Monday, October 26, 2009

Have a happy Helena Halloween!

Hey Fam. Lots has happened. We had 5 baptisms this past week which was awesome. I've never had to do a confirmation so that was pretty nerve racking especially in front of the whole ward. And I had to do 2 of them. I got to baptize rich and Tom, and do their confirmations. Holli is awesome and is sharing the Gospel left and right. Her parents came to the baptism and started hooping and hollering when they all got baptized. It was pretty funny. They have a Book of Mormon as of a couple days ago so hopefully we get to start teaching them. Whoooo. Marie is also doing awesome. I hope you guys get to meet these people later in life.

Like I said, Elder Journey is gone which was a sad day for all of us. I hope you guys get to meet him someday. I told him we would hire him to come do our wedding photography. So the big news is this....... Im staying in Helena and training a "Brand New Baby Boy" straight from the MTC.

So....Like I was saying. Things are good. I cant remember much else of what I wanted to say. O yes. Elder Heinecke also got transferred and our new District leader came in, Elder Robison. We are also getting two new Elders into our district who will be splitting the area with other missionaries. They will be covering the Townsend ward. Elder Lanham is one of them who was in the MTC with me. Remember? So, that will be exciting. Oh, that just reminded me, If you ever see the Hintons you can tell them that they have a funny cousin. I hope that I get to serve with Elder Hinton.

Last night we I got to go out to Townsend and Do a GOSPEL SING. its where the community gets together at a different church every month and sing hymns and different solo peices that everyone prepares. Last night we got to sing at the Lutheran Church. It was pretty funny. I wish I could have recorded some of the songs.

Oh, The conference we had with Elder Condie of the Seventy was absolutely awesome. He is now my favorite GA. Probably the funniest general authority I've met. I will tell you stories about it later. He is hilarious.
Other than that, all is well ye saints of God.

Just letting ya know. You asked what I wanted for Christmas. Well... I would like some more ties. I like ties. A watch. Perfect push-ups, I dont know what else. I will let you know If I come up with anymore ideas.

Adios con vigos. Leche nosotros sontors y wilco las tigres giraffe para uno dos tres con allegre y ligros. Adios!

Monday, October 19, 2009

And now for this week...Parker Heywood Humbled!!

o.....You didnt get my letter from last week? Whats up with that? Great. I will try to send it again.

I hope I dont date weird girls when I come home, or even worse, boys. Some elders do that.

Tell Grandpa that we have gone by Dave Stahly's home (the guy he sold the engineering branch to in Helena) and his wife came to the door looked out the window, and left. We knocked again and she came to the window and yelled, "were not interested" then I asked if Dave lived there and she nodded and I tried to commence telling her that We werent trying to proselyte but just talk to dave. No luck. We will have to try again.

