Transition

Week 78
This post is rather late, but I wanted to share it anyways, because well, it will end my mission.  So here is a little recap of the last few days of my mission.

Monday was SO sad!  But it was also really awesome.  It started out with a "Farewell Brunch".  All of the elders wore their skinniest ties (I didnt get a picture.  Sad face!).  That was really fun.  We went to Ihop and had a great brunch.  Elder Anderle and I shared something, but he ordered confusingly so we ended up with extra eggs...for free!  Yay!
After brunch we headed to the church to play a little basketball, like we like to do.  Well I was on Jergys team, and I obviously suck at basketball, but I love being on Jergys team because he supports everything I do!  When I foul someone and they call "Foul!", Jergy will always say "Yeah, on you maybe!" or when I ask if something is legal, that obviously isnt, he always says "Yeah, thats basketball.".  Hahaha.  I love him, he is the greatest.  Our time way to quickly ended and after some very very bittersweet goodbyes, I headed up to Tempe.
When I got to Tempe I went straight into my exit interview with President Toone.  It was pretty great and not like I thought it would be.  He tried to convince me that we wouldnt cry, and we didnt...for a few minutes.  But when he gave me the magnents from the transfer board, I cried and so did he.  He ended my interview with a beautiful blessing that he gave me in behalf of himself as well as President Howes and it was absolutly awesome.
The rest of the evening was spent just reminising about the mission and all the things that we learned.  We had an awesome testimony meeting and watched a little video slideshow.  I then spent the night in the mission home with Hna Folsom.  We both reluctantly took off our nametags, the realization of the next morning finally pressing on our minds, and for the last time went to bed right at 10:30.

Tuesday was like a dream.  We all woke up about 5:00am and got ourselves ready to head to the airport.  We said our final goodbyes to President and Sister Toone and loaded up in the action van to our terminals.  The drive to the airport was weird and Hna Escobar and I remaniced about a similar ride we took together 18 months earlier, but in the other direction.  I am so grateful that I have had the chance to have Hna Escobar with me through all of these big transitions.
We made it to the airport without to much trouble and found our gate and before we knew it we were taking off and waving goodbye to my beloved Phoenix valley.  A short hour later we were touching down in Salt Lake City.  This is where Hna Escobar and I parted ways.  She went to catch her connecting flight to Boise, and I headed to the escalator and my family.
The descent down the escalator lead me right into a surprise.  Jess told me that he was leaving on his mission on the 24th of July, but when I spotted my family there he was.  I headed straight to hug him and he told me he lied about his departure date, cuz he thought it would be funny.  It sorta was.  Jess was there, and my parents, and my best friends from high school.  I am so grateful for all of them for supporting me.  And boy was it great to see them.
At home, my nieces and nephews were waiting in the front yard with a welcome home sign and plenty of hugs!  And I finally got to meet Issac and Camille!  They are just gems!
Noon came far to quickly and I headed to the stake center, to get released.  That was horrible.  I have never been so sad as when President Linguard released me as a full time missionary.  I just started bawling and couldnt stop.  I couldnt take my nametag off and just didnt want to accept it.  My awesome dad just took a walk with me and let me cry.
When people asked me what I was going to do when I got home the answer always was "I am going to hold my nieces and nephews, get a pedicure and eat a peach rainbow", well I never told my family that, but that is what my cousins had planned for me.  They are so sweet and we had so  much fun.  And they didnt judge me when I just spontaneously cried.  Haha.
After some cousin time, my great friends planned me a little get together.  We went to the park and had a picnic and they also just let me zone out from time to time.  It was really weird.  I love them all, but it was strange that they didnt really have any idea what the last 18 months of my life had been like.  But its ok.
All in all, it is good to be home, but I will miss Arizona and Hermana Parry.  I am incredibly grateful for the last 18 months and for all I have been through.  I have made so many friends.  I have been loved by so many people and loved in return.  I have seen the gospel of Jesus Christ change countless lives, most importantly my own.  I learned a new language, I learned a new culture.  I have grown in every way possible and have learned who I am.  I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father who knows me better than I know me.  I have truly had the best 18 months of my life and will never ever forget Tempe.

Week 77

So this is a little late (because I have forgotten it until now), but I thought I would post it up anyways.....

The Final Stretch
So this week was my final one, which is cray cray!  I cant believe it has already been 18 months!  But lets give you the run down...
Monday was pretty great, but really quite sad at the same time.  It was my last real p day.  Poor Sister Crawford was SO sick, but she was such a trooper and she came to the church anyways.  Limby and Jensy went to the store and Crawfy and I stayed at the church so that she could sleep.
Right as Limby and Jensen got back, and right before Anderbacher showed up it started to rain....HARD!  The streets started to fill up (Arizona has horrible drainage systems apparently).  Well Limburg and I decided we wanted to run and get some lunch, we hesitated because of the rain, but decided to when Limby said "Im from Washington, I can drive in the rain!".  Little did she know the extent of the rain.  I mean sweet glory, we started driving and it was like a river!  We needed a boat not a car!  But it was pretty cool and we made it there and back without to much trouble.  Crazy, but super duper fun!

Tuesday was NUTS!  And it really renewed my testimony of the priesthood!  Sheesh!  So like I said earlier, Sister Crawford has been way sick recently, she spent the past 5 days throwing up, and today was the worst.  It started out at district meeting where I was asked to give my departing testimony.  That was hard.  I cant believe I am already there, and I love my district so much and it made me sad and I cried and it was hard.  But after that the elders all came over to our house to give Hna Crawford a blessing.  Well when we tried to wake her up so she could go out to the porch (the elders arent allowed in the house), we couldnt wake her.  We yelled at her, slapped her face, splashed water on her, all the things we could think to do, but after 10 minutes she still wasnt responding.  It was really scary and the elders started to flip out a little.  We finally called the mission nurse and told her we didnt know what else to do and she told us to call 911.  And so we did.  As we waited to the ambulance to come, Elder Jurgensmeier said a prayer.  After his prayer we asked them to come in and give her a blessing.  Deciding that they could bend the rules in they all came.  Our 6 amazing elders, all willing and worthy to use the priesthood they hold to bless us.  Elder Myler gave a sweet blessing and as he said "Amen", Hna Crawford woke up and said "Amen" as well, just as the ambulance arrived.  We spent the rest of the day in the hospital, and Hna Crawford is fine.  But I am so incredibly grateful for the priesthood power and for young  men who are so worthy to hold it.  Sheesh we are blessed!

