Monday, December 29, 2014

Christmas Sharing, Feasting, and Drumming

Skyping with Joseph
I hope everyone had a great Christmas, here in France the Christmas was fantastic. For Christmas eve we knew not many people would want to talk on the streets, so we made a bunch of banana bread the night before, and carried it all out to all the members in Narbonne for Noel, for a truly rewarding experience. Not only was the banana bread good, every time they would answer the doors with big smiles, and we'd come in and have a great moment together talking about Christmas, and family, and love, and all the good things that come with it. At the one of the member’s houses, our ami actually showed up at the same time, which was a Christmas miracle, and we were able to talk to him all about Christmas: why it’s so special to us, and how great it is, right before he went off on vacation for the weekend. Then we went to a member’s house for the evening, and had a great dinner, where I ate a whole lot of large shrimp, delicious! Then on Christmas morning, we got to sleep in, the mission president authorized that for Christmas only, and we took full advantage, not getting up until 10 or so. We got to skype our families, which was super fun and great. It was so good to see all the faces I love a lot, then we went back to Narbonne and had a Christmas dinner at a less active’s house, comprising of cooked and spiced snails (they really are delicious), foie gras (I'll just let you guys look that up, its not so delicious), and lamb, which was great! We received pounds of chocolate from every member, and now our apartment is very very unhealthy, but it sure tastes good! Two days later I also got the chance to play the drum set when we were out going door to door, when a guy let us in. It was the best present yet! Hoping y'all are having a great holiday season, and have good plans for the New Year, life here in France is great, au revoir! 
With Members


Christmas Miracles and David Archuleta

We were able to fix six rendez-vous for this next week, so we're going to be busy, right up until we go to Bordeaux for our Christmas Conference! Being a missionary around the Christmas season is very rewarding, it is so fun to talk to people about the Savior's love in the Christmas atmosphere, and you can feel the Spirit in almost every conversation. It truly is incredible that the Savior came down to Earth to die for us, so that we can live again. We have this new progressing ami now, her name is Gislyne, and she really likes this church, she's just hesitant about fixing a date for baptism, she's not sure if she wants to commit. We're seeing her regularly, so we'll be sure to help her know it's true! Other than that, we discovered our other Ami, David, works for one of the members, so that makes lessons really easy, we just go to their house! They love it!

Last week we went to the Christmas conference for the western half of the mission, in Bordeaux, and David Archuleta was there, and sang for us. He is a really nice guy. He gave a small spiritual thought, and he has a testimony with a strength that surprised me. He is a really humble guy, who truly has gone through all the rigors and trials of a mission. He has been there, and has my complete respect. Plus, he has the voice of an angel, and his version of the First Noel was amazing. Then our mission president spoke, and talked all about the savior. It was truly powerful, and such an amazing conference. I saw so many missionaries I love, and heard such powerful testimonies.

Then a small Christmas miracle happened. When we were in Toulouse this weekend after the Christmas conference, we got there very late, and the Metro system (a subway system) was on strike, so it wasn’t working. We had to take a bus, and were very rushed and tired. After we got off the bus, we waited for a couple minutes figuring out what we were going to do, and then when we finally figured it out, I looked around for my bag and realized I had left it on the bus. My heart dropped, because that bag had my French scriptures, a new apron that half mission had signed, my flash drive, by cheesy book with all the signatures and notes of all the missionaries I had loved served with or around, my camera, our keys to the apartment, and worst of all, my journal. We have spent a few days in the Beziers equip apartment, praying fervently every night for the missionaries in Toulouse to find my bag. Then Dad emailed me, saying that a Spanish professor in Toulouse had found my bag, and wants to get it back to me. We are still working things out with the elders in Toulouse, and I should have my bag by Christmas. I am so incredibly grateful to Heavenly Father right now. This is such a miracle for me, and so amazing.


All is well here in Narbonne, getting ready for Christmas, super excited, I want to wish everybody a merry Christmas with a testimony that our Heavenly Father loves us, and blesses us in any situation. He sent His son to the Earth to die for us, and we could not receive any greater gift. I know that’s true. Merry Christmas everybody!

