Oh my, Elephant

Well to start off…Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!! Krista I had a feeling it would happen.
But now I’m going to miss a wedding so you'd better leave  some cake in
the freezer for me. Engagements, dates, complicated love stories. A typical
house full of girls! I’m so glad to hear your all doing well.

I was getting dinner the other night and after a long process of trying to get
it all figured out I got my food only to turn around to find two guys right in
my face trying to get me to buy stuff. I tried to talk to them but they
wouldn’t listen so I turned around to escape it all, as I spun on my heals to
run I ran into an elephant. It’s trunk just about knocked me over. I just
stood there looking at it, not believing what I was seeing, when it started
hitting me in the face with its ear. It was the coolest thing ever, but to my
great dismay, I didn’t have my camera! Crazy!

Well the baptism went through. I’ve never seen someone so happy over
anything. He started talking to us about how this was the best day of his life
and talked about what he was feeling, it was such a great experience for
everyone. He got up in church and bore his testimony, it was so powerful.
It’s amazing to see the progression he’s made in the last four months, I love
him to death, he’s going to do great things with his life.

We have another investigator who was supposed to get baptized this week
but we’re not sure he’s ready. We don’t know why, but it’s the impression
we get, so we're trying to work on building his testimony. Please pray for
him.

Last week before planning we knelt down to say a prayer and I was up. I
thought I would mix it up a little bit and pray in English. I started and then
froze. I started stuttering and saying all my sentences with the worst
grammar you’ve ever heard. I struggled through and finally…amen. It’s
been about 4 months sense I’ve prayed in English and it about killed me.
I can already tell my homecoming talk will be a struggle and I just got
here!

So you remember that red head missionary you saw in the MTC pictures
who is serving in Thailand too? Well the other day we were all going to the
church when we stopped at a red light. We waited for a while and then the
light turned green. We started out into the intersection and out of the
corner of my eye I saw this car flying toward us. I slammed on my brakes
and tried to yell at him, but I was to late. The car slammed into the front
of Elder Crowley’s bike and sent both of them flying through the air. He fell
on the ground and I ran over to him. He just stood up, picked up his bike
and carried it out of the road. His bike was a little screwed up but he didn’t
even have a scratch.  It was a miracle, this really is the work of angels and
they are out here protecting us. It’s absolutely crazy how many times we
have all almost been killed in some way or another. But we’ve got some
one looking out for us.

I remember as a little kid watching “the lion king.” There’s one part when
it starts to rain, I was always impressed because it was in a straight line
(dry(the line) rain) as it crossed the river. We were getting into a took-took
the other day when it started to rain way hard, we started to drive and it
only got harder and them all of the sudden it just stopped. I looked out
and the ground was completely dry, I looked back and saw this wall of
water coming after us. In about a foot or two it went from raining so hard
you could hardly hear, to completely dry. I couldn’t believe it.

It’s almost time for “moves”. I really hope I get to stay with Elder Wright,
we really get along and have tons of fun. We slept outside last night on the
ground with no blankets or pillows just because the Thai people do it and
we wanted to prove to ourselves we were man enough also. I can’t even
begin to tell you how many mosquito bites I have and how much of the
night I didn’t sleep. but I have now proved to myself that I am a man! Or
maybe a boy trying to be cool?

Now to answer more questions:
For conference: I think we get it the week after you do, but we get to listen
to it in English whoot whoot! I seriously can’t wait. Finally I will be the
student and I will understand it.

We’re not allowed to “knock doors” so we ride around on our bikes and
talk to people on the streets. When we go to visit people we can’t walk up to
the door so we stand out on the road and yell “sawadee khrap” and if they
come out we go in. It’s really cool.

Well I’m almost out of time so I’ll wrap this up. Thank you all for your
prayers, I am now able to understand a lot more in the language and I’m
loving the work I’m doing. This is what I should be doing, and I know it’s
going to affect the rest f my life. I love you all!

Elder Parkinson

Do you know those stickers people put on envelopes with the return
address on them. If you could send me some with my Thailand address
on it I would love it. I have to take a water break before I finish writing it.