The second one is an arrangement of the choir song we are about to sing at the fireside today (yes I'm in the choir and I love it... I'll try to send stories that the director tells later) It's an arrangement of the hymn,  "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer".  Jeremy would love it, and I think the ward choir should sing it. It's amazing- at one point the lyrics are "curb the winds and calm the billows, bid the angry tempest cease". Try to look up the audio, and imagine a ship in a storm, it's sinking, there's water everywhere in the ship, and a few men are clamoring about, then imagine a single man at the very front of the ship, calm, and stretching forth his hand. It's an amazing hymn.

OH! last night, I stayed up really late, writing down lyrics. I thought up an arrangement of "Abide with me; Tis Eventide" and "I Need Thee Every Hour" and I think it would sound amazing with Jeremy playing.  I'll have to do it with him when I get home though.

I love you all, so much!!

con mucho amor,

Elder Parker #2

Welcome to the MTC - Oct 11, 2011

Mom and Dad,

I only have thirty minutes to use email, so I'm going to try and use it wisely

I just found out about something called dearelder.com, where you can set up a free account and then you can "email" on that and it sends typed out letters to me! I hope you guys all use that... all the elders in my district have their families use it, so throughout the this first week they've been getting literally tons of letters while I got absolutely none.

We have no idea about what the pilot program is exactly, just that we were to report on October 5th. It's weird, even the zone leaders, teachers, and branch presidency don't know what's going on, but I know I'm only going to have five or six weeks in the MTC, (or "CCM" in Spanish).

By the way I've become pretty popular in my district; I'm the one with the most Spanish knowledge, I can sew, and I have all the medications and stuff that they asked us to bring haha... so the other elders have been coming to me for stuff.  I'm the "Spanish elder" in our district, meaning the other elders in my whole zone are even surprised at how much Spanish I know haha.

Michelle and Mila did not come with Jason because of  Michelle's back problems, so it it was just the two of us. We took tours of Temple Square, the Joseph Smith building, and the conference center. We didn't go to a hibachi but we found a Chinese restaurant that caused me to have to loosen my belt- they just kept bringing stuff out to us! We did do a session at the Salt Lake temple and it was amazing, but I still prefer the Nauvoo temple.

Later on we went to visit Aunt Hannah and Uncle Ross, and that was pretty fun to get to talk to them. Spencer told me that his friend, Elder Siniscalchi was going to be in the MTC at the same time as me, so I should look for him ... I didn't need to, he's in my district and my room haha (by the way- try pronouncing that name lol)

My companion, Elder Condie, can't carry a tune in a bucket and has a really hard time with the language, but he's got a great heart and he's an awesome example of a missionary. He was kind of a video-game guy before he came here, he played a lot of Gears of War, whatever that is. I've been appointed the senior companion for the first half of our time here.

I'm also a kind of "special" elder in my district because I'm one of the only two not from Utah. One elder  is from Canada and there's me. They kept asking me if I've seen "Sweet Home Alabama" haha.

We had a chance on Sunday to pick between a few movies to watch, so my district chose the "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" and we thoroughly enjoyed it. My favorite part has to be when Joseph received the revelation about baptism for the dead for those who die without the knowledge of the gospel and how he was so joyful that his brother Alvin was not lost like his preacher told him.

Don't know if  I'll have time to email Miles, just let him know what I've told you.

That's about all I can come up with this time. I love you all!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Parker

Look out MTC...here he comes!

This is the beginning Jotty's mission blog. He was supposed to be entering the MTC on Miles' birthday- September 14th. However, as we exited the Birmingham temple Wednesday Jim had a message on his phone. It was President Bess saying that he'd received a call saying that Jotty's entry into the MTC had been delayed until October 5th because he would be part of a "pilot program" where the missionaries only spend 5 weeks in the MTC instead of 8 weeks. He's kind of bummed about it since he has been READY to go for awhile. There were a few other delays before this: vaccines that couldn't be lined up, interviews that couldn't get coordinated, etc. On the other hand, now he can go see Weird Al in Montgomery on Sept 29th. It's a small comfort but it'll work.