Microwave Thanksgiving and Caroling

We are kind of lacking in the solid ami's category at the moment, so we spend a lot of our time out on the streets talking with people and inviting, so hopefully we'll see some fruits of that soon! The church is doing a massive Christmas Initiative this year, the video is He is the Gift, and it’s a great way to share our church with the world. I hope everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. France sure is. The Noël here as they call it is huge, they put massive decorations all over the ville, and lights are everywhere, plus stores are advertising like crazy.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Our mission president is really pushing for us to become a more grateful mission right now, and told everyone to take one hour on Thanksgiving Day to reflect and ponder on everything that we have been given. It was a truly special thing, every minute as a missionary is precious, and so one hour was a gift he gave us. It's truly incredible to think on all the blessings that our Heavenly Father has given us, and how blessed we are to have all that we do.

We actually were in Montpellier on thanksgiving doing an exchange with the Zone Leaders, so we were able to eat this super good thanksgiving dinner with them, one of their families had sent him a bunch of microwave stuff and food for thanksgiving, so it was delicious. We've been trying to share the He is the Gift video with everyone we see, so I would invite all of you at home to do the same thing, it really is a special video with a special thought behind it. Heavenly Father gave us his son, so that we may live again, and that’s something we can never be too grateful for.

Elder Grant
I got a new companion, Elder Grant. He's super cool, so I'm excited! Last week we had a miracle; our entire zone was able to teach 20 lessons each in one week, meaning that 20 missionaries all taught that last week in the different villes! We had some of the other missionaries over on the last day, because we still needed four in Narbonne, and we all got them super fast! We all had to say a lot of prayers and have a lot of faith, but it worked, so that's amazing!


Cathedral in Narbonne

Funny story, one of our members dropped the bomb in sacrament meeting over the pulpit for testimony meeting that Santa Claus wasn't real, and the one family with little kids was trying to cover their ears. Really funny and it was a good thing there wasn't a ton of kids listening! We got to go caroling to one of the members houses too, with the other active family in Narbonne (yes, there’s only two), and we had such a good time singing to them, they were so happy.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Christmas Commitments and Country Line Dancing

This week we didn't have nearly as many chances to teach as we wanted, but it was good anyways -- we talked with a whole bunch of people on the street. We had a cool thing happen. Our former engagee lives in a small ville outside of Narbonne, and doesn’t have a cell phone, so after he dropped the first Rendez-vous it was almost impossible to get a hold of him. So the fourth time we tried, was the last time. We decided that we couldn’t afford to keep going out there for nothing. He was there!! He said that was his last day before he moved to Perpignan, so we were able to give him those elders his number and teach and testify one last time about the Book of Mormon to him before he left!

This was a super cool experience. Plus we talked with his cousin, a very sad person. He was telling us how he does a lot of bad things, because he's unhappy, but would quit if he could find a girlfriend or wife and family. We tried telling him that the best way to find happiness was to quit all those things before hand, and try to find Heavenly Father. He said there’s no way he could do that, he'd be too unhappy for the time in between. It struck me, and made me think of Ether 12:6, how the reward doesn’t come until AFTER the trial of our faith. Later we taught a lesson in church on missionary work. We didn’t know we were going to beforehand, but go figure. It was good. Life is good here in the south of France.

This week we got transfer calls, and I'm staying a third transfer in Narbonne, still with Elder Taylor, so that's super awesome, I'm excited to stay here! One of the biggest reasons is because we set a baptismal date with one of our ami's this week, he's been taking the lessons for a long time, but only just now committed! The date is set for Christmas Eve, so I'm praying that I get to stay one more transfer to be able to see it happen!

French Countryside
We also had an American Night this week with the Branch, which was super fun. We had hot dogs, played some card games, and taught them how to country line dance! Funny seeing all these French members trying to dance like Cowboys. I was considered the authority on proper technique because I'm from Texas, so that was interesting.  I'm not the world’s best country dancer, but it turned out well anyways! We also went on our bikes to this tiny ville called Salléles D'Aude, which was fun, despite the fact that the less active member we went to find, no longer lives there. The bike ride was an hour, but the vineyards were beautiful.

Then we had stake conference this weekend, which was super awesome. It was so much fun to see all the missionaries there, and all the members we've met on exchanges and such. Plus the talks were really good, they had two return missionaries speak, and that was awesome! Our mission president was there, and he taught and asked the stake to have the missionaries over more often, not only for their ami's, but for them personally, he testified we can bring the spirit into their home, and them proved it by having two of the Zone Leaders come up and teach a three minute lesson on the Savior and testify, which was powerful. The Spirit was there in abundance. 

