14 Days

February 21, 2016

Hello family and friends!!

Last week I informed everyone about the transfer that will be taking
place. We found out last Tuesday that I will be flying in to Tarawa on
the 7th of March. Elder Musser "should" (key word) be going into
Tarawa next week. That means I will have exactly one week with my
back-up trainer!! Today is probably my last "real" P-Day on Tab North
given the fact that Elder Musser's transfer will take up the majority
of our P-Day next week. </3 I'm eating plenty of coconuts while I can
:') 

This week I took my FIRST "RUNNING WATER" SHOWER in almost 5 months. I
woke up one morning this week and it was POURING rain outside and our
gutter had a steady stream falling from the roof. I grabbed my soap
and the next 15 minutes outside with like no clothes was a GOOD 15
minutes <3 Gosh I'm going to miss this place SO much. I never
understood how one of these places could truly become your home until
you've lived there for 5 months. They become like your home but in a
special and more spiritual way. I wish I could explain it betterrrr.
All I know is I'm soaking up the hour long bike rides at night with
that cool ocean breeze. I'm haven't decided for sure yet if I'm
hoppin' on that plane for Tarawa. I'll keep you guys updated ;')
Crazyy how time flies.

As far as the work, it's going great! We have like 20 Progressing
Investigators and it's going well! We could potentially have 5
baptisms my last week if we can get 2 marriages done and if 1 can stop
smoking! I'll be happy with even just 1 <3

Quick Story:

The Lord leads ALL that we do. A few weeks ago a BUNCH of our lessons
were falling through. We decided to visit this girl and asked for a
referral. She told us that she actually had a referral for us that she
would check on and then get back to us. When we went back and visited
her a few days later she said that we could go and visit these people
(she was hopping on a boat to Tarawa the next day and we literally
couldn't have met with her any other time.) When we went to the house
that we were told we sit down and start chatting to these people. We
quickly realize that these people are not the people that we were
referred to and pretty firm Catholics. Anyways, we ask them for
lessons and they say sure. We taught our first lesson and they weren't
rude but didn't seem interested. When we came back for our next lesson
I've never seen a bigger change. The lesson went SO well and we've had
about 3 of the best lessons since. The main investigator is a 26-year
old school teacher who's like so smart and just GETS IT. Can someone
say SISTERRRRR :') For real. Crazy that if our lessons fell through
and we didn't visit that one girl the day before she left to Tarawa we
would NEVER have met Tebouiuea.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Parrish

Transfer Alert

February 14, 2016

Heyyyyy everyone, 

SO confused with life/this mission... I go from waiting for 6 weeks to
get my new companion to just finding out I might not even be with my
new companion for more than a week. I've been figuring that because
I'm still on my 1st comp. I have a while left in Tab North. I was
WRONG. We just found out that I will be getting TRANSFERRED from Tab
North to SMACK DAB in the middle of Tarawa in a place called Ambo...
That means a Ward, District and Zone meetings etc. I guess it's almost
like a normal mission lolz. It looks like I will have about 3 more
weeks here in Tab North before the transfer goes down. Elder Musser
will not be leaving until the 29th of this month. I will follow by
about a week or so.

As far as this week goes, it was a good one :') We are almost up to
about 20 progressing investigators and continued to find a few more.
It was great to have a little bit of a reward this week in the form of
a baptism <3 I was so grateful for the opportunity that I had to bring
9-yr old Moote to the waters of baptism as the sun was setting in the
beautiful Central Pacific <3

I have super mixed feelings about everything that I just learned but I
know one thing is for sure-- none of this was ever in my hands.

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Elder Parrish

No News is Good News...Right?

February 7, 2016

HELLO EVERYONE!

This is going to be a quick email... We will see what I can type in 7
minutes. FIRST THINGS FIRST..... NO NEWS! I am still here with Elder
Musser and we hit 4 months working together here on Tab North this
Thursday. As far as the transfer that was supposed to happen a month
ago... We haven't heard from anyone for a week. The phone is down and
we weren't able to internet so we are hoping to find out more about
the transfer today! It will be interesting to see who I'm with a week
from now... you NEVER know when you're living in Kiribati.

Despite the confusion and lack of information, this week was probably
my favorite week on Tab North. We were able to find 6 new
investigators and were able receive a few referrals which was REALLY
refreshing. It's interesting to see the Lord direct our paths in ways
we would've never guessed! We should be having 7 or so baptisms coming
up if we can get these marriages done and if a couple people can fix
small problems with the Word of Wisdom. The craziest part? Elder's
might not even hit the water. How nice it is to slowly work to make
complete families and to give these people an opportunity to exercise
their priesthood authority.


Too many stories... Too little time. I'll be home before we know it <3

-Elder Parrish