President Nelson is a champ!

What a fantastic week! Every week gets better. Every day gets better.

First off...THANKS for the mail. The mail helps and gets me through the week! WHIT your letters rock, thanks for writing. haha "gapagoll ham".  Pullan family, I don't know your email, but thank you so much for your package! You guys are great. And also the package from Anna, Haley, Mays, Madi, and Syd. Don't know your emails either, but thank you!! Letters of any kind are greatly appreciated. Mom maybe you should thank these people for me ;) OH and speaking of Anna...guess who I saw last week at the temple?? Jaren! Not my brother (I wish), Jaren Hunsaker and his dad. SO GOOD to talk to them for like two minutes. I have seen someone every week so far at the temple, including Amber Ellis, John Ackerson, Mr. Turner, Jaren. Yesterday I talked to Hannah Holmes, who just got a job here at the MTC. Pretty awesome to see people you know. 

We've had some good rain this week. Gave all the Elders a chance to try out their sweaters and stuff. We play a lot of volleyball either in the sand pit outside or inside the gym. Gym time here is so much fun. It's importance is stressed a lot because "a bow string won't stay strong if it is stretched so much, sometimes you have to release the pressure on it." 

Hosting on wednesday was super dooper cool! Brought back memories from what feels like an eternity ago, when we got dropped off. A little awkward though because you have to be excited and greet the family and stuff, but very few families are happy to see you. Mostly it's a huge cry/hug fest and no one is happy to see the host missionary. But the new Elders and Sisters are generally pretty excited. The first few days are great. It's a fun job. 

Haha finally had the first sleep talking incident. Elder Trent sleeps on the top bunk. I guess he got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I was muttering something about the BOM. He decided to ask me about it, and I ANSWERED. I was like "Yeah I love the book of mormon, my favorite book is ammon....and..and.and...and...and...and..." He just left to go, and when he came back I was still muttering "...and...and...and..and.." funny.

Last week I played the piano in sacrament meeting. So far I've played the hymns and a special number (come thou fount). I love music, just wish we had some more of it. We have to resort to singing it and it's not pretty. 

As you can tell from the subject...on tuesday devotional we had an amazing talk given by..Sheri Dew! Just kidding, we had her on sunday. But she did great too. Tuesday was the one and only President Russell M. Nelson. The spirit in that room was very very strong. His talk was very simple and brought some good truth to light. He talked a little about pornography, and how Christ will forgive "as oft as we repent." But it has to be TRUE repentance. He talked about his history as a heart surgeon, and talked about how we missionaries are "epistles of the lord." We are literal messages and testaments of Christ, walking about. I loved that he said how the spirit burns into our hearts and becomes part of us. He said it is written in the "fleshy tables of the hearts". I LOVED that, because on the quote that Uncle Brad gave me, he wrote a little note on the bottom that said "I know you can commit this not only to memory, but write it in the 'fleshy tables of the heart.'" We had a district review of the devotional afterwards, and I talked about that. Our branch president's wife, Sister Swenson, was kinda crying. His wife also gave a good talk about we are a heaven based church and not a utah based church. PS did you know that he remarried like in 2006, when he was in his 80's? He's a cool guy. 

Lessons and spanish continue to improve greatly. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a missionary. If you try, you can really be happy. 1 nephi 31:20..I think. Wherever it is, it says we must "press forward with a perfect brightness of hope". That is important. Haha me and Elder Trent have this new thing where we read out of the spanish BOM and try to translate to english. The other guy reads english and corrects him. It has some funny outcomes too. 

Well better go. Thank you to everyone who may ever read this, I am so glad for my friends and family. I love this gospel and how I am HAPPY all the time becuase of it. Also just know that is impossible to write everything I want to, so sorry about that. See ya next week!

Elder Wilcox

Ps: "And they traveled forth to the land of building 1M to do laundry, their bags being great with dirty clothes. And they washed their clothes in the washer, and it was well. But when the time came forth to put the clothes in the dryer, the lint thereof was exceedingly gross." The lint in the dryer is NASTY.

