Sleepless nights listening to Cold Play and Guns & Roses

Hello fam bam,

Well this week has been pretty crazy and stressful to be honest but it's also been super super good! So the district is awesome! We have a set of visitor centre sisters, ones from Provo and the other is from California and she is from the ward Isaac is serving in so that's funny haha. We also have another set of Britannia elders who are both new and white washing and also the APs. So it's a good time! Everyone is super excited to work hard and see that work move forward. President has some high expectations for the district so we are going to grind it out! We are all super stoked. I don't really know what I'm doing yet but I have awesome zone leaders and APs that are helping me out and I guess you just Gotta "fake it til you make it" hahaha. It's like when you forget the lacrosse play and just run around in circles in front of crease and pretend like you are running a motion haha. But I'll figure it out for sure.

Jacob and his new companion Elder H

My companion is Elder H. He is from Fruitland, Idaho haha. He's a stud. We get along super well and we are just ready to work hard. It's been a slow week this past week but we are just being diligent and looking for the best in everything. But we are stoked to get the work rolling here in Britannia! It's gonna be sick! The students have seemed to slow down around exhibition road for some reason so we have been trying some other places. But we have found a few potentials that I'm hoping will come to church and we have a way cool guy that we have been teaching for a while named D who we think will be baptized this transfer. So we are just working with him. 

Nothing too exciting has happened this week, we have just been doing lots of street contacting. Well that's all we do anyways, we can't tract in London. But we do go finding in Hyde park and it's pretty good! I've been super tired lately because the last few nights someone in the building just blats music all night. I woke up at 330 to cold play and then I woke up at 430 to guns n' roses and then I woke up at 530 to some wacko techno songs. It's been annoying but it didn't happen last night so I hope it's done. Well that's basically my week. It's been good!

LORDS HAND

I've seen the lords hand this week in blessing me with a companion that I get along with and that wants to work hard. I am grateful that he is excited about missionary work. I have also seen the lords hand in the beautiful state of Utah. So many members here just say that they wish they lived in Utah and that everyone who lives there just loves it. It's so true. I love the Wasatch Mountains and the greatest snow on earth. We are so blessed haha. It's the best place. England is cool as well hahaha. But not better than Utah. Another way I saw the lords hand was in our finding this week. So on Sunday's night we were our street contacting before going home for bed. And there weren't very many people out but I stopped this guy and he straight up just asked if I was Elder Parkin. And I said yes and he went on to say that I called him a month ago or so and asked if we could meet up with him but he was super bothered on the phone and he hung up. (His number was just in the phone and I just called him) Well after he hung up he felt that he needed to find us again but couldn't find our number. And he said every time he walked past the chapel he felt like God was trying to talk to him. He went on to say that every time he saw missionaries on the tube or street he check their badge to see if it was Parkin. We ended up talking for 45 minutes in the street about the restoration and we are seeing him twice this week. I saw the lords hand in placing us in the right place at the right time.

I love you guys so much. I hope everyone is doing well. Keep being the best family in the world.

No short cuts

Jake

Look at the bags between his legs...He finally went shopping!!!!

6 MONTHS and staying in London!!!

Hello family! First off! It’s been 6 MONTHS! It seems like a year some days and other days it seems like a week. It's crazy. So transfers, I will be staying in London! So I'm super happy about it. President also put another district in our zone and called me to be the District Leader. So I will be the new district leader of the Britannia district with us, another companionship of elders, VC sisters and the APs. To be honest I've been freaking out all day and I have no idea what I'm doing at all....I feel like I've been out for a week. It's like letting one of the little kids in Vinhagen shoot the 12 gauge for the first time. It's usually a disaster. But I'm going to try my best and just put the head down and grind it out I guess haha. President gave some high expectations and it's stressful and I am just going to try my best to make him proud. So my companion is from Idaho and he is Japanese. He seems like a really cool guy. I will meet him on Wednesday! Well I guess that's the big news.

