November 10, 2014 - 6 Months!

I got burned today. Hard. We had an activity with the zone, and we were outside playing volleyball for like an hour and half. And I am burned. Then after that, we went and ate with my district, encebollado! It is like a soup with stuff, and is SOO good! And then we came to write! But encebollado. So good. uff.

It has been a good week with a lot of work, but not quite as many fruits. BUT!! On Thursday, we visited the family Jimenez with our mission lider, but he said a few things that weren´t  quite correct, mainly because he doesn´t know, and unfortunately planted some doubts in Rafael about tithing. So on Friday, just us went and we talked straight up with them about everything. So what we all agreed on is that Rafael would talk with his wife (she already wanted to be baptized) and then we would come to lunch on Saturday and eat with the zone leaders also and he would tell us.    So we prayed and prayed and prayed for him.   

Saturday at 1 pm, we went and ate soup of balones de verde. So good! Then we talked..

He started by saying, "unfortunately I don´t dream and didn´t dream last night either" and I was like nooooo. :( but then he continued, saying how they had talked and really how they have changed and felt a lot better and more peaceful and all. Then ended by saying, we are going to get baptized!! I almost jumped out of my seat, and just hugged him!    The zone leaders interviewed them right then, and they are getting baptized on Saturday!!! WHOOO!! haha it was awesome!

So that was that. And that is the highlight of the week! Things are going really well here. I am still in my first sector, but am done with a fourth of my mission! And I hope to stay here for one more change! We have changes in 3 weeks, and I hope to survive them, although my chances are slim. :P 

Don´t have very much more time, but I just leave my testimony that I know this church is true, and that being a missionary is awesome. I have changed so much in so many ways already. I just look at things a little bit differently. 

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Dallin Parker

November 3, 2014 - Work Week.

This week has been way good! I don´t have  a lot of time so this will be short. Sorry! next week will be better.

This week we worked tons with less active members. And we have a family, the family Tonato, that are SO good, and are coming back and are just about active now. 

I really don´t have time today, but I love you all.  And I did get my package and my letter! THank yoU!!!

I love this week and I love you all!! Keep being you, no matter what the world says or does!

Love,

Elder Dallin Parker

October 27, 2014 - Happy Birthday Alyssa!!

Happy Birthday Alyssa! I hope you got my other emails with the fotos.

It has been a pretty good week. It was basically normal. Nothing new really happened. So this email might be a little bit shorter. 

It has been raining almost everyday. And the mornings are definitely a little bit colder. Ummm, to tell you more about my companion, he is from Meridian Idaho, he is 18 and just graduated from High school, and he is basically my same size. He is improving so much. And we have been having some amazing lessons. I honestly have been feeling the spirit more than I used to and it is amazing. I love teaching and being with the families here! 

The family Jimenez are amazing. Hands down. Golden. We taught the word of wisdom and they stopped drinking coffee with that. They want to change and be baptized so bad. We are just working on the dad to get his "revelation". His wife had a dream, or a few dreams, and he wants to have dreams too. But he has felt the spirit, we are just helping him to be able to recognize it. 

Everything else is going well. I just want to leave a thought with you all. "Discouragement will weaken your faith." That is from Preach my Gospel and I love that frase. That is what I trained on in District meeting. Really if we are happy and suffer all things with patience, with the goal always in mind, we will be able to keep the faith and carry on and be strong in all things. 

I am sorry I don´t have more time, but I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Dallin Parker

Not much, just this way cool spider that we found near our house! It was like silver and shiny! 

 

 

October 20, 2014 - Changes O.O

We got changes last night. And.......... I am staying here for at least one more change!! WHOOO!!! I am also District Leader now.. Yeah, so that is going to be a whole new adventure. But I get a cell phone now, which will make things a lot easier and more convenient! :)  And I am staying with Elder Larsen so I get to finish training him :) He is way cool, and improving so much! So I am way excited for this change!