Wednesday was a cool day.  We taught the coolest lesson to this kid named Chivante.  He is about 20 and we just happened to catch him outside his house and he let us sit down and talk to him.  We taught him the restoration and we did so pretty quickly.  It was a pretty straight forward resto, but it was powerful and it hit me so hard how important this message is.  We had just told him the story of the first vision and i asked him, "What would it mean to you to know that there was a living prophet on the earth today?"  He thought for a minute and said "Hope.  It would give me hope".  That hit me SO hard!  We are out sharing hope with other people.  That is what we do as missionaries but it is also what we do as members.  We have so much hope that other people dont have.  We are so lucky and so blessed and we need to share that.

The rest of the week was pretty standard with a bunch of miracles and blessings, but Saturday was the bomb!  After weeks of talking about it, Limby and I finally went on real exchanges!  YAY!  It was so dang fun!  We got lost, taught some lessons, had some sweet oyms, took a lot of fotos and had SO much fun.  I am so grateful that I have gotten to serve around her, ever though she is not my companion.  She is glorious and has changed my mission.  I freaking love that girl.

Sunday was sad.  It was my last sunday as a missionary and that was pretty cruel.  Bishop Rasmussen in my english ward asked me to give a talk in sacrament meeting.  It was really kind of a cool farewell homecoming where I just got to share what I have learned in my mission and how it has blessed me.  I have grown SO much and been ever so blessed and I am incredibly grateful for the time I have spent here and all the people who have touched my life.  I will spend every day for the rest of my life thanking God for the amazing people I have loved and who have loved me these past 18 months.  That is what it is all about, loving your neighbor as yourself and I have been so blessed to experience that, and I am devastated to have to leave that.  The blessings are overwhelming and I am so grateful!


Well the next time that I write it will be from home and I will tell you all about today and the next couple days I am try to become a normal person...and so for the last time....
This is Hermana Natalie Parry, signing out!

Week 76

Miss You Til Wednesday

 

 

WOW!!!  This was an intense week.  It was one of those weeks that you look back at and think "Did all that really happen this week?"  It was crazy, but all really good stuff! 

Monday started out the fun as we celebrated Elder Jergensmeiers 20th birthday!  Limby and I made a fish cake and got him a really classy Cody Simpson card.  Then we went bowling as a district!  It was so much fun and I am still just as horrid at bowling as I ever was.  It was really wierd though to be out in public in pants just basically hanging out.  Especially because in just a couple weeks I am going to be expected to do that on a normal basis!  EEK!  But it was SO fun!

 

Then on Monday night I went on exchanges with Hermana Folsom in one of our new districts in Phoenix.  That was SO fun!  I havent ever left my area for an exchange before, so I really enjoyed that.  Hna Folsom is really quite cool and we had a lot of fun on our exchange.  She goes home with me, so she knows what she is doing and it was really fun to work with a missionary who isnt new again.  Dont get me wrong, I liked training and I love my comp now, but it is cool to have the first lesson you teach together just go smoothly because you both know the lesson and the spanish to go with it.  It was really fun.  She taught me a lot of new things that the Phoenix mission does that were really cool and will help our area a lot.  One of them is prayer contacting, I will go more into that later.  But really, Monday night and Tuesday were just really fun and I learned a ton and had a ton of fun!

 

Wednesday was a glorious day!!!  We went to the temple which is always so so great.  I always knew that it was a huge blessing to go to the temple every 6 weeks, but when I was on exchanges I learned that Phoenix only got to go every 3!  So extra blessing.  And then when I was there an even extra-er blessing happened!!!  Ok, so here is the story....We were leaving the temple and as we were walking down the stairs I yelled at one of the elders, I cant remember why.  It wasnt a really yell, just a teasing yell and I told him I hated him.(This will come into play soon).  So we start to walk away, down the sidewalk to the car when I hear "Hey, Sister Parry".  So I am assuming it is a missionary, but when I turned around I was speechless for a moment.  It was my friend Sterling, from Deseret Book!  Oh my heck!  I was a little stunned to see him there in Mesa(even though I knew he was living somewhere in AZ), but is was so cool!  I had to shake his hand, and that was a little sad....but it was ok.  Oh my gosh, I was so happy to see him!  Now I will tell you the story from his point of view.  So he lives just across from the temple and had just gotten off work or something and got out of the car and saw missionaries at the temple.  Well he thought that he saw me, but wasnt sure....but then he heard me yell at that elder and he knew it was me!  Hahaha.  But then he ran over to say hi!  It was so neat!  I have been so lucky to see so many of my dear sweet friends durning my mission.  Tender Mercy!

 

So then just some fun cool stuff, on Thursday we tried out prayer contacting and it was SO sweet!  Basically you just knock the door and when they answer you say "we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and we would like to offer a blessing on your home".  Then they let you in, you pray with them and then you ask them when you can come back to share with them how they can always have that feeling  in their home.  Well it seems really common sense I think, but I had never thought about it before.  But it was SO neat!  We got let into houses that never would have let us in before and we had some really neat experiences praying wtih people.  I love praying with people, it is my favorite part of missionary work and so I have really enjoyed that.  We have only tried it with hispanic people, I am a little more nervous to try with white people, but we are going too.  It is fun!

 

In a few other highlight of this week...we got a free eye exam and free contacts.  Thanks Doctor Sellers.  We went to visit a family in our ward, whose 10 year old daughter is a FREAK and I LOVE her.  Well we set up dinner for Wednesday night and while we were there she said "You are so great to talk to!" and then as she walked us out she said "Bye, I'll miss you til Wednesday!"  It was so cute!  Love her!

 

Also, I got my trunky packet that tells me all my flight info!  It is too scary to post this week, but keep your morning open on the 30th!  EEEK!

 

Well, that is all there is to it people.  God is good.  We are loved.  What could be better than that.  Love you.  Miss you.  See you soon.

