I'm having a Baby Boy!!!

This week has been AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! So much fun!

To start off I got transfer calls this week and Elder Holbrook actually just left me 2 hours ago and guess what?! I'm going to be TRAINING!!! I'm so stoked! In the mission they refer to it as "having a baby" hahah so I will be getting a fresh new misisonary straight from the MTC on Wednesday! I'm so excited and I sure hope he is!!! I'M TRAINING!!! hahaha If you can't tell, I'm way excited :)

So last P-day I mentioned it was snowing while I was emailing you. Well we still played soccer and frisbee! It was so much fun and actually turned out to be a nice day! Today we will be playing Volleyball and got some of the college athletes to come play with us :) Afterwards I actually went on team ups with Elder Mortenson! MY FELLOW TEXAN! I love the guy! hahaha he is such a girl though! He said it himself too! He is from Plano and the other day he said that Sister Nelson (the one who moved from our ward awhile back ago) told his mom to tell me hi! Crazy how small the world gets when you're a missionary! It was lots of fun and in the morning I ended up shoveling snow for 2 hours when we woke up to a foot of snow!!! Helped Brother Despain shovel the driveway too while he blew off the long dirt road to their house! I enjoyed it and yes I was in shorts while I did it ;) haha

We had an appointment at the Hilton last week too!! hahah We now schedule lessons there! JK! A guy from Columbia Falls was in town and had been meeting with missionaries there and wanted to meet with us. He accidently dropped his phone in the tub though so when we got there he didn't answer the phone and he was gone for the moment. I was disappointed :/ haha it was fun being in a SWEET nice hotel though! Hilton's are amazing!

The S's took us to Fudrucker's the other night! It was AMAZING! I regret not going there in Texas, where I'm sure it's better, ;) haha but we have a joke planned out we're going to play on my new greenie! Basically, they have a "candy apple contest" with all the missionaries to see how fast you can eat a caramel apple and I have the record! 1:42 seconds! So i'm going to talk it all up and there will be a list with all the missionaries past here with their times for proof. So hopefully he will chow down and try to beat it, but what he won't know is that it will be a caramel covered onion! hahaha not too mean, but it will be funny! It will be on my sd card when I send it home soon ;)

We will have at LEAST 2 baptisms this month! We set a date with C.M. and she will be baptized on May 7! She is so excited and has really grasped the gospel and let it work in her life! We will meet with her tonight and set the details :) As well as D.J. on May 21! She's having trouble finding a way to tell her parents of her decision, but we meet with her on Thursday at her house and I'm sure her parents will be there too! So I'm way excited and it will be a great experience for my new elder to be a part of :)

So I'm in a tri-companionship right now til tomorrow and then will be on team ups with Elder Elmer til Wednesday when our greenies come in! Tonight I will actually team up with my boy Skrimp Jones! hahahah That's what I call him and we will go to dinner, teach Carley, then FHE which they are doing a talent show and then teach Cora afterwards! So I have a GREAT day ahead of me :)

I definitely miss my jellybean trail and spending the day with the family on Easter! Don't worry, people here gave us plenty of junk to last us for awhile! hahaha Hope you enjoyed Easter and remembered what it's all about :)

I LOVE y'all so much!

Love,
Elder Parr

p.s. mother's day is coming soon!!!

p.s. i now get to drive!!! and we have a truck :)

I know that Jesus Christ is MY Redeemer!

So first off, I hope that yall are enjoying the weather in Texas right now! It decided to snow AGAIN today :/ I'm so ready for short sleeve weather! Can't wait!

This week was great! Had a missionary fireside on Friday night! Watched "Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration" Such an awesome movie and led me to remember the church trip we took and watched it right before we had the tour of carthage jail! We had 2 investigators show up and because the rest were busy (one being in Salt Lake with her boyfriend at temple square!) we said it was a good enough excuse not to come ;) haha The spirit was there and it reaffirmed my testimonoy and knowledge that God called Joseph Smith to be a prophet and to restore the gospel in it's fulness back to the earth today!

Sacrament meeting in the student ward was SWEEEEET! Talks were about missionary work and about using Preach My Gospel and Bryan and Ammon gave the talks (both returned missionaries) and it was awesome! The spirit was so strong and it was like they were speaking to all of the 5 investigators we had at church :) Then Ammon played the piano and Kara sang "I know the my Redeemer Lives"! AMAZING! The spirit was so strong and I was so touched by the messages that I couldn't even sing the last hymn, "I need the every hour".