Fun in District Meeting

Inspiration, Advice and Setting Mission Records

This week was spiritually uplifting in a lot of ways. One was that we were able to get to hear from a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Patrick Kearon, and that was so cool. It was a powerful experience, and we learned so much. One of the things that struck me was how much he emphasized how the way we start off our days can affect the whole mission. We were instructed that the best thing you can do from the time you wake up to the time you leave is to have vigor in everything you do, your morning exercises, your studies, and putting energy into everything. He also talked about how when we talk to someone about this gospel, it is important to become the message yourself, and to help them feel the spirit. Being a convert himself he described how it wasn’t the actual lessons that converted him, but the feelings the missionaries brought. He taught how we can make our missions and our lives better through our choices. When we commit to change and to choose better, the effect it can have is miraculous. The word CHOOSE was emphasized a lot, and how everything is really up to you, and you can choose how your mission and your life will go.
It gets cold in the apartment

We saw some funky attempts at Halloween here, the French don’t really celebrate it but it’s getting bigger and bigger.

Last week ended on a high note, and this week was just as great. We have progressed at a rate most missionaries said was impossible in Narbonne! For our mission's standards of excellence, the biggest and hardest thing to achieve is the lessons. We are expected to teach 20 lessons each week. That’s really difficult here, and not many people have achieved it yet. But one of them this week was US! 

We made the goal at the beginning of the week to really strive for the 20 lessons, and through an exhausting and worthwhile week, we got it! We now have three Ami's that we see semi regularly, and this week we actually found a new Ami, and he accepted a baptismal date our first lesson right there and then! We saw so many miracles, I have a testimony now that when a rendez-vous falls through, and they don’t show up, what we take that to mean is that the Lord has someone else for us to teach at that time, and this week every single time something fell through we were able to find a new person to teach on the road or after knocking their door.

I know we're being guided, and I'm so grateful to be a missionary right now. I know the Lord takes care of his servants, and if we are diligent, he will bless us. We actually had a little competition in our district this week for lessons, each lesson was worth points, depending on if there was a member present, if it was just normal, or on the road, and we won!


Why yes, I did eat snails. Delicious! 
All is well in our little ville of Narbonne, au revoir! 

Monday, October 13, 2014

General Conference, Rugby Matches and Street Preachers


Bonjour Toute le Monde! Everything is still good in Narbonne, and even though this week has been rough, we have faith it will work out! We currently have no investigators for the first time since I got here, but we're working really hard to change that! It struck me that at the last conference a lot of the talks were about following the Prophet, and so this week I've really been trying to go over conference notes, read past talks, and stuff like that. It’s amazing how much these men are inspired, I truly love reading their teachings. Makes me think of D&C 1:38, and really reflect over such a blessing we have in this time. This week we had Zone training, and our zone made a Title of Baptistry, just for our zone, and then we all gave each other blessings, that we may work hard, and be blessed in our sectors, that we can baptize. Super powerful experience, I'm so grateful to be here in this mission right now!


We had a service project on Saturday, and painted a house, and then we got to go to a RUGBY MATCH!! It was super fun. One of the less actives we are working with is a professional rugby player, so we got to go see his game, the mission president gave us permission, it was super cool! I want to learn more about Rugby now.





Last week we were in Beziers for conference, and walking down the street we came across this African guy dressed in ceremonial African gear and stuff, and referring to himself as "The Prince." He was a super funny guy and we started talking to him, and eventually the Beziers elders got a lesson fixed with him. Halfway through our conversation, these two young women walked past, and he said, "Bonjour, mesdames! [pause].... Jèsus vous aime!" Translation: “good day girls! Jesus loves you! We were laughing so hard!! All is well in the south of France, au revoir toute le monde!

Trials and Tearing up New Shirts




Hi everybody! this week has been crazy, so let me start off. it started off really sad, our engagee, (an investigator with a baptismal date fixed) has now ignored our calls and texts for a week, and we believe he has dropped us completely, which makes us sad, but maybe a miracle can happen in the next transfer. Speaking of transfers, Elder Costa got emergency transferred this week, and now I have a new companion, his name is Elder Taylor, and he's from Riverton Utah, apparently he knows my cousin Nikki, small world! He's super cool, and super clean, so that will help me out a lot I think! He's only in his fifth transfer, so we're a young equipe in the mission, but we can both speak French, and we have a lot of hope for this next transfer!