Con Amor, Hermana Parry 

 

 

Me and Folsom

Me and Limby on our nightly call with Anderbacher 

Me and Sterling

 

Week 75

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER HAS 4 VERSES???

Well lets just see, this week has been a good one.  Full of lots of fun and adventures!  I will start off with Monday.  Monday was a pretty sad day actually.  Hna White left for Yuma and I miss her just terribly already!  But that is ok, because I still have Limby to act crazy with!  Hna Crawford moved into our house, and it is VERY different, but not to bad.  Jensy and I tried to wash our car this week at a wash it yourself place and that was a real treat!  I accidentally sprayed her with foam and she ended up spraying pink stuff on our car right as we ran out of time and couldnt wash it off.  But it was fun!

Then on Tuesday we got to meet our new mission president!  President Toone!  He is really cool and seems really chill.  He is also a GIANT!!!!!  He is like 7'2!  He is enormous!  And guess what, he is Tom Toone(Lukes dad)'s first cousin.  So we are basically related!  Pretty crazy! 

Thursday was of course the 4th of July, what a happy day!  And we had so much fun!  First of all we got to do some service.  Then we went to the spanish branch 4th party.  Now something I love about hispanics...they love America way more than Americans do.  Our party was all decked out in red white and blue.  They presented the flags and then the best part...singing!  Now singing isnt always a spanish wards strong point anyways, but then we sang a lot.  We sang "America the Beautiful", "My country tis of thee" and "The Star Spangled Banner" (all 4 verses...i forgot there were 4 verses) all before we were allowed to eat.  Oh and we did the pledge of alligence.  Well they had programs all printed up with all the words....but all in english....in an all spanish speaking ward.....it was magical! 

Then after that we went home and Hna Crawford made us a delish dinner: Christmas ham(we found in our freeze), lion house rolls, and mashed potatos.  Limby and I ran and got starbucks for everyone and then we spent the night watching "Im a Mormon" videos.  It was a fantastic evening!

Saturday night there was a wicked sweet lightning storm!  I mean really, wicked sweet!  Sister Limburg and I ate shakes and watched it.  Mine was way to big, but luckily Elders Anderle and Rohrbacher, or as limby and I call them Elder Anderbacher, came over and Anderle ate my shake for me.  It was great.  Me and Limby enjoy Anderbacher alot, they are our comic relief.

Well that is about the week we had.  It was really a great week.  We dont really have any investigators, but I am really enjoying my time with Hna Jensen.  I think she really needs to learn some stuff, she also says so and because of that we are really working on helping her step outside her comfort zone.  We had some really sweet OYMs this week and there were a few times in certain OYMs that she said "I was really feeling the spirit" or "I should have asked such and such a question".  I think she is really getting better at her OYMs and is opening up a lot.  We are just going to keep working and doing our best and being better and we are happy.

I am really grateful for the time that I have been able to spend here in AZ serving the Lord.  I received a really special blessing from Elder Rohrbacher this week that really just eased some of the questions I had about if I had done enough here, or if I had really done what the Lord wanted me too.  Elder Rohrbacher had never given a blessing before and he had no ideas that I had any sort of questions like that.  But I recieved so much comfort and I really so grateful for the priesthood and for elders that are worthy to share the priesthood with us sisters

Washing the Car

Casa Grande Zone

Me and Jensy

Week 74

President Howes Has Gone The Way Of The Earth

Things here in the Arizona Tempe Mission are going pretty great!  It is pretty nuts because as of now, the missionaries I have been serving with are in 4 different missions and President and Sister Howes are not longer here...it is President and Sister Toone.  That is SO wierd!
I have come to love and respect President and Sister Howes SO much!  They have cared for me, and helped me to grow and let me be crazy me and I will be forever grateful for the time I was able to serve with them.  What a blessing!

Other than that, this was a pretty average week, but not in a bad way.  Hermana Jensen and I are learning how to work together and we are having a lot of fun.  She is different than any of my other companions...a lot more uptight...but she is a really good missionary, she just needs to relax a little so that it comes out more.  It is kind of funny though, how different we really are.  When we are at things like lessons or dinner and a little kid starts to talk to her she gets a little annoyed and is always trying to find a way to get them to stop talking to her so that she can be a part of the "grown up conversation", where as I am never happier than when the 4 year old kid is showing me all of his toys.

That actually leads me to a relatively adorable story.  So last night we had dinner with the Thompson Family.  They are SO cute!  Well their 8 year old daughter was showing me all of the drawings that she had done( and funny note, she puts price tags on them and has her parents buy them from her.  No gifts in that house!!!) and along with the drawings that she puts in her art show she also gives drawing lessons.  Well I told her that I cant draw and her 4 year old brother says "Drawing is easy, you just go like this and like this", as he drew with his finger.  Well then he said "I will teach you to draw, and what else cant you do?  I will teach you!"  And so he grabbed some paper and he taught me how to draw and then said "You are a great drawer!"  It was SO fun, and it really was funny because I was listening to both kids at the same time, as I have learned to do, and their mom was SO impressed.  Ha ha.  I think that getting to know all of the sweet memebers in my wards is one of my most favorite parts of my mission.  Such a blessing!

In other news, Hermana White got an ET call this Friday, (just due to some medical problems with another sister) and she will be going to Yuma today.  It is really sad, we dont want her to leave at all!!  But I am jealous that she is making it to Yuma, I always wanted to get there.  Blast!  But we went out on splits on Saturday night and it was SO fun!  We had some fun, our dinner tried to set her up with their son who is cute and lives in Utah, and then we had a REALLY anit lesson that we ended up ending by excusing ourselves in the middle of the lesson.  It was insane!  This guy was pretty nice, just REALLY confused and it just made me so SO grateful for the knowledge of the fullness of the gospel in my life!  Whoo!  What a relief!

And in other random fun news, We had our first Hubooob last night.  We all sat at the window and watched it.  It came after dark so you couldnt see the dust super well, but you could smell it and there was lots of wind and lightning!  So cool!

Well that is about all that I have for you this week!  Thanks for all the love and prayers!  You are great!