So this week has been long to be honest but good. It's always hard after a baptism because you have been focusing on someone for so long and "I" was just awesome and she was progressing so fast and she is just great. So we have been doing a lot of finding this week. We have also been quite busy with lunch appointments as well because members from Elder H’s old wards have wanted to take him out so it has been good to actually get some dinner and lunch appointments. But ya, a lot of finding this week. We have found some pretty awesome people but every single one of our appointments fell through so we were a bit bummed but we are planning on seeing most of them this next week.

To be completely honest nothing else happened this week that was note worthy or mentionable haha except for on Saturday we got permission to go to Northampton! My old zone! Elder H has been teaching a Hungarian over Skype who lives in Northampton and he asked Elder H to do the baptism so we were able to go! It as great to witness another baptism and also see the zone leaders, they are some great friends. When we were traveling back, we got on the train from Northampton to London and after 5 minutes they cancelled every single departure back to London and it was already like 8. So we called the zone leaders and they drove us to the closest train station (which wasn't close) haha and we then caught a 2 hour train ride back home. Wow it was the longest day of my life haha. I was and am still super tired but anyway, that's really all that happened this week.

Saying goodbye to Elder H

Northampton Zone leaders

Lords Hand

I have seen the Lords Hand in helping me cheer up! It's been a super gloomy week and it's been raining, windy and cold every day. But the sun came out for just a second and it cheered up like everyone on the street and people actually wanted to talk to us for a while! I am grateful for that and I know the Lord knows how to bless and help support us.

BLUE SKY

I love you guys! I'm assuming Sun Valley was wayyyy sick. I hope they had the big jumps set up. Well I love you and miss you. I hope all is well back home and in SV. Have a great week. Love you

Jake

The Museum of Natural History, accrues from the Hyde Park Visitor's Center, had to be evacuated.  Hundreds of school children were welcomed into the Chapel and church gym for safety.

Chinese New Year

How is it going guys!!!!! Well this week was super super super super awesome. "I" GOT BAPTISED! It was such a lovely experience to see her enter the waters of baptism and to also see how far she has come. We found her on the 9th of January and she was baptized on the 6th of February! Now she is a totally miracle. The last few days I have just been overwhelmed with love towards my Heavenly Father. And I know that the Lord places and prepares those in our paths to receive the gospel. "I" bore her testimony after the baptism about how she has never really felt that anyone loved her. She always felt out of place and

sad. But she testified how she knew she had a loving Heavenly Father who was always there for her and loves her so much. It was such a powerful testimony and I will never forget it. Saturday really was such an amazing Day, the baptism was perfect and it was so amazing to see all the support for Iris. All the Chinese were there. Wei Wei and Joon are two members that taught with us every single lesson we had with "I". And they are both recent converts by just a few months. They really helped so much. The sisters in the visitors centre were always so welcoming and loving to "I". It really has just been a great experience to see everything work so perfectly.

Well after the baptism we had a Chinese New Year party and it was soooooooooo sick! Hahaha. We did tons of weird but fun Chinese games and just had a really really good time. It was awesome to see how connected "I" was with the ward already. She was making dumplings, laughing, and just having a good time. I'm not worried one bit about her. She will love it here.

Just a few dumplings!!

So I was talking to President and Sister Stevens, and they said their bishop emailed them and said that he was good buddies with Elder Parkins dad. Their bishop is Barnes!  It brought back some good memories of Vinhagen. They also said that Braxton has started his papers! That's insane! Time flies. I remember when we were just little punks catching frogs, shooting guns, and eating meat. Good times. Good times.

Well the rest of the week has been just contacting and trying to have people to teach after "I" and we are struggling a bit.  But this week has been seriously one of the best. It was so good to see "I" progress so much in just a few weeks.

So something crazy went down on Sunday in sacrament. So during testimony meeting Wei Wei got up to bear his testimony and another member got up but Wei Wei got to the pulpit first so this guy started freaking out and yelling and just losing it. So the bishop had to tell him to leave and it was just crazy.  Anyways the meeting ended up being really great.

