August 25, 2014 - 25/08/2014

First, the baptism. Was amazing. Was perfect. Was super difficult to get ready. haha We started filling the font, then went to buy a cake for afterwards, and when we came back, the water was super yellow, so we were like what do we do. So we found some cloths in a closet, and that is what the picture is. We took turns holding the cloth there like a filter for 2 hours. Honestly, it was rough but totally worth it! It was such a good experience for them too. I baptized the mother and right after I asked her how she felt, and what she said just hit me. She told me she didn't know how to describe it, but she just felt new. Like she had been washed totally clean. Wow. It was fantastic. And we confirmed them that same night so that they can go to the temple tomorrow with the other youth and recent converts. And they got their recommends yesterday! They are awesome. We visited them yesterday also and only the mother was there because the kids were with their dad, but she just seemed so much happier. It was amazing to see :)

Ummm, this week.. Really was pretty slow. We had a super hard time finding people, or people were sick. The super family that we have that had the dream was sick, so we weren't able to visit them. Super bummer. |But we have faith that this week we will find all these people again, which will bless them so much.     Yeah, it was a lame week. But that is all good! We had interviews with President Richardson, which were super awesome :)  I love that man so much. He is amazing!

Umm, to answer other questions. Yes I still have my arm. I started to use antibiotics with bandaids, but I got little blisters or something. They didn't hurt or anything or itch, but the nurse told me to stop using them or to just use one or the other to see what is bothering, but I just stopped using stuff totally. Now I am just waiting. But it is improving. No need to worry. 

Yes, I have a journal and write in it everyday! ;)    And to send mail, I don't know how the church pouch system works. We call it pouch what we get from the offices, so I would just send everything to the offices. That is safest. But you don't have to worry about that if you don't want to. I don't know how much that costs. For me to send mail, it is actually kind of expensive, so I have not done it much, and I don't know about packages or anything. We'll see. I'll try to send stuff. 

We email from cybers just wherever. Not the same place everytime. It just depends on what we do on a P-day. Today we just played games with the zone. 

Thank you all for all you do!! I am going to send pics now.    Always remember who you are. And always remember the importance of the Book of Mormon. Before the mission, I did not realize the importance like I should have, but now I am starting to realize the love and power that is in that book, in the words of the prophets.

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

Love,

Elder Parker

 Also the other girl with us is basically investigating now, and is super interested and excited! :)

 

1.  With our baptizees! :)

2. Blanca with kids and other family. It was my comps birthday the 21st, and her birthday the 22nd. 

3. My comp trying to speak english during language study  :Pahah

 

 

August 18, 2014 - 18/8/2014

This week has been pretty normal. We are having a baptism this friday with our investigator and her daughter. I am super stoked for that! And we have  a new family that is amazing and so ready. This was basically my highlight of the week, meeting with this family. And here is the story.

So we were contacting the week before and knocked on this door, and a woman answered and invited us in. That alone was awesome! That never happens. So we taught her and went back and taught her and her husband Tuesday, almost a week ago. We taught them and the husband was way receptive. He had a brother that had a book of mormon and his brother was reading it, but he passed away I don't know how long ago. So the husband said that he would go look for the book so that he could read it.  Then the wife told us, the woman that we talked to the first day, that she had had a dream 2 days before we knocked on her door. She said that in her dream, her husband's dead brother had appeared to her and told her that everything was alright and that things would all be good. She also said that she saw 2 men in white come to her. That was her dream. When I heard that, wow. It was awesome. And she read the Introduction, the testimonies and the first 13 chapters of the BOM in 5 days. She said that she reads every morning. I was blown away. It was amazing :) And that is my awesome experience of the week :)

It has been normal this week. To answer questions about our P-days, it just depends on the week. We have activities as a zone where we play games and sports and stuff like that. Then sometimes we go to the offices which is like an hour away by bus to pick up mail (when we have it) and to get more supplies like BOM's and cards or what not, the pamphlets and stuff. And yeah, we haven't gone site seeing or anything yet, but I think in 2 weeks we will.  Either the Mitad del Mundo or Teleferico. We don't know yet. 