I know that Jesus Christ is MY redeemer because I have felt His redeeming love and power in my life :) I will be forever grateful for all that he did for me:) It was wonderful and they had me say the closing prayer :)

I LOVE going to church :)

We have a new investigator named Carley! She is AWESOME! Came to church last week with her friend Slater who is on the track team with her. Then stayed for break the fast, a fireside and returned Monday for family home evening! We gave her a Book of Mormon that night and set a time to meet with her last Wednesday! We taught her the first lesson and she was soakin' it all up and had no questions and believed everything! She then came to church by herself yesterday without Slater and had a similiar experience as I did during sacrament :) We are meeting with her tonight again! She is a heptatholonist! haha She does the heptathon in track here at MSU! She took 2nd in the meet last weekend! I find athletes relate to the gospel much more than others as they understand they have to work for something to get something! The work is going great here :)

I believe that we will be allowed to skype home again :) I will let you know when it gets closer.

I love it here in Montana and the plan is to play soccer in the snow today ;) We shall see how that goes!

I love you all and hope all is well! Let me know if there is anything I can do for yall!

Love, Elder Parr

An email to follow.......

I LOVE MY MISSION!!!!!

A Wild Week!!

This week was crazy and all over the place! So many ups and down it was awesome! haha

So of course I found out about Papa last Monday and had been thinking about that some. Don't worry, it didn't affect my work at all, just thinkin' about him in the spirit world!

We had dinner with J.S. Tuesday night!! He was in Livingston for work and got rained out so he had the day off! So we had Pizza Hut with him! It was awesome! He said he was going to ask for his patriachal blessing and such this last weekend! He is doing awesome and said they watched all of conference and even have been having family home evening! He is one Elder Miner and I reactivated back in Hamilton and he is SOLID now!

Thursday we had a baptism for L.B.! It was Elder Holbrooks first; and their special day! Had lots of non-members come and it was a great experience! Sorry I left my camera in the car, so I don't have a picture to send but there should be some on facebook by now I believe! He is such an awesome kid!

Saturday Elder Holbrook was sick so it was one of the most BORING days of the mission so far and LEAST productive :/ I spent the whole day cleaning, listening to every CD I had, wrote many letters to people back in Hamilton and recorded a tape! I did get a call from Elder Willey though and he told me D.M. is getting baptized on April 23!!! I'm so excited for him! He was one we found and started teaching and was in a rough situation with work and such, but has decided to be baptized! So I wrote him a good letter :)

The other day we had dinner with the B's!!! And guess what she made mom!? PINK STUFF!!! I ate soooo much of it! I've missed it a ton and told her she scored extra points on that! haha They have a little kid who is a hoot! He is awesome! I love all the little kids here!

This is a special story and an awesome experience that happened in sacrament meeting in the University Ward.
So in sacrament I was going to bear my testimony (I do that EVERY fast Sunday in every ward now! I don't know why I didn't do it more often at home :/) But before I got up I was sitting next to a boy I call Dandy, who has just recently come back to church and wants to serve a mission. I leaned over to him and said, "Are you going to bear your testimony?" and I got no answer so I said, "You should!" and then got up and went and bore my testimony. I bore it on the plan of salvation and how the atonement provides a way for each of us to live again and referred to Papa. Well I sat down and then Dandy got up and bore his testimony! It was awesome!! So afterwards, I spent the rest of the meeting enjoying testimonies and such.


Mom regarding the package you're going to send. I don't want ANY "goodies" unless it's like zucchini bread ;)

I haven't had any sugar or dessert for about 8 weeks now! . I really don't need much at all. Letters!

Love yall so much!
-Elder Parr :)

DO WORK!!!

Week 3 in a new area!

Conference was so wonderful! I loved every second of it. I don't know if it's with being on the mission or what, but they went by SO fast! HAHAHA! I was thinking how much I missed eating crepes in between sessions as well! That's all I could think about for those 2 hours in between!!

