July 16, 2012

Lake Nicaragua

mothereeeeeerrrr y fathhhhhhhereeeeerrr!!!!!!!! Hello. hello. hello. hola. haha so yes I am so happy to be writing you right now. i just need to tell you thank you soooo much for the prayers. This week was amazing. First, I can understand a bit more spanish which is a miracle because sometimes I stop and think... wait that was all in spanish not in english and I just understood what they just said to me. Secondly... this is the very best part. We are teaching a Family!!!!!! and this is the other best part... they came to church this sunday!!!!! They actually came. We taught them the whole restoration and word of wisdom and the sabbath day and they had questions and everything and we made sure things were clear with them and they totally accepted it all. They are soooo smart and they have a little girl named Bianca and they are getting baptized on the 28 of this month. That is the plan. So if everything goes well that will be my first baptism. Also, we are having a family night with them and a family that are members tonight! The family invited this investigator family and we are so excited. I hope it all goes well. I got an email from Tay and it made my whole day. We are going though this hard but wonderful time together and it is building our relationship even more. He talked about my example and how he looks up to me. Which is funny because it is definitely the other way around. Dad, congrats on your talk. Mom said it was wonderful and I know that it was. You seriously are a king and you are honestly the best man I have ever known. Mom, there is a reason dad is so great and that's because the great support you give him. How blessed we are to have the priesthood in our lives. We really are soooo blessed. Dad, thank you. I see these homes here with no kind of order and no hope and it breaks my heart. So I have come to see that here its really hard to teach men. The men are really hard. The woman are easy to talk to and teach but the men are hard. We need more good men in this church and I'm so glad to have dad and my sweet brothers. Thanks so much. Dad, thanks for the medicine. I drink purified water. I will be safe because I am doing the Lords work. There is no better place to be. So church this week the day before we ran into this guy and said hey our church meeting is tomorrow and he's like ok I'll be there. We were like um excuse me what did you just say.... hahahah so he actually showed up and we had 4 investigators show up this week. Which is absolutely HUGE I was smiling from ear to ear all day long. Everything was perfect. Then right before church started Pres. Monestel and his family showed up to our branch!!!! What a surprise... and for him to come on such a successful day was incredible. ok so I will try to send some pictures. Today we went to the lake Nicaragua. um it is HUGEEEEEE hahaha i thought it was an ocean with all of the waves that were crashing and all of the trees and everything. Absolutely beautiful. What a good day. But I am so tired. We woke up at 5 to go play basketball with all the kids in the branch and then we hiked to this cool like hot springs pool thing... it was cold water but it was sweet. and then we went to Granada and we climbed to the top of this church and it was soooo awesome. Anyways... mom about the music. seriously dont worry about it. We have a cd player so maybe just make me a good cd with church songs. or maybe 2 or something. Also, I haven't gotten my package but I hear it takes a long time.... so I'm not sure. If you want to cancel the old one and are able to get a new one that would be great. Let me know. Thanks for all that you have done and I will send a pic if I can. Love you sooooo much... oh and dad, no ac here. only fans. but hey its ok. I am living hahaha. Tomorrow I have divisions and I hate them. I'm going with a diff companion and it is in Managua in the total heat... but oh well. I have to do it and it's only for a day right. Love you so much!!!! until next week :)

