Aaron's letters 3-9-10 TO 3-22-10

WEEKLY 3-9-10
Hey family!
Well sorry but this weeks weekly will be very short because my comp and Ionly have 5 min left to email!!!
Haha, but it sounds like tons has happened with you all lately and I am so happy for you all!
Today is a very rainy day, like it has been lately, but the work moves on! My companion and I have been seeing tons of revelations of the Lord's hand in our lives lately and I hope each of you have been able to feel a portion of that in your lives as well!
I know God is our Eternal Father and loves each of us dearly!
Good luck this week and remember "men are that they might have joy"!
Love Elder Parks

3-15-10
Cool! I know how much dad has been working on this Woodbadge for the past while! Congrats!

WEEKLY
Hey Family!!
Well there went another week and time just flies by! This past week we have had some fun times as well as some "rethinker" times.
The fun times include us going to downtown Nagoya to this open basketball court and playing basketball with lots of new friends and finding tons of people! So my body has experienced a whole new type of pain and getting used to lately!!
We also had interviews last Thursday and I found out I will be transferring, no big shocker, in two weeks at transfers for probably my last area! This week's Thursday we have a special zone conference with Elder Aoyagi of the 70 so that will be really good as well!
The "rethinker" stuff was me and Elder Cooley rethinking our sacrifices for March Madness...the cold showers, standing on the bike, and 5:30 wake up just became bothersome and the real meaning of the sacrifices left. So we thought about what we could do to start really meaningful sacrifices...We concluded on waking up at 6 and studying the Book of Mormon specifically for Kaoru, our investigator who needs the desire to get baptized. Then each night while one elder is doing phone calls the other will spend 10 min in the Area book updating records and what not.
These sacrifices have been much better and let us focus more on the investigator and less on how cold the water coming out of the shower is!
Also lately I have been reading the homework assignment for zone conference, which was all of 1 Ne, 2 Ne, and Mosiah, as well as 4 chapters from PMG!, anyway, as i have been reading the Book of Mormon part i have found tons of great scriptures relating to our missionary work and the situation Nagoya mission is in.
At the beginning of this March Madness program we all got really excited and everyone began their sacrifices and what not. But then Satan showed his power as well and trials came: missionaries got sick, investigators dropped, and areas just seemed to fall. However, because of the great experience I had last year during March Madness, i knew we could do this again. So Elder Cooley and I refocued our sacrifice and I have felt more positive as well as optimistic about this month's outcome.
Then as I have read the Book of Mormon i have found tons of places about faith in the Lord and trusting in His promises. It has been awesome to see how much the Book of Mormon contains one more time and reboost myself for March Madness.
I know God loves us and wants all His children to hear the good news of the restored Gospel.
I love you all tons and wish you the best!!
Elder Parks


3-22-10
yep I am staying healthy!!
the weather lately has been getting better but it is cloudy often and iffy to tell if it will rain or not...
I can't wait for that to stop and just be sunny!
and it is slowly getting warmer too

WEEKLY
Hey Family!
Well the time is flying out the window and I've officially got only 3 months and 1 day left to do so much!
March Madness has hit its last week now and we are all way excited to see the miracles required to reach the goal. Currently ten people have been baptized thus far, leaving 12 more to success. I know we can do it with the Lord's help along the way!
One thing I have felt this whole time is as we have committed to serve the Lord and work for miracles, He has truly blessed our efforts. The love of God has been witnessed to me yet again.
Often I get little thoughts and ideas of new viewpoints on missionary work and what not.
Well, lately that thought and feeling has been a stronger realization of the family relationship every person on earth has. As we were talking with one of our investigators, Akira, he asked why we do what we do. Naturally we told him because we want to share these blessing with everyone. However, this time as I spoke about all of us being brothers and sisters and us, as missionaries, wanting to help our family out, I felt a witness that that really is why I am here. I really do want to share this with my brothers and sisters.
I have said those words before as part of a lesson but not until now have I really felt the truth of what it means. God is the Father of us all. Meaning, we are all brothers and sisters. It's very simple. I want to teach my family of the great joy I posses and let them partake of it as well.
This viewpoint is kind of Elder Parks' new stance on why he is a missionary right now.
I am excited to use these last 3 months to share the gospel with as many of my brothers and sisters as i can.
Naturally some of them will not accept the message. Some are not yet prepared. But, through sharing what i have with them true joy is found.
You all can do the same. The neat thing about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is that not only missionaries share the gospel, members do as well. It gives you a chance everyday to share the joy you posses with someone who yet knows of it.
Give it a try. Keep an eye out for that person who needs a little something else in their life. Share with them what you know and how you have felt God's love in your life. I know you can and will see success in your labors. I love you all tons! Good luck!
Elder Parks