I pick up dimes ;)

I would say this week has been WONDERFUL!! :) I've driven SOOO much though this week; all over the place! I've realized how similiar Montana is to Texas, even in distances! haha So Tuesday night I left Polson and drove to Kalispell and got there about 9pm. Then took a shower in this bath tub which was CRAZY! haha No shower curtain or anything (attached a picture) and had to use half a water bottle to shower with. Had to be on my knees the whole time or my head would be in the ceiling! haha Then slept on a wood floor and had to be up at 5 in the morning to drive the 3 and a half hour drive to Helena for Leadership Meeting! Good thing leadership is AWESOME! Learned so much and found ways to make my district even better! Very uplifting :) Then headed back the 3 and half hours and then another hour back to Polson and got home late. haha One thing I learned, I'll probably never have fast food again. Had Wendy's for dinner on the way home and it made my stomach hurt so bad! 

 

Earlier on Tuesday was an awesome experience! Visited this couple in their home and began teaching them. His wife began to tell us how these big black spirits would always follow her around in her home and would make her feel bad and that it wasn't a good feeling. It made me really uncomfortable and uneasy and I asked if we could leave a blessing on her home. She agreed and we proceeded and cast out all of those evil spirits in her home. The peace that came after that was tremendous! There is NO doubt in my mind that all things can be done through Christ! It was much better after that :)

 

We had a baptism on Saturday which was amazing! It was for this young girl who was so excited to be baptized! The service was great and a lot of her family came out to support her! After she was baptized she was grinning SOOOO big! I don't know if I've ever seen a smile so big! haha It was awesome!

 

We had stake conference this weekend and guess what?! I sang in the choir! Yeah, can you believe it, me singing in the choir?!!! haha It was actually all the missionaries in the Kalispell Stake :) We sang "Hark All Ye Nations" which was perfect for us :) Very enjoyable and fun! Great messages about how the gospel blesses lives and such :) Made me contemplate how grateful I am for having the gospel in my life as I've grown up and how it's blessed my life for good! There was one quote that I got that was perfect! It goes like this,

 

"Dont step over the dimes to pick up the dollars. Pick up the dimes and the dollars will take care of themselves."

 

Make sure you do the small things in life and the bigger things will come along the way :) I loved it!

 

Yesterday was another long car ride too as we went to Thompson Falls about 2 hours away. Went over there to do a baptism interview for this young man. He is SOO excited to be baptized and to follow God's commandments :) I think he made me more excited than I was as I met with him! His friends who introduced him to the church actually just moved here to Polson and are awesome! As we returned home we visited a part member family. I don't know if I've told yall, but Polson is actually part of the indian reservation here! So the family was part native and had a huge birthday party for their son that we were invited to! It was lots of fun and I spent most the time talking to the great grandpa who is native! Very cool man indeed :) After the party we visited this older lady, who is the sweetest lady in the world! I love grandmas :) haha but her husband passed away back in April and she was getting rid of some of his clothes. She gave me one of his cowboy hats!! I've been wanting to get one my whole mission and now I have one. It's even from Texas and I told her I would wear it with pride! :) She liked that a lot. I've been wearing it every chance I get! We watched a movie with her about her husband and it was touching. It made me think of Grandpa Gormley :) I'm so grateful for all the things he taught me and the example he was. Her husband was very similiar from what I could see. Remember to tell the ones you love that you love them, because you never know what tomorrow will hold!

 

I'm lovin' Polson and can't get enough of it :) I wish each of you were here with me to experience everything with me! Have some of your own, if you would, back at home!  ;)

 

I LOVE Y'ALL!

 

-Elder Parr

POLSON, BABY!!

It's been the craziest week of my mission yet! I've enjoyed every SECOND of it for sure!



Always doing cartwheels!



Well, I don't remember or not if I told y'all but this transfer has been ALL over the place! Spent the beginning of the week leaving Bozeman and stayed a few days in Great Falls with my boy Elder Mudge! It was so much fun and we hit the streets hard together! I told him president needs to make us companions before our mission is up! Sister B, the sweet lady we lived with, made us pancakes each morning and Elder Mudge said, "She doesn't do this for everyone!" So I felt honored to have her homemade pancakes :) But we had 6 lessons one day with a ton of people contacted and rode bikes; which was awesome! It was just a great, hard workin', fun few days :) While there, we went to Ryan's Dam for lunch one day which was awesome! He has all the pictures. I will try to get them to y'all sometime. As well as Giant Spring! Giant Spring is the shortest river that actually flows into the largest river in the United States! So I saw the longest and shortest rivers in actually less than 4 minutes! Pretty fun!

