Visit from a friendly face

Our dear friend Michael Hansen found Jacob at church on Sunday!

Hello family! It sounds like everyone is doing super well and that

makes me so happy. Even though the ski season has been a bit rough

with injuries and not going up much it seems like everyone is happy.

Plus we will all be shredding soon enough. And Sam had a baptism last week which is sooooo sick! His email this last week was so good to read. It really helped me. I'm super stoked for him. I can't believe how long he has been out. Sometimes it

doesn't seem real and that day he left in the airport seems like

yesterday and then I realize that I have gone through that same day and

it's been 5 months since then. It has been a crazy 5 months to say the least. 

I loved the 4 and a half months in Bedford and it seriously felt like home. But London is

also amazing. Sometimes I just have to sit and be super grateful for where

I am serving. Britannia is the centre of London. We are 5 minutes away

from the chapel We are just super lucky. I could serve here for

ages haha. I'm thinking I will stay next transfer because Elder

H goes home. But we have had a great transfer so far and we are

super excited for I. She has a baptismal date for the 6th of

February and she is super excited. I'm super excited! She just absorbs

everything like a sponge and totally understands. It also helps that

she now hangs out with all the recent convert Chinese members of the

ward every day. We are trying to start a Chinese branch

hahahahahhaa. This area had 27 baptisms last year and like 23 were

Chinese. They really are pioneers. They all go back home to China and

teach their parents and families are baptized. It's just a miracle.

They are all so humble and they LOVE learning. They come ready to take

notes in the lessons and everything. They really are great people who are exactly obedient and are super prepared to hear the message of Jesus Christ.

So we had the worldwide devotional on Wednesday. It was soooo good.

We had interviews before and I loved it. I love President so much, he

just loves his calling and is so willing to do whatever it takes to

magnify it. And Sister Stevens! She's the best! She also interviewed

every single missionary! We talked forever! But the Worldwide mission conference was lovely. It was so cool to think that Sam was watching it in Chile and all of his buddies at

the same time and also Hank in Boston, Johny in Argentina,  Jack in

Ohio, and Isaac in the blessed land of Chinese. It was a great meeting

and the theme was "teach repentance and baptize converts!" So that's

what we are going to do!

We played basketball with the YSA and some investigators, well I

didn't play she watched and played for a little bit, but it got wayyyy

intense and I see why we don't keep score as missionaries because it

was crazy but to be honest it felt good to get the intensity up and

have some fun haha. But it was a good time and we had fun so it's all

good. The Chinese are also way good at basketball, my boy Wei Wei is a

baller......they are good at everything. I’m still grateful for all

those boring days shooting hoops with Hank for hours and hours and

hours because it has paid off. Thanks Hank haha. I guess I deserved

it from making him sit around and watch ski videos for hours and hours

haha.

MIKE HANSEN!!! Haha I walked into the chapel and the sisters said my

Bishop was here and I was like, okay it's not dad cus that would be

insane, and it's probably not Bishop Fox, or Cahoon, or Cannon, and

then I remembered the Pasadena ward, and Mike Hansen! It was so good

to see him. He's here doing a Nike shoot for something. Haha so sick!

We chatted for a while about the Utes and the team down south. It was

so good to see a familiar face honestly. It's crazy that I've already

seen 3 people from back home. But we may be going out to dinner with

him tonight if he's not busy. But he's such a good man and super kind

and loving.

Michael took Jacob and his companion to Five Guys

Saying goodbye in the Underground

Lords Hand

I have seen the Lords hand this week in President and Sister Stevens

and the love they have for the missionaries. They really have been

called here for a reason and they are having such an impact on the

mission. They work so hard! They are just the best and I know the Lord needs them here.

I was watching grandmothers devotional and it was sooo good. It

made me miss her and family dinners just hearing her voice. It was

awesome to see Grandfather sitting right behind her as well. He looked

so happy and proud of her. He's the best. Grandmother was talking

about Bonnie-isms ( good one uncle Jeff hahaha) and a few of them

stuck out to me and are certainly ones I have heard all growing up.