The Sacrificial Shirt

This week our mission president has a super cool idea, and had us all make a Title of Baptistry. Taking Captain Moroni's idea, he tore his shirt, and wrote upon it a title for our mission, and invited us all to do the same, it was great! We were all really inspired, and he gave us a lot of hope! I have loved conference with a passion this last weekend, and invite everyone to listen to all the talks and really reflect, I learned a lot and hope to apply a lot of new principles in my life. I would especially recommend the talk given by President Uchtdorf where he talks about, "Lord, is it I?" It really made me reflect, and try and be better. All is well here in Narbonne, hoping everybody is good at home, au revoir!
Title of Baptistry with Elder Taylor

Being the District Monkey



Hi everybody! this week was actually semi boring, or as boring as missionary life gets, we got occupied a few times with housekeeping or missionary office stuff a little much, so we didn’t get to work as much as wanted, Elder Costa's bike broke and stuff like that, but it was still good! My trainer is actually the District Leader, and tries to go on an exchange with every Elder in our district, so I'm what they call the District Monkey, I get to go on exchange with everyone too! it was a lot of fun this week, I got to go on an exchange with an Elder in a ville called Nîmes, and it had a big old Roman Gladiatorial Colloseum, which was super cool to see, it brought back a lot of fun memories from Latin class. I also got to contact a lot there and help fellowship two less actives, who are both really cool, and who I really hope go to back to church.



I think I actually was able to help them get a new Ami (investigator). We met a girl on the street who we contacted and seemed super interested in our message, we were able to set up a Rendez-vous with her, and I really hope that worked! We had a little Birthday Party for my trainer this week, he turned 21 on Thursday, so a family of less-actives we've been fellowshipping for a while now threw him a party, and we were able to get quite a few members there, and our Investigator with a baptismal date there, it was a great night to build ties in the branch and help introduce the less actives and our Ami to the branch! I also got to go on an exchange with the zone leaders on Saturday, and it was really cool, I got to help teach the mother of a recent convert in their area, and heard a real story of how the mom is taking the lessons because of how Gopali (the daughter) told her mother how she received a response to the question of whether or not the church was true. It’s inspiring to see how the Spirit can touch people, and how much their lives can be changed; I'm truly growing to love the mission! All is well, we get our transfer calls this Friday, and I'm honestly hoping I get to stay in Narbonne, I'm loving the people here so much. Au Revoir!

New Tie from Peru

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Days in Narbonne, Water Fights with Zone Leaders


With friend Emmanuel
On a typical day I do a workout then breakfast in the morning, then studies, including a 12 weeks thing for new missionaries during their first two transfers, plus personal, companionship, and language. Then lunch, then we go teach and contact! We are only teaching three people right now regularly, but we have a bunch of potentials, so were hoping for a few more by the end of the week! We definitely contact on the street much more. Everyone walks everywhere, and apartments are everywhere, door to door is less effective. We are in a small ville, so we eat at home all the time. Church is great, the members are fun to talk to and I love getting to know them. On Sundays we go to church all morning and get back around 1:30, and then we teach or study!

This week was super great, and I'm so happy to be on a mission here in France! At the beginning of the week we had a multizone conference in Bordeaux, which was super cool! The Saturday before, Elder M. Russell Ballard had come to talk with our mission, so they showed the video of what he said! He really helped us, and it was so cool to hear from an apostle speaking directly to us! He told us how important it is for us to know and understand the doctrine that we teach, to treasure it up so that we can teach simply and with understanding, the Ami de L'eglise need to know and above all UNDERSTAND what we are teaching them, so that the can feel the spirit testify to them. It was a powerful experience to hear him speak with us, and he blessed us powerfully.



Streets of Narbonne

In other news, I was able to go to Montpellier this week for a baptism and an exchange with the zone leaders! It was a blast, we ended up having a massive water gun fight at the apartment with them, instigated by a certain Bleu (French missionary term for greenie) that comes from Texas. Obviously it was entirely necessary.

Last night my trainer showed me a story called The File Room, made for members of the Church, and I was almost in tears. I would invite everybody to read or listen to the story, it is powerful! All is well here in France! J'espar que vous tous avez une bonne semaine, au revoir!

