The Wedding Singer

Hey family!

Thanks for the package. I'm in Bangkok right now renewing my visa
and I walked into the office and to my surprise I had a gift waiting! I
love the pictures and I'm so glad you sent those pills, I really think
they'll help me, for some reason I always feel a little sick and I'm
hoping this will help.

About the blog. It's not a rule about whether or not you can look at
blogs, but we have been told that myldsmail is the only website
we're supposed to use. I probably will not be looking at the blog just
because I don't want to try and stretch rules.

We've been planning this wedding for a while, we were planning on
serving because the branch pres asked us to, but it turned in to quite
more than that...dun dun dun! Right after we left the house we went to
the church to grab something before our lesson, the whole church
was full of people, all requesting our help. We spent every second
in between lessons helping at the church to get everything ready.
Finally it was time and we went and changed into our nice clothes
(long sleeve shirts and matching ties) and started greeting people
as they entered the church. A good number of them were drunk
already which made for quite a wedding...to make a long story
short, after we were done serving dinner I was asked to sing for
everyone, I laughed with him for a minute and then realized he was
serious, so shaking and nervous I walked up to the stage, they had
this karaoke thing that had a few songs in English so I choose the
most appropriate one "as long as you love me" by the backstreet
boys. I jumped up and started to sing and everyone started yelling
"white guy...he's singing!!!" yeah, awkward let me tell you. They even
threw flowers at me.

Hey dad, do you remember when we ate those really hot peppers,
and how wimpy we looked crying our eyes out?  Then the next day
we remembered that everything that goes in must comes out?
Welcome to my life. I never start a meal thinking "Sure hope I can
finish this spicy dish," my thoughts are more along the lines of "can I
take this for a couple of days" what a man I'm becoming =) one thing I 
love about it is when you can't feel your mouth at all because of the
spiciness and then you lick your lips and it's as if they disappear, it's
a way cool feeling, I love it!

This past week there was this one sister in our branch who wants to
be angry with the world and really didn't seem to like me much. I was
really trying to do everything I could to make friends with her so she
didn't hate me. Finally after days and days I asked my companion what
I could do and he said "forget it man, she hates the world and she'll
never like us". I was praying that night when I sincerely asked for help,
I felt like I was doing everything I could and needed help. The next day
I saw her walk into the church and thought this is my chance. We had
an appointment in the church anyway so it wouldn't be awkward. I
walked in and joked around for a minute only to receive a stare of
death. Finally she asked "can you give me a blessing." I was
shocked but willingly agreed. She was feeling really sick so I and
Elder Wright went into a room with her and I gave her a blessing, it
was so powerful. When she stood up she almost looked like she was
about to cry and she said she felt a lot better, she bore her testimony
about the spirit she had just felt and about God, such a powerful
experience! I know it was an answer to prayers.

I and Elder Wright went off sugar for the past week and after a week
we felt really good because neither one of us thought we could. we
went to a district meeting and the sisters had made a four layer
brownie/cake thing. I was excited until the sisters cut it into four
pieces, one for each elder and said "I don't think you can finish it"
and so I began, facing my 10-11 inch foe. With fork in hand I began
to eat and eat and eat and eat. It was the densest cake I have
ever eaten and right after no sugar for a week I thought I was going
to die. After quite a battle I overcame my foe and then headed to the
bathroom. After throwing up three times I realized how stupid that was
and thought "What would my mother say?" I knew dad would give me
a good-game and say "that's my boy". That is why it's scary when
boys leave home, they lose all common sense =)

I'm so glad to hear about the family and what good examples
everyone is being, you really are the people God works through to
bring to pass changes in others. I love you tonz and tonz

(Tyrel) Elder Parkinson