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