I figured I better start by saying sorry this week’s email is a day late. Yesterday was Memorial Day so everything in Jacksonville was closed. I am actually in Pittsfield today but we got to stop by the library and send an email. Thanks for the package Jenn. I had $1.62 left to buy everything for the week this week and we were running out of just about everything that you sent us so it was greatly appreciated. Oh and the Nerf ball combined with an upside down lamp shade taped to the wall has given us a lot of entertainment over the last week.
This week was really normal but really good. We were really busy which is always a good thing. We had 12 member present lessons and the mission average is 3 a week so that gives you an idea of how busy we were. Probably the coolest thing that happened this week was in a lesson with Kodie. I have been writing about Kodie for a long time and we have been teaching him since the first day I got here. He had pretty much stopped progressing and we were on the brink of dropping him. But then one day something in his mind just clicked. He started reading and praying. Everything in the lessons just goes better and it has been awesome. This week we committed him to be baptized. With a little bit of hesitation because he is so afraid of water he agreed. We have him scheduled for the 23rd of June. There is nothing that I would love to see more than him getting baptized.
Earlier this week we went to teach a lady named Betty. While we were there her grandson William came up and talked to us and wants us to start teaching him. He is 11 and loves Jesus more than anything. He loves the church so much. When he gets bored he looks at pictures of Jesus and reads the Gospel Principals manual. So he is pretty awesome. We met with him and his mom who is a member a few times and we also set a date with him. We are hoping to have both of these kids baptized on the 23rd so we can really look forward to that day.
The beginning of the week was really long for me because I got pretty sick. I wasn’t throwing up so we didn’t have an excuse to stay inside or anything but i felt awful all day. We had a few lessons that day and those were pretty much me sitting in the corner with my head down trying to stay alive while Elder Anderson taught everyone. It was good to have him take over for a while and it really helped me to see how good of a teacher he is. Like I mentioned earlier I am down in Pittsfield today so he is over leading in Jacksonville. I hope everything is going well out there and I am glad that he is getting this chance to really take over the area for a while.
Memorial Day ended up being pretty fun for us. At 8 that morning we headed over to the church and had a Memorial Day breakfast with the ward. It was a really good breakfast with more bacon that I had ever seen before. But the part that was really fun was when we got to play softball after. Even though it is about a million degrees here every day getting outside and playing games is still really fun. We had most of our investigators at that too so that was really cool.
The funniest thing that happened this week was actually today. Me and Elder Cooper are in Pitts and we went to do service over at a retirement home. The people there are super, super old but really nice and funny too. We went shopping with them at Wal Mart and that was fun but then we played a game called washers. It is pretty much a bunch of old people throwing washers into a little bucket and if they make a certain amount then the missionaries have to do the chicken dance. So for about an hour me and Elder Cooper ran around doing the chicken dance while a bunch of old people laughed at us. It was probably the most entertaining thing that I have done on my mission so far. If we were around anyone else it would have been super awkward and weird but these people just loved it.
The one sad thing I have to say this week actually happened last week but I forgot to talk about it. There is a less active member named Carmen who loves the missionaries and feeds us all the time. She was the most awesome member ever not too long ago but recently she has stopped coming to church and stopped doing all of the things that you have to do to keep your testimony. Last week she called us to let us know that she was officially taking her name off of the church records. It was really sad to hear that, but it really helped me realize how big of a deal the Spirit really is in our lives. I have seen several people change from miserable and angry to happy and loving in just a few short weeks. All because they have had the Spirit brought into their lives. Sometimes it is such a gradual change that they don’t even notice it until we point it out. And I watched the exact opposite happen to Carmen. She slowly lost that spirit and went from happy and loving to angry and bitter. It is sad to see people fall away especially when we know exactly what can help them.
So my challenge to all of you this week is to take a look at your life and see how happy you really are. And if you are becoming more and more miserable then see if you have been slacking in any spiritual areas. Reading scripture and praying every day being probably the biggest one. I know that every time I find myself slipping it is because I start to get comfortable and stop working as hard as I can. I also know that when we do keep working and never lose that excitement about the gospel we will never stop getting happier and happier. I love this gospel and the opportunity that I have to share it. It’s my hope that we can all realize how great of a blessing it really is and take advantage of the knowledge that we have.
-Elder Banks
P.S. Go Spurs
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
Parker and Elder Jensen with Kodie and Shelly who was baptised on May 5th.
I have to start by saying how proud I am of Cole. My mom told me that her and my dad went out to see his farewell and that it was awesome. I wish that I could have been there way bad, but I know that I will get to see you again soon. And I know that you are going to go out and be the most amazing missionary Perth has ever seen. I always wanted to punch you because you're better than me at everything, but all of those skills will be really useful on your mission. You're going to do so awesome!! Oh by the way mom if I could get the address to his mission home that would be awesome.
And, happy birthday to my sister Amanda tomorrow! I would brag about remembering your birthday but to be honest I totally forgot. But you can thank mom for reminding me. Your birthday is my 3 months in Illinois mark. So sorry to over shadow your birth but 3 months is a pretty big deal. I only have like 21 left so I’m practically home.