MTC shenanigans

Hello from provo to Heber! (that doesn't sound very cool. Eh whatever, it'll sound cool when it's Buenos Aires)

The MTC is sooo great! I can't wait for the field. But was it dad (?) that said if he had to finish his mission just after the time in the MTC he felt it would've been a success. That's totally how I feel. I think that being here you can really sincerely change your life for the better.

Funny stuff: its the most spiritual campus on the planet, but we still have 18 year old boys running around. My district is 10 guys, and the residency rooms are three bunks so room for 6 guys. The room that I'm not in has an extra bunk and they filled it last week with two english speaking elders. We had been there two weeks so we were basically veterans to them right? So we walked in to find them unpacking. Every night we do a district prayer, but that night we had them join us. We had our poker faces on, and said totally serious "Here in the MTC they want us to be friends and have love for each other, so we hold hands when we pray." There were like ummm ok? So we all held hands and said our district prayer. They were super weirded out it was funny. I said it in spanish, so they had no idea what was even going on the whole time. I said "we are grateful for our new elders, Elder joy and elder rogers." But joy in spanish is gozo, so I said that. As soon as I said gozo, the whole district busted up laughing. I think they think we're really weird haha. That night laying in bed the guys staged a loud conversation about the last elders that were in those bunk beds the new guys were in. The new guys don't have pillow cases. They said "That would be terrible to get sent home just for getting pink eye." "Wasn't it just because they didn't have pillow cases?" "Yeah that's the only reason." HAHAHA they woke up to find Elder Rogers had wrapped a t shirt around his pillow. But it's okay we told them we were just joking.

Language problems: pez is fish and paz is peace. We've told investigators a couple times that if you pray often you can have fish. Things like that.

We are continuing to teach Jose. What a great guy! We taught him tuesday and thursday. On tues he hardly even let us teach. He had a marathon shirt on and said nice shirt i am a runner too! But then he just went on and on about how life is like a marathon. It was nice what he said, but we didn't really get a chance to get to our lesson. On thursday we taught him about faith and repentance. Plan of salvation and stuff. He listened hard and asked good questions. It was so easy to talk to him, I could just feel the spanish flowing! I think that's where the gift of tongues kicks in, when we really care. We also did member lessons this week. That is where actual members come in and we just give a little lesson. It was HARD though, because we didn't know them at all, and they talked really fast. I couldn't understand almost all of what they were saying. But with Jose, we have gotten to know him and really love him. On thursday he started crying and told us how him and his wife have had financial problems. His daughter is handicapped and life is hard a lot. But I just bore testimony that with faith and diligent prayer, we can overcome our challenges. Not get rid of them, or make them easier, just overcome them. I told him I thought he was a really loving guy, which is important because we need to have charity, the pure love of christ. I wasn't planning on saying that, but I think it was the spirit. he was so nice. He said "thank you so much for your beautiful words and message." The learning the language is going slow but good.

We got a TON of heber missionaries this week! SOO awesome. haha heber gets a lot of hype becuase there are so many of us here. People really think heber is a small cowboy town. Funny. I saw Elders Ritchie, Lindsey, Root, Strong, Harmon and Roney are companions (isn't that CRAZY?), and others. It's so happy here.

The sunday and tuesday devos are so good. One great part is the MTC choir. I LOVE singing in the choir. It is so great. We sang "A child's prayer" this week and I took a break from tenor to do base. HA it really was so fun. The director, Bro Egett, is so cool. Really really cool. He's spiritual and funny.

Thanks for all the letters. love everyone! make sure and pray daily. Read the scrips. I love everyone at home! Until later.

Elder (Ooh-wee-de-cock-oo-soo)

Weeks fly by, days feel like years

wow. The MTC just gets better and better. Yesterday evening we had some study time outside because the weather was just perfect...and the sounds of the pioneer day fireworks sounded pretty cool. It was fun though, I finally memorized the baptismal commitment and countless gospel vocab words. The language is coming along great! I am so lucky and blessed with my past high school spanish to help me. Some of the guys, bless them, don't know any..my companion included. It's fun though, I get to bail him out during lessons. Who would've thought we would be teaching people in the SPANISH LANGUAGE? Weird huh?

