Don't Let Anyone Tell Me A Mall Bathroom is Bad

June 19, 2016

Dear Family,

Thanks for the email!! Everything is going well here! I'm kind of running short on time because I think that we are going to go fishing, but I will send a picture of the bathroom and the inside of the house for you guys. It sounds like all is going well at home.

We had a harder week work-wise, but we got super blessed to find some really good investigators at the end of it and had eight investigators at church. I also think that the mom and son (who I've mentioned before) will be baptized this week and I'm super excited. Next week, I think that we also going to be baptizing a young family who has two little cute kids. I'm super excited. We haven't had baptisms for a while so these next few weeks should be awesome! 

We haven't made smoothies or bread yet because we are waiting for the bananas to get ripe. President Weir is finished on July 1.  There will be like 20 new missionaries in August and October, which will be crazy.  Because a big group of missionaries just came home, we are a bit short on missionaries.  All of the outer island are open, but a few small areas in Tarawa were closed. 

I think that I may have gained some weight.  I'm pretty fat! I love this fish more than the world. My package came on Friday.  Thank you guys so much! The clothes you sent are really nice for the people here. Everything else is well.  I can't think of anything that I might need!

A quick story:  I have had a feeling that we need to visit this older lady who is not a member and ask her for lessons.  She has never met with missionaries before.  But every time we went to her house, she wasn't there. Long story short, we were biking by her house this week and she was there. We went and kind of tracted it and she was so happy to hear our message.  We had an awesome spirit filled lesson. Yesterday I was fasting for help in this area and we got hit up with two referrals (haven't had any in forever.) It was awesome!

Love you guys. I'll send some pictures. 

Elder Parrish 

Quick Email

June 12, 2016

Dear Family:

Thanks for the email!  I will try to send a group one maybe this week or next week if there's time. That's crazy that the twins already went to Girls’ State and that Jacko is in DC. I think it sounds fun and I'm sure that it will be great for Jacko to be away from home a little while.

Elder Hoskins is a good Elder and I'm grateful that I have gotten to work with him.  He works hard but is laid back at the same time. We really do have a lot of similar interests.  The time is going crazy fast though.

We actually just got back from fishing this morning. We went on the boat and it was wayyy fun. I'm honestly so happy and just having the time of my life. Like I'm doing these things and finding ways to have fun doing these once in a lifetime things. The only thing crazier to me is how fast the week actually goes. Tuesday to Sunday goes even faster than anything. One of the slower parts of the week is P-day on Monday. 

The work is going well too. We teach TONS of people, but some are taught in villages where no church is held and it makes it really hard. We are waiting for seven people to quit smoking or to get married and then they will all be baptized. Somehow we found a family that is about ready to be baptized. The entire family came to church yesterday and I was sooooo pumped! It's a mom and a dad with two little kids and a third on the way. They are basically golden and we were definitely led to them. 

I have no clue on transfers... I think I've got one more transfer here... maybe two if I'm lucky. I'm happy to stay here as long as they leave me.  I don't want to leave this area until I have hopefully been able to see some awesome investigators get baptized. I feel like a lot of the people who are close to baptism are people who are going to stay strong in the church. 

I don't have much to write because last P-day seems like yesterday! But you will find it interesting that the waterproof camera that I brought on my mission literally broke this week. The screen died and I have no clue why. It was a legit blessing that you guys just sent me a back-up camera.  My camera literally broke the week I received the new one. Thanks for that! And I thought you were overreacting when you sent me the spare--hahaha. 

I love you guys and I’m doing great.  Constantly shocked at how fast the time is flying.  I seriously love Maiana TONS though and I'm going to be really sad to leave. I'm hoping that it isn't coming for a while. I hope that all continues to go well at home. I'm growing little by little.  I might not become a GA at age 20, but I'm having a good time doing the work so that’s all that matters.

Have a good week!  Love you!

Elder Parrish

Master Fisher

June 5, 2016

Dear Family:

Thanks for the email! That is exciting about Grandma and Grandpa's mission call. How long are they going to be serving? If I can go without seeing them for two years, then I guess I can go a little bit longer.  It’s crazy how fast time is going for all of you guys at home. I can't believe school is out already. Time is flyingggg!!!! 

As far as I know, I should be staying on Maiana for one more transfer. It’s going to be interesting with the mission president change and stuff. I have no clue where I could be going after that. My intake will start becoming mission leaders and stuff, etc. 

The work is going well here on Maiana. We should have a baptism this week and hopefully a couple more next week. We legitimately do a lot of finding by tracting, but it's good. We are teaching a lot of adults and families right now and I believe that these people that we are working with could be really solid members if they actually get converted. We have been teaching a lot of lessons and should hopefully see some pay off soon.  All is well.

Elder Hoskins and I get along well. He works hard and I like him. I really couldn't ask for much more. I am super content. 

Not much happened last week, but we had an awesome thing when this sick investigator showed up to church and bore his testimony! Hopefully his wife and kids will come next week.

Have a great week!

Elder Parrish

Mauri-ooooo

May 29, 2016

Heyyyy everyone,

I guess I'll give a quick update since I haven't done one in a while. Fishing > Emailing, but emailing is pretty good too :) If anyone is wondering, I hit 10 months as a missionary yesterday and I just realized it. I remember months ago when people told me that as I got further into my mission I wouldn’t even realize when I was hitting month marks. It's crazy that I'll be counting down pretty soon.

I guess I'll talk a little bit about the work. Elder Hoskins is my companion who I have been with for a month.  He’s from Georgia. He's pretty chill and it's nice to be with a comp who has similar visions for the work.  He's pretty sick and I'm happy overall. We have had like four baptisms in the past month and should have several more on the way.

I guess I want to talk about some of my investigators cuz they're pretty much my life lol.

My favorite investigator and one of the reasons I believe that I was sent to Maiana is for Rootia. She is a 60 year-old lady with one son and a grandchild here. She is (was hehe) a firm member of the Pentecostal church, legit has read the bible from start to finish, and is pretty knowledgeable. We got wrecked on our first lesson teaching about the Godhead and she was trying to bible bash a little bit. We held our ground, but it wasn't great. We taught the restoration for our second lesson and I've never seen a bigger change in a person. Our lesson about revelation from heaven and God's priesthood on the earth really touched her heart.  She is

already in 2nd Nephi in the Book of Mormon and is trying to quit smoking so she can get baptized. She accepts everything we teach and has the strongest faith. She promised us that she will never burn a Book of Mormon again. (Apparently, she burned one that other Elders gave her once before.)  She is thinking about staying here to be a member of the church and not going back to Tarawa where they will try to pull her back to the Pentecostal faith.

Sickkkk <3  We are gonna baptize her alongside her son if all continues to go well.

Our other investigator is Mata. He literally stopped smoking and drinking cold turkey and hasn't started since. He has tattoos everywhere, but he cut his hair and I literally see a visible light in him.  His face and eyes look different and he's the man.

No need to even answer the question that I get every week, "How is your health?" Couldn't be betterrrrrr. We are gonna keep working hard. We are going to be dropping some investigators and finding some who are better prepared to hear our message.  It's a big responsibility to serve as Branch Presidents on this island, but we are up to the task.

We will always be under the same moon :')

Elder Parrish