8/2/2017

Jacob is finally home!!!  

7/29/2017 LAST EMAIL!!!!

It has been a busy week! I can give an update on Tuesday if we have time. I'm grateful for my mission and for the blessing it has been in my life. It has changed me forever. I have come to know my Saviour. He is the Christ. I am a witness of that. I love England it will forever be special and sacred to me. I love the people here, they are dear to my heart. They have changed my life. We had a lovely opportunity tonight, last transfer Elder Tyltin and I felt prompted to contacted a referral from a while ago. As we did so we began teaching them and they opened up to us. Their son is a member in Japan and sent their contacts a while ago. As time went on they progressed. They both spoke Russian and helped Elder Tyltin so much each week. I was transferred later in the month and was sad to leave them. Just tonight, they entered into the waters of baptism. I am grateful for this work. I know it's true. I will miss England and the people here. I will do my best to finish strong!!!!

I love you all! No short cuts Elder Parkin

7/22/2017

Well, time is short today. We have been quite busy with lots of things. So it will be a very short update. The highlight of the week was going up to Northampton for the day. I was able to be with Elder Leone and his companion Elder Klocke. They are both great lads. We were able to have a good time just out grinding in the streets. It was a sweet moment being back in such a dear place to me. I learned so much in Northampton. When I left in the morning it was very hard. I'm super grateful for the town of Northampton and all the people there. We had lunch with Keerthy who is doing super super well and is totally engaged in the gospel. He is great. We found some really cool people, one that sticks out is a woman named Q. She is from Nigeria and she has seen missionaries in the past and has felt like she needed to talk to them. She was so happy when we stopped her. They are seeing her and her whole family tomorrow after church!!! Lovely miracle!!!

Well I love you all! Time is flying out here. I love the England London mission with all my heart. The people of England are
incredible. They are dear to me. I have learned so much and continue to learn so much. I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to be here. I am reminded daily of the blessing that it is. I will see you all in a bit under 2 weeks!

NO SHORT CUTS!

Elder Parkin

7/15/2017

Hello family, it will need to be another quick one this week. Short and sweet is how we like it. So it was a lovely week here in the city.
We had alot of good things happen. We had 2 missionaries come in from the MTC and they are legends!!!! One is from the Philippines and th other is from south London. The one from south London is actually visa waiting for India haha so we are pumped for him!!!!

We had a few cool experiences this week. So the other day we had a few minutes to go out finding before we needed to head home. And man were we pumped. We were bouncing off the walls in the visitors centre. We talked to everyone we could and we stopped one girl who was actually from Texas. She is studying at Baylor and is here for a study abroad. Long story short we showed her around the VC and she loved it. We ended up teaching her the next day and she shared some of her experiences and it was just a very powerful lessons. Not much has come from it, but we felt the spirit and so did she. I'm grateful for just the little things that happen that bring so much joy. So that was great. We have also been able to find quite a few Chinese students even with the summer break and we feel blessed to be teaching a few of them! Our friend J is doing well!!! He is coming to church this week and we are pumped to see him!!!


I love you all!! It will be good to see everyone soon! I love my mission. I have never ever been happier than here. I am grateful for it. London is special to me. I love the people here. I will never forget what I have learned. We are still out grinding until the end so all is well! I will finish my course with joy, and I'm grateful for that!!!

I love you all!
No short cuts

7/8/2017

It has been a lovely week this week. It seems to have flown by like a lot of the other weeks. Time is just cruising. We were at the temple all day today and still have quite a bit to do so there is not much time tonight. It will be a very short email and update!

But life is good. The highlights of the week consisted of traveling to the zone conferences and also going to the temple!!!! It was super super nice to see lots of missionaries that I have served around and that have had such big impacts on my mission. It was sad to say
goodbye to some of them for probably the last time. This week president and sister Stevens trained a lot on repentance and it really was so powerful. I realised so many things that I can do better and my understanding of the principle of repentance has increased and I'm so grateful for that. The temple was incredible. It has been so long since I've been there. I cannot even believe it. It felt so good to be back.

I have seen the Lords Hand this week in my mission in general. Being able to reflect back on what I have learned and who I have become. I'm very very grateful for it. I love having so many memories that I can look back on and be grateful for and being able to see the Lords Hand in those things are even better!

I love you family! I will see you quite soon!!!!

No short cuts!

Elder Parkin

7/1/2017

Well I have about 5 minutes to write this email. So it will be super short and super sweet haha. So overall it was a lovely week here in London. The weather has cooled down. We are back to the gloomy English days. It's quite nice at times. I've come to love the weather here. It's quite strange haha. But we have been busy. We had a really really good MLC this week and we were up quite late preparing things but it payed off and the spirit was powerful and I learned so much. I'm grateful for president and sister Stevens.

I went out to an area called Dunstable the other day and we had a great time out finding and just enjoying the work. I'm very very grateful for the chance to leave London for a bit and enjoy the countryside for probably the last time. It made me so grateful for my mission as I rode on the train there, being able to look out on the beautiful rolling green hills. England has my heart Haha.

So J.....he is a self referral and long story short, he had met the church 5 years ago and had felt the spirit when he read the Book of Mormon and had put it off and forgot about it. Recently he felt drawn to the church again and re read the Book of Mormon and felt the same feeling. As he met with us he expressed how he felt something he could not describe. He explained it as excitement but peace. We were able to teach with president and the spirit was so powerful. I felt my testimony grow as I sat in the lesson. J expressed his feelings opening and it was a miracle. He expressed how he know God lives because of the way he feels as he reads the Book of Mormon. Just like him I know it's true. J is an example to me and I will never forget the lesson we had with him. Just over the last few weeks he has watched general conference by himself and has read all of 1 nephi and 3 nephi. He is coming to church with us tomorrow and I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father for giving us this opportunity.

I have seen the Lords Hand this week in the small details. We fasted as a companionship to find someone ready and willing to accept the gospel. Our prayer was answered and we are humbled at how well Heavenly Father knows us. We don't have much time to go out and proselyte, and the Lord is mindful of us. I'm grateful for Him.


I love you all! I will see you soon I guess. I love this work. England is lovely. I miss you!