We watched it at the institute building and I actually had to learn how to set it up. It was like 10 minutes before and the bishops wife came up to us (we were in a room doing some planning) and was like "the lady who was supposed to set it up didn't come!" So Elder Holbrook and I had to mess around with it and we got it up JUST as they were beginning the first session on Saturday! It was great! I did get sandwiches on Saturday in between and then pulled pork sandwiches Sunday; which was AWESOME! Definitely missin' those crepes though! And it snowed the wholeeeeeeee day Sunday :/ Summer needs to get here sooner for sure!

I'm sorry to hear about Papa :/ He has been in my prayers since I heard the news. Not neccesarily to heal and be better, but to be at peace and be comforted at this time in his life. It sounds like he went soundly back to our loving father in heaven. I had an interview with President this last week at zone training and told him what was going on and he wanted me to keep him posted so please let me know how the funeral goes. Let everyone know that I wish I could be there and my thoughts and prayers are with them all! I'm so grateful for the knowledge of God's plan for all of us and that I know that WE LIVE TO DIE, AND DIE TO LIVE AGAIN! I'm sure Papa is soaking heaven up and is at rest from his wordly cares. I LOVE him :) It is a great opportunity now at this time (although sad) to have your family together, dad. Great opportunity to share the message of the gospel and truly how it can bless and comfort our lives. Especially with the loss of a loved one! No one else can share a message as true and comforting as the plan of salvation.

We had dinner with the P's earlier this week . He has his own studio out back from his house. He gave us a tour and it was AWESOME! He is such a good photographer, as is Jamie Smith! Tell her thanks again for our pictures she did for us! :)

It was funny though because Elder Holbrook gave them a message (they are an older couple and their daughter, sister S and her son 3 yrs old were there, too) and I asked them if they had anyone they knew we could go share this message with and they said no. So then I asked if they had any inactive friends or anyone they would like to see come back to church and his wife was like, "MY HUSBAND!" And he was like, "oh yeah. me I guess!" haha We will see what happens! haha He is hilarious!

Also this week, we were walking around the student housing and saw 2 boys playing ball. We had nothing planned and it had been a sorry day so I was like, "Elder Holbrook, i'm going to talk to these kids!" So we went over and started talking and got to know them. They are two 13 year old boys who are from Hardin, MT which is a reservation. One is living with his aunt and the other lives here with his family. Well, after we got to talking I was like, "Well what are we standing here for?! Let's play a game! If we beat y'all, we get to come teach your families no matter what. And your parents can't say no." They, of course, got way excited and were like we're going to beat y'all! So we played (and I think it's important to know that these goals were only like 7 feet tall)! hahaha So we played and beat them. But of course I let them stay close and kept it fun and dunked over them a few times and had a good time. Then they wanted a rematch and we said we would only play again if we got to come over twice! They agreed. Before we ended the last game though we had like 10 kids out on the black top watching and cheering and stuff. It was so hilarious! So the second game we played 4 of them verses us! We won again :) Found out they have actually gone to church and would play b-ball with missionaries in Hardin and had been wondering where we were here! So i'm excited to go meet with them! I know almost every kid in that place now! I LOVE kids! Here's a picture of the 4 we beat, namely Clarence, Devon, Eugene and Ambros!! Also met another kid Tyzell. SWEET name! Maybe one of my kids someday ;) haha

So we had zone conference on Friday which was AWESOME! Got to see President again which is always great! They had me play the hymns for the meeting (which everyone is doing more and more to me, now) I would say i'm getting better and know a LOT more hymns! They also made me sing a cappella with 2 other elders...like I can sing! hahaha It was an awesome meeting and President opened the scriptures in a way I would have NEVER recognized before! It is how the Old Testament testifies of Christ! IT WAS MIND BLOWING! I will have to share with y'all when I get home! Soooo amazing!

Well work is moving forward now and we have 5 solid investigators in the student ward! 3 of which watched conference! Good things are starting to happen now! I'm loving it! :)

I love y'all tons and hope all is well! Can't wait for the care package MAMAAAAA!! :)

Love,

-Elder Parr

DO WORK! and LOVE IT!

p.s While emailing y'all, I started talking to this guy beside me. His name is IZU and he is from Nigeria! We talked about all the Nigerians I knew from back home! We're definitely best friends now and let's just say that I got his phone number so we can meet with him sometime! We shall see what happens! ;)