July 9, 2012

Hellloooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gosh am I happy to hear from this amazing family. I look forward to it every weeek. ok mom, maybe have that lady send me some church music on like a usb or if you can’t that’s ok. Any kind works. or piano music or anything. I am getting a little tired of my companions same music.(and some pictures of the family and I and like haley and jen and chan) hahaha another 6 weeks with my comp and I together. But goodness have I grown to love this one. She’s rough cuz she’s my trainer but I love her to death and I am so glad to have her. I haven’t gotten the package but I heard its prob at the office and changes are this wed so my DL said he would pick it up for me. He’s from panama and he’s the fastest speaker in the mish.... hahaha and like I can understand him sometimes and he’s seriously the greatest friend and support for me. OK so first, dad to answer your questions.... Nicaragua daily life is wake up at 6 30 exercise for 30 minutes shower and then breakfast. Personal study at 8. At 9 language study. At 10 comp study for 2 hours at 12 lunch and then we are off to Diria workin our tails off. I cant believe how hot it is in hurricane. I am genuinely sorry haha. The work here is coming along BUT I was out cold since wednesday. I had a high high fever and couldn’t get out of bed. I was throwing up and everything else you can imagine. I couldn’t eat for 3 days because I was throwing up everything I was eating. Today I actually had my first real meal. I don’t know what I had but it was bad. We had to go get meds and I had to go on a liquid only diet and the nurse had to keep an eye on this little body of mine. hahaha but now its good and I can’t WAIT to get out of the house and WORKKKK this week. I heard its perfectly normal to get sick your first transfer so don’t worry I should be fine. Sister Franko was so awesome and I told her to please call you guys because I knew thursday would be a hard day for you. I know that tay is where he is supposed to be but that has got to be hard on all of you. You were all in my prayers a lot this week. Also, mom there is this cupcake place called like something cean cupcake cafe and they deliver to the provo mtc so please if you get some time send Tay a cupcake from me for his b-day!!!!! I am glad he is learning from his comp and so happy to hear he is doing good!!!! I miss that cute brother of mine. and the rest of you. NATHHHHHH thanks for writing. I always love to read your emails so thanks so much sweet cheeks. I hope you are still sleeping with that teddy of mine!!!! Keep being a good boy and loving Lauren and Josh because they need you to love them a lot while we are gone ok. and Jordan and mom and dad too. They all need you. Make sure you keep praying every day and being a good example and the whole family will be blessed because of you. Anyways... mom and dad, dear elder in Provo is printed out 2 times a day so Tay could get so many letters. Those always helped me and it was nice to get them. Prob not every single day though!!!! I will write him today so that I can hear from him next week. WHATTTTTTT!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I can’t believe Zach is going to the exact SAME MISSION!!!!!!!!!! That is a miracle. I have heard of friends going to same places before but I can’t believe it has happened to Tay. Tell him congrats for me. And cute Jen Jensen. She’s prob so excited. Tell her congrats and that I just miss her smiling face. What a blessing. It will help them so much. Ok. So guess what!?!?!? I live in Nicaragua!!!! hahahah sometimes I just cant believe that I am here. Its so funny to think about. I love it here. I love love love the cute little branch I am in. So everyday in my journal I write little miracles because I try to find a miracle in every day... and Thursday was I got to watch beauty and the beast because I was so sick I couldn’t leave!!!! hahaha it was such a nice thing to watch a movie... mom and dad, you know how much I love those. Thanks for your email mom and dad and I hope you have a wonderful week full of love and fun and maybe a little bit of cool breeze down there. Tell everyone hi... and I will talk to you next week! Thanks for everything and for this love and support... there is no way I could make it without you all there for me. I was looking at my photo thing Nat made for me and Tay and I on the tube in Yellowstone just screaming and remembering the moment made me laugh so hard out loud in my room because I remember Tay screaming so loud because it was freezing and we were just having so much fun. How neat to be able to spend this wonderful time in life with him too. I love you all. Please stay safe and I will keep you in my prayers. I love you all. Once again I love you all. over and out.