Elder Parr and Elder White

Then picked up my GOLDEN, Elder White! He is LEGIT! We've done SO much work already it's been amazing! Every night we come home and we are wasted and he says, "Today was AWESOME! Let's do it again tomorrow!?" and I reply, "Yeahhhhh buddy! This is LEGIT!" haha it's a blast :) Well, our road trip from Great Falls to Polson was quite the adventure I must say! Made it without a GPS or phone with 3 greenies! They were asking SOO many questions and were so excited it was so much fun! Dropped 2 off in Missoula as Elder White and I made the rest of the trip to our area by ourselves. Well, night fell quick and the directions we had to Bishop's house were DEFINITELY wrong! haha So we spent the next hour and a half knockin' on doors at 10pm at night saying, "We're SO sorry, but do you have any idea where South Terrace Circle is?" After each house we got a little bit closer 'til one lady got in her car and drove over there as we followed her! She was RIGHT on! Come to find out, she is a less-active member that Bishop has been thinking about going to see! We are going over there tonight to visit with their family! Crazy how the Lord works. If we had good directions we would have never found her before! Well, we arrived at about 10:45 at night and hit the sack quick!

We spent the week unpacking and getting to know the town. Polson is AMAZING! The Lord has definitely prepared many people here for us! We have one baptism set for this Saturday which will be GREAT! It's for a 10 year old young girl who is so comitted to following Christ's example! We are stoked! Also got this awesome referral for this lady who we met with this week! She said she wants to go on a spiritual journey and she wants to do it the right way and learn how to pray! She has NO support from her family, whatsoever, which is sad :/ She came to church though and the testimonies born were definitely JUST for her and we sang "God be with you 'til we meet again" as the closing song and I don't know if i've ever felt the spirit so strong before while we sang together! It's been an awesome week if you can't tell!! So great we even went to the movies this week!! We went on Saturday! Y'all don't believe me, huh? Well, I attached a picture for y'all so you will believe me! The bishop here bought the rights to show the movie "17 Miracles". It is such an inspiring movie and I LOVED it! Don't worry we got permission to see it  ;)

The members here are SO excited to have Elders again! It's pretty wild! haha Yesterday we got some good comments, "You're definitely not as pretty as the sisters!" "Y'all look way better than the sisters." "What did y'all do, cut your hair short and change your voices?" haha It was so much fun meeting all the members here! I'm lovin' it and plan to continue to move the work forward here!

I love each of y'all and let me know if there is anything I can do for y'all! I would be happy to do so!

LOVE Y'ALL!

-ELDER PARR

A Transfer and New Address!

What a week it has been! Sorry I didn't email y'all yesterday. I was on the transfer van all morning yesterday and I was so sick of sitting in a car I just wanted to hoop it up. So we spent the last 3 hours of p-day playing basketball! It was a blast! 

So I left Bozeman yesterday morning at 10am and headed to Great Falls where I am at currently. I'm on team ups with Elder Mudge at the moment which is the BOMB! He is one of my favorite elders out here in the field so far. We came out together at the same time!  

I will be here in Great Falls 'til tomorrow at 4pm. From there the transfer van will drop off 3 goldens for me! I will then take a brand new Chevy truck and drive to Missoula to drop 2 of them off, and then proceed to Polson with my new golden :) Oh! And in that process I will have no phone and no GPS ;) It will be a great adventure for sure! I'm so excited for what's in store in Polson. I have NO idea what I will be doing in a brand new area and what not, but the minute members found out I was leaving Bozeman for Polson I got 3 referrals for people for me to go see :) I just called the sisters that were covering the area there and got my new address!

40854 South Terrace Circle

Polson, Mt 59860

I will be living with Bishop T there in his basement :) Supposedly he is way excited to have elders again and looking forward to DOIN' WORK with us! So that is what I know about transfers. I will know a LOT more by next week. I don't know if I will be the District Leader there yet. I'm supposed to get a call from president soon and hopefully he will fill me in. The sister I called thought I was the District Leader.....so we will see!

