Monday, December 5, 2016

June 8, 2015 Final Email

Dear Friends and Family,

I just wanna send you all a quick email, and let you know that I won't
be using my Email anymore. This is my last email as a missionary, and
that my new email is 
Parker.Albertson14@gmail.com

Love,
Elder Parker Albertson


June 8, 2015



Hola Familia/ Amigos

Well I have to admit I am so happy that this day has come for one
reason. And that reason is for the fact that I'll never have to write
another email home as a missionary! I truly have been completely
burned out of writing emails each week home, but I do it because I
love my Mom!

I honestly cannot describe how I feel right now at this moment in my
life. Yesterday being a Fast Sunday, I had the chance to do what we
call Mighty Hour of Prayer, which is where we end our fast with an
hour long prayer. It was probably one of the most spiritual prayers I
have had my entire mission. I was able to finally put words to how my
emotions feel. I have officially decided that my heart has been taken
by the people of the California Santa Rosa Mission! My heart is here,
and these are the people I love, they are my family. However I know
deep down that I still have a very special place for those who are at
home awaiting my arrival tomorrow.

This last week of my mission has been absolutely amazing. We have had
so much fun as a companionship doing the work of the Savior, but being
able to have fun, and enjoy ourselves at the same time! I am so happy
for the opportunity that I have to end my mission with both of these
fine missionaries! Elder Jeske, has been absolutely an answer to my
prayers, and Elder Scow is just so laid back and relaxed, that it is a
joyous amount of fun!

We had a lot of crazy things happen though, this past week, that I
don't even know where the time has gone.

Monday was P-day which was absolutely just mind blowing for me to
think that I was having to send an email to friends and family letting
them know, that this would be my last week using the email. But
obviously today all I am doing is sending a quick email, and then off
to Santa Rosa I go! However we were able to finish with my last P-Day
with a ton of competitive basketball over at the Woodland Community
Center! It was such a blast, there actually happened to be 3 college
basketball players there. One of them is playing for some school in
Oregon! A small school, but he grew up in Woodland, and the other 2
were from the city of Fairfield, but are playing college ball in North
Carolina, 1 of them actually, finished his 4 years, and is gonna go
play in Europe. It was pretty competitive and a ton of fun!

We ended the night with a super good Noche de Hogar with the Luna
Family! Which was so much fun, I absolutely loved it. We basically
talked with them about fasting and the importance of it. However, I shared my
testimony with them since it was my last time teaching them as a
family! It was so much fun, I never thought I could fall in love with
a family so quickly. They mean the world to me!

Tuesday was another very good day. I was able to participate in my
very own last zone meeting! It was amazing how I felt like they were
teaching straight to my needs as a missionary, but more than anything
they were giving me such good advice I felt like for when I was going
home. It was great.

Wednesday I think was the craziest day of the week! Well actually it
definitely was! Wednesday was the day I had to go to Fairfield again
and actually get my MRI performed. I honestly was quite scared, I
don't know why, but I just do not like the feeling of being in doctor’s
offices, and such, which obviously means I’m not supposed to be a
doctor.

However the crazy part of the entire story is the fact, that I had to
get a dye injected into my shoulder socket. Which they said wasn't
going to be very painful, just the fact that I would feel super
swollen and tight. However long story short, it was only supposed to
take 15 minutes to inject this dye into my shoulder at the most, and I
was lying there on this table with a needle shoved all the way into
my joint for an hour. Can you believe that? And the fact they they
were supposed to numb the first layer, then numb the muscle and then
go into the joint. Well let's just say they forgot to numb the muscle
and all the nerves deep in my arm, and they just went straight in. I
was in so much pain, but hate needles so much, that I told
them just to keep it in there, and just get it done with! It was a
long and miserable experience, also because the fact that the camera
broke that was looking into my joint to see if they were in the right
spot, and so then it just was miserable!

It was definitely hard to sleep that night since I enjoy sleeping on
my right side, and my shoulder had 6 oz of this liquid in it, which
didn't completely go away until like Friday morning. However it
reminded me so much of shoulder surgery.

Friday was a good day! We had weekly planning, which was
weird because it was my last time. However I actually didn't really do
too much, because I had to drive all the way to Davis to
have my departing interview with Presidente Alba. It was actually a
very uplifting experience. I thought it was going to be a lot
different, however I got so much from it, and learned so much about my
self and the things I need to work on! And continue to do when I get
home tomorrow!