Con Muchisisisisisimos Amor,

Hermana Parry

Service Project, rocking some hats!

Me and Jensy

week 73

The Work Of Salvation

This week I was sick, I was REALLY sick!  It was a weird week.  First of all, transfers and Hna Adams left so I spent Monday and Tuesday in other peoples areas...not working in my own.  Then on Wednesday we had transfer meeting all day and then on Thursday morning I woke up puking my guts out and I spent the subsequent weekend at home in bed.  It was absolutely the worst thing ever!  I am grateful to live with the other sisters though.  Hna White took really good care of me and doctored me back to full strength!  And then Hna Jensen and Hna Limburg were able to go out a work and so my poor little newby wasnt stuck inside all week!  Blessings in disguise!

I guess I should start off with the fact that I got a new companion.  Her name is Hermana Andrea Jensen.  She has red hair and so I am constantly thinking of Josh and Jaime.  She is very sweet, has been out for about 5 months and is from SLC.  We really havent had too much chance to work together, due to the vomiting, but we have enjoyed each other so far!

Wednesdays transfer meeting was a little crazy and exciting and sad all at that same time!  It was the mission split meeting, and though the split isnt official until the 1 of July, we all now know what missions we are in.  It was rather exciting to watch how the Lord has been working and growing this area and to see a ton of new zones formed!  I am offically staying in the Tempe Mission, and many of my spanish friends are as well....but many of my english compadres are now in the Gilbert mission.  But that is ok, because now I will get to email them.  It is sad to know that that was the last time that we would all get togther as group, but I am so excited to see what things the Lord has in store for this area!

Missionary work is the coolest!  So I hope that everyone had the chance to see the leadership broadcast "The Work Of Salvation" yesterday!  It bascially was the coolest thing I have ever seen!  So powerful and really kind of a call out and it changes missionary work SO SO much.  It is going to change my brother Jess's mission SO much!  It is strange because we will be serving such different missions even though the time difference isnt that severe.  I am so envious of all the amazing opportunities he is going to have!!!  SO NEAT!!!

Well all, I think that is about all I have for this week, but I am so grateful for all of the love and support I am recieving!  Dont forget about me in these last few weeks ok!  I need your prayers more than ever!  The Gospel is true, this is His work!  No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing, but a bunch of hallowed ones can sure help it move quicker!  Lets all lengthen our stride, and hasten the work of the Lord!!!

Love You All!!!

Hermana Parry

Week 72

ItS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN.....

Well hello everyone!  This has been quite the week filled with much excitement!

Last night was my final transfer call!  Holy Yuck!  And it was just crazy as can be...but I will tell you more about that later on.

The week has been pretty great!  It started off with my finding my a body spray from Bath and Body works that I had been dreaming about!  Miracle!  And then with our house buying these super rockin hot pink tee shirts!  It was pretty legit and all the other missionaries are jealous of us!  Clearly!

Then we started our missionary work.  We were able to visit alot of really nice people this week.  We visited all of our recent converts as well as a bunch of less active members.  Casa Grande has been really interesting because in these 6 weeks we have met a bunch of amazing people, but none that we have really visited more than once or twice....investigators included.  But despite that, I am still happy as can be here in Casa Grande.

This week has been a little bit CRAZY!  There have been some illnesses, exchanges, baptisms(with thier cooresponding dances), and all sorts of other stuff.  Biggest being....HERMANA ADAMS GOT HER VISA!!!!  She got a call from President Howes on Saturday, left to Tempe on Sunday night and then left for Argentina about an hour ago.  It is pretty crazy and very bitter sweet, but I am super duper excited for her!

Now that leaves me to transfer calls.....I clearly knew I would be getting a new companion...suprise, but the rest was unknown.  So here is the deal....Monson:Leaving and Training, Ball:Leaving and Training (she is only at 6 weeks and NERVOUS, but will be SO great), Limburg:Staying, White: Staying and..........PARRY: STAYING!!!!

So there you have it people, I will be spending my last glorious transfer here in Casa Grande, companion yet to be determined, but I am way way excited!  So all that mail you have been waiting to send because you didnt know what address to send it to can officially be sent to 1182e Jardin Dr!

Hope you all have an amazing week!  Remember, the Church is True!  The Book Is Blue!  Until next time America!

This is Hermana Parry, signing out!

Zone Foto

week 71

112 in the Shade!

Well hello again everyone...its me, Hermana Parry writing again from sunny Arizona!  Things here are HOT HOT HOT and it is a little much for me, but alas, I will endure it and try to do it well!

I wanna send a shout out to my little brother Jess and my cousin Jake who both graduated from high school this week!  I cannot believe it, but it seems to be true!  I am quite proud!

 

Things here in Arizona are just splendid and we had a pretty rad week!

Monday Hermana White and I went out on splits to visit a LA family.  It was so fun and their daughters are so cute!  Plus they seemed to have read my mind because they had pink mustaches for us to wear!  They were absolutly absurd but they totally made my day.  Really, bigotes are hilarious!

Plus afterwards we visited a "couponer" in our ward who gave us free toiletries.  It was pretty sweet!

 

Tuesday was awesome because we got free Starbucks!  It is fairly interesting, I have had more starbucks as a missionary than ever before in my life...but that is a sidenote.  Anywho, Sister White and I were having a spanish study together, learning reflexives, and our DL calls us to ask if we have a large print book of mormon that they can have.  Well we searched all over and finally found one.  We told him that we would only give it to him as a trade...2 vanilla bean starbucks for 1 large print BoM.  Well he said, "Sure, see you soon."  and we thought that was the end of it, not really beliving that he would bring it to us.  Well about 20 minutes later, they knock on the door and when we answered, there they were two GIANT vanilla bean frapps(fear not, they are WoW approved).  As we start to thank him, Elder Hartung says "So, apparently they just assume that you want the BIGGEST ones!  Those are the most expensive drinks I've bought in my life!"  It was really funny and we were quite grateful!  They were scrumcious and neither of us wanted to eat dinner an hour later because we were stuffed!