July 2, 2012

WOWWWWW!!!!!! First to my mother and father. um... congratulations!!!! After this week is over you will have two missionaries out!!!!! I cannot believe how great you two are. its because of you that your children are having success in their lives. ok... so I hope I can answer all of your questions. I am so sorry if I cant... but ok. Tay should just bring any kind of comfortable bag. its fine if he gets one in the field. but make sure it has good support cuz you carry the bible an umbrella water Book of Mormon everywhere. Yes, the camera is amazing but I sure need to use it more. there are a few more elders that have the same one so it is a good choice. flat sheets... I have no idea. I have normal sheets and i am completely fine. Don’t bring a huge quilt like I did though. He will never use it and it takes up space. He will never use a car unless he is ap most likely that’s how it is here so yeah. Also no one uses bikes because they get stolen. everyone walks here unless its way far then bus or taxi. um... bug spray... any works but I would do that camping kind that’s green that we usually use in Yellowstone. Any would work though just check the percent. i am glad he got to go through with Bost...what a great experience. ok. dad, thank you for your amazing testimony. I cannot believe my parents. i look around and I have never seen such great people. I watched a families are forever film and I sobbed and sobbed. my family is so special to me. wow. I have so many good memories. playing catch with dad. learning to write with mom. practicing the piano with mom and dad singing. raking leaves and jumping in them. swimming in the backyard. Anyways I sent Tay a letter so just send it to the MTC when you get it please. Its for his birthday. TAY!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I hope you have the best b-day before you head out to your best two and most rewarding years of your life. Just be happy. the elders here that are always happy are definitely the most successful. just have tons of enthusiasm and people will listen to you and your Spanish will come quick. this week I felt super confident even though I don’t speak fluent I feel like i can do this. the hardest part has passed... its definitely super hard still but that hard first 3 weeks has passed and its only going to get better from here. ok so we have this recent converted family and they have a son who I just melt over whenever I see him. He’s the cutest smartest little 6 year old. So I guess he went to school and took out his Book of Mormon and started teaching everyone. His parents were so excited and they’re our family of gold in our area. One family is having a really hard time and the dad went back to drinking and the mom wants a divorce and they have five kids. I felt so strong when I was talking to her. I said this is not over. You need to do everything you can to keep your family together. then i recommended a blessing from our Pres and she was so excited to hear about priesthood blessings. i hope everything works out. Its a hard life sometimes. We had a sweet zone conference this week and then after everyone voted on most guapo person which is prettiest or handsomest and like fachenta which is rich. and I got most votes on those 2. kinda embarrassed and my face went bright red. All the elders were loving that. They elders are awesome and the little Latinos are so cute!!! hahaha they have such strong testimonies. Brian Chappell and Sarah wrote me this week and i was so happy to hear from them. Letters are coming their way!!! thank you so much if you are reading this. Also, another cool story... so last month when Pres Maynes from the Pres of the 70 came and spoke he told a story that went something like this... there was a man who found the Book of Mormon and read it. He lived in Central America someone. He prayed and just like the book promises he found out it was all true through the Holy Ghost and had a testimony of his own... then... for 27 ... TWENTY SEVEN years he taught his children about this book. they read it they studied it and they all knew it was true. Then one day. missionaries came to his door. You can only imagine how excited he must have been. The first thing he said was do you have a book that talks about the Prophets of the Americas. The missionaries were like um... YES!!!!! so yep... 27 years without knowing and yet just through that book they all knew what the missionaries taught was true. I cannot believe how amazing that story is. we all need to have our own testimonies of the Book of Mormon and everything else will fall into place. I know its true. I have read it. I know this is the true church. soooo let us all be missionaries every day. Everyone think of someone you know that needs the gospel and talk to them about the gospel. invite them to church. They deserve to know about this wonderful plan and we need to do our part. The members here work so hard to help keep their ward strengthened. They are a great example and we can all work a little harder in this area. I can’t believe little Nate bore his testimony!!!! WOWW!!! hahahah wish I could have seen. I am so proud of him. gosh I was smiling so big when I heard. ok. so I need pictures. more pictures. of me before my mish with friends and family. please. thanks haha. also there is this fam of 6 kids whose parents are not members and they are there every single Sunday. They support each other and they are great examples. Every Sunday we need the blessings of the sacrament. Remember his promise. Anyways I need to get going but I love you alll soooo much and hopefully I can send a pic. until next week!!!!!! Hermana Parker