For my health, all is well. I am healthy and yes, I am sure my leg muscles are stronger. The only thing I have right now is a gnarly infection in my arm from a cut or something. I don't even know. hah I just kept picking the scab. But don't worry. Our investigator with a baptism this friday is a nurse and she looked at it last night and cleaned it. She said the same thing you would say mom. She asked me,  why didn't you tell me this when it was small? haha  But she cleaned it good and I talked to the mission nurse today at the offices and she gave me antibiotic and stuff. So yeah, that should get better, if not, I might lose a lot of weight , like however much an arm weighs haha. But there is a pic of my arm. 

A question. You know the mini BOM's in english? Are there minis in spanish? And how is the ward doing and all that?

And I read DyC 35 this week and love it. I love the promise at the end from verses 24 to the end. How awesome is that!! 

I love you all and miss you! 

Love,

Elder Parker

August 11, 2014 - The week!

The first thing, I ate a chicken foot this week! Haha I turned to my comp and asked him: how do we eat this? And he just said I have no idea... But we were eating on the stairs outside of their house becuase there was not another man there, so it was just us two, and we were able to experiment with different methods. It was... not bad. Kind of hard. yeah haha It really was difficult to eat. haha You have to like suck the skin and meat off the bones, and it is tricky! Tastes like chicken hah! No not really. I don't know what it tasted like. And I am still not sure if I am supposed to eat the tendons and everything.. there are some things that I am not sure how to eat.. haha I have not had chicken heads yet, but I saw at a members house yesterday little things that looked like gineau pigs or gophers, and they eat that. One of the other elders told me that it is really good! So we'll see! haha

There was an earthquake this week. It was not super strong where we were, but we felt it shaking. It is kind of rare to have earthquakes here, especially here in the mountains, but it is kind of sketchy, because there are tons of volcanoes. And if one goes off, it is very probable that they all will. And if there is a strong earthquake, we are doomed here. hhaa all of the houses are cinderblock. I am not worried about that, and you all shouldn't be either, but we are in the ultimate days. Who knows! But really, no need to worry. And it has been 6 years since an actual erruption that caused problems

This week was good! We now have 4 investigators with baptism dates, 3 for this month. And they are ready. It is exciting to work with people when you can see the change in their lives :) Like one of them was recently separated from her husband and that was really hard for her. But then we started visiting her and teaching her. And she has said that she feels a lot more peaceful now. And another family that is her friend that are less active that we are working with have told us that she is a lot happier now since she has recieved the gospel :) Moments like those are awesome. There is not a feeling like it. 

I have to go now, but I love you all and thank you for everything!

Leave your nets and feed His sheep.

Elder Parker

August 4, 2014 - 3 Months (In 3 days)

That all sounds kind of hectic haha! But fun too.

Right now, we are teaching a lot of different types of people.. haha Our investigator with a baptismal date for the 16th is awesome! She is a single mom, recently separated, so that has been hard, but she has told another less active family that we are working with that she has felt so many blessings from the message, and she has a strong testimony! 

Then we are teaching an old man that is super hard because he wants to know absolutely everything! And he is way hard, and we have a woman that is similar that asked about our chastity belts. We were like, are you serious right now? Do you see us or any other member wearing chastity belts? My comp got a little impatient and said: There are 15 millions members in the church. Do you think that every one of them wears a chastity belt? haha yeah.. but We work tons with the less actives. But we don't have tons of help from our ward. So that is way hard.