But anyway, this has been an insane week. It is weird to think that me and Elder Jensen have only been apart for less than a week. It feels like it has been forever haha. But my new companion is awesome. His name is Elder Anderson and he is from Sacramento California. His real first name is Michael and it was funny cause the first thing that we found out about each other is that he is a 49ers fan. He was a little upset when he saw my Raiders blanket laying on my bed. My mom sent me a bunch of city names around Sacramento because that’s where she served her mission. He knew all of them and said he lives right by them. He actually lives in Sacramento right by where the Kings play (he is a Jimmer fan) but spends some time in the surrounding cities. He is a really cool guy so it has been easy to get along. He likes sports so that’s cool. He is the first missionary I have met who is younger than me so that is pretty cool. It has been really good having him as a companion.
The first few days I was super overwhelmed trying to be a trainer. I felt like I had no idea how to do anything. But after a few days of having to take the lead it has gotten a lot easier. It is pretty awesome because this week we had really good numbers and so did the other area in our district, Pittsfield. The zone leaders were blown away when we reported our numbers. Especially because we have such a young district. We had one of our best weeks ever in Jacksonville. I always heard that it was supposed to be the trainer who worked the trainee to death but in our companionship it is the other way around. It is awesome how hard Elder Anderson works. He is really new so he still has a few things to figure out but all I have to do is point him in the right direction and he takes off. He is probably going to work me to death by the end of this transfer. Maybe some of his greenie fire will rub off on me. Wednesday was the first day that we were together and it was a really easy day. We just unpacked and went to the church so he could meet the bishop and other people at young mens and young womens.
Then Thursday was pretty good cause we just went around and met all of our investigators. It is really strange because I love the people here so much and they make me so happy, but with a new missionary they are just random people. It has been a challenge to get him to really love the people that we are going to teach but I’m sure that it will come with time.
Friday was another normal day and we had some really good lessons that day. We actually had 3 member present lessons and 3 new investigators in one day which is above the mission weekly average, so that was a really awesome day.
Then Saturday came and it was really interesting. It was mission bike day which means that you can’t drive your car at all. Unfortunately Elder Anderson doesn’t have a bike yet so for us it was mission walk day. And of course it had to be the hottest day since I got here. It was about 95 degrees all day long and the humidity was unreal. 95 doesn’t sound like it’s too unbelievably hot but with the humidity it was easily the hottest weather I have ever been in. We didn’t have to go very far that day though so that was good. We walked about 6 miles total and actually helped a lady fix her roof. So that was a really long, hot, and sweaty, day. But it was pretty fun. With Elder Anderson working my face off the time has started to go really fast. It feels like every day we wake up and 10 minutes later we have to go to bed. I have a feeling the next 2 transfers are going to go really fast.
So after Saturday came Sunday just like normal. So we went to church and it was awesome. Sunday school is possibly my favorite hour of the week. It is so much fun. The class that we go to only has like 5 people in it. But it is a blast. It makes me feel like I am a normal kid again, but not in a bad worldly way. The people here are awesome. The boys in the class are all getting ready to get their mission calls. I am praying that I get to stick around in Jacksonville long enough to hear their farewells. These guys are going to be amazing missionaries. They come with us to a bunch of meetings and they are just like having a 3rd companion. They already know more about missionary work than I do. I am so excited for them. It is so cool to get to see all of my friends go out on their missions.
Matt Widmer wrote me a letter this week and it was really cool to hear from him. Especially cause it sounds like our mission areas are kinda similar. Lots of crazy people and thousands of miles of corn.
Hopefully this next week goes just as well as last week did. I am so thankful that I get the chance to be out here for a short 2 years. I always thought that 2 years sounded like forever, but when I realized I have already been out for 3 and a half months I freaked out a little. That probably sounds really really stupid haha. But I can’t believe how fast the time is going now. There are always long days and even long hours sometimes, but I am really learning to love every second of it. Once you realize that our lives are centered around the only thing in the world that really matters at all the time flies. Good luck to all of my friends who are preparing and I will be praying for you all. Be good and I will talk to you all again soon.
-Elder Parker Banks
John 14:27
Monday, May 14, 2012
Training a new missionary
I don’t really know what to say today because I got to talk to my family yesterday. But for the rest of you I will quickly go over what happened this week.
So this email might be a little short cause we are really short on time today. Elder Jensen has to pack which takes a bunch of our P-Day. And from that last line you can probably tell that Elder Jensen is getting transferred. He is going off to be a zone leader in the Cape Girardo zone. He will be in Jackson Missouri. We found out about that on Saturday, but let me back up just a little bit. Tuesday night we got a phone call from the zone leaders. We found out in the next couple minutes that I am going to be training over the next 2 transfers. So that was pretty over whelming. I finish the 12 week program on Tuesday this week and the very next day I have to go pick up a new missionary straight from the MTC and teach him the same thing I just learned. I probably should have paid a little bit better attention. So we found out I was training on Tuesday but we didn’t know anything else about transfers until Saturday night. Then we found out about Elder Jensen leaving and that I will be staying in Jacksonville for 12 more weeks. I have a feeling it’s going to be really hard to leave this area after 6 months here. I’m definitely not looking forward to that day, but I have a few more months before I have to worry about that.