This week has been truly incredible. Just like every day. "The days go slow but the weeks go fast." so true. Every day feels like yeeeaaaarrrsss, but this week has really flown by. I love the spirit that is here. I love that fact that everyone here is a missionary. Like the fact that it is cool to bear testimony all the time, or wear garments, or sing in the shower, or whatever. I've seen mighty changes of heart in myself and those around me. We talk about the blessings we have, or the amazing growth in spanish we've had in only a week, or the spirit or whatever....when I know only a few months ago that these kids wouldn't have made comments like that. Feel me? The gospel is true. I wanna go onto KSL or something and say BREAKING NEWS: Parker is not who he once was. Dad, mom, Misti, thanks for the letters. You guys are awesome. Love each and every one of you. Mom your package is amazing, the district and I loved the no-bakes. Dad your quote by George Cannon is cool. Ha I work in the cannon building....coincidence? I think not.

Lessons learned: the spirit is everything. Without the spirit, you cannnnnnnot teach anything. Or learn anything. Way back last P-day, in the evening, our teacher Hermano Barfuss was with us. We were kinda rowdy and hyper from P-day and stuff. Eventually, he said (in spanish) "Ok, we need to take a break, because we don't the spirit with us." Wow. I was kinda hit hard. It amazed me how true that was. We said a prayer as a companionship and I calmed myself down. It took a little while, but eventually it was one of the best classes ever. And if you don't have the spirit with you in lessons, you're toast there too. We started doing TRC this week, which is where real investigators come in with the new missionaries. Elder trent and I are teaching a cool guy named Jose. (there's an accent but I can't do it on this keyboard) He was SOOO tired the first time we taught him because he had just gotten off a late flight. He literally fell asleep in front of us for like 20 seconds, right after we asked him a question! awkward. He looked so uncomfortable, and was fidgeting the whole time to try and stay awake. He wouldn't have anything we were saying, and was kinda pessimistic in general. But the next time we taught him, we really prepared. We had a great lesson about the plan of salvation. He was in SUCH a better mood that time. But still kinda pessimistic. I started off telling him the topic for the day, the plan of salvation, or the plan of happiness. He disagreed and said it was just a plan of salvation because it was hard to be happy. We showed him the He Lives easter video and the spirit was there. We bore testimony and even more spirit came. It was such a good lesson. He kinda shut up and was convinced in his heart of the truthfulness of the things which we said (good scripture language eh?) Near the end of the lesson, I remembered what he said earlier, and testified it was EASY to be happy with the gospel in our lives. He was really nice that day, and the lesson was so awesome. We've also been teaching a girl named "Elizabeth Ortega", and she was a fun investigator. But she turned out to be our teacher yesterday, haha we knew the whole time, shh don't tell. The spirit was always strong in her lessons, and she was really nice. She taught a great lesson when she turned out to be our teacher. That was fun. But her fake identity had a boyfriend and a daughter. We decided to teach her about the law of chastity. But the whole lesson was kinda awkward, because 1.its kind of a weird topic. and 2. we knew hardly ANY vocab about that topic. I spend 30 minutes trying to talk with any words I knew about the law of chastity. "You shouldn't be...with...a....man..and baby....before married." It was fun. s

Sunday and tuesday devos were both awesome, spirit so strong in both of them. By the way, there's no way I can write everything i want in this email, so sorry. We sang in the choir and that was awesome, sang praise to the man. Watched "character of christ", a talk by Bednar, it was amazing. To have the character of christ, we have to be turned constantly outward, NOT inward. Missionary work should be soooo selfless, we should never be worried about ourselves.

Thank you for your emails! Please dearelder.com me! Really, seriously. It is so awesome to get one during the week. You'll understand you guys once you're in the MTC. See ya. LOVE FROM......

.....Elder Wilcox. Ever stalwart

 Tie Exchange

Crazy Things!