I have the ultimate story for you guys. It involves Elder Dennis C. Brimhall of the seventy. Once upon a time Elder Brimhall of the seventy visited Helena for stake conference. At the Saturday session Elder JOurney and I got there pretty early to get good seats. I was talking to some people outside while Elder Journey was sitting in our saved spot. I then came in and he told me to save it so that he could go get a drink. He then comes back in a couple of minutes later and says, "Great! I didnt even get a drink." I then asked him why he hadn't and he told me that as he was walking around the corner this gigantic man walks around the corner and shakes his hand striking up a little conversation with him. Our stake president, President Allred, (his wife is the one that served with dad 40 years ago) and introduces Elder Journey to Elder Brimhall. Elder Brimhall then asks Elder Journey where I am, his companion, and he tells Elder Brimhall that I was saving him a seat. Elder Brimhall then says, "What does it say in the white handbook Elder?" Elder Journey replied "Always stay within sight and sound of your companion." Elder Brimhall then suggested, jokingly with soberness and love, that Elder Journey go back and sit down with his companion, me. Oops, strike one. No biggie. Just a friendly reminder right? Ya. It was. Kind of Embarrassing but no big deal. Thats what we thought too. So. The Saturday night session commences and it is absolutely superb. Just great and dandy. Afterwards, we get caught in the crowd and start talking with everyone. Sister Allred talks my head off about England and what not, etc etc. It starts getting pretty late, just about 9:30 (curfew), and we still have to ride our bikes home. (the other Elders took off in THE CARS so we didn't have a ride, big mistake) Plus, Elder Brimhall had already gotten on Elder Journey for not being with me. Elder Journey starts out the door and just as he does Elder Brimhall walks out into the foyer and starts talking with us. Its all good and what not and then Elder Journey says, (knowing that we dont have lights on our bikes and riding IN THE DARK with no Helmets, because we hadnt gotten any yet and it was so cold that we were just riding with Beanies..) "Well Elder Brimhall, we got to be going, its almost that time." Elder Brimhall then says, "good call Elders, we will be seein ya tomorrow." We both bolt out the door and begin to collect our bikes which were hiding behind the bushes when the other Elders call us. I answer the phone and start talking to them then Elder JOurney grabs the phone from me and starts talking to them so that I would be able to get my bike so then we would be able to get the heck out of there. Elder Journey is already on his bike and a good 40 yards away talking on the phone riding into the mist of darkness when I hop on my bike and start pedaling away. So I thought. I then hear this one girl (who we call "Twitch" because her last name is twitchel and she always seems like she is out to get the missionaries) yell out, "ELDERS, WHERES YOUR LIGHTS?" I then stop and look over to see this large siloutte of a crowd walking out the door, in the opposite direction might I mention, to see all 25 people turn around to see whats going on, looking at me, without a helmet, lights, and my companion, trying to escape. I then see this large figure of a man walk into the light of the street lamp and of course, to my astonishment, Elder Brimhall and President Allred with all the other stake authorities. Just Great! As I ride off, he says, "Elders! Wheres your helmets?!" (in again, not a mad, but just a TRYIN TO DO MY JOB type of tone) I then reply, "We dont have any." He replies back, "what does the white handbook say?" I say, (as I am riding away into the bleak and fearsome darkness) "A L W a y s......" As what I imagined my fading voice sounded like as I rode away. I get up to Elder Journey and He says,"GREAT, was that Elder Brimhall?" Then we both rode away in complete humiliation. I cant believe it. I got reamed by a general authority in front of our whole stake. And Elder Journey was nowhere to be seen. It was a good thing President Gardner, President Allred, and Bishop Mckean have good sense of humor. Bishop Mckean found out the next morning and took a little bit of the sting off by telling us about the time he was on his mission and got caught at an outdoor concert by a general authority. I felt better. Then, after the Sunday session President Gardner came up to us and says with a smile, "make sure you stay together, and..... wear your helmets." It was a good experience.

I was also going to let you know. Marie Moore is getting baptized tomorrow and Holli on the 24th. Shes been sober for 18 days! Coffee and cigarettes. whoo. Lets go wheat heat.

From last week...

Hey there you Heywoods.

So, one last comment on the Wootens. They were in Elder Journey's ward. So I think I told you that I found Grandpa's engineering guy here, tell him that I will talk to him this week. Some other information: This Sunday we have stake conf and Elder Brimhall of the Seventy will have a meeting with the missionaries, Recent converts, investigators, less-actives and so on. It should be pretty good. Then, next week we have Elder Condie from the Seventy touring the mission with President Gardner. That should also be pretty sweet.

Sorry I didnt write yesterday, none of the libraries were opened. I am pretty scatter brained right now. You should look at this website called missionsite.net I guess its kind of like the newest missionary site thing to do. You can see some of the missionaries from my mission. I got hold of Stephen Andersen and he sent me back an awesome letter. Its a funny conversion story. I was going to tell you thanks for the Movie/DVD. It was pretty good even though Elder Journey criticized all the photography. Youll have to ask youre Skousen tennis friend for me what Robert Skousens Albanian address is so I can write him. I think he was one of the Angels in the New Testaments.

So whats up with Jareds movie? I know Gabes brother is big into doing movies. Who is doing all the filming? I dont know why I am having all these random thoughts but can you tell me when Cameron Cox leaves? Can you also ask someone in choir or Stephanie Hatfield or Alexa if they have any recordings of our concerts? I know Dr. Spencer was going to put out a CD but never did. I would like to listen to that. Once again dont make my wants a priority. Just whenever is convenient.

Our Questions: His Answers

Where do you live? Apartment or house? Just you two or others?