A really cool thing that happened was on Wednesday I was still feeling pretty nervous and inadequate about training, so I was having a pretty hard and long day. But we came home for lunch and checked the mail and I had letters from Jaymie and McKay. It was an awesome surprise to hear from both of you and I can’t even explain how much those letters helped me out. They made the day so much easier.
Then on Friday I drove for about 3 and a half hours to pick up other missionaries and head up to St Louis. We had a 2 hour meeting there for trainers and it was really good and I learned a lot. One other person from my MTC district was there and I hadn’t seen him in a few months so it was really good to see him again. Then we drove for another 3 hours or so and dropped everyone back off. After a long day behind the wheel I was definitely ready to get my feet back on the ground again in Jacksonville.
Those were really the only things that happened this week until Sunday. On Sunday we went to church to start off the day and it was really good. It was the seminary sacrament meeting so all of the seminary students gave talks. It was cool to see all of them finishing up the year because we have been teaching them about every other week. A few weeks ago I told the seminary class a story about me not paying attention in seminary in high school and how impressed I was with all of them for being good and staying awake. One of the girls in the class who gave a talk on Sunday decided to tell the whole ward that I didn’t pay attention in seminary when I was in high school. The ward got quite a kick out of her calling me out from the pulpit. But thankfully the ward is more worried about the missionary I am now instead of the seminary student I was years ago.
Then later that night on Sunday I got to Skype my family and that was awesome. It was super good to get to see everyone again. My ward mission leader was making fun of me cause he thought my family’s laugh sounded like the fake laugh they use on TV shows. I thought it was really funny cause there were like 5 or 6 other people there that said hi to my family real quick and after I hung up every single one of them said "Elder Banks I just love your mom." I thought it was funny that after like 5 seconds they could already tell that my mom is awesome.
So just real quick to close up, i forgot to tell you about last P-Day. It had been a week ago now so I almost forgot. But as a district we all went to Zelphs mound. I had never heard of it before, but it is a really cool place. It is just a random hill out in the forest, but we had a story to read about it and it is a place where Joseph Smith and the rest of Zion’s Camp were coming through. While they were stopped they found a skeleton in the forest. Joseph Smith had a revelation about it and they found out it was the skeleton of a guy named Zelph who was a Lamanite. There is more to the story but to make it brief I will just say that we were pretty much walking around on a Nephite and Lamanite cemetery. They put up fake RESTRICTED AREA signs to keep people from coming in and digging up the bodies. But it was a really neat place to be with a cool spirit about it.
Sorry this is so short but we have to head out and pack. I’m sure I will have plenty more to talk about next week with my new companion. I am thankful that I have the chance to pray to my Heavenly Father every night and ask for strength to make it through the next day of being a missionary. And sometimes I even have to simply pray for strength to make it through the next hour. I know that training a new missionary is going to be hard, but I know that with God’s help anything is possible. So I will be depending a lot on him over the next few days. I am so thankful for all of the support you all give me and the prayers. You are all the best. I love you and will talk to you again soon.
-Elder Banks
So this email might be a little short cause we are really short on time today. Elder Jensen has to pack which takes a bunch of our P-Day. And from that last line you can probably tell that Elder Jensen is getting transferred. He is going off to be a zone leader in the Cape Girardo zone. He will be in Jackson Missouri. We found out about that on Saturday, but let me back up just a little bit. Tuesday night we got a phone call from the zone leaders. We found out in the next couple minutes that I am going to be training over the next 2 transfers. So that was pretty over whelming. I finish the 12 week program on Tuesday this week and the very next day I have to go pick up a new missionary straight from the MTC and teach him the same thing I just learned. I probably should have paid a little bit better attention. So we found out I was training on Tuesday but we didn’t know anything else about transfers until Saturday night. Then we found out about Elder Jensen leaving and that I will be staying in Jacksonville for 12 more weeks. I have a feeling it’s going to be really hard to leave this area after 6 months here. I’m definitely not looking forward to that day, but I have a few more months before I have to worry about that.
A really cool thing that happened was on Wednesday I was still feeling pretty nervous and inadequate about training, so I was having a pretty hard and long day. But we came home for lunch and checked the mail and I had letters from Jaymie and McKay. It was an awesome surprise to hear from both of you and I can’t even explain how much those letters helped me out. They made the day so much easier.
Then on Friday I drove for about 3 and a half hours to pick up other missionaries and head up to St Louis. We had a 2 hour meeting there for trainers and it was really good and I learned a lot. One other person from my MTC district was there and I hadn’t seen him in a few months so it was really good to see him again. Then we drove for another 3 hours or so and dropped everyone back off. After a long day behind the wheel I was definitely ready to get my feet back on the ground again in Jacksonville.
