Transfers

October 9, 2016

Note from Jill:

Blake and I received an email yesterday from Zach's mission president indicating that he had assigned Zach to be one of the Zone Leaders for the Tarawa East Zone, which is the largest zone in the mission.  That explains why he was off getting a Kiribati Driver's license last week.  Thanks for all of your support.

Hey fam and friends,

It's been a whileeeeee. All is going well here on Tarawa. I'm just posted up here in Buota. We got word of transfers last week. I am going to become a Zone Leader, which means that we are going to be watching over 40 or so missionaries here on Tarawa and most of the outer islands. It's going to be stressful, but I feel like the Lord has a couple of things about patience and charity that he wants to teach me. My companion is going to be Elder Peeti who is getting released from being AP (Assistant to the Mission President) after serving for seven months. Legit the coolest Maori Elder from New Zealand who is a recent convert of only a couple of years. We are gonna put in some work in Buota. 

This last week Elder Tuikolovatu and I were able to finish off with a baptism of a 34 year old seamen named Kireua. When we first lessoned with him, he said that he wanted to lesson with missionaries so that he could change and receive a good life. From that time, we saw a huge change come to him. He used to be an alcoholic, but from the time we taught the Word of Wisdom, he hasn't touched a can of alcohol despite being tempted several times. He told us that he knew he couldn't ruin the Word of Wisdom since he has been given the law and since he knows that sin comes when you ruin the law (1 John). As we read Mosiah 5:1-5, we knew how converted he was to the gospel and how prepared he was to make a covenant with his Heavenly Father. It's so refreshing to see a person truly understands repentance and turning away from sin. He told us that we were his heroes and that we helped him feel that he could be cleansed through baptism despite the many sins that he had committed. His wife was a hardcore Catholic but is thinking about lessoning with missionaries after seeing the change in her husband. We are super grateful for his baptism.

The other crazy thing that happened this week was when we were pulled out of General Conference to hear that one of our recent converts just passed away from leukemia. He was only nine years old and his parents are less active members. We baptized him only a month ago. Seriously the saddest thing ever. (So grateful that he was baptized before he passed away.) Our hearts hurt and we felt terrible, but as we walked back into conference, the next speaker spoke on the Plan of Salvation and made us feel so much better. Tells you all you need to know about this conference.

Love being a missionary-- Change is always hard, but I've learned that change is when you see true growth. I guess this next step will be a good opportunity to look outward instead of inward. Love you guys <3

Elder Parrish

October 2, 2016

October 2, 2016

Thanks for the email. I don't have tons of time to email today because I spent some time this morning getting a Kiribati driver’s license, but please know that I'm doing well. I'm super duper happy and I still love being a missionary. We don't have the opportunity to watch general conference this week.  We will watch it next week after it is translated to Kiribati so that the Kiribati people can watch it as well. 

Otinteiti's baptism went awesome this week. Seriously the most golden investigator that I've ever taught and I have no doubt that he will stay strong. He actually had a decent support from the branch and I was super grateful for everything. His wife is a member but she was starting to become less active and prayed to Heavenly Father that he would lead her husband to this church and if he didn't, than she was going back to the protestant church. Her prayers were answered when we showed up, started teaching him, and baptized him. They are a strong family and I can picture them going to the temple sometime in the near future. We have another baptism this week of an awesome 30+ year old guy who is one of the coolest investigators ever. He is awesome and has changed so much and it has been awesome working with him.

We had a really uplifting zone conference this last week. President Larkin brings an interesting background as a counselor and I had a good interview with him.  He is really trying to strengthen my area and the area around it because he wants it to become a stake. I feel good about everything. Transfers are happening this week so next week I will have more to report.  I love you!

Elder Parrish

Otinteiti's baptism

Kiribati driver's license 

September 18, 2016

September 18, 2016

Thanks for the email! We are a little bit late to email today because we went fishing this morning with some members at low tide and caught some small fish.  It was pretty fun! All is going well over here in Buota. I really do like Buota. There are two families who I just love. One family is actually naming their baby after me and making shirts for all the girls and mom so that's pretty cool. The work is still a little bit of a struggle but our golden investigator came to church again this week so he should be ready for baptism. He's going to be a solid Melchizidek Priesthood holder and I'm way excited. We also got another way cool golden investigator who's like a 30+ year old guy who is a sailor but already has come to church so hopefully we will be able to baptize him before I get transferred. Those are definitely the bright spots and we are super blessed for those guys.

The transfer for October still isn't 100% confirmed but I think that I will still be getting transferred-- either on October 7th or October 27th. I still get along with Elder Tuikolovatu.  He's a pretty nice and laid back dude so we have no problems on the companion front. It's crazy to me how fast the time has gone. When it's all said and done it was a pretty fast few months in Buota but it was fun to meet a couple people and I believe that there were reasons that I got sent here and I believe that this guy we are baptizing was a big part.

I hope that all is well at home... I love you guys and I continue to pray and work hard for you guys every day! 

Elder Parrish

P.S. My package came so thanks so much!

Buota

September 11, 2016

Hey guys, I'm running a little short on time but I'll hit it up with a quick update.

I've now been in Buota since the end of July, but I'm still in my first month of training my Tongan-American companion Elder Tuikolovatu. He's the man and it's already been a good experience training. I'm grateful for the opportunity to train. The branch here in Buota is still a little bit of a struggle, but we are trying our best. Most weeks we have between 70 and 80 people at church. We have been working a lot with less active members and it's been rewarding to bring a couple of less active Melchizidek priesthood holders back to church. We are trying to get them re-activated and keep them active.

We have lots of investigators and some families, but it is a challenge because the chapel is far away and many of them work on Sundays.  But we do have one investigator I really want to tell you about.