 

Wednesday we got to go to the temple!  I love the temple!!!!  It was as wonderful as always and I got to see Hermana Anderson!  Holy smokes I love that girl!  It was so nice!  Also when our ride took us out to lunch, I ran into Juan Hernandez....Elcy's brother in law!!!  If you dont remember Elcy go back to my blog of last July.  She was my first baptism here in Arizona and was living with her sister and her sisters husband...Juan!  Oh golly, it was such a tender mercy!

 

Those were the really big events that happened this week.  Me and Hna Adams are doing good.  We dont have a ton of investigators, but that is ok.  We are out working hard and trying to visit people and one of them is going to stick.  I am grateful for the visits that we have had and the people we have met.  I think the Lord wants to make sure I really sweat it out these last few months....more like weeks I guess!  Scary!

 

We have seen a bunch of miracles, and really watching the sisters that we live with baptize all of their amazing investigators has been the biggest blessing for me and I feel like it is actually keeping me grounded and more focused.  But pray for us!  Pray that we have the ganas to talk to everyone we see and that we can find the elect here who are ready for the Gospel!

 

In way of a few announcements....

Next week is transfer week!!!  Ah!  Sunday night will tell the rest of my mission!  LOCO!!

Also, I am sure you have heard the announcement about the special fireside meeting thing on the 23rd of June.  It is going to be historic and bigger than Christmas, so everyone make plans to go!

 

That is all I have for now!  Love you guys, thanks for all you do for me!  I feel your prayers and am grateful for them! 

 

Love Hermana Parry

Week 70

 I will now tell you about the most exciting parts of my week.

So President Howes is really an advocate of the Book of Mormon.  Last year he gave us a BoM day, where we just read all day long, well Tuesday a new BoM challenge arised.  District meetings in the Arizona Tempe Mission have officially been cancelled until the end of the P Howes era.  We will now instead be reading in the BoM durning DM time and we will finish it as a mission on the last day that P Howes is here.  It is ALOT of reading, but it is nice to have the chanllenge to read the BoM one more time through before I leave for home.  I am reading it in espanol which makes it take a lot longer, but I am learning alot and I just really love the BoM.

Wedneday was really fun because I got to reconnect with my favorite companion!  Ok, who am I kidding, all of my companions were my favorite, but this just happened to be Hermana Thompson!

 Hna Thompson is a "Sister Training Leader" and so she came down to Casa Grande to go on exchanges with us.  Hna Escobar also came down (love her) and did exchanges with the other Hermanas.

Anywho, we had loads of fun together and it was just like old times.  We laughed...alot and I think sometimes Hna Adams felt out of the loop....but mostly that is just because Thomps and I are weirdos.  We listened to our favorite Alex Boye songs and even made a few music videos on her sweet ipad. 

*****Sidenote:  Mesa zone now has ipad and iphones!  Super cool!  They are testing out all of the kinks, and so I am not jealous that they have them right now, but it is gonna be wicked sweet when we all get them!!!  They get to have a facebook and do online proselyting.  It is so sweet!  The future of missionary work!******

 But oh golly, I sure loved being with her again!  And I think it was really good for Hna Adams to get to learn from Thomps as well.  And it really boosted my spirits because I really have not loved training to much.  It really is just stressful and as much as I love Hna Adams, I sometimes get frustrated.  But I loved being in a trio because Thomps really helped me to become a better trainer, Adams to become a better trainee, and really just reminded me that I really do love what I am doing.

Well I think that is all the exciting news I have for this week.  We are working really hard here in Casa Grande and I am just looking to find someone to connect too.  We know there are prepared people here, we found Celia and she is amazing.  We just need to keep working hard to find more of them like her.  I am loving my wards and the people I have met so far.

Well that is about it for now....I am happy and loving it here.  Even though Casa Grande is SO much hotter than the valley!  I am melting!  Thanks for the cool towel Apes!

Thanks for all your support!  The Gospel is true....how great it that?!?!?

Love Hermana Parry

 

Week 69

Well today is memorial day, one of my most favorite days of the whole year when I am a real person.  I love Memorial day, because Woods Cross has a big pancake breakfast and then it is the NCAA college lacrosse finals!  Well for the second year in a row I am not there, but that is ok because I am a missionary and that is way better then lacrosse....wow, I am having a deja vu moment....maybe I have already said this before!

Well, either way, yay lacrosse and also yay missions!

This last week was a pretty good one full of all sorts of excitement and drama!  I had no idea that missions were so dramatic.  But it all turned out ok.

Monday night we had a really great lesson with Celia!  She is so stinking cute!  It was an extra cool lesson though because her Aunt, Uncle and cousins(who are not members) were there with us.  Well we were teaching about tithing and then tied it into temples and how when we pay tithing we are helping to build temples and then making a way for our families to live together forever.  Well the Aunt really really liked that and then Veronica(Celias recently baptized grandma) shared with her daughter in law all of the blessings she has recieved so far since being baptized.  The daughter in law agreed to have missionaries come visit her in Tempe to explain more.  It was just so neat!  The Gospel is SO cool!

Tuesday was a fun day, we met some new investigators.  Heather and Glen stopped the elders in Walmart and asked if missionaries could come by and teach them.  So we stopped by and had a really great lesson.  Turns out that Glenn is a member and Heather is not.  Heather wants to get baptized and wants Glen to do it.  Glen wants to baptize Heather, but needs to get the priesthood and has some WoW struggles.  But they have great faith in the Lord and they believe in the power of prayer.  We talked about the process of Glenn being able to baptize Heather and they seem really commited to doing it.  They are really great.

We were also able to visit someone, completely directed by the Lord.  This sister has been struggling with her husband deciding that he no longer wants to be involved with the church and her children following him.  But we were able to sit down with her and just feel the spirit together and help her to remember her faith in the Lord.  It was really special.

Wednesday was one of those really fun missionary days where you spend the whole day outside, knocking on doors, looking for people to talk to....and no one answers and noone is outside.  Haha.  The Lord likes to help you appreciate the days when things do work out I think.  Then on top of that, we had a really strange meeting with our branch president, and there was some discussion about postponing our baptism.  What a way to end the day.  But even though the meeting is NOT what I wanted to have happen, it actually was really good and gave us a good opportunity to lay out our expectations for our branch and what we expected the members to do as far as helping recent converts.  I thought I got a little bossy at some points, but the Branch President said he really appreciated my comments.  Just proof to me that when we bring the spirit into any situation everyone is able to learn what the Lord wants them too.

