Going strong in Helena...

Whoo! today, it is officially 40 degrees outside with snow on the mountains. I am not excited. I wish I could tell you about my experiences for the whole last week but I cant. Lots of funny ones too. We are also officially eating lots of Elk.

I think youre prayers are working. Since Ive been in Helena, about 1 week, 6 days and 23 hours, We have found over 7 new investigators and 5 of them have baptismal dates. That is unheard of in a state side mission. Well, unless youre in Provo. The members here are awesome. Actually, let me re-phrase that, the members in the 3rd ward here are awesome. They have given us referral after referral and half of those are taking the lessons. The people in this ward are simply just not afraid to ask people and to fellowship people. All of our ward mission leaders are awesome by the way, especially brother Alsbury. Who i hope you guys get to meet at sometime in the future. So... we have set up a lot of dinner appts with the people in 1st ward hoping that it will give them a boost. Other than that, Elder Journey and I are killin it, even though he likes to listen to Sara Bareilles while in the shower.

Did you hear Stephen Andersen was in the MTC? That jsut makes me want to eat some pineapple.

If you read in the October Ensign about the family in three forks, MT; Elder Journey was able to teach them.

investiGATORS: Holli and her 3 kids: They are so awesome. All are shooting for the 24th of October. I feel pretty bad for Holli though. The rule is if you have any word of wisdom problems you have to be sober for 3 weeks before you can get baptized. Unfortunately Holli smokes and is trying to quit. The last lesson we had with her she was just crying her eyes out because she wants to be baptized so bad but knows that quitting smoking is going to be so hard. She officially goes cold turkey tomorrow morning. Marie: She is frum Arkansas and was raised Catholic then swithched to being baptist. Coincidentally, she was working in some group home with one of our members and they started talking about the church. And as easy as ABC 123 the (17 yr old) girl invited her to hear the misisonary lessons, took her to church, and invited her over to dinner so that we could talk to her. BAM! Baptism. Easy as that everyone. Marie officially cooked us a nice big southern style dinner last night which was dang good. She is on lesson 3 and is looking forward to watching general conference this weekend. Shelly: another nice lady, very granola, but another daughter of God that has found the truth. She is getting baptized on November 7. Anna : A headquarter referral that we got a while ago but havent contacted until just yesterday. All I can say is WOW. She had an awesome conversation with a man on a plane from Salt Lake to Montana and called to have us come over. She has stage 4 breast cancer or something like that, is going through Chemo, has no hair and told us that the testimony the man on the Plane shared with her gave her some kind of hope for her life and family. The man she talked to has a son that has cancer and completely was able to relate to her situation. When Anna got home from her trip she said there was an email waiting for her on the commputer from the man's wife. She began to tell us of the lady's testimony and how it brought her to tears and that she needed something more in her life. She is our newest investigator and says she cant wait for general conference. Anna also loves Glenn Beck.

Man, Its so awesome to be here on a mission. Our Stake conference is in 3 weeks. Will be vistited by Elder Brimhall of the seventy. We were told that we might get to go on splits with him. We were also told that He wanted to have a meeting with the missionaries and their investigators prior to the conference. mmmmyah.

Also, Sister H who does our dinner Calendar,(which is ridiculous by the way. she made us stand in front of safeway holding pumpkins and flowers for our "october" calendar. You should see some of the previous Calendars that some of the other Elders have done, said she knows the Biggs family in Gilbert. Katie would know them. they have the special needs daughter.

LOVE. YOURE FAVORITE BOY. I MEAN, MAN.

It's Thursday afternoon and we are suprised with this little tidbit...

I hope you send me the Reflections of Christ DVD and stuff. All of us Montana missionaries would really like to see that. hint.

The other day we got to set a baptismal date with a lady named Holli and her 3 kids!! which is awesome. They will baptized on the 24 of the big OCT. Holli just has to quit smoking. She was introduced to the church a while back by a guy she met online from Deerlodge, MT. We have taught her ever since and she is doing awesome. She participates in the Gospel Essentials class and teaches her kids some of the lessons. We told her we were going to go over the Plan of Salvation for our next visit and ended up teaching her kids about the war in heaven and all the other points of doctrine not covered in the missionary lessons, all out of her little gospel principles book. She is awesome!! Always shows up to church 15 minutes early and is the most sweet lady. She just has to quit that dang smoking. There is a guy who was excommunicated about a year ago and has this new wife (who is Catholic). They are the most awesome people and are trying to get back on track. They are hitting rock bottom right now and are in desperate need of money and the gospel. They have started coming back to church recently. The other day he fasted for about 24 hrs which was pretty cool. They are another couple that will most likely be baptized within my stay here. (hopefully)

There is a lot of cool stuff that you guys will hopefully help me to remember to write to you about. But remember these key words: Cutting off puppy tails, Diet, Elder Heinecke and Elder Moore, Kevin from the office, Boulder Branch, President Allred, Sister Allred formerly Teichert(who served in England), Elder Journey's dad owning a Porsche dealership.

