These are from Parker's Branch President, President Brinton .

Parker's District Elder Christensen and Parker Elder McCormick

At the Sao Paulo Temple, Brazil

Parker leaves the Brazil MTC on April 6th for his first area in Rio.

Parker writes:

I went out into the city of SaoPaulo with my district. This was the day we first went out to proselyte, using real Portuguese, talking to REAL people, in the very real Brazil!. Me and my companion tried to use the spirit to find those ´elects´, to contact and give them the amazing and powerful, Book of Mormon(O Livro De Mórmon). We placed 4 in 1 and 1/2 hour! Yay!!

Before i left to go on my mission, i bought a watch. IF you know me, then you know it wasn't just any ordinary watch you get from Target or Wal mart. I had to get the watch that really resembled my style. I got a NIXON, The Newton!, Purple and 30M Poly Carbonate. OHYYA!!! Everyday there is a new Brazilian missionary that asks if my watch is a power Ranger Watch and if I'm a power ranger. Its funny. I usually just say, ´Yes, but don´t tell anyone...´. I doubt they believe me but its fun to pretend.

Feb 21-27

Mum,
...I love you...Please respond?...Hahaha...OH wait...you're on your cruise...Well Respond if you can. I'll be back on email to check in a few hours. I hope you and Dad and Chunga are having fun! GET A PIC WITH CHUNGA! That'd be legal!(Lee-Gal-Portuguese for Cool)!

PS. Have you by chance gotten my Patriarichal blessing? I think about it everyday...I'm so anxious to read it, since i don't remeber that much from the actual blessing...Hmm...I trust that you will send it when you get it. Hopefully before i get sent to BRA.(still no word on the Visa...although it is for sure coming sooner than later...i think)...

Okay, Tchou for now! Paz e Amar! Peace and Love!
-pa'ka


When we got home from the cruise Jill said the Parker had called, his visa came in and he was going to the MTC in Brazil!! He left on Monday March 1st and got there the next morning. We got an email from the MTC in Brazil saying that Parker got there safe and was all setteled in and "Your very important young person is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “There is no mortal man that is so much interested in the success of an elder [sister] when he is preaching the gospel as the Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord’s children.”

A few days later we got an email from the Branch President in Sao Paulo.
Dear Parents,

Your sons arrived into our branch at the MTC in São Paulo safely and in good spirits. We took this Thursday night when we first met with them. My husband is their branch president and we look forward to working with your son while he is here.

Sincerely,
Sister Brinton

Week 2

Just like when he was little, he doesn't have too much to say.

He gave me a list of things he forgot to pack, and requested a few email addresses. But he did say he loved us from the bottom of his heart :) aaawwwwwwww

First P-day and letter

On Parker's first P-day (preparation day) he got to set up his email address and write to us. He is going to be sending something for me to post weekly and you will find it here :)

Feb 9

Hi everybody! I'm doing good so far here at the MTC. My companions name is Elder Sopp, He is a super nice guy with a strong knowledge/testimony for the scriptures. I hope to learn from him these few weeks. The food is good, the weather is nice, and the spirit is strong. Its weird how much you want to keep learning about the gospel when you are immersed in it so much. I like it, more than i was expecting. Haha! Well, there isn't much more to say, and my laundry is almost done! Yay! Clean Underwear! Hahahhahaheh he he heh eh ehuuuuhhh sigghhhh...I love you all! Feel free to Message me on this email! I'd love it if you do. That'd be nice... Wrtite your testimony. Or a neat experience. Or what you ate for lunch. JUST WRITE ME! HAhaha...PS. ITs free...Tchau! -PA'KA

MTC VIP

Back in the day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), when you took your missionary to the MTC you would be in for an all day bawl-fest! The family and the missionary would go to a program where the MTC president would talk about your missionary leaving (and you would cry) and how he might get homesick (and they would cry) and this was the last hour you had with them so to make the most of it (if you could stop crying). Then the missionaries got to hug their moms and shake their dads hands and went to one side of the room and out a door (while the family was crying and crying) and then the families would be directed out a door on the other side (still crying). What an ordeal. Due to the H1N1 virus they had to stop the program and have made it quite efficient.

We pulled into the MTC at 1:22pm. As we stopped and Dave popped the trunk and Elder came running down the hill to us. As we hugged Parker, the missionary pulled out his luggage and then said "ready Elder?" and proceeded to walk up the hill. We snapped a picture and Parker ran to catch up with the Elder with his luggage. He turned, waved and said "bye, love you" and was gone. It reminded me of Parker's first day in nursery. I was ready for all the crying and hanging on, but when I opened the door Parker said "bye mom", walked in and shut the door in my face. The rest of us piled back into the car and pulled out at 1:26pm. Jill said it was like pulling off a band aid. Do it fast enough and it doesn't hurt nearly as bad.

Visa

We were checking the mail box every day for Parker's visa. We got his passport and has to mail that with his visa information to the Church and they were taking care of the rest. We heard that the Visa process was slower than usual and on the 28th of January the stake President called to let us know that the visas would not be here in time so he was to report to the Provo MTC on the 3rd of February, instead of flying right to Brazil. Parker didn't care where he had to go, he just wanted to go!!

The night before he left we had a family pizza party at the Pi. It was your typical McCormick dinner :)

King of Shopping!!

The call came in late October and he was to report to the MTC in Brazil on February 3rd, so we had some time to get stuff together. We sent off all the passport and visa information first thing, he had to get immunizations for Tetanus, pertussis, diphtheria, mumps, measles rubella, hepatitis A and B, typhoid, yellow fever, H1N1, influenza, Meningococcal meningitis and pneumonia. Holy crap!!! The poor guy wouldn't be able to use his arms for weeks!!!

Just after Christmas we went to the famous Mr Macs to get suits. It took him all of 15 minutes to pick the color and button style of the suits he liked, about 15 minutes for the 3 pairs shoes and and about an hour for 7 ties. I found out that the tie does all the talking in a suit... so they are very important :).

We walked out with 6 large bags of clothes and spent $1258.00, I just had to tell Jill that Parker has taken the lead in spending the most money on clothes at one time. King of the shopping!!

IT IS HERE!!!

It was finally here, with all the delays due to doctors, immunizations and interviews we were beginning to thing it would never come. But here is it.... Parker's "call". The big question now... WHERE is the Lord sending him???

We had to wait for everyone to get home from work and then for Gram and Papa to come over. While we were waiting we had everyone guess where he would be called to~

Abby-Australia

North-Russia

Jill-California-ish, but stateside

Dad-Missouri

Mom-French speaking.. Canada?

"Dear Elder McCormick:
You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Brazil Rio de Janeiro Mission."
As mom, Jill and Abby are all squealing the only way girls can, Dads first words are "we are SO picking you up"!