Those were really the only things that happened this week until Sunday. On Sunday we went to church to start off the day and it was really good. It was the seminary sacrament meeting so all of the seminary students gave talks. It was cool to see all of them finishing up the year because we have been teaching them about every other week. A few weeks ago I told the seminary class a story about me not paying attention in seminary in high school and how impressed I was with all of them for being good and staying awake. One of the girls in the class who gave a talk on Sunday decided to tell the whole ward that I didn’t pay attention in seminary when I was in high school. The ward got quite a kick out of her calling me out from the pulpit. But thankfully the ward is more worried about the missionary I am now instead of the seminary student I was years ago.
Then later that night on Sunday I got to Skype my family and that was awesome. It was super good to get to see everyone again. My ward mission leader was making fun of me cause he thought my family’s laugh sounded like the fake laugh they use on TV shows. I thought it was really funny cause there were like 5 or 6 other people there that said hi to my family real quick and after I hung up every single one of them said "Elder Banks I just love your mom." I thought it was funny that after like 5 seconds they could already tell that my mom is awesome.
So just real quick to close up, i forgot to tell you about last P-Day. It had been a week ago now so I almost forgot. But as a district we all went to Zelphs mound. I had never heard of it before, but it is a really cool place. It is just a random hill out in the forest, but we had a story to read about it and it is a place where Joseph Smith and the rest of Zion’s Camp were coming through. While they were stopped they found a skeleton in the forest. Joseph Smith had a revelation about it and they found out it was the skeleton of a guy named Zelph who was a Lamanite. There is more to the story but to make it brief I will just say that we were pretty much walking around on a Nephite and Lamanite cemetery. They put up fake RESTRICTED AREA signs to keep people from coming in and digging up the bodies. But it was a really neat place to be with a cool spirit about it.
Sorry this is so short but we have to head out and pack. I’m sure I will have plenty more to talk about next week with my new companion. I am thankful that I have the chance to pray to my Heavenly Father every night and ask for strength to make it through the next day of being a missionary. And sometimes I even have to simply pray for strength to make it through the next hour. I know that training a new missionary is going to be hard, but I know that with God’s help anything is possible. So I will be depending a lot on him over the next few days. I am so thankful for all of the support you all give me and the prayers. You are all the best. I love you and will talk to you again soon.
-Elder Banks
Monday, May 7, 2012
First Baptisms
So I have to get the not so important stuff out of the way first. I went to Darin Michaels house a few days ago and he told me all about the playoffs haha. That’s awful that Rose and Howard are out. And he told me about Rivera tearing his ACL. Oh poor Yankees, but that gave me something to talk to my ward mission leader about. I had to get him back cause he told me that Wainwright and Garcia were out for the Cardinals for the year. I believed him of course and he thought it was hilarious. The Saints thing is crazy! I can’t believe Vilma is out for the entire year. People are really dumb sometimes.
But anyway this was a really good week. The weather here is absolutely insane though. We have had the craziest rain storms I have ever seen. And they usually happen really early in the morning and then it clears up. But because of the bad weather it is so unbelievably humid. It is usually about 90 degrees but it is so humid it is the hottest I have ever been. The last 2 days have been painful. Especially Saturday cause we went up to Springfield for some meetings. But only Elder Jensen goes into the meetings cause he is the District Leader. So i just go out with some other random missionaries and tract someone else’s area. It was the hottest I have ever been. I can’t even explain.
Saturday was an insane day. Like I said we went up to Springfield. The meeting went over so we were late getting home and we were really stressed cause we had to go and fill up the font for the baptism we were having. So we flew home and made it in time to fill up the font. It’s hard to explain but pretty much everything that could have gone wrong that day went wrong. But the second the baptismal service started everything went perfect. We had a few non members there and it was an awesome experience. Both Shelly and Caitlin were baptised and it couldn't have been better. Then the next day in church they both got the Holy Ghost. Darin Michael gave the prayer for Shelly, and I really wish that you could all meet him. He is the coolest person ever. He is pretty short but like 300 pounds easy. He is the quietest person ever and he is so relaxed it’s insane. But he was so excited/nervous to give her the Holy Ghost he only slept for half an hour the night before. He stayed up almost all night working and researching and trying to get himself spiritually prepared to give the prayer. It payed off for sure. Both prayers were awesome but something about Brother Michaels was just extra special. I wish everyone in the world was willing to put that much effort into the church. Me and Elder Jensen got to stand in the circle for Caitlin and that was a really neat experience.
So my mom is probably going to kill me for this but I totally forgot to take any pictures at the baptism. We were so stressed and then so relieved that we didn’t even think about it. But hopefully you can all forgive me.