I wish i could finish telling all of our stories and what not but cant. p.s. stopped in Great Falls on the way to Helena and heard all about the Ladukes and "Sister" Florence.

PS! I need my bike asap. We are in a car share and walking everywhere sucks. Later.

Elder Journey says he knows Julia, Chelsea and Noel Wooten. Also, richard and Melanie. Who in the heck are the Wootens? Chelsea was Elder Journey's Girlfriend's best friend. (Jill asked Parker to ask Elder Journey if he knew the Wootens who are her cousins from Kanss City and small world...of course he knows them). Sorry for the inconvenience of yesterday. I got kicked off and we had to get going anyway. We got a late start on our pday.

Love!

Wow, not much for this week and again he stops in mid-sentence:

Hey guys. Helena is pretty much the coolest place that anyone could ever be. I think its about 50 -60 thousand people or so. There are 3 sets of Elders that cover all of it. Its different than Polson. Big dead rolling hills with and surrounding mountain/hills. Kind of like Round Valley AZ. It is covered with deer and antelope. When I say covered I mean covered. There are deer right in the middle of town. I guess some of the best elk hunting is supposed to take place here.

Elder Journey is pretty awesome as well. He's way big into photography and clothes. Maybe I will send you some of his pictures. Elder Journey is from Kansas City Kansas. He said he was on the tonight show a couple years back for doing some weird talent with a wheel burrow. You should look it up. it sounded pretty funny. He

FYI: President's Weekly Email

September 22, 2009

Dear Elders and Sisters,

When all the dust settled and all of the reports were in, we ended up with 41 baptisms for August instead of the 36 that we reported. That was fantastic. Keep up the good work.
We had a wonderful 4 days with Elder Perry, Elder Rasband, Elder Hallstrom, and Elder Snow as well as many others in our training in Nauvoo. I will be reporting on that information as the weeks go by.
We had a very good Zone Leaders Council Meeting in Helena yesterday. Thank you to all who traveled so far and shared so much. We hope it will help us move the work along.
You probably have heard by now from your Zone Leaders that Preparation Day is being shifted to Monday starting the first Monday in October. (Please alert your family so they will change the date of their e-mails.) Some of the reasons are, #1. The missionary department has strongly recommended that we do so, #2. Some of the Brethren have also recommended that we do what they do. (Monday is the day they use to recover from their weekend duties of being out changing Stake Presidencies at Stake Conferences.) #3. Saturday and Sunday should be the longest, hardest, and most effective days for missionary work. Everything during the week should crescendo to getting your investigators to Church and catching people home to teach. The Sabbath is prime time and should be the busiest day of the week, therefore, since Monday is a natural let down anyway, why not use it as a preparation day?, #4. Wednesday breaks up the work week too much and creates too many inefficiencies in the work., #5. Monday matches up better with your planning and your goal setting for the week.
If you still have questions, talk further with your Zone Leaders or give me a call.
We are anxious to do all we can to accelerate the work and trust that you are as well.

Much love,
Pres. Gardner

Transfers....

Hey family. I don’t have lots of time to write but I’m in Kalispell right now and in the middle of transfers. I am headed to Helena to be with Elder Journey. I will be covering the Helena 1st and 3rd wards along with the Boulder branch. Im pretty excited but it was extremely hard to leave Polson. I never thought I would get to know and become almost best friends with people after 6 months and have to leave them behind. There were lots of hugs and goodbyes and even people crying. That was weird but it made me feel like I did a good job. I guess that’s what happens when the Gospel is intertwined in the relationships you form. But, yes, it was very hard to go. Elder Hernandez from Guatemala took my spot. I got to meet him and he seemed to be a pretty crazy small Guatemalan guy. He was exactly as you would think. He has only been speaking English for the whole 1 year he has been out.