Lords Hand

I have seen the lord’s hand in "I" being baptized this week. She has come so far and I know Heavenly Father has helped her along the way. She had some struggles but her faith helped and the Lord knew exactly what she needed and it was just a blessing to be a part of. I have also seen the lord’s hand in having the sun come out on Sunday just for a little bit and also a couple more times this week. It has been cloudy and gloomy for a while now so it was good to see the sun and it just lightens the mood so much I love it.

I love you guys. You are the best and I hope everyone is doing well.

Keep being the best family. I love you so much.

No Short Cuts

Jacob

Fight On!

Wow! January is over already....it was a pretty fast month to be honest! A lot has happened and it's been crazy and amazing haha. So it was super great to be transferred to London. I love it here. I miss Bedford but London really is amazing and I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible. So this week was pretty good! We a few lessons with Iris and a few less actives and recent converts so that's good!

Finding this week wasn't the best because of the weather. It was cold and raining and windy so there weren't many people outside but we tried our best and talked to some cool people! Hahaha I stopped theses two Chinese Girls and they said they weren't interested and walked away and when they walked away I noticed that they were both wearing USC sweatshirts! It was awesome haha. We then talked for a bit, they were studying abroad here and they were both from Pasadena! They said they would come stop by the visitors centre one day! So that was cool! FIGHT ON!!

So on Thursday we watched Meet the Mormons with "I" and some other elders brought some investigators. I seriously love that movie so much! I got emotional at the end when the missionary leaves the salt lake airport. It brought back memories of when Sam left mostly. And then I realized that I had done the same thing to you momma haha. I'm just grateful for you guys. I love you so much! At least you'll have one of your sons and brothers back this summer haha.  We play basketball on Thursdays with our investigators and it super fun. I'm out of shape because my companion hates running in the morning and blames it one the air quality. So it's good when we play basketball.

I have been a bit jealous of Elder H this week. He and the two other APs went to the temple on Saturday! They did like 3 sessions! It sounded amazing. Hopefully we can go with Doe in a year or so! I am so so so grateful that we live so close to the temple. I’m going to go like every single day hahaha. So I was on exchange with the other AP Elder W on Saturday. So that was fun. He's from Arizona and is a way cool kid. His pops is a dentist as well haha. They had a flat inspection that day so we did a lot of cleaning in their flat haha.

So "I" had her interview this week and she passed! She loved it! She is super super excited for her baptism next week. We are so happy for her. I was just thinking about how amazing the Lord works. We found "I" 3 weeks ago outside of a random tube station in central London. We had been late to the station but it's so comforting knowing that we were late for a reason and that because of being late we were able to find Iris and help her make it to this point. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

So on Sunday there was a baptism in the ward and "I" came to watch and she was super super excited, but she is very shy so she is worried about everyone watching her being baptized. So she doesn't want a ton of people there even though allllll of China will be there and that's a lot of people haha. So we will see how that goes. But she will be fine and she is super ready to take this step! So we are stoked! She progressed so fast and was super prepared! The Lord places the elect in our paths! I know it!

The Lords Hand

I have seen the Lords hand every day of my life this week. I am grateful that I can pray always. And know that he is there to help. I was a bit down a few days ago and I was grateful that I could pray and feel comfort in remembering my reasons for serving a mission. I have seen the Lords hand in and through the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon never fails to comfort me and lift me up, and last I have seen the Lords hand in my patriarchal blessing. It is so special to me and I love reading it and I really feel so much peace when I do.

I hope all is well back home. I'm happy for James and Jordan! It's weird to think they are engaged though...it kind of blows me mind honestly. I'm assuming Andrew has started his papers, which is insane! I can't believe I was in his position just last year haha.

I love you guys! William! Heal up! Be great. Love you guys.

Jacob