So on Sunday we had a pretty busy day until about 7 at night. Then we had 2 hours to just tract or do whatever and we weren’t to excited for that. But then a miracle happened that made us really happy. Shelly called us and asked if we could help her get a couch into her house before it rained. So we drove over real quick to help her. We can’t be alone in the house with Shelly so she got her friend Booker to come over. So we moved the couches and stuff and then Shelly just said "Hey Booker want to learn from the missionaries like I did?" And he said ya sure. Then Shelly said "Alright well why don’t we just have your first lesson right now?" So we gave him the first lesson. It was pretty amazing. This was the perfect example of God blessing us for working hard. Last week we didn’t really do out very best. If we had a free 20 minutes we would just go visit a member or something instead of contacting or tracting. We felt awful that week and we didn’t get a single new investigator. We are supposed to get 2 new investigators a week which probably sounds pretty easy to all of you who went to Brazil or something but out here getting 2 new people to teach in a week is really hard. So we didn’t really know if tracting that extra 20 or 30 minutes a day would do us any good but we decided at the beginning of the week we were going to work really hard and do that. So all week we didn’t find a single new investigator tracting or contacting. It honestly felt like a waste of time. But God saw that we were working hard and trying our best. So He decided to bless us in other ways. He gave us Booker to teach. And He also gave us Danielle. I mentioned her forever ago when we contacted her late at night. She was awesome but then we didn’t hear from her again for a couple months. We kept calling her and nothing happened. But then randomly one day this week she called us up and told us to come meet with her. She had been mad at God and stuff like that, but when we went over she felt a ton of peace. She wants us to keep coming back and teaching her. So even though the actual tracting didn’t do much, God rewarded us with 2 new investigators this week just for working hard.
I don’t have much time today cause we are going up to Zelphs mound which is a place where a bunch of Nephite and Lamanite bodies are buried. Then we are going as a district to the skate park, so that pretty much takes up our entire P-Day. But I wanted to share a little quote that an about to be missionary shared in church. It’s from some song that I don’t know, but he shared it in the lesson and I thought it was awesome. It goes something like this "There are those that do, and those that just do talking. We are all going through Hell, it’s either burn or keep on walking." And i just thought of that as walking over hot coals. If you keep walking it will be hot but you will be fine. If you just stand there you will burn your feet. It’s the same thing with life. We all go through hard times, but we determine how badly we get burned. If we sit around and feel bad for ourselves we are just standing on the hot coals. But if we get over it and get out and serve others then we can walk right over the coals and before we know it we will be through the trial. Life isn’t easy but it was never supposed to be. Reading in the Book of Mormon has really opened my eyes to that. The prophets had the worst lives ever, but because they were so close to God it wasn’t a big deal. They could see that this is only a tiny little part of the eternal plan. The rewards that are waiting for us are of far greater significance than the worldly things we have now.
To finish up I want to say how proud I am of all my friends for going on their missions soon. I heard that my mom saw a few of you in the temple and I couldn’t stop smiling. I can’t wait to go through with all of you in a few years. I can’t believe that Cole is headed out so soon! That’s awesome. I know that all of you guys are going to be the most amazing missionaries ever. I have been out on my mission for a few months now but I’m still trying to be more like all of my friends. You guys are all awesome examples to me and to everyone around you. Thanks for everything.
-Elder Banks
PS: I forgot to say this earlier, but this is the last week of the 2nd transfer which probably means me and Elder Jensen are going to get split up. So I might be getting a new area. That means any mail sent out this week needs to be sent to the mission home. I might be leaving Jacksonville and if the mail goes there I will probably never see it. So send mail to this address until I can let you know what happens:
Elder Parker Banks
1850 Craigshire Suite 205
Maryland Heights, MO 63146
Thanks!!
But anyway this was a really good week. The weather here is absolutely insane though. We have had the craziest rain storms I have ever seen. And they usually happen really early in the morning and then it clears up. But because of the bad weather it is so unbelievably humid. It is usually about 90 degrees but it is so humid it is the hottest I have ever been. The last 2 days have been painful. Especially Saturday cause we went up to Springfield for some meetings. But only Elder Jensen goes into the meetings cause he is the District Leader. So i just go out with some other random missionaries and tract someone else’s area. It was the hottest I have ever been. I can’t even explain.
Saturday was an insane day. Like I said we went up to Springfield. The meeting went over so we were late getting home and we were really stressed cause we had to go and fill up the font for the baptism we were having. So we flew home and made it in time to fill up the font. It’s hard to explain but pretty much everything that could have gone wrong that day went wrong. But the second the baptismal service started everything went perfect. We had a few non members there and it was an awesome experience. Both Shelly and Caitlin were baptised and it couldn't have been better. Then the next day in church they both got the Holy Ghost. Darin Michael gave the prayer for Shelly, and I really wish that you could all meet him. He is the coolest person ever. He is pretty short but like 300 pounds easy. He is the quietest person ever and he is so relaxed it’s insane. But he was so excited/nervous to give her the Holy Ghost he only slept for half an hour the night before. He stayed up almost all night working and researching and trying to get himself spiritually prepared to give the prayer. It payed off for sure. Both prayers were awesome but something about Brother Michaels was just extra special. I wish everyone in the world was willing to put that much effort into the church. Me and Elder Jensen got to stand in the circle for Caitlin and that was a really neat experience.
So my mom is probably going to kill me for this but I totally forgot to take any pictures at the baptism. We were so stressed and then so relieved that we didn’t even think about it. But hopefully you can all forgive me.