The rest of the week went pretty well, not to much excitement or disappointment, just pretty normal.  But on Saturday night when we got the text "Plan your baptism" from Presidente, all things got crazy.  It is really hard to plan a baptism in less than 24 hours, but we made it work.  And Sunday was the greatest ever.

Sunday, Celia was baptized by her grandfather, Emilio, who was just baptized 2 weeks ago and had recieved the priesthood that afternoon.  It was so special to me for a lot of reasons.  First, all baptisms are special.  Second, the opening prayer was given by Destiny, who I taught a few months ago!  Third, watching Emilio use his newly recieved priesthood to bring his granddaughter into the waters of baptism!  SO SO amazing!  It was just such an incredibly special day for me.  I love that family so SO much and I am grateful that I have gotten to witness them coming in to the fold of the Lord one by one.  Such a magnificent blessing.

Well everyone, that was my week and man was it marvelous.  I hope that you all have equally as great.  I am grateful for all the love and support I feel from all my friends and family back at home.  I love you all!

Until next time America,

This is Hermana Parry...signing off.

Week 68

Well things here in Casa Grande are going well.  I am slowly getting the hang of things here.  I am learning the area and also how to work better with Hna Adams.  And how to be a better trainer.  Training is really hard, mostly because I want to give correction but in a loving way that is going to help build her up and make her a better missionary that I am but not make her feel like she isnt doing a good job.  She is so sweet though and is always doing things to serve me.  I really hate making my bed and without even thinking about it she always makes my bed.  Or if I comment that my desk is messy she will orginize it for me.  She just has a knack of listening and then acting.  I really appreciate that.

We had a fun week this week, so I will shout out some highlights.....

Tuesday we went out into the "country" and that was an adventure.  We went to the Plumb's house, they are a member of our ward...and it was crazy.  When we got there their son "cooked us up" some sparrow that he had just shot.  It was weird, but not gross.  And then they had us hold their snake.  It was a python and it was scary!  But I only mildly freaked out.  Now when they tried to pull out the plate sized turatula that they caught in the backyard, that is when I was all petted out!!!!  But it was really fun and we enjoyed ourselves.

Wednesdays we had interviews with President Howes.  He is really the greatest and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve with him.  It is weird how the Lord seems to know just who we need to serve with and how it will help us grow.

We also picked up some really neat new investigators.  They are really great and we are excited.

We are really seeing a lot of miracles here in Casa Grande and I am grateful that I get to serve here, even though there are giant spiders and the land scape is ugly.  :)  The people are amazing and I love it.

Well I dont really have to much more to say...I want to say thanks to April for the awesome pineapple necklace and sweet "righteous" colors nail polish!  You are awesome!

Thanks for everything! 

Love you all!

Hermana Parry

 

Me and Hna Adams

 

Welcome to the Work!

 

Im not really a snake person....

Baby Peacock....more my style!

 

Week 67

BIG HOUSE

Well hello there outside world!  Its me, Hermana Parry with a really big weekly update.  So last weeks email was a cliff hanger, as I had no idea what would be happening with transfers.  Well on Monday night we got our transfer calls....and Sister Allred and I were both staying in San Tan together.  I must admit that I was a tad bit bummed to be staying in english, but as I thought of all the people I was serving with there I was spiritually apeased. 

      Well, that peaceful apeasement didnt last...Wednesday morning we woke up and we did our studies and then got ready to go to transfer meeting (it was a big transfer full of new news, so all the missionaries in the valley were invited).  Well at 1005 we get a text message from the Assistants saying "Can you and your stuff be here by 11?" to which we responded "Why? Is one of us getting transfered?" and to our shock the response "Yeah, both of you actually...and you are both training."

      Well, needless to say we were a little shocked at that!  We told them we could be there, but our stuff sure wouldnt be.  And after a hug and a prayer for calmed nerves, we headed off to Tempe to meet our greenies and find out our new areas.  It is funny, my district leader later told me about the moment in which they realized I was not there.  So President annouces "Serving with Sister Parry" and Elders Hatch and Poffenbeger call out, "She doenst know she is training!" and that is when the Assistants decided to call us.  Pretty cools.  So now for the news....I am now serving in CASA GRANDE with HERMANA ADAMS!!!  She is here while she waits out a visa to Argentina.  She is sweet girl and is really enthusiastic about the work, sometimes a little overly enthusiastic, but that is ok it is good for me.

     I am excited to be in Casa Grande, but it is a little lame, I always seem to get transfered with no notice so I can never say goodbye to anyone.  So Sara and Ashley, I dont know if you are reading this...But I love you guys and I will miss you terribly!

     So this week has been a little crazy.  We whitewashed into an area that was just opened, so we had no map, no phone and no real areabook because we are splitting it with some other sisters.  So basically the area that they had for one is now for two so it is taking some time to figure out what person belongs with which missionaries.  Plus Casa Grande is HUGE and so we spent the past couple of days inside looking at the maps we finally got and figuring out how we are going to visit people with the skimpy 800 miles we have for the month.

     We are having a lot of fun though.  We live in a house with 2 other companionships so it is always just a big party.  I live with Hermanas White and Limburg and Sisters Monson and Ball.  They are all really sweet and I am liking living there.

      So in a really cool turn of events...we are in Casa Grande ward, but I cover a couple cities outside CG, Eloy and Arizona City.  Well I want you to think back to Tempe and remember Carmelita and Destiny.  The mother and daughter that I taught there.  Well I had heard that they had moved to Eloy and so I had decided that one day I was going to go and visit them.  Well on Saturday the Hermanas had a baptism of some people that will now be in our area, so we went to the baptism and as I walked in, there was Destiny, and then Simon and Adriana, next Junior and then Carmelita!!!!  The people getting baptised were the grandparents!!!  That was like the coolest thing.  I was so happy to see them and even better they were happy to see me.  Destiny told me that my picture was up in their house and all the kids remembered my name!  So sweet.  Plus they were so cute at the baptism, they all kept talking about how happy they were that their nana and tata were getting baptised and then cute little Destiny was telling her cousin how you get baptised.  She said "You go into the water and then a boy holds your hands and then he puts you under the water".  i thought that was really funny, a boy holds your hands!  But really, it was just a giant tender mercy to see them.

