September 2nd 2013

(To Dad)

Well, this week was very difficult. Finding qualified contacts is pretty easy, but sitting with them is the hard part. This week I got a new companion because my old companion; elder Hall, is now training to be an office elder. My new companion is elder Martins. He is capo verdian. Since my Portuguese still needs a lot of work, it is very hard to understand him. But it is good practice having a native speaker. This week we worked hard on finding people to teach. But we haven't taught a lesson. We mark around 8 lessons a day, but they just keep falling. For this last fast Sunday, I did a special fast for us to get lessons. I know that the Lord will help us. One experience I did have this week was amazing. My companion and I were doing contacting and we noticed a house having a party and we felt prompted to go talk to some of them. An old man that lived there let us teach him. No one else wanted to listen to us. The guy kept on saying that he was Catholic, so usually we would leave, but I felt prompted to give him a book of Mormon. I really don't know why I did that. We would never give someone a book of Mormon unless they are a progressing investigator. Out of the blue I had this inspiration from the spirit. The man accepted the book but he didn't really want to listen to us. I don't know why I gave him the book, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. This week was still a great week, even though we didn't have that much success, we did do our best. As long as we are doing our best, the Lord will provide. I am really good at doing street contacting now. My Portuguese is improving so much through the Lord's help. I love sharing the gospel and I am excited to work hard this week. I also have been working out everyday, so watch out. Haha. Anyways, I love you a lot. I miss you and the family so much. Save some s'mores for me.

Love - Elder Parham 

August 26th 2013

(To Amber)

I can tell from your pictures that you are having fun. Remember, don't have too much fun until I get back. Haha. Well, this week was great. My companion's surgery went great and now we are working hard. My companion had a foot problem.  We had a little bit of struggles with contacting this week, but its all good. Today, we ate with one of the investigators of another dupla that is in the same house as us. Here's a picture of me and the two kids. Anyways, this week was great.  All is good. Hope your doing great! I love the pictures a lot. 

Love - Elder Parham 

August 19th 2013

(To Amber) 
I got to my new area last Monday  I am in Matola 2. And my new companion is Elder Hall. He is tall and skinny and also pretty funny. I love it here. The only problem is that we couldn't go out working this week because my new companion has a foot problem and he can't walk on it until tomorrow (hopefully, we go to the doctors tomorrow to check out his foot). It is also going to be fun once we go start working because we will be white washing our area. So, it will be pretty fun. But this week, we did go do a service project. that was fun. These pics are of the service project and one of them is of my new companion. Elder Hall. 

Anyways, thanks for your support. Keep up the pictures and the emails. I miss you so much! By the way, Elder Hall is the one with the glasses in the first picture. Just so you know. Anyways, have fun this week. I got lots of work to do to and I still have a lot of learning to do. 

Love - Elder Parham 

August 12th 2013

Hello family and friends!

Well, this week was kind of crazy. On Monday I came to Maputo because of transfers and helping new missionaries. I found out my transfer today. My next area is Matola 2A! My new companion is going to be Elder Hall. I have seen him before, but he wont come till tonight. For the first part of this week, I helped the office elders with work. New missionaries arrived throughout the week. A lot came. There is around 20 new missionaries here! Holy Cow! Anyways, I helped pick people up at the airport and helped get some things done in the office (temporary office elder). No, I did not drive. I don't have my license. The only people that get to drive are the APs and the Office Elders. One big surprise this week was seeing a buddy from the MTC arrive. His visa got delayed so he got transferred to Texas, Houston for a transfer. Funny thing is, is that his last name is Houston. Haha. Well, it was very fun seeing so many new missionaries arrive. On Thursday night, I went to my new area. President Kretly told some people before hand about where they are going so that they can go to their areas fast. I was temporary companions with a cape verdian. Elder Brandao. He is pretty awesome, except, he spake no English. So, I had to speak bad Portuguese with him. It was a fun experience. Well, this week, I did get some contacts in, but the main focus this week was helping the new missionaries. This is the most that ever arrived on a transfer. So that's pretty crazy. I am excited for my new area and my new companion. I already miss my first companion. Hope everyone is alright.