The members are way nice to us, but not always open to other new people, so that is sometimes hard with menos activos and investigators. But we have a couple new investigators that are gold! So I am optimistic :)

Church is like church. Haha it is basically the same, but in spanish! We don't do a lot with members, because we are always working with menos activos. So, yeah, but we eat lunch with them! I don't know if that answers your question haha..  ;)

So my thought this week is the power of fasting! We fasted this month for one of our menos activo families to be able to come to church! Because the mom works sundays, and the grandma has a bum knee, and there is no man in the house. But We fasted that she could change her schedule so that they could come to church because they want to, and I was not expecting the answer till the future, but they were at church yesterday! It was awesome!! :) haha

Leave your nets and feed His sheep!

Love,

Elder Parker

We were cold one morning during studies.. haha

And my radio! I didn't know it would be that pattern, but oh well! No shame! haha :P

And this is the awesome family that we eat with on sunday, and they do our laundry :)

July 28, 2014 - Quick Answers

Haha bueno... I have not worn sunscreen once.. I'll try to remememer :)

I needed the neosporin because we played soccer a few weeks ago, and I slipped and got a nice abrasion on my knee and it got way infected.. But all good now :) haha 

Yeah, they sell green mango gatorade here, and it is amazing. My second favorite flavor. And it is a special edition flavor. 

The problem here, is that the youth are either in school or are working, and we don't have a lot of support from the ward, only from like 2 or 3 members, so it is hard because our investigators or menos activos sometimes don't have friends in the church. 

Chris should go for it! It is still my goal as well to come back and tryout at least. But I really think that he can do it! He is a baller. And that is awesome about his scout stuff! What is his project? 

No you don't make things harder ;) It is good to hear about things!   But, no, I don't know about this missionary program.. I have only ever heard of prayers faith and support.. haha

That is so exciting about Peter and Florence. Haha speaking of Peter Parker, everyone here, whenever they meet me or talk about me, or call on me, they always do the web shoot hand haha. They are always like, Parker, like Hombre de araña (Spider man) haha

I have not had to play the piano yet, but I also have not been able to practice at all. soo.. that is a bummer because I don't want to lose that.  

We had changes today, but I am staying right where I am now, so that is good :) We are trying to divide our area, because we can only work in half of it because it is so big! 

My showers are amazing when they are warm! :) When not.. yeah.. 

I have to go, but ALso, will you send me pics of our lego sets? haha

My thought this week. I was reading my pillow one day, and something that westley said stood out to me.  "Be true to yourself" Yes. be true to yourself. In all things. Think about where you want to go, and what you want to be. I really am out of time, but I love you all and will reply to the kids next week too. Sorry I have not been able to do that! Next week! 

Leave your nets and feed His sheep!

Love, 

Elder Parker

I finally have my camera, so here are pictures!

1. With my comp with our zone shirts, with a tiger :) Our zone is nicknamed Eye of the Tiger! :) Yeah, I am meant to be here haha :) 

2. My bed, with Tiger blankets :) So you know I sleep well every night ;) 

3. One of the "tame streets" in my sector :P haha

4. My fetching shower. It is a fight every single morning. I will be all soaped up, and it turns off, so I have to jump out of the way and retame it :P Yeah, showers are fun haha 

 

 

1. Mom, you are going to be so jealous right now. If you have ever wondered why you can't find one dollar coins, it is because they are all in ecuador.. ;) haha I am not even kidding. I pay with a 10 and get all dollar coins back for my change.

2. Some of the coins have a president of the US on them, and this is my collection of presidents and whatnot.  Don't worry, I am saving all of them that I get so I can share a few when I get back. ;) But I already have like 25, and that is 25 dollars, so... 

3. A pic of our front room from the door.

4. My closet/floor/drying rack space for my stuff haha

5. My toilet and sink.

 

 

1. All of the missionaries in our ward, and our ward mission leader. We took apart his roof in his house so they can build higher. 

2. My desk for studying.

3., This is what the goals look like here. Always under a basketball hoop. And this is how it was in Mexico too.

4, . Pic of part of our area, it is a lot bigger than that! 

1. other pic of area

2. Our door. We have parts of milk cartons to cover the little windows.. haha and newspaper stuffed around the sides because it is not sealed at all! 