So on Sunday we had a pretty busy day until about 7 at night. Then we had 2 hours to just tract or do whatever and we weren’t to excited for that. But then a miracle happened that made us really happy. Shelly called us and asked if we could help her get a couch into her house before it rained. So we drove over real quick to help her. We can’t be alone in the house with Shelly so she got her friend Booker to come over. So we moved the couches and stuff and then Shelly just said "Hey Booker want to learn from the missionaries like I did?" And he said ya sure. Then Shelly said "Alright well why don’t we just have your first lesson right now?" So we gave him the first lesson. It was pretty amazing. This was the perfect example of God blessing us for working hard. Last week we didn’t really do out very best. If we had a free 20 minutes we would just go visit a member or something instead of contacting or tracting. We felt awful that week and we didn’t get a single new investigator. We are supposed to get 2 new investigators a week which probably sounds pretty easy to all of you who went to Brazil or something but out here getting 2 new people to teach in a week is really hard. So we didn’t really know if tracting that extra 20 or 30 minutes a day would do us any good but we decided at the beginning of the week we were going to work really hard and do that. So all week we didn’t find a single new investigator tracting or contacting. It honestly felt like a waste of time. But God saw that we were working hard and trying our best. So He decided to bless us in other ways. He gave us Booker to teach. And He also gave us Danielle. I mentioned her forever ago when we contacted her late at night. She was awesome but then we didn’t hear from her again for a couple months. We kept calling her and nothing happened. But then randomly one day this week she called us up and told us to come meet with her. She had been mad at God and stuff like that, but when we went over she felt a ton of peace. She wants us to keep coming back and teaching her. So even though the actual tracting didn’t do much, God rewarded us with 2 new investigators this week just for working hard.
I don’t have much time today cause we are going up to Zelphs mound which is a place where a bunch of Nephite and Lamanite bodies are buried. Then we are going as a district to the skate park, so that pretty much takes up our entire P-Day. But I wanted to share a little quote that an about to be missionary shared in church. It’s from some song that I don’t know, but he shared it in the lesson and I thought it was awesome. It goes something like this "There are those that do, and those that just do talking. We are all going through Hell, it’s either burn or keep on walking." And i just thought of that as walking over hot coals. If you keep walking it will be hot but you will be fine. If you just stand there you will burn your feet. It’s the same thing with life. We all go through hard times, but we determine how badly we get burned. If we sit around and feel bad for ourselves we are just standing on the hot coals. But if we get over it and get out and serve others then we can walk right over the coals and before we know it we will be through the trial. Life isn’t easy but it was never supposed to be. Reading in the Book of Mormon has really opened my eyes to that. The prophets had the worst lives ever, but because they were so close to God it wasn’t a big deal. They could see that this is only a tiny little part of the eternal plan. The rewards that are waiting for us are of far greater significance than the worldly things we have now.
To finish up I want to say how proud I am of all my friends for going on their missions soon. I heard that my mom saw a few of you in the temple and I couldn’t stop smiling. I can’t wait to go through with all of you in a few years. I can’t believe that Cole is headed out so soon! That’s awesome. I know that all of you guys are going to be the most amazing missionaries ever. I have been out on my mission for a few months now but I’m still trying to be more like all of my friends. You guys are all awesome examples to me and to everyone around you. Thanks for everything.
-Elder Banks
PS: I forgot to say this earlier, but this is the last week of the 2nd transfer which probably means me and Elder Jensen are going to get split up. So I might be getting a new area. That means any mail sent out this week needs to be sent to the mission home. I might be leaving Jacksonville and if the mail goes there I will probably never see it. So send mail to this address until I can let you know what happens:
Elder Parker Banks
1850 Craigshire Suite 205
Maryland Heights, MO 63146
Thanks!!
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Pictures
Here are a few pictures from Jacksonville, Illinois:
Beautiful birds, the food pantry where Parker and Elder Jensen serve, Parker getting some missionary exercies, Elder Jensen flying a kite with their investigator Kodie, and Parker in a tree!
April 30, 2012
Today I want to start out by commenting on a few things my mom told me in her email to me this week. Yes all of the missionaries are fine here. We have had some serious rain and wind but the tornado warning sirens never even went off so it’s not that big of a deal. The streets drain after a few hours and everything just gets back to normal. Hopefully nothing too serious happens out here. The ward says that we usually get 1 or 2 pretty bad tornadoes in Jacksonville each year. I secretly hope I get to stick around to see one. And I was way excited when my mom told me that at stake conference Joel, McKay, and Jeremy all got the Melchizedek Priesthood. That is so awesome!! You guys are all going to be out here writing emails home to your mom’s pretty soon too.
Thank you Jennifer for sending me that package and letter. When I read that Delonte West gave Gordon Hayward a wet willy I was laughing so hard. Delonte West struggles. But Gordon looks like he is 12 so he was probably just treating him like his little brother.