Getting Sick and Getting Smooched





This week was actually quite boring, I was very sick for most of the week, and didn't get the chance to really go and do anything, so next week will be better. We did get to teach one lesson before our Mission Nurse, Soeur Povar, called and informed my clueless American mind that 37.7 degrees Celsius actually IS a fever, and so therefore we had to stay inside for basically the next five days. Not that fun. But all is well, my French is coming along really well! I can now understand most of what people try to tell me, unless they speak really fast, and can hold my own in a conversation. 

This picture is exactly what you think. Apparently Pokémon got big somehow in the Lyon mission, and my comp has a few decks, but hasn’t spent any money, so he let me borrow a deck and we played, it’s a lot of fun! Especially when you’re stuck inside for five days!




[Next Week]
Life is great on the mission! I’m no longer sick, it’s so much better! It is so great to watch people progress and come closer to Christ! The French keeps coming, I can now hold a basic conversation with just about anybody I meet. It just becomes more difficult as we get into subjects that I have absolutely no clue on vocabulary. But teaching Charlie is a joy, he speaks English fluently and for some reason prefers being taught in English. He is really coming along, we had him read the chapter in Alma of the seed of faith (chapter 32) and then he really liked the analogy and everything in that chapter. His faith is growing, I can see it each time. We had a miracle drop into our laps too, we got a referral from the mission office to go visit this guy named Jeremie, who looked at a lot of churches, and finally gave our church a try, and is loving our message. He is so excited about the book of Mormon, how it compliments the Bible so well, and how our principles just make sense! The only problem we have in lessons is that we can barely talk, he loves to talk so much. It's so cool how the Savior and Heavenly Father prepare these people for us, how even without knowing it their lives are being changed through our Heavenly Father's love. 

In other news, I had the bezu done to me this week for the first time. The bezu is the little two kisses on each cheek thing that the French do, which is very real and very common. 

We're technically not supposed to do it as missionaries, especially with women, because in France it’s the equivalent of a hug. This lady who wasn’t interested in our message (but was very religious) was happy to see that we were young people with faith enough to serve missions for two years. She talked with us for a little, than without me even realizing what was going on, she started doing the bezu, and there was this really awkward moment with me kind of backing away, then her just doing it. My companion died of laughter as soon as we walked away. Au Revoir!  


French Bread and Cheese - Delicious!






Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Sprinting Through the Airport Into Narbonne

I AM HERE IN LYON! The past 25 hours have been utterly exhausting and hectic, but it’s all good. We went from Salt Lake to Chicago, and the last meal I had on American soil was McDonald's. Then we hit London, but our plane landed late, so they gave everyone going on to Lyon flight express passes, got us all on a bus, then dropped us all off at a certain point and said, “get to gate 74 as fast as you can!”

Think of the scene from Home Alone with the family scrambling through the airport, only times two. We had 20 Elders and Sisters running flat out, pell mell through Heathrow Airport for about a quarter mile, but we made it on the plane! Unfortunately, our baggage didn't, and now none up us have any, but it’s OK, we’re here!
President and Sister Roney



[a few days later]



My area here is the small city of Narbonne, and I absolutely love it. Labor is definitely not cheap here, so all our housework and laundry and food and everything, WE do. I'm starting to become a decent cook! My trainer, Elder Costa, is awesome, he and I get along really well, and he's a lot of fun to be around, he has a lot of energy and momentum for the work. He also places a massive amount of emphasis on being exactly obedient to everything the Mission President tells us. I really appreciate that, I never have a guilty conscience, plus I've already seen the blessings that can come from that.

The area I am serving in is actually pretty new, and we have never had a baptism here, and we've never even had an Ami De L'eglise or set a fixed date for baptism. That’s the name for investigator here in France. Directly translated, it means friend of the church, which I truly love. They are our friends that we try to bring unto Christ. Despite this city's history, I fell such a sense of hope for the Area, we've already seen miracles that have brought us to people, and we are right on the cusp of having two new ami de l'eglise.

