The Most Important Things- La Fama- Week 2

Friday, August 9, 2013
I haven't read the email from Monday yet, but I'm so excited that Alejandra Fuentes sent me that message. She was a less active member in Real de Palmas, and I'm so excited that she wrote, because that means that people liked me in Real de Palmas. Just kidding. (Sis Fuentes wrote him a message on Facebook that she was going to keep going to English classes so she could keep up with his life.) Also there is a kid here going to Buenos Aires Sur this month in my ward. His name will be Elder Meza, so whichever Clawson is there should look out for him. We have P90X dvds too. Somebody must have made a bunch of copies and put them in the missionary apartments, but I haven't used any of them yet. Okay, I'm going to go read the other email and write more then!

That sounds like a lot of cool stuff up at McCall. I had interviews with President Swapp this week, and he said he has been there once. Also I didn't realize there were so many celebrations that you guys have. I hope that dad had a happy birthday and that Lily will have a happy one, too, and I hope your anniversary was good. I got your package the other day, and everybody thought it was my birthday or Christmas. I really liked your spiritual thought. (I copied it below if you want to read what I sent to him.) The funny thing is that in church they would be mean if i gave answers like go to church, read the scriptures, or pray, but now those are the most important things we teach to people. Because if people do that, they will grow, and if they don't, they wont. So they seem basic, but they are stuff that needs to be done.
One of my brothers in the MTC wrote me this week. (Brothers are people in the same time in the mission as us.) His dad died of a heart attack on the 2nd of August. He just wrote us and told us a little bit about how he had the option to go home to the funeral and come back, or to just stay, and he stayed. He said that if the Lord wanted him to go home early, he would let the lord break his leg or something. And that the last thing he wanted to do was go home. It is really sad, but I think it is really awesome what he did, and I thought I would share it with you. That was Elder Fullmer; I don't know if you remember anything about him.
Aside from that, everything is cool. I got a letter from Micheal Grogitsky the other day. Also, there is a picture of Colin Haire and some other boys from Las Vegas on page 55 of the conference Ensign, maybe you already know but maybe not. (Also I get the Ensigns here so you don't need to send them to me.) We also heard there was a new temple video, so you guys better get down there, because that made us missionaries more excited that anything else in the whole wide world.
I don't really know what else to write. We found somebody really cool. Her name is Diana, and she really wants to be baptized. She has a sister that is a member, and she seems really cool. We just found her this week, so we will have to see how it all works out, but so far, it is really cool, because I think that the Lord has really prepared her for us. And you always here that there are people that are prepared and ready, but I haven't seen it this clearly before, but it is really cool. That is seriously everything I have to say right now, but I will write again Monday, so that isn't very far away, and maybe I will have more to say then. But until then, I love you all, and hope that you are all doing well and good. And that you can get ready to go back to school and learn good things! Bye! I love you!
Love, Elder Parkes

(Here is part of the letter that I sent to Mason that he references above.
So, here is my spiritual thought for the week. (It's not as cool as yours, but I had this whole thought, so I will share it with you.) I was out on the kayak one day. I went out with Lily, and she was actually a pretty good little paddler, but then she wanted to go back and make more mud pies on the beach. So I dropped her off and headed over toward the marina. It was nice and peaceful when I started out and I just kept rowing. But then it started to get choppy and windy as I got over to the marina and turned around. It wasn't too hard or anything, but I was making slow progress. I didn't actually feel like I was making any progress at all and thought that maybe I was just staying in one spot, especially as I looked at the spot where I was trying to get. But I just kept rowing. Then I would look to the side, and I would see that I was actually going forward. At one point the wind was blowing my hair in my face, so I stopped and pulled it back. In that small time that I stopped, the wind pushed my kayak back a long ways. So I picked up my oars, and I just kept on slowly and steadily rowing. Eventually, I ended up back home. As I was out, I realized that this is like life and our progress toward eternal life. We have our destination, and we have to just keep on moving toward it. Sometimes, we feel like we aren't going anywhere, but if we just keep on doing the things that we are supposed to (those primary answers- prayer, scriptures, go to church), then we can eventually get back home. But, if we stop, we might find ourselves thrown back or even off course. So we just have to keep on keeping on (I always think of Tony from P90X saying "Just push Play") and not ever give up or get complacent or lazy in the gospel. Satan can get even the best people if they stop doing what they have to do.)