We call our Ward Mission Leader every week and his name is Brother Mathusek. He is like 27 and he is the coolest guy ever. The only bad thing about him is that he is a Yankees fan. I called him a couple days ago to tell him about how our day went and right before he hung up he said "Oh hey, Elder Banks one last thing. The Cardinals lost to the Cubs in the 9th inning twice this week. Have a good night!" He thinks he is so funny. But ya that was depressing. However we went into an appointment and I looked over at the TV just before we turned it off and saw David Freese hit a home run so that was my little taste of The Cardinals for the week. The Clarks are talking about going to a Cardinals game this year for mission P-Day which would be sweet. And if you get put in St Louis you can go to games on P-Day whenever you want as long as you pay for the ticket. So the good thing about being in St Louis is that you get to go to Cardinals games. The bad thing is that it’s the most dangerous city in America right now. But missionaries are protected so i really hope i get to serve there sometime during my 2 years.
The first thing that we did this week was go to Sister Scott’s funeral. It was really strange. But if you knew Sister Scott then it was pretty much exactly what you expected. They played normal music instead of funeral songs which was cool but kinda weird. And there was a bunch of bikers and thugs there cause she was always friends with the crazy people down in the ghetto where she lived. I think i heard people describe her as a firey red head about 12 thousand times that day. So that was a pretty neat experience to be there. The rest of this week was pretty normal. We have had a lot of prep to do for the baptism on Saturday which has been stressful but a really good kind of stress.
For me probably the neatest thing that happened this week was when we went over to a less active member’s house. His name is Terry and i have talked about him quite a bit before. His son TJ is usually there when we teach the lessons to him, but he doesn’t care at all. He is like 21 and we think he is a little bit slow. Nothing serious at all but just a little bit off. He is the nicest person ever though. So we went over and at the end of the lesson we had Terry pray. It was the first time he had prayed out loud in front of his son. After the prayer TJ just said "Wow dad that was really neat. That was awesome the way that you said that." and he said that about 3 times. To make a long story short TJ is now taking the lessons and his dad is working towards getting back into the church and baptizing his son. There is no doubt in my mind that TJ will be baptised someday. It most likely will take some time and won’t be while I’m here in Jacksonville but i know it will happen sooner rather than later.
Nothing else too special happened this week. Of course I could write a novel about all of the miracles that happen each week, but for a missionary it was pretty normal. We had 2 baptismal interviews this week and they both went well. Caitlin and Shelly both made it the 45 minutes to stake conference so they can both be baptised on the 5th!! That is going to be an awesome day. We had stake conference this weekend which was really cool. We went to a special meeting on Saturday night for bishops ward mission leaders and elders quorum presidents, and missionaries of course. President Clark was there and he was going over this thing called the ladder system. It is just going over the numbers for each area but with a special emphasis on certain ones. The key numbers that really lead to numbers in the baptism column. So he went through each ward individually and briefly talked about their numbers. It was really scary because out of all the areas in our zone he only said good things about one. Not that he was being really mean but all he was doing was pointing out the areas that needed some work. So when he got to Jacksonville we were pretty nervous. But when the numbers came up on the screen it was really cool. They were horrible for a few months. Like almost nonexistent. But then when it got to March (when me and Elder Jensen replaced the sister missionaries) they shot up. He told us that we were doing a really good job and moved on to the next area. That was huge because the bishop and everyone was there and they all came and talked to us after and told us how good of a job we are doing. Then that lead to the bishop calling us last night and seeing if we could come to dinner tonight and teach a nonmember family that he is friends with. It is awesome to see how the confidence of the ward in us has grown so much over these last few weeks.
A little bit later in that meeting President Clark told everyone great job. He said that our zone was the best in the mission. Not just cause he was being nice but because we have the best numbers out of any zone. It was really surprising to hear that but really awesome. The reason it was such a surprise is because we are easily the smallest zone. We are about half the size of all the rest. The missionaries in the zone are awesome though. We don’t have a single one who doesn’t work as hard as he can every single day. It is an awesome experience to get to be around all of these awesome elders.
So I want to end with a quote President Kay read in stake conference. He is the stake president in this area. He started his talk off on Sunday by quoting President Packer saying "No matter how much we love our wives, it’s not enough." He then went on to talk for just a second about how important it is to love our wives, daughters, sisters, moms, and all women. I just wanted to say how happy my mom, sisters, friends, and all the other women in my life make me. I can’t believe that my sister just got married and is about to graduate college. I didn’t even think she was going to make it past high school. Ha just kidding. But I have the most amazing mom in the world and my 3 sisters are pretty dang close to perfect. My parents must have done something right to get such amazing daughters. They could have done a little better on the sons though. And I am so thankful for all of my amazing friends that are home right now watching so many of their friends go out on missions and supporting them the whole time. You are all amazing. The world’s view of women is awful, so it’s important to always remember the way God looks at you. Thanks to all of you for being so amazing and I will talk to you again soon.
-Elder Banks
Thank you Jennifer for sending me that package and letter. When I read that Delonte West gave Gordon Hayward a wet willy I was laughing so hard. Delonte West struggles. But Gordon looks like he is 12 so he was probably just treating him like his little brother.