We then had the chance to be able to go to Winters with the Souza
family, and it was probably the best dinner I have had my entire
mission! We went to the Buck Horn! It was absolutely delicious! I got
a full rack of baby back ribs, and was absolutely in love! I can't
thank the Souza family more. They are absolutely amazing, and mean so
much to me! I am truly going to miss them!

It has been so hard to say goodbye to the people here of the Santa
Rosa mission! This place has stolen my heart, and I will always have a
special place for each and every person I have met on my mission! I
have absolutely learned so much, and grown in so many ways, and I give
all the credit to those I have served for the past 2 years. People say
we go on missions to change others lives, but I think they have
changed my life just as much, if not more.

Love you all so much! I'll see you all on the Flipside!

Love,
Elder Parker Albertson

June 1, 2015


Hola Familia/ Amigos

    Well this has been one of the fastest weeks of my mission, but what
I'm really scared of is that this next week is going to go by
even faster! We saw some super cool miracles this week though, which
was good! This area is doing so much better since being combined with the
other area, and we are able to work a ton better. We also have so much
work to do, sometimes we just don't know who to visit, and how to plan to fit
them all in! But for some reason it always works out! Thank goodness!

    So I'm just going to start, and admit to you all, that these last few
days have been super tough on me. There has been a ton of drama going
on here in the branch, and since I have been here the longest they are
always asking me what's going on, and why didn't I do
this or that. However it's always been super stressful because at this
point, my body is starting to not sleep very well, and I just lay in
bed at night worrying about the fact that I am going home soon! It's
been tough! I really have quite the fear! I don't know why, but I guess it’s

because I have adjusted to this being my life that it almost feels
like I'm leaving everything behind to go and live in Idaho, even
though deep down I know that's home! I am just going to miss my family
here in California so much! It's heart breaking. These people have
changed me, and I have helped change them. I just need to replace my
Fear with Faith!

    We had a lot of cool experiences though this past week! I have to tell
you all about one of them! It was the coolest thing for me to watch
one of my recent convert families, 6 year old son, teach one of our
investigators how to Pray! It was absolutely amazing. He did it so
much better than us missionaries ever could have! We were teaching the Luna
family and at the end they had a family friend at the home, who is
actually the boyfriend of Hermana Luna's daughter, and he is
investigating the church! At the end we thought it would be great for
him to pray, he said he didn't know how, and next thing you know
Alfredo was teaching him one on one, and even Alfredo said the prayer,
and Victor said what Alfredo whispered into his ear! It was the most
precious moment I think I have had on my mission! I can't wait to see
what kind of missionary he will be.

     We had a great week overall though! It was a ton of fun. I am really
enjoying the last few weeks of my mission. Having these areas
combined, we never have enough time, but we have had so much success
this past week with some of our less actives. Each week we constantly
are seeing more and more of our less actives coming back to church! It
is such a great thing to see!

    We were able to go on exchanges on tuesday which was kinda interesting
I went to the english area, with the zone leaders, and Elder Contla
who is a Spanish Zone Leader, came into this area, where he actually
served a little less than a year ago. They had a ton of fun, seeing
old members that he was teaching when he was here. While I was on
exchanges, we had so much fun! I was with Elder Muncey, and we had
some crazy experiences. We were able teach an investigator whose son
got baptized a few weeks back, but she has been struggling with a few
things! Her name is Liana, and Liana absolutely loves her Redneck
Idaho, country boy. The elders tell me she is always asking about me
every time they go over. So I had the chance to visit with her again
which was a lot of fun. She had a marijuana plant that she was legally
growing on her back step that she let me take after the lesson. His
name was Ernie, and the little one was named Delgado. After Elder
Delgado. Ha ha Liana also is going to be getting baptized this
saturday, and she made me promise that I would wear my cowboy boots to
the baptism! Well it's a good thing I got a pair of work boots. I'll
have to shine them up and make me look nice and fancy. I am so excited
for this all to happen! It will be such a wonderful experience.

Thank you all so much for you love and support! I hope this letter
finds you all doing well! Love you all!


Love,
Elder Parker Albertson