twentynine palms.

AREA: so first off here’s a little background of my area. We serve right next to one of the biggest Marine bases in America, (it’s huge cuz it’s where they test out bombs and helicopters and all that fun stuff lol) so we had to get base passes so we’re allowed on the base and like 75% of the work we do is with marine dudes and some families of marines. It is so fun. 2 of the marines we meet with on a regular basis are fluent in German which is like super cool. Every thursday we have something called a “base activity” where we meet with some of the lds marines and they bring their nonmember friends and we literally just party and then sometimes help them understand the Book of Mormon better. Yesterday we had 2 sacrament meetings on base, (one of them was out in the middle of nowhere desert land hahah) and I got to speak at both of them which was fun. The area itself is super cool too, we are pretty much surrounded in palm trees, cacti, joshua trees, and tumbleweeds. The world’s best citrus trees are here too, but sadly none 29 palms:(. ALSO, Joshua tree national park is part of our area, so we’re going exploring there today and having a picnic which will be a party prolly.

MY COMPS: I’m in a tripanionship which I thought I would hate but it’s actually the best. Sister Taylor is on her last transfer and she is from Bosie, and Sister Fry is on her second transfer and she’s from northern Alaska and I LOVE hearing her stories of seeing whales and polar bears and being completely surrounded with mountains 24/7. Definitely gonna visit her after the mish. We do some of our comp studies outside since the weather is beautiful and it’s really fun, and we always eat frozen sour patch kids (the best thing ever) during comp studies hahah. We have a pet beta fish named Elder that I love dearly. Sister Fry is obsessed with making dried flower chain things so we have them everywhere and it’s adorable! Also, we have a massive package full of little rubber dinosaur things and we do this thing called “dinosauring” where we just leave little dinosaurs on the elders cars and by their house and just random people’s cars sometimes too haha.

THE PEOPLE: like I said, the marines we work with are SO awesome. They love hearing about the Book of Mormon stories and I love hearing all of their crazy military stories so it works out good. My first day here, we had a lesson with a marine family and one of the daughters has been taking the lessons for a while and it happened to be the lesson where we invited her to be baptized so my first ever lesson was straight up setting a baptismal date haha!! So I’m mega looking forward to going to her baptism, she is the sweetest thing ever. We do a TON with member lessons and getting the members in on the work; we actually have like 4 back to back member lessons a day sometimes which is awesome. So for all those members at home, PLEASE help the missionaries cuz they need you and depend on you more than you realize.

THE GOSPEL: guys for reals tho, the gospel is true. Heavenly Father loves us so much it’s crazy. He trusts us to love His children and when we choose to love others more and give more of ourselves, He blesses us in ways we never would have recognized before. I have been struggling to be patient with myself and my flaws, but I find so much peace in knowing that He is patient with me and wants me to be patient with me too. He knows we can accomplish a lot here on earth, but He doesn’t expect it all at once. All He expects is who we are.

I LOVE YOU ALL and I am so grateful for the Christlike light you all possess. Please dont hesitate to let me know if you need extra prayers or support, or if you know someone that does. Have an amazing week!!

Lots of love, Sister Parker