3. All of the gringos in my zone! 

1. View of the city from the Panecillo, which is a big statue of a virgin that is supposed to protect the city. 

2. The statue 

3. The other elders in my group

 

1. The cathedral of san francisco

2. Me with one of my zone leaders

 

 

 

 

July 21, 2014 - Answers to Your Questions

Answers:

Yes! I am feeling much better :) I got a blessing last week and am doing much better! I don't have problems anymore. I have no idea what it was but it sucked. Every morning I woke up and couldn't do much haha. And it lasted for a week. Every morning and random times throughout the day. It was the worst when it hit me during citas hha. But all better now! The food actually has been pretty normal here. Umm, yeah, only different thing is that when we eat fish, they usually just cook the fish whole, with bones and tail and face and everything haha. It is a litle bit tricky to eat because there are tons of tiny bones that will wreck your throat if you eat them. But that is the most different thing! Something that we eat a lot is salchipapas. French fries with hot dogs, or eggs or something. It is not good for us, but it is the cheapest and easiest thing when we don't have time, which is always. haha 

Okay, for qtips. They are like 50 cents for 100 or for 50 or something. I don't remember, but they are pretty cheap. 

There are supposedly like 200-220 in our ward, but we have an attendance of like 110-120 every week. It is not good. There are full menos activos in my sector. So many. And the thing that is diferent here, is that everyone has some crazy story about why they are menos activos. Like in the US, it is just that they weren't totally converted, or just stopped going to church. But here they are like: one time this person did this, one time this person didn't do this, like 10 years ago. They are really good at holding grudges here. We do so much work with menos activos and it is really hard to restore trust, especially because we don't have a whole lot of help from the ward. But we have a new leader mission of the ward so we have hope that it will get better! And because the old missionaries from like 4,5 years ago I guess were not good.. and lost the trust of a lot of people.. bueno haha

My companion is 21 I think, and has been here for 7 months. He has been in the church for 2 years and is awesome! Work hard, play hard! That is what he always says hha. And yes I have spoken and yes I have taught a lesson!  :P haha I don't get cut any slack for not knowing spanish, but it honestly has helped! I feel a lot more comfortable. Not totally, but more. I actually felt more comfortable when I was with a white companion, because, actualy I don't know why, but I did! haha And there is actually a chance that I will be a trainer in one more change. There are 20 gringos coming this next week (changes are in a week) and 20 the next one, so after I finish my training (12 weeks in total) I might be training too.. Who knows haha. 

There is nothing but hills here. I am not kidding, we are never walking on level ground. We have to walk down to get up, and walk up to get down, and it does not make any sense, but it happens. And no. Our area is huge and people are not really close. If you look up carcelen bajo in google maps, it is all of carcelen bajo, valle de carcelen, mastodontes, and josefina. and that is our area, and it is huge. 

We only have to wash fruits if they do not have a cascara? I don't know how to say that in english.. Like bananas have a cascara, and oranges. But apples and strawberries don't. So we only wash them if they don't have a cascara.   But we don't necessarily have anything specific to our mission.. Don't flirt. and that our future spouses are not in our mission, as missionaries or the people of our mission. There was an apostle or a seventy that said that. I don't know. hah that has been a problem before, we got an email specifically about that, but I think it is better know. And that is basically it.   

My questions: 

Do I need to be wearing sunscreen..? haha

Do I have neosporin or something? 

If you see a gatorade green mango, buy it and save it for me please :) 

I don't know if I will be sending many packages because it costs like 5 dollars for a letter, and I don't know about packages.. And I got your package! Thank you!! 

And you should answer my questions from this email and the last one too!

Sorry this is so long!

That is awesome about all of your activities!  :) It would be awesome to be there with you all, but honestly, I do not want to be anywhere but here. Sorry hah ;) I have had a couple dreams that I am already home, and I was way bummed haha. 