    Well then the week ended with mothers day, and the Skype that goes along with it.  I was just so stinking happy to chat with my family!  They are good.  I got to see my nephew Issac for the first time!  He is a fatty and I cant wait to squeeze him!  Plus Miles and Ava are so big!  I couldnt believe it.  Plus my cute little brother got his mission call this week!!!!  He is going to Seattle Washington!  Which is way fun because my MTC comp is serving there, so I already know the address.  The lame part however....he leaves the 24th of July, and well as most of you know, that is 6 days before I get home!!!  I am a little sad about that, but fortunately he will still be in the MTC when I get home and so I will call the MTC and arrange something, or maybe I will just pull an Hermana Taylor!  Who knows.

     Well that is about all I have for this week!  Send me some mail here in Casa Grande, my mailbox is lonely!

Love you all!  Until next time....Vaya Con Dios!

Love Hermana Parry

Week 66

 So last night I was supposed to receive a transfer call, but for some reason our President is waiting until tonight to give them.  It is really rather lame and I am not very happy about it, but whatever.  So who knows what will happen, I will fill you in next Monday.

Anywho, this week has been pretty good. It is really weird because I am still in this really weird place where all I want to do is go back into spanish, but that isnt really true, because I want to stay here with the people I love here! It is really just the worst place I have ever been on a transfer sunday, well monday.

Here are the highlights.

Monday, we had a really funny dinner with a former la, turned A who is so funny and we still love to visit her. I said a really powerful prayer that lead to her getting the house she wants. Booya!

Tuesday, Elder Hatch and I swapped cameras. We wanted to get an inside look into the lives of other missionaries and then it turned into a contest to take funnier pictures than the other companionship. That has been really fun, me and Allred have been taking really fun fotos this week.

Wedneday was really quite great! We taught all day long. That doesnt usually happen, a day just full of set lessons that actually go through, but Wednesday they did and it was so fun. We taught a part memeber family who invited us over. It was a really sort of strange lesson because we really dont know exactly why they wanted us to come over because they are apparently really active in their church. But they invited us back, they seem to be looking for something and we have it. So just wait, they are headed to the Temple, via the waters of baptism! Woot! We also had a bunch of other lessons, and ended our night at Sara's house! I love her! She made us pineapple upsidedown cake and we laughed at all of the funny nicknames that Shawn gives Gus on psych....she and her boys are also big psych fans! Deepening my love for her! We also had a really fun dinner. We ate with a family who had served missions and lived in Japan, so they made us japanesse food. It was super yummy and way fun to eat

Thursday, We had a lesson with Ashley! I also LOVE her! She is so sweet and everytime we go over to her house I get really happy! She is just a doll!

Saturday, we had dinner at Ashelys. We talked about transfers and I said I might leave and she said "No! There are people here, RIGHT HERE(pointing to the table), that need you! You cant leave." Oh I am going to be heart broken no matter what! I like leaving areas, I hate leaving people!

Sunday, we had super great testimony meetings! Our Bishop told his ward that if they were going to pray for the success of the missionaries serving FROM their ward, that they needed to be the answer to the prayers for success from the parents of the missionaries serving IN their ward(me)! It was really cool. So everyone, be the success for missionaries serving in your wards ok! We visited Sara again today. She played the piano and sang for us, she is amazing and apparently comes from a family of musical prodiges! She played the song "Castle on a Cloud" on the piano and we sang together. That is a weird fact, but it brought back childhood memories of singing that song.

 

Other things are going pretty good, and I am happy and healthy...for the most part.  Congratulations shout out to my friend Michael who got a cool helicopter internship in Oregan, even though it means that my best friends have to move...to Oregan!

Thanks for all of the love and support!  Have a great week!

Love Hermana Parry

 

Chopsticks

 

My two favorite girls

Sara and her pineapple gift

Jumping foto

Orville the hopping chicken...still bringing me joy.  Thanks easter bunny!

The awesome drawing that sister Allred did of us!

To bad I am allergic

 Baking Cookies

 

 

 

Week 65

Things here in the Arizona Tempe Mission are just going great. This has been a pretty great week and one I will not soon forget for many a reason!

I am finding myself in a very strange place lately...I want to get transfered, because I want to spend the end of my mission in spanish work. So I really REALLY want to get transfered. BUT I have fallen in love with so many of the people here in San Tan zone and I am feeling like 3 weeks just isnt enough time to really get to know them and I am not ready to leave at all. It is horrible because no matter the call that I get this Sunday I am going to just cry! It is pretty horrible and I am not looking forward to it. I mean, really I want to go back into spanish, that is where I feel my calling the most, but again, I love it here. So who knows what is gonna happen. It is crazy!

This week we started working with another sweet girl. She is less active but only in the going to church part...which is a big part, but still. When we stopped by unannounced this week, she was listening to mo tab and reading her conference ensign. She is SO sweet and wants to go to the temple really bad. So we are working on the Church thing. She says that it is anxiety that keeps her out of church, but we have worked out a plan to get her there and she is going to go to the temple gosh dangit!

Wednesday was a wonderful day! We had a SISTERS TRAINING! Those are the best, we all get together and talk about sisters things. This time we talked about what the new sister training leader position entails and how we can fufill our responsibilities. But mostly we just get to get together and talk and such. It was amazing! I got to see all my old compies! I have had the best companions in the WORLD! And I love when I get to see them. Me and Thomps just laughed and said wierd things, just like we used too! Oh it was ever so great!

The crowning jewel of this week was the baptism of Elio and Martha! Elio and Martha are my gators from Queen Creek and it was no small miracle that Elio got baptized. He is sorta stubborn and for a long time was not ready to really ask if the church was true even though he had been going every sunday for 6 months! But it was worth the wait. The baptism of Elio was beautiful, but the crowning jewel of the day was Marthas baptism. So I am not sure if you remember but Martha has some health problems, and due to a stroke and some other things she is in a wheel chair most of the time. For my familys understanding, she is somewhat like my Aunt Tammy. She can walk and stand, but she is a little infirm in her balance and such. So the big question was how to baptize her and keep her safe. Well what was decided was maybe the most beautiful sight of my mission.