This past week has been wonderful! There is a very cool experience I wanted to share with y'all especially, though! When I first got to Bozeman we were introduced to this young man who began to take the missionary lessons. He was very tough to teach as he didn't really believe in God and was not very religious anymore AT ALL. He didn't pray because he didn't believe and had so many questions. Varying in philosphy and what not. Well the school semester ended and he told us he wasn't sure if he would meet with us again or come to church when he got back, especially if I was gone. Well, during the summer he showed up twice for church. Mainly to sing in the choir, he is a music major at school. School was starting back up and he was in town last Sunday and asked to meet with us. We had a good lesson with him. Questions about why so many bad things happen in this life.  I felt prompted and asked, "What keeps you coming back to church and wanting to meet with us?" He then went to say that one, he has never seen such a people who are so faithful and dedicated to their beliefs. That was great and dandy, but what he said next pierced my soul! He said, "There have been some things that have happened this summer that just cannot be coincidence! I feel now that God's hand has been in my life for a long time and I've just been so hard headed I haven't realized it." I testified that it had! That it was no coincidence that we met and he has been meeting with us. We then taught how he can find out for himself! It was an awesome experience and strengthened my testimony that God's hand is in each of our lives. Sometimes the hardest part is being open enough to look and feel for it.

I was reading this morning in the Book of Mormon and came across something, that reaffirmed this for me! It's the story where Laman and Lemuel don't understand what Lehi's dream was all about and this is what he tells them...

"8  And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?

9   And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.

10  Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts?

11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you." (1 Nephi 15:8-11)  (https://lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/15?lang=eng&cid=email-shared)

I now pray everyday to be able to see the hand of God in my life! I know that he is ALWAYS there leading us, we just have to recognize it :)

Well, another cool experience is that we had the Catapalooza on campus this last week! It was a BLAST! All the companies and clubs and what not come out and set up tents on the campus and promote whatever they are doing. TONS of free stuff and lots of fun! There were over 250 tents and we had one for the institute here! It was so much fun and we got to talk to SOOO many people. My main goal was to make people smile :) Hahaha! I don't think a person walked by without smiling or wanting to know more! It was so much fun! Talked to EVERY person wearing anything Texas. Sadly though only 1 of them were actually from Texas! Haha It was hilarious because I was like, "HEY! Are you from Texas?" One lady we did talk to was from Texas on the street. We stopped her and she had a THICK accent and I asked where she was from and she said, "What? You can't tell?" and I said, "Oh I can tell that's why I asked! You're from Texas huh?!" Come to find out she is the wife of the First Baptist's preacher! Such a sweet lady :)

Well, I don't have much time but wanted to give you an update on what's going on :) I hope all is well and it sounds like good things are going on back at home :)

Just so you know, so many people tried to convince me to come back to go to school at MSU. So much that I was offered a few places to stay! Haha! I told them I would have to think about it. Texas is still high in my books! ;)

LOVE Y'ALL! 

-Elder Parr

POLSON, HERE I COME!

Have a GREAT day!

I absolutely LOVE reading your emails every Monday :) They always bring a smile to my face and make me want to get out and work even harder!

This week has been a longggggg, but GREAT week! Wonderful opportunities and stories for today :)

We received a referral for this girl named Lacresha (haha not really, but that would be cool) who wanted us to come visit here. So that's what we did! I think it was the best referral I've EVER received on my mission. I wasn't there for the initial contact as I was on team-ups with another Elder here, but they found out that her boyfriend is serving a mission right now actually in California and told us that she wanted to be baptized as soon as she could! We've been teaching her and she just lights up as we teach and has definitely been prepared to receive the gospel! It's been lots of fun and she should be there tonight to play softball with the University Ward!

We have been teaching this one man for awhile now and last night talked about the word of wisdom. He is tatted up and has long hair and a long beard. I love him so much from the first day when we rode our bikes all across the town to meet him! Well he smokes as well and during the lesson, he said, "I need to stop smoking. I've wanted to do it for so long, i'm just so stressed out." He was telling us before that he just wants to run away and start all over. For some reason as we were teaching him I felt to tell him that he can't run away and start over. The same issues he is struggling with will remain with him and eventually he will be in the same situation again. I talked about being baptized (which he is planning to do right now) means taking part in conversion. It's changing your life to follow God more closely and to receive his help. I don't know, but I think something clicked and I think he is really going to make some changes and I told him we are right there with him to help :) He is awesome! I'm excited! Just a good experience.

Saturday was AWESOME! We took Elder Eyring's counsel from conference and had a ward service project! WOW was it amazing! We went up to Hyalite Canyon and did SO much work up there! Dug holes for trees, transplanted trees, pulled weeds, laid mulch down, painted graffiti and SO much more! I had so much fun and Elder Mangelson and I wore these neon yellow shirts given to us by a member awhile back! They were so bright and found out later people were giving directions off of us cause you couldn't miss us anywhere! haha it was awesome! I love getting my hands dirty and it was great to work alongside ALL the members as well and a few from the community :)

Well, this Friday we receive transfer calls. I have a feeling that I will be leaving but I have no idea really. I've grown to love the members and investigators here SO much! They become my family wherever I am and I love serving and helping in any way I can :) I will be sure to let you know what happens as soon as I know!

