I'm going to SALT LAKE CITY!

Elder Dave Southwick picking up the missionaries. He was Wayne's boss for many years. (What are the odds of that?) He passed along this package to Parker! Thanks Dave!

August 14 

This week was really good! I am getting really excited to serve in South Salt Lake. I still can't believe I am serving there! On Sunday I had to give a 5 minute talk in Spanish! It went pretty well. The last few days have been pretty lonely because my whole district left. It is weird not seeing them. Yesterday for the Tuesday night devotional I got to hear from Richard G. Scott!!!!! It was awesome. He talked about prayer and the spirit was so strong. It was really good. At the end of his talk he gave a Apostolic blessing to every missionary learning a language with the gift of tongues! It was so cool! I am so glad I was able to hear him speak. Yesterday I went to the dentist so I got to go off campus. It was way fun. The shuttle driver who drove me to the dentist lives in the room right next to Tyler. It was fun to talk to him. I loved hearing the mtc lady talk to you guys on the phone. I think it was Jaxson that answered the phone and I loved hearing that. Ya the lady at the dentist was so nice! I hope you loved the picture! Packing was pretty hard. Mom I wish you were there to help me. My big bag weighs exactly 50lbs and my small one weighs 35lbs and my backpack is like 25lbs, but they are all packed with stuff. I am getting on the front runner at 12:50 so I am excited for that. Well maybe I will see you in the next few weeks! I love and miss you all!

August 19

This week was pretty good! Mom I loved your package. I got it right off the Front Runner. Thank you so much for that. The dentist gave me this sensitive tooth paste and I used it and the next morning I did not feel a thing when I brushed, so my mouth is perfectly fine now! I am serving in Kearns!! They put me with the zone leaders so I am in a trio! My companions are Elder Johnston and Elder Birch. Elder Johnston is from Atlanta but his family just moved to Lehi and Elder Birch is from Arizona. I really like them. Right after I got dropped off and met my companions, we took an investigator up to Temple Square and got a tour there! It was weird being in Salt Lake, but it was fun. There is a lot of Spanish here. We are the Spanish elders for our stake so we mainly work with Spanish people but we run into a few English speaking people. I cannot understand a thing everyone is saying! It is really hard. Also because I am with the zone leaders, they are super busy so I hardly get anytime for language study, so it is pretty hard. It is pretty ghetto here.  I guess in Kearns tracting is really effective so we do that a lot. The Hispanics are really nice but a lot of the white people are not too happy when we knock on their door. They get pretty mad sometimes. We mainly tract in apartment complexes and there are a ton of those. This area reminds me of the ghetto place on the movie The Blind Side where Mike's mom lives. A lot of people smoke so I do not enjoy going into their homes. I live in a members basement. There are two rooms and a bathroom. One bedroom with 3 beds in it and all three of us have to share a closet. The other room is where we study and there is a fridge in there also. I don't think anyone here has air conditioning so I am constantly sweating. Even where I live there is no AC, so it is so hot but I am always so tired that I can fall asleep pretty fast. I don't think 8 hours of sleep is enough. I am tired throughout the whole day and it is hard to stay focused. There are times where I can't keep my eyes open. The Mexicans here make way good food! I don't know what most of it is and it is really discolored, but it's delicious! Church was kind of weird. We have Priesthood first then Sunday School and then Sacrament. I did not understand anything at church. After church we took another investigator up to Temple Square! It is fun going up there! I miss and love you all so much! Thanks for everything!

Elder Parker Roberts

Ps. I totally forgot my camera so I will send pictures next week. Remember to pray for my visa! I just read a letter from Jake Owen and he is in the Argentina empty sea. He said in September and October they are going to send all the missionaries going to Buenos Aires over there so I might only have a few weeks left here so I will make the most of it !!!

Pictures taken from the car! And yes it is fuzzy, but there is Parker holding my bright orange package!

Last week in the "Empty Sea"!

                                               Jordan's last night in the MTC! See you in 2!
Hola familia! This weeks was really good! Spanish is still really hard but it is coming along pretty well. Yesterday I got to teach a family in Mexico through skype! It was so fun! It was an old lady and her grandson and granddaughter. I had a hard time talking to the old lady so I mainly talked to the little kids. They were so funny! They loved singing songs to us. This past week my district has been the only district in our zone so when a district leaves their teachers come to our class! It has helped out because there is a lot more one on one time. Instead of having one teacher in each class, we have 3 or 4! It is pretty crazy. This past week I have worked a lot with Crayton Hardy and that's been way fun. For the Sunday night devotional Dallin H Oak's daughter spoke to us! It was really good! She is super good at the violin so throughout her talk she would play some songs on the violin! It was awesome! 