We call our Ward Mission Leader every week and his name is Brother Mathusek. He is like 27 and he is the coolest guy ever. The only bad thing about him is that he is a Yankees fan. I called him a couple days ago to tell him about how our day went and right before he hung up he said "Oh hey, Elder Banks one last thing. The Cardinals lost to the Cubs in the 9th inning twice this week. Have a good night!" He thinks he is so funny. But ya that was depressing. However we went into an appointment and I looked over at the TV just before we turned it off and saw David Freese hit a home run so that was my little taste of The Cardinals for the week. The Clarks are talking about going to a Cardinals game this year for mission P-Day which would be sweet. And if you get put in St Louis you can go to games on P-Day whenever you want as long as you pay for the ticket. So the good thing about being in St Louis is that you get to go to Cardinals games. The bad thing is that it’s the most dangerous city in America right now. But missionaries are protected so i really hope i get to serve there sometime during my 2 years.
The first thing that we did this week was go to Sister Scott’s funeral. It was really strange. But if you knew Sister Scott then it was pretty much exactly what you expected. They played normal music instead of funeral songs which was cool but kinda weird. And there was a bunch of bikers and thugs there cause she was always friends with the crazy people down in the ghetto where she lived. I think i heard people describe her as a firey red head about 12 thousand times that day. So that was a pretty neat experience to be there. The rest of this week was pretty normal. We have had a lot of prep to do for the baptism on Saturday which has been stressful but a really good kind of stress.
For me probably the neatest thing that happened this week was when we went over to a less active member’s house. His name is Terry and i have talked about him quite a bit before. His son TJ is usually there when we teach the lessons to him, but he doesn’t care at all. He is like 21 and we think he is a little bit slow. Nothing serious at all but just a little bit off. He is the nicest person ever though. So we went over and at the end of the lesson we had Terry pray. It was the first time he had prayed out loud in front of his son. After the prayer TJ just said "Wow dad that was really neat. That was awesome the way that you said that." and he said that about 3 times. To make a long story short TJ is now taking the lessons and his dad is working towards getting back into the church and baptizing his son. There is no doubt in my mind that TJ will be baptised someday. It most likely will take some time and won’t be while I’m here in Jacksonville but i know it will happen sooner rather than later.
Nothing else too special happened this week. Of course I could write a novel about all of the miracles that happen each week, but for a missionary it was pretty normal. We had 2 baptismal interviews this week and they both went well. Caitlin and Shelly both made it the 45 minutes to stake conference so they can both be baptised on the 5th!! That is going to be an awesome day. We had stake conference this weekend which was really cool. We went to a special meeting on Saturday night for bishops ward mission leaders and elders quorum presidents, and missionaries of course. President Clark was there and he was going over this thing called the ladder system. It is just going over the numbers for each area but with a special emphasis on certain ones. The key numbers that really lead to numbers in the baptism column. So he went through each ward individually and briefly talked about their numbers. It was really scary because out of all the areas in our zone he only said good things about one. Not that he was being really mean but all he was doing was pointing out the areas that needed some work. So when he got to Jacksonville we were pretty nervous. But when the numbers came up on the screen it was really cool. They were horrible for a few months. Like almost nonexistent. But then when it got to March (when me and Elder Jensen replaced the sister missionaries) they shot up. He told us that we were doing a really good job and moved on to the next area. That was huge because the bishop and everyone was there and they all came and talked to us after and told us how good of a job we are doing. Then that lead to the bishop calling us last night and seeing if we could come to dinner tonight and teach a nonmember family that he is friends with. It is awesome to see how the confidence of the ward in us has grown so much over these last few weeks.
A little bit later in that meeting President Clark told everyone great job. He said that our zone was the best in the mission. Not just cause he was being nice but because we have the best numbers out of any zone. It was really surprising to hear that but really awesome. The reason it was such a surprise is because we are easily the smallest zone. We are about half the size of all the rest. The missionaries in the zone are awesome though. We don’t have a single one who doesn’t work as hard as he can every single day. It is an awesome experience to get to be around all of these awesome elders.
So I want to end with a quote President Kay read in stake conference. He is the stake president in this area. He started his talk off on Sunday by quoting President Packer saying "No matter how much we love our wives, it’s not enough." He then went on to talk for just a second about how important it is to love our wives, daughters, sisters, moms, and all women. I just wanted to say how happy my mom, sisters, friends, and all the other women in my life make me. I can’t believe that my sister just got married and is about to graduate college. I didn’t even think she was going to make it past high school. Ha just kidding. But I have the most amazing mom in the world and my 3 sisters are pretty dang close to perfect. My parents must have done something right to get such amazing daughters. They could have done a little better on the sons though. And I am so thankful for all of my amazing friends that are home right now watching so many of their friends go out on missions and supporting them the whole time. You are all amazing. The world’s view of women is awful, so it’s important to always remember the way God looks at you. Thanks to all of you for being so amazing and I will talk to you again soon.
-Elder Banks
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