"Fair is where you go to see the pigs" haha it's true. Life's not fair

and I have learned that from a young age and from always hearing that

at family dinners between all the cousins. 

Another one was "remember who you are!" I am so grateful that I am part of such a great family. I love being a Parkin and a Howell. Two of the best genes in the world

haha, even though we lack patience at times. I'm still learning haha.

But we do know how to work hard and love each other. 

And the last one, "to know is to do" I can't count how many times dad has said that. And

now I know where it comes from. But I am grateful for the lessons it

has taught me. 

Oh and one more awesome quote from grandmother haha,

“television is satans home teacher" hahahahahhaa so good. Love you

guys.

Well I love you guys and I love Britannia. It's the best! I hope Will

Dog is healing up. I pray for you guys every day. I love you.

NO SHORT CUTS

Jake

Street Contacting next to Big Ben

Well this week has been good! I love the Britannia ward. It really is

a special place and the members are amazing as well as the

missionaries in our zone. So we are finding lots of people! And they

are allllllll Chinese! We even are eating some weird Chinese food. I love them all. 

They are so nice and humble.

There are thousands and thousands of students just outside the visitors

centre (Hyde park) that we can talk to. We just go out and invite

people In. There is a video that only the Visitor Centres have called

"Gods Plan" and it is such a great video. It's about a family that

progresses to the oldest daughter getting married and it just talks

about how we can be together forever and how we can be sealed with our

families. Everyone loves it. I think I have watched it over 20 times

in 10 different languages and it makes me cry every time. I love you

guys so much. I am so grateful that we have so much fun together

skiing, boating, playing lacrosse and just doing whatever. It's the

best.

So we are teaching one girl named I, she is Chinese. We found her

out in the street  last week and taught her a lesson on the street.

My lesson teaching is pretty rusty because we didn't teach much in

Bedford but it's getting better. We then saw Iris again on Tuesday And

taught her about repentance and the atonement. She loved it. She

started crying and saying how she had been really sad and that she was

looking for something to make her happy. We extended a baptismal date

for her and we are so excited for her. She came to institute and met all the other

Chinese members and she loved it! They were so welcoming and kind to

her and it was just a great experience for her I think. So we have

this thing called We Chat on our iPads. It's this Chinese messaging app and its 

really good! I don't know how to use it but I will figure it out.

A few days ago we went finding to all the university's in zones 1-2 on

the underground. Well we tried to go to all of them. But London is

massive. Sometimes it gives me a headache knowing how huge our area is

and how many people we are dealing with. Sometimes you have to cram

into the tube and hope the door doesn't squash you because it's so

packed. But I like it. It's a different feel from Bedford. London

makes down town slc seem like cedar city or beaver haha. But we went

finding at Westminster. Like the real Westminster, not the one on 13th

east haha. It was crazy! We didn't have much success because of so

many tourists, but sometimes it doesn't seem real that I am street

contacting right next to Big Ben. It really is amazing. I'm so

grateful for my mission. I'll definitely come back to London one day.

There was a man on Saturday that came into Hyde Park with his wife and

said that he served in the Britannia ward 20 years ago! Haha it was

crazy! That's going to be me.

There is a senior couple that just went back to Salt Lake City. Elder

and Sister Cardall. They were so lovely. Elder Cardall went to the

good old EAST HIGH SCHOOL! And so did President and Sister Stevens! It

was such a great connection. We had some good laughs. It was great to

find some leopards all the way over in England. For some reason

everyone in the mission knows I went to East and all they talk about

is how cool it was  that I went to high school there. I tell them that

it's nothing like the movie and that all we really do there is haze

kids and shave their heads and kidnap them all summer haha.

#savetheshave

Well the BYU study abroad arrived yesterday. Haha it was crazy. There

are like 41 girls and 1 guy. I feel bad for him haha. But I haven't

seen anyone I know yet I probably will soon which will be strange. But

yes they are all here now for the next few months I'm guessing...