I didn’t get the chance to send the package off for Chris' Bday but gave Elder Holt some money to do so. It should be there within the next week along with a SWORD the Shawn Robbins gave me before I left. HAha. It didn’t fit in my suitcase dang it. That was the hardest thing that I had to part with when I left the other night.

I can’t remember everything I wanted to write but I before I got to leave Polson some good things happened. I got to help teach a LA lady and her non-member alcoholic husband about the addiction recovery program, which the lady has attended, and about the stop smoking program. They were both ready to quit their habits. I also got to set 2 baptismal dates with 2 members of the same Lamanite family: Alyscia (I just sounded out the last name) and Jason. (they are a part member family) That was way cool. We got to teach one last lesson with Alicia and Dave yesterday morning in which concluded with them saying, "keep in touch with us so that we can let you know when we are going to the temple." So... I got to leave on a pretty good note apart from the non baptisms that happened. I hopefully will get to write back to you by the end of the day when I get to Helena. Let me know what’s going on with everyone. Later Bye. LOVE

Unfinished stories make us a bit crazy...

Hey everybody. Too much to say in so little time. We are going up to Big Fork today for our last pday of the transfer. Yes, it is getting cooler. It was about 38 this morning but, it heats up to about 75 by the afternoon. We find out if I stay or go this Saturday. I wouldn’t worry about sending anything until we find out transfer info (bikes shoes etc). Tell Chris that I’m sorry. I just haven’t had time to finish up his little boy gift box. Kids. Lots has happened in the last week. I know I have said this before but I feel that I can compare to the other missionaries down in South America. Lamanites are pretty similar. Also, Kacee, the librarian hasn’t been around for the last 2 months!!. We have no idea where the heck she is. Nobody in the library knows either. weird. I heard all about the college football weekend and actually got to catch a few glimpses here and there. haha. not like I was trying to watch. Boise upset Oregon i heard and I heard all about the BYU. Other than that all We hear about is how the "GRIZ" did. The only people that tell us about the other games are not from Montana.

News for the past week. We have been averaging about 3 new investigators per week. Only one of them ends up having a return appt though. We get lots of appts with the Indians around here and when we show up to their house no one is home. We end up calling them and they just say, ohhhh.... I forgot...... can we re-schedule? After going back for the 8th time we end up dropping them. We have seen a lot of PMF's and lots of LA. Did I tell you since I’ve been here I’ve bracted out the whole city? yep, I sure have. Some of the stuff that happens around here is pretty funny. We ran into this drunk native and talked to him for a little bit. He told us that he wanders around from house to house until he is sober so he can go home to his kids and wife. Anyway, we knocked on about 4 different houses in the last week which were completely out of proximity to each other and found him at 4 different houses!!! he just answered the door like he owned the place. haha it was the funniest thing that Elder Holt and I had ever seen. Especially after the 4th house. We were laughing so hard.

There is a girl about Dana's age who we are teaching right now that is 100% going to get baptized. She moved from Oregon to be with her family here in our ward because her mom will be in jail for the next 2 years. That’s going good. Keith is off the map. Shaun has been out of town. Dave and Alicia are doing good but didn’t show up to church. She is reading but still working at the "Wolf Den" and still drinking a little bit here and there. Yancy Savannah and Whisper didn’t show up to church Either but Marilyn did. That was cool. We are just trying to get people to church and trying to talk to everyone we can. I want to baptize someone so bad before I leave but Im sure it is not going to happen. I talked to Elder Quiocho and Carlson up in Eureka the other day and they are having 7 baptisms this month. I asked him how that was even possible. He said it is all because of how "on fire" the members are. I want to challenge you guys. Our whole family. to do this. Before I get home from my mission I want you guys to find and fellowship a family and get them baptized. Don’t ask me how. Just pray about it. I want you to experience what it feels like to just open up and share the Gospel. Will you fools of a tooks commit to that? do it. If you seek for it the Lord will definitely prepare someone for you. I can promise you that. JUST DO IT. That’s what it all comes down to.

