Dear Brother Parker 6/12/90
Thanks for the letters. Although I know that sometimes it is hard on the cost of the letters all over the world. Well here are some stamps to help. Don’t ask how I get them here in the Philippines. It’s a long story. Also don’t ask why I am writing on this paper. [Letter to President]
Love the gang and help them like you did me and so many.
Love, Elder Bushman
P.S. I also think I forgot to pay my $5 dues to the T.G. Program. I hope this helps.
I hope the stamps are still good. The humidity does bad things to stamps.
Bro. Parker,
Sorry its taken so long to write you back, but I do appreciate the June issue of the GUIDElines. It’s great to hear from all my friends. I arrived in Toronto a week ago, and already I love it. I’m in a town called Scarborough, which is a suburb just east of Toronto. My comp is Elder Parker from Rexburg, Idaho—so Paul and Troy can say hi to his folks. Anyway, he’s a good guy and he likes to work hard. The Lord has blessed us this past week. We’ve been very busy and we have some baptisms lined up. I really appreciate the Program now more than ever, her in Canada, because it gave me a base to work on. It’s easy to talk to people and my knowledge of the scriptures really helps. I love the Program and I love everyone involved with it. Give my best to the Guides and to Old UB. He’s a good guy, isn’t he? Well, I got to go.
Love, Elder Bowden
Dear Bro. Parker, 6/14/90
Sorry about this post card but I am temporarily out of stamps & wanted to get this off to you! I Love My Mission! I am sure you’ve heard by now but I have been made a Trainer. My companion is a brand new missionary from Orem, Utah. I sure do have them fooled – huh? Only out 3 months and making me a Trainer. The weather here is incredibly miserable! It is now common to go into a discussion and have the lady offer a towel to wipe off our face! So how are you doing, Bro. Parker? How is the job scene working? I hope you can read this but I like to write small on a post card so I can fit everything in. I pray for the Program each day. I hope all is well. Is Brent still the President? I am so excited for our Regional Conference this weekend. Pres. Hunter and several Apostles and GAs will be there. It will be “SWEET!” Our companionship does not have a baptism set right now but we have some awesome people that we have appointments with this weekend so we should have some set soon! Our mission commits people to baptism on the 1st Discussion rather than the 2nd. It works out so awesome! Our whole mission went to the Cubs game a couple of weeks ago and I got to talk to Trone. He is such an AWESOME missionary. I told him Laurie and Leslie had a place of their own and he started laughing. Boy – you would have had a good laugh last night if you had seen my comp and I. We had one of the hugest thunderstorms I’ve ever seen last night. Elder Booth was kneeling down saying his prayers and I was just getting ready for bed when all of a sudden our bedroom window just collapsed and slid down! Water was literally pouring in right off the end of the gutter. I quickly moved the stuff on the dresser and slid the window back up but the catch was busted and wouldn’t hold unless you pushed it from the outside. So barefoot and only in my shorts and T-shirt over my G’s I … the rain. I had to jump over this guy’s fence and then get a ladder to reach our window. I finally got up there and fixed it. But I can only imagine how funny we looked running around trying to stop the torrent of water flowing into our bedroom. I am going to write you a letter concerning the more spiritual side of my mission experiences but I thought you might enjoy hearing a little of the lighter side of a mission. You probably know that if there is any fun to be had in any particular activity—I’ll find it. And I am having a blast at working hard for our Heavenly Father! I love you Brother Parker – more than you’ll know in this life. My prayers are with you Always! – Craig
Dear Bro. Parker, 5/28/90
I can’t tell you how truly great it was to hear from you and everybody. It was an enormous boost for me and it really helped me to have a great week. It’s so fun to explain the Program to my companions. I always put a “mall card” up on the wall wherever I’m staying. I can honestly say that the time I was in the Program was the funnest and most spiritual time of my life thus far. I enjoyed it so much, nothing will ever replace the fond memories I made in the Youth Guide Program. I’m really glad you sent me “GUIDElines.” It’s so neat to hear how everybody is doing on their missions. I’m doing quite well here in South Africa, after getting over being homesick for about a month. Our mission as a whole is doing quite well compared to last year. We are baptizing double of what we did last year. Our goal is to baptize 400 between January and July. I think we’re at around 260 right now. So we’ll have to work hard and smart for the next 33 days. The biggest challenge we face is finding quality people to teach. So we spend a lot of time on finding. Just so everybody knows, South Africa is very much like the States. There are quite a lot of our black brothers. But we teach mostly the white people who are Dutch-British descendants. We do teach and baptize quite a lot in Swaziland. But most of us other missionaries work in cities with the white Afrikaans people. About 80% of the population speaks Afrikaans, which is a mixture of Dutch, German, and French. It is a lot like America, but in other ways it couldn’t be more different. I do like it here. The weather is almost exactly the same as Mesa. Anyway, the work is progressing quite well here and keeps improving. I love missionary life and have learned so much in the short time I’ve been out. I have learned that the most important key to being a successful missionary here is love. You have to love the people and show it, and as you show it they begin to try to give that love back. We always say and believe that we are really living the commandments. But I wonder how well we really live the 2 greatest; Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor. I think if we really do love our Heavenly Father with all our hearts, we will show that love by how we deal with others. I think honest, sincere love is the answer to most every problem we may encounter. I just hope I can make it a habit in my life to show true love for others.
Love, Elder Kenneth Butler
P.S. Paul Freeman is in this mission, too, and he would really appreciate a copy of GUIDElines. He’s at the same address: P.O. Box 1517, Florida 1710, Republic of South Africa.
P.S.S. Thanks again for writing to me Brother Parker. I hope you’re doing great. LIFE IS GREAT!
KEN: Thanks for the picture. You look about the same, except much more mature! There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t see some news about South Africa. Please tell Paul that I have sent his parents all of the GUIDElines, and have asked them to send them on. Your mother said some of the mail has gotten lost. I just spent 15 minutes on the phone to Sister Freeman. She says Paul should have started getting the GUIDElines around May 5th and if so we ought to hear from him soon. Thanks for the letter, and I hope you enjoy this issue.
Your eternal brother, Bob Parker
Dear Brother Parker 7ASA
The GUIDElines was sensational!! What a boost! Sorry this is short, but with 30 people writing, maybe the shorter the better.
This letter I’ll save to tell you about what kind of a place Japan is.
There are pop machines everywhere, in every corner, on every street, in every building. They contain everything. 2 liter cans of pop and regular cans, beer, cigarettes, candy, snuff, hot coffee, tea, rubber balls, cassette tapes, batteries, or videos.
Every building is over 2 stories high even McDonald’s is 3 stories high. When no room to expand, buildup! In order to get a feel for where you are, you need to go up 10 stories. Once there, all you se for miles and miles is more buildings. Take downtown Phoenix, lunchtime on a Wednesday, triple the people, and move the buildings real close together, and you have Tokyo.
Japanese toilets, called “Squatters” closely resemble a hole in the ground. Well next time I’ll finish the print-a-picture portion of Japanese culture. Take care, and God Bless you/!
Love, Elder Riggs
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