Fun fact, I had ratatouille just yesterday, discovering its basically just a bunch of vegetables with tomato sauce, and it was delicious! One of the cool things about France, especially Narbonne, is that it looks exactly like an old French town you would expect, with all kinds of small shops and apartments overhead. Our apartment overlooks the street to the train station, and it’s fantastic. It’s always cool to walk past this old cathedral and think, "that's probably older than my country..." One difficult thing is all the cigarettes, EVERYBODY here is France smokes, and it’s hard to breathe sometimes, but a small price to pay.

I learned an important lesson last night, we were coming back to the apartment after contacting people on the street for just two hours, and had had an incredible amount of success, we talked with 7 people who were interested, gave out two or three copies of the Book of Mormon, and just had a great night. We were close to home, and I could hear and partially see this guy walking our same direction behind us. I had the brief impression to go talk to him, but ignored it thinking we would be late to the apartment (obedience with exactness) and it would be weird to turn around and talk to him. We walked a little further, then I mentioned to my companion if he thought we should go talk to him. He said he didn’t know, it was close to 9 when we had to be back, and we'd already been so successful, reinforcing my own arguments in my head. However, when I mentioned it had been a brief impression in my head, he immediately turned around and said, "Never ignore random thoughts!" in a joking manner. It turned out to be a miracle. Not only was the guy interested, we were able to give him a Book of Mormon, and set up a meeting, which never happens on the street! I figured out pretty fast not to ignore those promptings, and I will try not to! All is well, France is amazing, Au Revoir!


With Elder Costa - Trainer from Argentina

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The MTC: Spiritual Growth and Shower Pranks

Hey everybody! This is Parker here, in my fourth week in the MTC, and I'm having a blast! The spirit here is incredible. Every devotional, sacrament, every lesson we give to a fake investigator is such a learning and spiritual experience! That part of the MTC is great, though I'm getting very tired of the food. Learning French is amazing. I wonder at how much we've learned in these past three weeks, I know there's no way I could have done it without the spirit of the Lord. He has helped me so much here in the MTC.

We had a little scare earlier this week. About half of the missionaries going to France got very sick in our zone, including my companion, so that was scary. But I didn’t get sick, for which I am grateful.

My district leader played a hilarious prank on the incoming missionaries on our floor the other night. They all came in, and he took his journal out and explained that he was the shower manager for our floor, and that we need to sign up for shower times around fifteen minutes each. Because they were stateside missionaries we could only give them times on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. All of my district would go out there at different times asking him questions about our shower times and when we could shower, if we could trade times, if we could sign up for a different one, that kind of thing. In reality, you can shower either when you get up in the morning or when you go to bed, it doesn't matter, but we had them good and convinced! We informed them that unfortunately we weren't informed ahead of time of their arrival, so we had to give them the 5:30 in the morning time, a whole hour earlier than required to get up. This elicited groans of distress and pain so comical we were dying laughing in the room. We tried to be quiet, but our district leader kept a straight face and told them sorry, they had the 5:30 time. We told them half an hour later right before bed time that we were joking. They had their alarms set already, and they were not happy, but we were laughing.

I'm growing so close to God and my Savior here, it’s amazing. I know with such a strong and unshakable testimony that God loves me, and that Jesus died for me, and that because of that, I can live with him again. I'm grateful for that.

We're psyched this week, we get our travel plans on Friday!!!!!!! I hope everyone is doing good at home, miss y’all! Au Revoir!




Wrapping Things Up at the MTC

Bonjour everyone! This is my last email from the MTC. Everything is fantastic! We got our travel plans on Friday, and we head out of here on the 18th, so next Tuesday I will be on a plane headed for Lyon, the travel time is 24 hours! I'm stoked even though the jet lag will wreck us and we'll have to adjust to new country. I'm so excited to head off to France -- finally! This time at the MTC has been fantastic though, the devotionals are great, and I've made so many friends.

Today was the last day we got to go to the temple though, it was really sad. The temple was always such a great experience. The Provo temple is so beautiful. This will be the last P-day for roughly two weeks, so I promise the next time I email I will be in France! My time here at the MTC has taught me such spiritually uplifting things, I will be sad to leave. I know my Heavenly Father in a way I never have before, and I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to go on a mission and serve Him.

Elder Parker Whiting




This is one of the elders from France. He speaks pretty good English, and we can all practice our Frenchwith him all the time. He is such a great person and is so funny!


This guy in the sick onsie pajamas is from New Zealand. He has a super awesome accent beside being good at Soccer!