We also baptized Anabel this weekend, which was way good! It was such an amazing experience. She was definitely prepared by the Lord to be baptized and to be taught. And now her mom has been reading the Book of Mormon, so now we just have to get her to come to church, and then she can take the step to be baptized too! 

We are continuing to work with the Family Jimenez and they are awesome and I love them! They gave us blankets this week that are suuuuuuuuuper comfy. SO soft, but SO warm and cozy haha. And they are always super excited to listen and to learn. We almost always eat something small with them, but they are always like, "eat fast so you can teach us!" haha it is amazing. 

I am not sure what else happened this week..  To answer a few questions, Yes, I do dream in spanish, not always, but a good portion of the time, although not as much now because I still talk english with elder Larsen, but when I am always talking in spanish, I almost always dream in spanish. 

I have a new favorite food! Or drink actually. It is called Colada Morada. It is like a fruit drink or something, that is super popular here. I am not quite sure how to describe it, but it is a drink that they only make here during this time of year for the day of the dead. And they eat it with bread in the shape of dolls with a little bit of frosting which they call guaguas de pan (kids of bread) guagua is kids in kichwa. And that drink is SO good! 

2 Samuel 22:2-4 is my thought for the week. I found out about this scripture from the mission president´s wife, and it is a powerful scripture. So amazing. We can do all things because of Christ. I know that He lives and that He loves every one of us so much better than we could ever hope to understand! 

I love you all and thank you for all of your prayers. Remember who you are!

Love,

Elder Dallin Parker

1. with Anabel just before the baptism!!

2. With the Family Jimenez

3. All of the missionaries in our ward (before changes)

4. Missionaries with bishop and a few members. (bishop is the dark one)

5. Cool pic just outside the chapel

6., Family Jimenez

7. With the Family Cortes where we eat on sundays and where we wash our clothes.

8. With Anabel just after being baptized

October 13, 2014 - Rain Week

It rained this week.

Not a lot happened this week. Pretty normal. But we are finally seeing success! The family Jimenez that we found last week is progressing and seems very happy. Although we might move their baptism date back a little bit, because I am starting to feel that it is a little bit rushed and I know the husband feels like that too. But we will see! I have faith that we won´t have a problem :)    

We also just restarted teaching a family of less actives that went to church and have talked to bishop and are now starting to come back to church. And something that I have realized is that it is better to focus on only a handfull of families, rather than trying to save the whole world haha and we have been focusing on that, and now we are seeing results!  But... changes are in one week, and if I leave I will be very sad. But I am thinking that I will have one more change here to finish training my son. But we´ll see!   But we have the baptism of anabel this weekend, so I will at least see that!

Umm, I don´t have much time now, but we went bowling today! That was a lot of fun! and I have a pic of us at the bowling alley. So yup! :)

I have to go but I love and miss you all. Thank you for yours prayers and faith!

Love,

Elder Dallin Parker

October 6, 2014 - Another miracle family and conference

We have another miracle family now. We are still working with the other family, the only problem is that it is difficult to find them to be able to teach them. But we are still working with them. But this week we were  handed a new family as a present with a bow on top! :)

We went to visit a member family this week, a mom and her daughter, and on the way there, this couple was leaving their house in their car and stopped and told us that they wanted us to visit them! And they told us they were just going to take their car to house and then come back. So they went and came back. And it turns out they are the son and daughter in law of this women, and brother and sister in law of the daughter. So we taught them (on friday) and invited them to conference, and they came! And then we visited them last night, and the wife tolds us that she wanted to be baptized. We didn´t even ask her! She just told us, I want to be baptized. She also has had dreams that she needed to change. They were having marital problems before. But she told us that and I just wanted to sing and laugh haha. It was awesome!  The brother still wants to know a little bit more and maybe still has some doubts, but I am positive that they are going to be baptized. They really have a desire to change. 