Martha was helpped into the font by the entire bishopric. The 2nd counselor knelt behind her, well near where her head would be, the 1st counselor did the ordinance as so was standing next to her, and the bishop stood at her feet. It was the most beautiful sight of my life to wathc these 3 worthy priesthood holders participate in both her baptism but also her safety. I am so sad that I could not have a picture of that moment, but I have tried to etch it into my brain! It was AMAZING!

Well that is about all for this week, it was great. I had fun, I felt the spirit and I know you can feel that. And not to take us off on a different note...here are some stupid things I said this week...

"Naps are even shorter than the night time"

"Horses can eat apples because they live outside"

I will leave you on that note.

Love Hermana Parry

 

All The Sisters

 

The Comps and Hna Crawford

Being Silly

Us with Elio and Martha

Elio and Martha and the Obispado

 

 

Week 64

Well here I am in San Tan.  Working in english work which has been good but wierd.  This is the wierdest  thing....area boundries.  Now we obviously have them in spanish work...It is just alot trickyer in english work because I actually have to worry about leaving my area. In spanish my area has always covered WAY more than the zone and as such I have really always just basically gone where ever I wanted....but now I have to ask premission

 

I guess I will now give you an update on how my week has gone, and I will tell you, it has been pretty great so far.

Tuesday was fun because we had district meeting and despite not knowing any of the elders, they are all pretty cool. Plus I am not again in the same zone as my friend Elder Ash, who is my lacrosse friend. So that is pretty great. Plus on Tuesday we met some really cool people. First we had a lesson with a new gator named Chris. His wife is a member and they are just recently married but he has been coming to church with her. He is from england and has a REALLY sweet accent and I love that. Plus he is really cool to teach. He is the most polite guy ever and takes a way long time to ask questions because he doesnt want to offend us. Which is funny. But he is really cool and when we talked to him on Saturday he said that he is almost done reading 1 nefi, which is just insane. Unfortunately he couldnt come to church this Sunday, but I am really excited to teach him again.

We then met with a really sweet less active woman named Sarah. She is really cool and her niece was actually Cosette in WX's Les Mis, so Alie and Jess will know her. She has gone through some stuff and that relocated her and I think is what has made her church attendence a little slim, but she is a doll and I love her already.

Wednesday was wonderful because I got to go to the temple. I love the temple, but to make it even better I got to see so many of my friends there! Hna Lemon, Anderson, and Thompson were there, and also a few elders I was happy to see. And I also got a few amazing update from missionaries about Angela Valdez (from Gilbert) and Carmelita (from Tempe) who are both doing amazingly! That was a real blessing. And this may sound silly or selfish, but both missionaries told me that these sweet ladies still talk about me. That was so sweet to hear. I know how much I love them, but to hear that they love me too...that is really special.

 

The rest of the week was pretty great, but I got sick there at the end and that was a little, well a lot lame.  But I am really grateful for my companion who took such good care of me.  That was such a blessing. 

 

Well I think that is about all I have for this week....OH also that I am blessed....we had dinner with a family that is attending the english ward, but just moved here from Mexico like 8 months ago!  That was a tender mercy from the Lord.  I loved speaking spanish with them.  It is like they always say, "You dont know what you got til its gone"

 

Remeber that!  Sieze the day!

Love Hermana Parry

 

 

Week 63

Welcome to San Tan

Things here are good, but I do have to start off with some pretty tragic news. The trifecta is now just the gruesome twosome as I have been ETed to San Tan!!! Ok, well it isnt really an et, we had some advanced notice (of about 4 whole days) that I was going to have to leave Queen Creek and my beloved trio! Sister Toom who is from the marshal islands went home today because her visa expired and so P Howes asked me to come here and serve until transfers in 3 weeks. It is bitter sweet. Moving is always a double edged sword of sadness to leave one area and excitement to go somewhere new. This also guarentees that I will move again in 3 weeks because right now I will be working in only english work which is pretty lame...but I will survive I suppose. We do fortunately have dinner with the Gutierez Family this week, they just moved here from Mexico, proof that Heavenly Father really does have my back.

Oh in other fun news, my companion will be Sister Laura Allred, you may remember her, we were roomies for 6 months when we were serving in Gilbert. We are very different people, but I already know the stuff that bugs her and kind of how she works so that should be good. And I think that we will have fun together.

In other missionary news, Elio and Martha, my stubbon Chilean investigators have choosen to be baptized on the 27th of April!!! I am so excited for them and for their desicion. It is sad that I wont get to finish teaching them, but hopefully I will get to go back for the baptism, seeing as I am really only 1 zone and 15 minutes away from it. So keep them in your prayers.

And we also had a cool experience oyming a guy this week.  So we were trying to contact a reference named Fortino, but when we stopped by his house he wasnt there, but guy named Robert was sitting outside.  We chatted with him for a minute, asked if we could do anything for him, and said goodbye.  Well about 30 minutes later we had a prompting to go try Fortino again.  We felt like wierdos, but we went anyways.  Well Fortino still wasnt there but Robert still was...this time he said "Were you serious about helping me?  I need a ride to pick up my son and my car wont start."  So we obviously couldnt drive him the 30 minutes there and back but we called our ward mission leader, Bro Keesler, and the saint said he would drive him.  It was really neat because while we waited for Bro Keesler we were able to teach Robert and it was really cool.  The next day his girlfriend called us and asked about youth activites cuz she wanted to go.

It was just a really neat experience to follow the spirit and then watch the Lord do his work.  I am grateful for the moments that I can just get out of the way and be a tool in the Lords hands.  It is the sweetest thing.  And I am also so grateful for the members that sacrifice their time to help us.  Blessed!

Well, that is about all I have this week.  I love you all and I hope all is well.  Thanks for everything!

Love Hermana Parry

The Trifecta

Elio and Martha

The Simonettas...not the greatest foto, but I think its funny

The Keeslers