We use to live in a guest house with 2 other missionaries. But, our misison doesnt like two sets of elders living together and it wasnt working anyway. We now live with a widower, in his basement, on montana ave. right in the middle of things. Add: 330 S. Montana Ave. He is a cool guy and a millionaire. Tell grandpa BW that I found Dave Stahly but havent talked to him yet. He still owns an engineering firm in town.


Do you ride your bike everywhere or do you have a car too?

Yes

What do you fix for meals when you are not eating with members?

Mainly every dinner is with members so.... Breakfast: cereal (there is a costco here) in that case, lots of cereal, eggs, bananas, nothing irregular. Lunch: frozen foods. quesadillas, etc. Everything I use to eat at home.

Are you taking advil for your shoulder?

no, I dont need advil

How do you like Helena?

Like it a lot. More normal than Polson. But, nevertheless, is still Montana and still has a weirdness to it.

Did you get a hat for the cold weather?

yes. You will probably see some of my purchases on my card from this past week.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Let me tell you...

Confession: I have to confess that my shoulder isnt what it should be and was told that I should tell you what is wrong so that you might get some counsel from the doctors considering what procedures should take place. The story goes: about 2 months after surgery when I had just started PT, I was skateboarding and fell. I hurt it. I didnt tell anyone. Next, I hurt it playing flag football. After that, volleyball in the MTC. After that, capture the flag in Big Fork. Bro Fife, the chiropractor here, told me that I should tell you just in case I ever wanted to have a part in any physical activity again. He said you should consult the physician and surgeon. I am fine right now, just like I was fine during the last 4 years of my life with a jacked up shoulder, but I thought I might want to let you know.

On a happy note, Holli, not Holly, has been sober for 5 days now and very grouchy. Holli has been smoking since she was 12 and has never gone longer than 2 days without a cigarette. Aside from the point, Holli came to all 4 sessions of GC with the boys. Thats sayin something. She is doing awesome. She just needs a couple more days (according to the stop smoking plan we have) and she should be able to resist smoking at a pretty tolerable level. We have been teaching her and the boys pretty consistently. They should all be ready to be baptized on the 24th.

I dont think I ever told you about our Bishop in 3rd ward who works for the FBI but he and his family are awesome. The Mckeans. They have 5 kids and 3 of the boys are ages: 10, 15 and 17. Chris Luke and Jared. You should see some of the houses out here, including the Mckeans, they are pretty sweet.

Apart from all that garbage of goodness, things are going well with Rod and Lisa, Marie, Anna, Shelly, and Jessica who all got to see at least one session of conference. Actually, things are almost "all well." Elder Journey went to go see Jessica last wednesday night with Bro Bangerter and said it went horrible. We later found out from Bro Bangerters wife, who had tutored the 50 yr old Jessica a year ago, that Jessica was Schizophrenic and Bi-polar. It Finally All Made Sense and fit the skepitcal occulations that we had incured of her. We knew that something was wrong with this lady because she was too weird, talkative, protective AND out-going to not have a normal personality. All her traits contradicted themselves. Anyway, Journey and Bangerter had a lesson with her and it went bad. We assumed that she did not take her meds that night due to her weird stories like giving herself communion with grapenuts and OJ that morning, all the way to her tangent filled explanations and scatter-brained points that she always brings up. Dont get me wrong, this lady is nice, and surprisingly normal looking, just very hard to get involved with. Every single visit/phone call lasts at least 3 hours. She has been seeing misisonaries for the past 3 months and lets us come in her house, mow her lawn, etc,etc. but wont let us have her phone #. She calls us from a restricted line. Its just too funny. I could write a whole biography on her and Ive only known her for 2 weeks.

I dont think I told you but we have stake conference in a couple weeks and get to have a private meeting with our investigators and Elder Brimhall from the seventy. Hopefully that will go well.

I think thats about it for my week. Keep living the Gospel you hypocrits. I think the main message for Conference was LOVE and SERVICE which is really coincidental. Coincidental because the Mission Assistants went around to every single district meeting last week, followed by President Gardner for this week, and talked about LOVE and SERVICE. Coincidence? nope.
LOVE!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

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.

Friday, September 25, 2009

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!