I like your thoughts about fasting! How true is that :) And not only fasting, our attitude affects every aspect of our lives! That is something that I have learned here :P 

 My thought this week is the power of prayer. I have found so much that prayer is something so important. Everytime we ask someone or a family how we can help them, they always just say pray for us! And I have also found that when we pray before a lesson, I can speak and understand much beter than when we are contacting and we don't pray!  Also always remember how much people respect us. We had, this week, a man come up to us (Catholic) And he asked us to help his son who does not have direction in his life, and has problems with smoking. This man told us that he knows that we have power, and that our message and what we teach blesses lives. Then we have a guy, probably 20 come up to us and ask us for help with drugs, becuase he wants to quit ad has tried everything, but he told us that he knows that we and God can help him.   Always remember who we represent!

Leave your nets and feed His sheep :)

I love and miss you all :)

Elder Parker

July 14, 2014 - Sick Week

To answer questions:

The weather here is perfect. It really is. Sometimes it feels hot, but I know that I can't complain, and it is rarely cold. And it also does not rain here. Like never. It has sprinkled a couple times, but that is it. I have used my sweater one time, and that was because it was night time and I was sick, so I was already more cold. 

Right now, all of our investigators are individuals. We have one with a daughter, but her daughter is full catholic. It is so hard to find families here, and I am not sure why. OH! Actually, we might have a family soon. There is a woman and her brother, and her daughter, and we hope that we can get her husband as excited as they are. They are golden. 

Well, we do knock doors. We have a goal for 20 contacts every day. That can be knocking doors, or talking to people in the street. Whatever. And we don't have a ton of investigators, but full menos activos. There are so many here, and partly because before, I don't know how much time, the ward was not super good, neither the missionaries. So we do a LOT of work with menos activos.

On P-days, we usually have an activity with the district or zone, do some shopping, and come and write. And that has basically been it. haha not a lot. But next week I think we are going to the Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the world). Maybe haha..

There is a member family that washes for us. It is so nice :) We just drop our clothes off and pick them up later! 

Haha we eat a lot of bread. The panaderias here (Like breadshop) Have really good stuff. And cereal, and milkshakes. Lunch we eat with members, and always rice and some kind of meat, and soup. 

Yes, I alternate my shoes! Ummm, well I have been sick for the past week so we haven't been able to. I wake up everymorning with a nutso stomach ache, and it sometimes hits me during the day, but we still work, it just sucks. haha oh well. I got a blessing today, so I think I will be getting better. But we usually do weights or stuff, and maybe are going to start running.

We drink soda. All the flipping time. I don't like to drink soda, but it is cheap, and almost everyone has it. Or juice or water. But with members, soda. Almost always. I wish we didn't, but oh well. haha

Lots of fried banana, is what they eat. We have fried or cooked banana with almost every meal. Or bread, bread is fairly cheap and easy to get. 

No, I have not gotten my package yet.. But it usually takes a long time I think.. Like one elder got a package 3 months later. So yeah, it might take some time.. 

That is so awesome for Leland! I'm so proud of him :)  Truly, and that is something that I have really gained a testimony of here, the importance and strength of families. There are TONS of family problems here. and it sometimes makes things hard. Actually a lot of times. 

Now I want to ask questions haha:

Is that pillowcase safe to wash with other whites?   Do you have ideas for activities that can help the mission work?     Who won the premier league title?    Melkezidek priesthood holders can ordain together with priests to ordain someone to a lesser office, right?    Where are the rest of my qtips?     I think that is it for now haha

That sounds like a fun week! How was it for Chris? Has he been talking to the coaches? Does he want to play? 

Thought: Moroni 7:13.   Always do those things that the Lord wants of us! And then verse 16 :) 

I love you all, I am sorry if I forgot to say something, but it is hard to remember everything haha :P

I love you all and miss you :)

Love, 

Elder Parker

well, since I don't have my battery yet, nor do I have a way to move the photos to the computer yet, here is a foto of my district :)   haha