Love - Elder Parham

August 5th 2013

Hello Family and Friends! 

Well, this week was very interesting and exciting. This week, me and my companion attended the marriage of Elias and Eva!!! They are married! We also opened the marriage process for Jermias and Gina! I am super excited! Another exciting thing is that one of our new investigators; Joao and Maria, they are loving the lessons and they really want to be married! Even better, Pedro and Lu have been doing great. I don't if I told everyone, but Pedro got his bike stolen again. But the best thing happened this week. His boss gave him another bike! But they are moving to a more safer area. Which is good. They are still in our area! Well, as you can guys can see. The work here is constantly on the move. I don't know if all of you saw the video yet, but it is truly a miracle for everything that is going on here. The one thing that makes everything great, is having an awesome mission president. My mission president is Paulo Kretly (I dont know if anyone has heard of stephen coveys...well it is pretty big in Brazil. He owns it.). He is from Brazil. Since he works at a place that gives motivational speeches, he has truly helped us as missionaries. He is very nice and always there to help us improve. This next week is going to be even more crazy. There are district conferences going on. And also new missionaries are coming. We have a total of 6 missionaries and 1 couple missionary leaving at the end of this transfer. Which is sad, because all of them are great! But the great news is that we have a total of 19 missionaries coming here this week! That is crazy. We now have to open up new areas to accommodate all of these missionaries! It is exciting. Well, thats about it for this week. No pictures because my camera is not working properly. So, there will be pictures next week! Hope you are all doing great! 

Love - Elder Parham 

July 28th 2013

Hey Family and Friends! 

Well, this week has been pretty great. One of our investigators Jeremias and Gina, are pretty much ready for the marriage process to be opened. The only thing that we had to work with them was with Jeremias. He had a smoking problem and now it is completely gone. So that is great! Another of our investigators Helena and Luiz, have gotten a lot better. They have been coming to church and everything. Except, Helena was not praying to God for answer and she wasnt reading and praying. So hopefully, she will pray to God to know if these things are true. Mozambique, Maputo is truly the best mission ever! If no one saw, in the church news, there was an article about Mozambique and the miracles that are happening here. A little secret, dont tell. But there will be a video coming out for the church. We have all watched it already. Its great! Anyways, the work here is progessing really fast. One of our areas had a crazy amount of people at church. 212. That is crazy high. I am excited to see how far Mozambique will progress over the next two years! I love this mission and I especially love the people here. Hopefully everything is going great for all of you guys! 

Love - Elder Parham 

(To Amber)

...Anyways, Mozambique is amazing. The lifestyle here is a little different, but it is also ver similar. I am still trying to get use to the food. For the milk, it is non pasteurized. So you leave it out. It is actually pretty good. Anyways, I love i here and i love the work. It has been the best time of my life. Time flies by here too. It has already been a month here in Africa, and in total, I am coming up on my 3 month on my mission in about 16 days. Time flies by....

Love - Elder Parham 

July 22nd 2013

Hello Friends and Family!

Well, this weeks email is going to be pretty short because of the time schedule that I am running on. For todays p'day, we will be getting some marriage paper work taken care of. It takes a long time and it is mainly just a waiting game. Well, this week has been pretty crazy. Last monday, we opened the marriage process for one of our investigators. It was a great moment. We have their baptism planned for the beginning of august. I am really excited. One of our other investigators has been doing great on staying firm to the commandments. We are going to open the marriage process for them very soon. For some of our other investigators, we are trying to help them to work on keeping commitments. They want to be baptized, but they have struggles with coming to church and reading the scriptures. Our goal this week is to help them keep commitments. The weather here has been pretty crazy. It has been raining off and on. One day it will be warm and sunny, and then the next it will pour down rain. The picture attached is a picture of our investigaors, Elias and Eva. It is right after when we opened their marriage process. Well, thats about it for this week. Love you all. The work is coming along and is progressing very fast here.

Love - Elder Parham