My eye exam went great! The receptionist even ordered 2 pairs for me! She is so sweet!

Glad to hear the kids are off to school again to get nice and smart! School starts here next week! I'm glad they were able to get back to school blessings as well! I miss those for sure!

I love yall and hope all is well! Have a GREAT day!

-Elder Parr

:)

What a week it has been! I can definitely say that this week was much better than last! My quote is always true, "Hard work always pays off!" Stayed busy this week knockin' doors and finding new people to teach. In doing so we've found 4 new people to teach this week which is awesome! We've been hittin' the streets and talking to everyone we see :) haha Missionary work is so much fun! One thing I can say that doesn't have much importance or meaning is that I know am well aware of what weed smells like. Being on a college campus I can't tell you how many doors open and the overwhelming smell comes out! :( No bueno!

I taught the first chinese person ever on my mission this week as well! It was so much fun! He showed up at church last week out of the blue and we asked if we could come visit him. Well, he is still learning english so it was hard to get his address as he couldn't say his r's. Reminded me of when I was younger ;) So it took us a while to get that he was living in Roskie Hall on campus! ha The lesson was very interesting, as well, as we were on mormon.org and lds.org and would read what we wanted to teach him in english, and then change the language to chinese and he would read it and we would talk about it! It was so cool and a great experience!

Another crazy experience with one of the part member families we are teaching. We went to visit them on Sunday after church in the evening. We knocked on the door and rang the doorbell and no answer so we sat on the steps to make a phone call and the door comes flyin' open! It was one of his friends from out of town who is homeless who was just hangin' out in their house without them knowing! I was like, "What are you doing here ___?!" and he said, "Oh, i'm just lookin' for them too and just hangin' out inside for the time being. They don't know i'm here!" I was dumbfounded and had Elder Mangelson talk to him while I tried to call the family! They didn't answer, so I ended up going in the house and lockin' all the doors and came out the garage so the house was all locked up. We then went and walked with him to the church parking lot to get him away from the house and talk with him where he decided to pull out his weed and smoke a blunt right there while we were talking to him! He is crazy! haha

On a more spiritual note, we taught one of our investigators about baptism and the holy spirit. How after we are baptized we can recieve the holy spirit to be with us, always, as a constant companion. I thought it was a good lesson and felt good until she said the closing prayer which opened my eyes to so much! She thanked God for teaching her about the Spirit and how she wants to be baptized and have him always with her. She said some other things, which I wasn't even aware of us saying at all, which was a testimony to me that I wasn't the one teaching...that it was the spirit. It also made me stop and think about the spirit. How it's a gift from God and in my opinion one of the greatest gifts we can be given from him! And as with any gift, I thought about how often we use it. If we're thankful for the gift and leave it in the box, or if we truly want to use and apply it in our lives. Got me thinking that I've been in both places and that I want to use the spirit more abundantly in my life! I hope you do as well!

I think of y'all often and love each of you! I hope all is well and things are going good for y'all!

Love and miss y'all!

Elder Parr

p.s. quote of the day yesterday from G was, "No bacon is bad for you when the healthier choice is a donut!" hahaha I thought it was AWESOME! Made me laugh pretty good too!

p.s.s. attatched some pictures for y'all :) hope you enjoy!

So I thought I would share a few experiences with y'all today! I went on team ups twice this week. The first was with theLivingston Elders in Livingston. They are both brand new to the area and really dont have any idea what to do so we went up there to find lots of work. We did just that as we worked together and tracted seperate parts of the town. haha Funny story, this guy wanted to fight me while knockin' doors! Of course I have like no temper and just said, "sorry for knockin' on your door hope you have a nice day!" as he was in my face yellin' and buckin' up ;) haha Some people crack me up! We went on team ups with the assistants the following day and I went up to Big Sky with Elder Thomas! It was an awesome experience and learned a lot from him for sure! Assistants are awesome! The drive there and back is beautiful too which makes it that much better!

"What is the point in knowing the truth, if you're not willing to defend it!"