One last story before I depart and embark. Brother Heskiel as you know is a dental tech and is really good with teeth. The other day he brings these dentures home that he was going to work on. The lady that he got them from said that they didn’t fit anymore. There was a bunch of space and they kept sliding off. So his job was going to be to put down a new layer of acrylic to make them fit. He showed us the process which was really cool. Here’s the catch of the story: So... as Bro Heskiel is going through the process of showing us how to do the dentures and what not we have to leave. We got home in the evening and wanted to see the finished product but Bro... IM GETTING KICKED OFF AND DON’T HAVE TIME TO FINISH. I’VE GOT TO GO. TALK TO YOU LATER. I WILL HAVE BRO HESKIEL CALL.

LOVE YOUR FAVORITE FLAVOR. ELDER PARKER

Days are getting cooler...

Hey there guys!!!! Whoooo Hoooooo!!!! Im still in Polson. Transfers new will be here next Friday. I will get to find out if I stay or go. I will most likely go. But... I’m having a feeling I might be staying.

Everything comes in waves. We are out of the steak wave and now on to Pizza. I have been eating pizza for the last 2 weeks. I don’t know what it will be next. You have to send me a picture of Baja. She sounds big. How are you guys weighing her?

If you can keep sending me the emails from Jacob Burr and also Tyson Andes. I’ve gotten a couple good letters from him.

Cant believe you guys got to see national treasure!!

THINGS HERE IN POLSON: They are going good. Dave and Alicia are still doing good, we have another lesson with them this Friday. It should be sweet. She has pretty much told us that she knows the church is true but is in a knot due to her own family. (those dang J-dubs. They are so messed up. Have a lot of good values but so screwed up) We should start to see them out to church. The next family we are trying to get out to church is the family of Yancy, Savonnah, and Whisper. They are Lamanites and very down to earth. They have been reading as a family from the Book of Mormon every night and have seen things in their life change already. They have trying to get out to church for the past two weeks but always have some problem. This last Sunday the problem was Yancy got scabies. Weird huh. The funny thing about their family is Savonnahs son Cayman, who is about 1 years old, has blonde hair blue eyes and very white skin. They say he has a protein deficiency or something and is on a very special diet. Just imagine all the Indian characteristics but with bright white skin. The other family that we started seeing are another group of Lamanites and are trying to turn things around. The MOM is a member. They are cool. I hope to baptize the kids and the Dad before I leave. That’s also why I think im staying another transfer. I love the people here. They are so awesome. I love the reservation. We have been going around to a lot of our LA/PMF's (less active part member families) no matter the circumstances and where they stand just to be able to see if there is anything that can be done. We went to a family last Friday and were received into their home very grudgingly. I immediately knew it wasn’t going to be good. They are an older couple. The husband is a JW and the wife is a LA member. We started talking about all sorts of things and then took it up a level to where we started talking about church. It started to get a little heated. All we could do was testify of Jesus Christ and all the husband could do was BASH. That’s all people ever do from other religions is not testify of their own but start spewing out info on how ours is wrong. So we finally asked to see if we could leave with a song and a prayer and all he said was that we could sing. The wife started crying in the middle of the song. We finished and got out of there. I love and hate those situations so much. Its sad to see. I hate it but...... HAHA they make the best stories. I got lots of them.

Lastly, I know that the church is true. I’ve seen lots of miraculous things and been able to feel the spirit in a way that I never have before. I love learning about the Doctrines of the Gospel and using the Book of Mormon to answer and reply to absolutely any concern, problem, or question that the People in Polson have. We got to have a lady speak up here from St. George about Lehis journey and it just added to the testimony that I have. The Book of Mormon is so true. I have felt the power of it and can testify that it is a true record. Having the spirit is one of the greatest feelings in the world. I cannot say enough about the church and will never be able to. READ YOUR SCRIPTURES EVERY DAY. PRAY EVERY DAY. I wish you guys could meet some of the people here. They are awesome.

LOVE ELDER PARKER L HEYWOOD. MONTANA

Also, I just wanted to say about Katie and Aaron: I hope everything goes well. I know Katie has been waiting for this moment for a long time and has lived the life she has lived for this very reason. She completely deserves to have all the wonderful blessings that she has been receiving. It sounds like things will be perfect. Mom and Dad? How did you guys get so blessed to have an almost perfect daughter? You don’t really realize all of these things until you have them taken away from you. It has to be one of the best feelings to know that Katie and Aaron are both as pure as a new born bald eagle and are getting married in the temple. There was a reason Katie was the first born. I hope they have kids before I get home. LOVE. send me pics.

Glacier National Park: Elders West, Heywood, Quiocho, Morris

June Baptism of the Atchleys!