LORDS HAND

I have seen the Lords hand so much this week. I have struggled to

figure out how the YSA works and how everything works to be honest, I

feel like a two week out missionary still and I really don't know what

I'm doing half the time. But I have seen the Lord bless me in knowing

that he is there to always help me. And I have also seen him in you

guys and how lucky I am. I have the best family in the world. And I am

beyond grateful for the work ethic I have and learning to just grind

out the days haha. It's the best! It's crazy that a year ago this week

dad and I took off for our 2000 mile trip to Canada to shred some deep

pow in Rossland haha. I know it wasn't what we expected but it was a

trip I will never forget and its crazy that it was a year ago already.

It really was a trip of a lifetime. I'll never forget the talks dad

and I had driving through the Canadian mountains and riding the ferry

about how the mission would be tough but worth it. I can't wait to go

back for some redemption powder runs with the boys.

I love you guys! Thanks for being the best. Love you.

NO SHORT CUTS

Jacob

London is super super super cool!

Well it seems like this week has been pretty crazy and stressful to he honest. I feel pretty out of place here in London. And do not get me wrong! London is Freekin amazing. Everything is so big and it's always busy and it's just super super super cool. I love it here. But it's totally different from what I am used to and what I have been doing in Bedford the last 4 and a half months. Basically everything I learned in Bedford I don't really do. We don't have bikes, we ride the tube everywhere and we are white washing so my companion and I don't really know where we are going except by looking at the confusing tube map that makes no sense haha. But we are slowly figuring it out. It has been a long week of just trying to settle in. Especially from being in a little English town and then coming to the centre of one of the biggest craziest cities in the world haha. 

So because we are in the YSA ward, when we find we look for younger people that would be interested in coming to church, institute or just other activities. There are tons of Chinese people here! More than half the ward is Chinese. And they are almost all converts. So we do talk to lots of Chinese people on the street and they are incredibly nice and humble. It was strange how nice they were at first haha. I was so used to grumpy English people just being pretty rude hahaha.  It feels good that we have this pressure at times because for me it makes me want to really do all I can 24/7 to find people. 

So my companion is from Hungry. He is a really cool guy! He was a convert when he was 19 and came out on the mission when he was 20. He said that every single missionary in hungry was from Utah haha. We really are everywhere in the world haha. His name is Elder H. So he goes home at the end of this transfer so we are going to kill it and make sure he leaves on a good note. I'm just going 100% all the time so he doesn't get lazy. We are grinding it out. 

The front of Jacob's flat...REALLY????

So our flat is soooo dang nice...I feel bad living here because it is so nice. But I guess there aren't really cheap flats in South Kensington so it is what it is. We are in a 4 man flat. I'm the only American haha. I'm with a Hungarian, and two Brazilians hahaha. (Dad Brazilians are crazy, Haha but they are super nice and hilarious, I just make fun of them and entertain myself haha)  It is a 5 minute walk from our flat to the Hyde Park chapel which is so cool! It's a great way to find people and contact people especially because the London Imperial College is right across the street so we just ask people if they want to come to a free exhibit. 

Tom Butler, Jacob and Ben Whisenant
All members of the Bonneville 2nd Ward!

Sorry this is so long but on Saturday Ben Whisenant came to the Hyde park chapel with Tom Butler and took us out to dinner. Ah it felt soooo good seeing them. They really are the best haha. It was super nice of them and to catch up with them. It made me super happy. 

Lords Hand

I have seen the lords hand so much this week. I honestly had no idea how to find my way around London on the tubes and just walking as well. So we cover alllll of London because there is only 2 YSA wards in England and the other is in Manchester. So we even can go into parts of the London south mission haha. So that's cool. But I really have seen the Lord help me find my way around. It hasn’t been easy but I have felt comforted. I have also seen the lords hand in blessing you guys at home. Just with Ben and Will and their crashes. It could have been so much worse for both of you guys. I love you and am grateful that all is well! Can't wait to shred though. Haha 

Well I love you guys so so so so much. I miss you and pray for you always. Love you! 

No Short Cuts 

Jacob