Wow, what an experience this has been. I am just starting to understand the "work" part of missionary work. I got dropped off like three days ago, right? Wrong. That was like three years ago. The MTC schedule here has us doing so many things, every day feels like weeks. Seriously. Any one of you guys going in soon will realize this.


STUDY: there is a lot of time for study. Out of the 16 hour day, you're studying for about 10. I actually really have enjoyed the spanish classes! They are pretty fun. We have a teacher, Hermano Barfuss, that speaks only spanish to us. I am so grateful for my previous spanish knowledge, because some of the elders in my district don't know any spanish at all.


LIVING: not too bad at all. The bunk bed that me and Elder Trent (my companero) are on doesnt' have a ladder so poop Elder Trent has to hop up there awkwardly every night. There is a big public bathroom with decently clean showers so nothing to complain about there! Here in the MTC the sinks are always sooooo HOT, never cold. And the showers don't get all that warm, whadoyou know? The cafeteria is HUGE with lots of options! And i've only had two bowls of cereal so far. There is a district in our zone that has been here for two weeks and they've all taken us under their wings ha. They are all way nice, they just show us around, helping us get to class and stuff. We have had one gym hour so far, we went and played soccer/kickball with some other elders. The MTC is SO COOL because there are so many elders/sisters that are so nice and we are all learning and together! When I first walked in there was an orange sticker on the name tag and that means you are new. So literally EVERYONE smiles and says "Welcome to the MTC!" Pretty funny hhaha. I got hosted around my first time by none other than Elder Colt Sargent! He and his district were so stoked to see me and were freakin out about Shaylee. Having Shaylee and Morgan at the MTC is really really cool. Hermana Ferrell was just walking around my classroom building one day and I was so excited to see her! I felt like I was cheating because she is my friend from home. But the elders in the other district were all surprised that i knew her, they love her! Morgan you must be a pretty good teacher. Then yesterday, we were all studying in our classroom, and who else walks in but Shaylee! That really was the best thing that's happened all week. Shay you get to see inside my district and meet my companion and roommates and see how we are learning spanish and everything! Around the MTC I've also run into Elder Larsen, Hallows, Johnson, Trenton Wright, Mckay Gordon, Sargent, Sister Cottle, Lazenby, Biesinger, Jones, Hall and Dow! I get to see Elder Dow lots of times every day because we are in the same zone. Oh and GUESS WHO IS IN MY DISTRICT, NAY STAYING IN MY VERY ROOM? Elder Richie Lowe, cool right? So I spend my whole day with him in class and we are with each other all the time. Heber has an AMAZING showing here. Seriously we have so many elders, and sisters. My district always asks me and Elder Lowe how we know everybody. My district is super cool, I think even after a few days we are super tight. We have a big polynesian Elder Wihongi from new zealand with a really cool accent. Ten of us guys, most of us from Utah. My companero, Elder Trent, is a really nice guy. We have a lot in common: both play the piano, both love hiking and rock climbing, and both of us try to be really obedient.Thursday night he got made district leader! So did Elder Dow. So we get to check the mail and stuff. OH marcene sent me the nicest package with candy and a note, she is so awesome. I love that lady. Whit you were right the MTC is the best place on earth. The spanish comes really easily! It is so much fun. We had our first lesson in spanish, with a latino girl named Elizabeth. It was cool because she understood us, and we could understand her (mostly). Our branch presidents name is President Swenson, a really nice guy from midway, who knew? I love the spirit he brought into our first meeting. The whole presidency is three really old, funny guys who laugh out loud and make jokes. Right now I'm doing laundry, mom that yellow soap works miracles. Its easy for everyone to look scary, but get to know them and they're nice. I keep getting that feeling like I look like I'm two years old, and everyone else is 30. The spanish is coming nicely. Already we've learned the basics of conversation, how to pray, how to bear testimony, and lots and lots of gospel vocab. It's amazing what you can do in two days. Normally it would take me two weeks to get the stuff done that I have already. Well gotta finish my laundry and stuff, talk to you later! PS, forward this to whoever you want.