Ten Otineiti: A 110% golden investigator. Never smoked, drank, etc. He's a 30+ year old guy who's a fireman at the airport. His wife and sister are recent converts of one year but he refused to listen to missionaries for a super long time because he was a really firm protestant. A couple of weeks ago, we came to their house and I felt prompted to ask him if he wanted lessons and he shocked us and said yes. It's gotten better and better since then. He legit has the strongest testimony and just little miracles have been happening to help things out. He went and bought a white shirt and ties and then got work off all by himself without even being prompted by us to do so.  (That's unheard of here.) And then all these crazy little things happened and somehow he was able to come to church yesterday after it seemed like Satan was trying to do all he could to keep him from it. He told us that he has gained a testimony and won't move from it. It was pretty easy to see the Lord's hand in it all. His wife bore her testimony in our lesson and said how this was one of the happiest days of her life and she felt so happy that her husband was led to the truth and how she knew that this was the true church. If he can come to church next week, then he will be ready for baptism. Legit why I was sent here! I know he's going to stay strong and is exactly what this branch needs as he will prepare himself in time to become a Melchizdek priesthood holder.

That's pretty much it. <3 Love you guys and I would love to hear from everyone! The church is true.

Elder Parrish

Training

August 28, 2016

Hey!

Somehow I became a trainer this week. 

We were called on Tuesday night and told that I would be training a new missionary who would be coming on Thursday morning. It was all really, really fast. I said goodbye to my Young Single Adult (YSA) comp and said hello to my son, Elder Tuikolovatu. He is a  big 340 pound Tongan American who just barely came to the mission. He was a late-comer after having to go home to his family when he tore his meniscus in the MTC. Luckily he is feeling better and super blessed to be a missionary. He's a super nice kid and a lot like a teddy bear haha.  I think things will be fine. It just really took me back to day one! He has lots of questions and obviously will take time to learn the language, but I'm excited to be training.  I decided from the time that I was trained that I would be a good trainer if I got the chance. I remember those first months when I would bawl to Heavenly Father every morning for help with the language and the culture shock. Eventually it got better and training has already reminded me of how hard it was and how far I've come. 

Other than that, the branch where we work is a real challenge.  It's difficult to be a missionary when the members won’t fellowship.  Church is a great distance for most members and we have far too many less active members. We have a list of 1,030 members and legitimately had fewer than 50 members at church yesterday.  It's difficult because we don't know WHO to visit or WHERE they live because the member list has not been updated.  But we have plenty to do.  We should be having four baptisms this week, which will be nice.

Just a quick spiritual experience:

I finished the Book of Mormon for the third or fourth time as a missionary yesterday and had the strongest spiritual experience as I read Moroni 10 and prayed for the truth. I received such a solid definitive answer and it made me so happy. And then later that night we were teaching a lesson on the Book of Mormon to our golden investigator (a 30+ year old man) and I like legitimately teared up teaching Moroni's promise.  What the heckkkk?  I couldn’t have imagined this before my mission. 

Love you all,

Elder Parrish 

August 21, 2016

August 21, 2016

Dear Friends and Family:

Like I reported last week, all is going well here in Buota. My Yong Single Adult (YSA) companion is legitimately an awesome guy. I'm glad that I get to work with him for a month. It's not like training at all because he's good at the language. We speak in Kiribati, but his English is decent with a really strong accent. We have some good spirit-filled lessons.

The work here is going well! We should have three baptisms in the next few weeks and are working on getting three marriages done. We also brought back a Melchizedek Priesthood holder yesterday who just came to church for the first time in about 10 years. We are super duper duper busy and we are just fasting and praying to find some really good families. It's pretty hard to find lasting converts, but if we can find families who are converted by the spirit then they have a better chance of staying active.

One of my FAVORITE members from Maiana called me this last week and she's coming to Tarawa. I legitimately think she is coming just to say hi to me.  She wrote me a letter when I left Maiana and asked if she could be my "Kiribati Mom."  It will be cool to see her!

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Parrish

August 14, 2016

August 14, 2016

Hey fam!!  I'm doing fine here in Buota! My new companion is Taam Teebeta. He's actually a way cool guy. Obviously he hasn't been the Temple and stuff, but he is a 21 year-old guy who just got his mission call to serve in the Philippines. He is going to work with me for about a month right up until he leaves for his mission. When he leaves they will find me another Young Single Adult companion until the new intake comes in October when I will be training.

When I think of how I was a year ago, I'm pretty impressed with my new YSA companion given the fact that he is leaving his family for two years in a month, but he's happy to be spending his last month doing full-time missionary work on Tarawa as my companion. I think it shows that he's a pretty cool kid. He's a hard worker and he's way more prepared for a mission than I was when I left a year ago. He's been out with missionaries before so this isn't his first time. This is just his first time becoming a full-time missionary. He actually held a calling in his ward as the clerk and I think he's pretty on top of things.

Elder Hoskins actually just left to Maiana yesterday. He was my companion this entire week. I was super jealous that he got to go back to Maiana, but I was able to write a couple of letters and stuff for some members in Maiana and he is going to deliver them. The hardest part about being on Tarawa is missing Maiana, the members, and the life on the outies. The lessons and teaching and stuff is the same wherever you go. Sometimes I really miss Maiana, but it's hard to be sad if I truly believe that the Lord needs me here in Buota. I think Buota has a lot of potential and some exciting things should be coming up pretty soon. 

We are going to have a Zone Conference this week which will be cool! My district is a district of six sisters.  We are working hard and we are going to be putting in a lot of work with part-member families and reactivation. There are 1030 baptized members in Buota and only 70 active members. This area has TONS of potential and we need to work hard so that our branch can be made a ward. I'm happy that I'll be here for a while so that I can see some things through.

I love you guys and I hope that you guys have a great week!

Elder Parrish