I loved seeing Tyler! I was so happy to see him! I won't be able to call you until I go to the airport which will most likely be Monday or Tuesday So if you want to hear about my reassignment have Tyler come and find on Friday! And when I call you from the airport, everyone has been leaving really early in the morning so answer the phone if you get a call 2 or 3 in the morning. Also the empty sea wont have the scriptures until end of this month so could you send me some??? Tell them to give you the missionary discount. I haven't heard any good news about visas. I hope that changes. I love playing basketball in the mornings! Its super early to play basketball but I still love it. Elder Estrada in another district has some heart problems so he got extended an extra two weeks, so he has to stay with us so our room and it is pretty full. He had to go to the mtc hospital yesterday so I got to ride in a car with him. It was pretty fun to ride in a car. Today my zone is getting two Portuguese districts! I am excited about that. That is about all that happened! Thank you so much for the packages! I love them. If you have anything else to send me, Saturday is probably the last day I can pick it up. I love you all so much! Miss you all! Have fun at the family reunion. I loved Grandpa and Grandma Clark's letter! Tell Grandma and Grandpa Roberts thanks for the package. I will send you pictures later today!

The MTC with friends!

Me & Patrick!

No one is going to Argentina. Where will I be going?

This week was really good! It is still really hard but I am learning a ton! I find out either tomorrow or Friday if I am getting reassigned! I haven't heard of anyone going to Argentina yet. There is a rumor that starting in September Argentina will let more missionaries in but that is all I know. I have met so many kids going to my mission and a ton of the kids I meet are going Argentina. I got a haircut today. I buzzed it and it feels awesome! On Sunday me and Elder Thurgood had to teach a 50 minute lesson. It went a lot better than I expected. I do almost the same thing everyday. I usually have gym first thing in the morning. I play basketball when they let us and its way fun! When they don't let us go into the gym I run around the mtc a few times. I have gained about 10 pounds! I hope I can gain a little more. After gym time I have personal study for 1 to 2 hours. Then I have breakfast. I am not a big fan of the breakfast here. I love the cereal but the meals are not that good. I eat a ton of fruit but I am starting to get sick of it. They only serve cantaloupe, pineapple and honey do. I eat a bowl of those every meal and I am starting to get super sick of them. After breakfast I have 3 hours of class. During class I usually teach for an hour and then learn new Spanish things for the rest of it. After class I have about 2 more hours to study and then lunch. Lunch and Dinner are not bad but they serve chicken with everything so I am starting to get sick of that. After lunch I have another 3 hours of class. After class I have TALL for an hour. Its a language computer program. After tall I have dinner. After dinner I have 1 to 2 hours of Language study. Then I plan for the next day and have about 30 minutes of free time before I go to bed! That is what I do almost everyday. There are a few things that switch up but its all pretty much the same. Some days can go by slow but for the most part they go by fast. When I came into the mtc we had five districts in our zone and now were down to 2 and we didn't get a new district today. Church will be weird with only 16 people there. I eat lunch every meal with my district. I usually only see Jordan at meal times but everyone just sits with there districts. The only time I get to off campus is when I visit the temple grounds on Sunday and when we go to the Marriott center on Tuesday nights. Everyone that has spoke at the Marriott center is a General Authority. I have no idea who they were but they were really good. They give me 6 bucks a week at the book store here. I don't really use it that much. I don't really need anything. The new scriptures are coming out this week so do you want me to buy them down here??? Also should I dry clean my suits before I leave? And dad you never told me if I should buy a card reader here at the mtc. Most computers you need one to upload pictures here. Also when I buy stuff should just use my card or should I use the cash I brought with me? Its looks like Yellowstone was a blast! That's crazy football has started! I cannot believe Jaxson is playing this year! I wish I could watch him! He will be awesome. Try as hard as you can to get him on Maxfields team! Max and Ryan, I bet you guys are super excited! Mom Your packages are the best. Everyone says thanks for the packages. I am loving it here but would also love to get into the field. I love learning so much everyday. I miss you all so much! I love you!!!