So this week has been wonderful! Half of myself thought it was an awesome week, while the other half was just blahhh. It's weird, but I'm still working hard and being diligent. I guess that's what makes me feel like it was a blahh week. We worked our tails off and it seemed like nothing happened this week. haha I was joking with Elder Mangelson last night as we were going to bed that the Lord was teaching me to be patient, and he said, "YOU BETTER NOT BE PRAYING FOR PATIENCE OR I'M GOING TO BLAME THIS ALL ON YOU!" hahaha it was so funny, but made me laugh :) I've made a list of a few things I want to do and become better at and then just rely on the Lord to help me out. I don't mind learning patience, I think it's good for me. So don't worry, I'm doing fine and loving it still :) I absolutely LOVE being a servant of the Lord :)

Saturday was spent as our service day which really allowed me to just work hard which was awesome! We laid sod for the B's from 7-1pm and then bucked hay for the W's from 1-7pm! It was such hard work, but felt so good! haha! 12 hours straight in the sun was crazy and I will say I hardly even broke a sweat! It's so cool here it's amazing! I would say it didn't even get over 80 degrees on Saturday! I hope y'all are staying cool and drinking lots of water!

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting. I took the opportunity to bear my testimony as I do every fast Sunday now. I recited one of my favorite things I've memorized since I've been on my mission. It is very special to me and a part of who I am now. I thought I would give it to y'all.

"I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The dye has been cast! I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made; I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tainted visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, positions, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk with patience, am uplifted by prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my gait is fast, and my goal is Heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear! I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, or let up, until I have stayed up stored up, and paid up of the cause of Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till I know, and work till He stops me. And when He returns for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My banner will be clear!"

I LOVE being a disciple of Jesus Christ :) When I read this it makes me think of the scripture in Romans 1:16 where Paul says," For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." It's funny you emailed me about being courageous this week mom, because that's exactly what I was thinking about yesterday.

There is a boy here who gives me the quote of the day every Sunday. His quote he chose for yesterday was, "What is the point in knowing the truth, if you're not willing to defend it!" It struck a chord within me and it's my new favorite quote now :) I don't think he knows, but his quotes are always what I need ;)

I LOVE and miss y'all! I pray for each of y'all daily :)

Love,

Elder Parr

Servin' it up!

Mi Familia!!

So this week has been awesome! Started out Tuesday as we went to Helena for a Leadership meeting! It was such a blessing and joy to be able to understand what I'm supposed to be doing as a District Leader! I conducted my first district meeting and it was awesome! I feel so lucky to be leading my district and have such wonderful elders who are willing to make changes and DO WORK! I came up with a theme for our district which is,

"You can't do the same things and expect different results!"

We're all excited to do more and our numbers reflected as each of our areas did better this week! I'm excited to continue to set new goals and work together with my fellow elders to achieve them! :)

This week was filled with TONS of service! From buckin' hay, choppin' wood, to moving people and doing some yard work for some investigators! Y'all know how much I LOVE doing service so this week was awesome! We would go do service then change into our prosyleting clothes and then find someone else and change back into our grubbies! It was so much fun :) One house we were doing service for (that was planned) we showed up in shirts and ties and then changed and afterwards his nephew, who we were working with, after we changed back into our clothes was like, "Man y'all look WAY different!" Haha it was so funny! It tied in nicely for sunday school as we talked about serving others. One of the leaders said, "It's funny to say, you could ask me what I remember about being in young mens and I couldn't tell you a thing. I could tell you about everytime we got together and served someone though!" It made me think back as well and the only things I can remember as well were times when I served someone! My favorite scripture...

"I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom. That ye may learn that when you are in the service of your fellow beings, you're only in the service of your God." -Mosiah 2:17

I'm sorry to hear about all the hot weather :/ I feel bad for y'all because right now it's only 69 degrees! Rollin' with the windows down and livin' it up! Going to be playing soccer today and I don't know if I'll even break a sweat! We're definitely coming up here one summer when I get home to get out of the heat! haha

I'm excited to be getting letters and such from y'all! I will tell you of an awesome story this week! So we've been meeting with this gentleman for awhile now. He comes to institute weekly, but we struggle to meet with him during the week because of his schedule. Well, we were able to meet with him last night and taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ! I think it was the BEST lesson I've taught since I've been on a mission! Elder Mangelson and I clicked awesome with the spirit and we committed him to follow Jesus Christ and to be baptized! He accepted and is SO excited! It made my day as it was a day filled with every emotion possible. It was crazy!

I'm so grateful for the spirit and being an instrument in the Lord's hand that can help his children here in Bozeman, Montana!

I love y'all and think of y'all often :)

-Elder Parr

p.s. The Lord has truly been answering my prayers and I've met so many of my brothas this week ;)