This week was a good week. We had  a  ward family home evening night this week and it was way good. It was the first ward activity in a long time that the ward had had. The problem is that there is not a lot of support from the members here. But we are working on that and we are hoping that we can keep having these ward activities to help unite the ward. 

We are going to have a baptism this weekend! Almost 100% sure. Anabel wants to be baptized, and we are planning for this weekend! We just have to plan a baptism for her this weekend. She wasn´t able to be interviewed this weekend. So that is a little bit stressful if we will be able to get in an interview. But I am optimistic! It has been raining fairly frequently now.  But not too much. 

And conference. Wow. 

"I may not be my brother´s keeper, but I am my brother´s brother" - Jeffrey R. Holland

"Far more important than walking WHERE Jesus walked is walking AS Jesus walked" - Thomas S. Monson

"We should, from time to time, consider if there is something better for us" - Carlos A. Godoy

I have a lot more, but they would take up too much space. But I am so grateful that we were able to listen to the prophet and the apostles this weekend. They are men called of God and have a special testimony and purpose here on the Earth, just as we all do.   

Don´t ever forget that you are a child of God and that He loves you and will be there for you. Each of you have a purpose that can only be truly fulfilled with Jesus Christ´s help. Seek his help and He will make you more than you can be. 

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Love,

Elder Dallin Parker

1. Our zone during general conference (We basically just hung out in the stake center all day)

2. The big guys in my zone with one of our zone leaders. 

September 29, 2014 - On the Mend...

I am healthy now! Just a little bit of runny nose and cough left, but it is going away! And the language is going well. I can talk and everything. I don´t understand everything, but just about. And I can say what I am thinking now. Haha training has helped me tons with my language, because I have been talking much more, but little by little, my companion is talking more and is doing more and really improving, which makes me happy :) It makes me feel like I am actually doing something. haha

It has been a good week. We were able to do a lot. The only problem is that we have not been able to find some of our investigators and menos activos. So that is going to be our focus this week so that we can get them going again and keep them going. 

We did have a cool experience this week. We went to visit a member family that has like a day care/ preschool kind of thing, and while we were there, there was a mom there that is  a friend of this family that has a daughter in the school. We went to just teach them something from preach my gospel, but she was there so we just started and taught lesson 1. We invited her to be baptised but she wasnt´ sure about that. But what she did say is that she had been having a lot of doubts or inqueitudes about many things that her church taught. And she had been praying for help. Then just apparently by chance (Although I know it was not by chance) we decided to go visit this family on this one night when she just happened to be there. She usually just picks up her daughter and goes, but that night, she stayed! So that was a way good moment for us this week! 

Today for P-day we went to the middle of the world. Not to the big statue, but to a musem, museo del sol that is right next to the monument. But it was way cool because we learned about the indiginous people that live in the amazon. They still live exactly how they did, naked, with no technology, still fighting between tribes and everything. It was way cool. And we learned how they make the shrunken heads from the heads of real people. And took fotos and did some cool things there. We didn´t go to the monument because there is nothing to do there. Only take fotos and it costs to get in, and we are all broke. But money comes tomorrow! :) 

I started reading the Bible this week and it is way cool. Way interesting. I read about the promise that God made us with the rainbows. And I am still reading the BOM too! 

I know that this is true and that this work is real. I wish the best to everyone!

I love and miss you all! Thank you for everything!!

Love,

Elder Parker

1. This is our district at one of our district meetings.

2. These are the missionaries in our ward! There are 7 of us, in 3 different sectors. 

3. This is me at the museo del sol at the mitad del mundo. That is were we went today. This is me with a little statue man. haha 

4. A bunch of totems from different parts of the world at the museo.

5. Our district on the middle of the world! ;)

6. Me with a statue of an indiginous man. 

7. I am focusing very hard to try to balance an egg on the head of a nail.

8. ¡Hecho!

9. Our district again with a flag of ecuador. 

10. Me with a mexican totem with a flag of ecuador.

11. That is the big monument of the middle of the world.