January 28th 2010

Dear Family,

We went to the Las Vegas temple today. You would love it. There are a lot of gardens surrounding it, with many different kinds of flowers. I kept thinking, "Man, Mom and Diane would love this." I took some pictures of them too. The Las Vegas Celestial Room is BEAUTIFUL!!! They have these really tall windows on each side. We went in the morning, so when we went in, the sun was shining through on one side. It was so bright, I felt I was actually entering into the presence of the Lord. I love the Spirit of peace the presides in the temple. I don't have any worries when I'm there. Not one. I was able to think about those we are teaching for a little bit. Next time I go, I think I'll go with some specific questions in mind on how to help them. I'm sure the Lord will give me direction concerning those for whom I am responsible.

Anyway, I know the happy birthday was a little early, but we can only email on p-day, so I thought it'd be better early than late.

We had a ward conference last Sunday You know what surprised me? No food. Nope. It's just a southern tradition...I was kinda bummed out. It was a good conference nonetheless.

Yes, I finally got the packages, both of them. Thank you for all of it. Also, I did share my treat and the calendar is fantastic. It's good to see pictures of everyone...especially the page with my friends.

Jotty did not tell me that there were more people from the ward in the play. I think that's awesome...I'm so jealous of him. The "Music Man" sounds so much fun. Especially the part that Jotty has; I would love to be in a Barbershop Quartet.

Had a neat spiritual experience...earlier in the week we had exchanges. I was with Elder Bennet, another fantastic missionary (I'm hoping I get to serve with him before he leaves). We stopped by his apartment to get his planner, and on the way out, he grabbed three copies of the Book of Mormon. I didn't ask why, because we needed a couple of extras. Later on in the day, we went to go contact a referral that we received a day or two ago. When we went there, we had a fantastic lesson. It was two daughters, and one son (all teenagers). The son, Manuel, has a different father, who died some time ago. He doesn't have any friends, and is a really quiet guy. All three listened very closely and participated very well. We decided to give them all a Book of Mormon, and they committed to read the introduction and to pray specifically if the Book of Mormon and our message were true. They accepted. I only had one copy, but where did we get the other copies of the Book of Mormon? Lo and behold, there they were, the extra copies that Elder Bennet had grabbed at the last minute. He didn't know why he grabbed them. We didn't plan on visiting this family. They ended up being a "Plan E". Yet for some reason, he grabbed a couple extra copies. That's why listening and being in tune with the Spirit is important. I think that that was inspiration from the Holy Ghost kind of saying "You are gonna visit a family who needs this message, but you aren't gonna have enough copies of the Book of Mormon. You should grab some right now."

Everything is well with me. We have two people set for baptism and we're planning one more. We taught two families yeseterday and the Spirit was strong while we were teaching. I love this work!

Thank you for the love and support. I love reading every one's letters and e-mails. Take care Mom, and have fun with the play too.

Con mucho amor,
Elder Parker